“WHAT?” Zac shouted. “Why can’t I get the Tutorial? Teleport me right now!”
[By accepting Protocol SL-34572, user gained a personalized initiation protocol, a lottery opportunity.]
“OPPORTUNITY? PLAYING A RIGGED GAME IS AN OPPORTUNITY?!” Zac screamed, forgetting he was surrounded by who knew how many beasts. This shitty System actually did not only almost get him killed, but it also skipped a teleportation to a safe zone, which sounded a lot better than a demon-infested forest.
[Affirmative. Please explore the System of the Multiverse yourself,] the voice dully responded and once again went quiet.
Zac fumed but realized he would get no more help from the cosmic douchebag robot. With a few deep breaths, he once again calmed down and realized the implication of what the voice said.
He himself had missed the opportunity to get to the safe zone, but what about others? Unless it was voluntary, then almost everyone should have been teleported to wherever those safe zones were, barring any extremely unlucky instances like his.
[Protocol SL-34572 is a unique opportunity. Congratulations, user,] the System responded as if reading his mind.
“Well, fuck you too.”
Once again calming down, he thought of his fellow campers. Hannah and the others might actually still be safe, teleported away somewhere before this forest turned insane. That would explain the lack of blood and mangled body parts at the campsite.
It also meant that his family hopefully still was alive. While not optimal, a safe zone sounded pretty swell compared to his surroundings. He was still worried, though, and wanted to get to them as soon as possible. Both his father and little sister were out there somewhere, and he was afraid the apocalyptic events would lower the inhibitions of less scrupulous people. While his sister was an avid martial arts practitioner, he wasn’t confident that would hold up against perverts with guns and other weapons.
Refocusing his thoughts, he realized something he had just glossed over from the quests. The normal quest had a progression of (16/25). Did this mean that there was actually such a thing as levels, and he was level 16?
What the hell was going on?
6
Born for Carnage
There was only one way to find out. The quest panel appeared when he asked what he was supposed to do. Maybe there were other panels as well?
“Menu,” Zac said into the air, somewhat embarrassed, feeling like those LARP’ers he had once seen running around in the park. Nothing happened, and he imagined the System snickering at him. Not discouraged, he continued to search for some other panels or menus.
“Status.”
This time it worked, and a new bar replaced the one with the quests.
Name: Zachary Atwood
Level: 16
Race: Human
Alignment: [Earth] Human
Titles: Born For Carnage, Ultimate Reaper, Luck of the Draw, Giantsbane, Disciple of David, Overpowered, Slayer of Leviathans, Adventurer
Strength: 31
Dexterity: 25
Endurance: 27
Vitality: 27
Intelligence: 29
Wisdom: 29
Luck: 44
Free Stats: 30
Nexus Coins: 5,100
The status screen did indeed look somewhat like what he expected, with levels and stats. There were a few points he did not really understand though. The first was the alignment. Did it need to be specified that it was humans on Earth that he was aligned with? Were there actually humans on other planets or in other dimensions?
He was surprised how much like a game the rest of the screen was. While there didn’t seem to be such a thing as HP or mana, stats did exist. He didn’t have any framework of what the numbers meant though, apart from higher obviously being better. Ironically, he saw that his highest stat actually was luck, even though he felt very much out of luck.
Strength seemed pretty straightforward, while the other stats might mean different things. Dexterity likely had something to do with movement and reaction speeds. Endurance and Vitality both meant survivability, though he wasn’t sure of the difference. He was pretty sure that his stats were higher than a normal human’s though, maybe from his level. He couldn’t explain his superhuman recuperation otherwise. While he still felt pretty banged up, he should be lying on a bed dying now with the wounds he’d sustained, not walking around.
Intelligence and Wisdom should increase mental faculties. If the world actually had magic and wizards now, these stats would probably make them cast spells better. Finally, he had thirty free stats. A quick count showed that he had gained two points per level-up, if he had started at Level 1. He held off trying to allocate any points though, as he still had no idea what he was doing.
The titles, to be honest, sounded pretty badass. They didn’t, however, really feel like something that described him too well. He neither felt like he was born for carnage nor overpowered from the last encounter with the demonling.
“Titles,” Zac said, hoping for some explanation of the titles and what they meant.
Just as he hoped, a new screen popped up with an explanation.
Born for Carnage: First to kill a monster in world. All stats +10%.
Ultimate Reaper: First to solo kill an Incursion General in world. All stats +5, all stats +10%.
Luck of the Draw: Successful in cheating death in an endeavor against all odds. Luck +5, Luck +20%.
Giantsbane: Solo kill enemy 5 levels or more above you. All stats +1.
Disciple of David: Solo kill enemy 10 levels or more above you. All stats +2.
Overpowered: Solo kill enemy 25 levels or more above you. All stats +3.
Slayer of Leviathans: Solo kill enemy 50 levels or more above you. All stats +5, all stats +10%.
Adventurer: Reach level 10. Rewards: Strength +1, Endurance +1, Intelligence +1.
“Amazing…” Zac whispered. Titles were far more important than just sounding cool. From looking at his status page, he realized that most of his stats came from his titles rather than being strong on his own.
This also gave him a few very important realizations. Almost all titles came from killing things, meaning that the System probably did not wish for a peaceful and harmonious world. It wanted a world of conflict, where people became stronger by walking over the corpses of their enemies.
That didn’t bode well for humanity. If the System incentivized killing, who knew if some people would go crazy and start massacring others for strength instead of monsters. Who was to say that there were no titles for killing humans?
He once again realized the urgent need to meet up with his family before some maniac started cutting people down in an attempt to power-level.
The second important point was that there were different types of titles. The first type was the Adventurer title. This was probably a title most people would gain. He did not know how hard it was to gain levels, but since he was already level 16 after three days, it shouldn’t take too long. Therefore, the rewards were not too exciting.
The second type was struggling to complete tasks that were extremely hard. Zac had a slew of rewards for killing monsters at a higher level than him. He was a bit confused at first. While it had almost killed him, it did not feel like killing the demonling warranted all these titles. It did not feel like a boss or some monster that was more than 50 levels above himself if he could kill it with some dumb luck, a well-placed rock, and a lumber axe. The only thing he could imagine was that the System had given him the kill credit for out-rolling the unlucky herald and awarded him with the titles.
Those rewards were a lot stronger and gave him all stat boosts, which likely increased his all-around powers. The most difficult titles even gave multiplier bonuses to his stats. Those bonuses would only get stronger and stronger the higher his level went, and the more stats he accumulated.
Having those kinds of titles would almost ensure he would be stronger than an opponent at the same level unless the opponent also had som
e hidden means.
He now realized what the System meant when it said that the lottery was an opportunity. All odds were stacked against him, but if he survived, he would not only gain a bunch of experience, but also amazing titles that would benefit him forever.
[Protocol SL-34572 is a lottery opportunity. Congratulations, user,] the robot voice once again droned, this time with a tinge of satisfaction discernible in the tone.
“Still fuck you,” Zac muttered back, pretty sure he would have declined even if presented the opportunity again. It was only dumb luck he sat here today instead of being vaporized by the System.
The First Kill titles also intrigued Zac. It seemed that being the first in the world to accomplish certain deeds would grant a powerful title as well. Most likely no one else on this planet would be able to gain the Born for Carnage or Ultimate Reaper titles, as he’d taken them.
From these facts, he could somewhat imagine how the world would develop. Everyone would soon realize the possibility of becoming stronger and breaking the limits of the human body. The importance of titles would also soon be public knowledge, at the latest as soon as people started reaching level 10. Maybe the Tutorial in the safe zones had already explained everything.
Those who were willing to take large risks and survive would gain strong titles, which would make them even stronger, enabling them to level faster and gain even more titles. Some would become elites, being far more powerful than normal people.
Maybe some would keep their humanity and help the average citizens, but many would probably become tyrants, domineering everyone with sheer power.
The world had turned into a place where power was paramount. And if he wanted to protect his friends and family, he would have to become one of the elites himself. Luckily, he had a pretty substantial head start. Zac was pretty sure that high-level titles were not easy to obtain, so very few, if any, knew about the amazing power they could bring.
Finally, below the stat points was something called Nexus Coins, and he had 5,100 of them for some reason. If he were to compare the menu to an RPG, then the Nexus Coins would be the in-game currency.
“Nexus Coins,” Zac said, hoping to get an explanation similar to the titles, but nothing happened.
“Coins. Currency. Shop. Store,” he continued, searching for a correct keyword. But still there was no response.
“System, are you there?” he grumbled up to the heavens. “Can you come and explain the menu for me real quick? Such as the Nexus Coins and stats?”
[By accepting Protocol SL-34572, user automatically declined standardized initiation protocol in favor of lottery opportunity. Please explore the System of the Multiverse yourself. Goodbye,] the System soullessly responded in a mechanical almost word-for-word repeat of what it had said earlier. After this the System didn’t respond to Zac no matter what he asked or how he extolled, as though the System earlier somehow was here, but now had left.
After a while, Zac gave up and refocused on the task at hand. He would have to keep his head start going and keep pushing forward to get more benefits in this new world. He also thought about classes. Perhaps the Class System was similar, where some classes were better than others, and some might even be exclusive ones. Lastly, there were the mentions of towns and becoming a Lord. While not something Zac was planning on focusing on now, it seemed that it was something extremely beneficial, seeing how hard it was to attain.
A plan started to form in his head of how to get out of this situation and head back to his family.
First, he needed his weapon.
7
Outpost
It had been four hours since Zac had woken up after getting hurt. Even after moving around for all that time, his wounds only throbbed dully, and he once again was amazed by the efficiency of his constitution. If his Endurance and Vitality grew to 100, would he be able to regrow limbs?
He had spent the last hours discreetly surveying the surroundings to come up with a solution to being stranded in the woods. He had made some discoveries during this time, some more shocking than others.
The first thing Zac had done after figuring out the basics of the System was head back to the scene of the fight to retrieve his axe.
When he arrived at the boulder, the monster was still there, and by then a putrid smell had started to emanate from the carcass. This meant that the System would not remove bodies like in a game. What was dead was dead. After looking around the body, even somewhat moving it to look beneath, it also hadn’t dropped any items such as gold or equipment.
He still didn’t know if that was just bad luck or whether the System was not that convenient and just wouldn’t hand items to him in that manner. Perhaps he would have to make do with what already existed, or there were chests strewn around the world.
Judging from the smell and how the beast looked like when alive, it would not be serviceable to eat, even if fresh. The axe lay next to the body, blood caked all over the shaft and the head. Luckily, it hadn’t been corroded or rusted yet, and after a good cleaning, the axe was almost as good as new, albeit slightly dulled.
The next realization he made on the way back to the camp. Since the world in a sense had turned into a game, he thought maybe there was some sort of equipment System. But when saying things like “equip,” “equipment,” and “inspect” provoked no response from the System, he surmised that there probably was no such thing. An axe was just an axe. Maybe there would be magic gear in the future, but at least for now he had no means to distinguish it. He felt that he had missed something though, as one of his quests would reward him with something called “E-grade equipment,” whatever that was.
However, he still was no closer to completing that quest now than he was back then. One thing at the time.
His next discovery was that will and determination do not a mechanic make. After popping the hood of the car, he had blankly stared at the engine for a few minutes, hoping something obvious and easily solved would present itself. But he had to simply face reality that he would not be able to drive it back. The battery was well and truly dead.
But the most disturbing discoveries came after. Since discarding the car seemed the only option, Zac had started scouting the road back to see if it was possible to traverse or whether it was teeming with monsters.
He stealthily moved along the road they came from, keeping to trees and bushes, axe at the ready and maintaining a constant vigil for any sign of danger. If he kept this pace going back, the trip would likely take a week, and he didn’t cherish the thought of sleeping out in the open.
Before he got further than around a kilometer, the road abruptly stopped, and dense forests gave way to a cliff with a drop of roughly five meters. The road—heck, the whole ground—was simply gone.
The view that greeted him instead was a panoramic view of an ocean. At least he thought it was, as he could see no land in sight, and he was still too sore to climb down and test whether it was freshwater or salt water. He guessed it was salt water though from the smell in the air. In either case it was mind-boggling, as the campsite was hundreds of kilometers away from any body of water of that size.
Zac remembered some words the System had said at the start, which he had completely glossed over in his panic. It said it had merged the planet with others and had been somehow randomized.
Just how powerful was the System in the end, to grab multiple planets out in space and mash them together without him noticing anything? That thought was almost scarier than the immediate threat of the demons.
This also made him realize that most of his plans of going back home and finding his family likely had to be scrapped. If the System could drop an ocean in the middle of the country, his family might be on the other side of the planet for all he knew.
Zac had mutely trudged back to camp, this time with far less vigilance than before. Still, it seemed that there were, at least for the moment, no threats in the immediate vicinity.
Which brought him back to now. He sat
in one of the camping chairs, at a loss for what to do. He was emotionally and physically wrung out after the day, and the sense of purpose he’d had before had largely vanished. He was still anxious to find his family and friends, but now he didn’t even know how to begin looking for them. Were they even together after the teleportations and reshuffling of the world?
For all he knew, he was actually on an island rather than next to a large body of water. Then he would be well and truly stuck in some sort of nightmarish castaway situation. At least he had a camper, which was lucky, as he had no real idea how to build a serviceable shelter. He regretted bloodying it up now though, but hindsight is twenty-twenty.
He knew that finding anyone he knew would likely be a far-off venture now, and he had to focus on surviving this demon forest first. He had already discarded trying to swim towards where the nearest city was before the apocalypse, as he had no idea of how large the body of water was or, even more importantly, what was lurking in its depths. If there were demon dogs in the forest, why not demon sharks in the water? No thanks. He had to put some faith in the fact that the System wasn’t a complete maniac and had put some checks and balances in the Tutorial zones, which would keep his family safe.
He once again opened his status page and quest page to see whether there was something he had missed earlier that could help him with his current situation. After a while he gleaned a clue from his quests.
Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure Page 4