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SOM - Chapter 2 - Blue Boxes
🕑 Added 2024-03-15 18:54:18 +0000 UTCLuke wasn’t sure how to process what he was seeing. The sudden appearance of an ancient city and a river filled with ghosts was a lot to comprehend. In some ways, it was even crazier than the world becoming a video game; it was more tangible and immediate. From the looks of it, whoever lived here had carved a city out of the cavern itself.
The buildings started as simplistic-looking monolithic apartment blocks near the river. Deeper into the city there were larger buildings, but some structures didn't seem to fit in. The most notable outlier was a Gothic cathedral in the distance; the dark purple spires and marble arches stood in stark contrast to the surrounding architecture.
Amongst the tall buildings, Luke thought he could see movement, so he squinted for a moment to make sense of it.
His heart skipped a beat.
Looming a head above the tallest spires, a horned giant strolled through distant streets, its unnaturally slender form a swirling mass of shadows. He ducked out of sight, pressing his back against the cold metal of the train carriage.
If I can't see you, you can't see me, Luke thought, making the playground expression his mantra.
It took almost a minute for his pulse to stop pounding. Luke controlled his breathing. To a creature that large he was an ant, and the chances it noticed him were slim. He hoped.
He peeked out the window. Despite his fears, the giant continued to amble along lazily in the distance, and showed no sign of it changing direction. Luke relaxed.
Pacing up and down the carriage, Luke came to a stop by the mutilated corpse of the construction worker. He was hungry, and meat was meat. Saliva pooled in the corners of his mouth.
Pushing aside the intrusive thought, Luke tried to feel remorse for his actions. Even for him, the response was muted. He felt different; less empathetic, but stronger both mentally and physically. I’m a [Murderhobo] with [Dormant Zombieism] and minus one to [Empathy]. Whatever the fuck any of that means.
Though he didn’t like to think about it, Luke guessed that the system was changing him, like a video game. He initially dismissed the idea as crazy, but an uncharacteristic decisiveness flared up. Now wasn’t the time to question his sanity.
He wasn’t insane.
Luke’s heightened senses spoke to him; they told him the truth of his new reality. He just needed to listen. From the rising smell of rot to the feel of the crusty seats, everything was more real and vivid than ever before. Even if he was having a mental break, all he could do was persevere.
That same pragmatic logic drove Luke to make the most of the construction worker’s death. He could see a tool belt around the man’s waist, and his eyes fell on a hammer poking out. It was a good sized carpenter’s hammer, with a two-pronged claw for removing nails.
Luke could cause some serious damage with such a weapon.
After going through the man’s stuff, Luke ended up with some new acquisitions. He pocketed an old flip phone, a brown leather wallet, and tied the tool belt around his waist.
He couldn’t unlock the phone, but the locked screen would be useful for keeping track of time. His own smartphone only had a sliver of battery left, and even at full charge lasted a day at most.
As for the wallet, Luke had a feeling that cash and credit cards wouldn’t go far. He kept it anyway. The inside pocket contained a picture of a smiling teenage girl. He assumed she was the daughter of the man he killed, Patrick M Fenn, according to his credit card.
Luke owed Patrick’s family a little closure, and if he made it out, he would attempt to track them down and tell them a sanitised version of events. Luke had a conscience, even if he wouldn't break down crying.
The tool belt and its contents were the real prizes. A tape measure was unlikely to save his life, but the claw hammer might.
It felt good in his hand.
As he swung the hammer around the tool seemed to shimmer with a white light. The light show was odd, but only lasted a few moments. It had a nice heft to it, and Luke spent a minute getting used to it.
The last item of note was a screwdriver. Much like with the hammer, he spent a minute trying it out, and soon the train's weathered upholstery was full of holes. The screwdriver could function as a weapon, but was on the smaller side.
The hammer was better, but it didn’t hurt to have a backup.
Armed and dangerous, Luke felt more confident in his prospects. Now he needed a plan. Neither of his phones had any signal, but the train driver could have a radio, or something similar.
If Luke was lucky, the driver would be alive, and the cheery Scotsman from the tannoy announcements was on the phone with the police, but he wasn’t optimistic.
Luke could either sit and wait to be rescued or he could save himself.
A look ahead showed the rats were still devouring the corpse in the next carriage. One rat had separated from the others. It had broken off a large bone and was gnawing beneath the seats. The corpse wouldn’t occupy the others forever.
Before jumping blindly into danger, Luke thought it prudent to explore the system a little. He could feel some of its effects but he didn’t know how it worked. How far did the game logic extend? It would make survival a lot easier if he could respawn, but that wasn’t something he was going to test.
He thought back to the last time he saw Nathan, his brother, when Nate let him try out his VR headset. The memory triggered a wave of worry, but he pushed the feeling aside.
Instead, Luke focused on imagining a heads-up display like the headset had. When the ploy worked, Luke almost laughed out loud. A blue menu appeared in the air in front of him, like a floating holographic display. Opening it was intuitive, like discovering a new muscle he could flex at will.
Luke Evans: Level 2 Human
Attributes
Concepts
Class
Status
Tutorial
The blue screen confirmed that the training system functioned like a game, and Luke decided to go with it. He instinctively knew that he could select any of the listed categories. Doing so was as simple as thinking about it. Attributes were at the top of the list and was as good a place to start as any.
Attributes:
Will: 16
Empathy: 8
Wisdom: 11
Intellect: 11
Agility: 11
Strength: 15
Endurance: 11
Recovery: 11
Free Points: 1
That was all the information the screen provided. It was clear that a lot of context was missing, and less clear what any of it meant. Luke wasn’t stupid; he had played enough video games to make educated guesses. However, it would be pure idiocy to treat this new world like a game. Luke had real blood, from a real dead man, on his hands and beneath his fingernails.
After some thought, Luke held on to his free attribute point, rather than spend it on a whim. Yup, because I’ve never acted impulsively before, Luke lamented. He was trying to be better, but he had a long history of making poor decisions.
Reading through everything, Luke did some quick maths. He confirmed that his attributes would have all started at ten. It implied that attribute points worked on a relative scale.
After turning his life around, Luke was stronger and fitter than the average man. He was in his late twenties, ate well, went to the gym regularly, and woke up early on the weekends to go on a park run. The last week of moping around eating junk food was an anomaly in an otherwise healthy lifestyle.
If the numbers were on an absolute scale, compared to the average human, he would have expected higher physical attributes. This theory wasn’t much to go on, but if true, gave a bit of context to the numbers.
Luke mentally closed the attribute tab and browsed through the other options. The concept tab listed the [Murderhobo] and [Forerunner] descriptions from earlier. Accepting the concepts without thinking might end up making his top ten list of poor decisions.
On top of just listing the concepts, the blue box included progress bars with percentages listed beneath each. He was curious about the benefits of advancing a concept to the next stage. [Murderhobo] was almost at the next rank, but he was a little nervous about what that would do to him. Even if it was helping him keep a clear head, he didn’t want to become a monster unless he had to.
Concepts:
Forerunner (Copper, 4%): +1 all attributes. +5% experience gained.
Murderhobo (Gold, 89%): +3 Will, +3 Strength, -1 Empathy. +40% loot.
Luke took a moment to consider the implications of living in a world with experience and loot. It was absurd, and it wasn't as if people needed any more incentives to kill each other. He could only imagine what chaos it would bring. As if alien invaders weren't bad enough. None of that was Luke’s immediate problem, so he moved onto the next screen.
Status:
Location: Dungeon - London Underground
Effects: Dormant Zombie, +1 Strength, -2 Empathy (57 minutes)
Quests: None
The little blue box contained several useful tidbits. It informed Luke that he was inside a dungeon. The exact implications were unclear, but his gut reaction was that it didn’t bode well. It suggested that he was cut off from the world without a chance of rescue.
The zombie effect being on a timer also gave Luke mixed feelings. On one hand, it meant he wasn’t stuck with it forever, and he wouldn’t miss the urge to feed on other humans.
Yet, the prospect of losing the condition wasn’t entirely welcome.
Luke suspected that his lowered [Empathy] was blunting his emotions. He had never been overly sensitive, but he wasn’t a sociopath either.
[Empathy] was the last thing he needed, and he was reluctant to lose the [Strength] bonus. He scratched the wound on his forearm absently, and considered if it would be worth letting himself get bitten again.
After a moment, Luke quashed the intrusive thought. Taking a life-threatening injury on purpose would be the height of stupidity, and he had plenty of practice bottling up his emotions.
Shaking his head, Luke returned to the main menu of the training system. He examined the class tab and then the tutorial tab. Neither was especially helpful.
The tutorial tab simply stated that the tutorial wasn’t available. It explained that this was because he was inside a dungeon and that he should exit and try again. Luke avoided the temptation to punch the blue screen.
Deep breaths, he thought.
He might not be a sociopath, but Luke would admit he had anger problems.
The class tab was marginally more informative, which wasn’t saying much. It stated that class selection would become available at level ten. At least that gave him a goal to strive for.
Luke revisited his attribute screen. With his situation being so precarious, he had to spend his free attribute point. To leave it unspent was a decision in itself. He was working off very little information, but felt that heading into a fight without using it would be a mistake.
Agonising over a single point was frivolous.
The only way through is forward, he thought, before allocating the point to [Endurance]. If his life had become a full-blown video game with save points and resets, he would have doubled down on [Strength]. In games ‘min-maxing’ was the path to success, but a glance at poor Patrick reminded Luke just how fragile the human body could be.
When Luke gained the attributes earlier, he noticed no changes; he had been preoccupied. This time, as he mentally moved the free point to [Endurance], he tried to pay attention to his body. The system registered his intent, and the number went up.
Luke felt... something. His body became more substantial, as his skin toughened, and bones grew more dense.
Hammer in hand Luke headed towards the front of the carriage. Why was he so ready to throw himself into danger? He could survive for days in the carriage, hiding under the seats until help arrived. It was far less likely to get him killed.
The question was: who did Luke want to be in this new world?
Would he be the fat kid that was relentlessly bullied?
Would he submit to his lot in life, until he reached his breaking point again?
Luke wouldn’t let some overgrown rodents cow him. He wouldn’t let his fears get in the way of taking what he wanted. Tightening his grip on his new hammer, Luke stretched out the rest of his muscles. He could feel the power in his muscles.
As he took a deep breath, he felt adrenaline flow through his body once again. This time the build-up was gradual, like a gathering of storm clouds on the horizon. It was time to put this system to the test. Luke smiled.
It’s hammer time.
