Beyond The Screen Chapter 2
"Where is this?"
When Alex opened his eyes, he found himself at a familiar place, it was like the dark city he saw in the game.
"N-No, no way, no way"
However the city wasn't dark, the sun was shining and it was filled with people.
[Welcome to Project Nightfall.]
[You were chosen to save this world!]
"I never asked to be cho..."
[The city you are seeing right now is from the future you need to achieve.]
[If you fail, this world and your world will cease to exist.]
[The System will help you on your journey.]
[Status of Alex Hart.]
Level: 3
Health: 200% (100%)
Sanity: 393% (293%)
Mental Strength: 50
Strength: 49
Agility: 30
Goodness: 100
Skills: System (S+), Lie Detection (D), Hero's Composure (A+), Holy Power (D)
Titles: Shattered Trust (A), Hero (???)
Shattered Trust: +100% Health, -7% Sanity
Hero: +300 Sanity, +30 Strength, ???, ???....
[Sanity is your will to fight darkness and to stay alive. If you lose all of it, darkness will consume you.]
[You, as the Hero, restore others Sanity when they are near you.]
[Mental Strength is the only way you have to restore Sanity]
[No one can restore your Sanity.]
"....."
Alex was silent the whole time. He would normally be very scared in such a situation but he felt serene, possibly because of the 'Hero's Composure' skill.
'A System…'
Alex remembered what the System said to him before.
- You have two lives, including one try
The meaning which was vague is now evident.
The first life was playing the game, the second life was his.
'I am already tired of it.'
[You can ask the System four questions.]
"Why me?"
[…..]
The System remained silent.
"…"
Alex decided to not pry further since he knew that if the System could tell him, it would.
"Do Players know about skills?"
Alex asked the question because he knew what differentiates horror games from action games or RPGs. People die in both, but in RPGs people have a chance to win, a chance to fight.
However, in horror games, people usually have 2 options, hide or escape.
[Yes, they do. Nearly all their skills are non-offensive.]
He didn't know whether he should be happy or not. Having non-offensive skills is better than nothing but he wished offensive skills existed.
'One question left.'
"Tell me about the labyrinth that forms right after teams are made."
[It is called Labyrinth of Doppelgangers, in it, each team member spawns away from each other.]
[Doppelgangers can only attack their prey after disguising as a teammate.]
[It normally attacks people who are alone but they can infiltrate into a team.]
[It fuels its energy on trust, so it can't kill its prey unless they trust it or leave an evident opportunity.]
[If a Doppelganger's knows you found its identity it will run away.]
"Am I the only one with a System?"
[No, you represent the force of good, while there exists a force of evil.]
[The force of evil representative knows about your existence and is within the players, but neither of you know who is the representative.
[The representative of evil is currently much stronger than you.]
[You have to secretly get stronger or you will face consequences.]
[You get points from doing good in secret. The representative of evil needs to sacrifice people in order to help the Demon King awaken from the seal. He also needs to be secretive to not hinder the awakening.]
[Sacrifice means anyone dying at any time and place.]
'….I can tell that this thing is very useful, never has it occurred to it to tell me that someone is out for my head?'
Alex was mad that the System didn't tell it something as important as that without him asking.
[You used all four questions.]
"Useless bastard."
[…..]
[New Title: Weeb]
'...Fuck'
***
Alex was back to the dark city once again.
He got scared but quickly regained his composure.
'I won't talk to any Players until they all calm down. I need to get my thoughts together'
'I don't know who wants to kill me so I can't just go tell people who I am'
He wanted to save as much people as possible but they would have to rely on their selves since the spawn is random, he also can't directly help them even if they were together because the representative of evil is currently stronger than him.
'Since Doppelgangers are not that strong I can use my Holy Power to weaken them then snap their necks.
He remembered the Lie Detection skill.
"At least I have that."
"Have what?"
It was Maxwell, the leader of the team he joined before.
"N-Nothing."
"I noticed that you didn't find any team yet. How about joining ours?"
"Sure, thank you."
"Leader, couldn't you find anyone else but this weeb?"
It was Eva.
"...."
Sigh.
'Maybe I shouldn't have cursed at the System....'