Only a hasty step back let her avoid being grabbed by the monster, the movement jamming the knife handle into her ribs again. She could feel a bruise forming in her side where the handle repeatedly hit, but she preferred having the knife just in case, and a bruise was better than letting a zombie get ahold of her. Retaliating with a brutal swing of the mace, she caught the zombie across the chin and knocked it into the wall where she could jab the torch into its chest. Weakened from the previous blows Erika landed on it, the zombie quickly burst into flame and burned to ash.
*Ding!* You ha—
With a violent thought, Erika canceled the words before they could pop up again. It’d been an hour since she first opened the Menu and saw that name, an hour that she’d spent angrily tearing through the hallways hunting monsters to kill. Or rekill since they were zombies. Tired, Erika slumped against the stone wall, sinking down to sit on the floor next to the ashes of her latest victim.
She was exhausted, her muscles aching and burning. But she felt better now. Taking her frustration out on the zombies felt good. Really good. As a civilian, she’d always felt powerless. Unable to truly protect herself. Always living in fear of being noticed. But she was a meta now, even if she had no idea what her power was, and didn’t feel any stronger than she had before. It felt like permission to act. Even if it was her power that sent her into such a rage.
Perhaps it was stupid to let her emotions take control of her like that, but it felt surprisingly good to vent her frustrations on the monsters and she even learned a few things. First was that the torches weren’t just an instant kill. Her first fight after the menu opening found her desperately fighting a pair of zombies that she tried to set on fire, only for them to keep coming after her while covered in cerulean flames. One of the zombies managed to grab her while it burned, but the flames had felt cool to the touch, almost cold, and only seemed to make her skin feel clammy and she grew a bit more tired, like she’d just finished working out. She assumed something bad would happen if she were exposed too long, but brief contact was just uncomfortable. It reassured her that she could at least briefly touch the flames without suffering serious harm, though she needed to be careful that it didn’t make her too tired in the wrong moment.
Second was that unless the zombies were already weak, the flames only slowed them down. Through trial and error she learned that she usually had to batter the zombies about with her rusty mace a bit before the flames would cause real damage to the things. Every fight was a slow, brutal affair as she inexpertly bashed the zombies into undead goop before she jabbed the strange blue flames into them, incinerating them in a magical, fiery display that left nothing of the zombies but ashes. Not even their clothes and bits of armor survived, if they wore any.
She’d considered leaving a zombie intact if she saw one wearing armor that looked decent, but the smell of their rancid blood made her rethink the idea every time. She was already covered in spatters of the stuff, the last thing she wanted was even more of it on her over a shirt of rusty chainmail that was probably insanely heavy anyways. That she’d have to figure out how to pull off a mostly dead corpse. No thank you. She’d rather make sure the zombies were absolutely dead.
Sighing, Erika glanced to her left, back down the direction she’d come from, seeing a line of wall-mounted torches that led up to a turn in the hallway she couldn’t quite see, then to the right, where there was a staircase leading down. More of the blue torches lined the sides of the staircase, but something about the opening seemed darker and more ominous. As if roaming zombies weren’t enough.
She felt a pit open up in her stomach as she realized what she had to do.
“Menu,” she whispered, willing the words to come up. Part of her almost hoped the words wouldn’t come, that she was hallucinating earlier, but the common sense part wanted to see the words again, because they meant she was probably a meta, and stood just that much more chance of surviving to escape this place.
Status
Powers
Shop
Log
To her surprise, relief, and just a bit of fear, the menu popped back up, though the introductory message that had been there the first time was missing. She was somewhat glad to see the introductory message she couldn’t quite remember the wording of was gone. It might’ve held clues that could help her, but the false cheer in the messages irritated her. She’d rather figure things out on her own.
Staring at the “status” option for a few seconds, Erika frowned. It wouldn’t be a rude surprise for her to see that name again. Merely unpleasant, but she could handle it now that she wouldn’t be caught off guard with the name of a girl long dead and buried.
Name: Kira Nakamura (Alias: Erika Sato)
Age: 22
Race: Meta-Human
Power: Super System (Class F)
Available EXP: 2,600
Purchased Powers: N/A
Strength: 4
Vitality: 6
Dexterity: 8
Intelligence: 11
Willpower: 9
Conditions: Mild Stab Wounds (Bandaged; Healing); Moderate Bruising (Healing); Mild Dehydration; Mild Hunger; Strained Muscles (Healing) (<_<)
This time, prepared for the name, Erika managed to sweep past it and look over the rest of the menu. Her stats seemed… pathetic. She had no frame of reference for how significant the stats were, but she knew for a fact she’d never been particularly strong, just average for her size, or so she thought. She’d never been particularly smart either, just a C student at best in school. The numbers didn’t seem to track with what she knew about herself. Was she weaker than she thought? Smarter than she thought? Just average? She wondered how she might compare to someone like Officer Onishi or White Knight or the metas from that morning. Definitely weaker. But how weak? Were the police officers tens in strength? The metas in the teens or twenties? Did other people even have stats, or was this just some weird thing from her power?
Scowling at her status, she moved onto the conditions, frowning as she read them. With each condition, her mind focused on different parts of her body. Mild stab wounds? Yup her neck was hurting again from where that meta’s claws drew blood. Bruising? Her ass hurt, her ribs ached, and though she couldn’t feel it, she had a feeling there was a perfect hand imprint on her right forearm under her sleeves where a zombie had grabbed her earlier. She licked her lips, feeling their rough, slightly sticky nature with her tongue as she saw the Mild Dehydration, and her stomach started to growl as she saw the Mild Hunger. Her muscles ached from swinging the heavy mace and torch around so many times, plus all the walking and running through dark hallways. She felt like she’d just finished an hour at the gym.
Nothing in the Status option helped, just laid out how screwed she was. Even if the zombies were easy enough to kill, she had no idea how much further she had to go to escape the portal. There could be stronger enemies further in. She looked at the dimly lit staircase that went deeper down. Her instincts screamed that going down meant harder challenges. At least, video game logic said down and further in meant stronger enemies, but reality wasn’t a video game. She couldn’t be sure that video game logic would hold true in this situation, no matter that her meta power seemed to be a literal stat menu out of one.
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The Powers section was, almost expectedly, empty. When she opened it, there was nothing there, not even the “Super System” that was supposedly her meta power. Worthless, she couldn’t help but think. No wonder my status said Class F. Might as well still be an unawakened.
Two sections down, that left Shop and Log. She could guess that Log was probably where her kills were recorded, so she didn’t bother with it. What did it matter if she killed twenty zombies, or thirty? She didn’t need to know, so she focused on Shop, not expecting much. She wasn’t exactly floating in cash, and it’d be just her luck that her meta power locked anything good behind a paywall. Fucking microtransactions, can’t escape them anywhere.
Opening the Shop, Erika paused as a long list of text appeared in front of her eyes. “Holy fuck, are you serious?”
Welcome to the Super System Shop! As this is your first time accessing the Shop, a one-time explanation has been provided! Here you can customize your build, spending EXperience Points (EXP) to upgrade yourself, unlock new Powers and upgrade existing ones, and even purchase new features!
EXP Balance: 2,600
Powers:
Upgrades:
Unlocks:
Reading and rereading the intro message, Erika started to understand what her power might mean. Focusing on the first option, she watched it expand, filling her vision with an ever growing list of powers and associated prices.
Powers:
Class F
>Fast Recovery (Class F) - Physical recovery is enhanced to the top 10% of baseline human potential. Cannot repair missing limbs. 1,000 EXP
>Sturdy Bones (Class F) - Bones are enhanced, becoming more resistant to breaking and slightly more flexible. 1,500 EXP
>Thick Skin (Class F) - Skin becomes twice as resistant to damage as baseline humans. Includes minor beauty enhancement 2,500 EXP
>Fast Processing (Class F) - Your brain and nervous system are enhanced, increasing the speed by which you process information to the top 10% of baseline humanity. Does not stack with other nervous system enhancements. Decreased effectiveness with higher Intelligence stat. 5,000 EXP
>Enhanced Strength (Class F) - Muscles can exert 10% more force. Does not increase muscle durability. Does not stack with other muscle enhancements. 2,500 EXP
>Enhanced Dexterity (Class F) - Muscles, tendons, and ligaments become 10% more elastic. Does not increase force potential. Does not stack with other elasticity enhancements. 2,500 EXP
>Enhanced Sight (Class F) - Your eyes are enhanced, giving you near perfect normal vision. Does not improve night vision. 3,000 EXP
>Enhanced Night Vision (Class F) - Your eyes become more sensitive to light, better able to see in low light settings. 1,000 EXP
>Enhanced Hearing (Class F) - Your hearing is enhanced, becoming more sensitive to sound waves. You can hear higher and lower frequencies than the average baseline human. Does not increase resistance to sounds. 1,000 EXP
>Pain Resistance (Class F) - Become more resistant to feelings of pain. Does not increase physical durability. 1,000 EXP
Class E
The EXP notifications when she killed the zombies suddenly made sense. Clearly she got EXP from killing monsters, and if she understood the message and the shop correctly, she could spend that EXP to get new powers. But the powers displayed were… weak. Sure ten percent more muscle strength sounded useful, but it explicitly excluded “muscle durability.” C student though she was, she still remembered enough high school biology to know that muscles damaged themselves through use. That was how people got stronger, a constant cycle of injury and healing. It might be a good thing if she had months to train, but in the moment it’d just mean hurting herself faster, and she had enough injuries to deal with without something that made it easier to hurt herself. Everything in the list seemed decent at first, but like with Enhanced Strength, they all had drawbacks and weren’t much better than being a baseline human.
Shaking her head, she looked through the Upgrade option. The list was short, but seemed a bit more interesting.
Upgrades:
>Shop Upgrade (Class E) - Upgrade Super System Shop to Class E. Unlocks additional options. 25,000 EXP
>Strength Point (Class F) - Raise Strength Statistic by 1 point. Repeatable Purchase. Limit: 10. 250 EXP
>Vitality Point (Class F) - Raise Vitality Statistic by 1 point. Repeatable Purchase. Limit: 10. 250 EXP
>Dexterity Point (Class F) - Raise Dexterity Statistic by 1 point. Repeatable Purchase. Limit: 10. 250 EXP
>Intelligence Point (Class F) - Raise Intelligence Statistic by 1 point. Repeatable Purchase. Limit: 10. 250 EXP
>Willpower Point (Class F) - Raise Willpower Statistic by 1 point. Repeatable Purchase. Limit: 10. 250 EXP
Finally, she opened the Unlock menu, expecting something better, only to be disappointed with what she found.
Unlocks:
> N/A. Super System Shop Class Requirements not met.
Of course one of the options was totally useless right now. Going back to the Powers and Upgrades lists, Erika quickly skimmed her options. She only had 2,500 EXP to spend, and the most useful powers weren’t that great. She could get Fast Recovery and Sturdy Bones, and that might help her the most. She’d been lucky to make it as far as she had without tripping a trap or getting caught by a zombie and breaking a bone. Breaking one now would probably be a death sentence, and Sturdy Bones seemed like it would reduce that risk. Fast Recovery would probably help her catch her breath faster. She doubted it would help with her existing injuries since it only mentioned the top 10% of human baseline potential, but it might mean needing less rest between fights at least. The two combined would be potent.
But she had other options. She could upgrade her stats instead. A single point cost 250 EXP, so she could buy ten total. Ten more points in Strength was tempting. She imagined her muscles bulking up, exploding her tight work shirt as she turned into a female bodybuilder instantly. That kind of strength seemed like it would help a lot with the zombies, especially since she didn’t have access to a power like laser vision, or the ability to conjure a gun. But what if the points weren’t that powerful? Was ten extra Strength actually worth it? If she purchased just a single point, she could say goodbye to getting both Sturdy Bones and Fast Recovery, at least until she killed more monsters.
Sighing, she brought up her Status again and focused on her stats. “If only this stupid power explained what these Stats actually did!”
*Ding!* Stats are a measure of your physical and mental capabilities against a baseline human. The Average Baseline Human is measured on a scale of 1-20 for each category, with 5 representing the median measurement of all baseline humans. 10 is considered Above Average, and 20 represents the theoretical maximum potential for an unawakened baseline human.
Erika blinked and read the new text with a mix of curiosity and frustration that came out as a low growl. Of course this stupid power was hiding more information! It couldn’t just give it to her, she had to stumble upon it, because why would anything be easy for her?! Clenching her fist, she took a deep breath in and breathed out, releasing her anger until she could focus again, then moved through the stats.
“Explain Strength.”
*Ding!* Strength is an estimate of the amount of force your muscles can exert at any given time. Strength impacts how much energy your body requires to function, with higher Strength requiring greater energy to maintain.
She nodded as she read. “So basically strength is exactly what it seems. More Strength means hitting harder, moving faster,” she muttered. “Explain Vitality.”
*Ding! Vitality is an estimate of the efficiency of your body, including how well your body handles strain, recovers from fatigue, and how efficiently your body utilizes energy. Vitality directly impacts your physical stamina, with higher Vitality decreasing your body’s energy demands.
“So… everything basically?” It sounded like Vitality was kind of important for everything. High Strength might make her a bodybuilder, but without Vitality she’d tire quickly. “Explain Dexterity.”
*Ding!* Dexterity is an estimate of your body’s flexibility and fine motor control. Dexterity directly impacts muscle, ligament, and tendon elasticity, the tensile strength of your body, and your control over small movements and individual muscles. Higher Dexterity improves your sense of balance, spatial perception, and the sensitivity of your senses.
“Balance, motor control, even senses? Weird…Intelligence.”
*Ding!* Intelligence is an estimate of your brain and nervous system’s processing speed. Intelligence directly impacts your brain’s ability to process streams of information, including all sensory inputs, as well as the speed and efficiency at forming and accessing memories. Higher Intelligence improves your ability to retain knowledge and maintain conscious control of your body.
“Nothing surprising there. Willpower.”
*Ding!* Willpower is an estimate of the strength of your consciousness. Additional information on Willpower is restricted at this time.
*Ding! Thank you for accessing the System’s explanations on Statistics! You have used all of your available System Inquiries! Please check back again later.
Before Erika could do anything else, the last dialogue box closed itself, leaving her staring at the pile of ash formerly known as a zombie.
“Are you fucking kidding me?!”