Nothing.
I hear the trigger being pulled but I don't hear the strident sound of the hammer. I take the gun out of my head and look what went wrong while I am still shaking. Looks like the hammer got stuck. I ask myself if this is some kind of message. If... I should live after all. Maybe my parents are here with me, watching over my shoulder, still protecting me from this horrible world. The tears falls from my face all over the gun. I feel like a failure. Anyone else will take this as a message of God to carry on. To live. But I just can't avoid thinking that when I wake up tomorrow, my grandpa will not remember who I am again. I'll have to lie again about my parents. I'll have to smile even if it makes me nauseous to do so. And my live will still be empty.
These thoughts run through my mind as I reload the hammer and put the pistol back to my temple. Before I can muster the willpower to pull the trigger again, the window opposite the bed lights up. Lightning, perhaps?
The wall explodes into pieces. Time stops again and I feel like I've returned to the accident of ten years ago. Somehow a truck has reached the second floor of my house and is advancing towards me, destroying everything in its path. My stuffed animals. My computer. My sketchbook. The box with the only photo of me and my parents.
Even though I was about to take my own life, I'm scared. The truck is coming towards me like a big metal beast. A nightmare from ten years ago that has come back for me, to finish the job. I point my revolver at the truck and shoot. This time the revolver works and everything goes black. At least this time I was able to fight back.
I wake up moments later. My whole body is submerged in a symphony of pain. Half of one of my crutches pierces my shoulder. My leg is under a wooden beam, jammed. In front of me the truck rests on its side. Its tank is beginning to sour. On one side I can see the universal symbol indicating that the material it is carrying is corrosive. I look around trying to get my bearings only to see my grandfather impaled by several pieces of wood in his chest and head. The fire begins to grow larger and is reflected in the pool of blood on which my grandfather lies.
I don't have the strength to cry anymore so I don't. I look back at the tank of the truck and wonder what will kill me first: suffocation, fire or whatever liquid the truck carries. I get my answer a moment later. The tank gives way completely and a white liquid pours over me. It seems to be an acid. The pain is something I've never felt before but I don't let out a single scream. Anyway, it's over several seconds later. I'm knocked unconscious and die.
"At last I can rest"
I feel bad. Dizzy. I hear voices laughing and I feel betrayed, used. Wasn't it all over? What is this? WHY CAN'T I JUST FUCKING DIE?
I wake up vomiting. The first thing I notice is that the floor is hard. It feels like I'm in a cave. The remains of my birthday cake are now scattered all over the floor. Despite what has happened, my body is healed. Everything is as it was before the truck killed me, except for my left arm, where I have a series of scars that form the words "Kill all gods".
I focus on those words, but my mind is too cluttered to think right now. I sit on top of my legs and look around.
Yes. I'm definitely in a cave. And I'm not alone. Just a tender 30 meters[] away from me is a huge red dragon sleeping over a pile of gold and treasures. By huge I mean that one of its claws is almost twice as big as me. Just looking at it I can feel my whole body screaming "Stay away. Go away. Run away".And I would be doing just that if it wasn't for the fact that I only have one bloody leg. Running has never been an option for me, so I stay completely still. The seconds tick by and the only sound I hear in the cave is the dragon's breathing.
If the dragon were to devour me, I might have to go through yet another horrible experience involving acid and trauma all over my body. I shudder at the thought of it. For now, I will try to survive whatever it takes.
Looking at the pile of gold on which the dragon sleeps, I can see various types of striking objects that look like they came from Pinterest. I feel extremely rational right now, no doubt due to the trauma I have experienced which will surely have consequences later on. For now I decide to make use of this little superpower. It seems that I am in a different world. It is not heaven, nor hell. I know I have a phrase written on my forearm that says "Kill all Gods," which implies that I probably did it because I knew I wouldn't remember whatever happened when I died. The message itself is clear. I decided that I have to kill all the gods. I don't see how to do something like that right now, I don't think I could even kill a rat, so I'll ignore this mission for now. Back to survival. There is a possibility that the dragon is a benevolent intelligent being and decides to help me get out of here alive, however, there are a few humanoid skeletons around that don't inspire much confidence in me so I have started looking for a way out. There is a tunnel behind me and a hole in the ceiling about 50 meters above my head, so I have to go through the dark tunnel that descends into the depths of the earth or grow some wings. Before I leave, I would like to grab some of those objects on the pile of gold. I know it's a bad idea to steal from a dragon, in general it's a bad idea to steal from any creature, but if I'm going to go into a dark tunnel, I'm going to do it with a weapon. I don't see anything that resembles a firearm and footwork is not my thing, so my eyes land on a bow that seems to be made of a blue crystal and emits a bluish glow. It doesn't seems to have a string, but maybe you don't need it.
Scrooge McDuck makes it look easy to move around a mountain of gold.In reality not only does it seem incredibly difficult but I also can't make any noise, in case the dragon wakes up. I don't think I will be able to reach it without dragging down with me a mountain of gold, so I start taking off my clothes and tying them to form a rope.Thanks to the small complex I have for being almost as flat as a plank of wood, I was wearing a bra today. Between that, my pants, the t-shirt and my PAC-MAN sweatshirt I manage to make a rope long enough to reach the bow. I have to move a little, crawling across the stone floor, until I reach the edge of the pile. It takes me almost five minutes to advance those 4 or 5 meters[], but I wanted to make sure I didn't make any kind of noise.
I can't get on my knees to throw the rope, because I only have one, but I balance well with just one leg. A drop of sweat falls down my forehead as I throw my makeshift rope. The bra acts as a hook. My first launch completely fails but not because of my aim . It was going well until the dragon's breathing created an air stream that deflected the rope from it's objective.This fact alone reminds me how huge the creature is. I pick up the rope slowly, trying not to drop any coins. It takes me a good minute to pick it up, but it's worth it since I manage to do it without dropping a single coin. Satisfied with this small achievement, I prepare the rope and throw it back towards the bow.
I have to repeat the process several times until I can get the bra to grip the bow. My foot begins to hurt from holding my weight for so long without moving, so I sit down and begin to draw the bow slowly. Because it is partially buried in the pile of gold I have to remove it slowly, trying not to make the coins make too much noise when they start to fill the hole left by the bow on the pile. With some skill and patience I manage to dig it out and then it's a matter of dragging it to the edge of the pile of gold and picking it up. The problem is the weight of the bow. As soon as you approach the slope of the gold pile, gravity will do its thing and the bow will begin to slide down, carrying with it a pile of coins that will hit the ground and therefore creating a good amount of noise.
I think about this problem for a couple of minutes. The best thing I can do is give it a hard pull to attract the bow towards me.The plan makes sense, but it's risky. Everything I've done up to this point was, more or less safe. The movement will be abrupt and some coins will surely fall to the ground. However, the other option is worse. I could leave the bow, but that would mean that I have to go into the dark tunnel in my underwear and without any kind of weapon.
My sight falls on my left arm again and I read the message that was engraved into my own skin. A promise. I remember the feeling of betrayal I felt after dying. I clench my fists on the rope, take a deep breath, and pull as hard on the rope as I possibly can.
The bow falls right into my hands but not without making some noise. More than a dozen coins fall to the ground at different times and places, causing a metallic noise that echoes throughout the cave. The dragon's breathing stops.
I run away. I had never run so fast using only one leg. I can't even breathe. The dragon begins to move, causing even more noise, which hides the sound of my footsteps. Once I reach the tunnel, I don't stop even though everything becomes relatively dark.
"Thief!" The dragon screams, almost hissing the words.
Moments later I began to hear the sound of fire. Somehow is similar to the sound of an overflowing river. Am I going to die again? As I run, I see a somewhat deep hole on the side of the tunnel. Maybe it's a meter deep. I jump without hesitation, stick to the edge and protect the bow, my clothes, and the rest of my body with my back. Just half a second later the fire arrives. The skin on my back hisses for the heat and I can't help but let out a cry of pain.
Again, everything goes black.
[Alert: Low Health]
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And again, I wake up. However this time I wake up with every bit of my body screaming "Pain". I notice the great burn on my back, the cuts and bruises that I have all over my body and the sole of my foot, which has several cuts and punctures .One of my nails is split in half.
Before I continue exploring the many ways this new world has found to hurt me, my attention is drawn to the notification that flashes a reddish glow at the top of my field of vision. I click on the notification and an information window called Status opens.
Name Aria Murphy Class - Age
16 Height
1.64 m (5.4) Weight
44 Kg (97 lbs)
Life 10/40 Active title Mana 45/45 Plane shifter Energy 15/40 Level 1 Experience 0/300
Attributes [5] Physical attributes Mental attributes Soul attributes Strength 8 Intelligence 19 Luck -15 Constitution 8 Creativity 23 Will 16 Dexterity 15 Wisdom 9 Charisma 14
Passives Misfortune Your negative luck bring misfortune to yourself and those around you. Hard to kill You have proven to be a difficult person to kill. When your hit points drop to zero, you will gain a temporary hit point for a few moments.
Inventory Unknown blue magic? bow
Okey... I am too much of a gamer to not know what this is. Looks like I can see my attributes, level, active title?, life, mana, energy... all the good stuff. If only I have any actually good stuff. My luck is, by no surprise, negative. I don't know what the standard value for luck is for other people but I will assume is around 15. That means I have 200% less luck than a normal person. Amazing. Looking at my wonderful passive Misfortune I can't stop to ask myself if this is what causes the truck to crash against my parents car ten years ago. It's no use thinking about it, but it's not something I can avoid. The pain, hunger and thirst bring me back to reality. I need to survive and to do so I need to find a source of water. Preferably a settlement with a doctor and social security, but we already know that I don't have that kind of luck.
I have five points to assign in any attribute I want. Taking in account my current physical state, I think strength and constitution are good choices. In the description of the attributes I can see that each point in strength gives me 5 points of energy. Similar, each point in constitution gives me 5 points of life. The same happen with wisdom and mana.
This reminds me that I still haven't tried the bow that cost me thirty life points and another near-death experience. Besides, the fact that I've probably made the huge red dragon my enemy. Despite the pain in my back, I pick up the bow and try to use it. I would like to know if it is useful for anything or if it uses some type of resource to use it. As soon as I take the bow with my left hand and think about using my other hand to shoot an arrow, a bluish string of energy appears on the bow along with an arrow of the same style. It's hard for me to pull the rope, especially because of the pain in my back, but I manage to do it. Once I release it, the arrow trace a straight line and hits the wall I was aiming at exploding when it makes contact with it, forming a hole the size of my fist. Is quite better of what I expected however I don't think it will be very useful against the dragon. If it were useful against it probably will not have end up in there with the other weapons I saw.
I check my status again. I've spent seven points of mana shooting a single arrow. That's going to be a problem. I can only shoot four more of these before being completely empty. It's better than zero, but I expect something more. I guess I'm not "wise" enough to shoot more than five arrows. Sigh.
After this little experiment my priority is to gain strength, constitution and wisdom. Since raising one wisdom point doesn't even allow me to shoot one more arrow, I'm going to use it all in strength and constitution for now. Determined, I invest three points in constitution and two in strength.
Life 25/55 Active title Mana 38/45 Plane shifter Energy 25/50 Level 1 Experience 0/300
Attributes [0] Physical attributes Mental attributes Soul attributes Strength 10 Intelligence 19 Luck -15 Constitution 11 Creativity 23 Will 16 Dexterity 15 Wisdom 9 Charisma 14
I feel better physically instantly.Stronger, in less pain. I would swear that some of my wounds have healed. The pain from the burn on my back still persists, but at least I think I can continue on my path now. Before I leave my little hole, I undo the rope freeing my clothes and get dressed again. After a couple of minutes struggling to find the way out of the hole I manage to find where to lean on and get out of there. I wait a few moments in case the dragon suddenly decides to spit fire. Knowing that there is magic, I wouldn't be surprised if he could locate me. Minutes pass and nothing happens.
Lucky me.