Peridot
I created my avatar as soon as I finished reading the game's instructions and terms, which mentioned things like the ban on sexual violence and the lack of support for in-game sex, despite allowing surprisingly high levels of violence (a point regarding which the developers would remind people that NPCs weren't real people, that they didn't advocate for real-world violence, and so on).
"Not bad, I guess?" I studied my avatar in the bedroom mirror: tall and athletic, with straight, shoulder-length silver hair, a matching cat tail and ears, and red eyes. "I look like a JRPG character." It had been a real challenge to create a good-looking feline avatar, it felt like every decent combination had already been done, but once I settled on an odly furry feet (who cared about that anyway? I wasn't exactly going to walk around barefoot!), I managed to pull it off. "Reminds me of when we played that survival MMO. If I recall correctly, my nick was 'Feitagus' and hers was... 'Apocalipta,' or something like that? It was fun, right up until we killed that streamer mid-broadcast and got banned by the mods." Reminiscing about the good old days, I walked over to the exit and gripped the doorknob.
Then, I stopped.
Good old days, huh? My shoulders felt like they were carrying a ton of weight when I thought about the implications of Jade's gift. She probably wanted to get closer to me, but anime, games, and that sort of nonsense were all she associated with me. How could it be any other way? After that embarrassing mistake...
I sighed.
"Maybe she's still around here somewhere. Maybe I can find her and..." Suddenly at a loss for words, I shook my head and opened the door.
An intense light immediately assaulted my eyes, but before they could even adjust to the sudden glare, I heard... Screams?
"Die!" a man with a maniacal grin bellowed, brandishing a shortsword at me.
He was only a few meters away, and judging by his gear and stance, he had to be at least a few [Levels] above me; he had more [HP], [MP], unlocked [Skills], and [Attributes], along with every other advantage one could have over someone who had literally just created their avatar.
Unfortunately for the man, this was a full-immersion MMORPG; unless the stat gap was massive, there was far more to combat than just stats. I dodged the arc of his blade, yanked him by the arm, and slammed his head against the corridor wall once, twice, three times before snatching his sword and driving it into his chest.
"Gwah?! Y-You shitty... hacker...!" The man collapsed to the floor, dead.
"Hacker? So, he was a player? There was no [HP] bar, no name, nothing like that...
Is this another survival game? If so, the devs are pathetic for letting players camp the spawn point.
I sighed.
"Well, at least I confirmed that critical hits in this game depend on where you land your blows, rather than just random chance."
I looted my attacker's gear; a shortsword, a leather coat, and some potions and coins; then moved on.
▲○X■
"Bwah!" the archer grunted as I drove my knife straight into his forehead.
"Kuh...?" the man with the hammer gasped as my sword pierced his chest.
"Gyaaah!" the spearman plummeted through the air as I shoved him over the railing. "D-Damn cheater...!"
Were they all players? That certainly seemed to be the case, at least in the areas near the spawn points or the passenger cabins. But as I followed the maps painted on the corridors and ventured further away, the density of players dropped significantly.
Are monsters responsible for this? Stronger players? NPCs? I quickly realized it had been a mistake to enter the game without doing any prior research. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long for answers; upon stepping onto a deck scarred by battle and littered with corpses, I found two groups of uniformed, visibly skilled soldiers clashing amidst the wreckage of several platforms.
Should I intervene? They were clearly a cut above the previous players, better organized and better equipped, but the main thing freezing me in place was the question: which side should I help?
"Mira! Grab the potions and get back to the infirmary right now!" shouted a freckled young man.
"I'm not leaving you here, Silas!" replied a blonde woman who looked to be a [Doctor].
"Gyahaha! Finish them off, boys! But make sure you don't ruin their faces... we need them intact to decorate our spikes!" shouted the man who appeared to be the leader of the opposing group of soldiers.
Who... Who are the good guys?! I started to sweat as I watched my window to intervene rapidly closing.
"If you stay, we're both going to die, Mira, and your [Skills] are more useful to the [Captain] than mine are."
"S-Silas...!"
"Go! I'll hold them off!"
"Hmm... Damn it!" As the young soldier rose from behind his makeshift barricade and fired his rifle at the attackers, the woman ran away from the fray. "Kyah!" She landed hard on her backside as I sprinted past her in the opposite direction.
I had finally decided whom to help.
Stepping over the rubble of what must have once been a platform, I leaped over the attackers; before they even realized I had reached their rear, I had already slit the throats of two of them with my knife.
"W-What the hell?! Who is this lunatic?!" cursed one of the enemies I'd struck, still combat-ready despite the blooming line of damage across his neck. He had more [HP] than I could deplete with a single critical hit. "Another crazy colonist... Whatever! Just one more head to decorate our spikes!" He pointed his flintlock at me and pulled the trigger.
"Tch!" I had made a mistake.
"Bang!" A shot rang out, not from the enemy's flintlock, but from Silas's, claiming the life of the man who had been threatening me.
"Haargh!" The young soldier blocked another enemy's saber with the body of his rifle, but, hemmed in by two attackers, he wouldn't last much longer.
"Finish off the colonist and go after the [Doctor]!" shouted one of the men attacking Silas. A third enemy closed in, brandishing an axe at me despite the red line across his throat.
"Guh?!" The axe-wielder grunted as I hurled my knife into his chest. "You bastard!" He attacked again, even more frenzied.
Just how much stronger than me are these guys? I wondered, giving it my all just to keep dodging the axe blade. Strong enough to catch me if I tried to run now, that's for sure... I understood the situation. So, I fought.
I drove my elbow and fists into the attacker's nose, upper lip, temple, and Adam's apple; as he staggered back, I drew my sword and swiftly thrust at his eyes, neck, and liver.
Finally, the man dropped to his knees and fell silent, dead.
I retrieved my knife from the corpse and lunged at the other two enemies just before one of them could deal a fatal blow to Silas; I threw myself at one of the attackers, quickly pinning him to the ground in a rear-naked choke, and proceeded to repeatedly drive my knife into his neck.
"W-What the...?" The man who had been shouting orders at the attackers stared at me, turning pale. "D-Die!" He pointed his flintlock at me, but before he could pull the trigger: "Gwah!"
"No, you die." The woman from earlier appeared, burying what looked like a massive handsaw- no, a bone saw into his neck.
"Zwush!" In one swift motion, she decapitated the man right as I killed my second opponent.
Strangely, the people I had rescued didn't turn to thank me; instead, they pointed their weapons at me.
"Back off, you maniac!" Silas shouted.
▲○X■
I walked through what appeared to be the operations center for the faction Silas and Mira belonged to, the loyalist soldiers, as opposed to the rebels they were fighting against. Soldiers bustled about, handing out missions to excited players and strategizing how to retake their airship.
After all, those two were NPCs. Was this chaos the result of an event, or had the tutorial always been like this?
"Oh, man! I'm really sorry about the mix-up earlier; I couldn't risk bringing one of those maniacs into our HQ," Silas apologized.
"It's fine. I've crossed swords with plenty of those 'maniacs' myself, so I understand your caution." I realized that faction consisted of the anarchist players who had attacked me the moment I spawned in. "But, if I may ask, when did this chaos start? I feel like I slept through the whole initial phase of the trouble."
"Hmm... The colonists have always been a bit unhinged, generally speaking (no offense intended). There were always those who'd lean too far over the railing and plummet to their deaths, or pick fights with officers of much higher levels than themselves... But a few hours ago, they just collectively lost their minds."
"So suddenly? Was it a coordinated attack?" I asked.
"No..." Silas hesitated for a second, then continued: "It was our fault. Some of our crew members started extorting the colonists. When the colonists found out, they protested, but the revolt quickly spiraled into total anarchy."
"And the rebellious crew members took advantage of the chaos to organize their own resistance. I see."
"If you ask them, they're just as much victims of the chaos as we are," Silas said, scratching his head.
"Why would that be? Didn't the anarchy work to their advantage?"
"Oh, no, never mind. I-It's nothing..."
"Right," I nodded.
"Right?" Silas stared at me for a second, eyes wide. "Haha, it's good to know at least some colonists have the common sense not to push their luck! Anyway, we're almost at the mess hall, why not join us for a meal? As far as I'm concerned, you've earned it."
So, there are hunger and thirst mechanics in this game? I'll have to keep that in mind from now on.
"Hmm... I'd love to join you guys, but I've got my hands full right now." Mira pointed to a door behind her, the infirmary, packed with patients. "Silas, take good care of our partner here, okay?"
"Partner"...?
"Wait. Let me help you, Miss Mira," I said. "It's clear you don't have enough assistants."
"Hmm...? But, sweetie, you don't even have a [Class], do you? How could you help me?"
"If a specific [Class] is required to help you..." I hated making decisions like that without thinking them through deeply and seriously, but I had no choice. I asked, "Couldn't you teach me that [Class] yourself?"
▲○X■
[Name: Legiano
Class: Nurse
Titles: --
HP: 100/100
SP: 100/100
MP: 021/300
Hunger: 16/100
Thirst: 33/100
Attributes:
Level: 5
Strength: 1
Stamina: 1
Dexterity: 1
Vitality: 1
Mana: 11
Spirit: 11]
Even after investing all my attribute points to more efficiently cast the only [Skill] I'd learned so far, [Minor Regeneration], I still had to chug dozens of mana potions provided by the doctor herself just to keep up with my companion, Mira.
"Tired?" I heard a voice call out from the darkness ahead. "If you get me out of here, I can cover your shift."
Just when I thought I was alone... I moved toward the back of the room, finding a man chained to a thick metal pipe. Given that the ship's brig was in mutineer-controlled territory, it made sense to keep prisoners there.
"Who are you?" I asked the dejected-looking, emo-style soldier.
"Kuhu... kuhuhu! I'm Manuel, leader of the mutinous crew, I suppose? Kuhu! Kuhuhu!" As I turned my back to leave, he continued, "Ah, I guess I don't have her charisma after all. She would've gotten you to set her free. She could have gotten anything she wanted, just with her words..."
I froze in my tracks.
"What are you talking about?" I turned back to the man, narrowing my eyes.
"What? The guys upstairs didn't tell you anything? About the person truly responsible for this whole mess? Don't tell me they claimed it was just a stroke of bad luck, an accident? Kuhu! Kuhuhuhuhu! Yeah, that's not true. I know. I know! I know because... I was there at the very beginning. And I acted exactly the way she wanted, without knowing a thing."
I had a bad feeling about this. But what were the odds I was right?
"Who is she?" I asked, crouching down in front of the prisoner.
"She... She...! The lioness who whispers like a serpent, that servant of chaos... Vinea!" the man said, trembling and breaking into a cold sweat. Staring at me in terror, he added, "You have to believe me! I-I just wanted to make a few bucks! I've never even killed anyone before! Damn it, the idea for the scam against the colonists wasn't even mine, it was hers!"
In the end, the chances that I was right were extremely high.
Game Over ☠
Jade
"Oh, man! That mechanic didn't tinker with this rig for nothing, huh?" I whispered, dragging myself out of the wreckage my vehicle had become.
Looking around, I found myself in what looked exactly like the heart of a caatinga biome, and right in the middle of the dry season to boot: leafless, white tree trunks and shrubs, and cacti as far as the eye could see.
"And of course, my hunger and thirst are at just 10% right now..."
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Author's Note: From now on, 1 new chapter every day until the novel is over.