When I open my eyes, I can no longer see the sky only a concrete ceiling, I'm inside a building lying on the ground.
'Wasn't I in a forest?'
'What happened?'
I try to stand up, but my body refuses to obey, the pain from my wounds is unbearable and I barely manage to sit on the ground. I look around the room, it's mostly empty I can only see Nina standing in front of a machine, it looks like an old computer.
"Nina?"
She quickly turns around and comes to my side, I notice the worry on her face.
"Don't move, you have not recovered yet."
'That's right, I almost died.'
"How long was I out?"
Nina tilts her head while holding her chin and struggling with the answer, looking very cute and funny at the same time.
"Nina isn't sure, maybe one hour."
I sigh in relief, I was expecting to have been unconscious for a whole day, I'm even surprised that I woke up at all, those damned dogs certainly messed me up.
Studying my body I notice chunks of my flesh missing from both arms and legs, I can see them healing fast enough that it's noticeable with a single glance.
"What happened?"
Nina glares at me.
"You knew didn't you?"
'I made a bet, looks like I won.'
"I guessed that a higher concentration of monsters also meant a higher concentration of people, was I right?"
Her left eye seems to twitch a little, tears beginning to form inside until they start rolling down her face. She looks sad, but also relieved.
"You can't do that, you can't use your life like that, and… you can't leave Nina alone."
'Why is she so attached to me?'
"It's okay now, I'm here."
She hugs me while letting all her emotions out, I caress her long black hair, It's soft and nice to the touch. We remain in that position for a couple of minutes.
"So, are you going to tell me what happened?"
Nina looks at me and smiles while pinching my arm, some anger in her eyes.
"That hurts."
"If you try to do something like that again, it will be worse."
"Okay okay, I will try to not do something like that again."
Her eyes narrow and the expression on her face is one of doubt.
"Molly, Kat and Nina ran as fast as we could… a few minutes after running we saw buildings and people, Nina ran with all her might shouting for help, tens of people came with Nina when they heard about the pack of monsters."
'Village, tens of people…'
"What is this place? Who are these people?"
"They are all like us, Players as they call themselves."
She pauses for a moment thinking what to say next. Then, the pants wearing blonde guy comes in, trying to show a reassuring smile.
'I don't like this guy.'
"The first objective of this so-called game is to reach a village, this place."
His voice is deep and confident, he observes me from a meter away, examining my condition.
"How long have you been in this village?"
"Everyone here just arrived today, the buildings were already here when the first people arrived."
He extends his hand with a smile on his face.
"I'm Marcus."
I shake his hand.
"Charles."
Then, he proceeds to explain what he knows so far about this place, this 'game'. First, he made me take a look at my tablet, the [QUEST] had been unlocked. Highlighted in green was the message '[1. Arrive to a village – rewards available]', so I tapped the [Claim Rewards] button.
[Rank F – Skill Card]
[Rank F – Weapon Voucher]
Marcus explained that those rewards were to be exchanged through the computer, some sort of 'shop' is available there, it's possible to exchange points for weapons, skills and pants… well, clothes.
The points? They can be obtained by transferring the loot from killing monsters, the system would appraise the items we wish to exchange and give the points for us to use on the shop.
'It seems like a straightforward system.'
After answering all my questions about the 'game', he gave me the information they have gathered so far, which wasn't much different from what I already experienced so far.
Then he asked me to join a hunting team, the OS in the computers allows the registration of teams. Which benefits players when battling in groups, as the experience is equally distributed within the members of the team and the loot is distributed by the team leader. A team can have up to 12 people, and currently there are 5 teams in the village.
The situation on this place is somewhat complex, the village is a safe area and monsters can't come inside, the problem is that these creatures have shown some type of pack mentality and are waiting around the borders of the village, hunting the people arriving. Four of the hunting teams were formed to patrol the borders and protect new arrivals, such as our group, which explain the quick response to Nina asking for help.
There is a fifth team, but it was formed by a group of people who don't want to work with the other members of the village, if what Marcus said is true, they seem more like thugs grouping together to benefit from the current situation. Once he was done explaining, he left Nina and me alone in the room.
"Are you going to join the village hunting teams?"
Nina hasn't left my side since I woke up, she has been holding my arm while resting her head on my chest. I won't deny it feels comfortable to have someone keeping me company.
'After all, I almost died.'
"I don't think so, they created the teams randomly to deal with the current situation, but long term they are bound to have conflicting opinions… their teams won't last long, besides I'd rather have my own team, I don't like the idea of having someone else as a leader."
"Nina and Charlie are a team then."
Looks like I'm going to be stuck with her for a long time.
"Yes Nina, we are a team."
"Let's register our team."
She sounds rather excited about the team thing.
'But priorities, I want pants.'
"Let me check the computer first."
With her help, I stand in front of the computer, the user interface is similar to the tablet. The biggest difference I can see are a couple of extra options in the menu.
[EXCHANGE]
[SHOP]
[TEAMS]
[SYNC]
All other tabs are the ones on the tablet, but everything is disabled except the [SYNC] option. So I choose that, a message appears asking me to confirm synchronization on the tablet. I do that and a couple of seconds later all the tabs on the menu are now available.
I check my [LOG] tab.
[Arrived at Village #1216 – Quest completed]
'Village #1216? How many villages are out there?'
Besides that, I confirm that six of the dogs died by my hands, less than I expected. Some tough bastards they are.
[Name: Charles Green]
[Title: -none-]
[Level: 3 – EXP: 55/75]
[Health: 19/35]
[Magic: 10/10]
[Strength: 7(+)]
[Agility: 5(+)]
[Vitality: 9(+)]
[Intelligence: 5(+)]
[Wisdom: 5(+)]
[Dexterity: 5(+)]
[Luck: 5(+)]
[Stat points: 0]
No level up this time, just additional experience points. The greatest difference is my current inventory.
[Dog Meat x 22]
[Dog Bone x 11]
[Dog Skin x 11]
[Rank F – Weapon Voucher x 1]
[Rank F - Skill Card x 2]
The quest rewards were added, so I go to the [EXCHANGE] menu and get my loot is appraised. The meat is worth 1 point, the bones and skin are worth 2 points each, the voucher is worth 50 points and the skill cards are worth 100 points each.
I decide to exchange both bones and skins for points, receiving a total of 44 points.
There is an option to exchange the meat for a consumable version of them, it can be converted into a meat jerky, but it is explained that a player with cooking skills can use the meat to create two meat jerkies. I decide to keep the meat until I know more about the cooking system.
After that, I choose the [SHOP] menu. I'm overwhelmed by the quantity of things in there, luckily there is a way to refine the search such as choosing the category of the item you are looking for.
[WEAPONS]
[ARMOR]
[SKILLS]
[CONSUMABLES]
My first choice is to look for clothes and I find what I have been looking from the beginning.
[Simple Pants]
[Rank: None]
[Description: Regular linen pants which offers no protection.]
[Cost: 1 point]
All the clothes with no rank cost only 1 point, so I get black pants and a white shirt, spending the grand total of 2 points.
"The joy of wearing pants."
Nina looks at me confused, then I look at her still naked body, she no longer covers herself when I'm staring.
'This can't go on.'
"Choose a dress or something, I will get it for you."
She positions herself in front of me, her small body fitting perfectly within the space between me and the computer. We scroll through the list of rankless clothing, there are multiple designs and colors but Nina decides on a simple white dress.
I transfer the dress to her and wait for her to put it on, she just remains sitting there naked, clearly no intention of dressing herself or moving from her current spot.
She leaves me no choice but to keep looking at the store with her sitting in front of me, at least she smells nice.
'Wait, how is it that she keeps smelling nice after killing those dogs?'
Then, I notice that even I had no blood covering me.
'Did she clean my body?'
'Forget it.'
I keep looking within the shop, getting a pair of simple shoes for both Nina and me.
After that, I spend some time looking at Rank F weapons, there are swords, knives, shields, staffs and weapons I can't even recognize.
So far, I've fought like some sort of tank or bruiser.
'Should I get a shield?'
I don't think it would be comfortable for my fighting style, so I just keep scrolling through the different weapons, but I find nothing that suits me. Nina, noticing my indecision takes control of the computer, and there they are.
[Iron Gauntlets]
[Rank: F]
[Attack Power: 8]
[Description: These gauntlets seem rather crude but will be effective nonetheless]
[Cost: 75 points]
'Those are exactly what I need.'
Marcus told me that using the voucher I can get any weapon within Rank F, so I use mine to get the gauntlets. I hope I'm not making a mistake.
"Thank you Nina."
Her eyes light up.
"Now you choose a weapon for Nina."
'Right, how should Nina fight?'
I'm going to be covering for her, I'd rather have her using a ranged weapon to deal damage. There are no guns within the Rank F weapons.
'Maybe a bow…'
I check the skill list and find the basic archery skill, which would complement the bow.
"Would you like to use a Bow?"
"Nina doesn't mind if that is what Charlie wants."
'This girl…'
There are different types of bows in the store, some grant a longer range in exchange for attack power.
[Basic Bow]
[Rank: F]
[Attack Power: 10]
[Description: A common bow for hunting.]
[Cost: 75 points]
I think the Basic Bow suits Nina better, at least for our current purpose which is hunting those monsters. I want her to keep her distance from the monsters, but not far enough that I won't be able to protect her.
"Are you sure it's okay for me to choose?"
She turns her head towards me and nods.
"I trust Charlie."
For the first time she didn't refer to herself as Nina, I guess that means she is being serious.
"Okay then, let's get your bow."
We pick the Basic Bow and then I realize my mistake, the arrows aren't included. I search for arrows, luckily the standard arrows are cheap. A standard arrow quiver includes 25 arrows and costs 2 points, I get 5 quivers for Nina.
After that, we pick the archery skill for her to be able to actually use the bow and arrows.
[Basic Archery]
[Rank: F – Passive Skill]
[Proficiency: 0/10000]
[Description: The basic techniques to mastering the bow.]
[Cost: 150 points]
We get the skill using her reward card, which allows the purchase of any Rank F skill.
Once we are done, Nina decides to stand up and equip her dress, shoes, bow and quiver. The quiver is a belt quiver, so it is attached to her waist.
When Nina holds the bow, she actually looks like a real archer, grabbing an arrow from her quiver and swiftly placing it in the bow while pointing towards the wall. Learning the skill seems to really affect her performance.
'Now I'm excited to choose a skill for myself.'
'Right, I have two skill cards. I wonder what I will find.'