"Did you really remember all the details from the last time you played this game? How many times did you play this game?" Adam asked in awe.
"I don't know." Valerian said as he pointed to the centre of the map with a bland look on his face and then said one word with so much more vigor than all the other words he had said.
"Traps."
…
"Welp, can't help you with that." Adam said after staring at the face of this middle aged man in utter confusion.
Then he pointed to the area marked in a circle of mud. "Is that safe ground that's actually safe? I understand a lot of Safe zones stop being safe zones after a while so if that's your base then surely it stays safe?" Adam said staring Valerian in the eye.
"I don't know." Valerian replied coldly as he rolled the Map back up.
"I expected more from you, Adam. This was the proposition of a lifetime. Now you shall lose that one life of yours." Valerian said as he replaced the map into his little bag and walked away.
The existence of more words in his sentence was enough to leave Adam's mouth agape.
"You and that black ruffian shouldn't approach my base. I promise, if you don't die on the way there, then you shall die while trying to get in. Good bye Adam."
"Talk about a short tempered bastard." Adam said as he ran in the direction the rest of his supposed allies went.
--
A while into hiking through the dark trees he slammed his face into someone's back.
He stumbled back and pointed his blade towards what he slammed into.
The surrounding area was incredibly dark, it was ever so obviously nighttime.
A bright smile pierced through the darkness and Adam saw two fingers wrap around the tip of the sword and slowly but surely lowered it.
It was Kaiser.
"Speak of the devil." He said as he brought his face closer to examine it.
"You still have that arm?" Another voice pierced through the darkness and asked.
It sounded like Vari.
"Yes, yes I do." Adam replied, knowing precisely what request was coming next.
He could hear the sounds of the rats rummaging through the mud in front of him. He heard their vile squeaks and the sound they made while traversing through the thick mud.
"We need to get across this. Moon found an opening, but we didn't trust it enough to go in after him. He
might be dead, who knows. Just use that arm of yours and swing us a way, Moses." Vari said jokingly.
"Yeah, I'm doing fine, Vari. Thanks for asking. Nothing much happened I just thought to take a rest, no need for your concern, Kaiser… Bastards." Adam said sternly as he used the sword to guide his movements closer to see what they were seeing.
There was slight moonlight piercing through the dark sky so Adam could slightly make out what he was seeing.
It was like a sea of darkness… just flooding forward relentlessly.
Adam noticed a slight green glitch and blocked his eyes with his hands, expecting the system to pop up for every single one of the thousands of rats, but as he peeped through his fingers, he jus saw one huge panel in large block letters.
「Union: Resheph's Rodent Unit.」
"I see." Adam said. He didn't even question why there was no description, there was really nothing much to describe.
"What do you see, Moses?" Kaiser asked as he somewhat slithered to Adams side, with his arms folded and the unsettling smile still on his face.
Adam noticed how buff his hands were and looked down to see how skinny and scrawny his were. He wondered if they really had the choice to edit their Avatar or maybe Vari was not a couch potato gamer in real life like the gamers he happened to hear about.
"I see, that there is absolutely no way in. So I think we should just go." Adam said in response.
He remembered something about his Skill information being updated, so he decided to check out what it was for the first time, without even waiting for a reply from the duo.
They just stared at him as Adam fiddled with nothing, Vari's temper almost got the best of him as a vein bulged on his gleaming skull and he tried to grab Adam, but Kasier stopped him.
"Wait. Be polite." Kaiser said, as he calmed… or at least halted Varis rage.
Adam stared at the foreign panel, trying to grasp or understand what he saw.
「Active skills: NONE
Passive Skills: (Damn, you have more than the average Beginner.)
- Mediocrity of a sinner I
- Beatitudo, motus, gaudium (Happy User (Item-Based))
- Instinct I (Item-Based)
- Gratiam Regis (System-Modification)
- Nostra Scientia (System-Modification)
(Click on the skill for a descriptive description.)」
Adam was confused, he understood what the first three passive skills were, but the last two were weird, they were jumbled letters to him, he immediately tapped on them but the resulting drop down was the exact same, just jumbled words that made absolutely no sense.
All he knew about the Gratiam Regis was that it modified the system he had and was seeing.
"You done?" Kaizer asked politely as he grabbed Adams shoulder and pulled him around.
'Do you guys also have five Passive skills?' Adam thought to ask, but he remembered something once more.
「You need as much hidden knowledge up your sleeve to progress. Everyone is lying to you.」
This time, the phrase he remembered was not just a fleeting thought, but as shown through the green system panel right in front of his eyes nd blocking that of Kaiser.
"I've seen this before." Adam said out loud.
He was being overstimulated. In fact, from the second he stepped foot in this hell, he ws overstimulated by random floods of information all at once. He seemed to genuinely be showing signs of going crazy.
Kaiser raised his hands, immediately, without an extra moment to generate a doubt, Kaizer wanted to slap Adam across the face. But before his hand could begin to descend, a loud voice was heard from beyond the rat swarm that was passing.
"HEYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! Varii!! Kaizer!!! I think I recognize this part of the Land. This place actually has Fog too, so its probably more familiar to you fools too." Moon said loudly.
"Oh, that explains a lot actually." Vari said back.
Kaiser looked to where the voice originated from, his hand still in the air and Adam hanging from the grip he had on his shoulder.
Kaiser wanted to respond, but he turned his face to look back at Adam who was also looking towards where Moons voice came from.
Kaizer still brought down the full brunt of his already braced slap straight down on Adams cheek and immediately his light skin turned bright red.
Kaizer then dropped him on the floor as he almost curled up into a ball and held his cheek in pain while biting his tongue so he wouldn't scream.
Vari stared with empathetic eyes and a look of disapproval on his face. Hypocritical given he had even worse ideas in mind.
"Moon child, how'd you survive that unscathed?" Kaizer asked softly.
Moon seemed to hear him even though he wasn't really loud.
"Oh, I didn't. I have many manybites, I am definitely infected now. But luckily that fabric from the grave site kinda stopped them from ripping chunks of flesh outta me." Moon replied. Vari now noticed how his voice sounded like he was actually in a lot of pain in a way. Even with Mediocrity of a sinner that offsets 60% of pain.
"Must have been painful as hell." Vari yelled back.
"It definitely was. But it isn't a first, so I know how to handle it." Moon said back.
Adam remained curled up in the mud.
"Have any more of that fabric, Moon chid??" Kaizer asked.
"Even if I did, there was no way for me to give it to you, given the situation. Anyway, they ripped straight through the durability of it and destroyed most of it, I barely have enough to cover myself now. Might have to leave a few weapons since I needed the fabric for a make-shift bag." Moon replied.
"Well, it isn't worth it I guess, even if we did have enough fabric and could send it, getting to the other side isn't really worth losing a lot of HP and getting Infected over." Kaiser said with a smile still on his face.
Vari also stood across him, with both his hands on his hips and his legs wide open and said.
"Also, since he's infected, it'll be beneficial to keep him away from the kid and the arm until we get those herb thingies."
"He's right, we cant have our Moon child turning to an Infected disciple. Find some herbs and the safe zone cave… And well find a way to the otherside of these rats…" Kaizer said as he turned to look at Adam and realize that he knocked him out clean.
Vari also turned around and laughed.
"Put to sleep!" He said with a chuckle.
Moon was already gone. He didn't hesitate when it came to moving forward.
Kaizer picked Adam up, making sure to keep the arm away from him and strapped to Adam alone as they moved in the opposite direction to the Rodents forwards progression.
"Kaizer." Vari said after six minutes of silence.
"Yes, Benny?" Kaizer replied.
"If this is really real, and not some fever dream or a prank by Invertive… You know this will be our last chance…" Vari said.
"Yeahh… We just have to make sure we do it this time… No excuses. We'll definitely do it this time." Kaizer said, the huge grin on his face, slowly got smaller until his teeth weren't visible anymore.