The Last 100 – Ch.9

I opened up the translucent blue screen whilst idly scratching Wilhelm’s head, revelling in the feeling as he pushed it further into my touch. I scrolled through all of the unread messages in the English-speaking chat. Jamila Deanglisa, it seems she had spammed the chat last night, I scrolled through the rapid fire of question she had fired into the group while we were fighting for our lives. They ranged so far and wide it gave me a slight headache to follow her train wreck of thought, shaking my head as I realised she had just spewed her thought process onto the chat group for several hours. Wait, she was the one to discover the chat. Hmm, maybe not a complete idiot.

Finally reaching the bottom of the chat I arrived into the middle of an ongoing conversation. One of actual substance and importance. I thought with vindictive annoyance at having just spent the last ten minutes scrolling through fucking bullshit.

The conversation had four players, the before mentioned Jamila, a man named Robert Carter, who, if I remember correctly was from Texas. Another man named Connor Van Daalbek, from the name I thought he was either Dutch, German or Afrikaner, most likely the later going off of the fact he was in this group. Finally was a girl named Sophia Hebber, she could be from fucking anywhere.

They were trading the answers to their question of the system, reading the questions that were asked I felt somewhat inadequate with self-pitying question of ‘why?’

Robert had asked what was the system, a question that now, in hindsight would have been incredibly useful and probably have satisfied the same curiosity that ‘why’ would have. Can’t change the past Jack. I sighed, no use fretting over it. The answer he had received was ‘The system is a set of guide lines and rules that make the universe at larger a fairer place. This answer gave more questions than it answered but it did serve to give me a realisation I should have had a while ago. There are fucking aliens!

Connor had asked the question, ‘How do I get stronger?’ something that served as an illustrator for his personality and the answer of which showed how much of a dick the system could be. ‘Allocate specialisation points to the strength stat.’ Yeah, thanks.

Jamila had asked another good question, at least I thought it was good. ‘Why did the system come to earth now?’ It wasn’t practical knowledge, but I had a feeling that this kind of lore would be important, if for nothing else to keep me sane. The answer was a concise, ‘Humanity had reached the stage in its development which, as stated in the guidelines, is the age at which the system is to be administered to foster further growth.’ This answer infuriated me, it made me want to grab the system by the shoulders and shake violently, to try and ring out more answers from it. What fucking guidelines?

Finally Sophia had asked a depressing, ‘How do I get my husband back?’ her plea struck a cord with me, it reminded me of my mother and was a fresh pang of pain in my heart, I realised then I would do anything to go back to my old life, to my shitty little town filled with people I didn’t like and a school I hated. I didn’t realise how much I missed them until they were gone. Even my peers.

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The system had answered with, ‘That is currently impossible.’ My lips turned upward slightly at that, currently. I thought.

I watched as they continued to talk away at one another, Jamila trying her best to give first aid advice to Robert over the chat and Sophia and Connor chiming in with the occasional encouraging word. I wasn’t sure how to approach, I had always been bad at people, never really getting how to talk to them, it had gotten to the point when I had stopped trying at all.

Jack Casser: Hi…

I typed in tentatively, waiting for a break in the conversation before I hit send, not wanting to intrude on the dynamic to heavily.

Jamila Deanglisa: Oh my god, we got another one!!!!!!!

Robert Carter: Jamila my leg, stop getting distracted.

Jamila Deanglisa: Oops sorry, you need to align the bones before applying the splint, make sure they’re straight before you put it on and when you do make it tight. Don’t want it falling off. Now that’s done new guy where are you from?

Connor Daalbek: Yeah, and what question did you ask the system?

Robert Carter: My fucking leg, we aren’t done. Jamila stop getting distracted.

Jamila Deanglisa: Its good enough, anyway new guy don’t ignore us.

Watching the slew of text that followed my first message made me somewhat intimidated. Also I didn’t want to seem like too much of a mope. Not sure why I cared so much about first impressions, but I still lied about what my first question was anyway.

Jack Casser: I’m from Australia, and my question was ‘How do we get spells and magic?’

Jamila Deanglisa: Ooooooh, good one. What was the answer?

Sophia Hebber: Australia?

Jack Carter: Yeah are you from here?

I asked, my breath beginning to become more frantic with anticipation as she typed, maybe I’m not as alone as I once thought. My more agitated state seemed to carry over to Wilhelm as he got up and began to run around our small creek bank.

Sophia Hebber: No, I just had some family there. Sorry.

Jack Carter: Don’t worry about it. The system said you had to kill a unique beast or monster.

Jamila Deanglisa: Ooh, like a boss fight?! So cool. How old are you?

Cool! I was taken aback by her message, nothing about this is fucking cool. I sat there and stared at the chat for a few minutes, it seemed to have frozen after her message, the silence was broken by Robert.

Robert Carter: Sorry about her, we think her dad was a doomsday prepper, she hasn’t talked to people much. Have you seen any unique monsters yet?

My mind flashed with images of running grey flesh, splintered wood and ear-splitting roars, they consumed me as I typed my next message in a trance.

Jack Carter: Yeah, I think I have.