[New Player Starter Pack Received]
[10 Gold]
[Basic Weapon Chance Box (1)]
[Basic Armour Chance Box (1)]
[3-Day Exp Boost (+10%)]
[ERROR]
“They sure do like to labour me with all these Errors to clutter up my Inventory,” Sally rolled her eyes, “shouldn’t I have received this stuff yesterday?”
“Technically, no. Or…” Humphrey looked the woman up and down. “You are still not technically a Player. The System is trying to fix the ‘broken pathways’, and it must have activated after your sleep.”
Sally blew air out her nose. This was becoming a headache. Getting all the Player things in disjointed, delayed, or buggy fashion would put her at a disadvantage. She quickly flipped through the STAR to see how the Party were doing - all okay - before switching the Inventory and bringing out the two Chance Boxes from the 2D hologram into the real world. Or however real it actually was.
“Can I boop both at the same time?” She held her wrist above the first one and raised eyebrows at the skull.
“Sure, why not.”
The STAR lit up the first, and then the second with a white light that span around the box bracings. The white question marks atop the boxes pulsed with a similar glow. She leaned in closer, the light illuminating her face as the anticipation built.
With a puff of wispy steam, both boxes popped open one after the other - items inside rising into the air. Both of them Common quality.
“Pfft, another dagger!” Sally wailed, her hands thrown in the air in frustration. “And the second box is… shoes?”
“Yes.”
She plucked the grey [Common Basic Boots] from the air and put them on. They happened to be the correct size, only now; they weren’t boots anymore - they looked like her sneakers. She wasn’t too sure how she felt about being in her waitress uniform for the rest of her unlife - but at least the shoes were comfortable.
“Usually, there’s a toggle,” Humphrey interjected, lowering down to inspect the footwear. “To either show the item or your cosmetics equipped. Doesn’t work that way for monsters, however.”
“Seems like monsters get the short end of the stick here, huh?” Sally pocketed the second dagger, and the two boxes remained inert and empty on the bed. “If I get a dagger out of my next box, I will write the Architect a very strongly worded letter.”
“Their response time is… oh, you were joking. Ha-ha.”
Sally frowned at the skull and looked over to the window. Would the sunlight cause them a problem? It was quite likely that slow-walking some decaying bodies down wherever the road led to would at the least be a stinky affair. Whether that translated into actual health damage or status effects was another thing entirely - and not one she cared to get a half answer out of the Observer. Looks like her options were limited.
“We’re going to go through the woods,” Sally clapped her hands together and looked around the room to see if she had all her possessions. Everything being held in the intangible UI would take some getting used to.
“Certainly. In which direction?” Humphrey followed her searching gaze around the furniture with his own.
“That one,” she pointed at the wall before turning roughly eighty degrees, having forgotten her exact place in the town. “Away from here and avoiding the most danger that we can. Maybe gobble up some low-level adventurers?”
There was no response from the floating skull as he watched her head towards the door.
“Oh,” she spun back around, “do people respawn?”
“Players? No. Monsters? Sometimes no, it depends.”
“You?”
Humphrey paused, trying to work out if that was a veiled threat. “The souls of the deceased go somewhere, but I am not privy to that information.”
Sally tilted her head. So there was something after this life - or unlife. The Wizard and Ranger she killed last night were now at peace, but was that in some kind of heaven, or were they reincarnated as monsters - or even back into another version of this reality? That would be a bridge to cross when she got to it.
With a shrug, she went back to the door of the bedroom. The Party were gathered and assembled in the downstairs kitchen - which was pretty bare and had no brains stored away in the pantry. Every surface was covered in dust, the specks of which danced in the illuminating beam from the window as it was disturbed.
“How long has this place been abandoned?” Sally rubbed her finger along the counter. The sink had a layer of grime around the plughole where a small plant had started to grow.
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you. Oh - you are dead already. Ha-ha.”
The zombie rolled her eyes. “Was that laugh genuine? It sounded like your sarcastic one from before.”
“I have never had to laugh before. Is it with a different inflexion, like hA-hA?”
“N-no. Let’s put a pin in that,” she grimaced at the weird noise coming from the skull, “and how about my answer?”
“Three weeks or so.”
“Huh?” Sally leaned her elbows on the counter and rested her chin in her hands. A furrowed brow bore down on her red eyes. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Everything looked like it hadn’t received a lick of care for years. The other zeds were clearly the past residents or visitors - surely? That made her think, though… how long had she been here before the ‘awakening’? She narrowed her eyes as she watched the skull bob in the air.
“You have a lot of brains for a zombie - ha-ha. I can see you postulating; care to make a guess?”
She bit her lip and stood up straight, sighing. “If you tell me one thing, I think I can guess. How long have you existed?”
“Three weeks or so.”
Sally closed her eyes. It didn’t really make anything better and just made the groans and shuffling of her Party more pronounced. Not that it was horrible, it had quickly become background noise, but for a mind already cloudy with the facts, it put pressure on the conclusions trying to form.
“So the System was created less than a month ago, but the environment has the appearance of being an established setting?”
“Wouldn’t be much fun if everyone were newborns on a barren flatland.”
The flicker of a different colour pulsed through the Observer, too quick for the zombie to notice which - only that there had been a change.
“So why am I a zombie and not a Player?” She crossed her arms and glared at the skull.
“That’s what I am trying to find out. Remember the whole ‘Observer’ thing?”
“Clearly not.” Sally threw up her arms in resignation. “So I am the only sentient being that gets to be stuck in a monster body instead of becoming a Player?”
“Not… this is where it gets muddy.” The skull tilted side to side as if trying to arrange the thoughts in his head. “There are sentient monsters, of course, and some have skills or other abilities to a degree. But they are more grounded in the setting… they don’t have-“
“They don’t have the System blaring large screens in their faces? They aren’t gamified?”
“As always, a curious way of phrasing things, Sally the Unliving.” The immovable facial features of the Observer almost seemed to be grinning.
Sally leaned her back against the counter. Her Party stood against the opposite wall where some decrepit shelving nudged them into awkward standing positions. Not that they were a paragon of perfect posture anyway. Chuck especially seemed to be having an awkward time existing as he gazed up at the cobwebbed ceiling with a pained look on his face.
“You know, Humps,” she eventually sighed and tilted her head at the skull, “we can’t be best buds while you’re still spying for the Overlord.”
“I… uh…” the Observer stuttered. Before his sentence could completely form, he was interrupted by a piercing buzz coming from the zombie.
“Ahh, frickin’ STAR!” She growled, waving her arm in the air in hopes she could push away whatever droning had filled her head. A pop filled her ears, and the ceaseless noise vanished.
She peered down at the cursed shape with a scowl. It was glowing golden again, but not as bright as when she had levelled up. With a sigh, she pressed the top of the STAR and watched as the menu span around.
[Quests now Available]
“Usually, you’d get those almost straight away. You certainly are a late bloomer.”
Sally clenched her teeth and glared at the skull. “You want to tell me what the deal with Quests is before I crack you open and see if there’s anything worth eating in that bone-head of yours?”
Humphrey slowly raised up towards the ceiling. “Certainly, ha-ha. When not receiving a quest directly, the System will offer you a choice of three options to complete. There are usually Combat, Social, and Exploration quest options - so that all manner of Adventurer may find a rewarding fit for how they spend their time in-“
“Alright, alright. You don’t have to sell me on it. Hopefully, one of them will be in the direction of the woods - and social sounds like a wash given the company I keep.” She jerked her thumb towards the bored-looking walking corpses.
She popped her finger onto the STAR to bring up the three quest options.
“Huh, interesting. I guess I will pick…”
> [Transport a Crate of Cloth to Merchant {Paulo Wrathon} in {Yarch}]
> [Sucessfully Tame a Pet]
> [Investigate {Tomb of the Lost King} in the Cemetery]
[New Player Starter Pack Received]
[10 Gold]
[Basic Weapon Chance Box (1)]
[Basic Armour Chance Box (1)]
[3-Day Exp Boost (+10%)]
[ERROR]
“They sure do like to labour me with all these Errors to clutter up my Inventory,” Sally rolled her eyes, “shouldn’t I have received this stuff yesterday?”
“Technically, no. Or…” Humphrey looked the woman up and down. “You are still not technically a Player. The System is trying to fix the ‘broken pathways’, and it must have activated after your sleep.”
Sally blew air out her nose. This was becoming a headache. Getting all the Player things in disjointed, delayed, or buggy fashion would put her at a disadvantage. She quickly flipped through the STAR to see how the Party were doing - all okay - before switching the Inventory and bringing out the two Chance Boxes from the 2D hologram into the real world. Or however real it actually was.
“Can I boop both at the same time?” She held her wrist above the first one and raised eyebrows at the skull.
“Sure, why not.”
The STAR lit up the first, and then the second with a white light that span around the box bracings. The white question marks atop the boxes pulsed with a similar glow. She leaned in closer, the light illuminating her face as the anticipation built.
With a puff of wispy steam, both boxes popped open one after the other - items inside rising into the air. Both of them Common quality.
“Pfft, another dagger!” Sally wailed, her hands thrown in the air in frustration. “And the second box is… shoes?”
“Yes.”
She plucked the grey [Common Basic Boots] from the air and put them on. They happened to be the correct size, only now; they weren’t boots anymore - they looked like her sneakers. She wasn’t too sure how she felt about being in her waitress uniform for the rest of her unlife - but at least the shoes were comfortable.
“Usually, there’s a toggle,” Humphrey interjected, lowering down to inspect the footwear. “To either show the item or your cosmetics equipped. Doesn’t work that way for monsters, however.”
“Seems like monsters get the short end of the stick here, huh?” Sally pocketed the second dagger, and the two boxes remained inert and empty on the bed. “If I get a dagger out of my next box, I will write the Architect a very strongly worded letter.”
“Their response time is… oh, you were joking. Ha-ha.”
Sally frowned at the skull and looked over to the window. Would the sunlight cause them a problem? It was quite likely that slow-walking some decaying bodies down wherever the road led to would at the least be a stinky affair. Whether that translated into actual health damage or status effects was another thing entirely - and not one she cared to get a half answer out of the Observer. Looks like her options were limited.
“We’re going to go through the woods,” Sally clapped her hands together and looked around the room to see if she had all her possessions. Everything being held in the intangible UI would take some getting used to.
“Certainly. In which direction?” Humphrey followed her searching gaze around the furniture with his own.
“That one,” she pointed at the wall before turning roughly eighty degrees, having forgotten her exact place in the town. “Away from here and avoiding the most danger that we can. Maybe gobble up some low-level adventurers?”
There was no response from the floating skull as he watched her head towards the door.
“Oh,” she spun back around, “do people respawn?”
“Players? No. Monsters? Sometimes no, it depends.”
“You?”
Humphrey paused, trying to work out if that was a veiled threat. “The souls of the deceased go somewhere, but I am not privy to that information.”
Sally tilted her head. So there was something after this life - or unlife. The Wizard and Ranger she killed last night were now at peace, but was that in some kind of heaven, or were they reincarnated as monsters - or even back into another version of this reality? That would be a bridge to cross when she got to it.
With a shrug, she went back to the door of the bedroom. The Party were gathered and assembled in the downstairs kitchen - which was pretty bare and had no brains stored away in the pantry. Every surface was covered in dust, the specks of which danced in the illuminating beam from the window as it was disturbed.
“How long has this place been abandoned?” Sally rubbed her finger along the counter. The sink had a layer of grime around the plughole where a small plant had started to grow.
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you. Oh - you are dead already. Ha-ha.”
The zombie rolled her eyes. “Was that laugh genuine? It sounded like your sarcastic one from before.”
“I have never had to laugh before. Is it with a different inflexion, like hA-hA?”
“N-no. Let’s put a pin in that,” she grimaced at the weird noise coming from the skull, “and how about my answer?”
“Three weeks or so.”
“Huh?” Sally leaned her elbows on the counter and rested her chin in her hands. A furrowed brow bore down on her red eyes. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Everything looked like it hadn’t received a lick of care for years. The other zeds were clearly the past residents or visitors - surely? That made her think, though… how long had she been here before the ‘awakening’? She narrowed her eyes as she watched the skull bob in the air.
“You have a lot of brains for a zombie - ha-ha. I can see you postulating; care to make a guess?”
She bit her lip and stood up straight, sighing. “If you tell me one thing, I think I can guess. How long have you existed?”
“Three weeks or so.”
Sally closed her eyes. It didn’t really make anything better and just made the groans and shuffling of her Party more pronounced. Not that it was horrible, it had quickly become background noise, but for a mind already cloudy with the facts, it put pressure on the conclusions trying to form.
“So the System was created less than a month ago, but the environment has the appearance of being an established setting?”
“Wouldn’t be much fun if everyone were newborns on a barren flatland.”
The flicker of a different colour pulsed through the Observer, too quick for the zombie to notice which - only that there had been a change.
“So why am I a zombie and not a Player?” She crossed her arms and glared at the skull.
“That’s what I am trying to find out. Remember the whole ‘Observer’ thing?”
“Clearly not.” Sally threw up her arms in resignation. “So I am the only sentient being that gets to be stuck in a monster body instead of becoming a Player?”
“Not… this is where it gets muddy.” The skull tilted side to side as if trying to arrange the thoughts in his head. “There are sentient monsters, of course, and some have skills or other abilities to a degree. But they are more grounded in the setting… they don’t have-“
“They don’t have the System blaring large screens in their faces? They aren’t gamified?”
“As always, a curious way of phrasing things, Sally the Unliving.” The immovable facial features of the Observer almost seemed to be grinning.
Sally leaned her back against the counter. Her Party stood against the opposite wall where some decrepit shelving nudged them into awkward standing positions. Not that they were a paragon of perfect posture anyway. Chuck especially seemed to be having an awkward time existing as he gazed up at the cobwebbed ceiling with a pained look on his face.
“You know, Humps,” she eventually sighed and tilted her head at the skull, “we can’t be best buds while you’re still spying for the Overlord.”
“I… uh…” the Observer stuttered. Before his sentence could completely form, he was interrupted by a piercing buzz coming from the zombie.
“Ahh, frickin’ STAR!” She growled, waving her arm in the air in hopes she could push away whatever droning had filled her head. A pop filled her ears, and the ceaseless noise vanished.
She peered down at the cursed shape with a scowl. It was glowing golden again, but not as bright as when she had levelled up. With a sigh, she pressed the top of the STAR and watched as the menu span around.
[Quests now Available]
“Usually, you’d get those almost straight away. You certainly are a late bloomer.”
Sally clenched her teeth and glared at the skull. “You want to tell me what the deal with Quests is before I crack you open and see if there’s anything worth eating in that bone-head of yours?”
Humphrey slowly raised up towards the ceiling. “Certainly, ha-ha. When not receiving a quest directly, the System will offer you a choice of three options to complete. There are usually Combat, Social, and Exploration quest options - so that all manner of Adventurer may find a rewarding fit for how they spend their time in-“
“Alright, alright. You don’t have to sell me on it. Hopefully, one of them will be in the direction of the woods - and social sounds like a wash given the company I keep.” She jerked her thumb towards the bored-looking walking corpses.
She popped her finger onto the STAR to bring up the three quest options.
“Huh, interesting. I guess I will pick…”
> [Transport a Crate of Cloth to Merchant {Paulo Wrathon} in {Yarch}]
> [Sucessfully Tame a Pet]
> [Investigate {Tomb of the Lost King} in the Cemetery]
