JESSIE : LEVEL 1
DAY 5 : E-DAY, FIRSTWEEK, AGNI, YEAR 1
TOWN OF ALL BEGINNINGS 1 : GON BRANCH 1 : FATAL ATTRACTION
I’m still running. Not only that, but I think I can actually keep it up for a while. Having never been anything even remotely resembling ‘athletic’, that in and of itself is worth celebrating. I’m not out of breath. But I am breathing hard and fast. I’m not exhausted. But I am sweating profusely. I’m not woozy. But I am tripping over another tree. “OH FUCK!!!”
In my inevitable side-swipe with only the next in a long line of obstacles I didn’t see in time, I tumble in a way usually reserved for when you spin a top wrong and it careens into the wall. Or in this case, a different tree. “Ooow…” But despite the mostly automatic groan of pain, I’m more amazed by how muted this feels. Which, knowing what little I do about nerve damage, is pretty alarming. Except my newfound lack of anxiety makes that easy to ignore in favor of getting the fuck away from the murdering psychopath.
Sitting up from my sprawl, I sigh in belabored relief. Up and to my right, I can just barely make out bits and pieces of manmade structures poking out through the intervening thicket of brown and green. People. Real people. Real, non-murdering, non-seizing people. I hope. And it’s easy to hope without my anxiety convincing me that Oneshot and I are anomalies in a Heaven in which we’re the only ones not having a perpetual seizure. Even if I’m clearly thinking about it…
Thankfully, I do seem to have gotten away. But then why isn’t the quest completing? Actually, how do you complete quests? Is it automatic? The one for flipping him off completed itself just fine. I mean I haven’t seen or heard anyone at all since I left that first hill. So at least I don’t have to dodge my pursuer. The running itself though? That’s what’s kicking my ass.
[ HP: 83/128 ]
Literally. Almost as though to mock me, a transparent ‘1’ or ‘2’ floats up from everything I run into, seeming to then get hit by something invisible before fading away entirely. I know it wouldn’t happen if I moved at a reasonable pace.
But the moment I hesitate, the goosebumps come back. Then, the shivers. Apparently, fear doesn’t count as anxiety either. Even if it feels the same at the time. Maybe it only cuts out the fears that aren’t rational? Like, what if he catches me? What could I even do about it? Let alone with no weapons. Let alone without knowing how to even play this… Can I really keep calling it a game? Not exactly an important question right now. So, for all intents and purposes, it’s a game. Not Heaven. Just a game where you run. An Endless Runner, then. So why shouldn’t I run? I’m just playing the game that’s there. No shame in that. It’s only natural. But as natural and sensible and shameless as I know I am right now, none of it does a thing to help.
The only thing that does help is that from a dead stop, with less than half the effort even jogging used to take, I near-instantly outpace more than twice my fastest running speed from Earth. Except the ground is uneven. And my legs are longer than I’m used to. So I trip over shit. A lot of shit. But what am I supposed to do? Stop? No fucking way. That, at least, is not happening.
Peeling myself off the ground after falling past another line of trees, I whimper out a relieved smile as I finally spot something at ground-level that isn’t more goddamned trees. It’s easy to tell the difference with how profoundly smooth and matte-white the trees aren’t. A little closer and I can make out the outside edges of what turns out to be a wide, nonetheless unmistakably circular picket fence with some kind of arrow holograms floating around its circumference.
The arrows are probably pointing to an entrance. Or a trap. Doesn’t matter either way when I’m running for my life. It’s just too wide to risk going around. Nothing for it. I need to get up and over. But the fence isn’t just wide. It’s tall, too. But is it too tall? Even in my old body, I could jump. It was one of the few physical attributes I was ever actually proud of.
Reaching the point where I either need to stop or run into the fence, I instead brace both legs in a way that doesn’t sacrifice almost any of my built-up momentum. Then, with all my strength I straighten both legs as fast as I can, vaulting off the ground in my very best attempt to grab the lip of the tall fence so I can pull myself over.
[ POWER BLESSING: VAULT ]
Quickly clearing well over three times its height, I have to re-evaluate how concerned I should’ve been about overshooting this. But now, I’m committed, flying as I am above the crowd on the other side. I’ll just have to make the best landing I can without crashing into the… Naked bodies… Fluids… So much gyrating… Oh God… “BLLLAAAGGGHHH!!!”
Ten things happen in very quick succession. First, I clear the fence. Second, I look at where I’m about to land. Third, I try to process what I’m seeing. Fourth, I gag. Fifth, I taste quesadilla. Sixth, I try to scream. Seventh, my scream is muffled as my stomach empties. Eighth, My vision is completely blocked by a veritable sea of blue system prompts in much the same way I heard ads used to pop up on the old porn sites. Which is fitting. Unhelpful. But definitely fitting. Ninth, I distinctly hear someone say ‘Metal Gear Solid 2’. Tenth, everything cuts to black.
Which leaves me somehow still conscious. Except now I’m back in that empty void with nothing. No environment. Not even myself. Only a distinctly ‘disembodied’ feeling along with a pixelated rendition of some lady tapping her foot at me no matter where in this nothing I look with my lack of a head. That, and popups. I don’t particularly mind though. Any negative feelings I might have are vastly overwhelmed by sheer relief and elation from that final popup after the sudden cut to black.
Holy shit. You can respawn in this place? Holy shit. I just died, didn’t I? Again. Only this time, it didn’t matter? In eight hours, I’ll be… Where? I don’t know. Somewhere though. And compared to what I used to think death meant, I could give a fuck about the details.
Nothing else to do just now, I kill some of that time reading through and dismissing all the porn ads.
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - PROMPT DAWDLER: THROUGH CONTINUOUS DENIAL OF BOTH A PROMPT AND ITS CONFIRMATION, YOU HAVE KEPT ONE ACTIVE 2 TIMES AS LONG AS INTENDED — REWARD 1: ALL PROMPTS NOW HAVE 2 TIMES AS LONG TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED — XP: 32 ]
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - PROMPT STRAGGLER: THROUGH CONTINUOUS DENIAL OF BOTH A PROMPT AND ITS CONFIRMATION, YOU HAVE KEPT A PROMPT ACTIVE 4 TIMES AS LONG AS INTENDED — REWARD 1: ALL PROMPTS NOW HAVE 4 TIMES AS LONG TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED — XP: 32 ]
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - PROMPT LOITERER: THROUGH CONTINUOUS DENIAL OF BOTH A PROMPT AND ITS CONFIRMATION, YOU HAVE KEPT A PROMPT ACTIVE 8 TIMES AS LONG AS INTENDED — REWARD 1: ALL PROMPTS NOW HAVE 8 TIMES AS LONG TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED — XP: 32 ]
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - PROMPT PROCRASTINATOR: THROUGH CONTINUOUS DENIAL OF BOTH A PROMPT AND ITS CONFIRMATION, YOU HAVE KEPT A PROMPT ACTIVE 16 TIMES AS LONG AS INTENDED — REWARD 1: YOUR PROMPTS ARE NO LONGER SUBJECT TO A TIMER — XP: 32 ]
[ LEVEL UP! — LEVEL: +1=2 — MILESTONE MULTIPLIER: +1=2 — SKILL POINTS: +1=2 — S.T.A.T. POINTS: STRENGTH=2 - TENACITY=2 - APTITUDE=2 - TILT=2 — NEXT LEVEL: 256 XP ]
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - PROMPT TRESPASSER: THROUGH CONTINUOUS DENIAL OF BOTH A PROMPT AND ITS CONFIRMATION, YOU HAVE ACHIEVED PROMPT PROCRASTINATOR WHILE IN PURGATORY — INFO 1: AN ADMIN MUST DIRECTLY SUPERVISE ANYONE CURRENTLY IN PURGATORY — INFO 2: EACH ADMIN MUST FINISH MONITORING AN ASSIGNED HERO THROUGH TO THE END OF THIS PROCESS — REWARD: INSTEAD OF A TIMER, YOUR ALERTS NOW DISPLAY AN IMPATIENTLY-WAITING REPRESENTATION OF YOUR ASSIGNED PURGATORY ADMIN — NOTE: IF YOU USE A MONTHLY TOKEN AND APOLOGIZE APPROPRIATELY, THIS EFFECT CAN BE REMOVED ]
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
[ WELCOME TO THE TOWN OF ALL BEGINNINGS ]
[ COMPLETED SIDE QUEST: STARTING TOWN — XP: 8 ]
[ HP: 0/128 ]
[ YOU DIED — XP DEBT: 0+64=64 — RESPAWN DELAY: 8 HOURS ]
Well that’s not exactly ideal… And then there’s the woman still tapping her foot in the middle of my distinct lack of vision. So I guess that’s where the respawn timer usually goes? Which must make her the admin I pissed off… You know, I think I actually prefer that to a ticking clock.
But wow, though. How do you even process this? I don't have to be afraid of dying, do I? I didn’t have to be afraid of dying. Did I? I didn’t have to run from that… That fucking spawncamper! Oooh… Oooh-ho-ho-HOOOH, no, that is not the end of that. Not by a fucking long shot. But I don’t stand a chance against him now. Not by a fucking looong shot…
Like, what did he even do back there? He touched that guy. And then… What? Ripped his soul out? Whatever happened, he clearly insta-killed that guy. How do you fight that? Whatever that was, it can’t be normal. But it doesn’t really tell me anything about the distance between us since I don’t even know what ‘normal’ is. Never mind fighting him for now. How do you fight at all in this place?
First things first though, those popups are still floating in the middle of the nothingness all around me. I can only tell it’s the middle because it stays in the center of my vision no matter where I ‘look’. So how do I..? Oh.
As though preemptively responding to my vague frustration over a cluttered view, all the prompts disappear before I quite get around to consciously wanting them to. Well that’s convenient… Wait, no it’s not. I mean it’s fine this time. But this menu shit keeps happening when I don’t want it to.
As though sarcastically responding to my criticism of the system menu, I get two more popups. All of a sudden, I’m left with a distinctly judgmental impression of the woman still tapping her foot at me like Sonic when you put down the controller.
[ S.T.A.T.S — STRENGTH: MAGICAL=16 - PHYSICAL=18 - UNUSED=2 — TENACITY: DEFENSE=16 - SPEED=18 - UNUSED=2 — APTITUDE: MANA=16 - STAMINA=18 - UNUSED=2 — TILT: CONTROL=18 - LUCK=16 - UNUSED=2 ]
So I’m supposed to be allocating those unused points? Well, I am already min-maxing over here… So fuck it. Two points each into Physical, Speed, Stamina, aaand Control. That brings all the stats I care about up to a nice, even 20.
That was easy enough. But my final prompt is bigger. Gigantic, in fact. It’s a list of what looks like every skill I’ll ever be able to get. I can’t read through all that. Not and retain anything useful. Okay, yeah. This is really bothering me. Can’t I supposedly control how things get displayed? Well then… First things first, sort them by… Um… Alphabetically, I guess? And just like that, it happens. Well, that’s… A good test. But lists don’t get shorter when you alphabetize them.
Although it does let me scroll down to the ‘S’s. Right to the Legendary skill I spotted in the character creator, when it felt like the system force-selected my CLASS for me in what has to have been the most egregious example of it misbehaving yet. But as expected, I can’t actually select the red Legendary skill.
Looks like all the Skills I can take are green. Let’s filter out all the reds, then… Finally making some progress, the list shrinks by a lot.
Unfortunately, it looks like only the ones listed as ‘Common’ are selectable. Disappointing… But I’m only Level Two. So I guess it’s fair that my goal isn’t immediately attainable. So what is immediately attainable? Theoretically, a legendary skill like that would have prerequisites, right? At least that’s what it looked like during the CLASS and CRAFT selection. Now how do I find… Oh, of course. Just filter out everything that isn’t a prerequisite. That leaves me with a single result.
[ COMMON C.L.A.S.S. PASSIVE: ANIME /TOOTH ARTICULATION EFFECT: EACH OF YOUR TEETH IS NOW A SEPARATE ENTITY THAT CAN BE CONTROLLED BY YOU, CONSCIOUSLY OR SUBCONSCIOUSLY ]
What? That raises so many questions. How does it know? So then I was right? I mean Thomas… NOPE. Either way, it’s not exactly useful right now, is it? Aaand removing that filter… Okay, so what is useful right now?
Still ignoring foot-lady, I lazily browse through the rest of what I can unlock. This takes a while. I can’t tell time thanks to Sonic The Admin over there. But suffice it to say, I become quite familiar with my options as I look for something that sticks out.
But how to choose? Do I even have weaknesses to address? Hm… Oh fucking right, probably my total lack of ability not to trip over every goddamned thing? Somehow, despite not yet experiencing combat, I intuit that such an issue will, in fact, not synergize well with my build. Gotta fix that for sure…
I’m obviously prioritizing Control over Luck, to increase my reflexes. My biggest problem back there was that I couldn’t actually detect any of the shit I tripped over, before I was already tripping over it. So by the time my reflexes had a chance to react to anything, it only ever made the angle slightly less awkward when I inevitably fell flat on my face.
To my pessimistic surprise, I find just the thing a bit over halfway down my list. I don’t really get how it could possibly work. But physics and all that are apparently out the window from the get-go, so I don’t really have much of a basis for realism right now.
[ COMMON C.L.A.S.S. TOGGLE GAINED: ANIME / RADIAL AWARENESS — EFFECT: YOU ARE INNATELY AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS UP TO 20 CENTIMETERS FROM ANY PART OF YOUR BODY — TILT-SCALING: CONTROL — COST: MINOR MP DRAIN — WARNING: STEALTH EFFECTS MAY BYPASS THIS SKILL DEPENDING ON CONTROL S.T.A.T. ]
[ SKILL POINTS: 1 ]
Hopefully, that’ll help my habit of tripping through forests. Especially since they seem to be a common theme in this particular octagon. But more importantly for the long-term, I really don’t like being snuck up on. And it’s even a prerequisite for higher-tier Skills that’ll give me even less chance of being assassinated. I. Fucking hate. Assassins. Bane of my goddamned existence… The number of times Thomas killed me with… NOPE.
Head in the game. I’ll think about him when… Later! Not in the middle of important life decisions. And yes, this is important. The first step down a path is always important. Almost as important as all the other ones. Which is why I need to focus on this and not… James… GOD DAMN IT!!!
Katanas. I like katanas. I wanna use katanas. So I should get a Skill for katanas. Based on the available choices, though? Not a ton of options… But this one seems pretty damn fundamental.
[ COMMON C.L.A.S.S. ACTION GAINED: SWORDSMAN / IAI QUICKDRAW — EFFECT 1: ACTIVATION AND SP INVESTMENT OCCUR WHILE UNSHEATHING YOUR EQUIPPED SWORD — EFFECT 2: UPON RE-SHEATHING, DEAL 2 TIMES OPTIMIZED DAMAGE DONE WITH YOUR SWORD SINCE UNSHEATHING WITH CURRENT BUFFS APPLIED — TILT SCALING: CONTROL — COST: MINOR SP — RESTRICTION: EQUIPPED SWORD MUST FEATURE A SCABBARD — WARNING: EFFECT WILL CANCEL IF ANY DAMAGE IS TAKEN BEFORE RESHEATHING ]
[ SKILL POINTS: 0 ]
At that, the big list of skills refreshes with a ton more green options to choose from. Seems like I unlocked all the uncommon skills? No… not ‘all’. Only those specific to the ‘Anime’ and ‘Swordsman’ parts of my CLASS. My unlocks don’t seem to have touched ‘Melee’, ‘Attack’, or ‘Core’. But I’m out of skill points, so…
As soon as I realize I can’t actually do anything with it right now, the skill menu screen promptly closes, regardless of whether or not I wanted to actually read through all my new Skill options.
But the menu refuses to reopen.
Leaving only infinite blackness and Sonic the Admin to keep me company…
Try to sleep? Sure. Go with that. And so, almost immediately, I do.