The Culling of Man
By CRAIG KOBAYASHI
Peril’s Prodigy - Book One
Everyone still alive on Earth remembers July 14th, 2020. That was the day before the apocalypse. The last day before our pale blue dot was no longer ours alone.
Part One: Apocalypse, now?
Chapter 1
Dawn
Aleron was spending his Tuesday evening in much the same way he had spent every evening in recent memory: playing games hunched over his computer. On that fateful night, he had been solo grinding to level up his new Warlock in VotRL. Though his main role in the MMORPG was to rock heals, sometimes it's nice to just wreck some monsters instead of monitoring Health bars and cleansing status debuffs.
The sun had set since he made it home from his 9-5 job managing a storage facility. The job was nothing to write home about, but the twenty-nine-year-old gamer absolutely loved it. The money wasn't great, but he was able to make his bills on time. The reason he loved it was simple: between all the down time, WiFi, and a laptop, the job provided him several (paid) hours a day for gaming.
An untimely July storm had filled the night sky with malevolent dark clouds. The lights in his apartment suddenly went out. Computer off. The blinking lights and whirring of computer parts stopped abruptly, leaving only silence. A stillness that had become completely foreign to the life-long gamer hung heavily in the air.
Aleron wondered if the storm had caused a power outage. He fumbled through the dark one bedroom apartment to the window and tugged on the cord to open the blinds.
From the thirteenth floor, he had a pretty good view of most of the city. There were no lights as far as he could see. For a single moment, nothing happened - a complete standstill. The jarring silence was ended quickly, and almost as suddenly as it had arrived. It was replaced shortly by the sound of cars crashing all over the city. Airplanes fell from the sky and panic crept up the spine of every living person on Earth as everything humans relied on, every convenience of modern technology simply shut down.
A message in bold text appeared, hovering in front of Aleron's vision. The elaborate font was easily legible despite the oppressive darkness and remained directly in his line of sight.
A new day has dawned. Concentrate on the word MENU for more information. Good luck, human.
"What the fuck? What the serious fuck?!" he shouted, throwing his hands out then running them through his tangled black hair in exasperation.
Just as it had arrived, the text disappeared. Aleron tried to shake it off and pull himself together. He made his way into the kitchen and picked his phone up off the counter, the screen was black. He pushed the power button, nothing. Held the power button, still nothing. . .
He rushed back to the window, scanning the industrious city for some explanation. With less than nothing to go on, he decided to humor the idea that he had just received an actual prompt. He focused on the word MENU.
A semi-transparent interface appeared in the same way the text had, hovering in front of his vision. In the center of the interface was a central panel listing the MENU options. Before he was able to look them over, another prompt popped over it with the same elaborate text.
The designation ‘Aleron’ has already been assigned.
Accept designation: Aleron#2 or
Choose alternate designation.
‘Like hell I want to be referred to as Aleron#2,’ he thought to himself.
The words, “Accept designation” and “Choose alternate designation” were highlighted like hyperlinks. He gave the latter option an affirmative thought and another prompt replaced it.
Enter name below.
Just as he wondered how to 'enter name below', a glowing keyboard appeared below the empty space. Instead of reaching out to touch each key, he found he was able to select the letters with a little mental flexing.
Would you like to choose the name, Garath?
Yes or No
He chose the 'yes' option with an affirmative thought.
Garath, explore your new abilities quickly. The next age of Earth will begin at 03:00AM (PST) and you will need them to survive. Be prepared.
With his name confirmed, the holographic MENU interface panned unimpeded in front of him in a semi-circle. There were three, evenly spaced panels. The textless outer panels framed the MENU with the options in a vertical list.
MENU
Items
Profile
BeastScape
Friends
World
Garath glanced over the options and was wondering which to open first, and what the hell BeastScape meant, when yet another prompt interrupted his rapidly peaking curiosity.
Choose a Class.
Now engrossed in the intriguing system, he almost accepted what was happening as some kind of epic dream. He knew somehow that it wasn't, that this was really happening and to take it seriously. But when had he ever not taken a game seriously anyway? And what the hell else was he supposed to do?
A new panel opened over the MENU panels again, this one displaying thirty unique Class options, each represented by a small - incredibly detailed and colorful - icon and the corresponding Class name. Even with way more Classes than any game he had ever heard of (and frankly more than a game needed, in his not-so-humble opinion), Garath took time to open and read each of the summaries in full before narrowing it down.
Some of the Class options caught his eye and others made him screw up his face in confusion, an Administrator Class? Who would want a Class that specializes in organization and planning? Could those things even be improved by a Class on an individual level?
After the better part of an hour of comparison between a few of his favorites, it came down to three suitable options: the Tamer - Garath knew first hand that having strong pets can make the difference between life and death, victory and defeat; the Hallowed Knight, a heavily armored holy-warrior that could specialize in restorative magic or melee combat; and lastly, the Necrologist Class caught his eye, appearing to him as some combination between a typical Warlock and Necromancer. He read the summary of each a final time before locking in.
The Tamer befriends or enslaves powerful creatures to do their bidding. Once under the control of a Tamer, beasts may develop new abilities. Without animal companions, the Tamer is far from helpless - cunning and quick, the Tamer specializes in devious traps and ranged combat. Will you become a Tamer? Yes or No.
He chose no. As cool as powerful creatures doing his bidding sounded, the ranged combat and traps didn't really fit his playstyle. On top of that, he hadn't actually handled a bow and arrow in his life - and where would he find 'powerful creatures' to enslave or befriend? He lived in a city... A homing pigeon? He chose no and read on.
The Hallowed Knights are holy warriors whose immense physical strength comes second to their mental fortitude. By calling upon the Divine, Hallowed Knights have the ability to call healing beams from the heavens or rain down righteous judgement on their enemies. Will you become a Hallowed Knight? Yes or No.
Again he chose no. The Hallowed Knight sounded very similar to the character he had spent so many hours on, his Paladin healer (also named Garath). The option was tempting, he had spent almost as much time lying in bed and fantasizing about actually being the plate armor healer as he had controlling it from his keyboard. In Garath's experience, having a great healer on the team was more important than any other single factor, although, he would have to admit an argument could be made for a competent tank. Since he had rarely come across great healers to play with in his early years of online gaming, Garath
dedicated hundreds of hours to perfecting his technique so that he could play that invaluable role in every dungeon and raid. He considered the Hallowed Knight for a few more minutes in the darkness of his apartment. He decided to read the summary of the Necrologist one more time before making a decision.
A Necrologist harnesses the powers of Hell itself to conquer enemies by summoning demons from the pits, manipulating their blood, and spreading pestilent disease. Though the path of Necrology seldom comes without sacrifice, a master Necrologist is resilient and death itself will act as his agent. Will you become a Necrologist? Yes or No.
It may have been the last several hours of very enjoyable play on his Warlock, or maybe something else entirely, but he felt a pull to the Necrologist Class - he could summon demons and slay enemies with disease? Cool! Garath didn't know what the summary meant by, 'seldom without sacrifice,' but the rest was pretty exciting. He looked back and forth between the Hallowed Knight and the Necrologist for several minutes, thinking so hard about the decision that he didn't even hear the footsteps and hushed voices in the hallway outside his front door.
When it came down to it, Garath looked at the choices in front of him as a far more profound decision than simply choosing a character to play in a game. He felt himself torn between taking the path he always had or choosing a new one. The path he had always taken was the one that would make things easier, the same path that had lead him to where he was now, living alone with his cat in a messy apartment and only online gaming to fill his need for excitement and adventure. The same path that had led him to fits of anxiety and panic attacks whenever he thought about what he was doing with his life. Though his in-game Paladin and life choices had nothing directly connecting them, they were as much a part of his identity as the face he saw in the mirror. An identity that he was ready to leave behind with the new age.
Garath had always wanted more out of life but never made the sacrifices necessary to get more, be more. He took a deep breath and decided right then and there that he was done taking the easiest path.
Once you have made your decision, it cannot be reversed. Are you sure you want to choose Necrologist? Yes or No.
‘I really wish there was a, 'probably' option,’ Garath thought to himself. He chose yes and braced himself.
White light flashed over the panels in front of him and entered his eyes and open mouth. A surge of blinding energy filled his body and mind and he began to hover a few centimeters off the ground. When the light finally faded and the brand-spanking-new Necrologist landed back down on the cheap carpet of his apartment, Garath felt… odd. His entire body felt amazing, not like any kind of high - but definitely more than it should have considering he hadn't slept in almost two days. Even more surprising than his rejuvenated body was a sensation completely new to him, an aura of sapphire energy. He couldn't see the color, but rather could feel it. The last changes he noticed were a pair of, filled, bars that remained affixed to the top his vision no matter which way he looked. On top was a ruby Health bar that read 90/90. Below it, a deep blue Mana bar read 70/70 - the azure color was the exact shade of the new aura he had sensed and Garath drew correlations.
After a few seconds of simply breathing, Garath looked ponderously at his MENU and noticed a new option had appeared reading ‘Skill Tree’. Instead of jumping directly to his Skill Tree or BeastScape, he decided to start from the top and work his way down. First on the list was the Items option, he affirmed his choice to open it and a grid space appeared on the panel to his left. The panel was a mostly empty grid of empty squares with two items at the top left, which was disappointing but hardly surprising. He closed the Items panel with a dismissive thought and moved on to the second option, Profile.
When the new panel to the right of his MENU opened, Garath was shocked to see a holographic, 3D rendering of himself displayed between statistics on the left and the ten available “Raiment Slots” on the right. Even though the holographic rendering was obviously him (it was even wearing the same worn jeans and his favorite t-shirt - a faded red shirt with a cartoon depiction of an octopus that read, “8 arms, 3 hearts, who wants a hug?”) he couldn’t help noticing a few changes from his typical vestige. For one, the 3D representation of the Necrologist wore a tall, black and pointed hat. The little representation of Garath also held a black and gnarled wooden staff in one hand. Most notably, his eyes seemed missing entirely below his brow - a neon green glow replacing them. He blinked a few times in quick succession, as if somehow he would be able to feel the glowing.
‘Where's my staff?’ he thought, looking down at his own, empty right hand. Another prompt appeared in answer to his internal complaining.
To equip an Item say or think, ‘Equip (Item name)’.
‘Equip staff,’ he thought. Nothing happened.
He closed the Profile partition of his MENU and opened the Items panel again, this time focusing on each of the two items in turn. The staff, represented by a simple icon of a stick, was named Novice Necrologist Staff. The hat, also denoted by a small icon in the rough shape of a hat, was similarly named: Novice Necrologist Cap. He closed the panels and tried again.
“Equip Novice Necrologist Staff,” he said aloud.
The black, wooden staff appeared in his hand. He wondered if the staff had any abilities or information and looked at it more closely. A text appeared, more in his mind than physically in front of him like the prompts had been, but it had the same elaborate font and he was able to read the words effortlessly even in the dark.
Novice Necrologist Staff
DPS (damage per second): 0.941
Attack Damage: 1-3
Attack Speed: 2.125
Durability: 16/20
Item Score: 2
Two-handed weapon
Type: Staff
Quality: Poor
Rarity: Common
Spell Targeting Assistance: Basic
***This useless, large stick is a training weapon for novice Necrologists.
Item Requirements:
Level: 1
Garath tried not to scoff. He wasn't expecting a legendary item to start the game by any means, but as far as he could tell the starting weapon didn't provide him anything more than a large stick would - except maybe whatever Spell Targeting Assistance meant. The damn thing didn’t even come with full durability!
‘Equip Novice Necrologist Cap,’ he thought the words this time - being able to equip or unequip items simply by thinking it would be clutch. At least it would if it worked as he hoped it would.
Immediately, he felt the brim sitting atop his cranium and lifted one hand to touch it. The tightly woven cloth was soft with age and he clearly felt at least two patches that must have been covering holes in the material. He pulled it off his head and held it out in front of him with both hands for further inspection.
‘A useless stick and the sorting hat?’ he thought as he looked at the oversized, black wizard cap. ‘Why couldn’t I just have access to some system provided shop with ridiculous items or start in some overly dangerous high-level area, luck my way out of it, and get stupid bonuses that make everything else easy?’
He closed the Profile panel and excitedly looked to the 'Skills’ option that had appeared in glowing text on his MENU panels after choosing a Class, but a panicked knocking on his door shook brand new Necrologist from the exploration of this new system.
Chapter 2
Company
Garath leaned his useless staff against the kitchen counter and it shimmered into nothing as he approached his front door. He cautiously peeked through the peephole. A handful of anxious neighbors were waiting outside with panic plastered faces and very game-like nameplates affixed above their heads. Each displaying the name, level, HP, and Mana of one of his nervous neighbors.
‘I really wish I wasn't this stoned…’ he thought with chagrin.
After a moment of deliberation, the introverted Necrologist decided to let them in. It wasn't that he disliked his neighbors, it wasn
't even that he didn't welcome the company – in fact, maybe one of them even knew something about what the hell was going on that he didn't – he was just eager to continue exploring his MENU panel. He sighed and figured it would have to wait. The door creaked open and he forced a warm smile onto his face.
The Culling of Man: A litrpg adventure (Peril's Prodigy Book 1) Page 1