Chương 16: Starter pack.

'Two weeks…'

In two weeks, something was going to happen, and if the words "Complete Dimensional Collapse" could mean something, Mark was sure it wasn't anything good. As he watched the number of seconds decrease, a sudden thought appeared in his mind.

'It's the end of the world…' Mark was strangely confident in that guess. 'The world will end in fourteen days…'

A lot of people spoke of how the world almost ended twenty years ago during the Great World War, and how it's a miracle that they were still around. Mark wasn't even born back then, but having seen some of the numerous documentaries depicting the war, he understood that those old soldiers weren't exaggerating.

As he stared at the small screen in front of him, Mark came to a realization. The miracle didn't prevent their world from ending; all it did was delay it for a couple of decades.

'... why?' he started pulling on his dark brown hair. 'Why is this happening to me!? What do you mean powerful Soul!? Since when did I have something like that!!?'

Life has always been difficult for him, being forced to pretend everything was fine while hearing strange voices in his head. The voices disappeared and he was finally granted a moment of reprieve, but he couldn't even savor it for a day before a damned dragon came looking for him.

'What am I even supposed to do!?' He scratched his head furiously. 'That's a goddamn late-game boss monster if I ever saw one!'

Mark didn't even dare look at his stats, fearing what he would see. The tutorial seemed to end by itself following his thought, but as he stared at the Player Menu, nothing came to mind. He struggled even to think.

'The store!' he yelled inwardly when the last item on the list caught his attention. 'It should have something to deal with that thing!'

Maids VS Apocalypse takes place in a futuristic setting with fantasy elements. In addition to the usual magic spells, Mark created a wide assortment of weapons for the player to use, ranging from simple swords to massive laser turrets.

Heavy weaponry was available as well for the base-building side of the game. The store was guaranteed to have something that could take down the dragon, but as he looked through the listed items, Mark noticed two things. The first one was that the prices were different from what he remembered. The second one was

'I don't have any Gold…'

Gold was the main currency in Maids VS Apocalypse. Seeing that the counter at the top-right corner of the screen had a measly 300G in it, Mark realized that he was indeed near the start of the game, meaning there wasn't much he could buy from the store.

To get Gold he would have to finish quests or sell item drops, but his current situation didn't give him the leisure to grind. As he went through his options, gritting his teeth whenever a number higher than 300 showed up, he noticed that one of them was grayed out.

'That's right! The starter pack!'

At the start of the game, the protagonist who has no resources or influence to begin with is forced to move to his new home with a meager budget that didn't allow him to do much of anything, and a few items offered to him by a friend.

Those items are the Starter Pack the player can get from the store, and since it's grayed out, it means the items were claimed and sent to the inventory.

Pressing the B button on his imaginary controller, Mark closed the store window then navigated to the inventory.

Four items were listed there:

- SLP 9mm: a handheld laser pistol that shoots 9mm energy bullets.

- First Aid Kit: a health item that serves the same purpose as a potion.

- CFBW type 02: a carbon fiber long sword.

- CFBW type 05: a carbon fiber spear.

Seeing the first item on the list, Mark remembered something that had escaped his notice for a while now. He looked up at the silver-haired maid and saw that she still had a rifle strapped on her shoulder. It was a basic AR-15, but seeing it in the hands of the elegant-looking maid was still a rather bizarre sight.

"Lara… where did you get that?"

Blinking a few times, the maid looked down at the rifle.

"This?" She held the AR-15 up. "I picked it while trying to distract the monsters from before. There were quite a few lying around on the ground."

Mark had already forgotten about their previous goal of reaching the police station. Though the fighting had been over by the time they arrived, the monsters and corpses made it clear that a battle had taken place in the area. With the policemen either dead or captured, their weapons were just lying there waiting to be picked up by someone.

'Good. We can make better use of it than some dead cops…'

Unfortunately, a rifle wouldn't be of much use against a dragon that could tank missiles. Even the SLP 9mm most likely wouldn't do much damage to the monstrosity chasing them; it was just a simple pistol to use against early-game mobs.

'Maybe if I used that shortcut and…'

As he went through his options, Mark once again remembered something important.

'Wait… How did Lara defeat the first Lizardman?'

~[ ]~

As the sun gradually approached its zenith, another bone-chilling roar shook the entirety of Stonegate City. Besides the monsters roaming the streets in search of fresh meat, not a single sane person could be found. The city, like many that thrived after the Great World War, was built with the idea of conflict in mind. Many evacuation routes have been built into its infrastructure and one just had to look into their phones to find somewhere to take shelter in.

Most people －those still alive, at least－ had locked themselves up in one of the many underground bomb shelters scattered around the city. Those who failed to reach a shelter were forced to hide inside the buildings on the surface and hope that they wouldn't get blown up in whatever conflict was taking place. That only left the folk insane enough to wander outside in such chaos, but even among those no one was insane enough to move in the open. Then again, stealth was pointless when you have a dragon tracking your location through your soul.

"Are you ready?" Starting the engine, Mark turned to the maid sitting beside him in the passenger seat.

The silver-haired maid held up the rifle in her hands and nodded. She didn't need to say anything as her expression said it all. The kids in the back passed out after too much crying, which was probably for the best.

Mark considered leaving them in the parking lot while he drew the dragon away from the area, but no one could tell whether that really was the safest option. He also didn't know if he would be able to return at all. Since he took it upon himself to save them back then, Mark decided it was his duty to keep them safe until they were out of this mess.

His stomach was empty and his heart was pounding faster than normal. His clothes reeked of piss and he had small cuts all over his body. The situation was insane. A dragon, and a named one at that, had its sights on him. It was a boss fight he had no choice but to try and escape. Even with the plan he came up with, Mark was far from assured of their survival, but compared to a few minutes ago he no longer felt resigned.

'A survival quest with no time limit?' He thought to himself, Fastening his grip on the steering wheel. A maniacal grin slowly spread on his face and his eyes shone with a mad glint. 'Bring it on, scally bastard!'