Power Fantasy

by Scottie Futch

  He did not like Scott. Hated him in fact. Yet, the sight before him caused his stomach to churn. He was all for leaving him behind, but not like this. No one deserved this… Especially someone who had at least thought he was doing the right thing by the group.

  “Fuck,” snarled Tosh. He whirled in place and smashed in the head of another zombie before he took off toward the truck.

  “Where’s Scott?” cried Summer as Otakun caught up to them at the truck.

  “One of those giant zombies showed up!” cried Otakun. “He said there were too many zombies here for us to fight it, and that he would meet us at the police station.”

  Saiko practically threw herself out of the truck and ran off full tilt back the way they had come. She passed Tosh mid-run, Otakun’s questioning voice calling after her.

  She barely spared Tosh a glance, and ignored Otakun’s questioning voice altogether, but he shouted back to her, “He ran the opposite direction from us! He’s heading toward that fence on the far side of the lot, I think!”

  “Right!” cried Saiko.

  Her muscles had already begun to burn as she pushed her body to its limit, but thoughts of Scott burned even hotter inside her chest. Let that big idiot get to have all the fun once again? Hell no!

  Saiko hopped over a rail that helped corral people into a side entrance to the store, one that was thoroughly blocked off, and kicked a zombie in the face as she did so. It fell back, muttering about how the carpet matched the drapes.

  “Tch!” she snapped at the thing, a dangerous light in her eyes. Had she the time to spare, she would have killed it again then and there. As things stood, she had something more important to do than to waste time on an undead pervert.

  Her blades cut swiftly left and right in a series of deadly arcs and zombie heads went flying. Path clear once more, she ran off after Scott once more.

  She turned a corner and caught sight of him at the far end of the rear parking lot. He had just reached the chain link fence. She watched him practically throw himself over that fence like it was not even there and kept moving. Of course, the giant zombie bull dozed his way through it like it was nothing. Without stopping, she cut a black bloody path through the horde and tried to keep track of Scott’s movements, but she lost sight of him as he ducked into a building on the other side of the road.

  “Shit!” cried Saiko. Her body already running on fumes due to flat out sprinting for so longer, she gritted her teeth and muscled forward. She had to catch up to him before she lost him entirely.

  It did not take long to reach the fence, and she made good use of the hole torn through it. A nearby zombie that had been impaled against a utility pole by the flying debris reached for her in a weak but determined effort to get that butt.

  “Gimme dat…. Butt,” wheezed the zombie, his milky eyes staring at the desired prize.

  Saiko did not deign to respond to the insignificant creature. She, instead, spent a moment listening to the ambient noise around her.

  “Come on you overgrown steroid commercial! Let’s dance!” shouted a voice from some distance up ahead.

  She grinned and took off toward that all-too-familiar voice. She rushed through a small knot of zombies, not even bothering to attack them, and soon caught sight of Scott once more.

  The giant zombie threw a tree at him, a pretty big one, but Scott had long since moved out of its way. The zombies were trying to get past a chain link fence that blocked them from the party, but they were denied. Scott had led the big guy into a rear parking area of a secluded fenced in garage. They piled up along the fences, but they were too stupid to find the way inside. Many of them tried, and failed, to climb the fence or stood their doing unholy things with their exposed genitalia while they clawed at the fence.

  “Hey ugly! I got you a present!” exclaimed Scott. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Molotov.

  Saiko did not know where he’d gotten that from, but her eyes lit up. There was a chance if he could set the thing on fire. What happened next was well beyond her expectations, however.

  Scott put one hand out and taunted the thing. It rushed toward him and he threw himself forward. Instead of meeting it in hand-to-Molotov combat, he hurled himself sideways into a crude roll then chucked the Molotov. He missed the zombie entirely, causing Saiko to cry out in frustration. However, it splashed beautifully against a bright red barrel.

  The giant zombie rampaged into the garage at what amounted to high-speed for a zombie and had to re-orient itself due to missing its prey. By the time it turned around, Scott had already thrown himself around a concrete wall nearby. It started toward him, a snarl on its rotting lips, but the red barrel exploded with incredible ferocity!

  A concussive wave of force knocked the thing on its ass, a piece of metal shrapnel ripped through its chest, and it immediately caught fire. The Gigantor flailed around helplessly as the flames consumed its body. It was not quite dead when it managed to become coherent again, but two more Molotovs smashed down atop it. Between the exploding barrel, and the second set of Molotovs it quickly succumbed to the flames.

  “Expensive bastard,” snapped Scott heatedly. “Can’t believe I wasted a few hundred points on you.”

  Saiko cut her way through the mini-horde, and then climbed over the fence to join him. “Well, seems like you were fine anyway.”

  “Saiko?” he asked curiously. Though his lips quirked upward into a tired smile.

  “Scott?” she asked him in a similar tone.

  He grinned at her, though it was through bloodied lips. There was a story written in the wounds on his body, despite the short span of time that he had been out of her sight.

  Scott knelt and itemized the big bastard then sighed. “Pure luck…”

  “What’s that?” she asked him.

  “That thing chased me through that building over there and I got turned around. Took a damn beating before I got out, but not as bad as last time,” said Scott.

  He jerked his thumb toward the smoldering wreckage nearby. “Saw this place through a window and ran over hoping to find some fuel.”

  “You found stuff to make Molotovs, I take it?” she asked him with a smile.

  “Yeah, and noticed that big ass barrel of flammable liquid,” he said. “Threw away a few hundred points but it was converted into a system item… and well it saved my ass.”

  She nodded to him then lightly ran her hand through her hair to push it back over her ear. “Seems you did not need me this time…”

  “I’ll always need you,” he replied with a smile.

  “Mhmm…” she said with a chuckle.

  Scott started to answer her, but a message window appeared before him. “Neat.”

  “What’s neat?” she asked.

  “Well, I just got fifty points in everything for beating this big guy, and I can craft exploding barrels now if I have something to use as a canister and a gallon of fuel,” said Scott.

  While the point gain was garbage, a new crafting recipe was exceptionally good news. Not long after he told her about the reward, the big guy finished dispersing into motes of light.

  “What’s this?” asked Scott. He picked up a small treasure chest that had appeared.

  “That thing was carrying a little golden chest?” asked Saiko curiously.

  “It’s the loot…” said Scott.

  He opened the chest and was immediately greeted by a new message window. His eyes lit up as he read through it. “No way…”

  Treasure Bonus

  You have acquired your first treasure chest. Chests have different levels of loot based on their material composition. As this was your first chest, this chest has been upgraded to a gold chest. It is neither the highest, nor lowest, rated chest.

  Typically, chests levels are randomized to some extent. However, a golden chest or chests of higher rarity, are indeed rare drops. You will need to increase your level, luck, and the quality of your opponents to see them more often.

  Inside the ches
t he found a large shimmering stone, which turned out to be a large soul gem. There was also a small credit card looking thing, and a golden twenty-sided die.

  The chest disappeared the moment he took out the items, but he did not expect much from it in the first place. Saiko looked on curiously as Scott hefted up the gem in his hand.

  “What’s that?” she asked him.

  “A soul gem. I need them to upgrade my costume, but it would be a waste to use this one right now,” he said.

  “Why?” she asked. “Don’t you want to get stronger?”

  “I only need tiny ones to upgrade it right now. This thing is like a thousand of those…” he replied.

  Her eyes widened. “Yeah. That does seem like a poor trade.”

  “What about the other stuff, though?” She leaned in to look closer. He had been secretive with his actual system stuff, and the existence of such items fascinated her.

  “The dice are golden world dice… I roll them and I’ll receive one thousand world points for whatever number is rolled,” he said. “Speaking of which!”

  He tossed the dice energetically and watched them knock against the nearby wall. “A twelve?”

  Scott’s eyes lit up as he received twelve thousand world points. “Hell yes… That’s what I needed!”

  “Twelve thousand points?” she asked. “What does that do for you?”

  “I needed ten thousand of them for my mission in Nowhere. That’s the cost to open a route to another world,” said Scott. “I can think of several that would let me learn things and find stuff that would be incredibly useful here.”

  “Ah… That’s a lot of points?” she asked him with a curious tone.

  “Yeah, the best I’ve ever had until now is slightly more than half that amount at any one time,” he replied. “I’ve got a little extra now as well.”

  “This card… is really good, though,” said Scott. “Might even be the best thing I got from that chest.”

  “It looks like a credit card.” Saiko looked at it more closely to see if she had missed anything, but it literally had the words ‘Universal Credit’ written on it.

  “Exactly. Though, it’s more like a debit card,” said Scott. “I can exchange item points for universal credit. That credit can be exchanged for money in any world I go to in the future.”

  “Well, it’ll work if they use actual items that count as money…” he said. “I mean, if they have a barter system or whatever it won’t work.”

  Mention of points caused him to check his status. The big guy had given him over two hundred item points, and even a few in other experience pools as well.

  “So…” she said after a moment.

  “Thank you for coming to help me, by the way,” said Scott.

  Zombies started to gather nearby, but he was in no rush to deal with them. For once he had a moment alone with Saiko. He wanted to relish this time together.

  “I couldn’t just leave you alone out here,” she said.

  “Oh?” he asked lightly. “Was someone worried about me alone in the big city?”

  “Of course, you’d never find the police station…” Saiko offered him a wry smile to show that she was kidding about her reason.

  Scott grinned at her. “Well, if you want to be my tour guide then I won’t complain…”

  She tossed her hair back over her shoulders them offered him a cool smile as well. “Shall we take in the sights?”

  Saiko turned away from him and started walking toward the fence. Scott watched her hips sway from side to side for a moment then said, “I’d follow you anywhere…”

  He could not see it, but her lips quirked upward in amusement. It seemed that he was not the only one trying to score a few points today.

  The day wore on as the duo took in the sights of the city. The police station was only a few miles, by Scott’s unfortunately American sense of distance, but that did not matter. Overturned cars, burnt out buildings, and hordes of the dead so thick that one might confuse it for a death metal mosh pit were prevalent.

  Along the way, they discovered a convenience store. It was mostly looted already, but a lot of the supplies were left scattered around amidst several corpses. A few blood-stained painkiller bottles were all that they earned by way of healing items, as the emergency kits were long gone. Even so, there were enough of them available that they slowly repaired the damage that he took from his last boss fight.

  They stopped for a while and took refuge at a nearby fire station. Strangely, there were no other survivors there. It had been something of a rallying point for such people, yet none had appeared to use it now. There were bodies everywhere, however.

  In truth, the only survivors that they had seen all day were a few people who leered at them from a curtained window, and one naked fat guy who ran by them with several packs of sausage cradled in his arms. Scott was curious about that fat guy’s story but decided that earning points and making their way over to the police station was a more important concern.

  “Hey, a trauma kit…” said Scott as they walked down the only clean hallway in the building. Everywhere else had been a charnel house of bodies and splattered gore. A testament to the fact that no one used this place for a safe resting spot for long.

  “Think this will fix you up?” she asked him.

  “Yeah, one more good med kit should get me most of the way back…” he said with a nod of his head.

  Scott opened the little red metal box that was bolted to the wall and took out the kit inside. He converted it into a med kit then wrapped the gauze around his arm. Not long after, he sighed in relief as his final status effect faded away. He still had a few bumps and bruises, but they were mostly cosmetic now. His hit points were just shy of full, and the appearance of those wounds was just a visual indicator. He did not feel much of anything from them. The bruises were a little sensitive, and the scratches might leak a little blood, but otherwise they amounted to nothing that simple hit point regeneration would not cure.

  “Hey…” said Saiko. She trotted forward then pointed at something just outside of Scott’s current view. She had been further to one side and seen something interesting.

  Scott trotted over to her then grinned. There was another emergency box bolted to the wall, however this one held a fire axe. More importantly, it had a green aura!

  Fire Axe

  Designed for cutting through obstructions and built to last, this weapon is good for chopping down doors or heavy opposition alike.

  Item Type: Edged Weapon – Axe.

  Scaling Attribute: Strength

  Rarity: Rare

  Aura: Green

  Damage: 386

  Damage Reduction: 123

  Durability: Pristine

  Special Ability: Power Cleave

  - Increase cleave damage output [150%]

  - Add knockback [20%]

  - Cost: 40 EP

  UPGRADE COST

  Equipment EXP: 14000

  Item(s): (3) Medium Soul Gems, (4) Steel Ingots

  “Oh… wow,” said Scott as he looked over the axe in his hand. Green tier weapons were much better than grey. It even had a special ability attached to it!

  “What is it?” asked Saiko.

  He filled her in on the power of this new axe. Once again, his weapon appraisal ability had undoubtedly played a role. Scott compared it to his brush axe and told her the differences.

  Brush Axe

  A machete on a stick. This weapon is good for chopping limbs made of both wood and flesh alike. This weapon was automatically upgraded into an iconic weapon upon your completion of the first mission objective.

  Item Type: Edged Weapon – Sword.

  Scaling Attribute: Strength

  Rarity: Common

  Aura: Grey

  Damage: 240 | (96)

  Damage Reduction: 55 | (27)

  Durability: Severely Damaged

  UPGRADE COST

  Equipment EXP: 1000

  Item(s): Tiny Soul Gem

>   Using his brush axe on so many zombies over the course of several days had taken its toll. Most of his damage potential came from his skills, but only the fact that zombies were so weak for the most part had kept it from being a problem.

  His new axe had more than twice the base damage and defense, along with a damage boost from a special skill. There was no comparison, especially when the current status of his brush axe made the new weapon several times better overall.

  He checked to see what it could cost to upgrade his new axe. “Three medium soul gems, four steel ingots, and fourteen thousand equipment points…”

  Saiko stopped looking over her own wooden practice sword for a moment and looked over to him. “What’s that?”

  “The cost for an upgrade to blue rarity,” said Scott. “Not sure how much stronger it would get, but as things stand, I have no chance of upgrading it any time soon.”

  “How do the colors work anyway?” asked Saiko. “Are the rarer colors just better?”

  “A better version of that item, sure.” Scott showed her his busted brush axe. “I have no idea whether or not this thing is better than this fire axe if it’s upgraded to green. Right now, it’s barely holding on. So, I’d have to find a way to repair it before I would even bother.”

  “Going to itemize it?” asked Saiko.

  “Nah. I probably should, but it’s a good chance to see if I can get it repaired and to practice upgrades,” said Scott. “This fire axe sure isn’t likely to get an upgrade before it breaks.”

  Saiko nodded to him then eyed her own weapon. “I need to find something else soon as well. I’m surprised mine has lasted this long.”