Kapitel 460: A Step Into Hell
-><-
Gear paused, "That's how I got here."
It was hard to believe, almost like it was falsified. However there was plenty of strange reasons behind everything that occurred in this game, so maybe it was true. This still left various things unanswered.
"The food is ready! Have some.", Lemon said with a smile.
In her hands were two wooden bowls, each filled with a steaming hot stew. After giving their thanks Jarvis returned his attention to Gear, "So that's how you're here. But that doesn't explain everything else."
Sipping on the stew Gear sighed, "Yes I'm aware, I'm figuring out how to properly word my experience."
"You stated a few times it was akin to hell."
"That it was, but I never truly understood until the first night."
-<>-
Of course it wasn't Alice, how could it be? Instead it was just an NPC that looked so much like her.
Lemon, a young girl with golden hair and eyes. A hard worker in the small village, but Gear felt like she had an unused charismatic feature about her.
Or perhaps it was simply the memories of Alice that he got it confused with.
"That house over there belongs to Miss Greenery, if you have any injuries she'll help!"
"Miss Greenery. . ."
Lemon beamed with a brilliant smile, one that both warmed and pained Gear's heart. The whole small village was the combined effort of its residents. Each contributing in their own way.
Lemon suddenly paused, "Ah that's right, she wanted me to pick some herbs just outside the village. I totally forgot!"
"I can help if you want to."
"You will? Thanks! It's just that way, they look really bright green so you can't miss them!"
A screen popped up in front of Gear, a plain set of text describing the quest he apparently just received. Once he was done reading it he looked up to realize Lemon was gone.
Everything was turning dark and quick. The progression of time seemed odd, but perhaps that was just a feature of the game. Since he had nothing to do. . .
Closing out the interface he walked towards the direction Lemon pointed towards. Although he wasn't entirely sure what kind of herbs he needed, games usually help out with that.
Stepping out of the village he paused, it seemed odd. Like the leaves were rustling. Yet there was no wind?
With a frown he forged forward with his eyes glued to the ground, looking for anything that might match the description of the herb.
Spotting a somewhat bright green herb he leaned down to grab it.
Creeaaak~
It was the sound of an old wooden floorboard being stepped on. To some a familiar sound, others a concerning one. Currently it was a concerning one.
Slowly looking up a figure came into view. His heart dropped upon the sight of it. Its face was eerie, it looked like a person's face was ripped off and hastily plastered onto a wooden mask. It sunk in certain places but was stiff in others. Three large holes were present, two for the eyes and one for the mouth. Its eyes were a pale yellow and incredibly bloodshot, its pupil was a tiny dot.
Two mandibles poked where the mouth was, a rotten fluid flowing slowly from the edges. It dripped onto the ground, the sound of the liquid touching the ground was deafening to Gear who's senses were heightened from the adrenaline.
<Warning! Player has approached a high Leveled creature!>
<It is recommended to flee!>
<<Failed Chimera: F-1 (LVL: ???)>>
Run, that's all he could think of. Everything was saying flee! He didn't even read the several system notifications, his instincts took full control of his body.
He ran back towards the village. Anywhere was safer than here!
"Screee!"
The failed Chimera had blades for limbs, four to be exact. Each one of its steps would cut deep into whatever it aimed at. Using this it pulled itself forward, deep gashes forming as it followed Gear with relative ease.
It was toying with him, Gear's speed as a level one was laughable. To the Chimera he was pitifully slow. The sign of something weak.
From its back a long thin tendril rose up and shot forward, a small sharp bone at its end. It pierced through Gear's shoulder causing him to cry from the pain and fear.
His heart was racing, what the hell was that?! What kind of beast was in this starter village?! He needed to get somewhere safe!
"Screee!"
Thud-thud-thud-
The sound of those bladed limbs cutting through the dirt easily haunted him. No matter how fast he ran, no matter how much he tried-!
The tendril flickered and cut through Gear's calves. He fell to the ground with a cry of pain. Adrenaline was far from enough, but he wanted anything! Just to escape!
The beast slowly crawled over him, its massive size becoming more apparent. It crawled over him, the liquid dripping onto his body.
"No. . . Please-!"
Schluck-
The Chimera pierced his chest with its bladed limb, Gear coughed for a second before the light in his eyes faded away.
Such a village, why did it hold something so fearsome? Was it a secret he had the terrible luck to come across?
No, rather it was a hell he just barely scratched.
What a nightmare like experience, who in the world would recommend this game?!
Gear sat on the edge of his bed, sweat clinging to his skin. It felt so real, like he was actually experiencing the terrifying moment. It took him a few hours to calm himself and separate reality from fiction.
He's never going to play that game again. There was no point! Might as well call him a coward because he wasn't going to go through that again. No amount of money would even convince. . .
An image of Lemon appeared in his head, although she only looked like Alice. . . to think she was living in such a hell. How could he simply run away? He was able to respawn right? Why not abuse such a feature?
His hand quivered while reaching towards the helmet. Hesitating he quickly made an excuse, he shouldn't go back in so quickly. Research, he needed to do some more research. It was clear he was far from prepared to face such a creature.
-><-
Jarvis frowned, "So the Chimera's truly live up to their name. Although F-1?"
"They're all named something similar to that, I find that the closer to A they get the stronger they are. A pretty simplistic naming style, but I'm grateful nonetheless."
"Intriguing. . . So what happened after?"
"I spent almost a week preparing myself mentally and in other means. I looked up various tutorials and made several notes on how to make myself stronger. The more research I did the more I realized that this village I was in was far from normal."
"I mean that much is obvious."
"Not to someone who just started."
Gear placed an empty bowl next to him, "Once I was ready I logged back in, and that's when I realized just how much easier it was to gain quests here. The Village of Perpetual Side Quests isn't simple."
"That's something I never understood, even in the beginner villages with an abundance of quests, eventually a shortage sprouted."
"This village doesn't handle them normally, as far as I can tell. Normally quests will give you some experience, gold, and if you're lucky a Skill or Item. However here you get exclusively exp, and maybe a favor owed."
"Since there isn't money circulating technically there wouldn't be a shortage."
"Precisely. Every day there's something that needs to be done, something that needed an extra hand to handle faster. If you offer they'll gladly accept and you get yourself a nice amount of exp for it."
"Okay so that answers the endless side quests, but not why you're still here."
"Hmmm, after about a month in-game, about a week and a half in the real world? I reached level 50, which I heard was a decent turning point for players."
"Depends."
"Yeah I learned that one the hard way. I spent the days helping out around the village and when dark came I logged out to avoid the Chimera. During the time night passed I was speaking with the developers to figure out why I was in this horrid place."
Gear pulled out a token, "And they gave me this plus an experience potion for my inconvenience."
"That usually seems to be their method to handling issues."
"That potion helped me breach the fiftieth level. However they also claimed to have fixed my issue, said it was a respawn point bug. Oddly enough it only happened to a handful of people."
"So you would respawn properly now?"
"Yes, but also no? Usually my respawn would be in the middle of the village at some random road. It was the same road, the same spot. Since I hadn't died after my first encounter with the Chimera I didn't notice how they fixed it until later."
Jarvis silently continued to soak up the information provided by Gear. Everything seemed to progress smoothly, but there was still something amiss. He could find out what the Chimera's were with some help later, but that didn't answer the problem with Gear himself.
With just a set of Starter Equipment he managed to reach the level of the common player. It was worth noting that the experience given through side quests would vary, and usually continued to lower in amount. So Gear's leveling speed should have been far below the average. Even more so with his lack of good equipment.
"Now, after getting to know the village as I leveled to fifty I gained a bit of confidence. I thought that now I was stronger I could take on the Chimera and help protect this place. So I didn't log out at night and went searching for that Chimera. . ."
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein