Sally had been through a lot in her life. Been under the threat of groups of Players. Toppled Dragons. Punched god in the face. But now, getting strapped into this device with the intention of going to another world… she was rather nervous.
“Theo will flip,” she said, knowing that he would not. Worried, sure, and possibly annoyed that he wasn’t part of the process, but he was a relatively calm person when not in combat.
“You don’t have to go,” Chuck reminded her for the third time. “Literally, you have the choice here.”
“I do want to.” She squirmed in the restraints. “It’s just nerves.” What if it went wrong, and she was error-ed in even worse ways? What if dying didn’t bring her back here, and she was stuck forever without her friends and family?
Dent stepped up beside the machine. “Don’t worry. I felt like that too.”
“You were the test subject?” It seemed so obvious, yet it shocked her.
Chuck rolled his eyes. “You have no idea how much he had to torment me into allowing him to be a guinea pig.”
“Turns out I can be pretty persuasive.” Dent grinned.
“Annoying, you mean.” Chuck shook his head. “But yes. Dent has been down to three worlds and back. Just briefly, but enough to test that death returns you here.”
Sally whistled to avoid swearing instead. That must have been pretty stressful for the both of them. “So… only some of this is still theory, then?”
The Architect narrowed his eyes. “Yeah.”
“Okay.” She blinked in response. “What are you going to do with the new world once I get it for you?”
“New tutorial island,” Dent offered. “Something more fit for purpose, to ease the unfortunate new Players into the world proper.”
She considered this. Although she was just dropped into the diner—late—due to her bugged nature, the actual Player experience didn’t seem to be that much better. Theo had mentioned that it was just a place in the forest with Quests delivered through the System. An island devoted to getting people more used to the new world was a good use of the extra resources.
“Alright. Earring is on. Nerves have calmed. I have sent you a message to forward on to Theo if I die for good or I'm stranded forever.” She paused and pulled a face. “I’d advise not reading it yourself.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Chuck said with a grimace. “Can’t wait to delete it once you return.”
“There’s no weird time dilatation stuff, right? I’m not going to be gone for an hour here and it’d be months there, or vice versa?”
Dent shook his head. “It’s pretty much one for one.”
“Neat.” She shrugged as best she was able to while she was held down. “Hit it when ready, then.”
“Alright. Follow the new System and Archie best as you are able. He will let you know when communication with us has been established.”
“Understood.”
A flick of a switch, and there was just darkness. An intense vertigo feeling like she was falling.
She was falling.
With a sharp hiss, there was a great thud and movement stopped, her legs bending, but most of the impact had been absorbed.
A thunk resounded around her as door panels jettisoned away from her position, her drop pod allowing fresh daylight to flood inside. With an arm over her eyes, she stepped out onto soft grass.
As she allowed the light to wash over her, she took in her surroundings and winced. A forest. Perhaps not unexpected, even if it was a little cliche. Vibrant greens and dark browns. She moved her feet up and down on the spot before looking down. Back in her classic diner outfit. Not the worst thing. A STAR on her wrist was gleaming, awaiting her attention. Her hair was... short-ish again, which actually made a nice change despite immediately missing the longer length.
Sally waited for a second, just absorbing the fact that she was on a different world. Some uninterrupted peace, looking around at the oddly unpopulated woods around her and ignoring the System for a moment. With a sigh, she held it up and pressed the impatient STAR - at least it would delay any building panic.
[Welcome to the System]
[Congratulations on being the first Player!]
[Please select your Class]
She pulled a face. At least they weren’t wrong about no Players ever being here. Wanting a Class right off the bat was a bit presumptuous. Let a gal get settled first.
[Warrior]
[Thief]
[Wizard]
[Ranger]
Four options. She tilted her head from side to side. Given she was here to take away abandoned resources, she figured Thief was quite fitting. She’d need to add Thief of Worlds to her long list of titles she was collecting.
[Thief Selected]
[Dagger x1 Acquired]
[Shortbow x1 Acquired]
Daggers! Now all seemed right in the world. When you held a dagger, everything was a knife sheath.
She pressed on the earring, hoping to have a little cat to speak to rather than go crazy inside her own head. A faint mist of amber circled down from the jewelry and onto the grass. Eventually a semi-transparent Archie formed and looked up at her with his emerald eyes.
“Ah,” he said. “That always feels a little uncomfortable.”
“You are intangible, so I cannot cuddle you.” She pouted down at him.
“I am intangible so that I cannot be targeted,” he corrected. “I am an extension of the Universal System, not a battle pet.”
“Snarky,” she murmured. “I’ve picked my Class.”
The cat did nothing but yawn as she opened up the STAR menus. Similar to what she was used to… but different. Simple and basic, with fewer options. Into the Inventory tab, she could see the two weapons given to her by the System.
Her brow furrowed. “They… didn’t even give arrows for the bow? It’s just the weapon.”
“You were warned this was abandoned, yes?”
“Are you always going to be such a grouch?” She held out the equipped dagger to observe it. Was pretty basic. A far cry from her [Skeleton Key] back home.
“No. I am influenced by several things.”
She waved him off, distracted by the fact that she now had a Quest eager for her attention.
[Quest 1: Kill 5 Giant Rats (0/5)]
“Now we’re talking!” She held out her hand before remembering she could no longer summon zombies. “It’ll take a while for the temporary nerf to settle in.” She looked up at the arrow pointing her in the direction of the designated foe.
“I have sent back binary confirmation that we have arrived to the Architect. It will take more power to establish basic communications.” Archie stood up and followed her along as she stepped off toward the woods.
“Neat! I’m in another world.” Sally spun the dagger around in her hand. “Away from my vampire squeeze, found family, and everything I fought and struggled for.”
“This kind of reaction is natural.”
She sighed. No stranger to a little mania, it had been a while since she felt this crazy. With a hop over a fallen log, she entered the shaded area underneath the canopy of surrounding trees. Ahead of her was a small furred creature. A long tail and two beady eyes of deep red.
“That’s not really giant,” she complained.
“Compared to a normal rat, it is.”
Sally gave no response as she was already off, sprinting toward the creature. Seemingly too busy sniffing at the dirt, the rat didn’t notice her approach until it was too late. With a practiced swing, she buried the blade into the furred neck of the creature.
[Eat Brains]
“Ugh, gross.” She wiped her tongue across the sleeve of her shirt. “Instead of here, let’s find a world where some thought was put into how brains taste.”
Archie didn’t respond, but sat and narrowed his emerald eyes at her.
[Quest 1: Kill 5 Giant Rats (1/5)]
Sally scowled at the notification at the top of her vision, unable to swipe it or otherwise cause it to go away from view. Perhaps it was a good thing this place had been abandoned before being put into use. There wasn’t even a map on her STAR, although she knew from the long, boring meeting that it was a rough circle shape.
Narrowing her eyes, she could see there were further rats dotted about this area of the forest. None of them seemed too bothered that she had just slain one of their comrades. Perhaps it was the black sheep of the family and she had done them a favor.
She looked down at it, as it now slowly rose back up to its feet. One zombie down. Who knew how many to go? A smile crossed her face as her feet bit into the dirt, launching her toward the next victim.
Each rat was killed in the same way, in short succession. She slid to a stop after the fifth and twirled to give them a bow. Her stomach threatened to empty itself from the motion, but she kept it together for now.
[Quest 1 Complete!]
[Level Up!] [Assign Stats?]
“I get stats here, that I can see.” She clicked her fingers. Perhaps things weren’t all bad, after all.
[Stats]
[Damage: 1]
[Defense: 1]
[Magic: 1]
[Jump: 1]
[Points left to spend: 1]
Sally pulled a face. Her hand hovered over Jump briefly, before she eventually added the stat point to Damage. “This is… perhaps my expectations have been too high.”
[Quest 2: Kill 8 Giant Rats (0/8)]
She crouched down beside the cat. “Arch, I’m going to need you to be honest with me. Does this place only have ‘Kill Giant Rat’ Quests?”
“Are you hoping for a yes, or a no?”
Her right eye twitched, and she looked back over at the forest dotted with the rodents. Behind her, a group of five undead ones waited patiently. She stood back up and pointed at the closest alive one. Her small swarm turned and bounded off, quicker than she expected, to pile onto the surprised living rat. Buried beneath her zombies, the group moved away.
[Quest 2: Kill 8 Giant Rats (1/8)]
She smirked. “When life gives you rats, you make rat jam.”
Theo paced around the house at a leisurely pace.
It stood to reason that Sally would have more things to talk with Chuck about if she was going to be the one on these missions. He even understood why they had picked her and not him.
Continuing on into the kitchen, it was rather warm in here now. The oven had been heating the space up even though it currently served no purpose.
Was that how he felt? The System was nice enough, but they had both felt drawn to something bigger. What if Sally was doing that right now? Would he be worried? Partially, sure. She could take care of herself, but he still cared about her well-being.
Would he be envious? Certainly. He could only hope she’d tag him in first whenever the opportunity arose.
Whatever she was doing, she should probably hurry up.
Otherwise, he might as well put his clothes back on.
“Ugh, gross.” Her stomach still hurt from the terrible rat brains.
[Quest 4 Complete!]
She groaned and just ignored the level up, putting the point into Damage immediately. Level Five now. The rats had no loot, but she now had almost two dozen zombie rats. Quests had just been a matter of walking along, pointing the horde in the direction of hapless living rats to be overrun.
“Chat has now been established, Sally.”
With a raised eyebrow, she looked over at the cat. “At last. I guess even level five isn’t that strong in this world. Are there even abilities?”
“There are, but that is as far as I know.”
They better be good ones. The fact that she could save one to bring home after made chewing through so many damn rats worth it. That and giving Chuck a new plot of land to use, of course. In saying that, she touched the earring to bring up the Universal System Chat.
[Sally: rats!]
[Chuck: Everything okay?]
[Sally: the only enemy here is giant rat]
[Sally: but otherwise fine]
[Chuck: Excellent, keep up the grind.]
[Chuck: Control is expanding, albeit slowly.]
She looked up to see what she had to do next.
[Quest 5: Kill Rat King (0/1)]
Oh. She slowly turned her head to where the arrow was pointing, only now seeing the large shadowed shape that had been hiding in her peripheral.
