Chapter 21: Day 31 – Get Ready…

A beep went off and I quickly woke up. I forced my eyes to snap open. When I woke up, I needed to be instantly in combat mode. No slow easy mornings anymore. That was the thing I was coming to hate the most about this place. That and the lack of a razor blade and shaving cream.

I used my club to poke Carl. “Wake up.”

“Urrrgg.”

“Wake up.” I poked him harder.

“I am up.”

“When you wake up, you need to be immediately alert regardless of the circumstance. If we are ambushed at night, you need to switch immediately into combat mode once you are awake. Well, time for breakfast and then another day in the slime forest if you are up for it?”

“Give me a minute. It is dark out.”

“Yep, I start pre-dawn so I don’t run into other people. Hopefully we can get 300 crystals today at a minimum.”

“That many…”

“Yep. I normally get around 200 by myself with a full day of slime hunting.”

“I was hoping this entire thing was a bad dream.”

“Nope, just our own little slice of hell,” I replied.

“Alright. I got this. Carl Smith doesn’t quit and doesn’t give up.” He got to his feet and began to stretch. I chewed on a carrot while watching him.

After about ten minutes of stretching, he had a fruit for breakfast. “Ready?” I asked when he was done eating.

“Yes, just leave our trash here?”

“The System will take care of it, praise be the almighty System, protect us humble players with your mercy and luck.”

“Is there a System?”

“There is the store and things get reset. I could call the force running this place God, but God managed Earth and it was messy. This place is run by the almighty System, much more organized and weird in other ways. Don’t worry, you will be a believer in no time with all the oddities this place has.”

“I guess…”

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s go.” We left the building and went back out into the forest. No one else was awake yet, slackers.

I began plowing through the slimes as a one-man army. With the occasional break, we made a decent pace, racking up around 300 crystals when I called it a day. The sun was just setting as we made our way back to the city.

I picked a different building this time to sleep in and made sure no one had followed us. The city was big enough that if you just went a random direction, it was easy to lose a tail. I held up my finger to my lips once we entered a building and Carl didn’t say anything.

I waited for a couple of minutes but didn’t hear anything. “Alright, we weren’t followed.”

“Is that a big problem?”

“If someone follows us, I will kill them since they are up to no good.” Carl got quiet at that.

“Alright, I didn’t ask last night since we finished late, but how many crystals?” Carl pulled them out and laid them out in rows of ten.

“We have 433 crystals.” I watched him count and nodded at that. I set aside 40 crystals for him.

“Those are yours. You can keep them in your pack.” I began moving the rest to my pack.

“This seems…unfair.” Carl then looked up at me.

“You are paid what you are worth. Anyone can pick up crystals. Sure, you have to move, but you are also gaining knowledge and I am there taking the risk. You are welcome to leave and go hunt slimes on your own.” I gave him my crazy grin.

“Just seems a lot of effort for not that much.”

“Those 40 crystals that you have, is far more than anyone sitting around in the plaza currently has. Also, no tax. Not a lot of motivation around here.” I shook my head.

“But coming back we saw other groups.”

“Yeah groups. They probably get 80 crystals at most in a group of four. Then that is cut in half to 40 from the tax. They have to replace their weapons when they get worn and take a risk. Slimes are fairly safe, but it is always a risk.”

Carl looked thoughtful at that. “They get that few?”

“We are moving insanely fast to clear slimes. There is a reason I don’t team up. Teams are slow and give a sense of safety. There is no safety, and I don’t want to get a false sense of it out here fighting monsters. The moment I think I am safe, that is the moment I die.”

“Also, before you say anything. I am the only person I know that is alive from the first and second group.” Carl looked shaken at that.

“That is a lot to take in.”

“It is, but this place is hell, purgatory, or whatever you want to call it. I don’t plan on dying, but that means you can’t stop pushing yourself. Wolf or sheep.”

“I get it now. You really don’t care if I leave?”

“You leave, I will find someone else. Leaving either means you were too weak or too cowardly. Either way you would just drag me down when you die.”

“That is harsh, you really don’t say anything nice.”

“Well, when you get points, you can buy fresh clothes and give yourself a towel bath.”

“That isn’t helping.” I shrugged at that. We ate our dinner quietly.

“This is hell isn’t it.”

“Maybe, I like to think of it was purgatory. Not quite hell, but not heaven either. We are just waiting. For what? No idea, well maybe one. The eternal night.”

“Eternal night?”

“Well, the days are slowly getting shorter. Like a couple seconds every day. Hard to tell.”

“How much time is left?”

“No idea. Impossible to get accurate measurements since the days are slightly longer than Earth's. Throws off all the watches.” Carl looked at his watch and the four I was wearing. I could see him visibly gulp at that.

“So, winter?”

“Maybe, I can’t tell if the rate is increasing or decreasing or staying the same. Could just be seasonality, but with how weird this place is, who knows.” I shrugged.

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“Then this could all be pointless.”

“Waking up on Earth and going to work could be pointless, but people do that every day. But if you want to give into despair, feel free. A lot of people do and just die.”

“You aren’t a cheerful person, are you?”

“I used to be. But it is hard to stay that upbeat all the time when thinking about this place.” I let out a sigh. “Well, you either learn to cope…”

“I get it. I am sticking around. Carl Smith just doesn’t lay down and die.” He seemed to firm up his resolve with that declaration.

“Good for you. Well time to get some sleep. We have a number of full days ahead of us.”

I remained awake with my eyes closed and my breathing steady for a while. I didn’t hear anyone moving outside. I went to sleep once it got dark.

I woke up to a beep. I shut off the watch and poked Carl awake. We had breakfast and made our way to the gate this morning. I paused since there was a person waiting there.

“Michael?” the man asked.

“Yes, you are?”

“Carlos sent me. He needs you to handle a situation.” I let out a sigh, well this is what I signed up for.

“Tell me.”

“There is a large group that has formed. They are going to start something today.”

“How many?”

“At least fifty.” That was a lot.

“Carlos’ men?”

“About the same number.”

“What was his initial offer?”

“Two hundred crystals.”

“Should I be listening to this?” Carl asked I turned towards him.

“Shut up. You are with me until this is over. The amount is fine. Let’s go.” We began to make our way back to the plaza. That was just under what I could earn in a day, but I was pretty sure Carlos would be paying with credit. Next job I would ask for at least 500.

“Any of them upgraded or have points?” I asked.

“Not that we know of. They are just getting together a lot of people who are desperate. The fifty from last evening could easily be a hundred today. There was shouting and a light skrimish, but they backed off. Probably not going to back off today.” It was going to be a blood bath. Stupid, idiot, moronic, people just couldn’t go out and hunt slimes.

It wasn’t that freaking difficult. By the almighty System, I was going to open up a massive can labeled blood bath with touch of whoop ass. Sorry clothes, I could only keep you clean for so long.

We made our way to Carlos’ building. There was ten people already standing outside as the sun was coming up. I brought Carl with me as I went up to meet Carlos.

Carlos gave him a look and turned towards me. “At least fifty people maybe more. Armed with clubs, but there might be a couple with weapons.”

“How did it get this bad this quickly?”

“No one wants to hunt. Stupid Americans.”

“I resemble that, you know.” Carlos let out a pained chuckle at that.

“You, at least you have common sense. I can speak with you. We can discuss things. These…putas are like drug addicts. Crazed with no common sense. I could kill them all, but with your help it will be much safer.”

“That is fine, 200 crystals, right?”

“Yes. Your teammate…?”

“You fighting or staying here? If you fight, I will pay you out of my share. Ten crystals per person you kill.”

“That’s…I….” he paused to take a deep breath. “You are just going to go out and kill them all?”

“Yes. So, are you coming or staying?” I asked. He looked at Carlos, then back at me.

“I will go, but I don’t know how useful I will be.”

“That is fine. You can watch the rear. Let’s do this now if we are going to do this. No mercy.”

“That is why I like you, Michael. Always with the work ethic and straight forward.” Carlos got up and began yelling at his men to move.

“You don’t have a crystal stash here, that needs to be protected?” I asked.

“I wish I had a stash. It is spent paying my guards and buying stuff.” He shook his head. “Don’t worry, we will build up a stash to pay you after this.”

“That is fine, figured as much. Carl, you carry my pack. Don’t lose it, got it.” I handed it to him.

“Yeah got it.” I got my sword out and had my shield already on my left arm.

Carlos’s men quickly gathered outside from the nearby buildings. We then marched into the plaza towards the buildings opposite where Carlos had set up. I quickly stopped by the pillars and spent 89 points for a restoration. I then walked up front with Carlos. A guard from the other faction quickly ran into one of the buildings.

There was shouting and a large group of people gathered. “Do you mind if I speak before I kill them all?” I asked Carlos.

“Go ahead. Will be interesting to see what you say.”

“Don’t worry, I got your back. Just make sure your archers don’t hit me.” I stepped forward as Carlos made sure his archers knew where to aim.

“Alright!” I shouted. “You useless pieces of shit, think you can run things around here. Well, here I am. If you aren’t a bunch of dickless cowards, then come on out and fight.” I waited a moment.

“You are the worst of them, Killer!” Someone in the crowd shouted.

“Yes, I am. Now since you are hiding the crowd, you can either come out, or I can come to you.”

“Screw you!” A voice shouted. Screw this noise. I was fed up with all of this.

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