I stayed seated on the ground as I thought about things and absentmindedly looked at the rocks. Until it all made sense, I shouldn’t have even been thinking about it in the first place! I wiped tears from my eyes. “T-this shouldn’t be happening… I am supposed to die!” I exclaimed with righteousness. Although as expected, nothing happened.
I cried for a while, hoping for everything to be a lie; hoping for everything to just vanish into nothingness. It was unfair, why couldn’t everything just end there? I thought I was finally free from everything.
As my thoughts drifted I began to think about the positives.
“I am finally free from this thing I called a curse, this rng simulator as I liked to put it…” Although I did not feel that much more happy thinking about the positives, more importantly. “Just… where am I?” I looked around looking for an answer, the skeleton was there but aside from bones hinting about a lot of death, I had no answer.
I couldn’t fathom what situation I was in, the only logical thing for me was that I didn’t die and ended up in some type of coma, a prisoner of my own brain. But I also felt like that would’ve been impossible. Especially with the RPG-like notifications.
“I guess… I just have to accept it for the time being, although… I have many questions…” Sigh. I attempted to stand up, albeit with difficulty I had little to no practice in the skill called balance. It was a bit complicated, taking me a few seconds just to be able to stand without support.
Even though it was hard, I felt happy that I was making some form of progress. Sure, I couldn’t run, or walk correctly for that matter. But it was something new to me, it made me feel joy. “Maybe it isn’t so bad…” I muttered as I looked at my feet. I thought I would’ve felt weird from being so far from the ground, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it should've been. There was also the possibility that I was just short.
I saw how my feet were doing, I did notice that I had no socks, no shoes, no pants even. A quick look at my body and I realized. “I am naked… and I am also a girl. Although I suppose I should've realized it with the voice change.” I had no idea how to feel about it, I guess I was happy that I no longer had to deal with my other struggles.
“Well, I should get clothed…” I said as I glanced back at where I woke up. There it was, a dirty skeleton that seemed to have been there for quite a while. The cloth was dirty, but looking around there was nothing. Did I have to steal from the skeleton to survive?
“No other choice… Sorry…” I apologized as I approached the skeleton, there was nothing else in the cave, aside from more bones. The only thing that was different was that place I woke up in, I felt bad for stealing from a dead person, but I wasn’t going to stay in such a state.
“Sorry mister skeleton, but I need it more than you!” I justified myself as I pulled it from under him; with a swift motion it came off along with a cloud of dust. “Cough, cough, I did it!” It was my first triumph, I raised it with one hand for the world to see. “Sorry again…” I apologized for my deeds again, although I quickly became stiff, the skeleton had collapsed. “Sorry…”
I sighed seeing I had now done something even worse. “Eee…” The skeleton started turning into dust. “Why so dramatic?!” It got faster… “I am sorry!” I genuinely felt bad for the skeleton.
However, I couldn’t take my eyes away from the skeleton, was it guilt? Was it curiosity? Whatever it was, it was beyond me. I watched it disintegrate into nothingness for a few seconds until nothing was left. “Sorry…” A final apology. “What’s that?”
There was something shiny where the skeleton just was. With more curiosity I extended my hand and touched it, it felt fluffy and light, no idea what it could’ve been, having no other choice I grasped it and brought it towards me. It was a small bag that was made out of something soft, was it leather? I had no idea. It also seemed to have something inside.
I opened the insides. “It’s an apple…” I said with disappointment. “I was hoping to find a legendary weapon or something… Grrr.” The growl returned along with the slight pain, then I felt saliva build up in my mouth. “So that’s what it was… Lucky for me I can eat now. Although, why would I find an apple in a pouch that came out of a skeleton?! That makes absolutely no sense.”
Without a second thought, I took out the apple and bit it, it was crunchy and juicy. It might have possibly been the best apple I ever had.
Ding!
[Title acquired: Scavenger — It was mine, I swear! It was left there for me to take! +50% Substance Bonus — Bottom 30%]
“Ha?" What do you even mean?! "What's substance anyway..."
[Title acquired: Desecrator — Merciless even against corpses! Who needs peace? -30% Charisma +50% Luck — Top 5%.]
“I said I was sorry!” Even the game thing recognizes it was wrong!
Ding!
[Title acquired: Taboo Seeker — You like stepping on glass… We admire it! Everything has consequences, be careful... +50% to all stats. Especial effect: Enables progression. Side-effect unsuccessfully evaded. — Top 0.3%]
“Even though it sounds good, I am afraid of what it means by stepping on glass, side-effect does not help either… and yet, I was planning on grabbing the other bones...” I heard yet another notification.
[Side-effect: You are now degraded — Nations’ rules do not apply to you nor to people interacting with you.]
“Ha?! Now I lost citizenship?! I don’t even know where I am!” This was stupid, everything was stupid! Why would titles give stat bonuses?! Hell, why would they even have side effects? Also, what was with the percent numbers? Was it a global scale for ego-boost? I mean, I understand no one sleeps with a skeleton, but like, if titles are so easy to get why are mine so high?! It simply does not make sense...
Also... the notifications are quite overwhelming...
“Well, at least I know I cannot stay here forever…” I grabbed the empty bag and covered myself with the cloth I took from the skeleton. Although he was gone, now. I am sorry… “I guess I should leave the other bones alone?” I thought about it and decided to leave them alone.
“Now, where should I go?” Then it dawned on me. “It doesn’t matter, now, does it? No one has to care for me anymore.” Everyone I knew, was effectively gone. I was alone now, which I hadn’t thought about. “I mean, I don’t know…”
I felt strange, almost empty. Was it, apathetic? I felt like there was no reason for anything at all. I could go and venture to the outside world, but for what? Everyone likes having a purpose for themselves no matter how bland it was, and yet, I felt like I had none. “Sigh, I guess I’ll figure it out along the way…” Although I still felt oddly reluctant to leave, something was not quite right.
I prepared myself and started walking out of the cave. I felt a bit excited about having a new opportunity at life. If it wasn’t just a dream, that is.
how do your percentiles work? when it says bottom 30% is that the same as being in the top 70% in other words 70% of people have this title or is it she's literally part of the bottom 30% of people and if so in relation to what? sorry it's just quite confusing.
I've seen it used before so I figured it wouldn't be confusing. The bottom 30th percentile would be below 70% percent of people. Top 10th percentile would be. Above 90%. It can be quite confused, but if we take a 1 to a 100 rating. Bottom 30% would be 1-30, and top 10% would be the numbers that are above 90-100. Although I suppose I should've used the word percentile since percent is not quite the synonym... Sorry about that.
@Azrie I kinda wish I even understood what is being talked about? I mean I'm glad I checked the comments and all for this chapter, but I still don't understand the up or down percentages. Pardon my language on this, but what the f*ck is being affected..? Bottom? Top??? What???
@ThatOneJester when someone says that someone is in the top 5th percentile for something, say their GPA or something in school, that means that they're in the top 5% of people for that metric. The bottom 5th percentile is the exact opposite, the bottom 5% of people.
Side-effect unsuccessfully evaded
This doesn't make sense
The system doesn't make sense ! ! ! On a more serious thing, I don't see why it doesn't make sense, there are too many "what if" factors that makes it make sense.
@Azrie not rerally sure how to put it in words as English isn't my native language, and maybe in English its normal. You can't DO something unsuccesfully. You DON'T do it
but to me it reads "She dodged side-effect unsuccesfuly" but I would say "She didn't dodge side-effect"
@Nicolas It can be unsuccessful if we look at it from a 3rd person perspective. "James unsuccessfully landed." This statement tells us that he did land, it was well... something went wrong. Since in this case Leah isn't really "doing" or "evading" the thing it makes sense. The system is simply throwing a dice and if it doesn't land on the "evade" chances it becomes unsuccessful. Hope that makes sense.
@Azrie Well I must say I'm with @Nicolas on this as succesfull and unsuccesfull are kinda like yes and no. You could say "James was unsuccesfull in his landing" or "James was unsuccesfull in pulling his bow" as these mean that James tried to do something but failed. As for my succestion, that would be "side-effect evasion was unsuccesfull".
@Alice. Eh, it doesn't really work that way. Successfully/unsuccessfully indicate whether you accomplish what you intended to do, and the associated verb tells the reader what was attempted.
"James unsuccessfully landed." means that James attempted to land, but failed to do so. It doesn't mean he landed poorly. If he was falling, for example, it means he didn't land, and kept falling. Which becomes a weird paradox, because you can't fall forever, but that's what the sentence suggests. On the other hand, by using the verb "landed" (vs "tried to land"), you're telling the reader that James _did_ land.
Essentially, the sentence written that way with that adverb is self-contradictory. "Unsuccessfully evaded" means you both evaded and didn't evade at the same time. It's utter nonsense.