The heralded new FF of mine is here!
As I proclaimed, I'm starting the new series. Here's some important stuff:
http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=4585
Btw, I just have finished the 1st chapter today. All that's left is cosmetic changes and writing it all anew here (since I don't have enough time to actually write it on PC and paper's all that's left, lol). It will be out on the next day (I'm 99% sure). Btw2, psychological tag is there because there will be some digressions regarding the chars' state of mind, it is not the main theme.
Ps.(rant): I really hope there will be no FF featuring zombies or RR mods coming out after I write this post, lol. Well, do use my idea if you must, but at least write regards for the original creator of that idea.
Prologue
Royal Road was an ever-popular game. Even after a few years it haven't lost much of it's popularity. But not everyone felt like that.
Such is the case for our protagonist. Almost 20 years old, he had only a few friends. It wasn't that he was such as weirdo or any similar person difficult to cope with - rather, it was that that he had no luck in relationships. During his life he came to a conclusion that a certain Japanese proverb - roughly translated in English as 'Instead of a hundred friends it is better to have only one who is worth just as much' - was indeed a true one. And he lived up to his belief. Well, let's just be honest here - he befriended (at different points of time) a few people who betrayed him in rather painful if spectacular ways. Eventually after the last such event he decided to not involve himself seriously. Since then, he also became a crank regarding his own honor code; also, he came to vehemently hate treachery, cowardice and deception. To sum up, he was a loner, partially by his own choice and partially because the world made him to be one.
One day he was sitting in front of his PC. He was listening to music while browsing VR games. He was looking for some new, amusing one.
Suddenly, there appeared a pop-up at the bottom of his screen.
"SmokeCom, open pop-up window", he said, seemingly to himself. But, the application reacted to his voice instead and the pop-up window came to the center of the screen. It was a call from his friend.
"What's up, Hector?", he asked upon receiving the call. On the screen, instead of his friend's image taken by camera, a random silhouette denoting an user who either has no camera or disabled his image from showing to anyone; from behind, a slightly melodic voice answered him:
"Hey, dude. I've got an interesting infor..."
"Wait, you haven't bought the cam yet?"
Stolen novel; please report.
"Don't mind the small stuff! You know I need money for contraceptives!!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Casanova. So, what's the info?"
His friend was visibly accustomed to similar treatment since he readily changed the subject, "It's the Royal Road..."
"Huh? You know that I became bored with it already?"
"Yeah, just listen. There is this zombie mod..."
"'Is'? Rather was? They made it illegally, right?"
"Oh just shut the fuck up for a moment!", even a saint would lose his patience eventually and Hector was no saint, so he blew up at least. "It indeed was illegal, but since a couple thousand people managed to register, they decided to make it official and bought the mod!"
"What?! You should've told me that right away!"
"I tried to..."
"So, how is it?"
"Dunno. It isn't released yet. You can register today starting at 5 P.M. There may be lags though, dozens of thousand people are expected to come crowding. Not to mention 10 000 players already playing it for week or so."
"Damn, so they have a head start! Do you know the details on the mod itself?"
"Only some of them. There are casual monsters, but they are rare as the zombies are making them join the undead horde by killing them. Also, the cities are barricaded and fortified, but zombies sometime attack them in spite of that. Also, if you got bitten by a zombie, you have a 10% chance to become one, whereas NPCs have 100% chance. Actually, there is a catch here: if you die, and the remaining 90% is included here as well, your accounts gets reset. Also, any injuries sustained around the time when one is turned into a zombie remain and only very few of the undead are capable of any healing techniques."
"It's a bullshit! But, thanks to that it also seems interesting!"
"I knew you'd like it. Now, 'scusme, I have a date in half an hour."
"Are you two- or three-timing now?"
"Now, that was rude! I have only one girlfriend at the moment! Although I admit that I barely hold back..."
"I knew it!"
"Instead of nagging at me, get a girlfriend or two yourself!"
"...See you later, gotta register..."
And that is the end for now. The first chapter covers the customary four weeks without leaving the city. I'm almost falling on my nose already so I'm going to bed, the chap will be tomorrow!
Chapter 1: http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=5474
Before you freak out, you may want to either read it all or scroll down to read my angry rants, first. Thank you.