[Choose a moniker: —]
[Your moniker is what you will be publicly known as on the Forums, while your personal identity will remain confidential.]
After opening the player forum, Sami stared at the notification for a moment as he decided what to pick. Eventually, he smiled and muttered, "BlindAndConfused".
In response, the notification flashed and updated.
Player Moniker: [BlindAndConfused]
[Note: Forums are based on Archetype Trees and Districts for networking, trading, and information sharing.]
[As the Joker, you can access the Forum of any Archetype Tree, provided you have played a Card under that Tree in the last 24 hours.]
’Hm? So each of the four Archetype Trees have certain Cards under them?’ He thought with a pensive expression. ’I’m guessing they’ll be divided by suits?’
He then decided to check out the District Forum first.
The player forum popped up displaying the messages and the moniker of the person speaking.
Survivor_99: Damn it! The world has gone to shit!
Cereal_First_Milk_Second: Bro, I literally saw my neighbor toss her three children from the balcony earlier. It’s crazy!
Sleepy_Head: I lost my dog. T-T
Survivor_99: Are you for real right now, Sleepy_Head? It’s the apocalypse!
Certified_ragebaiter: Kind of wish we lost you instead of the dog.
Sleepy_Head: Jeez. That’s rude!
Holy_Holy_01: Repent, sinners! The end days are upon us! All of you who refused to repent, hear the trumpets of judgment! Wrath has descended!
Emotional_Damage_3000: Bro, take this religious crap out of here.
NPC_Energy: Man I’m hungry as fuck. Why the hell do we need to partake in Food Quest just to eat?
Anxious_Loner: Right? I had all this food stashed, only for me to end up throwing it away.
’Same, brother,’ Sami thought, shaking his head.
Gamer_Dad_42: I’m screwed. I panicked and ended up picking the first card I saw. Now I’m stuck with a 2 of Hearts. I’m a fucking Priest at the lowest Grade!
Local_Panda: Skill issue, my guy. Bro misclicked his character build on day one of the end times.
’Priest? So the Hearts is the Priest Archetype Tree? Then what about the Spades and Diamonds? Based on my knowledge from games, there’s always a Mage Archetype in this sort of thing, so one of them has to be Mage.’
Sami made deductions as messages continued to pop up randomly, making the screen look like a flooded Discord server. Most were just complaints from panicked people, and Sami just read them without contributing, only smiling at a few that were a bit funny.
Eventually, he decided to check out the Archetype Forum. He felt like he would gain a lot more real information on that one than this general mess.
[Pick a Forum...]
After a few seconds, he muttered, "3 of Clubs."
[Accessing Forum for 3 of Clubs.]
Sami leaned forward slightly. Just as he had thought, this Forum was a bit more focused and analytical.
stinky_socks69: You have it wrong, dave_2004. Not every Card is a different Class.
just_some_guy: Yes. I spoke to some guy next door and confirmed that. 2 of Clubs is also the Warrior Class. It’s just that they have a weaker Skill than us.
dave_2004: Kind of like the lower grade of the same Archetype Tree?
just_some_guy: Yes. Exactly.
i_hate_it_here: Also 4 of Clubs. My friend who owns it said she’s a Warrior. Her Skill is Body Reconstitution. It’s the better version of what we have.
soup_enjoyer: I think that’s where it ends though. I met someone with a 5 of Clubs, but they weren’t a Warrior, but a Berserker. They’re still under the Warrior Archetype Tree, just further up.
’So that’s how it is...’ Sami nodded to himself.
dave_2004: Anyone want to partner up for a Food Quest early tomorrow?
stinky_socks69: I think it’s better to partner up with other Archetype Cards, rather than sticking together. A squad of Clubs, especially low numbers like us have zero range and zero utility.
mike_t_99: Why is no one talking about how expensive it is to rent a weapon?! I saw a weapon that’s 200 EP. 200! And we only have 100!
The conversations continued in that manner until the sky outside became dark. With nothing to do, Sami later dispelled his lie. Though truth be told, he suffered quite a lot due to his broken ribs. Because of that, he decided that he needed to do something about it the next day. With a lot of effort, he finally managed to fall asleep on the couch.
***
Early the next morning...
The closest Stall’s first hour for Food Quest was 6 a.m., while the second hour was 9 a.m. And so, sometime around twenty five minutes past eight, Sami was already on his way there, considering he would have to walk the entire trip as there were no modes of transportation anymore.
No, wait... there was actually a means of transportation, only that it was new. Looking around, Sami could see a few people moving on weird hoverboards that hovered above the ground.
’I’m guessing that they had either purchased or borrowed those Items from the Stall, exchanging EP for them,’ he made a rough deduction of where those vehicles had come from.
But then, another thing that caught his attention was that all the bodies that had been out on the streets due to the events of yesterday, were suddenly nowhere to be found.
It was as if they had all been taken away by the Flood.
’It’s a good thing the bodies are all gone. If they were still here, this whole city would have reeked of decay.’
Putting those thoughts aside, it took Sami fifteen minutes to eventually get to a Stall. Upon arrival, he could see that there was a crowd of people standing around the obelisk. Some were talking to each other, others were vanishing into thin air, while the rest were appearing out of thin air with different kinds of weapons in their hands.
Sami had barely gotten close enough when he got a notification.
[Welcome to the Stall.]
[Select a Service: Purchase, Borrow, or Quests?]
"I want to borrow a weapon."
In response, the notification’s interface flickered.
[What Class of Weapon?]
"...?"
Sami thought for a bit. He didn’t have a fixed class, so this was a tough one to decide at the moment.
’I just need something to carry along and not feel empty. I was a 3 of Spades yesterday and I need to shuffle my cards, so I can’t use that today. The only other Archetype I’m sure of is Priest. Should I go for long-range weapons?’
At the moment, Sami could feel that since he played the 3 of Spades yesterday, it was out of his deck for now. He could also instinctively feel that he needed to move around the Archetypes.
After a bit of thinking, he mumbled to himself. "I need long range weapons."
The moment he said that, a different message popped up.
[Taking Player to the Weapon Stall]
Sami’s body suddenly began to glow and fade. In the next moment, he opened his eyes to find himself in a milky white space. The space was vast, yet felt strangely enclosed, and about ten weapons appeared floating in the air all around him. There were six bows and arrows of different shapes and sizes, two sleek metallic crossbows that had the shape of a gun, throwing daggers, and a long double-barreled gun.
They were arranged in the order of cheapest to most expensive.
Surprisingly, one of the crossbow was the cheapest at 25 EP, and the prices went up ridiculously high, with the double-barreled gun sitting at 120 EP.
’Why the hell is it so expensive?’
He got closer to the gun, and a notification popped up.
[Name: Twin-Bore Breaker]
[Grade: C]
[Properties: Does not require physical bullets as it can drain the user’s Prana, converting it to condensed kinetic slugs.]
’Oh...’ Sami could finally understand the price gap.
He walked around checking the properties of the other weapons. One of the bows could increase focus and agility, while another could automatically retrieve arrows back to the quiver. There were even the daggers, which had the property of homing in on their target, but in the end, Sami settled on the crossbow, which was the lowest-costing weapon.
[Name: Standard Steel Crossbow]
[Grade: E]
[Properties: Regular crossbow with no added properties.]
’This seems okay.’
He decided to go with this for now. At the moment, he felt that it would be more cost-effective to take a Weapon Quest later and obtain permanent weapons, rather than put a lot of EP into borrowing one.
Reaching out, he grabbed the crossbow, which came with a leather shoulder strap and a hip quiver loaded with fifteen iron bolts.
’Should I also get some kind of body protection?’
While he was still playing with the crossbow in his hand, a notification sounded.
[25 EP has been deducted from the Player.]
Not long after, his form brightened and began to fade. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was back in front of the obelisk.
’Most of the people who left for the Food Quest by six and returned did low grade Quests with the majority doing the F and E. Those who did F spent all morning complaining about how they only got stuff that wasn’t even worth snacks. Isn’t that waste of time? One would need to go through a few F grade Quests to get food enough to serve as a satisfactory meal. But even then, I remember it stating they’ll be no nutritional benefits. Also, they said the food is weird and tastes strange. What the fuck is fish fingers and striped baby snake eyes?’
Sami had spent some time on the Forum this morning.
’There wasn’t a lot of information from those who went for E. There’s also that guy who said his neighbor went for a C grade quest and came back without a hand. Was it that hard? What a dilemma.
’I need food with healing properties, which means I need to take at-least a D grade Quest.’ He fell into thought. He had no idea how difficult the quest itself would be, and he could only judge based on yesterday’s quest, which was ranked F to D.
He needed to start with a low grade. Testing the waters as some would call it.
Having made up his mind, he turned to the screen and selected the service: Quest. Then, he chose the D graded Quest.
[Food Quest: Hunter or Prey?]