Capítulo 2: Baby Steps
"Damn Cliché" I grit my teeth as I was blinded by the morning light shining in my face!
Once the pain died down and my vision returned I got my first glimpse of the Mojave Wasteland. And honestly it was even more depressing than I expected, everything was a muted shade of brown or tan, all the buildings were run down and falling apart, and the air was so dry I could already feel my lips cracking.
But, thankfully since it was still early it wasn't too hot out yet.
Realizing that this was my life now I let out a resigned sigh and decided to take Doc Mitchell's advice and get something to drink at the Saloon.
Which wasn't hard to find because it was just up the hill from Doc's house same as in the game. Making my way over I passed by Easy Pete who was as his name suggested taking it easy relaxing in his favorite chair at the entrance of the saloon enjoying the cool morning air. We made brief eye contact as I passed and nodded at each other but, neither of us bothered to start a conversation.
As I passed I took in all the details of his wrinkled sunbaked skin, bushy white beard, and wicker cowboy hat.
It was so surreal seeing a videogame character in full detail as a real person rather than the generic plastic renderings I was familiar with, and that wasn't even mentioning Yoruichi who used to be a literal drawing.
Shaking my head I turned my attention to the interior of the saloon which was actually a bit more lively than I was expecting but, only a bit.
There were a few townsfolk playing a lazy game of pool, while another was sitting to the side reading a book, and a few others were seated at the bar having a quiet conversation between bites of food none of whom I recognized aside from Trudy who was wiping off the counter.
I was a bit confused by why I didn't see Sunny Smiles or Joe Cobb around since those two were normally there the first time the player entered the saloon. But, then I remembered that I wasn't the main character in this world Yoruichi was which meant that things weren't going to start happening until she arrived after Doc was finished with her mental evaluation.
'Shit' which reminded me that I left before I could choose my Tag Skills and Traits.
But, it wasn't that big a deal since I would hopefully get the option to change my attributes after I left Goodspring's general area. Though it was a bit annoying because I normally picked the Tag skills that let me pass all the skill checks scattered around town.
But, oh well I'd just have to make due.
"Howdy there stranger" Trudy smiled at me as I took a seat at the bar a couple seats down from everyone eating their meals.
"Hi" I answered not really sure how I was supposed to interact with her.
"You must be the poor sap Sunny found half dead just outside town" She continued "I imagine you must be hungry."
"Yeah" I answered feeling my stomach start to rumble "I could use something to eat and a drink too."
"Thought so" she smirked "Knowing Doc that old bastard probably offered to pay for you right?"
"How'd you know" I blinked in surprise?
"Ha" Trudy laughed "I've known that idiot Mitchell and his bleeding heart for over two decades! And every time some injured traveler comes passing through town looking like a sick puppy Ol' Mitch can't help but, get involved. Speaking of which how is that girl Victor found in the shallow grave? Is she alright?"
"She's... just fine" I blushed remembering my short interaction with her and how energetic and quirky she was.
"That's good" Trudy ran a hand through her hair "Most people don't get up again after taking a bullet to the brain. Still, I can't even imagine how the poor dear must be feeling after finding out-"
"Hey, Trudy can I get a slice of bread, a gecko steak, and a side of eggs please" a middle aged man barged up to the bar and shouted grabbing everyone's attention!
"Damn it Marcus" Trudy stomped over "How many times have I told you not to shout in my bar! Some people actually enjoy the peace and quiet!"
"Pssh" he waved her off "Quiet? This whole damn town is never anything but, quiet! If I didn't make some noise every now and then we'd all go insane!"
"If you don't pipe down right this second the only noise you'll hear is the sound of my fist in your face" Trudy cracked her knuckles!
"Alright alright" the man chuckled "Message received" he raised his hands in mock surrender.
Trudy hmphed but, let it go.
"Now about my food" he continued?
"30 caps" she responded.
"What that's highway robbery!"
"MARCUS" Trudy growled.
"Hehe, sorry" he shrunk back "But, why is it so expensive now? It was only twenty caps a couple days ago?"
Trudy sighed "Yeah, but some Coyote's got into Carlos's chicken coop last night and massacred most of his flock. Thankfully a rooster and a couple hens survived but, we'll be short on eggs for a while until some more chicks grow up. So they'll be a bit more expensive for a while."
"Really" Marcus groaned "But, I don't got the money for that! Man and here I thought things around here couldn't get any more depressing. Now I can't even have a proper breakfast anymore!"
"Oh, don't be so melodramatic" Trudy rolled her eyes "It's not like you can't have eggs any more you'll just have to cut back on the whiskey to save money for your 'proper' breakfast."
"Nooo" he groaned at the idea of giving up his booze!
As the two of them continued to bicker back and forth I sat there quietly listening and mulling over the fact that there weren't just npcs in this world.
Unlike in the game where there were only a couple hundred characters at best this was an actual lived in world filled with people thousands of people who had their own unique lives, like this Marcus guy Trudy was talking to or that Carlos person who apparently raised chickens which I didn't even know still existed here.
"Anyway, what can I get for you hun" Trudy snapped me from my thoughts once she finished her banter with Marcus?
"Oh, uh just give me whatever you think is best" I hurriedly answered since I didn't really know what was good here "Oh, and a Sunset Sarsaparilla to drink."
"Got it" Trudy smirked "Since you're new in town I'll give you the house special!"
Not long later Trudy dropped a plate in front of me along with my drink and I was honestly a bit surprised by how good it smelled. I had expected everything to be bland and tasteless since things like spices and cooking oil must be almost impossible find but, the food actually smelled really good.
There was a small side of hash browns, a single fried egg, a slice of rye bread, and a mysterious piece of meat that was a pearly white color and vaguely resembled fish. I assumed it was gecko meat but, what surprised me the most was that it was actually seasoned with small amounts of salt and pepper.
"Where did you get the seasoning for this" I couldn't help but ask?
"Oh, that's easy" Trudy replied "We grow our own pepper and buy the salt from quarry up north, there's a salt flat near there where it's easy to gather if you know how. Though we haven't gotten any more since the Powder Gangers stole all the miners dynamite and the deathclaws moved in. So, I've had to start rationing the stuff until things start clearing up."
"That sucks" I sympathized but, had no plans of trying to help solve that particular problem unless I was at least level 30 and had a full set of power armor along with an Anti-Material Rifle and a maybe a Fatman.
"Yeah" Trudy sighed sadly before perking up again "Anyway enjoy your meal."
After that Trudy had to go back to her other duties leaving me to eat my meal alone but, we still made the occasional small talk when she passed by. As for the meal itself it definitely wasn't as good as food was in my old world but, was definitely tolerable though the gecko meat had a weird aftertaste. The part I enjoyed the most was actually the Sunset Sarsaparilla it tasted a bit like vanilla flavored root beer and was actually pretty good considering it was probably over two centuries passed its expiration date.
Once I was finished with my meal I considered what I should do next.
I'd learned from Trudy that Sunny was out hunting the coyote who raided the chicken coop this morning and probably wouldn't be back until this afternoon, so I couldn't try and start her quest line. And as for Yoruichi if the game was anything to go by she wouldn't be done with Doc until after Sunny made it back.
So, I had a few hours to kill before anything major happened.
I didn't feel comfortable leaving town to go exploring yet, and there weren't really any other quests I could do in town aside from "Ghost Town Gunfight" which involved helping the town fight off Joe Cobb and his Powder Gangers. Which I still wasn't sure if I wanted to be involved in so I crossed that off my list for now, leaving only one option left.
The abandoned school at the edge of town.
From what I knew there wasn't really anything dangerous there besides a few giant mantis nymphs which were basically on the same level as radroaches. But, even though the danger was low the loot was actually pretty good.
There were more than five different Skill magazines, a few Xander Root, and best of all a Stealth Boy!
The Skill magazines were good for meeting the requirements for some early game skill checks. While the xander root could be combined with Broc Flower to make Healing Powder which would be useful if I had a small injury I didn't want to waste a Stimpak on. And of course was there any need to explain how useful a Stealth Boy that gave the ability to turn invisible was?
With my temporary course decided I made sure to ask Trudy if she knew where I could earn some caps and she pointed me towards the safe in the old school house and even gave me a few bobby pins so I could try my luck. She also mentioned that she would pay me if I could fix her broken radio but, I didn't have the stat requirements to do that yet, so I declined for now. I didn't outright say no however since I might come back to that later.
After saying goodbye I left the Saloon nodding at Easy Pete again as I passed and made my way to the abandoned school.
It wasn't very far from the Saloon being only a short walk down the road.
And as I walked I opened up my Pipboy to swap out my equipped 10mm Pistol for a Machete. Since it seemed like a bit wasteful to my limited ammo on such weak enemies.
I approached the school and heard the tell tale buzzing of an insects wings and readied my weapon. Not far away just passed a rust out chain-link fence a pair of meter long mantises skittering around and fluttered their wings.
Even from this distance I could tell that they were easily the largest insects I'd ever seen, and the idea that these were only babies was kind of terrifying.
But, putting those thoughts aside I gathered my courage and approached them knowing that if something as insignificant as this could stop me then there was no way I was going to make it in the Mojave.
When I neared the mantises froze and their antenna twitched around wildly but, instead of running like I expected they turned and rushed towards me.
I'd thought they might try and run away since this was a real world now not a game, and attacking something a hundred times your size wasn't a good survival strategy even if you got a few good hits in first. But, I guess whatever mutated them to this size also dialed up their aggression to the max too.
Not that it bothered me, I wasn't going to say no to free Exp.
Gauging the distance I slashed at the first mantis as it leapt towards me cutting it clean in half and raised my arm to block the attack of the second mantis as it raked at my armor with its claws. Knocking it away I raised my foot and stomped down on with my full weight crushing the bug sending yellow goo flying everywhere.
I scowled and kicked the sludge off my foot.
That was grosser than I was expecting but, I wasn't to bothered by that because the small notification I got in the corner of my vision that showed +10 Exp. It wasn't a lot but, it didn't take much experience to level up in the beginning. I only needed 200 Experience to get to level 2 which I was low enough that I was confident I could level up by the end of the day.
Looking down at the Mantis corpses there was one more thing I wanted to try before went inside.
Reaching down I placed my hand on one of the relatively clean parts of the squished mantis and saw the prompt showing the Mantis's inventory pop up. There was only one thing a Mantis Foreleg which was a low-level cooking ingredient I could use to make Grilled Mantis.
But, that wasn't what I was interested in, what I was curious about though was what was going to happen once I collected the meat.
Would my system just create the meat from nothing and add it to my inventory? Or would it somehow collect all the scattered bits of meat and piece them back together?
Not wanting to wait to find out I added the forelegs to my inventory and was only slightly surprised when large chucks of the Mantis's body vanished from existence.
It was about what I expected to happen but, I was still a little disappointed because if my system did create meat out of thin air I could get double the food in the future by also butchering animals I killed by hand. But, it wasn't that big a loss so I moved on and looted the other bisected Mantis before entering the school.
The inside it was dark and dusty and I stood silently at the entrance a few moments as my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. After all I didn't want to start a fight with a swarm of giant bugs without being able to see.
But, once my I was mostly adjusted I started seeing small shadows skittering around in the darkness.
I wasn't sure how many Mantises were hidden in here but, I wasn't worried since as long as I protected my face and neck I doubted they would be able to hurt me. After all when I blocked the Mantis's strike with my arm earlier it barely even scratched my armor.
So without hesitation I started my Mantis massacre.
Stomping and slashing I fought my way through the swarm of bugs. And just like I thought there wasn't any real danger because their attacks were too weak to breach my defenses. The only time I had to worry was when a Mantis ambushed me from above by jumping down from the ceiling. Something I didn't expect since they couldn't do that in the game and my heart skipped a beat.
Thankfully my panic somehow activated VATS tinting the world in a sickly shade of green and slowing time to a crawl.
I was a bit confused about why time didn't stop completely like it did in most Fallout games and only slowed down. But, I didn't have time to think about that at the moment and could only act on instinct selecting the falling Mantis as my target swatting it from the air and chopping its tiny head clean off.
It was a strange feeling having my body move on its own like that but, I couldn't complain about the results.
Once the fighting was done and I calmed my beating heart down it was time to start collecting all the meat from the dead Mantises. All in all I killed around eight Mantises earning 8 more Mantis Forelegs and 40 Exp bringing my total up to 50/200.
With that out of the way I started looking around the building collecting all the magazines. I ended up finding two different issues of Programmer's Digest, one Salesman Weekly, one Lad's Life, and a Meeting People. Which represented the Science, Barter, Survival, and Speech Skills respectively and would give a temporary +10 to said skills when I use them.
With all the magazines found it was time to turn my attention to the last and largest piece of loot in the building the safe with the Stealth Boy inside.
I wasn't sure why a school of all places would have an advanced piece of military technology like the Stealth Boy but, I wasn't going to complain.
To open the safe I had two choices I could either hack into the computer and unlock it that way or physically pick the lock with the bobby pins Trudy gave me.
Unfortunately, I couldn't actually pick the lock since my Lockpicking skill level wasn't high enough yet but, I should be able to easily hack the computer with the help of one of the Programmer's Digest magazines I found earlier.
Pulling up one of the dusty old chairs scattered around the building I sat in front of the ancient looking computer and powered it on. It's black screen flashed to life and prompted me to enter my password. I was about to use my Pipboy to activate the magazine in my inventory and me get the +10 to Science when something strange happened.
Knowledge I didn't know I had suddenly started flowing through my mind and my fingers raced over the keyboard typing in strings of inputs I barely understood while I just sat there dazed. And before I could even comprehend what was happening the computer monitor flashed brining me to its home page.
I sat there stunned for a moment and only shook myself out of it when a +30 Exp popped up in front of my face.
'What just happened' I sat there confused?
I wasn't confused by the mysterious flood of information in my mind since I'd already figured something like that would happen when I used my powers to do something I wasn't normally capable of. I was confused by was the fact that it happened in the first place.
With my 5 Intelligence I should have only had 15 points in Science which was well below the 25 I'd need to hack into the easy difficulty computer in front of me. Which was why I needed the magazines.
So, after wracking my brain and failing to find an explanation I decided to open up my Pipboy and flip over to the Skills tab to see if I could find out what was going on. But, to my shock no matter how hard I looked I couldn't find it! After double checking I found that everything else was there like the Radio and Quests tab, it was only the Skills one that was missing!
No matter how hard I thought I couldn't figure out what was going on.
Eventually I decided to try and pick the lock on the safe to see if the same phenomenon would happen again. Because I shouldn't be able to open the safe that way either since my Lockpicking Skill should also be under the 25 points necessary to open an easy ranked lock.
Kneeling down in front of the safe I sat there awkwardly for a second before a bobby pin and screw driver magically appeared in my hands and that familiar wave of knowledge washed over me once again.
My hands moved dexterously as I used the bobby pin to carefully push up the pins in the lock while using the screwdriver to turn it ever so slightly so that the pins wouldn't fall back into place. Even though the safe itself was thick and sturdy the lock on it was incredibly basic letting me pick it open in only a minute or so.
"Click" it made a satisfying sound as the door of the safe swung open and I received another 30 Exp bring me up to 110/200 which was already more than half of what I needed to level up to Level 2!
Inside the safe aside from the Stealth Boy which seemed like just some random plastic container inside a canvas bag there was also stacks and stacks of useless prewar money and another 10mm Pistol with a couple boxes of ammo.
Sweeping everything up I closed the safe even more confused than before about what was going on with my system.
Lastly on the way out of the schoolhouse I collected the couple Xander Root that was growing around before taking a seat on a nearby bench to think about what I should do next.
It was still barely ten in the morning and I still had plenty of time to kill.
After thinking about it I decided I should try heading over to the General Store and selling off some of my extra supplies. After all I didn't really need the Lightweight Metal Armor or Spears so keeping them was just a waste of my carry weight. Besides it wasn't a bad idea to take a look around to see if I could find any other supplies I might need like a tent and maybe some flint and steel so I could start my own fires. After all from what I knew nights in the desert could get pretty cold.
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