“A Shop System is not what I expected.” We were sitting in the meeting room, with Winter making more arrows for the next hunt, ready to see what this Shop did. Calling out to the System, I tried bringing the Shop System up. “System Call: Shop.”
Welcome to the Prime World Shop.
General Machinery Weaponry
General Shop:
Pile of Firewood: 50 Prime Coins
Bag of Clothing: 50 Prime Coins
Pack of Lightbulbs: 75 Prime Coins
10x Cans of Food: 100 Prime Coins
1x Assortment of Food from your World: 150 Prime Coins
Raintank: 300 Prime Coins
…
Scrolling through the list made my heart pound with excitement. Isn’t this our solution to so many problems? There were all sorts of amazing items here! I don’t understand the value of Prime Coins, and seeing the last item, Box of Medical Supplies at 350 Prime Coins, I felt excited at the prospect of earning these Prime Coins. The medical supplies weren’t the last item, but after that everything had been blacked out.
Switching to the Machinery tab, it contained what I had thought.
Welcome to the Prime World Shop.
General Machinery Weaponry
Machinery Shop:
1x Box of Assorted Machinery Parts: 250 Prime Coins
1x Random Blueprint: 500 Prime Coins
1x Random Heavy Machinery Blueprint: 1,000 Prime Coins
1x Random Power Machinery Blueprint: 2,000 Prime Coins
1x Random Offensive Machinery Blueprint: 2,000 Prime Coins
...
Feeling rather grim as the high amount of coins compared to the general tab made me realise that Prime Coins weren’t going to just drop from the sky. Scrolling down, I started to see specific Blueprints starting at 15,000 Prime Coins. It’s like a gacha game up to that point. The final item before the rest were blacked out is for a Bioreactor Blueprint for 100,000 Prime Coins.
Opening the Weaponry tab, I wanted to slam my head on the table in frustration as the prices stayed high.
Welcome to the Prime World Shop.
General Machinery Weaponry
Weaponry Shop:
1x Assortment of Bullet Casings: 250 Prime Coins
1x Box of .22 LR Ammo: 500 Prime Coins
1x Box of .44 Magnum Ammo: 500 Prime Coins
1x Box of 9mm Luger Rounds: 500 Prime Coins
...
Once again scrolling to the last item, my heart sped up for a moment as I saw a familiar weapon, one of my favourites. A Barrett XM500 which cost a very heavy 500,000 Prime Coins. I had managed to claim one of these during the beta of Apocalyptic World and fell in love with it. Overkill applies to this weapon, nothing survived when hit by a bullet of this weapon. Questions flooded my mind though, causing worry to seep into my mind once again.
How does the System know of weapons from our world? If this gun, that literally blew a hole through buildings, is available for purchase with more past it, then just how powerful will the enemies that are coming going to be? Just how long do we have until enemies of that strength start to arrive?
The others had been looking at their own Shop System and they seemingly came to the same conclusion. The Shop is a way to gain random items and skip certain steps, but it came at an extremely high cost. Only the General section seemed to be inexpensive and could give us supplies, which I knew would be the best way forward.
“So the question now is, how do we earn Prime Coins?” Sheep tapped the table as I folded my arms.
“It said to purchase or sell right? What can we sell?” Asking this question, Winter looked at me as I picked up a pair of mechanical gloves. They weren’t too complicated to make, many metal, gears and a small rechargeable battery.
“System Call: Sell”
Mechanical Gloves: 10 Prime Coins.
Sell?
Y N
Pursing my lips and comparing it to the cans of food, I’d have to make ten mechanical gloves to buy the cans, which is a lot of materials and time. Accepting the option to sell, they disappear from my hands.
10 Prime Coins added to Clan.
“Ah, it’s shared?” I found myself surprised at this and quickly remembered the Clan page did indeed have Prime Coins!
Clan: Unity Member List.
Midnight Leader
Winter Member
Sheep Member
Ghost Member
Lemon Member
Clan Points: 0
Prime Coins: 10
“So ten coins for a crafted item, what else could we sell?” As Sheep says this, we begin trying everything and come to the conclusion that only crafted items would sell. The most expensive item we could sell is an oven at 15 coins per one.
“So either we grind the hell out of crafting an easily made item or we just continue as usual. If we could sell goods that we found from the warehouse this would be easier. Knowing this System it’s likely we’ll be capped on how much can be sold too.” Sheep sighed as we considered what to do. The mechanical gloves were by no means time consuming to make, but making hundreds of them for a blueprint?
“I think we should get the raintank. It’ll be a source of water for our future needs after all.” Winter spoke as I nod along in agreement. If the raintank is listed there that implied that it could rain in this world. We’d need to of course purify the rainwater, but it would bring a source of comfort. Checking the quest now, I told the others of what it is.
Prime World Survival Basics: II
Form or join a Clan: Done
Create 2 Machines: Done
Loot 5 houses or storage units: Done
Build and light a campfire: Done
Kill 10 Husks: Done
Use the Shop System to Purchase or Sell Items: Done
Secure Shelter: Done
Learn 5 Blueprints: Done
Survive Seven Nights: Done
Select a Class: 0/1
Tasks Done: 9/10
“Oh? That’s rather strange.” Telling the others of the progress of the quest, they seemed a bit surprised.
“Three tasks for free? Well, I suppose surviving for seven nights is difficult in its own right. We have, after all, an advantage over those that may have arrived early.” Sheep put a hand to his chin and fell into thought as I did the same. I hadn’t expected the quest to be done so fast, but looking at them if the group had been large or a single individual this quest would take a long time to finish, especially killing ten husks since they weren’t exactly easy to find during the day, rather we just stumbled into them and when hunting Husks they weren’t easy to run into.
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“System Call: Class.” Eager to check out the Classes, I saw a massive list show up, easily three times bigger than Jobs.
Select a Class
Acrobatic
Aerial Ace
Ballistics Master
Bringer of Curses
Crystal Seer
…
Feeling my head ache as I told everyone of the Jobs I saw, we found ourselves overwhelmed by the sheer amount of magic based Classes, there were even Classes that were in another language and the description didn’t make any sense. There were choices like “Parkour Instructor” or “Hunter” and so on, which didn’t seem to fit this type of world. My heart already set on one though, and I’d refuse to change my mind on it, as we desperately needed a Class like it.
New Class: Sharpshooter.
A marksman of the highest order, uses a variety of long distance high powered weapons to dispose of their enemies. By selecting this Class, you will receive a Compound Bow: Diamond Edge 320, 100x Carbon Arrows, 1x Shock Baton and 3x Flash Grenades. You will be provided an increase to Strength, Agility, Vision and Reflexes.
Warning: You can not change Classes, once selected you can not go back.
Select Sharpshooter?
Yes No
Explaining my choice to the others, they only nodded. We had agreed before we’d play to our strengths when it came to Classes, and my choice would of course come to being a sniper. Selecting Yes, I never expected to lose consciousness, which I did without warning.
Feeling myself wake up quickly, I slowly opened my eyes to see Winter looking at me from above, my head on her lap. Slowly blinking, I could see her much better than ever, every hair particle even the tiny white hairs on her face, her beautiful eyes were even deeper and I could see a layer of dirt that had built up over the last few days.
“Hey Bek.” Raising a hand, I cupped her face as she smiled down at me.
“Morning sleeping beauty. Are you feeling okay?” Holding the hand that I had cupped around her face, Rebecca smiled gently. Closing my eyes, I felt my body over and felt different, like I had changed.
“Have I changed?” Rebecca slowly shook her head.
“Not at all. Do you feel different?”
“Mm, my vision is completely different, much better than it was before.” Explaining what the System had said, Rebecca thought for a moment.
“So you get stronger when you select a Class? Do we have Stats?”
“System Call: Stats” Nothing happened. “Guess we don’t. How long have I been out for?”
“A night.”
“Can I lay here for a bit longer?”
Rebecca giggled slightly as she started to stroke my hair. Enjoying the feeling, I closed my eyes and felt out my body. So my strength, agility and reflexes have improved? So I’m stronger, faster and can dodge much better than before? I’d have to test, but one thing is for sure.
“I’m starving.”
“What a difficult choice, my lap or food.”
Opening my eyes, I smiled softly as I pulled Rebecca’s head down and kissed her deeply. Wishing we could continue like this but knowing we didn’t have much time, I got up and started feeling my body over.
“Anything different?” Turning to Rebecca, I smiled as I wrapped my arms around her waist and picked her up easily, spinning on the spot and she laughed. Putting her down, I tilted my head.
“It’s easy to pick you up, but it’s not like I’ll be smashing through walls or anything. I could maybe lift up a car slightly, but that’s about it.” Flexing my fingers, I felt a bit strange about this change and knew it would be for the best, but once again it just further raises the question of what the hell are we about to fight again? Are the Husks really a tutorial, and if so how long until we start facing the real threat? Are they intelligent?
“You have that face again, Ruby.” Feeling Rebecca embrace me from behind, I lean into her.
“Mm. I’m just frustrated, Rebecca. I just hate this feeling of the unknown yet being forced into having to survive on so little. At least we’re together.” Holding her hands as we stood there for a moment, I sighed. “Alright, we have to go and find Ghost later today, so for now let’s start hunting for more Husks. Getting everyone their Class will be a great boon.”
Walking with Winter, our hands interlocked, we met up with Sheep and Lemon. Entering the meeting room, I saw the equipment that had been a part of my Class upgrade. Sitting down, I looked over everything.
I had a bit of archery training, mainly from the beta, but I could tell that this bow is very good.
“It looks like a hunting bow that I saw online.” Looking at Sheep, he looked at the bow as well. “How does it feel?”
“Good. The string is tight, arrows are light and oddly it feels natural.”
“A boon from the System?” Shaking my head at Lemon’s question, I looked at the bow.
“No, more like it’s because I’ve always used long ranged weapons.” Placing the bow down, I looked at the Shock Baton. A simple black rod with a handle and a switch. Flipping the switch the rod starts sparking with electricity. Twirling it in my hand, I turn it off and pick up a flash grenade. Once again, fairly simple, just pull the pin and blind anyone nearby. Curious, I decided to see if I could sell it.
Basic Flash Grenade: 100 Prime Coins.
Sell?
Y N
“A hundred coins?” A bit shocked, I looked at the others who had stopped talking and glanced at me.
“For all three?”
“No, for one. If I sell all three, it’ll be three hundred altogether.” Answering Winter’s question, I felt excited before her next comment brought me back to reality.
“It would be very useful for the Nexus event.” That’s right, the Husks will ‘gain sight’ during that time. These Flash Grenades would be extremely valuable if used correctly, so selling them would be giving up a good weapon to use against the horde.
“Well, we still have time, we can always craft weapons and sell them. Once the rest of us have our Classes we can possibly sell a few things.” Agreeing with Sheep, we started to discuss finding Ghost.
“So it’s the third day, he should return. I just hope he isn’t dead.” I had begun worrying deeply about him. I made a call based on how confident he seemed and that he had accepted the risks, and now I am wondering if I made the right call.
Our worries were short lived however. Just as we geared up, I saw his portrait light up on the HUD followed by us hearing footsteps coming down the hall and Ghost revealed himself, looking exhausted and frustrated. He sighs as he sees us and offers a small smile.
“I have a lot to tell you.” Seeing his unusually serious expression, I nodded as we returned to the meeting room, unequipping ourselves on the way back. Sitting down in the meeting room, Ghost grabbed a bottle of water before beginning.
“Firstly, forgive me for not returning sooner. The deeper I went into the town the more I discovered about our situation and the more I realised how fucked our situation is.”
Raising an eyebrow at this comment from Ghost, he turns to me and starts explaining.
“First, about potential people nearby. I’ve found signs of others a few hours from here but couldn’t follow their trail, either they’ve died or hidden themselves well. It’s at least two people from what I saw, and there were quite a few dead Husks down the street. I’ve left signs that I had been there and also a breadcrumb back to this place.
“Now, about the part about us being fucked, well Husks are not the only enemies. I found two more types, much closer to the centre of this town. The distance is quite far from here, it seems like this town had been on the verge of becoming a city and I found many different shops, storage units and more. The enemies I’ve encountered are strong, I had to use all but two bullets to kill one and the other I didn’t even dare to get close to it.
“The first enemy looks like a Husk but has purple skin and it isn’t blind, it saw me on sight and charged at me. It has sharp and long nails, which easily cut through the exterior of a car. Thankfully I had distance on it, and finished it rather quickly, but it had taken four shots to the head to finally kill it, I missed three of those shots.
“The second enemy…remember that superhero movie, The Impressive Bulk? Sorta like that, but not green. I didn’t see it fight but those bastards were appearing more frequently along with the first type of enemy the closer I got to the centre of the town. I think there is a bigger threat in there, or different enemies. I found corrosive damage like acid in many places, though that could’ve been a weapon used by the previous inhabitants of this world.”
The room fell into silence as I thought over what Ghost had said. We knew the possibility of there being different types of enemies had been likely, but from what Ghost had said they were ridiculous.
“They’re about twenty kilometres from here and by the looks of things they patrol the inner town itself, not going past a certain point. The names of these types are Husk: Heavy and Husk: Crawler, so it’s likely they’ll be a part of the Nexus event.”
“Well, we’ll have to prepare then.” Sighing, I didn’t like the sound of what would be coming. We’d have to do so much in such little time. Nevermind making machines, we also had to get everyone to unlock their Class. Winter had tried earlier and nothing worked, which meant you had to do the quest. Then we had the Nexus event with the possibility of these new enemies showing up, which were far more problematic than the Husks who blundered around when they didn’t hear anything. After a few minutes, I cleared my throat as I got everyone’s attention.
“We have fifteen days left to prepare. We need to get you all your classes and even then we’d still need more to prepare. For the next week, we’ll be working on preparing. We will gather wood, stones, dismantle as many cars as possible and attempt to finish everyone’s Husk kills. Ghost, you’ll be working separately from us. I need you to find anything that will finish your quest of harvesting two plants while also mapping out everything around us. Once you have mapped the area around us, tell me, but focus on finishing that quest.
“Once we have collected a metric fuck ton of materials and unlocked everyone’s Class, we will then focus on fortifying this building and getting Job Points for Blueprints. Winter, you’ll work on making the cheapest item to sell for Prime Coins as well as arrows and bows, Sheep you’ll be ensuring Winter and I don’t overwork ourselves as we have done in the past while grinding in games. Lemon, you’ll be handling fortifying windows, weak spots, creating a choke point and escape route. Ghost, you’ll be on watch the entire time and will assist us during your down time.
“I’d like for you all to also find a way to exploit this System, as we did in the past with all other games. With the Shop and Jobs, there is surely some way to gain an advantage or a loophole to exploit, like an easy to craft item that sells for a lot. Our aim by the end of this week is the raintank, for myself and Winter to get as many Job Points as possible and for this building to turn into a fortress. Sheep and Lemon, I’ll leave the designing of our defences to you guys, if I can contribute with machinery or if Winter can provide anything we will, but our aim is to have a singular choke point like the movie 400 and an escape route that doesn’t have us dropping into a swarm.”
As we continued to discuss various problems and possible solutions, like our food and water situations, we caught Ghost up on the quest and Class and he in turn informed us of three locations that were like petrol stations, two of which were deep within the territory of these new enemies. I also looked at the Class System, and unexpectedly I didn’t see Talents for the Class.
Sharpshooter.
Class Points: 5
Needed for Next Stage: 100
“So the next stage means you’ll get more strength upon reaching it?” Ghost says thoughtfully out loud.
“Or it’s to unlock Talents, a new weapon or another System?” Sheep, with a hand on his chin, pondered out loud as well.
“Should be another strength increase, no? If the enemies get stronger or more intelligent, then you’d need to increase in strength, right?” I joined in on the thinking out loud as well. With the news of the faster and stronger enemies deeper into the town, I knew that my newly found strength may only match theirs, meaning if there were to be stronger enemies as Ghost mentioned then we would need to become stronger to match.
“Either way, becoming stronger is at the end of the day the aim, even if the progression is linear we’d just need to keep pace, right?” Smiling at Winter’s comment, I look at her and nod. What she said is the truth of the matter, to survive we’d have to keep pace and accept what the System gave us, regardless of the situation.
“Well, this week will be busy. Night times will be used to rest since we can’t really make noise, but we’ll stretch it to the last moment of the day and wake up as early as possible. It’ll be an uneventful two weeks, but we’ll be pushed to our limits. We’ll rest for three days before the Nexus event, in which we’ll make sure everything is ready.”
Looking around after I finished speaking, everyone nodded in agreement and turning my attention to the System, I looked at the Survival Basics Two quest, which is marked as complete and the rewards ready to be claimed. Bringing it up, I click on it and claim the reward.