After a long night of rest max wakes up looking around. He almost believes the whole experience was a dream until he sees his bag at the corner, he plops back on the bed and starts thinking through everything that had happened to him so far. “I guess this is the new reality then” max thought to himself, he looks down at his legs and notices that it had healed entirely. Thinking how he had been granted a way to view his body so far he starts to notice the somewhat game like elements induced and propositioned by the weird voice. Thinking to himself “status” a blue screen pops up in his vision.
Name
Maximus Blacklight
Age
19
Class
none
Mana
100/100
Status
healthy
Level
3
Strength
5
Agility
7
Constitution
10
Dexterity
6
Intelligence
9
Charisma
5
Wisdom
8
Willpower
8
luck
5
Points remaining
15
It seemed that that rush of energy he felt when he killed the Drats was him leveling up. It seemed that this system used a level up based system. Thinking about all this he starts to wonder why he originally didn’t have access to the system prior to killing the Drat and if he only got access then why was he level 3 and not two. Thinking along this path he finds no answer to his questions, deciding to analyze this later when he is better equipped with more information, he puts it behind him and finally takes stock of the nurses’ office. Looking at all the furniture’s he stacked against the door the night before he feels a measure of relief. Going through the cabinets and cupboards in the nurses’ office he began to ransack any and every drug he can possibly find and stuff it into his bag. After an hour of searching he comes to the conclusion that he must have cleared out the office. Pulling out a pill of ibuprofen he pops it and immediately feels a lot sturdier, if that could be put into words. The effects didn’t end there however, he also felt a little lighter on his feet. It seemed that pain killers increased his agility and constitution, pulling up his status screen he checks to see what truly the effects of the pill was.
Name
Maximus Blacklight
Age
19
Class
none
Mana
100/100
Status
healthy
Level
3
Strength
5 (+5) 01:20:30
Agility
7 (+3) 01:20:30
Constitution
10 (+5) 01:20:30
Dexterity
6
Intelligence
9
Charisma
5
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Wisdom
8
Willpower
8 (+3) 01:20:30
luck
5
Points remaining
15
It seemed like not only was he sturdier now but he was also stronger and a little faster. Noticing the timer he realizes that this was a temporary buff. He looked at the bottom corner of the screen and sees the unassigned attribute points and according to his calculation it seemed he got 5 attribute points per level. Tempted to spend it all at this point in time he decides against it. He had a feeling there would be a time where he would need to use them and although they seemed like a lot now he decided to hold back until he could get more information. With all this done he felt a lot more confident than he actually looked, he decided now was a good a time as any to go out and figure out what had happened to the rest of the world.
Sticking his head out of the nurses’ office he looks left and right trying to listen for any unwanted guest, hearing none he begins to crawl out of his hidey hole. This would be his new safe house, it was fortified enough and it had a bed. Making his way down the corridor he is startled when he hears a piercing feminine sounding scream from up in the second floor. Realizing that there may be more survivors he is faced with a choice should he intervene and save them or should he leave them to their fate. This was no longer the world he knew, he had gotten lucky in his fight against the drat’s he’d fought and even those fights weren’t without bodily harm. Rushing forward to save them while it may seem chivalrous was in fact just feeding himself over to the wolves. What if the enemies this time were not drats but other creatures that were more dangerous than the drats, what then? As he stops there contemplating the choices he hears another scream and decides to go take a look and see what the situation looked like and if by chance he could help them he would but if he couldn’t he was not putting his life at risk just to play hero to a damsel in distress.
Peering down the corridor he sees an open door and hears the scuffle and the agonizing cries and screams of people, it sounded like a mix between male and females. Crawling quietly he makes his way over to the room and darts a quick look inside, he sees three Drats attacking a group of five …..Sorry make that four because it seemed like one of them was already way past the point of saving as one of the Drats had one of the survivors throat in is bloody maws. The one with the prey in its mouth proceeded to drag the body back towards the door while the other two are snarling at the scared survivors. The survivors are comprised of 2 boys and 2 girls as well as the dead guys in the Drats mouth.
The Drat with their dead friend in its mouth proceeded to rip into the carcass all the while keeping an eye on the other survivors. As max watched the morbid sight he starts becoming overcome by fear. He hides by the corner as he contemplates the moral dilemma he had found himself in. He could run and save his life but he would live with the knowledge that he had left these students to die. He had the ability to provide them with a chance no matter how small it was of survival or live with the thought that he was a murderer by omission. Now the question was to save or not to save. He took one more look inside and sees that two of the boys and one girls had pissed themselves while the last one was in a daze. Meanwhile the three drats are ripping their friend from limb to limb all the while keeping their attention focused on their prey. At this point he finds himself moving, charging to the nearest drat axe raised high. With a silent rush, he picks the Drat closest to him and buries his axe into its skull splitting it almost instantly. Flowing with adrenaline and anger he finds that the force and the anger at which he struck the drat caused his axe to be buried deeply into its skull. He is rewarded for his enthusiastic swing with brain matter and blood all over his face and top. It seems he had landed a critical hit because the monster was as dead as dead could be. With this action the other drats are drawn away from their prey feeling a new threat. They abandon the body and jump backwards while keeping a cautious attitude towards this new threat. With this break he attempts to dislodge the axe from his first victims head with little success. Seeing that he is stuck one of the drats attack to catch him by surprise. Forgoing the axe for defense he dodges to the side, which causes the drat to collide with the axe handle loosening it a bit. Noticing this max rushes the creature and kicks it. With its balance being off from its previous attack, the drat finds itself skidding across the floor. At this moment the second drat, noticing its companions failed attack feels it has a better chance now that their prey is being distracted and lunges for him. Noticing the now loose axe and the new attacker charging him he dives towards the axe. The two drats regain their bearing and both launch brand new attacks at him one going for his calves and the other jumping higher. He notices that unlike before, now that he was paying attention he had enough time to see both attack paths and make a conscious decision. He jumps to side, successfully evading both attacks and putting him at an optimal position to attack. He swings his axe and the one nearest to him is sent flying by the baseball swing. He realizes this must be some of the effects of the temporary buff of ibuprofen. The drat collides with the far wall causing it to be disoriented. At this point the other drat had rebalanced and launched itself towards his head. He turns around using the momentum behind his previous strike to slash at the head of the flying drat. With his boosted strength and the added momentum the power behing the strike is enough to split the head of the drat down to its midsection. Left with only one monster max begins to feel less pressure. He sees a possibility of saving his fellow students. Surging with confidence he flings the split drat and faces the last remaining drat. This drat however is more cautious it realizes that this new prey was more than its match. Feeling overconfident max charges the drat swinging his axe wildly. Seeing an opening in his uncoordinated attack it strikes for his axe wielding arm and manages to lock its jaws on maxs’ wrist causing him to drop the weapon.
After disabling him the drat jumps back and cautiously watches max sizing him up waiting for him to mess up again. Feeling an immense amount of pain max’s concentration wavers and fear begins to settle in. He realizes that his axe is now behind the drat and with the realization that he is defenseless against this monstrosity he begins to back away from the monster as it stalks him. ‘Shit, my wrist is out of commission, the axe is behind this bloody monster and these useless students will be no help whatsoever. So much for playing the hero’ he thinks to himself. As he edges backwards he fails to notice the corpse of on the drats he had previously killed and stumbles over it. Noticing yet another opportunity the drat lunges for his neck going for the kill strike. Out of the blue an axe is buried in the head of the drat instantly killing it. The momentum pushes it and as max falls the dead drat with the axe in its skull lands on him.
For a while everyone is dumbfounded, they turn to see who had attacked the monster. To their surprise they find the least likely suspect standing there looking stupefied. This scenario wouldn’t be too shocking if it was either of the boys or even the girl who looked like an athlete. What stupefied them was the fact that behind the axe was the smallest girl you could possibly imagine standing at a height of 5’2 and looking like she weighed maybe about 45kg. She had long brunette hair and was wearing high waist denims, a hoodie and a pair of converses. She had the girl next door vibe to her. Although she looked quite disheveled it couldn’t hide her cuteness. As she stands there panting and crying all she can say is “I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to do it, I don’t know my body just moved, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry….” Midway through her rambling she jumps in fright. Max realizes that she must have been initiated into the system and says to her “I’m guessing you just got a notification stating that you just gained access to the system right?” to which she nods her head. “Well what does it say? What number are you and do you gain any rewards?”
She focuses on the blank air in front of her reading the notification before saying “i-it s-ssays I am number 1,056,201 on earth to gain access and I’ve been rewarded with a s-status screen, as well as a random reward of my choosing.” Noticing the difference between her rewards and his he keeps the information to himself and tells her that she can ask for pretty much anything save a few vital things like information and overpowered weapons. ‘It seems like I was probably one of the few people who got mana and extra things’ he thinks to himself. He notices the room had gotten quiet, this breaks him out of his silent introspection. Looking around he notices the survivors looking at him, with an awkward cough he says “my name is max, I was a comp science major second year what about y’all?” the first boy introduces himself to be Gregory a political science major in his senior year. Greg, as he liked to be called was Caucasian, had light green eyes blonde hair and looked like your average gym buff, he was also one of the guys who wet himself so he looked embarrassed. The second guy however tried to pretend he hadn’t just pissed himself, he introduced himself as terry. Now terry to me looked like he had a macho complex because all he said was his name. He was about 6 foot 4 in height, was bald, and athletic in build he must have been a swimmer or a runner. The way he looked at me suggested that he was going to be trouble, the girl who ended up killing the drat introduced herself as Aliya she was a psychology major in her sophomore year just like me, so like, yay!! The last girl introduced herself as Evett but with a ‘y’ so I guess Yvett? I guess as long as I don’t have to write it I should be fine. She was a cheerleader studying Chemical engineering. That in itself really shocked me because she didn’t come off like the brainy sort. She had strawberry blonde hair deep blue eyes and assets in all the right places to say I wasn’t tempted by her figure would have been an understatement of the year but you know dead carcasses and all tend to kill extra thoughts like that. After our introduction I turn to look at Aliya and ask her what she decided to pick with her gift and she start to think about it for a moment before all of a sudden a book appears in her hand. I am curious but I hold myself from asking what she got and waiting for her to tell us. She seems shocked at the sight of the book just being there like it always had at first she eventually lets us know she chose a book of how to cast spells. Hearing her comment I can’t help but mentally face palm. ‘Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! You ACTUALLY have mana and you chose a storage bag *sigh* what a waste of a gift’ She goes on to study the book. With the initial introductions out of the way he reaches into his storage backpack and shares some of the food he had raided to the joy of the entire group apparently they had been stuck there for a day and they hadn’t had anything to eat yet. The guy that died was somebody they didn’t know who ended up stuck in the same room with them. After the had had the chance to eat and relax they decided to take stock of the situation, after a couple of ideas they decided to stick together till they found a better place with better security and from there make new plans. Although everyone was worried about their families they realized they wouldn’t be any help to any of them if they went there now without any experience or understanding of the situation or even worse if they ended up dead.