Chapter 2. First combat
'Did I accidentally go into a zombie outbreak VR game?' Jack thought. But it felt so real. Whenever he went into a VR game, there was always a sense of unrealism, but not now.
'The textures, the details, and my senses! I can feel everything just like in the real world.'
The wind, the cold air conditioning, the fatigue, the pain, this was no VR game! If it was, it was a damn perfect one. And he didn't remember being plugged into a VR chamber. You would need to plug your mind into a machine in order to enter a VR world. After all, Virtual Reality was a man-made digital world that existed only as data inside a computer network.
The only things that happened, before the whole world turned upside down, were seeing a bright flash and becoming disoriented for a short while. There was no way he was hooked up to some VR machine within that time frame.
Or was there? Uncertainties started to gnaw at him, 'But even if it did happen, what's the purpose?'
Before he could process all those thoughts, the scene in front of him turned intense. As the white-clothed man reached the bottom stair, one of the zombies leaped from above and landed right on top of him. He fell and lost his grip on both the staff and the round object. The round thing rolled to Jack's feet.
"No! No!" the man yelled, panicking.
The zombie on top of him started to bite and tear onto him. Multiple red numbers appeared on top of the man's head.
'Those are damage numbers!' Jack realized, 'Damn! This really is a game?'
The man was screaming at the top of his lungs. As Jack watched, the zombie was tearing the man's flesh in a horribly realistic manner.
'Was this really a game?' Jack was in doubt again, 'It's too damn detailed!'
'And the sound of the man's screams, it's too real.' It was giving Jack goosebumps.
'I can't take it. Game or not, no one deserves to be hurt like that.' Jack thought as he pulled his short sword out of its scabbard. He looked at the sword instinctively and, as he looked, a blue description appeared above the sword.
*
Bronze short sword, level 1 (common one-handed weapon)
Physical damage: 20
Attack speed: 1
Durability: 30
*
He then looked at his equipped armor.
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Leather armor, level 1 (common medium armor)
Physical Defense: 5
Magical Defense: 3
Durability: 30
*
'Standard beginner weapon and armor,' Jack thought while approaching the zombie and his victim. However, the other zombie seemed to have perceived his intent. The creature lunged forward passing his feasting companion and ran towards Jack.
'That was fast for a zombie,' Jack thought.
He maintained his cool and sidestepped. It was a good thing that he had plenty of experience in VR games. He let the zombie zoom past him and slashed with his sword. He felt the resistance when his sword sliced through the zombie's belly. 'It felt absolutely real!' He thought again. A red number 20 appeared on the zombie's head.
Motivated, he performed another slash at the zombie's back before it could turn around.
*Critical! 40 HP damage!*
'Sweet!' Jack readied himself to perform another attack, but the zombie spun around with his claws extended. One clawed hand ripped into Jack's side and pushed him back so hard he barely kept on his feet. A red number 10 HP damage appeared above Jack's head.
"The kinetic programming is too real!" He thought out loud while working on his footwork. He needed to really watch his balance in this game.
He quickly looked to see how badly he was hurt. Under his torn shirt, his side had a seeping red scratch that stung with pain.
'Too real! Too real!'
The zombie lunged again. Jack was prepared and avoided the attack before counter-attacking. He kept his cool by reminding himself that this was all just a game, despite the realism. After landing another 3 slashes on the zombie, he noticed that the screaming had died away. He looked over, stunned, at the bloody body of the white clothed man. In that instant, the other zombie made a move to grab him. Startled, but still calm, Jack quickly backed away from both zombies , averting the danger.
'That was close!' he thought. He had always had quick reflexes, and he had some martial arts training from his grandfather during his younger days. Both had helped him become one of the top independent experts in several VR games. And with the degree of realism in this game, he could control his body much more accurately.
He took another glance at the white clothed man. He was lying in a pool of his own blood, chewed up, slashed, and unmoving.
'Do they have to make it so real?' Jack resisted the urge to throw up. Usually in VR games, when players or monsters died, they just vanished in a ball of light. Why was the guy's body still lying there?
As the two zombies continuing their assault, Jack adjusted his footwork to circle toward the one that he had slashed several times already. He was not confident that he could deal with both zombies at the same time. So he needed to take them down separately, starting with the one who should only have a little life left. He landed another two slashes while getting clawed once and bitten once. Finally, after one last slash, the wounded zombie let out a long howl and disintegrated into dust.
'Now that looks more like a game!' Jack noted in his heart, while not forgetting to dodge the other zombie's attack.
With his opponents back down to just the one, the pressure on him was significantly reduced. He refocused his attempts to chip away the other zombie's life. He was clawed one more time when he was momentarily careless, reducing another 10 HP from his life. He remembered having 120 HP when he last opened his status window, so he thought he should have more than half of his health points remaining. Finally, the second zombie also fell. He heard a mechanized voice again, just like he'd come to expect in VR RPG games at the end of combat.
"Congratulations on winning the battle. Receiving 4 experience points."
"Well, that was exhausting," He commented while gasping for breath. In normal VR games, he never felt fatigued, or at least not the real fatigue he felt now. His lungs were thirsting for air, the bites and scratches bled and hurt. He felt his body responses just as he felt them in real life. Then he looked again at the pile of dust on the floor and the sword in his hand.
'Was this real or was this a VR game…?'
After pondering for a while, he shook his head, 'Whatever, I will just take things as they come and figure it out as I go.'
He approached the man or, more accurately, the corpse of the man killed by the zombie. The stench! He had to pinch his nose to approach. He never had to deal with this smell problem in his past VR games. The sensory feedback was too much! As he observed the corpse and took in the gory details – not that he enjoyed it, it just made him wonder how the programmer managed to apply such fine detail onto it – the corpse burst into several small rays of light.
"Holy s--t!" He blurted out while falling backward on his butt.
The corpse and the stench vanished, as did the blood. Just a bit of a red smear was left on the floor, along with three items: a plastic card, a large bag, and the strange monocle that the man had been wearing.
Jack hesitated for a while before picking up the three items.
*
Administrator Key-Card (Special item)
Can be used to open restricted area within Trigitech Corporation building
*
Large bag (Unique item)
Capacity: 100 cbm
*
Administrator God-Eye (special equipment)
Passive ability 1: Radar – detect allies, neutral, and hostiles within a radius of 300 meters
Passive ability 2: Scan environment – detect and analyze important objects within line of sight
Passive ability 3: See invisible object, monster, or player
Active ability: Inspect object without restriction
*
The monocle had a truly domineering name, and its listed abilities also indicated extraordinary powers. This would be a heaven-defying object in any VR game. He tried putting the key-card into his pocket; instead, a holographic box appeared. 'Standard storage bag' was written on top of it. At the bottom was written 'Capacity: 5 cbm'.
That was a big volume size in this seemingly small holographic box. The key-card was seen floating inside the box projection. He also put the large bag inside. His standard bag was 5 cbm, while this large bag had 100 cbm, it was 20 times larger. He had gotten a great haul!