Chapter 13: Leveling System

While Cyanide searched the rest of the building for anything he could use a weapon, he came across several interesting pieces of information about the building he was in and the world overall, gathered from various observations from books to logos.

For one, this company was called Aterra, and it was one of the leading scientific research companies in the world when the apocalypse struck. Its main competitor was called Acaelus, and the two had shared a close rivalry for many years. Acaelus was more powerful overall, but due to its poor business ethics, Aterra has been able to keep up in popularity.

As for the world, it was a heavily futuristic place that relied on technology and science more than nature. Ways to produce artificial clean air had been long introduced, so there weren't actually all too many trees in the world. Instead, the majority of the planet's surface was covered by cities.

Speaking of the planet's surface… Cyanide discovered that the total surface area of this world was only 5,101 km squared, and of that, 3,000 was pure ocean. For reference, that surface area was 1/100,000th of Earth's. Quite small, yet so advanced.

The concept of keeping track of time was also similar to Earth's — 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days in a year. The year when the apocalypse struck was 2069, though the exact month and day are unknown yet.

In general, this planet — called Endzone by its inhabitants (it was not a coincidence) — was just like a smaller, more futuristic version of Earth, except it had been struck by a mysterious apocalypse that wiped out all life and gave birth to mutants like the cyborg zombie Cyanide had fought earlier.

Despite all this information, however... Cyanide had still yet to locate a weapon even after hounding through several floors already. He had thought it would be easy, since buildings like this were bound to have security guards carrying weapons, but turns out that wasn't the case. He had yet to find a single body.

"... Luna. Do you have a searching ability, by any chance?" Cyanide asked, just to confirm.

"I wish I did to assist you better, but... I am still getting used to this new virtual space. I haven't yet unlocked all the original functionalities of A.R.S.A., and it will take me a while before I can synchronize everything with my own system. Sorry, Cyanide."

"It's fine," Cyanide replied, descending another flight of stairs to search the next floor down. "But do you know anything about the "level up" message I received earlier? It told me I gained CP and SP... but I have no idea what those mean."

"Of course you don't... you've never played any video games before," Luna said with a sigh. "That's the leveling system of this VR game. To put it simply... the more you level up, the stronger you become."

"Hm. I see."

"The CP and SP you received stand for Character Points and Skill Points respectively," Luna continued as Cyanide entered the first room on this floor — what seemed to be just a basic office with many cubicle-style workspaces placed next to one another. "CP is used to power up your body itself, while SP is used to unlock various skills."

"Power up my body… what about just physical training?" Cyanide asked, browsing through the documents laid out on the tables. Just a bunch of inventory lists and other things useless to him, though he did notice several items and chemicals listed that didn't even exist back on Earth.

"Physical training can help you, but it would be much wiser to just spend the time on killing mutants, gathering EXP, and leveling up," Luna replied. "For example, one single CP's worth of the Strength stat would be equivalent to a whole month of body training."

"Interesting… so how do I use CP and SP?" Cyanide asked, leaving the office and going down the hall in search of a different room.

In response, Luna's hologram pulled up a new screen in front of Cyanide, moving as he walked.

"This is your character screen, Cyanide. Here, you can spend CP on your stats, customize your loadout, and see the amount of CP and SP you have."

Cyanide stopped walking and inspected the new hologram that had appeared in front of him.

[SURVIVOR-097]

[Name: Jace 'Cyanide' Silverdale]

[Age: 22]

[Gender: Male]

[Height: 6'1]

[Weight: 175 lbs.]

[Hair color: Black-teal gradient, with white highlights]

[Eye color: Teal]

Above all this information, there lay a picture of himself. Not the Cyanide in the real world, but the current Cyanide. He had no idea when this picture was taken. To the right of this basic info, a list of stats was displayed along with pulsating blue plus signs by them.

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[STATS]

[Level: 2]

[HP: 20/20]

[STR: 1]

[AGI: 1]

[VIT: 1]

[INT: 1]

[DEX: 1]

[LUC: 1]

[Available CP: 10]

[Available SP: 1]

Judging from their abbreviations, Cyanide could guess what each stat stood for. Strength, Agility, Vitality, Intellect, Dexterity, and Luck. Of these, most were self-explanatory. Strength meant his physical strength, agility decided how fast and agile he was, vitality represented his defense, and dexterity judged what weapons he could use and how well he could use them.

The only two he was confused about were intellect and luck — he didn't particularly feel stupid right now, so what could intellect be referring to? And 'luck'… assuming the scale was on the same level as the strength comparison Luna made earlier... if he maxed out that stat, wouldn't that make him close to immortal?

"… Luna. Tell me what intellect and luck represent."

"Intellect directly decides your hearing, smell, observation skills, and — once you unlock them — how powerful your Soul Arts are," Luna replied. "On the other hand, luck won't give you good luck in general, but it will increase rare item drop chances from mutants you slay. I wouldn't recommend prioritizing it."

"Soul Arts… sounds interesting. How do I unlock them?" Cyanide asked.

"They are automatically unlocked once you reach Level 10. For now, though, you shouldn't worry about them too much, Cyanide. I believe Strength, Agility, and Vitality should be your main focuses right now. Dexterity and Intellect can come later, once you acquire proper weapons and unlock Soul Arts."

Cyanide nodded in response and used the plus signs to put 4 CP into STR, 3 into AGI, and 3 into VIT, using up all his available CP. Then, turning to his right, he immediately punched the wall to test out his new strength.

Nothing happened.

"…"

"Um… Cyanide," Luna murmured hesitantly. "Before you say anything, I just wanted to tell you… the walls of this building are made of pure steel."

Cyanide, who had been about to ask why his punches weren't causing too much of an impact despite leveling his Strength up (though his own fist didn't hurt either even after punching solid steel), shook his own hand a little and straightened his body.

"Well. In that case… looks like I need to find a punching bag."

As if on cue, Luna and Cyanide heard a growl come from downstairs. Not just one — multiple. It would seem the noise of the punch just now had attracted some unwanted visitors. Normally, he would be able to tell how many enemies there were just based on his hearing alone, but since coming to this new world, his abilities had deteriorated by a lot, and thus he had to rely on his companion.

"… Luna. How many?"

"Four… and they seem to be heading for the stairs to come up to us."

Cyanide glanced at the stairwell, then remembered the large couch that had been in the cubicle-styled office from earlier.

"Oh ho… how perfect."

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