The Systemic Lands

Chapter 13: Day 20 (2) – The True Red Meat

“You have eaten people?” Amber asked. I just smiled at her and grinned. She quickly looked away. Without fire, I was not about to get some weird blood disease by eating improperly cooked meat. Nothing was off the table literally and figuratively, but thankfully things hadn’t gotten that bad for me.

“What is this place?” Ryan asked.

“Hell, purgatory, only the almighty System knows. Praise be to its eternal glory.” I raised my hands straight up in the air and shook them. That got me several looks. Sadly no one copied the crazy person.

“Wait, you meant who teleported us here?” Ryan asked.

“Idiot. To question the glory of the almighty System. Praise be to its eternal glory. You will probably die first. That is a stupid question,” I replied with another handshake to the god of this place. It was fun making this up as I went along.

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to offend you,” Amber quickly said. I gave a small nod. “So how often do people show up?”

“That is useful information, cost a lot of points. If you live, you might figure it out.” I shrugged at that. “But everyone will probably die before more people show up.”

“You sure you won’t accept credit?” Ryan asked.

“People lie. People die. Only secrets are those between myself and I.” I chuckled a bit after my impromptu limerick.

“What is outside the walls?” Ryan asked. I looked at him and this time he didn’t flinch.

“Death. Monsters. Painful death. Only I have returned alive. I think. Someone might still be alive in a monster’s stomach.” I nodded at that.

“Monsters…this place is a nightmare and there is only this…guy to help us,” Ryan complained, looking at his companions. I just grinned and ate my fruit.

“Will we ever get home?” Kevin muttered.

“None of that now. Thank you, Michael, for your advice. Do you have any other tips you could give us? We would be quite grateful?” Amber asked.

“Hmm, not really. You will probably die, so I would accept that and move forward. There are no second chances, as far as I have seen. To me, you are like babies just born. Helpless and weak.”

“And what are you?” Ryan asked, clearly getting aggravated with my condescending tone.

“Just a child. Poking at things he barely understands.” I was quiet for a moment before speaking more seriously. “I could hold people’s hands. Help them. But that path is one I will no longer travel. People need to grow themselves. Too much help stunts a person. I am tired, it has been a long day and tomorrow will be another long one.”

I leaned back against the wall, closed my eyes and steadied out my breathing. “You think we will die?” Joe finally spoke up for once and asked Amber.

“Maybe. The fact that he is the only person around and in that state… this place isn’t simple. If there are monsters, we need to kill for points, well, can we do it?” she asked her team. The silence from all of them was quite telling.

“If we are careful, we shouldn’t have that much trouble,” Ryan said.

“I don’t know. Maybe we should get more clubs. You notice how he has a spare sticking out of his pack?” Kevin brought up. I ignored them looking at me and rested. In and out, keep the breathing steady. I wanted to see what they would do when they truly thought I was asleep.

“He seems unafraid of us.” Ryan muttered.

“Probably killed people who got ideas. Don’t start anything, any of you. He is our best source of information,” Amber said. Well, that was nice to hear, and she probably said it for that reason. She was the trickiest of the group.

“Don’t worry. But yeah, the extra club is concerning. The one he has is also pitted,” Kevin said.

“Probably from the monsters he is fighting,” Ryan said.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Joe muttered.

“Then leave,” Amber hissed out. “Maybe you are okay with laying down to die, but I am not going to give in so easily. I survived my stupid family; I will survive this stupid place. Now either man up or shut up,” that woman was on fire. It almost made me want to smile.

“So, what do we do?” Kevin asked.

“We go and fight monsters. The people without clubs can keep a lookout. If we are careful everything should be fine,” Amber said. “We should rest up now.”

They got quiet and tried to go to sleep. I rested, but not letting myself truly fall asleep. It was a hard state to get to, but I had entered it a few times in the past. The main thing was keeping my eyes closed and my body completely still.

It wasn’t good as true sleeping, but it was a way to rest and recover while still being a bit alert. There was nothing to do but wait.

After a long while, I cracked an eye open. They were all still and their breathing pattern had changed. I slowly got up and there was no response. I left the building and made my way to another one, where I finally went to sleep for real.

I woke up to a beep, pre-dawn. Urg, another day of grinding. This is what I had planned for myself. I could think of more fun repetitive activities than killing slimes. Unfortunately, none of them were an option at the moment.

I didn’t see anyone as I left the city and went into the forest. I had a funny thought of Amber trying to seduce me. With how ripe I smelled; it would be a stretch for anything romantic to happen. When someone smells like a dumpster, it kind of kills the mood. Well maybe she was into dumpsters, I thought of a 10/10 model trying to seduce a homeless man in a dumpster.

The idea made me smile a bit at the silliness. I shook my head, time to focus and get on with things. I began killing the slimes and collecting crystal drops. It was about mid-day that I heard screaming.

Well, someone was an idiot. I followed the noise and saw the group of four. Ryan’s foot was partially melted from the slime juice. Looking at the positioning, they had probably attacked it from two directions. So, Ryan weakened his side, then Amber struck the other, causing a burst of acid onto Ryan’s foot. Sucked to be him.

Positioning people, positioning. I could only shake my head at that. That was when Jacob, or Joe noticed me. “Help please.”

They had used an undershirt to bandage the foot, but it was bad. The entire part with the toes was melted through. Ryan was managing the pain quite well, since he wasn’t a screaming wreck. I could only hope there were no diseases or infections, with that much of his foot melted away.

The undershirt they had used to try and bandage things was soaked with blood. It was a life ending injury. While not quick, the complications and the residual effects meant it was as good as a death sentence in my mind.

I walked over and they all looked at me. “He is dead. That kind of damage is too costly to repair. It is best you say your prayers and ask your friends to end your suffering.”

“But it can be done, right?” Amber asked.

“That much damage. Probably two to five thousand points if I had to guess. He will need help moving around, food, and care until you have the points.”

“I will pay you back. No matter what,” Amber said and looked at me in the eyes.

“Even if I wanted to, I don’t have that many points.” I shook my head. “Better to end his suffering.”

“Shut up!” Amber shouted and I stepped back and brought up my club. “He isn’t going to die here. We are going to save him. Right?” She looked at her two comrades. They looked away in shame. She looked back at me, and I could tell that was the moment she broke inside.

She began to cry and collapsed to her knees. “It was my fault. Don’t blame yourself,” Ryan said. That just made her cry harder.

“Is there anything I can do?” He looked at me. I let out a long sigh.

“The cost of a restoration is based on the damage you have sustained. That much damage, is around 5,000 points if I had to guess. Might be less if you are lucky. To compare, bruised ribs cost about 500. You would have to kill a lot of slimes, then somehow take the crystals back to the pillars without being robbed, and then heal yourself.” There was silence at that.

“I won’t say it is impossible, but it is like climbing Mount Everest. Many will die and suffer in the attempt, and you might not even get to your goal in the end.”

“Help us, help him,” Amber pleaded with me.

“There is no benefit. If he was foolish enough to get crippled here, then he stands no chance at repaying the debt he would incur. The fact he would generate such a debt means he is incapable of repaying it. The same for the rest of you.”

“Take my body then,” Amber said, and I just felt sad for her.

“Even if I did, it would change nothing about him,” I gestured at Ryan.

“If you don’t help others, no one will help you,” Amber countered. I nodded at that.

“That is correct. I don’t expect anyone to help me. If you can’t survive then you will die. There is no social safety net out here. I don’t like seeing people suffer. I don’t want people to die.” I looked off to the side. “What I truly want doesn’t matter,” I muttered.

“How much are slimes worth?” Kevin asked.

“Five points, but I can’t promise the restoration will cost five thousand. I have never had to regenerate a limb. It could cost more or less. It is just a guess, so don’t blame me if I am wrong.”

“A thousand slimes. We can do it,” Kevin said. “What do you say Joe?”

“Yeah, something this small won’t stop us,” Joe said. Amber wiped the tear streaks from her face.

“Alright then, Joe, you help Ryan back to the city. Kevin and I will hunt more slimes. Will you help us?” Amber looked at me.

“You didn’t even thank me for the information I gave you.” I shook my head and she winced. “And yet you ask for more. Completely ungrateful. I won’t help you, but I won’t hunt you down either or interfere.” I suspected they would resent me if I charged anything. Better to take the appearance of neutrality, with some sage advice.

“Thank you for your help so far, if I make it through this, I will be sure to thank you,” I looked at him and his tone was genuine. I gave him a nod.

“I hope you make it as well. I…” I began to turn and then paused for a moment. “Good luck.” I then turned and quickly left.

Now, should I kill them all once they collected up the necessary crystals? I was leaning towards no. I had invested time into this group and was hoping for rumors of me would spread to build up a reputation. A thousand crystals, while a lot, was only about five days of work.

No, I was going to stop pulling at threads on sweaters for now. Let them do their thing. Then when they came to me with questions, I would charge them. A win-win for all of us.

The next day, I ran into the three whole members of the group killing slimes. They didn’t notice me, and I quickly went in another direction. I was not going to get caught up in their drama. I was a side character in their story, not the hero.

If they managed to save their friend, then they had some talent to survive. If he died, well it was a learning experience if nothing else.

I will admit, I had been tempted by Amber, but I refused to think about things sexually in this place. Things could be sexual, once I had a real bed, and was cleaned up. I almost felt ill thinking how disgusting I currently was, to have sex on top of that, I shuddered.

Clearly there were still bacteria around, since our guts could process things and there was a smell from our bodies. Still, the lack of decay anywhere else and the disappearing objects made it hard to reach any kind of a conclusion.

Well, I had an apple I had been saving in my pack for a while and it was still hard and not turning to mush. There didn’t appear to be anything in the air, maybe. This place was strange.