Chương 24: Killing is Great Exercise

Kain POV Kain opened his phone to see a text had come in from an unknown number. Normally, he would have swiped it away, but he thought he recognized something in that little preview he got when the message notification popped up. Tapping on the speech icon, his messaging app opened, and just as he had suspected, he knew exactly who this text was from. Scarlet. She'd sent him coordinates.

Staring at the string of numbers, he was almost embarrassed to be so familiar with them that he knew exactly which location they referenced. Kain couldn't help but wonder what had made Scarlet break her no-contact rule. The world was messed up. Things were strange and only getting stranger, and he knew that for someone like her – someone like Scarlet – the only thing that would stop her from making the most out of the situation was if she decided to take herself out of the equation entirely.

A truly unlikely prospect. No, if the world turned against her, Scarlet was the type of person who would find a way to live on and thrive simply out of cold, quiet spite. She'd plot in silence, struggle alone, suffer in silence, and when she was ready, she'd make her move. Alone. Of course she hadn't always been like that, but after what his parents had done… Well, Kain had seen Scarlet's plans play out before, more than once, and always with devastating success.

Which begged the question: why was she reaching out to him at all. Why now, of all times? He knew it wasn't to check in on him. The contents of the messages made that clear. He wouldn't have believed her if she had sent some heartfelt inquiry. Scarlet would be Scarlet, even with everything going on. Of that, he was sure. From his third-floor window, Kain watched as the ocean crashed against the shores of his private stretch of beach, the water beyond hiding the monsters that lay within.

The sun was out, but the people were not, barely anyone braved the beach any longer. The day before, only a few hours after full Integration, something had dragged itself out of the ocean. A sand dolphin, if this new Status thing was to be believed. The devastation it had caused would not be forgotten any time soon. That day, 'Integration Day' as the people on StarNet were calling it, he had begun his usual jog down to the pier, apparently, he was one of the earlier people to regain consciousness.

Things still weren't too bad, and the places where catastrophe had struck had been far away and out of mind. Only a minute or so into his run he'd come across a stretch of beach well known for its tidepools and the creatures that made the pockets of water their home. He was always careful over this stretch as it abutted a sea wall that cut off visibility, and the terrain could be quite difficult to navigate.

The area wasn't exactly a hotspot for traffic, so he'd been surprised to find a large cluster of people there. He'd been a lot more surprised to find them in some sort of protracted battle against crustaceans and other small marine life.

"What the," he'd slowed to a walk, and called to the nearest person. The kid, who couldn't have been older than thirteen, was holding a cast-iron frying pan covered in bits of gore and viscera, and grinning in a way Kain found quite concerning.

"Hey, man," Kain began, the kid grinned wider at the address.

"Mind telling me what's going on?" He asked. The kid nodded and gleefully explained that they were clearing out some of the mutated marine life to 'level up'. It might have been difficult to hear him over the sounds of battle going on just a few meters away, but the kid was basically shouting in his excitement to share.

"Easy experience once you get into it. I'm already level two," the boy said. His grin faltered for a moment, and Kain was forced to dodge to the side as a clam the size of a cat burst out of a nearby eddy and directly towards the two of them. The kid turned with remarkable dexterity, and just as the clam landed, he brought his pan down and smashed the creature into shattered shards of shell and gore. That wasn't what caught Kain's attention, though.

Just before the pan had made contact Kain was sure he'd seen something. It was like a haze of light or a distortion around the frying pan just before he'd made contact with the murderous shellfish.

"Nice," the kid pumped his fist, staring into open air and seemingly zoning out.

"What, um. What was that?" Kain had asked, pointing to the pan as the kid tuned back in. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, dude. Sorry about that," the kid pointed to the legs of Kain's joggers where bits of clam gore had splattered against him. That's not what Kain was focusing on, though.

"No, that's fine. I meant that thing you did. With your pan."

"You mean Skillit, 'cause it helps me get Skills?" The kid laughed.

"Sure. Skills?"

"Yeah, bro. So, I got this super epic skill, System reward, you know?" Kain didn't know. but he let the kid go on anyway.

"Basically, like, reinforces whatever weapon I'm holding and then gives it extra, I don't know, oomph? Power? But only when I smash things with it. Great for farming these mobs." He patted the cast-iron skillet.

"So, you just, what?

'Farm' the creatures here?"

"Level!" a young woman in the group behind them had exclaimed, and everyone – Skillit kid included – gave her a cheer, even as they continued their assault on their respective opponents.

"Yeah, bro. You should come over and try it. You look fit enough. Probably be good to get some levels in you in the early game, you know?" The kid was talking about real life, real potential risks, like it was a game, but Kain had seen the Interface when he'd first regained consciousness, and it did have a lot of similarities to some video game features. Besides, there was a lot going on, and if the kid needed to see the world as some sort of a game, then whatever let him cope.

Kain thought about the kid's suggestion for a moment. He'd played video games, he knew all about farming mobs, which was basically camping out at a spot where a lot of easier to fight enemies would gather and slaughtering them to efficiently gain experience. He doubted he'd get his jog in now, and 'farming' here seemed like decent exercise. Plus, he was curious about the levels and skills these people were talking about so enthusiastically.

"Anything I should watch out for?" He asked, before he made any final decisions.

"Nah, not really, apart from, you know, normal stuff. Good shoes, and no friendly fire, ya know?" The kid said. This time Kain did know.

"Oh, yeah, and watch out for the sheltered."

"The sheltered?"

"Yeah, that's what everyone's calling them on StarNet."

"StarNet?"

"Uh huh. The website? It's based. Anyway, everyone calls the people who haven't woken up yet 'the sheltered'?" The kid said, making air quotes like that clarified anything. Seeing his blank look the kid shook his head at Kain, like a disappointed parent whose adult son just put foil in the microwave. The boy pulled out his phone and pulled up a website and showed him the screen, tapping through feeds as he spoke.

"This is StarNet. Lock-in bro. So, the System, or whatever, its got them wrapped in, like, a forcefield or a dome or something." He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted "access, de-nied." He said that last word like it was two separate words, then he cackled, before sobering and getting back to his explanation. Honestly, the kid worried Kain more than the hyper aggressive wildlife.

"Anyway, the sheltered, you can't move 'em, can't touch 'em, can't do anything about them. But like, they can't do anything either. They have no idea what's going on." The kid's eyes dimmed for a moment before he'd perked back up. Kain didn't comment, just let the kid get on with his explanation.

"So, yeah, 'the sheltered'. They're just, like, there. We've got three of 'em here." He pointed to some people who Kain realized hadn't moved at all.

"A few more up the beach too." The kid shook his head.

"Serious tripping hazard." Kain didn't know how to respond to that, so he hadn't. Instead, he'd asked the kid for his name.

"Call me the Skill Daddy," he'd said, nose so high in the air Kain doubted he could see in front of him.

"Yeah, I'm not going to do that." He'd said before he turned and jogged away. It took Kain maybe a minute to get back home. There he grabbed some equipment, his weapon, a case of water bottles, and a couple protein bars before he'd made his way back, loaded down but mobile. The group had grown a little in the brief time he'd been gone, but they'd cheered when he'd returned, cheered louder when he lifted the water, and made space for him to farm.

With so many people around, the levels had been slow going, but it had been relatively safe, like whack-a-mole. Only winning meant gaining power, and losing just kind of hurt a lot. Of course, most people who were awake and aware weren't on beaches smashing mutated crustaceans. He couldn't blame them. Still, those brave enough to face the outdoor world had done so with enthusiasm… or grief. It was a coin-toss on the socials.

He'd been just another shell smasher, dancing around the sheltered, pretending the world wasn't going to shit faster than a stale gas-station burrito with a 5-Hour energy chaser. Kain wasn't ignorant of what was happening in the urban centers: people - 'the sheltered' - coming to in burning buildings, or the middle of traffic. Hospitals overflowing with everything from car crashes to 'mana' burns.

But here on the beach, less than a kilometer from his home, people had come together to deal with the crisis the way humans had been doing for generations to anything they couldn't subdue, exploit, or understand. Wanton slaughter. Hey, Kain was doing better than his ancestors. This wasn't even unprovoked! Plus, the System rewarded them for it. Kain had not regained consciousness believing that today would have a lot of positives.

He had tried to be optimistic, but a doom-countdown perpetually displayed in the corner of your vision could really wear at a person. Today had surprised him in a pleasant way. He could see himself doing this more often. The creatures had been, for the most part, harmless, and the few times he had leveled up had felt like playing a real-life video game. He could completely understand the appeal. Sure, he'd been hurt, once or twice, but never badly.

He'd talked to his neighbours, met old acquaintances, practiced some underused skills, and fought side to side with complete strangers turned comrade in arms. On this stretch of shoreline, the world hadn't ended, the game had just begun. Then that thing had dragged itself out of the ocean.