Opening his dark brown eyes, Aki saw a completely white room. He wasn't even laying down, but standing straight and staring directly at a RPG like window, the only other thing he could make out in an infinite whiteness all around him besides his own body, messy brown hair going up like a helmet and raising up because of his hours of laying against an airplane seat, pudgy belly hidden by a thick shirt and a jacket...
In reflex, he reached for his phone, but it wasn't there. That made his emotional mind shoot up in alarm together with logical mind. He'd been using that phone for five years now! Unless he could recover the data inside of it, then he was fucked! Nevermind all the porn, his meme collection was mostly in there, having more than doubled in size since the last time he'd bothered to save it somewhere else!
With nothing better to do than escape this circumstances to look for it, his mind went cold and he read and re-read the window in front of him.
{CONGRATULATIONS! You have been selected to participate in the incredible game 'Limbo', a very interactive and rewarding game where you can obtain fame, fortune and power! Trade and fight other players on the main world! Become the best! Spend all the time you want playing with our instanced time dilation!
Would you like to play?
Y/N?
NOTE: As you have acquired a copy of the game by defeating a player, you have already stepped inside the Hell station: Gate, and as a result, suffered severe damage due to the release of energies! Unless you become a player, you will die!}
"Yeah, right." Was his reaction. If someone bumbling about with so little sleep in them could kill one player so easily, there would be no way said energies wouldn't be causing gigantic problems over the whole world, nevermind the whatever it was that created and mantained this game. No, it was more likely that getting the game invitation normally killed the person and only those close to death would receive it, being miraculously saved when they accepted, or that this was some kind of security protocol because of the player killing.
He had, after all, done this whole thing in a daze, like when he was younger and followed cats through the streets, the diference being that he just went through a flight from Brasil to Japan with several annoying children onboard, a smelly seat mate and very little sleep due to being unconfortable. His mind was telling him to go in other directions at the time as he walked around, waiting for his father, who was late, while walking to the night breeze, but his instincts screamed at him to lash out when he saw the glimpse of that dangerous looking old man despite him dissapearing after he blinked once.
Aki pressed the 'Yes' button.
{Welcome!
Now calculating life achievements:
Fillial child: +1
Student (High school): +2
High class: +1
1000 books: +1
Virgin: +1
Traveler: +1
Barely autistic: +1....}
"I can guess what that one is, but go suck a dick! That's even more ofensive than the virgin one!" He complained, the menu screen actually stopping to hear his complain, resuming the continuous writing as he took a deep breath and didn't look like he had more to say.
{Player killer: +5
Balsy: +1
You have '14' special points! Distribute them as you wish before beggining the tutorial!}
After such message, another window opened, this time showing a simple status page with white letters over a black square, though 'Sp' was colored red and 'Gp' was gold. His ID was blank, so he mentally nudged it to change and a keyboard appeared.
ID: Aki
Level: 0
Sp: 14
Gp: 0
Hp 8/8
Mp 14/14
STR: 9 (F-)
DEX: 6 (F-)
VIT: 8 (F-)
PER: 8 (F-)
INT: 14 (F)
SPR: 12 (F)
Skills:
Mental corruption (Uncommon)
Seeing that this game actually reconised him to have such skill, he did not think of it as a bad thing, he knew enough DeD to understand he'd do well against basic mental attacks and such, maybe even avoid being tricked by some illusion if he had enough perception.
Back to atributes, however, he did not like that '-' next to his designation. Messing around a bit, he discovered that he could do whatever he wanted with the points he had before giving a mental comand to finish things up.
Each five points were equivalent to a rank and each leter had three ranks, as he discovered by pushing his attributes over ten and inteligence over 20 (which needed two Sp per point at that stage) before getting everything back and finally distributing things up.
Sp: 5
Gp: 0
Hp 8/8
Mp 14/14
STR: 10 (F-)
DEX: 10 (F-)
VIT: 10 (F-)
PER: 10 (F-)
INT: 15 (F)
SPR: 12 (F)
Mentally acknowledging the distribution, Aki felt a great, comforting warmth flowing into his body, the changes begining. While his appearance didn't actually change much, though he did lose some fat in the process, he knew his body was healthier, sturdier and more compact, his mind clearer, though it was still hard to express what in the actual hell had been done to his coordination, which was obviously much better all around, no matter what he tested. With a smile, he begun the tutorial.
His vision immediately went blank for a moment, he felt like he'd been falling and suddenly he was standing again. This time with his back to a gray wall, staring at what was clearly a destroyed office building.
Seeing there were bullet marks on desks and some cartridges on the ground, Aki crouched, trying to make himself a smaller target. He didn't try to look through the nearby windows, instead making his way towards the nearest cubicle. There was an open door right in front of his spawn, so of course an enemy would be coming from there if he was stupid. No reason to jump through the windows though.
Only when he made sure there was no way to see him through either the window or door did he dare to give the system any attention.
{Main mission: Survival
Difficulty: Tutorial
Mission description: You are the last surviving member of a newby mercenary company fighting in X country's civil war, having escaped pursuit and lost most supplies, you must survive on your own. Leave enemy territory or hide for one week. Remaining time 6 : 23 : 57 : 53}
'You want to have me survive, right? So it's fine if i am hiden at the last second of the timer but kill my way through while training the other days, right?" He scoffed, some mirth surfacing as he closed his eyes and felt his surroundings.
Everything smelled, generally of oil, what he could only guess was used gunpowder, and stale water. He was covered in dirt, but there was a small knife and an empty can of beans where he'd spawned. There was a light breeze. No steps coming in his direction or away. Nothing burned.
This was likely a safe zone of sorts, so he left the table, placed the can where he'd hid himself previously, and took the knife with him as he slowly reached the entrance, stepping on the balls of his feet as he paid attention so that his slow steps would not fall over some rubble or pencil he'd not seen before.
Such tactic took him through thirty very anti climatic minutes of trying to sneak through the building, but eventually had him out. The streets were deserted, several buildings in similar states to the one whose exit he just reached filled every space in his view, several even toppled or crumbled over.
He would have left right then and there, going west, but some gangers came in two vandalized police cars full of spikes, parking around the general area where he was about to leave.
This could either be a programed event that would happen no matter when he left the building, which he really doubted considering what this kind of game generally entailed, or a penalty timed event, these guys were already looking for him and thanks to the system trying to spice things up with mister cautious, they'd found his latest resting spot just as he was exiting.
Really, it wasn't a bad thing, not at all!
There was no way all eight men would be able to simply drop on him, they'd need to spread the search. If one entered the building he stood at, he could ambush them and steal their gear, which was much better than the black tank top and camo pants he'd found himself with considering at least two of them had bullet vests. Though his boots were definetly the better option around.
Just to be specific, his clothing had been changed to match his role, the only thing that was actually his were the boots. He wanted to get used to wearing clothing for colder climates, so he'd worn plenty of layers on the airplane.
Mental confirmation done, Aki started preparing.
*****
Turns out, waiting quietly in a dark corner is quite boring and exausting, but that all goes away the moment your target starts getting close.
Two people had entered his building, neither specially alert from the look of things. There was no convinient radio for them, though Aki guessed that was mostly because his first battle should be a bittle washed up or something, meaning that unless that girl fired her hand gun, there would only be a medium-low risk of them being heard if quickly delt with.
So he waited until neither were watching the other's back and pounced on the woman from inside one of the half closed cabinets they had not bothered to check cabinet they had not checked after she entered a new room. He was no assasin from a special order though, meaning he could only use the surprise to hug her arms to her chest, hit his forehead to the back of her's and stab her chest, pushing her more into the room and out of view.
Said action plan worked to the T, his victim barely making a sound as he tackled her, one stab to the chest and another to the shoulder as they entered the room and he hit her head again, his own trobling in pain he ignored. Instead of trying to strangle or choke, he simply stabbed her collarbone, right bellow the neck, before letting her fall to the ground as the other guy was certainly coming.
"Felici... Argh!" And he really was, even managing to avoid a stab to the face by sacrifing his left hand as he crossed the doorway to what seemed like a raided cafeteria no one had bothered to clean.
He didn't know if he did or not have time for another stab, so he just rotated the blade together with his body and pushed the man a bit down so he'd be in a very awkward position to receive his gut punch.
This actually made it so that he was also in a strange position, he should have probably punched the man's face, so he held the knife and the unmoving hand fin a way so as to point awhay from himself before throwing his whole body weight forward, both man going against the wall, one of them getting a knife to the lung.
After all of that, Aki was pretty spent, but with some adrenaline still in his blood, he released the guy and turned around, only to see the still choking woman trying to reach for her gun and failing spectacularly.
So instead he reached for the crowbar the man had dropped and hit him in the head for good measure, having him fall the side, unconscious or dead.
A quick well placed stomp later and he now had a gun. What could possibly go wrong!
{Congratulations! You have learned 'Stealth: beginner (common) through your own efforts.
Congratulations! You have learned 'Knife work: beginner (common) through your own efforts.}
A wave of warmth a bit similar to one from when he distributed his points came to him, this time leaving his body and mind with better ideas of how to avoid making noises and to how to better cut and stab with knifes.
He smiled, he had people to murder, and this was incredibly fun.