Chương 2: Russian Roulette ain't fun without the bullets

The pyramid was golden throughout, just as Nihil remembered. The fire provided by the torches was reflected on the walls creating a hazy and incredibly odd viewing experience. It would have been beautiful, artistic even, if it weren't for all the corpses. It was only a few steps in that Nihil encountered his first human body. A muscular man wearing a tank top and missing a head. A sharp blade on a spring jutted out of the wall right in front of where the golden corridor branched into two.

Nihil sneered as he noted the obvious pressure plate mechanism the man had stepped on. He wondered if this was the loudmouth who'd started the scramble for the pyramid back then for his cohort, leading to an impressive 98% elimination rate. Standing in front of the split he narrowed his eyes.

'If I was a theoretical physicist who kept the suicide revolver of her dad, which path would I take?' he asked himself. …

"Left," Nihil muttered quietly before running down the left path, jumping over the occasional human corpse as he went while the corridor got wider and wider. He avoided a sharp invisible wire by sliding on his knees beneath it, pulling off the shirt of a corpse to block the nozzle of a metallic tube that would have probably spewed fire at him. He reached the first large chamber of the pyramid, and with it, the first really large pile of human corpses.

Sure, there were a few small dead green monsters lying around as well, but it was sort of pathetic that humanity had died to a bunch of goblins of all things. He looked around the room, ignoring the pile of bodies after he'd confirmed that his falling unconscious this time around hadn't turned Hope into one of them and quickly counted the five screeching enemies who'd noticed him. Two daggers, one spear, one sword, one bow.

The small fat one with the bow promptly notched an arrow, aiming right at Nihil's center of mass. The only human present at the moment simply ran towards the two goblins holding daggers. They had the same eyes, probably related. How cute. The arrow whizzed towards him before he'd finished running half the necessary distance. Nihil expertly swayed out of the way and extended a hand to catch the projectile mid-air with his right hand. The wood burned the skin of his palm but he never stopped running.

One second later he'd reached the dagger duo and noticed Spear and Sword approaching him from both sides. He used the arrow and his longer reach to stab one of the Daggers in the throat while his leg kicked at the wrist of the other. Arrow gone alongside its victim; his right hand promptly took the dagger from a limp hand and slashed at the throat of the stumbling goblin to his left.

The rusty dagger then flew from his right hand towards the archer goblin who'd just managed to notch another arrow, burying itself in its chest while his left hand took a new dagger from the new corpse. That was when the Spear and Sword pincered him with increasing fear present in their somewhat humanoid faces. Nihil stuttered back a step, grabbing at the haft of the spear which went right through his previous position.

He used his superior strength to divert the tip of the weapon right into the heart of the sword-wielding mongrel coming at him with a wide swing from his other side. A slash of the dagger with his left ended the life of the last goblin and the shoddy spear quickly became the primary weapon in his right hand. The fight ended and Nihil realised that he must have looked quite funny. Jogging pants, sports jacket and primitive spear straight out of the stone age. What an anachronistic and avant-garde fusion of styles!

But enough about the fashion, Nihil was already analysing the two exits of the chamber that he'd noticed. One at ground level and one reachable through a makeshift wood and rope ladder which ended in what looked like a tight tunnel going up. The smart choice would be to avoid the tight spaces, but this was Hope's first run through. Maybe she'd panicked. He decided to run towards the ladder and ascended it in three large jumps that he'd likely pay right back in muscle-soreness later.

His physical stats weren't what they used to be, that was for sure. Thankfully, his combat experience alone was enough to deal with everything on this level. The tunnel he reached through the ladder was small, just big enough for a goblin that reached up to a human's navel to walk with a bent neck. Instead of bothering with a crab-walk Nihil simply dropped to his stomach in the dark space and poked ahead for traps with the spear as he army-crawled his way through.

Luckily the tunnel wasn't long, taking him up a single floor in the pyramid in about ten meters of crawling, before spitting him back out into another chamber. This one would have been empty if not for the three small leather tents contrasting hideously against the golden walls. Small knickknacks were scattered around, bearing the general low quality craftsmanship inherent to low-tier goblins.

Nihil couldn't identify a single threat or interesting object beyond a clay pot being placed below a small iron tube extending from the wall that was dripping a steady stream of water. He was thirsty, but not thirsty enough to waste precious seconds. He quickly ran towards the only exit, skipping over another wire-trap. Using his spear he cut through a rope which led to a log above falling prematurely, allowing him to jump over it.

He didn't find any new human corpses for a hot minute before he reached another intersection, where the charred remains of three humans lay on the ground alongside the burnt remains of a goblin gripping at nothing. Someone had taken its weapon. It was just as he was choosing which path to take that he heard a frustrated female scream and a gunshot, which immediately helped him resolve the dilemma.

A few more traps later he emerged into a small chamber, where he found the brown-haired woman he was looking for holding a gleaming revolver and watching a goblin slowly bleed out on the ground in front of her while clutching its stomach. So focused was she on the goblin in front of her and on not wasting another bullet that she seemingly didn't notice the small green fucker sneaking up behind her from the other exit to the chamber, dagger in hand.

Nihil came to a sudden stop, spear extended as far back as his arm could take it, tip pointed directly at the sneaky monster. His arm whipped forward in pitch-perfect form as he shouted.

"Simon says jump left!" This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Hope, for her part, was quick on the uptake and she did exactly as he asked, stumbling fully out of the way of his throw. This allowed the spear to whistle its way through the air and pierce the goblin straight through the heart, tip emerging out of its back. Nihil finally stopped, catching his breath and calming his beating heart.

The human body was capable of incredible feats when one had the willpower to ignore its warning screams, but the mission was done now. Hope looked at him with a complicated look before putting away the gun in her hand to a holster on her torso.

"The pyramid is a trap," Nihil wheezed out.

"Rule two states that the area of the level stretches as far as the eye can see, indicating that meaning can be found in places other than the pyramid. It's all just misdirection." Hope slowly nodded at him.

"Let's go then," she said in a voice that was much younger, but not much more innocent than the one he knew from the future. He wondered what kind of life the woman had lived to become like this. There would be enough time to find out later. Skills would only be unlocked in the next rest stop and he didn't feel like tempting fate with his still mortal body.

The unlikely pair quickly made their way back out of the pyramid, Nihil narrowing his eyes as he noticed that Hope was not reacting to all the human corpses on the way as strongly as she should. He put those thoughts aside for the moment as they reached the exit. -/- The duo emerged back into the blazing sun, at which point Nihil happily noted that the doctor had listened to his advice and stayed put, using his white coat to protect himself from the sun while looking at the two emerging figures with some suspicion.

"What's going on?" the doctor asked immediately as Nihil approached him.

"I asked the administrator but he simply keeps repeating that no more clues will be given."

"It's all in the rules," Nihil muttered, twirling the badly made goblin dagger in his hand. He raised a finger with the other.

"Rule 1: Meaning must be found within the hour." He shook his head.

"I'm a mortician, not a philosopher, but it seems to me that meaning does not refer to an object that can be found, but rather to the decision that must be made." He raised a second finger.

"The second stipulates that the area of the level stretches as far as the eye can see, but in video-game logic a level generally indicates the area in which the requirements for passing can be met. That means that meaning can be found in the places that are not the pyramid." He paused, third finger in the air.

"Those who fail to find meaning will be eliminated. It's scary language, but what does it actually mean? It seems to be a call to action… But if the first two rules carry hints that meaning does not have to be pursued in the pyramid, then why is the third rule trying to scare people into acting before they have time to think?" He shook his head.

"The pyramid is a death trap, but we're on level 0. Thematically this is supposed to be the tutorial, but why is it so deadly? There's a lot of logical fallacies piling up but the only conclusion I can reach is that the pyramid is an optional part of the level and the administrator is merely trying to trick us into risking our lives." He turned his head towards the sheep-masked individual who uncrossed his arms.

"Excellent!" the creature bleated in a loud voice, wide eyes bulging.

"A fine line of reasoning! The level was designed with humanity in mind. If one does not understand the fundamental aspect of one's own species, namely, critical thinking, then there is no real purpose of ascending further only to eventually fail regardless!" The doctor stared at the administrator with angry black eyes.

"Yo- You tricked people!" he shouted angrily, taking a step towards the suited individual. Nihil laid a hand on the doctor's shoulder and held the surprisingly strong man back.

"It should be clear now that he wants people to die. It doesn't matter why, but you should be able to conclude that he's baiting you. It's not being said out loud, but it's always implied in any power structure that attacking a higher ranked person comes with a punishment." He warned.

"How problematic, a smart one!" the suited white bipedal sheep bleated, before shrugging.

"Well, collect enough monkeys and you'll always find at least one with a brain I guess! Congratulations! Unfortunate for the other 97 who couldn't quite reason their way out of a wet paper bag though!" Nihil stared coldly at the creature, before turning around to ignore it, which is when he saw another person emerge from the pyramid, distorted as their figure was from the heat haze of the desert. Stumbling… Clutching a small leather pouch in their hand…

"Hey!" the doctor shouted, taking a few steps towards the figure.

"Don't bother," Nihil snorted as the figure fell forward on its face, revealing the sword stuck in its back. But the doctor was already running. Nihil shook his head and followed.

"He's already dead you know," he said as the man started ripping apart his own coat to create make-shift bandages for the collapsed teenager who'd stumbled his way out of the pyramid.

"That's not for you to decide!" the doctor shouted angrily as he looked at the sword with deep concern.

"Now shut up and help by pressing down on the wound!" Nihil rolled his eyes, but nevertheless knelt down, dropping his dagger to press both palms as hard as he could around the blade of the sword. A second pair of hands, smaller and just as pale as his, joined him a second later. He looked up surprised to see Hope kneeling on the other side of the boy and providing her own force.

The doctor went to work, slowly pulling out the sword which didn't seem to have hit any vital organs and started to tightly bandage the area to stop the blood flow.

"I found- I found it, all the way at the top" the teenager muttered, face wrenched in agony and cloudy eyes looking into the endless distance, right hand clutching the leather pouch.

"Congratulations," Nihil said dryly, not overly interested in the 'treasure'. After all, he knew exactly what was in the pouch. The first time around, it had been him who'd followed the crowd running for their life and found it on that golden pedestal at the top of the pyramid. For all that the pouch was a magical item with slightly expanded space capacities, it only contained a small scroll with a single sentence. Maybe the real meaning was the adventures we had along the way? Hilarious.

Minutes passed and the doctor worked with all the skill but none of the materials as the life slowly faded out of the boy's eyes. The level came to an end not with a bang but a whimper and a sarcastic, "Congratulations," from the administrator. Nihil bent to take the pouch from the warm but dead hands of the boy as the doctor knelt there listlessly looking down at his bloody hands.

"If it counts for anything, you tried," Nihil consoled the doctor while tallying up his success so far and picking up the dagger he'd dropped. The last time he'd been on this level, only two people had survived. Him, and Hope, after which they hadn't seen each other for a very long time. The doctor was a new addition. That meant… In terms of progress on how many people had lived in comparison to the past, the number had just crawled its way up by one. Small steps.

A trio of doors appeared in the air, floating slightly off the ground. Glancing at each other, the group silently decided to take the same one. After passing through, they appeared in a blank white space with a new set of information hanging above their heads. You have 1 hour to rest! Please read the guidelines on how to use your experience points to create skills! Hope turned to Nihil, then looked at the doctor who had gone back to kneeling on the floor while looking at his hands.

"You seem to know some things," she said, nodding to the side.

"Let him grieve and let's talk over there." Nihil nodded sullenly and turned to the side, starting to calculate his experience points and the skills he should prioritise. After they'd distanced themselves far enough he stopped.

"Where to start?" he asked with a sigh, before freezing as he felt a cold barrel press itself into the back of his head.

"How about we start easy and simple with your hands in the air and the things you'll do to prevent me from blowing your head off right here and now," Hope said in a monotone voice as the click of the safety resounded through the empty space. Nihil slowly raised his hands as his thoughts raced and a smirk stole its way onto his face, wiping away the tiredness of earlier. Shivers of excitement started running down his body as the adrenaline pumped through his veins. This feeling… He loved it!

-/- Nihil Experience: 8291 Exp spent: 0 Level: 0 Str: 6 Agi: 7 Dex: 9 Per: 7 Vit: 9 Reg: 7 Skills: None Human Lives saved from Nihil's perspective: 0 -> 1