Bit 01: Spawned

BIT 01: SPAWNED

Darkness consumed my senses, and I felt as if I were traveling through a windy tunnel in a speeding car. Cold air flushed around me, and without warning, I fell. As I plummeted I looked to my arms and legs; they were bare, along with the rest of my body. Bit by bit , clothes appeared on my being. Jet-black boots came first, followed by black pants that climbed, stopping just above my waist. A thick, armored dark vest appeared on my torso, a longsword on my hip, and finally a long dark green coat. With a final blast of air, I touched down, falling to one knee. Immediately, I snapped up my gaze to take in my surroundings.

The only source of light came from a crimson moon above. In every direction were large trees, with crooked and broken branches jutting out every which way. The dirt, or maybe something else, left a foul stench hanging in the air. I couldn’t quite place it, but its strength even made its way into my taste buds. Impressive, for a video game.

I stood, turning and looking behind me. Again, there I found the forest.

Holding out my hands I moved them, testing each finger, bending them, making them into tight fists. The dark leather gloves crunched and rubbed against my skin.

I moved my legs, taking a few steps forward, then back. I kneeled down and touched the dirt, pushed it around, and made a small design.

Finally satisfied, I stood.

“Calibration seems correct,” I muttered. “And even the dirt is realistic. What great attention to detail. Epic Impossibilities really outdid themselves with DarkDays.”

Coldness attacked me. I could feel eyes watching from somewhere close. My reflexes were slower than I would've liked. Maybe it had to do with skill levels? Still, I put my hand on the hilt of my sword.

A heads-up display screen flashed before my eyes with a list of menu items. I didn’t have time to look at everything. A sudden movement in the shadows caught my attention.

“I wonder what first level monsters they’re throwing my way already? Maybe dire rats?” I grinned, drawing my sword. The blade made a shing sound, and I smiled wide; everything seemed so realistic!

My awe ended as a creature stepped from the trees. It stood, at least, eight feet tall, towering over me by two heads. It looked humanoid as it stood on two inverted legs and had long gangly arms, complete with vicious claws.

“So you’re my first opponent?” I asked the hairy, canine-headed beast. “Let me see what they call you.”

I focused in on the monster, and a red bar appeared above its head with the number ten next to it. The name ‘Damned Werewolf’ classified its type.

I whispered, “Oh.”

It swung one arm at me. I brought up my sword, and sparks flew as claw met blade. I stumbled back from the force of the attack. Back first, I smacked into a tree.

“Level 10,” I said. “In a starting area? What kind of game is this?”

The werewolf growled and bared its fangs, gunky black goo dripping from its maw.

I held my sword before me and tried to look at the menu. A section labeled, ‘Skills’ rested halfway down the list. I quickly scrolled down and clicked it with my thoughts. The skills menu popped up, but the wolf attacked again.

Pouncing, its jaws snapped for my throat. I ducked and rolled out of the way, backing myself into another tree.

I scrolled through the skills menu and found rows of blank boxes, with one highlighted near the top, so I clicked it.

“Aha!” I said. “Lightning Jab!”

I focused on the skill and thrust my sword forward so fast I barely recognized my action.

The wolf’s ears perked up, and it looked down at its side where my attack had grazed. It growled, turning its eyes back on me. Its red health bar had only the tiniest speck missing from it.

“Okay.” I swallowed hard. “This is definitely not a place for level one solo players.”

The werewolf lunged again. For a second time, I ducked. This time, though, I kept moving; running as fast as my legs could carry me.

I dodged into the trees, my feet pounding the dirt. A loud howl came from a few yards behind. The ground shook under the monster's chasing gait. My heart raced, and my pulse thundered in my ears.

“Here I was expecting this to be easy,” I shook my head.

The wolf came within range of making another attack, and with our level difference, I expected a quick death.

I spun as the claws honed in on my face. I brought my sword straight up, and the weapon caught the attack, keeping the claws a centimeter from the tip of my nose.

“Holy Hell,” I gulped.

I quickly scrolled through my items. Maybe I had something useful! Anything! But all I had were three small health potions.

“Not useful!” I said as I tried to hold the beast at bay, but it pushed me back inch by inch.

The wolf broke its hold and slashed my chest. My eyes flew wide as a burning pain struck through me. I looked down, and I found no blood, but instead, missing pixels. I ducked the next slash and backed up. I  checked my green health bar; it stopped at ten health. The damn thing had taken ninety points in one attack!

“Okay, no fighting this thing!” I spun and ran back through the trees.

I summoned forth a health potion and chugged it. My HP started to rise, but only gave me twenty points back. I summoned the next two as I continued to run and drank those, but they left me low enough to die from one more hit.

I stumbled to a pair of trees that were close enough to squeeze through and pushed between them, popping out on the other side. The werewolf ran straight into the tree barricade.

I stumbled over a root and tripped into a clearing. My eyes darted around until I realized I'd ended up on a road.

With all haste, I jumped to my feet and looked both ways. I had no way of knowing where to go.

Holding my sword ready, I waited for the wolf to race around the trees and attack, but it didn’t. Maybe I'd left its threat area?

I waited for more than ten seconds in agonizing silence, until my health meter slowly restored on its own.

“Health regen?” I slumped forward, hands braced on my knees. “At least, there are some player friendly elements to this game.”

A loud clop clop came from down the road. I turned, brandishing my longsword, ready to attack anything that moved, although it would likely kill me if it were the same level as the Damned Werewolf.

Instead of a monster, a huge horse pranced closer, with a coat of coal and fiery eyes. It snorted smoke from its nostrils when it noticed me. I focused in, and despite all of its terrifying, muscular appearance, it had a yellow bar and the level number 01. I could only speculate, but yellow had to be the non-hostile color.

I watched it approach, noticing a dark wooden carriage drawn behind it. A hunched over figure with a top hat and a fancy party coat sat on the bench. When the carriage neared, I stepped aside and stopped. The driver pulled back on the reigns and lifted his head with a loud popping sound.

“A Non-Player Character,” I realized aloud. This guy had a blue health bar, and his level showed question marks. I knew enough from other games I’d played to know he posed no threat.

“Hello,” the man croaked, turning his head to regard me. “I see you are new here.”

“Yes,” I said, feeling kind of silly for talking to a computer program. “My name is Zycuh Hunpo, and I just arrived in this forest.”

“It’s dangerous out here.” The man waved his hand. “All sorts of rabid beasts wander these trees. I dare say; some are even watching us now.”

“This zone is way too difficult for a level one.” I looked up. “Are you part of a quest line?”

A white question mark appeared above his head. Guess that answers my question…“What's the quest?” I asked.

The man pointed to the back of the carriage.

“I’m offering rides into town,” he said. “Although I cannot say it is much safer there these days. If you would like a lift, I will give you one, free of charge.”

“Yes!” I said. “Please.”

“Then come aboard, Zycuh,” he said, declaring my name perfectly.

I wondered an automated system ran through all kinds of possible names. An effective algorithm to put it mildly. Most games didn’t pronounce names, let alone ones made up.

The door to the carriage opened, and I quickly pulled myself inside and shut the hatch behind me. I slumped into a wooden seat, took a deep breath, and closed my eyes.

“Thank gosh.” I breathed.

Outside I heard the snap of the horse’s reigns and the carriage began to roll again.

I leaned forward and looked at the floor, finally having a moment of safety to check the menu. I rolled down to the stats page and examined my gear.

“Blader Cloak,” I whispered. “Only five defense. Longsword... pretty basic, but an attack of six. Hmph.”

My stats were listed to the side, all dismal. Strength, Vitality, Speed, Dexterity, and Arcana. All of which were below ten, but my strength boasted a nine.

Outside, a series of loud howls came from nowhere. Something slammed into the carriage.

I jumped back in my seat, reaching for my sword, but it stuck in its sheath.

“What the hell?” I whispered.

I tugged on it, but it wouldn’t come out.

Still, the werewolves outside repeatedly slammed into the carriage. I cried out as their red eyes glowered through the curtains of the small windows. The attack went on for a few minutes, with the wolves as frustrated as they were angry. Eventually, they stopped attacking.

“Jerks gave up,” I whispered. “Thank gosh.”

“Well, that was indeed terrifying, now wasn’t it?” a voice said from within the carriage.

I screeched and fell back into my seat, pressing into a corner. A figure leaned forward from the shadows. Had he been there all along? With pale skin, he bore a long scar over his left eye.

“Hello,” the man said. He too wore a top hat, like the driver, he had a green health bar. Another player!

“Greetings and salutations,” I said too loud, so I quickly covered my mouth.

He had a level ranking of three. Two levels probably made a world of difference.

“You didn’t notice me?” He chuckled.

I shook my head, seeing his name appear above his character. It read, “ChyldofPandora.”

“You can call me Pan.” He grinned, and I couldn’t help but feel a chill on my spine once again. “May I call you Zeeka?”

“No,” I muttered. “It’s pronounced, ‘Zy-Koo’. The NPC gets it right, and you get it wrong?”

“My apologies,” Pan said. “I haven’t seen another player in a few days, you know. I thought that madman Z had finally wiped everyone else out.”

“No other players?” I asked, incredulous. “One million began the game, well now one million and one."

“You being that one, I see. You dropped into an infected starting area. You’re lucky to be alive.”

“I know. What kind of goddamn game is this?”

“That exactly.” Pan sat back in his seat, holding a cane in his lap. “A damned one.”

“And here I thought this would be easy.”

“Anything but,” Pan said. “But it's understandable that you didn’t see me. I’ve been perfecting my stealth skill since the game began. If you can’t be seen, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“What class are you?”

“Assassin.” He smiled. “A favorite of mine in all games.”

“I’m a Blader.”

He frowned. “Oh… A strictly melee class. You’ll be dead within the hour.”

“What do you mean?” I narrowed my eyes.

“Only that you've chosen the weakest class in the game. You would have been better off choosing Creature Tamer as a starting point. Noobs always make things so difficult.”

“I’m no noob!” I snapped.

“Then what are you? You joined this game after a week, knowing that people are stuck inside and dying every day.”

“I joined the game to defeat Z.” I stuck my thumb into my chest proudly.

“Ah, I have my answer.” Pan looked out the window.

“And that is?”

“You’re an idiot. No one can beat this game. We'll all die here; but let’s make the best of it, yeah?”

I sighed. He didn’t understand my skill level at games. He didn’t know me. I ranked in the top five hundred in the country.

“Well, Zycuh. It seems we’ve arrived."

“Where?” I asked, looking out the window.

Before us, there came a city filled with buildings short and tall. They all looked like they were from Victorian England. But something looked wrong, very wrong indeed.

Bodies were strung up around the outer walls, names above their heads. Strips of barbed wire held them, dried blood crusted to their every contour. NPCs, or players, the scene, could only be described as morbid.

“What kind of place is this?” I stared in horror.

Pan muttered, “Our own personal Hell.”

Reviews

[Christoph]

This is gosh darn fantastic. It's perfectly paced, constantly answering questions and posing new ones.

I had little faith in it early on, and would have thought the premise would inevitably feel cheesy, gimmicky. Pleasantly surprised to be dead wrong.

Also, the reviewer who said this lost all tension once they realized it was a game has to understand that that's a personal problem, not an issue with the writing.

Also, it's clearly a game from the start, I thought.

Anyway, I just realized this is a couple years old. I'm going to go check for more. If you never wrote more of it, picture me disappointed.

But that would be my only criticism, period.

[Trajan]

Ahhhhh. I was reading this and was so invested. But then you're character revealed it was a game, and it suddenly lost all tension. ALL tension I say. Alternatively, if you had simply shown it was a game through context clues, I would have been invested longer, and the revelation wouldn't have come so abruptly and broken my immersion. It would probably make the narrative that much better if you simply described everything as it's happening instead of just revealing. But I'm biased towards 'Show don't tell." The writing, however, is great. The plot is pretty darn neat, and the descriptions are vivid enough. So I still managed to invest. Then I noticed this little--what I presume to be--error in the writing: 'I wondered an automated system ran through all kinds of possible names'
Then you have this sequence where your character says it's weird talking to a computer program, Then he says "I ranked in the top five-hundred in the country." Is a who plays games so much really going to feel weird talking to a computer program? Well, I'm certainly not the master, but it sounds peculiar if you think about it. It's still a good narrative with an interesting premise. If you continue off of this piece, then you're going to have to worry about keeping the story intense even thought it's a video game and it seems like very little may actually be at stake. But that's what creativity is for ;) . Until next time.

[JakeAStrife]

Thank you for reading! I'm glad you like the writing, despite the little errors. You must've missed the prologue, Bit 00: News Report, that lets the reader know he's logging into a game.
I've written the entire book so far, but can only post a couple more chapters here. It's for sale on Amazon, so I can't post more than 10% I think it is.

Thanks for reading! And reviewing! It means a lot. :)

[Trajan]

That makes a lot of sense. Now, I'm curious about the rest.

[JakeAStrife]

I'll try and post the other two chapters on here soon, or if you're on Wattpad, I have all three up there. If you like it, and want to, you can get the ebook on Amazon. Dark Dayz 2 is fully on Wattpad.

[Trajan]

Alright! Added to my reading list!