Beeping startled me awake, and I remembered that Frank had set the timer on his watch to seven hours. I rubbed my eyes and licked my lips. The fruit sugar had left my mouth dry and there was no toothpaste or even water to rinse out my mouth before I went to sleep. I felt tired and dirty; the grunge was real.
I slowly stretched my body, since it felt stiff, tired, and sore. That wasn’t good. As a fat person, I would wear down more quickly than my teammates. I needed to keep on top of my mental game to survive this place, whatever it was. The tiredness of my body would impact my ability to think quickly and clearly.
I got up and stretched more as my companions began to wake up. I felt a familiar pressure and went off into a side room where I took a piss on the wall since there were no toilets. I held in the urge to take a shit. I couldn’t afford to have a chafed ass since there was nothing to wipe or wash with. Constipation was the goal and the fruit-only diet wasn’t helping.
Focusing on my breathing, I swung my hands in front of me with my middle and index fingers pointing outwards. I moved my hands in sync with my breathing to help myself regain control of my bodily functions and resist the urge to have a bowel movement. Eventually, the feeling subsided. A mental trick I had picked up over the years. Mind over body, but now constipation was a real risk.
“Morning,” I greeted my teammates as I walked back to where they were just waking up.
“Morning,” Frank mumbled as he slowly got up. Jim just nodded at me.
After relieving themselves in the side room we left our trash there as well. We then made our way out of the building and towards the plaza.
There were three groups of people sleeping in various areas. I counted at least one hundred people missing from the two hundred and fifty people who initially showed up. They were either spread out in the city or dead. There was no one near the pillars where I noted several blood stains, but no bodies.
We made our way to the pillars. I noted a lookout in each group, but none of them called out or approached us. I put my backpack on one pillar while my teammates stood on either side of me keeping watch.
I then put my hands under my pack and touched the pillar. There was an option to absorb placed crystals for points. At least my plan to hide the crystals in my pack worked, and hopefully, no one realized anything was going on. The slime crystals came back as 5 points each. I winced since I had been hoping for at least 10.
I traded in all 12 of my crystals, putting me at 115 points.
I mentally thought of healing, hoping for something to help me keep going. There was an option for restoration for 87 points. If that was the cost of muscle soreness, then a serious wound would be a lot more expensive and impossible to pay off. I would need a point reserve since healing was an option.
It was tempting to upgrade a stat, but they were too expensive for now. I needed to be in fighting shape to earn points. It was tempting to save up or leave a buffer, but having points saved wouldn’t help me in a fight where I needed to be alert.
I spent the points for the restoration and immediately felt better. A lot better. All the soreness and stiffness vanished from my body. I also felt my gut loosen up a bit. It was worth the cost.
I then spent another 20 points on fruit. Leaving me with only 8 points. After a moment of thought, I spent the last 8 points on four more pieces of fruit.
I put the floating fruit that appeared above the pillar away in my pack and quickly explained what happened to my teammates in a hushed voice.
Frank needed 59 points for a restoration and Jim only needed 38 points.
I frowned at that. Fit people would quickly gain an advantage. That was unfortunate.
Our clubs would last for a while. They were only slightly pitted and worn. I estimated it could handle about 50 to 100 slimes total, before being worn halfway through and having a serious risk of snapping. Though I checked the pillar for some things I had thought of, nothing bore any fruit. I smiled at the mental pun. I needed to get amusement wherever I could since I had no cat videos to waste time on.
The next step was to get the shop upgrade. That cost 1,000 points, or 200 slimes. I winced at the cost.
The worst part was, that the upgrade cost would be placed onto a single person while everyone would benefit. Based on the limited mental information the store gave me, the upgrade was across all eight pillars. While people might share crystals, I doubted there would be trust for that.
With my search done, we left the plaza to head back to the gate. I was glad Frank and Jim were willing to go along with me. I think it was probably a combination of shock and my giving directions that gave meaningful progress. This gave more weight to my conclusions, and they were less likely to argue with me.
I just had to be sure they never united against me in case I made a serious mistake or excessive demands. That was why I called it a day yesterday. I had wanted to get more crystals, but I had to consider my teammates. I was fine pushing myself to near death to survive this place, but they lacked the mental fortitude for something like that, unfortunately.
As we left the plaza, a younger Hispanic-looking man came up to us. He wore long-sleeved clothing and I couldn’t see any obvious tattoos. He wasn’t dressed like an office worker; he had more casual clothing. At least his pants weren’t hanging down around his knees. Maybe a college student, I wasn’t sure.
“Can I go with you?” He asked. That was my queue to deal with this situation.
“Hello, I am Michael. This is Frank and Jim Park Soon,” I introduced our teammates.
“Jesus,” he said, with the pronunciation sounding like ‘hey-Zeus’.
“Why do you want to come with us?” I asked. I could guess the answer, but I wanted to get a better sense of who he was.
“There was trouble here. You are the only people I have seen come back. And you also look like you know what you are doing,” he said. He looked reasonably fit, but four people would mean fewer crystals. But it would also mean more safety.
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“What happened here?” I asked. I wanted to get a better sense of what was happening in the plaza to judge how risky things were becoming.
“A woman was getting raped in a building, and there was a fight. They beat the man to death. Things escalated, and many people ran off. There is a lot of tension and worry.” That was bad. People were already resorting to things like rape and murder. There was one important question that needed to be answered immediately.
“Did anyone get points for killing the man?” If someone did, then this place would become a bloodbath. Killing people for their points just to survive. Even if some people went hunting monsters, someone would kill them once they returned, since the pillars that gave access to the system store were an obvious choke point.
“No. I didn’t hear anything.” I frowned a bit. That was both good and bad. If points didn’t come from murder, the reason to fight between people would be slightly less. But no one would come out and say such a thing if it was true. That was annoying as well as understandable.
“Alright, let’s get you packed and some food. You can join us unless either of you has an objection?” I asked my teammates. It was a risk to bring him along, but more people would be better. Especially at the early stage. There was safety in numbers, but also a greater chance of drama.
“Nope,” Frank said.
“No problem,” Jim said with a slight smile. I looked up at the dark sky with the tiny specks of starlight. There was no moon, and I didn’t see any familiar constellations and no slight blur from the disk of the Milky Way. More signs that this wasn’t Earth.
We went back to the pillar and Jesus got a pack and supplies. With that completed, we made our way back to the city exit, with Jim taking the lead with his superior sense of direction.
I explained to Jesus what we had discovered so far and the tactics we used against the slimes. Once he was brought up to speed, it was time to plan things out a bit more.
“With four people, that means fewer crystals, but faster clearing. The slimes don’t respond to noise, so call out what you are doing. Like, fighting the slime or stepping back. We will rotate and work on getting at least twenty each,” I carefully explained the tactics we should use, keeping it as simple as possible.
“That many?” Jim asked. I am the fat person here, and you are complaining?
“Yes, we need points to live. Also, we are all stocked up on food. So, we will spend today and tomorrow hunting, going back on the morning of day four. We waste a lot of time and energy going through the city to get to the forest and then back to the plaza. Twenty each today, then same again tomorrow.” We needed to up our efficiency. Those upgrades the system store offered were important.
“We won’t be able to get that restoration the pillars gave,” Jim complained some more.
“I know, but we need to push ourselves as much as possible without using that pillar.” The biggest risk was to me, but since I knew a restoration was coming, I could do it. If I could do it, everyone else should shut up and focus on important things.
“I think after using it, I don’t need to shit anymore,” Frank said. I considered my body and I didn’t feel the pressure down on my bowels either. That was a huge plus.
“Two days should be doable then. And if we need to shit in the woods, the restoration should remove anything, hopefully,” I muttered the last part. Chaffing was a big deal.
“How did you figure all this out?” Jesus asked.
“Reading too much. Reading way too much.” I patted my gut. “What about you Jesus? What was your job?” I asked.
“Ah, lawn care,” he muttered. Probably an illegal then, since everyone seemed to be from America. Not like that mattered here. His English was very good at least.
“Don’t worry, I know English very well.” He said what I had been thinking. Communication was key.
“I was a business analyst. Lots of e-mails and reports. Jim?” I asked.
“Medical school,” he said.
“What about you Frank?” I asked.
“Tax preparation,” he sounded tired, and I didn’t push for more.
“So medical school, huh? What kind of doctor were you thinking of being?” I asked Jim.
“I am not sure. I still have to do my residency. But I was leaning towards general surgery. All that is pointless now. My parents will be worried.” He let out a sigh. I didn’t want to think about my family. If I was going to survive, I couldn’t afford to break down.
“Hey don’t give up. I suspect that the pillars will grant skills or abilities related to either Spirit or Aura,” I said hopefully. I was praying for magic with all my heart since I did not want to fight in melee range.
“Like magic?” Jim asked.
“Probably. But the exact mechanics of how the skills would work and our DPS would be key. Oh sorry, DPS means damage per second. Like how many fireballs you can throw and how quickly. A balanced party has a mix of skills in order to handle a range of situations,” I explained, hoping to get them in the right mindset for the fights to come.
“A front-line fighter to hold the line. We need a healer, of course; an archer for ranged physical damage, and a caster for damage per second.” I listed the key roles in my mind for a balanced team. It was just a guess and there were no skills yet.
“You really think this place will follow game logic?” Frank asked.
“There are slimes, a system, and points. Tougher monsters will give more points, but the risk will be much higher. That is why we need to get as many points as possible before other people head out. With 100 points each. I expect people to last eight to ten days before they get super desperate for points,” I said.
“Yes, there are too many people. It’s very dangerous here,” Jesus said. The people were the problem, but the other issue was being tied to the system store for supplies.
“There is also a chance more people will show up as well. It is a hunch, but 250 people are too small for all of this.” I gestured at the surrounding abandoned city. “Something will teleport more people in. They will have points and the old people won’t.”
“The slimes are important,” Jim said and I nodded at that. I looked behind us, but no one was following us thankfully. I didn’t expect that to last. Still, we were incredibly lucky to find an easy monster to start off with. I just had to exploit that advantage to the hilt.
“Any other hunches?” Frank asked me.
“More guesses really. This place is all artificial or gives that feeling. I have no doubt that death is real and final. Thinking otherwise will lead to a lot of pain. There may be other gates around the city to different regions. Also, the gates may be a portal since we can’t get up on the wall or look over it,” I answered.
“That is quite a bit of a stretch,” Jesus said.
“A lot of that is probably wrong in some way or there are minor details that need to be considered more in-depth to make a conclusion. The devils in the details.” I was really glad I got that restoration since my body was already getting tired from all this walking and talking. I didn’t want to think about I how would have felt without it.
“Do you think there are smarter monsters? Like orcs, elves, hobbits, or things like that?” Frank asked.
“Maybe? But that would probably be a mid-level enemy, depending on the size of the groups. As for intelligence? I have no idea. Depends on whoever set up this place. But as a guideline, stronger enemies are smarter. Anything with any kind of tool, weapon, or clothing should be treated with a lot more care than a mindless monster.” I was also thinking about how looting was a time-honored tradition.
“Well if we find something other than slimes, I could perform an autopsy.” Jim earned points for thinking of useful things. The real question was if other monsters would turn into disappearing dust when killed.
“Wouldn’t it be a dissection, since they are animals and not humans?” I asked.
Jim looked at me with a bit of surprise before responding. “Ah, yes actually. How did you know that?”
“As I said before, I read way too much. Autopsy for humans, dissection for animals. Maybe it would be a xenosection since we could consider them aliens.”
“That slime was disturbing. A blob of acid and no visible structures,” Jim said.
“Time to set my watch,” Frank said as there was some light in the sky as dawn was about to arrive. There were only a couple of wisps of clouds. After some discussion, we worked out the day was about the length of a day on Earth. We would need more observations to narrow it down some more.