1: in a new world with nothing
2024 July 23 Harlem New York
It is rainy and there is low visibility, cars are heard in the background driving through the busy streets. In a five story dark green apartment lies 32 year old Henry Miller. Henry is a very average man, he is five ten with orange hair and a pale complexion. He just got back from a tiring long day at Walmart and got soaked on his way home by the rain. He didn't have a car yet and had to bike to work. His navy blue room was small and compact, but full of stuff since he had nowhere else to put it. All ever had and ever will have in the world was in this small room. Henry never really was a star employee and never got any awards; but he was good enough to keep his job without problem. Henry lived alone with no family or people to keep him company.
*yawn* Henry wakes up to more rain and is upset about having to bike in the rain again but he has no choice. Henry got ready he went to the shared bathroom and brushed his teeth and shower but he was out of shampoo.
"Really, they took my shampoo again." Henry says in a disappointed tone
He walks back into the kitchen and looks at the black clock on his wall and sees that he doesn't have much time to eat. He grabs a cup of instant ramen from his brown and virtually empty cabinet and starts a bit of water in his kettle.
"WOAH! October 2021! Oh, man, I guess I'll just pick up some food on the way home." Henry says after looking at the expiration date on his ramen cup.
Henry turns off his kettle and throws away the potentially lethal cup of noodles as he grabs his bike and exits the door. He is now leaving and is biking to work since the rain got a bit lighter. It's about 8AM now and he's around ten minutes away from work as he sees a couple walking in the rain.
"How lucky of them, finding someone to willingly spend time with them." He says while staring off into the distance.
Henry after a minute or so of silent sobbing and sitting in place continues to Walmart. Henry pulls up to the bike rack at Walmart, locks up his bike, and walks up to his register. Unfortunately for him though, right as he is noticed, Mr. Crippen yells at him. He's around six five and looks similar to Dwayne Johnson but with brown curly hair.
"MILLER! Into the break room with me!" Yells Crippen.
Henry was walking to the office and he overhears his coworkers whispering. Henry gets to the office and closes the door behind him.
"Boss I'm so sor-." Says Henry before being cut off.
"NO! I'M THE ONE TALKING!" Yells Crippen as he pulls out a dollar.
"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS !? " Crippen continues.
" Money. Why? and again i'm sor-" Henry says, being cut off again
" THIS IS WHAT I'M LOSING EVERY TIME YOU MOPE AROUND AND GET IN LATE! A WHOLE TWELVE MINUTES OF CASH FLOW, WASTED, NOW GET OUT OF THE ROOM AND GET TO WORK BEFORE I FIRE YOU!" Yells Crippen.
Henry leaves his bosses office and gets to work, only to have to deal with difficult customers. They came every day and there was no shortage of Karens in the area. All he's had to deal with all day was people complaining since 2020 when items were scarce and when America was the worst it had been in a long time. Henry sits there contemplating his life choices as he scans and bags items for the next hour before a middle aged overweight blond lady in a mobility scooter moves up to Henry's register.
*beep* *beep* "Your total will be 73.35$ cash or card" Henry says.
"Oh my heavens, that is a lot of money. Don't you think you can give me an employee's discount?" She says
" Well I'm sorry that you feel that this is too much, but you bought a lot of items, the discount is for employees." Henry replies
*gasps loudly* " Did you just call me poor? " She asks with a loud questioning tone.
" NO, No of course not, I just mean that I am sorry that you don't want to pay that much, not that you can't pay for it." Henry says
She pulls out her phone, ignoring Henry and the four person line behind her to call someone.
"Yes this man is assaulting me at your Walmart yeah, okay, well.." she stops for a moment to look at Henry's name tag "yes Henry Miller at register three."
An agitated mood sets in as the lady refuses to leave.
"Now I've tried to be polite but I'm going to have to ask you to leave if you aren't going to buy anything and wont move." Henry says.
Mr. Crippen runs out of his office as fast as possible jumping over entire shopping carts to get to Henry. Mr Crippen continues running through the store towards Henry and then stops at his station.
"OUT, YOU'RE FIRED!" yells Crippen
"Wait what?" asks Henry
"I TOLD YOU THAT ONE MORE SLIP UP WILL GET YOU FIRED, YOU'RE LATE AND NOW ASSAULTING MY MOM, GET OUT!" Crippen yells
Henry starts to reply but is grabbed and carried out of the store and thrown onto the wet ground outside of the Walmart
"YOU ARE LUCKY I DON'T GET THE COPS! IF I EVER SEE YOU AGAIN IN MY WALMART I WILL PERSONALLY KILL YOU!" Crippen yells.
Henry, newly unemployed, got on his bike and started to ride back to his house, constantly looking behind him to ensure Crippen wasn't following him. 10 minutes into the bike ride it started to rain, at this point he was almost in his apartment. He was riding down a small sidewalk when he came to an intersection. The pavement there was slippery and when Henry was crossing the street, he looked behind him one last time to check for Crippen when he crossed the intersection too fast and he slipped on his bike and scraped both of his elbows on impact upon hitting the other side of the street. He stands back up, picks his bike up, and walks him and his bike the other fifty feet left to reach his apartment. He walks into his house.
"Well, I'm banned from the only Walmart in a fifteen mile radius with no food." Henry says looking utterly defeated and soaked.
He walks up to his refrigerator to check for food and sees a packet of hot dogs in a drawer in his fridge he didn't notice earlier. He looks at the expiration date August fifteenth 2024 it reads. He starts to put a hot dog into the microwave and he hears a meow from inside his room. It's one of his neighbor's cats sitting on his stairs. Henry looks at his open window and finds a note next to it that reads, My cat Mrs Mittens had a few kittens and now you have one. I left you one since you weren't home to say yes. Thank me later though, I'm currently in Florida on vacation. See you soon!
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"Yet another living thing to take care of and feed. I seriously don’t know why she felt I’d say yes when I don’t even have enough time or food to take care of myself. " He says.
The cat sits there staring at Henry, tilting its head and meowing next to a puddle of urine. It just sits there, scratching up Henry's previously clean carpet. The cat then starts running out of the open door and down the concrete staircase outside at top speed. Henry sighs and breaks down into a fit of rage and runs across the room towards the cat only to slip in the puddle and fall down the stairs. He tumbles down the stairs for around two seconds until, *crackle*. Henry breaks his neck after getting it caught in a steel guard rail going down the stairs. Well, he’s dead, what a terrible life, hopefully he’ll have a better life next time.
sometime somewhere
"*moan (the nonsexual one)* “Oh my god, what happened this time? Am I in a hospital or what?” He thinks, and while he cannot move his mouth the voice in his head narrates this. Henry sits there in total darkness and thinks for a moment. All of the sudden, he realizes he feels perfectly fine after falling down a flight of stairs. He remains there in total darkness until he can finally open his eyes and control himself fully. He looks around and is laying down in a thick forest filled with an indefinite amount of trees.
Henry was naked for some reason and it was much darker than before,just a moment ago it was the afternoon but now it was dark out. For some time he was just wandering around the forest wondering what happened. Henry got up slowly, shaking the entire thim. When he finally gets onto his feet he realized he was in a forest when just a minute ago he was in the city; the apartment he lived in was nowhere in sight; there is no cat running around, or any recognisable building. There were only trees and a couple of berry bushes as far as Henry could see. It was starting to rain a bit and ever so slightly uncomfortably cold.
“Well, I guess if it’s not cold then I’m fine, but I’m just going to find a… ummmm” he says
Henry looks around for some thick sticks to make a tent out of or a cave to sleep in. He starts wandering around the forest while contemplating his life and getting distracted by his own misery and eventually getting lost without even noticing. He had a pretty bad life but now he was in the middle of nowhere in a weird forest with no sense of direction. After ten or so minutes, he comes across a cave with a singular sheet of paper seemingly immune to the effects of the rain. System ... status ... skills ... it reads with things like his full name and his stats.
“SERIOUSLY?!” he yells, “ I LITERALLY DIED IN THE DUMBEST WAY POSSIBLE AND HAVE BAD STATS TOO?!”
He attempts to pick up the paper when it dissipates in his hands and he all of the sudden can perfectly visualize the paper and his stats mentally.
HENRY BENFORD MILLER
LEVEL: 1 EXP: 0/100 POWER: 10
STRENGTH 16 (PATHETIC)
MAGIC 12 (HORRIBLE)
STAMINA 16 (PATHETIC)
VITALITY 17 (PATHETIC)
INTELLIGENCE 20 (BELOW AVERAGE)
CHARISMA 7 (THE WORST)
LUCK -2 (THE GODS HATE YOU)
SKILLS
???(?) SURVEY(1) INVENTORY(1) STRIKE(1) CRITICAL STRIKE(1) SYSTEM(1) GAIN(1) DODGE(1)
“Wow. I’m not even surprised, I have NEGATIVE luck. Honestly, now that I look at these, I’m surprised that I've lasted this long.”
Besides his horrible stats he also was beat up. Although he didn’t feel it, it looked like he fell down a flight of stairs, which of course, he actually did.
*snap* There is the crack of a branch as a series of footsteps approaches him.
“What now? What’s God sent my way this time to try and kill me?`` Henry says with a nonchalant tone.
*growl*
{A common monster has appeared!}
As Henry was sitting there waiting for something to happen, a goblin came out of a bush from behind him and jumped on his back. Henry screamed at the ugly green midget attacking him and throws the disgusting creature off of him.
“Mother of god, what is that?!!” henry yelled in disgust
*growl*
The goblin completely ignores him and climbs back onto Henry's back, continuing to attack him.
“HEY, GET BACK” he yelled at the goblin scratching at his back
Henry grabbed the goblin and threw it again, but this time at a tree. Unfortunately though, due to Henry only having 16 strength points,the goblin got back up and started running at him again. Henry this time had learned from his mistakes and dogged it using his skill dodge.
“ Man, that skill actually came in useful, cool.” He said.
Henry then picked up a rock and threw it at the goblin, but nothing happened. It then charged at him again and Henry kicked away onto the ground.
“WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?!” Henry yells in rage after it bit his leg.
Henry then grabs a nearby branch, holding it similar to a baseball bat and swings at the goblin, killing it with a critical blow.
*ping*
{+70 xp}
The goblin then drops 70 xp and it drops some money, but these aren't any recognisable currency like U.S. dollars, pesos, or euros, they aren't even made of any paper, cloth, or metal. The money is circular and looks bronze, similar to pennies, but they are twice the size of quarters and have an imprint of two crossing swords on them rather than President Lincoln.
“Hey, It dropped some xp.” Henry says as he involuntarily absorbs the xp. “Does that mean there are levels in this world? Actually, I don’t know, I didn't really get to check out the stat screen because that goblin attacked me.” Henry says.
HENRY BENFORD MILLER
LEVEL: 1 EXP: 70/100 POWER: 10
Money: 12 copper
STRENGTH 16 (PATHETIC)
MAGIC 12 (HORRIBLE)
STAMINA 16 (PATHETIC)
VITALITY 17 (PATHETIC)
INTELLIGENCE 20 (BELOW AVERAGE)
CHARISMA 7 (THE WORST)
LUCK -2 (THE GODS HATE YOU)
SKILLS
???(?) SURVEY(1) INVENTORY(1) STRIKE(1) CRITICAL STRIKE(1) SYSTEM(1) GAIN(1) DODGE(1)
“Wow! It looks like I really did get some XP from killing the goblin, and it looks like I also got 12 bronze coins. Now I don’t actually know how much they’re worth, but, considering the fact that it dropped from a goblin this weak, they are probably the equivalent of pennies. But hey, money is money. ”
Henry was so busy looking at his stats menu that he almost overlooked his inventory; it was a six by six grid that had the first two slots filled with what looked like a small dagger and some leather. It was goblin leather, yet he didn’t actually pick it up or skin the goblin.
“It seems that I have limited inventory space. I should probably only keep Precious materials in here then.”
Henry then picked up his trusty rock and started to wander the forest still naked without any protection.
A few hours later Henry was still wandering and came across a clearing in the trees. It looked to be a field of tall grass surrounded by tall trees on all sides. Henry walked out of the dense forest to look about the field.
“Looks like I found a clearing to rest” Henry said as he was looking around the clearing for any more monsters.
He had not yet encountered any more since he was attacked by the goblin when he first arrived. By the time he found the clearing the sun was starting to rise and the rain had long since stopped pouring down upon the forest.
Henry wanted to get out of the forest and find civilization but he knew it would not be an easy task considering how large the forest was by climbing up an anomaly large tree and after much difficulty and falling down he reached the top and all around were trees almost as far as he could see. But Henry had the survey skill and could see further and could see what he thinks is the end of the forest.
Henry spent most of the day messing around with his new found ability to use skills. He did not know how to use the one he could not read or gain but he figured that the system was what the half transparent screen was. When he took a closer look there were multiple tabs on the screen which had a lock on them he still tried to click it.
{you must level up to unlock this tab}
“Well, I figured my luck would run out sooner or later, just as it always does.”
Henry started to walk in the direction he saw the forest end. He knew it would take a while but he had a much better chance of survival if he was with other people. Henry was off to what he thought was going to be an easy second life. But of course, knowing Henry and his luck, it wouldn’t be.