No. It was not better than goblins.
"I'll ask you again. What is an Incursion and what are Kill Points?"
It was worse.
"And I'm telling you that I don't know what an Incursion is or what Kill Points are! The goblins -"
"Sir. You are already considered a problem element for having accepted that...offer, and committed, by your own admission, three murders. You're considered dangerous and may be taken into custody while we do a psychological assessment -"
"What? Are you crazy? I refuse to deal with this nonsense! I'm not consorting with aliens and I sure as hell don't know how goblins magically appeared in the store and I don't know what Kill Points are for! I won't be blackmailed!"
The annoying guy was sitting in a chair next to the hospital bed, with his stupid shades and black suit and super cliche hairstyle and...well, the point was, some short guy with a badge, government or not, was not going to bully him into admitting that he knew what an Incursion was, or what was behind the blue screens.
He did seem pale but that might have just been his natural skin tone.
Nonetheless, Al also knew that he was technically dangerous for killing three human-like beings - even if they tried to kill him first - and was also one of the few people - though there were others too, from the store - who had Kill Points.
The point though, was that Al was apparently at the recieving end of one of those 'the government is evil' kind of interviews. Naturally, he understood why he was there, and the need for information collection for this new and potentially deadly...system, but that didn't really make him any less annoyed for being asked stupid questions.
Why would he know what an Incursion was? He couldn't even make any theories short of bullshitting it, like, some nonsense about interdimensional portals or something, because he was a regular programmer, not a quantum physicist.
If that was what a quantum physicist did anyway.
The doctor cleared her throat and finally butted in to the conversation.
"Mister, ah, Al Berts, was it? According to your medical reports, aside from the gash in your side, you are perfectly healthy. You may need to come in again for a more detailed check up when we can remove the stitches, and -"
She ripped a paper off of her clipboard and passed it to him.
"- take these pills, two a day before bed. And these ones every four hours for the pain. If you want to, we can look into getting some plastic surgery done to reduce the scarring, but we'd like you to wait before making that decision. Alright, Mr. Baker, you can do your job here, just remember not to push too hard like last time."
'Last time?' Something told Al he was in a special hospital.
Baker, as the doctor called him, sighed and then took a deep breath before continuing.
"Alright. Mr. Berts, I don't want to come of as too pushy, but you must understand that in just our country, we've had similar incidents twelve times in the past day. Today is February 23. You were out for most of yesterday. Even outside of America, the rest of the world has had tens of such incidents as well. Some with catastrophic casualties. In China, one of the most populous districts was hit with a contingent of over 100 of those things, and unlike the store where they...exploded, all of these ones made it out safe and killed almost 200, with more in the hospital. Las Vegas got 30 and had tens of casualties. We need to know what's going on!"
Al shuffled away from Baker who was a bit too passionate about his speech but nodded.
"I...didn't know. But, I honestly don't know anything else. All I know is that the goblins appearing somehow was called an Incursion and that the blue boxes said I was awarded Kill Points for my first mission being before the shields fell I got 300 Kill Points and 100 for the mission, which, by the way, was to exterminate all 50 goblins."
Baker stared at him hard, maybe trying to decide if he was lying or not, but nodded reluctantly after a while.
He was sure Baker wasn't too convinced on what he'd said, but for now at least, he would relent.
"I have to interview the others from that store...and by the way, the policeman who saved you? He answered no to his."
With that Baker snorted and then left.
Al slowly slumped back down and then wiggled a bit until he felt comfortable.
What had Baker meant with that last line?
That you didn't need to be with the blue boxes to fight those things? That the police could handle things?
He didn't know. No, what he knew was that he had also unlocked his Status and levelled up.
He hadn't actually checked that yet, but...now was as good a time as any.
Concentrating hard, he said Status in his head.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Name: Al Berts Title(s): Headstart Species: Human Age: 19 Level: 0.1 Class: None
Skills: Traits: N/A N/A
Currenc(y/ies): Kill Points: 550 Esteem Points: 0 System Points: 0
Everything seemed...legit enough.
The species section implied you could be a different one, but well, goblins were a thing now so that wasn't particularly weird.
No, what was weird was that his level said 0.1.
He wasn't even level one, but a 0.1.
There weren't any stats either.
But, was that because he was early, or was that just how it was?
And was level 0.1 good? It was obviously more than what he'd been before, presumably a 0.0, but how much was that?
He did feel like he was slightly less pudgy, but it wasn't as if he measured how pudgy he was and had some way to tell - not unless it was a drastic change, like getting abs.
Well, he'd just have to - uh oh.
Baker was back and he didn't look like he wanted to bake a cake for him.
He stopped at the foot of his bed and pointed a finger at him.
"YOU -"
"Hey I literally just checked."
Baker was bright red and between being angry or flattered, Al would place his bets on angry.
An angry mysterious agent guy was not a problem he needed or wanted in his life.
"I didn't know what it was or what it did until just now and I'll tell you everything that's on mine, so, let's all calm down, yes?"
Baker silently sat down on his chair and stared daggers at him. This time, he dragged the chair over. Loudly.
"So help me, if you lie to me again, I will put you behind bars and I will get those answers from you."
"So. It has my name, age, species, level and class. It says I don't have a class and my level is 0.1. It has sections for both traits and skills and currency. Kill Points, Esteem Points, and System Points. I don't know what they're for or what any of the stuff there means except for the obvious ones like age."
Al had taken the effort to sit up in his bed and look Baker in the eyes - which was hard considering how angry he looked - and hoped he would accept it.
While he did look less...red, he still glared hard and refused to speak.
He was saved then, when the man's phone beeped.
He angrily fished it out of his pocket, keeping eye contact all the while before quickly flashing his eyes to the screen once.
Still staring, he swiped his finger to accpet the call and put it to his ear.
"Hello? Yes. Yes. No. There's more. No. It's 'status.' Yes. I don't know. He said he doesn't know. Yes. The others...yes."
Al, still caught in Baker's glare waited awkwardly for him to finish.
"Yes. Understood."
There was a beep as the call disconnected.
"Nice YouPhone."
Baker cleanly ignored him.
"I've been called out. You, are going to stay here and wait until the next time. Be good, if you know what's good for you."
Then he walked out.
"Shit."
Al groaned at his predicament as he slid back down and got comfortable.
"I'm gonna be here a while aren't I?"
----------------------------------------
He was there for a while.
It was February 26 now, and the jerk still seemed to have no intention of letting him go.
Apparently, he should have been discharged before, which was why the doctor gave him the prescriptions, but Baker had detained him longer.
Not that he really minded.
There were plenty of things that he'd admit to not knowing, but a gash in his side like that should keep him in the hospital longer than a day anyway, right?
The one plus was that he at least got a new room with a TV.
To be honest, other than Baker being a jerk, the other people were fairly nice.
The nurse, Mr. Brown, was a kindly Mexican man in his forties who always asked if he felt better or needed anything.
The other patient - or...what, suspect? Detainee? - right next door, was just a kid who looked like he was in high school.
On his left, there was an empty room though.
He was allowed to walk around unsupervised in his hallway, though the little park behind the hospital was off-limits unless he was supervised.
It did kind of feel like he was a prisoner, but he did have a TV so there was that.
And boy was the world going to crap.
More and more news stories of goblins attacking random people and appearing out of no where were appearing.
Many places had country-wide curfews and the police and military were everywhere.
Experts - or people who said they were experts, I wasn't sure how relevant a chemist was to whatever goblins were - were all over the place, claiming all kinds of theories - though the overall content was basically what it had been on the first day - and hadn't become any more logical.
What was interesting was that scientists who'd studied the goblins now said that they were very similar in bone structure and such to humans, with their brains indicating that they were actually quite intelligent.
They had a primitive language of their own and used tactics to deadly effect wherever they appeared. Variations had also been found. Like aquatic goblins that were blue and had gills.
To be honest Al was beginning to think whoever was invading was screwing with them.
The system seemed to agree.
Apparently, killing different types of goblins did afford points for first kills. What the experiments for that had been were obvious. There also weren't many opportunities to capture the goblins. The system would inflict pain if you tried to capture the goblins instead of kill them - yet clearly the government had managed to get some goblins somehow and just weren't revealing how.
No one knew what the highest level was though.
There were theories of course.
Most people thought 10.0 would be the maximum. Others claimed 1.0 would be special. Something I could agree with.
There had to be some way of earning a class after all.
Still, Al couldn't shake the nagging feeling that by being here, he was missing out.
It seemed like completing a mission was the requirement for a level up. Yet, outside, people were climbing the levels while he was stuck here.
Then again. Most people had only been in one incident at most.
That technically meant I, at level 0.1, was still average...above average, actually. Far above, if he thought about it. Of the billions on Earth, perhaps several thousand had been exposed to Incursions so far. Out of that, less had survived and levelled. Though the casualty rate was fairly low. There was a limit to what hundreds of goblins with primitive weaponry could do.
Still, wasn't this fine? He wasn't really some super talented guy with a cool destiny or something. No, he was pretty ok with his normal, white-collar job and sticking with his fellow citizens. Somebody else could do this stuff.
No, Al was just fine right -
[UNKNOWN] has seen you.
[Existential Terror] status effect inflicted.
[Coma] status -
There was cold. Something horrible.
And then the world went to black.