Chapter 5 - Poison and Monkeys[M]

[FMC] instantly hangs up, but I don't mind, and begin to walk around.

I wander around the dense forest, staring at the many plants that could be found. Whenever I look at something new, a *ding* goes off and my guidebook automatically updates itself with new information. Very useful if you ask me, but Momo suddenly calls out to me,

"You should learn the mechanics of this world before you engage in any fighting. Things can get quite complex you know?"

I turn towards her and see her yawn, then fall back to sleep. 

I was interested in what these "mechanics" would be, but was suddenly jumped by a rat-like creature-

this time, it's an actual rat.

I hear a ding and look at my guidebook, it seemed to be of an species, but looking at the rats profile picture I grimace, 

That, is disgusting.

It had this purple-ish fur, almost as if it was infected, and smelled like sewage water from back on Earth. I kept twitching, its eyeballs moving around weirdly, making me very uncomfortable. I slowly pickup a stick (the only thing nearby) and smack the rat. The stick breaks upon impact, and the rat suddenly turns around and jumps at me. I easily dodge towards the left, but when the rat landed, it passed out. 

That...was anticlimactic.

I grab another stick, get to my knees, and start poking at it, and suddenly the rat explodes, the stick dissolving with it. Hmmm, the conclusion I come to is...:

purple = dead.

I know right, this is peak intelligence. 

But in reality, I was testing the game for its 'gimmicks'.

 If close range weapons dissolve just like that, how would I fight these creatures? 

The answer is very simple: Long-range weapons.

"Bingo!" exclaimed Momo, almost as if she could read my mind.

I turn towards her, and suddenly see a big menu screen pop up:

 1. Almost all things are poisonous in this area.

 2. To be discovered...

 Rules of Combat:

 1. To be discovered...

>

It seems like certain flags need to be activated by either observation or predictions, which would then give me solid evidence that these things are actually true.

This is like a dream come true! I don't need to worry about memorizing every single gimmick that would probably screw me over in the near future. I excitedly run around the forest, trying to absorb as much information as I can. I encountered an , which was, of course, poisonous. This was a flying creature, so I decided to chuck a rock at it, and after the rock hit, the fly exploded into pieces, leaving purple slimy goo everywhere. The rock, although a lot harder surprisingly dissolves as fast as the stick did.

The toxin eats everything, huh.

I run around the forest until night time comes, and at exactly eight p.m., an inventory was unlocked. I look in my inventory and see it already supplied with some food and water, a tent, and a pistol, with an infinite number of bullets called 'activation bullets'. 

A pistol? Instead of being excited, I become more skeptical. That seems to be too easy for such a game, especially with infinite bullets, where ranged weapons are the best choice of combat. 

The tent has a 1 meter safe zone around it, where no mobs would be able to enter, but today, I decide to explore the world during night-time. This was a habit that I have developed across years: always try your best to explore the night-time as thoroughly as day-time, as early as you can, since things could change after a few days. I leave the tent in the middle of the forest, and venture outwards into the forest. 

While walking around, I hold my pistol close to my body, waiting for any signs of movement or reaction. I here a flutter, and looking up, I see an , also known as a bat. I shoot the bat, and the bat explodes, leaving more of that goo lying on the ground. I quickly move forward, and I see a big shadow in the middle of the forest. I carefully walk closer, and finally realize that it is not a shadow, but rather a hole. I look down into the hole and see a bottom-less pit, but suddenly shadows are moving from wall to wall. 

I instantly realize that danger is coming, and run backwards to get cover behind trees. I make it just in time, and behind the tree, I see three relatively large creatures, which looked like monkeys-except they had these horns protruding from their head and purple bubbles growing on their back. Looking more closely, my guidebook chimes in and determines that the animals are . This is surprising, since all creatures that I have met up to now were all named after their scientific name, with no added words. But with the word toxin....

Seems poisonous to me, right?

My instincts tell me to run, but I really wanted to fight these monsters. I decide to use my cover to conduct a surprise attack killing at least one of these monkeys. I slowly crawl towards the side, and get a perfect view of one monkey. I pull the trigger on my pistol and shoot, hitting a monkey right in its head, but the monkey didn't die, and rather turned towards me and prepared to jump. 

Oh crap!

I run as fast as I can, but can hear monkeys swinging on the trees above me. I blindly shoot behind me, and can hear contact, but the monkey shakes it off as if it was an acorn that fell on its head. 

"WHY DON'T I HAVE REAL BULLETS!!! THESE ACTIVATION BULLETS DO NOTHING!!"

I continue running for a while, but realize that I would soon run out of stamina. The only way I live is to kill them, but my bullets seem to do no damage towards the monkeys. I continuously shoot behind me, but suddenly hear the familiar sound of a creature exploding, and turn around to realize that one monkey has died. As I glance at the (remains) of the dead monkey, I notice one thing peculiar. The bubbles on it's back have broken, with goo spilling all over the monkey, instantly melting it. 

Using this information I predict that the only way to kill these monkeys is to shoot their bubbles, but upon turning back around ready to fight, the monkeys have already disappeared.

"Aw man, did they run because one of their friends died? How pathetic."

I was bummed that I couldn't kill the other monkeys, but also glad, since I was very exhausted. Upon inspecting the dead monkey closer, I see an item that I could pickup. I grab it and a *ding* can be heard, 

I was way too tired to read what it did right now, so I decided to take a nap and wait for the next day. I slept at about 2:00 am, but right before I fell asleep, another notification appeared,