It's been four days since the players came to the Riber city eastern barack and most were still settling in the new place and getting used to the life in the barracks.
Though for Girisia, it was a torturous experience, being this close to his family has not been great for him. But he was a fighter who had gone through worse and was slowly adapting to this new life of his.
He looked at the joyous player leaving for their death with the military, his way to calm his nerves and lighten his mood.
Since coming to this place, the player population has gone out for reconnaissance missions to potential danger spots in the unclaimed land. This was the army's way of utilizing the respawn ability of players, all of these missions usually end with most of the players dying and leaving a mark for the soldiers to be wary of or eradicate depending on the danger.
Seeing players getting used like expendables did made his mood a bit happy, but as he looked around himself.
'It seems I stood out too much here.' Since day three, Girisia has noticed a certain pattern among the guards of the barracks. All of them seem to follow each and every move of his.
'Are they getting suspicious because I didn't even try to look for any missions?' He summarized all the things he had done till now, he usually gave quest to players while acting as if he was just having small talk with them, so the only reason he may have been found out should be the first one, or that he didn't hide his quest properly.
'I made a mistake, I look down on players for being ignorant, but I am still treating the NPCs as digital constructs with no will of their own… These are real people.' Girisia regretted his actions now, he looked down on NPC's subconsciously and hence has entered their eyes.
And as they haven't approached him yet, he may still have some time. So even if it was dangerous, he was going to join the next expedition.
What Girisia didn't know was in fact, it was not his fault for his ignorant actions, his INT stat only reached a measly 0.6, severely affecting his thinking ability. This being the reason he easily loses himself to his thoughts. And his plan of using GrannyRussia to obtain the materials of his class also didn't pan out well, due to being restricted in the barracks, as he was still not able to give out big quests and the small quest only had the upper limit of 100 exp points.
So at the current moment, he lacked the required amount of experience required to form the quest he wanted.
But even if he couldn't give out the request, he still planned to make contact with her, but for some reason, she and his siblings were inseparable. Forcing him to bid time and waste his quest slots unless players do simple chores for him.
The kind of useless players that at the moment sang praises of him on the player forums making him a small celebrity among the Riber City outpost barracks and a reason of envy for other players from different regions.
*****
Knowing he may get called for "special" work if he didn't do anything soon enough, Girisia joined the next expedition to the surprise of some of the guards. But they went with it as if there was nothing bizarre going on, but Girisia noticed their expression. The attention he brought on himself is not just a little, he needed to work hard if he wanted to clear himself of any suspicions.
A small expedition consisted of 3 armored trucks with the last one holding the immortal fodders, also called Anomans among which Girisia also sat while acting as the player around him.
The vehicles drove slowly on broken roads, through a decrepit city that has long been reclaimed by nature. A city which had a unique charm of its own, as the lack of human intervention has caused nature to eat away at its concrete and metal structures.
Now it was not a proof of human wisdom anymore, all it showed was the beauty that was nature itself.
But while the player can appreciate this beauty, the soldiers in the trucks were not as appreciative of this beauty, for this beauty hid nothing but death for them.
"We are fifteen minutes away from our destination, so get ready." A voice came from the wristband of all the players and Girisia. A voice that sounded a bit nostalgic to Girisia. "The anoman conscripts job is to map out explore the respective areas marked on your map and report on any mutant beast habitat. And if you come across any of them, just press the red button on the side of your wristband and we will send help."
Though the voice on the comms acted as if they cared for anomans, Girisia knew it was nothing more than a formality. He knew these the army treated the anomans as a delectable food for mutants and it doesn't matter if the players press the red button on wrist or not, the moment a player dies, the army will be notified on the place and a small 3d scan of the wrist band will be sent to their camp.
Meaning, the players were nothing more than bait.
And as he heard on the comms, the trucks soon stopped in an abandoned building with a strong foundation that used to be a shop of some sort. As for what kind, Girisia can't tell with the current state of the buildings inside.
'Well all it needs to do is provide shelter anyways.' He thought while helping the soldiers with cleaning and setting up the equipment like the other players. Girisia knew he didn't need to do this work, he had multiple ways to gain experience, but he still helped like other players, just to not stand out anymore.
"This place is really beautiful, the city looks barren compared to this place." Tara murmured as her eyes darted to the beautiful landscape that used to be a prosperous city once.
For her, this was the first time outside of the barracks of eastern outpost. She has only seen these kinds of landscapes on the forums that were put in by other players.
Elated by her new found freedom, she took in a deep breath. "The air feels so fresh in comparison." Her mind wandered, not knowing that her words and actions caught an eerie of a soldier.
While handing her a cargo box, he said. "This place may be beautiful, but I suggest you still remember why we came here."
Hearing these words from an NPC, Tara turned toward him in surprise.
And seeing the attention of a beautiful anoman, who looked like a human girl drawn to him, the soldier continued in grim detail. "It's nature's way to distract one with its beauty and then hunt it down, this whole place is the same, don't fall for it."
"There is a reason why no progress has been achieved eastward of Riber, This whole land is filled with gorenest that hide underground." The soldier said, pointing on the ground. "And who knows, there may be one just down below where we stand." He sighed.
"This month alone, we have burned down fifteen of these nests, and yes, such a high rate was only possible due to the help and sacrifice of your people. But this is still a bit concerning we haven't left even fifty kilometer radius of Riber yet." Even though anoman sacrifices has made it easier to find and clean the nest, it has still horrified the upper management of the city, they were surprised how close the gorenest have come to the city.
"And you, I know that death has no meaning for your people. But experiencing it is never a good feeling. Take care of yourself." The man left after giving his advice much to the dismay of Tara.
'Tch! And I thought I would be getting a new quest.' She ignored the warnings like usual and regretting wasting her time listening to the "flavor text" from before, she started to move the cargo handed to her.
Even the work of a coolie like this will reward her some experience and that little experience mattered, as the required experience to reach level 2 was 10k.
As for the classes, no one in the forums knew anything about it.
The old store was small, so the fortification and defenses of the vicinity didn't take long. While on the inside, soldiers in light gray uniform were setting up logistics equipment and signal towers. Which will be used to provide network to the wrist bands and to boost the transfer of data between the camp and the players.
"In the previous timeline, my brother made us work in the farm while he himself went to form connections and collect information on the gameworld. And I, at the moment, am doing something similar, but not to attract attention, but hide from it." Girisia spoke while rubbing his bald head. He shaved his head before leaving for this expedition with a small kitchen knife he obtained from a player after wasting a quest on him.
And as he was not used to using a blade to clean his beard and head, he has injured himself in a lot of places due to it. Now, his middle-aged face with pockmarks was for all to see, this new look also exposed some of his old injuries that usually hid under his beard and told of a history that even Girisia didn't know. With the biggest being the stitch marks left on his skull.
It would be a lie to say, he was not curious about the owner of this body.
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[Attack power: 7-12]
[Attribute: none]
Remark: A useful blade that can be used in a variety of ways, not a good weapon of choice during combat.
This was a grade one weapon of lower end, though its utility and importance in their current environment exceeded that of a gun.
Girisia has used this blade in the previous timeline as well, though unlike now, his stats were not in decimal values, hence it would be harder for him to maintain a stable grip on this tool unlike from his memories.