Galactic Fist of Legend

by Scottie Futch

  Grade: C

  Total: 105

  [Entertainment Bonus]

  You proved to be highly entertaining on several occasions. This reduces the annoyance of our people as they wait for your race to fail their challenges and become our property.

  Entertainment Grade: B

  Entertainment Bonus: 20 EXP

  Fan Following: You have acquired new fans. Once you have 100 fans, you will be granted a one percent bonus to all EXP earned. Each additional 100 fans will increase your earned EXP by one percent as well.

  Fans: (28)

  Total EXP Earned: 1506

  [—]

  "Holy shit," said Scott slowly. He earned a serious upgrade in his EXP totals during this mission. He started the day thinking that he would have to deal with nothing but garbage missions. Instead, he earned more in one day than he had earned for the entire time that he'd been involved in the game.

  Heart aflutter at the possibilities, Scott immediately began to look into the new functions that were unlocked. He checked his companion roster, a function now available, and noted that Samantha was listed. It also listed her price.

  He checked the cost of credits then grinned. They cost only one EXP per thousand credits. Fifty-two EXP could buy her services for a day, and another twelve would keep her actively working for him each day afterward.

  The next thing he did was check the home items that he could use to upgrade his cell. The command center and companion room that he needed would cost twenty-five hundred EXP total. The recreation room and recreation room door would cost seven hundred fifty in total. In order to expand his home in the ways that would allow him to better use his time, it would cost over three thousand experience points.

  "Damn, I really need to get to work," he said after a moment. This was his chance to greatly increase his abilities. He purchased two more days of life then bypassed purchasing armor and other items in favor of checking out what a storage box would cost. The ability to store items from the places he visited could not be overlooked.

  "I'll test out the cheapest one first," he said. Scott spent two hundred fifty points to purchase a small foot locker.

  [Household Item]

  Small Foot Locker

  This storage item provides one storage unit. This specific item is a storage unit that offers general utility. It can be used to store up to four small items, two medium sized items, or one large item that is of a size which would conceivably fit inside the locker.

  If you wish to store items in the field, find any similarly shaped foot locker and create a [storage link] by strongly thinking of creating that link. Item transfers can be performed between worlds with no cost in EXP.

  Level: 1/4

  EXP: 0/10

  Storage: 1 unit[s]

  [—]

  The foot locker appeared on the floor nearby. Scott moved it to the wall then opened it up. He experimented with placing his items inside to see what happened. His pistol and bracers were considered small items. His leg guards were medium items. He chose not to upgrade its level until after he tested it in the game.

  Before he became too excited, he purchased two more days of life, which brought his total expenditure to four hundred fifty. He had only a little over eleven hundred points left.

  Scott looked his status over for a moment then nodded. He could afford to buy several good items now, but what he really wanted to do was increase his base statistics. If he could bring items into this world from the world beyond, he could make do with the lesser equipment he might find there until he reached a point where he felt good about things.

  He spent his points on resilience, vitality, and dexterity. Each of those skills was raised to four points for a total cost of seven hundred eighty five points. The moment he did so, he saw little blue screens pop up. They informed him that he had new options. Those options were feat purchases.

  "Three hundred seventeen points left..." he said to himself while he looked over the possibilities. He could buy a few cheap feats or one more expensive hybrid feat, it seemed.

  Scott frowned. He wanted the hit point increasing feat. But the other two simple feats, one that would gun control, and another that improved regeneration rates also called out to him. There was a fourth simple feat as well, one that focused on general coordination that he considered keenly.

  The hybrid feats combined in interesting ways. There were various resistance skills such as resistance to disease or poison, when vitality and resilience were the pre-requisites. Dexterity and vitality worked together to grant an improved evasion feat. Though he was not certain how it worked. Resilience and dexterity would allow him to have a feat that allowed him to parry attacks easier, or recover from knock downs more quickly.

  In the end, he preferred three simple feats to one hybrid feat. Scott chose [Improved Regeneration I], [Improved Hit Points I], and [Improved Coordination I]. The latter feat included assets such as increased eye-hand-coordination and other aspects that would improve his ability to aim a firearm, even without improved gun control, or to deliver and react to incoming attacks. It seemed like a better basic feat overall.

  He would have liked to have taken a power as well, but the least expensive power was four hundred EXP. The feats, or rather passive abilities from what he could see, were only one hundred points each for the class one versions.

  [Status]

  [Name: Scott Davidson]

  [Age: 20]

  [Race: Earthling]

  [Level: 2[281/2000]

  [EXP: 17.00]

  [Life Span: 5 Day(s)]

  [Hit Points: 8[43]

  [ATTRIBUTES]

  [Strength: 1.10][Resilience: 4.00]

  [Vitality: 4.00][Dexterity: 4.00]

  [Concentration: 1.48][Charisma: 1.00]

  [FEATS]

  [Improved Regeneration I]

  [Improved Hit Points I]

  [Improved Coordination I]

  [POWERS]

  [None]

  [—]

  "Neat. I gained a level," said Scott. There was no fanfare or mention of the change at all. The level indicator simply showed the increase, and his hit points followed suit.

  Scott grinned at his status. "That's enough hit points to take a shot to the face from a low-end handgun and barely even notice it."

  He took out his pistol then flipped it into the air. He caught it easily then whipped it around with great skill and precision. He might not have improved gun control, but he could actually feel a major increase in his ability to move his body the way that he wanted.

  New blue screens popped up. He had awakened new abilities that he could purchase in the future by activating the simple feats. "Sweet, there's also a feat that will add a flat amount of additional hit points to my base." Four more points did not seem like a lot, but it was a good start. With each new level, his hit points would rise further. Now that he'd increased his level, his hit points were twice as high!

  "This was what I needed," he said, a smile on his lips. He could feel things starting to turn around. He had already reached a level of resilience, vitality, and dexterity that would be the match of only the most elite athletes on Earth.

  He turned to the door. There were new missions waiting for him, and for once he felt completely refreshed in both mind and body. Even if they were boring, he did not mind it now that he'd acquired something new to test out.

  It was time to get the party started for real. A goofy smile on his lips, Scott said, "Let's do this," and headed off to stake his claim on a new side-mission.

  Chapter 7: Congratulations Mortal

  Life became something of an easy grind for Scott once he finished the mission where he unlocked the world setting, Bounty Star. He'd continued his previous lifestyle of short missions and quick rewards after unlocking the new world. Due to his increased status, and simple feats, the missions were much easier to complete overall. Each time, he'd come away without a single injury.

  As the time ticked by, Scott waited for the ne
xt day to begin much like he'd done every day since coming to this dark hole. He spent as much time as possible on the side-missions just to avoid the room for as long as possible. There was nothing in there save for the door, the holographic display, and his own thoughts.

  "Good mission. Need a good mission," muttered Scott as he clenched and unclenched his fists. He was close to saving up enough points to create a recreation room and recreation room door. Over the course of the last few days he'd come to a decision. He needed better equipment, and he did not want to spend a fortune in EXP to get it.

  The main reason was that he wanted to graduate out of Dead Men Walking, or at least leave it for a time, and try working in the Bounty Star setting. The opponents were worth more EXP, and the missions would feel fresh due to the change in atmosphere. Mostly, he was tired of the damned stench.

  The problem was that the opponents there had proven to be much more difficult to deal with than mere zombies. So far he'd taken only one side mission to that world-setting. There were three available total since the world was unlocked.

  His mission, simple infiltration. It was a task that he failed miserably. He barely escaped with his life. Twenty opponents guarded a stolen goods warehouse. Tasked with retrieving a copy of their logs without being spotted, as apparently even pirates kept records of their loot for accounting purposes, he accepted it happily.

  As it turned out, it was easier to deal with zombies than it was to deal with people firing proton beam weapons. Add in their healthy desire to stay alive, the ability to use thermal imaging and night vision equipment, and his utter lack of knowledge when it came to proper infiltration. In the end, he realized that he was almost guaranteed to fail, and fail he did.

  He literally lost an arm and a leg, among other things. It cost half the EXP that he earned from other missions to repair his body.

  Scott frowned as he continued to think about the Bounty Star mission. No, he was not even remotely ready to face that setting. He was agile for a normal human being. But he possessed neither the weapons, the armor, nor the skills to face twenty armed pirates who had all of those things and more.

  The only good thing to come out of that mission was the discovery that failing a mission meant the door would appear where he entered the mission area. Forced to work his way back to his start position while avoiding the pirates at every turn, and all while the counter ticked down from sixty, it was a wonder that he made it back alive.

  Somehow he survived, or at least most of him did. One of his legs was lost to the pirates just before he entered the door. The arm had been lost to the closing of the door as he had been forced to crawl through backwards in a desperate hurry. Even turning around would have gotten him killed.

  "How long have I been here?" he asked the uncaring air as the seconds ticked by. His whole body itched to get started. The near-death he faced at the hands of those damned pirates lit a fire under his ass. The skills that he learned in Dead Men Walking might translate to other places, but he had never really bothered much with stealth. Learning to move a little more quietly, and without showing his position as easily, could not hurt in the long run.

  He had unlimited ammo, and an excellent reason to use it. Still, it was a survival horror world. He certainly felt the horror, at least until the light restored his mind and body to perfect health. It was the survival part that proved to be a little light.

  None of the missions required stealth as a basic component, or racing for his life, except for when things went bad. True, he might have performed better if he did act in a sneakier manner. So, it was possible that his lack of stealth was the main cause of his constant near death experiences.

  However, that was a thing of the past. Once he gained the stat increases and equipment, the world-setting became a joke. It was simply too easy to kill zombies. Even the special zombies only showed up on rare occasion.

  A languid sigh escaped his lips. He did not really crave difficulty so much as the EXP that might come with it. There were so many plans to bring to fruition.

  Time passed, continued its relentless march. Soon midnight came, the clock struck zero.

  Scott rose to his feet then stretched. "Time to make the doughnuts again, I guess."

  As he approached the door a brilliant brass fanfare erupted through the air. Little lights flared into existence and took on the appearance of miniaturized fireworks. The word 'Congratulations!!' appeared before him in bright golden letters that flashed lazily.

  "The hell is all this?" he asked. This was certainly new.

  [System Update Notification]

  Congratulations mortal. You have survived the tutorial week. You will now have a greater number of options to use in service of dying horribly on our behalf.

  Milestone Reward: 100 EXP

  [Unlocked Features]

  Difficulty Level Adjustment: Once per day you will be able to adjust the overall difficulty of all missions. Changing the difficulty may increase or decrease the number of available missions as the mission locations may change. You may choose from the following mode options:

  [Easy][Normal][Hard] – [Unlocked After Tutorial Week]

  [Nightmare] – [Unlocked at Level 4]

  [Hell] – [Unlocked at Level 10]

  [Indescribable Terror] – [Unlocked Via Battle Dome Victories]

  [Eternal Damnation] – [Unlocked Via Battle Dome Victories]

  [Do You Want to Die?] – [Unlocked Via Battle Dome Victories]

  You have been playing on [Easy Mode].

  Easy Mode – You will not normally receive a mission rating higher than G-4. Treasure items are extremely rare finds. Your missions will take place in the easiest locations in the setting with the least difficult enemies of that setting that may be found in that area.

  EXP Growth Potential: Very Low

  --

  Story Mode: Now that the tutorial period has ended, you will receive a weekly story mission that can be taken instead of the daily missions for that week.

  A story mission is a lengthy, dangerous, and lucrative mission. Time will not pass in your [Home] during a story mission.

  The amount of time that a story mission requires will vary, but may take between one day and several years depending on the difficulty level. Upon return from a successful story mission you will have the remainder of the week to take side-missions or visit unlocked hub locations at your leisure.

  Failure of a story mission will result in death.

  --

  Battle Dome: After completion of your first story mission you may wager EXP on fights in the battle dome. The wager is preset, and the payoff will be determined by the daily difficulty setting.

  Battle Dome Victory will allow you access to the Battle Dome exchange office where you can acquire rare items, bloodlines, lifestyles, feats, powers, and personnel. You may also increase your fan following with greater ease if you are victorious and entertaining.

  The Battle Dome can be accessed once per week, initially. You may also participate in battles at the Battle Dome. Death will still count if you do, however.

  There is a secondary battle dome shop that can be accessed outside of the Battle Dome proper. You may access it once per day. The items offered are of lesser value than what might be acquired inside the Battle Dome, but will typically be superior to selections in your native [Home] system. Battle Dome items may come from any world-setting in the system network.

  [—]

  Scott lifted his hand up then pointed at the screen. "This crap was easy?" Sure, the zombies had gotten easier, but they were zombies. Other than their numbers and their viral infection ability they really did not have much going for them.

  The new screens faded away and mission screens appeared. Two new options were available, story mode and difficulty. Scott was at an impasse due to the new options. He wanted to test both of them out, but did he dare do so? Difficulty could only be changed once per day, but he did not know how hard a story mission would actually be. The cautious thing to do
would be to just toy with the difficulty level and wait till next week to try story mode. Alternatively, he could also be cautious and try an easy mode story mission first. Afterward he could try out difficulty ratings.

  In the end, he made the only choice that felt right. Scott increased the difficulty to normal and then chose the story mission. If he failed, he would die regardless of the difficulty due to the story mode requirements. If he succeeded he would earn more EXP and possibly find treasure items.

  "Gotta risk it to get that biscuit, man," said Scott with a nervous laugh.

  [Story Mission Briefing]

  Into the breach, my good survivalist. A group of survivors at the [Jonestown Mall] are besieged by the ravenous undead. Zombies claw at the walls and howl for their flesh! A devout priest named [Father Harrison] has prayed for salvation for those who are besieged.

  You are tasked with becoming the answer to his prayers. Help the survivors escape to a more remote location that can serve as a survivor hub.

  Go forth and kick ass, or die trying.

  [Protip: There's nothing wrong with doing both! We're totally 'OK' with that.]

  Difficulty: E-2

  World: Dead Men Walking

  World Type: Survival Horror

  Force Response Authorization: [Solo Mission]|[Partner Mission]|[Party Mission]

  Primary Goal: Aid, Rescue, and Escort

  Approximate Initial Enemies: [2987]

  Time Limit: 72 hours

  Special: You will have access to a [Mission Map]. The mission map will allow you to discover the appropriate safe zone once you meet the survivors in person.

  Success: Locate [Father Harrison] and introduce yourself as the answer to his prayers. Help at least one survivor reach the designated safe zone and set up a survivor hub.

  Failure: All survivors die. You die. The mission time exceeds 72 hours.

  Reward: 400 EXP

  [—]