Doom System Survivor: A LitRPG Apocalypse, page 4
“My jobs. I had several. During the day, I worked for a delivery service in their fulfillment center.”
“Brutal.”
“It sucked.”
“Pee bottles?”
“Sometimes. At night, I did ride-shares. Food delivery. That sort of thing.”
“Dang, how many hours were you working a week?” she asked.
“Sixty to eighty. Sometimes more during holidays or, you know, events in the city. Surge pricing pays until you realize it doesn’t. Ever since…” Hiro was about to tell Valeria the path he had taken to end up working two jobs but stopped short. Instead, he went with a question. “You? What were you doing?”
Valeria kept her crossbow trained on Hiro but seemed to relax some. “I was a student.”
“Studying what?”
“Computer Science, undergrad. I was planning to do a master’s in Neural Networks and would have started a few months ago. At least I don’t have student loan debt anymore.”
“None of us have debt anymore. Did you see what killed him?” Hiro carefully nodded toward the man’s arm on the ground. “I heard a scream. That’s why again.”
“A fucking monster with wings. I had it in my line of sight, too. I just didn’t know if my power levels were enough to one-shot the fucker. I shouldn’t have hesitated.”
“It had wings?”
“It had wings and four fucking arms. Big, too. Some Souls shit, if that means anything to you.”
“The video game series.”
“Bingo. I’ll hunt it next. One less flying demon.”
“You’ve seen others?”
“Have you not been paying attention?” she asked.
“I have been distracted.”
Valeria took a step back. “They’re out there.”
“My Companion told me Hunters will be released soon.”
“Same. Have you tried doing something to your phone?”
“What do you mean?”
“The Companions are administered by the Doom System.”
“You think they’re related?”
“How could they not be?” Valeria asked. “I tried breaking my phone, and it returned to the state it started in. I tossed it off a roof, and it reappeared in my hand. Try it sometime.”
“Really?” Hiro wondered how he could use this to his advantage.
“Something worth knowing,” she said. “Try it sometime. Look, I’m going to leave now to prepare for tomorrow. I feel like I need some rest. But I also want to hunt.”
“This has been a lot. Maybe I will rest as well,” Hiro said but instantly snapped his mouth shut as if he had revealed too much.
Valeria didn’t seem to think anything of it. “In three days, meet me at the gate nearest to this parking garage—the one in the Financial District.”
“We will need two more people.”
“In that case, we will meet around here in two days and see who we have found. Try to stay alive until then.” With those words, Valeria vanished. It was as if she had faded away. Hiro had seen her standing there mere seconds ago, and now, she was gone.
No trace.
“Like a ghost,” he whispered as something dawned on him. The Doom System had given people different powers and Roulette Skills, and her disappearing act, plus the new {Beacon} skill Hiro had picked up from the Soul Essence, confirmed it.
This wasn’t a good thing.
It created a natural environment for Player Killers, even if he had been warned that there would be repercussions…
Both doors of the fallout shelter bolted, Hiro got comfortable on a sleeping bag that smelled of wet dog. He placed his phone in front of him and noticed the glow of the countdown timer.
02:21:49:11
02:21:49:10
02:21:49:09
He turned the phone over and brought his knees to his chest as he looked over at his family altar, to his scattering of maps beyond that, piecemealed and taped to the wall.
For nearly a year, Hiro had survived by doing anything he could to stay away from the gates. Now, he had been forced into a game he hardly understood. But at least he had met someone who seemed bold enough to fight back with him, even if he never left her crosshairs.
Start with questions, he thought, remembering something his dad would say, who was obsessed with police procedural books and TV shows. Ask the right questions.
The right questions weren’t where the system had come from.
Not now, anyway.
The Doom System was there to stay.
The right questions weren’t about how his phone worked, how any of this worked, or why he seemed to be assisted at random times. The right questions weren’t even about his Companion, who was somehow affiliated with the Doom System. Hiro was certain it couldn’t fully be trusted.
This brought Hiro to followers.
According to what he’d been told, if he could trust it, more followers would increase his chances. Chances of what? Survival?
He checked his follower count and saw that he had gained some. Whatever. Part of him knew the truth—none of this was real, including the followers—yet he also knew it was futile to think this way.
Instead, how do I gain more followers?
This thought reminded Hiro of the world before January 1st, the dominance of social media.
People gain followers through a number of means. Most were related to their career choices, which gave them amplified voices. Even if they were dumbasses. Fifteen minutes of fame lived forever on the Internet. The algorithms handled it from there, creating new forms of celebrity and broken political discourse.
My situation isn’t like that. My followers seem to increase when something crazy happens or I have an encounter.
He had seen the boost after hopping rooftop to rooftop and dealing with the horned tiger. He suspected some of the first followers probably came from his battles with the bronze girl statue and the crazed man and his katana.
Hiro decided to ask his Companion. “How important are followers?”
The text appeared on his phone screen.
“A key to my power. Huh.”
A potential right question came to him.
So I have to do crazy shit? Doing so will make me stronger as I gain more Soul Essence by killing monsters, which will lead to more followers. There could be other loot as well, although I’ll need to be careful with Stolen Valor…
He remembered the system’s first message to him.
[My aim is to please, to give you exactly what you need. It’s up to you from that point forward. Above all, Survivor, remember this: you are the main character, just like you always wanted to be.]
The Doom System is trying to help and hinder me. It’s playing both sides. How do I play both sides?
Hiro thought back to where he had been in his parents’ separation years ago, how there had been times when he went to Mom and times he went to Dad…
Another right question.
The only current solution Hiro came up with was to survive, hunt monsters, and gain more followers until it made more sense, until he better understood his Companion and its relationship to the Doom System. If he made it through this Interim and was able to complete whatever challenge awaited him once the gates reopened, Hiro would have a better understanding of the game he was playing.
That will give me more options, more powers, and, most importantly, more answers… But how does one fight an enemy that can modify the very nature of reality? One that has gone mad? How does one defeat a system that is trying to harm me at the same time trying to help?
The wrong questions, for now…
Hiro drifted off thinking about what these options could be. He awoke hours later to a new message.
[The first wave of Hunters has been released into the city. You will now find merchants as well. Good luck, Survivor.]
“Great.” Hiro glanced at his phone to see how long he had been out.
02:16:34:01
02:16:34:00
02:16:33:59
He swallowed any guilt he felt for resting. After what he had already endured, he deserved it.
Hiro stuffed Survivor Tender in his mouth, noted its lack of flavor, grabbed his katana, and headed up the stairs. “The hunted will become the hunter,” he said to psyche himself up. “You’ve got this.”
5
THE HUNTER IN THE CLOWN MASK AND HIS CHARIOT OF BONE
Hiro smiled as he recalled one of his dad’s favorite metal songs, Bounce, by System of a Down, which echoed in his head as he jumped up and down in the parking garage. It was safer here than it was on the rooftop, where he could be spotted.
Hiro wasn’t opposed to cheesing his way to the next level, even if it was loud.
Skill level up!
{Bounce}, E-Rank > {Bounce}, D-Rank
Upgrade Available: Current Interim max reached.
He stopped to catch his breath. “So there’s a max per Interim?”
You have new followers!
People… Hiro shook his head—whatever was watching him wasn’t a person. Something really wants to watch me hop around a parking garage?
Thinking about his followers spawned more information.
Followers: 341
Interim Performance Grade: D
City Survivors: 901,423
World Survivors: 382,122,711
Beast Death Count: 39/791
Millions upon millions had died across the world while Hiro was passed out in the fallout shelter. The city had lost over eighty thousand souls since he last checked. He had a feeling this number would continue to climb, especially now that the Hunters were released.
But there was little he could do about that at the moment.
If he wanted to get stronger and survive all of this, he needed to gain followers. That part made sense, even though none of this made sense.
“Then let’s get more.”
Hiro headed up to the roof. He came out crouching, the light blinding even though the solar eclipse sun was blotted out by gray clouds.
Pigeons took flight.
New York City and its surrounding areas were massive, but there were still nine hundred thousand Survivors out there. Hiro needed to find another one to match Valeria and join him at the gate when it opened.
I’m sure I’ll find someone.
Rather than ask his Companion how to use his new {Beacon} power, Hiro simply waved his hand, and a beam of energy formed. “Easy enough.”
It grew until it touched the bottom of the mottled gray clouds above. This would give him a marker, allowing him to easily find the parking garage and his fallout shelter below.
“Good. Just in case I get lost.” Hiro was just about to hop to the next roof when he heard the crunch of metal in the street below.
He moved to the side of the roof, where he waited until the sound died down.
Hiro took a quick breath and peered over the edge.
Below, a man in a wrinkled hood steered a grotesque chariot made of sinew and bone, his craft pulled by a beast that looked like a disturbing amalgamation of a Clydesdale and a two-headed drake.
The man had his back to Hiro at the moment, and he couldn’t see his face. A skull appeared over the man’s head and quickly faded.
What the fuck? Hiro’s phone buzzed, causing his heart to jump. He pulled it out and read the message from his companion.
The Hunter stopped. He turned and casually glanced up at Hiro, the Hunter’s face obscured by a strange black mask. A lance made of sizzling energy formed in the Hunter’s hand.
“Shit!” Hiro pressed back just as the Hunter released the lance of mana, which hurtled through the air and struck the top of the parking garage, sending stone and bits of rebar into the air.
The Hunter’s two-headed drake roared as Hiro bolted toward a different roof.
{Bounce} sent Hiro to a higher building, where he hit the roof running. Brick dust and metal shards exploded around him as he narrowly dodged the next mana lance.
He reached an even higher roof and found cover.
Hiro didn’t know how powerful the charioted Hunter was.
He didn’t know if he could simply shift to his werewolf form and deal with it, and he certainly wasn’t about to hop down there with his katana—not at his level.
“What do I do?” he whispered as the Hunter went for a new kind of attack. This time, the lance of mana didn’t hit the edge of the rooftop. Instead, the bolt of mana hovered horizontally above Hiro, charging.
His phone buzzed, and he stupidly looked at it.
“No shit!” Hiro shoved his phone back into his pocket. He ripped off his backpack and took a running leap toward the edge of the roof, where he triggered {Lupine Shift} midair, eight stories up.
His vision shifted, claws grew, and his snout elongated as additional teeth populated his mouth.
Wham!
Hiro collided with the Hunter and his bone chariot, bounced up, hit the side of a building, and came down onto a toppled food stand.
He all but ignored the painful landing as the power of his transformation completely took over, as Hiro got his first glimpse of the Hunter’s face. It was brief, and he was so enraged by this point that he couldn’t do much more than try to maintain what little control he had over his own body.
All he would later remember seeing were a pair of red eyes beneath a black, off-putting Hyottoko mask.
Hiro tackled the Hunter, slammed his shoulders against his overturned chariot, and would have killed his opponent had it not been for the two-headed drake.
The beastly creature rammed its body into Hiro and scrambled on top of him.
It came at him with its mouth open, only to choke as Hiro punched a clawed fist through one of the drake’s open mouths. The beast clamped down onto his arm, and Hiro used his sudden leverage to rip its head off at the neck.
With a part of the drake still attached to his arm, Hiro dealt with the next head by snapping the jaw back and killing it.
Fwitt!
The Hunter released a trio of energy-laced throwing knives, one of which stuck Hiro in the shoulder. The other two stuck into the body of the drake, which soon gave up the fight.
Hiro ripped the blade of energy out, the weapon sizzling in his hand for a moment before fizzling away. He turned to find the masked Hunter seething, the man now with two scimitar-like blades.
The first strike came in fast, Hiro ducking to avoid it.
He pivoted, jumped onto the Hunter, dug his claws in, and bit down onto the towering man’s neck. As the two fell to the pavement, Hiro ripped threads of muscle out, blood spritzing the air.
[A Hunter has fallen.]
You have new followers!
Hunter Count has been unlocked!
Hiro staggered to the right. He fell into an overturned trash can, regained his strength, and instinctively moved toward the shadows of a building as he fought the urge to eat.
He turned back to the drake’s body.
Don’t— he tried to tell himself, but by this point, Hiro was crouched before the monster’s body and had slit its stomach open with a claw. He ate until he grew sick. As the transformation dissipated, Hiro vomited, which caused a sudden headache, his nose running, arms pulsing.
Need to get to the rooftop…
He was just about to {Bounce} his way back up when his phone buzzed. His hazy vision focused on the screen as he read his Companion’s words.
Hiro turned back to the Hunter. A spiral of red energy rushed toward him, more Soul Essence. As it did, the Hunter and the drake’s body faded away, leaving the blackened clown mask the Hunter had been wearing.
“Okay…” Hiro picked up the mask next, which featured the visage of a comical Japanese character, his mouth puckered at one side.
Roulette Accessory: Hyottoko Mask
Rank: B
Description: Aside from the anonymity this mask will provide, wearing it gives the Survivor an enchantment known as {Aura of Laughter}, an Area of Effect skill that has a chance for uncontrollable laughter from beings within a certain radius, reducing their attack accuracy and defense.
Ronin of Wall Street? A katana? A Hyottoko mask? What’s with the system giving me Japanese shit?
Another thought came to Hiro as he continued to examine the mask.
So far, there has been a Roulette Skill through {Lupine Shift}; a Roulette Boost to my base stats; and now, a Roulette Accessory, all of which go away later.
This would make it impossible for him to gain advantages long-term.
Hiro grimaced. “I don’t know if I can wear this stupid thing.”
Something shifted in the shadows ahead. Hiro looked up and saw a pair of horned tigers, which had to be the ones he had seen when the gates first opened. They crawled across the outside of one of the buildings’ façade, their long, barbed tails aimed at him. The barbs split open and released a green gas into the streets.
Without the ability to shift into his wolf form, there was only one thing Hiro could do.
He hastily placed the Hyottoko mask on his face and turned toward the two horned tigers, ready to do battle.
6
PUERTO RICAN COLOSSUS
Hiro rushed forward and used {Bounce} to jump above the horned tigers. One of the beasts attempted to swipe him out of the air, but he was already on the nearest rooftop by this point, away from the monsters and the mist they were releasing from their tails.
He landed, grabbed his things, and moved south from there, hopping from building to building.
Since when did the tigers release poison from their tails?
Hiro cursed under his breath as he transitioned higher and higher. He reached the top of a building easily thirty floors up and looked back at the parking garage, where he saw his beacon, the blue line visible even when he closed his eyes.
