**Skill level increased: Blood Flow 0 - 14**
**Skill level increased: Basic Motion 0 - 14**
**Skill level increased: Basic Vision Comprehension 0 - 14**
**Skill level increased: Will Sight 0 - 1**
**Experience threshold reached: Level 11 - 14**
Just like that, he had climbed three levels in a matter of minutes. Luckily, he still needed to get that skill that allowed him to see how much will he had. Otherwise, he would have come up exactly one level short, but now he had made it.
Leaderboard
- Isabella Rossi - Level: 16
- Jett Navarro - Level: 14
- Nova Callis - Level: 14
- Chloe Morales - Level: 14
- Zane Mercer - Level: 14
- Blue Raven - Level: 14
- Zira Vox - Level: 14
- Vega Arcturus - Level: 14
- Corin Vale - Level: 14
- Althea Veymar - Level: 14
…
It took him a moment to remember the moniker he had given himself, but there it was, Number 6 on the leaderboard.
“Yeah, you're probably gonna wanna undo that nickname,” Lan said.
Why? Jay asked.
“Well, first off, I still have no idea why that is what you went for. Second, I had you do that when I thought you were a spineless weakling that only really had a chance of getting rewards for me by stealing stuff. Now, you have an innate class. You’ve beaten the second-highest-level person on your planet in a duel twice, and you’re 6th on the level leaderboard yourself. You have a serious chance of topping a few of the power rankings, and hiding your name is only gonna cause the system to dock you points.”
Jay rubbed his chin in thought for a few moments. I mean, to start, the name is a joke. Blue Jay, Blue Raven. Get it?
“I don’t even know what to say to that, except... you're an idiot.”
Hey!
“Oh, be quiet. Half the reason to have a nickname is to hide your identity, and you decided to make it some sort of riff on your name?”
Well, I mean, you didn’t get it.
“Because I didn’t think you would be that stupid, Jay.”
It's not that--
“It is. Now take it off so you don’t get penalized.”
But I kinda like it.
“Enough to lose at least three spots in the rankings?”
Wait, you're making all this fuss over three spots?
“Yes, Jay. That's the difference between getting the best prize you can and a mediocre reward that's given to everyone in the Top 10.”
It can’t be that bad if only ten people in the world get it.
Lan groaned. “Yeah, it’s probably not, but I want the best. Don’t you?”
I do, but I also feel like it's gonna shorten my lifespan to do that.
“You think being rated as the most powerful person on your planet is going to be anything but a deterrent?”
Yes, actually. What happens when second place gets jealous and leads an army of the fifty strongest to come and kill me? Do you think being stronger than any of them individually is gonna help me there?
Lan paused for a moment before sighing. “Fuck, you're right. Sorry. I got caught up in winning, for a moment, there.”
It's fine. It was your advice I was using to come to that conclusion. Never show your true abilities if you don’t have to. I don’t want to end up like the guy from that story.
“No, you do not. Can you at least change it to something less stupid, then?”
Nope!
Lan sighed deeply. “Just get in the dungeon.”
That one, I can do.
He chuckled to himself for a moment, happy with his dumb joke, before he began descending the ominous torch-lit staircase. He made it about ten steps before a prompt appeared in front of him.
**
Would you like to enter ?- Dungeon Level 13?
Y/N
**
Without hesitation, he selected Y, and the world began spinning. When it once again stabilized, he no longer found his feet standing on the strange stone staircase, but on a flattened dirt surface in the pitch black of night. Only illuminated by several large overhead lights and an ominous orange glow coming from over the wall. He was surrounded by other people, but the world seemed to stand still for a moment as no one moved, and another screen popped up.
Dungeon:
Level - 13
Goal: Defend the fort for at least three days
Reward: Receive a random reward based on performance within this challenge. After three days, the reward increases for each day the fort stays standing. If challenger dies any time after day three, challenger will instead be transported outside of the dungeon.
Uh, Lan, what the hell is this? I thought you said it would be some sort of maze thing.
“Huh. I can’t tell if you are the luckiest or least lucky person I have ever met.”
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What? Can you please tell me what the fuck this is?
“Calm down. It's still just a Level 13 dungeon, and the system probably isn’t trying to murder you just yet. I think.”
Real convincing. Thanks.
“You will probably be fine, but I really hope that orange light isn’t what I think it is.”
What do you think it is?
“I’m not able to tell you that, sadly. Still don’t have permission to give you the rundown of different races until you encounter them, but this could actually be a good thing if it is them. Save you from a nasty surprise in the real world a bit later on.”
“Attention!” A booming voice called as the world seemed to unfreeze. The people surrounding Jay moved in unison, folding their arms behind their backs and bringing their feet together. “The enemy has us surrounded, but will we lie down and die like cowards?”
“NO SIR!”
“Good. I expect every last one of you to fight with everything you have to offer. If your gun fails, run them through with a spear. If your spear breaks, slit their throats with your knife. Should your knife be knocked away, claw out their eyes with your fingernails. Am I understood?”
“YES, SIR!”
“Good. We are the last bastion between those things and our mothers, wives, husbands, fathers, sons, and daughters. Will we let them experience the horrors we have had to endure on this battlefield?”
“NO SIR!”
“Say it again! Louder! So that even the enemy can hear your pride and cower at your unyielding determination!”
“NO SIR!”
“Go to your stations!”
Jay sat stunned for a moment as the crowd dispersed. He waited, half-certain some general was going to yell at him for standing around, but nothing happened.
Uh, now what?
“Why don’t you get up on that wall and take a look at your enemy?”
Should I grab the weapons they were talking about first?
“You have a gun, you don’t use a spear, and while the knife would count as a bladed weapon, you have one of those already, as well.”
Yeah, but am I not going to get yelled at? I feel like someone is going to berate me for not being in a position any minute now.
“While that would be hilarious, sadly, no. You're essentially a rogue unit in this battle. No one is going to interact with you unless you start the conversation. Well, except the enemies trying to rip your throat out, but the ones on your side will just go about their business.”
Weird… Are they, like, not real, then?
“Depends on your definition of ‘real.’”
What?
“Do you consider someone’s copied memories placed inside of a system-made body and altered to fit its needs real?”
I… You're gonna have to run that by me again.
“You're reliving a battle that actually happened at some point, Jay. All the people here were actually present for it, and the system created exact copies of their minds and bodies--probably with some slight alterations to better fit its narrative.”
So, based on the quest, all these people are probably dead?
“Not necessarily. They could have won this battle, but the system didn’t want to place you amongst the unfamiliar faction, so it could have twisted the result in the other direction. Get on top of the wall so I can see what you are dealing with, and I can tell you for sure.”
Jay nodded, heading towards the stone staircase leading up to the old fortified walls, currently manned by several people holding strange-looking guns. Some also manned equally strange turrets. The devices barely resembled what he had come to know and instead seemed ripped straight out of some sci-fi movie, resembling lightning rods more than weapons. He walked around, getting a good look at the devices, and only found them stranger. The needle-like point didn’t really tell him much about how they worked. He couldn’t pinpoint the strange glowing energy in the ball that sat right before the thing bent downwards, forming a handle.
He examined multiple people holding the weapons and found each slightly different. Some were slightly smaller and held in one hand, while others had multiple grips and a stock that comfortably rested on their wielder's shoulder. Each of them stood ready, pointing their weapons off at that… strange… orange… light…
Jay’s thoughts died as he finally looked at the army patiently sitting less than a mile away. A large black pyramid sat in the center of his view, with what looked like a miniature star barely contained inside a large metallic ball hovering above the structure.
What the fuck is that? he mentally asked Lan.
She took a moment before responding with a single word. “Solinoids.”
That means nothing to me, Lan…
“Uh, sorry, yeah. Would you like the good news or the bad news first?”
Just tell me what the fuck is going on.
“Good news, then. I can tell you about these things before they appear on your planet. Bad news is, there is no way in Hell this fort is lasting three days if those things are organized. Even if the system limits them to Level 13, this is going to be a God damn bloodbath.”
So, about the system not trying to kill me.
“Yeah, forget what I said. I don’t know what the fuck you did to it, but yeah, it definitely wants you dead.”
So what should I do?
“Well, first, I would recommend you take a few seconds to panic. Then, you should remember that you have the best damn assistant in this Death March and calm down. Finally, you're going to forget what that assistant said earlier and go grab one of those guns and knives.”
Wow, admitting that you were wrong. That's a big step.
“I wasn’t wrong. I simply didn’t have all the facts. Now that I do, you need those weapons.”
What changed?
“My fear was confirmed. Also, I could finally tell you about that race and the fact that they are way too heavily-armored for your dagger or revolver to get through.”
And how are the weapons here any different?
“Because magic.”
Very funny. So what is the actual reason?
“I'm not gonna repeat myself, Jay,” she said in a voice with no hint of humor.
You were being serious?
“Yes. Each one of those guns probably carries enough lightning mana to fry every light in that crappy shack that you call home with a single pull of the trigger.”
Ok, first off, rude. I know it's shitty, you don’t need to point that out. Second, are those things weak to electricity, or something?
“Not electricity, lightning. It's not energy that kills them, but the heat. It's able to bypass their heavy armor and boil whatever remaining fleshy bits they have alive.”
So how am I supposed to deal with one back in the real world?
“With great effort.”
Real helpful.
“I'm sorry, did you suddenly gain the ability to summon lightning whenever you want? What’s that? No? No, you didn’t? Then, yeah, with great effort, Jay. You're gonna have to find a gap in the thing's armor and empty a few rounds of your revolver into it until it stops moving.”
Jay let out a long sigh. And how many of these things--whatever they are--will be on earth?
“Anywhere from fifteen to 800, but unlike the ones that you are about to fight, they won’t be connected to the hive mind. They should be an easy enough kill.”
Hive mind?
“Did I not mention that?”
No, you did not.
“Well, then, I did now. Anyway, yeah, hive mind. Those things are what happen when you make a super intelligent AI give that AI the power of an entire sun and the goal of conquering the universe. Then, just sit back and watch as it decides it’s cheaper to mass-produce organics and outfit them with armor, extra limbs, organs, and a transmitter that links them to the hive, and bam, you just doomed your species to become the metallic monsters known as the Solinoids.”
That’s... What the fuck.
“You think that's bad? Just wait until you see one.”
Jay looked back over at the ominous pyramid before climbing off the wall and grabbing a gun and a knife from a small stockpile of the things. He familiarized himself with the weapon for a few moments before finally returning to the wall. He looked back over the empty wasteland that separated him from his enemy.
He sighed to himself as he thought about the fight to come. Even if they are just memories, even if they are stuck in some fucked up hive mind. Who knows how many living beings I’m going to have to kill in this fight? Am I going to lose track of how many lives I have ended?
He thought about the five people he had already killed. He was easily able to say the first one was an accident, but did he need to slit that man’s throat for threatening him? Did he need to murder all three of the people in the lobby of his apartment just because they wouldn’t leave him alone unless he showed them where Phalanx was?
It didn’t matter. They were dead, and he was still alive. He gently rubbed the trigger of the strange weapon. He still wasn’t strong enough to not be threatened. He still wasn’t ready to spare someone who thought they could take his life from him just as he’d begun to start liking it again.
If it’s them or me, I choose me.
The ground rumbled, answering his declaration as bloated, many-limbed metal monstrosities with dozens of glowing red eyes poured out of the large pyramid and began barreling towards the fort.