by Tao Wong
Most monsters keep away from Haines Junction, the presence of the Ogres sufficient deterrent. The ones that don’t are quickly dispatched and added to the fire, their bodies butchered just like the humans. That works to my advantage as I get my plans ready. It takes a couple of days to pull what I need together, days that I barely sleep or eat in as I work at a feverish pace. Twice, I’m almost found out. I spend nearly two hours the first time, hiding beneath a truck waiting for the Ogre pair to move on. The second time, I have to use the QSM and duck pass the converging group to hide. I can tell they are beginning to suspect something, their actions getting more and more agitated as the days go by but they can’t find me even if they start huddling closer together and patrolling more.
Preparations finally complete in the Junction itself, I hide my supplies and take only the bare minimum that I need. The gun, two magazines full of bullets and enough food and water for a few days.
When I finally find my objective, I can’t help but feel my face split into a humorless grin. I can feel the tightness in my chest, the speeding up heartbeat and the dump of adrenaline as I sign my likely death warrant. It’s all secondary though, secondary to the rage that fills my being. I’ve had enough, of hiding and sneaking and fearing for my life. Enough of this System that has driven friends and family to death, to wipe out 60% of humanity’s population.
If I was going to die, at least I’ll do it trying to strike back. The last thought is punctuated by the crack of my rifle, the shot spinning hundreds of yards to smash into the unsuspecting Salamander. I work the bolt, firing again to lock its attention on me. When it turns and begins to lumber towards me, I take off.
I lure the creature to Haines Junction for hours, running as fast as I can and when it finally begins to catch up, using the QSM to disappear. I husband the use of the QSM, bolting as far as possible and hiding, sneaking away to give myself more distance before I attract its attention again by firing at it. It could go faster but I need the QSM to last me so I often take breaks when the Salamander roots around, searching for me. After a while, I expand the range I shoot from, firing from over half a kilometre away and mostly missing even if it is the size of a barn. Hurting it really isn’t the point anyway.
Only twice do I nearly die. Once is near the start, when a sudden surge in speed has it almost catch me. Only a last minute barrel roll gets me out of the way in time, leaving me with only a small wound before I activate the QSM and run like hell to a hiding spot. The second time, the Salamander launches a series of fire balls into the sky, landing them all around me. Fun fact about being in another dimension – I might be able to ignore most physical structures but energy – specifically heat energy crosses over. By the time I get away from the fire, I feel half-cooked and my flashing health bar in the corner of my vision matches. After that, I keep further away from the creature and only give it brief glimpses of me when I need to pull it closer.
By the time I reach the Junction, I’m nearly out of bullets. The Ogres are lined up, watching the incoming enraged monster. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see them, part 2 of the plan required that the Ogres be willing to fight. When they catch sight of me, they roar and one tries to step forward, only to be chivied back into line by the others. I grin, stopping a good hundred yards from them and waving cheekily at them before turning back to the incoming monster.
“Ali watch them,” I growl out, slipping the rifle from my shoulder one last time and lining up a shot on the Salamander. This time around, I need to hurt it enough to draw it all the way which means I need to make the shot. I draw a few deep breaths, trying to get my thundering heart to calm and my breathing to slow. Already past the boundary of its ‘natural’ region, the Salamander will need a little more encouragement.
The first shot misses and I snarl, wishing I had spent more time at the range. I always said I would, but somehow never did. Too busy procrastinating. The second shot hits and the explosion is everything I wish it to be. The abandoned propane tank lights up behind the Salamander, too far away to do any real damage but scaring it slightly. Already annoyed with me, the creature charges forwards, smart enough to put the sounds of the gunshot and the annoyances it’s been facing for the last few hours together.
Bullets out, I toss the rifle to the side and hope I can retrieve it later. Rather than run immediately, I watch the Salamander charge me, waiting. Emboldened by the fact that I’ve finally stopped running, the Salamander picks up speed and when it is a bare hundred yards away I turn and sprint for the Ogres.
The Ogres are pissed, but without ranged weapons of their own, there’s little they can do to stop as I bring their end right to them. Just before I reach them, I trigger the QSM and let the club that’s swung at me pass through my body as I duck through their lines. A last, spiteful move makes me release the QSM long enough to plunge my knife into a creature’s back and then I take off, leaving the monsters to do their thing. As much as they’d like to chase after me, staying together to fight the Salamander is more important.
A safe distance away, I watch the battle unfold from hiding. It’s vicious and not nearly as one-sided as I would have expected. The Ogres hold their own against the Salamander at first, their oversized leader triggering some form of ability that wreathes its club in green as it smashes down on the Salamander. The blow does real damage which the other Ogres are quick to take advantage of, pummelling the dazed Salamander. At first, I almost think the Salamander might die without doing any damage.
That is until its entire body starts glowing red and it releases a cloud of red steam all around it. The Salamander seems to boil its own blood and releases it, scalding the surrounding attackers and driving them back. After that, the Salamander bites down on a female Ogre, ripping her arm from her body. The rest of the battle just gets bloody and nasty but half-way through, I realise something is wrong. It takes me a moment to realise what though.
“The kids aren’t here!” I snarl out towards Ali who is watching the fight with amusement, somehow having conjured up a bag of popcorn. He stops eating long enough to point before going back to ignoring me.
I follow his directions, sneaking from one building to another to find the children being guarded by the Ogre Youth. My eyes narrow, considering what to do, before I return to the main event. I smile grimly, the battle nearly over by the time I’m done, the badly injured Salamander roasting the last Ogre with its breath.
How do you like being cooked? A part of me is worried about the hateful glee that I’m exhibiting, but it’s a very small part. Once the Salamander is done finishing off the last of the main Ogres, I make sure it finishes the job, leading it by taunting it further to the children.
Part 2 complete, I smile humorlessly as the Salamander munches down on the Ogre Youth before I hurry away. I could end it here, revenge taken for the residents of the Junction. However, the rage is not quenched, my anger still needing a final outlet. The Salamander was a monster and it needed to die.
Part 3 was very simple in theory. In fact, I had made a big bet that it’d be the Salamander that was still alive at the end of the battle since I had built my little toy with it in mind. I’d hidden the weapon close on-hand and was grateful the Ogres weren’t familiar with human technology or too inquisitive as I find it untouched. Grabbing the shopping cart by its handles I wheel the contraption around to see the Salamander.
I cross my fingers, hoping this works and then shove, sending the entire cart hurtling towards the monster. It doesn’t understand what’s happening, but it does understand me running away which sends it chasing after me again, obviously wanting to finish me off at last.
Surprisingly, the first bump when it hits the Salamander head-on doesn’t set the entire thing off. The second, when its hind foot lands on the cart does. The cart is packed in layers. The innermost layer, what took serious effort, contains a bottle of home-brewed nitroglycerin. The bottle is sealed tight, packed with cotton around it to ensure that casual bumping doesn’t set it off. Arou
nd that, I packed half-filled gasoline cans interspersed with hair spray. Lastly, on the outside, I had a thin layer of nails, screws and nuts. This was my improvised bomb and what took the majority of my time to put together.
When it goes off, the improvised shrapnel does most of the damage as expected. The Salamander might be resistant to high heat and perhaps even partly resistant to the concussive force of the explosions, but there isn’t much it can do about the shrapnel that rips up from its foot and into its body.
Of course, I mostly figure that part out later. When the explosion happens, all I remember is sharp pain and the concussive force of the explosion throwing me forwards before blackness takes me.
When I wake up, I find Ali hovering over me with a worried look on his face. It disappears the moment I open my eyes, the unimpressed grump pulling back to his usual station. A slight twitch of his hand is all I see before my vision is filled with blue.
Congratulations!
You have been instrumental in the destruction of the Ogre Village (Newbie). Even down to the children. Who is the monster now?
+13,000 XP
Congratulations!
You have helped kill a Salamander (Level 108). You really shouldn’t play with bombs, next time they might go off at the wrong time.
+27,000 XP (XP apportioned according to damage done)
“Uhhh… Ali. Did the System just warn me off?” I eye the blue screen worriedly. Did Big Brother actually pay attention to what I did? Could they influence things if I tried something similar? Then again, I wasn’t exactly planning on doing this again. Half-remembered Youtube videos and chemistry classes were not the way to build bombs.
“Seems like it doesn’t it?” Ali replies as I dismiss that notification to keep going through the field of blue.
Title Gained
For killing a monster over a 100 levels higher than you, you have been awarded the title ‘Monster’s Bane’. All damage dealt to monsters of a higher level than you +15%
Congratulations!
For achieving your first title, you receive a bonus +5,000 XP.
Level Up! * 4
You have reached Level 7 as an Erethran Honor Guard. Stat Points automatically distributed. You have 15 Free Attributes to distribute.
Class Skills Locked.
My vision finally clear of the field of blue, I peruse my Status bars and other notifications slowly. Health is still below half and the little additional status icons tell me I’m concussed and exhausted. No shit. Still, no rest for the wicked and I push myself onto my feet, after which I proceed to vomit.
“That’s just nasty,” Ali sniffs and waits for me to mostly finish before continuing, “Now move it buttercup. Carrion creatures are coming soon and you need to finish looting.”
I grimace but get moving slowly, doing my best to not lose my breakfast again. Or is it lunch now? Dinner? Gods, I really don’t know and my head hurts way too much for me to care. Still, no complaints– I’m alive which is not what I was expecting. In fact, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t actually thinking straight these last few days. Who the hell lures a mini-dragon into a deathmatch with a group of Ogres that just wiped out a village by themselves and builds a bomb by hand?
The Salamander gets me a Salamander Fire Sac, its skin and more meat. Surprisingly, when I open my inventory to put the items away I realise that its increased in size again.
“Ali… am I seeing things?” I frown, staring at the new 6 by 6 grid.
“Nope, inventory space increases every 5 levels,” Ali explains and eyes it. “Lucky for you.”
I can’t help but agree since otherwise I’d have to toss some of this away. While items of the same type stacked, unique items needed their own slot and the different kinds of meat were all considered unique. Either way, lucky me. I grab the loot from the Salamander and dump it in my inventory, moving on. The children Ogres get me some Ogre skins while the adults are a disappointment at first, giving me an assortment of crude weapons, oversized armour, Ogre hide and 5,000 Credits in total. The credits go straight into my inventory as a notification, which helps since I’ve started leaving older loot like the Ant meat aside. When I finally get to the Ogre Chief, I carefully bend down to grab the club it dropped and almost drop it again when the notification pops up.
Enchanted Oversized Club of Smashing
Base Damage: 38
Enchantment: Ignores 20% of Target Armour
Damn. My knife only did a base damage of 4 to start. Of course, as the guide explained, damage after base was based off the targets armor and where and how you hit. Better kinds of armor absorb more damage, though armor has a tendency to get damaged as it absorbed more and more punishment. In addition, melee weapons had additional damage modifiers that included your strength, which in the Ogre’s case was probably significant.
I can barely carry the damn oversized club and the fact that I can even heft it at all breaks all kinds of physic rules, which is why I just leave it on the ground as I reach out to loot the Chieftain next. He gets me another Ogre hide, 7,000 credits and a golden key. When my hand closes around the key to put it in inventory, I get another blue screen.
Key to the City
Would you like to take control of Haines Junction? (Y/N)
“What the hell?” I shout to Ali and immediately regret it, my head spinning. Ali zooms over to join me, staring at my screen and being silent while I recover. For a moment, as my head spins, I wonder if he’s gotten bigger. Then I get distracted again by his talking.
“Mary’s sweet spot,” Ali breathes, pointing to the key. “That’s why those Ogre’s weren’t running. They bought the city.”
“Explanation damn it,” I reply.
“Ugh… okay. Yeah. Your cities aren’t real cities, not at least according to the System. You want to own it, you need to buy the rights to the city. That’s what the Ogre’s did. They must have pooled their resources, bought the rights from the System and a portal here. Must have cost them a fortune even to get a dump like this,” Ali explains quickly, spinning in an agitated circle. I guess that made the Ogres pioneers. Dead, roasted and eaten cannibalistic pioneers.
“Whatever,” Angrily, I decline the system’s offer. Damn System, thinking what we built isn’t real. Ali’s exclamation of surprise at my actions is cut short by another prompt.
Control over city declined.
No other sentient found in domain.
Would you like to resell the rights to Haines Junction? (Y/N)
I giggle slightly, as I point at Ali, “Not sentient!”
“Dance on a stick. I don’t count because I’m linked to you boy-o,” Ali retorts even as the key disappears from my hand.
Rights to Haines Junction sold for 10% of cost. 200,000 System Credits credited to account.
As a one-time offer, would you like to spend your System Credits now? (Y/N)
This time, I don’t get to choose as Ali does it for me.
Chapter 5
One moment I’m standing amongst the burnt, savaged remnants of the Ogre clan aching in pain and fighting off waves of dizziness and silliness. The next I’m fully healthy in a high-tech retail store that has a thing for yellow. I raise my eyebrow at the colour choice, having thought it’d be all blue but yellow it is, from the walls to the waiting chairs to the counter top where a yellow lizardman waits.
“You’re big!” I shout as I see Ali. Unlike his normal foot tall experience, this Ali is a towering 7 feet. Thankfully, he’s still clad in his usual orange jumpsuit which I have to admit, sets off his mocha coloured skin very well.
“This is my real size,” Ali grouses and points to me. “You just can’t contain my awesomeness.”
“Awesomeness?” My eyes widen at his choice of words.
“I get bored. Your world has a lot of interesting entertainment forms,” Ali says dismissively as he strides over to the waiting lizard. “Malik! You old scoundrel. Have I got a deal for you!”
I stare at the lizardman and my companion
as he begins to pull my stuff from my inventory, already getting into an argument over pricing. Better him than me but what the hell should I do? For that matter, why the hell was I healthy?
“Perhaps the Master would like to peruse our wares?” comes a soft voice at my elbow, making me spin around and throw a strike at it. I catch a glimpse of the speaker, a bipedal fox before it slips under my blow with careless ease.
“Sorry! I’m really sorry. I just, you know, apocalypse!” I apologize profusely.
“Not at all Master, completely normal. It’s this servant’s fault for startling you,” the young fox’s grin widens as he gestures to a doorway I didn’t see before. “The wares Master?”
“Yeah, I guess I could…” I follow its lead. I am rich after all, or at least, I think I am. “By the way, I was injured beforehand but now I’m feeling fine.”
“Ah, part of the transfer process. Galactic Council policy dictates that all purchases be done by individuals in their full health. You will be returned in the same form as you were before though,” the Fox explains easily as he leads me to a doorway. The room that we enter is in cool yellow, so large that I can’t see the end of it. Inside, the room is dominated by a floating spaceship reminiscent of the one that Superman came to Earth in from the classic movie. In front of it is a single screen, floating
Mark VIII Regulus (200,000 Credits)
Single passenger spaceship originally capable of achieving hyperspace travel. Comes equipped with the 3rd Generation Link Laser and 2 Ares Launcher Bays. More…
Would you like to purchase this? (Y/N)
My hand unconsciously twitches and moves upward. A ship to get the hell out of here and leave as the System suggested. An escape from the blood and insanity that is my life now, a way to be free of the fear. It’s everything that I could want. A slight shift in stance draws my eye to the Fox and my eyes narrow. There’s something about the way he’s holding himself, something in his eye.