3
Killer’s Citizenship
Opening the door of each class was a scene straight out of a horror movie.
While the children were initially looking at the school buzzer with their arms folded in that disturbingly far too polite way, opening the door caused every one of them to turn towards my direction. Each time their necks twisted in that most unnatural fucked up way, I cringed at the sound that accompanied their mannequin-like movements. Having gained their interest, there was that awkward ten second pause of everyone just waiting for that buzzer.
Once it did finally go off-all hell broke loose.
These game mechanics, or rules, applied to every classroom that I visited, and while I was still not happy with being isekai’d into what the system described as the Immortal tier horrors of humanity arena, I could appreciate that there were strict rules being followed.
Credit where credit was due.
As for the combat, it was quite straight forward: My claw sabers would rip through the first of the little monsters, sending it and any kid around it flying across the room.
I originally planned a careful class to class approach, not risking a potential weapon failure or carelessly dying a most awful death. Some time into the carnage, however, the sight of seeing the charging brats go flying across the room became addicting.
Carefulness went out the window, instead being replaced by a passion for farming, the way I would when trying to out grind the guys when we could see each other's levels and knew we were all online.
Occasionally, strange stone shards in various shimmering lights would drop from them, confirming that drops from PvE monsters were a thing. It wasn’t often given my poor luck stats, but it made the farming and leveling even more enjoyable.
Darkness Rune Shard x4:
- Collect 100 shards to transform into Darkness Rune.
Chaos Rune Shard x7
- Collect 100 shards to transform into Chaos Rune.
Hovering above the tooltip of the newest loot also proved successful, the system granted the following message:
Runes:
- Equip these mystical stones to any divine or higher tier weapon. Equipped weapons gain a powerful ability and become evolvable.
As I focused on the fighting and continuing to farm rune shards, I noticed several instances of feeling significantly more powerful. I don’t just mean the feeling of having drank an energy drink and its caffeine effects never seeming to wear off. The most recent kill caused me to move and react significantly faster, converting that into damage-literally.
Where at first punching a Timmy sent them flying across the room, a punch from me now sent them flying across the room and sinking a foot deep into the concrete foundation they found themselves glued against. I again doubted the material they dissolved against was the common material of earth, but that detail shouldn’t be a priority.
Top priority should, instead, be seeing the results from having successfully cleared out every classroom, storage hall, and even bathroom of the building.
Earth’s Greatest Sandwich Artist
Rank: 999999~
??0
Hunter, Level 8
UNIQUE ITEM 1: Emperor’s Boots(Immortal)
- Once every 10 seconds, teleport to any visible location within 100m. Creates a permanent rift(usable by anyone for 30s before fading; using rift reveals your position for 5 seconds)
UNIQUE ITEM 2: Empty
UNIQUE ITEM 3: Empty
UNIQUE ITEM 4: Empty
UNIQUE ITEM 5: Empty
UNIQUE ITEM 6: Empty
Consumable 1: Fiery Shuriken(Epic) x10
- Throwing projectile that deals instant 200 damage on impact
Consumable 2: Healing Salvation(Epic) x1
- Fully restores health and shields over 30 seconds. Taking any damage throughout this process will cancel any further healing
Consumable 3:
Weapon: Claws Of Contempt(Legendary)
- +60 Damage
- Normal attacks deal 10% splash damage to nearby enemies
Darkness Rune Shard x4
Chaos Rune Shard x7
Awakening available upon reaching lvl 50.
While it was unfortunate Penguin Flipper had to get eaten alive, my surviving at least resulted in some impressive early gains.
My agility and luck, combined with the additional damage from the legendary claws resulted in my damage already being over 100 damage. While those saw the most significant increases, I would have to try and find items that could act as a crutch for my much weaker strength and agility stats.
As it stands, I was heading for a squishy high damage dealer build-with a side of luck.
Exiting the last of the classrooms and rounding the corner of the hallway that would lead me back to the grand entrance door, I found myself wondering how my early progress compared to the others. While I knew there was no point in trying to compare my progress to others, I should admit that I’ve always had an extremely competitive nature when having a target in front of me.
Run a fast lap with no one behind me? I’ll end up jogging.
Run behind someone in an actual competition? I will pass them. Have to.
Some people enjoy the placement, looking for the result of what they’ve trained so hard for. If I was to be honest, though, I found myself just wanting to beat those in front of me. A terrible loser.
Standing just in front of my destination, there was a subtle difference from the last time I was here. No, I do not mean the boring double doors with the illuminating emergency light just above it.
Floating in the air several feet off the ground was a card. No longer surprised by mystical physics or the extremely satisfying mix of vibrant colours that radiated from lootable items, there was one odd detail about this card I did find interesting.
The poker card, that had just a moment ago been a 7 of hearts, rotated ever so slowly clockwise until it was the back of the card I was looking at. When the number value showed itself again, it had turned into a 28 of spades.
Yes, I am well aware that should not have been possible.
The card rotated again, this time turning into a 42 of diamonds.
Holding my palm up in front of it, the 42?? card began to ascend, spinning around faster and faster, until it just..dissappeared. I kid you not, instead of showering me with some delightful colors or at least bursting into some confetti, I just stood there after staring at the gray door.
I felt a warm sensation around my chest. Looking down, I saw the ends of a lanyard hanging down my neck and a card hanging at the end of it. The card no longer glowed and had the regular details of the back of a normal playing card. I turned it around.
[Congratulations, Ranker!]
[You have unsuccessfully completed: Starting With A Duo]
[You have obtained the following: Arena Citizenship]
Arena Citizenship:
- Play games of Survival, Luck, Duel, and Teams at designated towers throughout the arena to renew your Arena Citizenship
- You may forfeit your card for that of another players you have personally eliminated and claim their card as your own
- Citizenship timers are absolute and can not be paused or modified in any way
- Failure to renew citizenship on time will result in instant elimination.
?? Survival
?? Luck
?? Might
?? Choice
[19m59s]
Basically the system's way of saying it hates campers, it looked like this adventure wouldn’t just be a straight forward kill everyone in sight crusade while picking up every shiny lootbox along the way.
While twenty minutes for a play or die deal seemed a bit controversial, I had no idea what the open world arena would actually look like. Would it be peaceful? Simply loot a bunch of uncontested shiny boxes, filling all my item slots with the highest rarity in the opening minutes?
One could only dream.
I would also have to find a designated tower for whatever card I could find to replace my current 42 ??. While I was curious what instant elimination would look like should we fail to play a game, I was not curious enough to run that timer down myself.
As for my current card, I had to do whatever it takes to not risk a game of luck.
Given my ever increasing growth in movement speed and overall agility, I leaned most towards the game of survival. Combined with my ability to teleport, I should outedge most people when it comes to hitting hard and running away when needed. Then again, I was assuming I understood what kind of survival the system was referring to.
Might was also an appealing category. I imagined a PVP/dueling ground, the top of the leaderboard folks farming each other just to compete here.
Yeah, maybe not just yet.
The choice game seemed like a popularity contest in which I may end up performing worse than my already abysmal luck. I had no idea what to make of the genre, and noted it may be best to avoid if possible.
I closed all the prompts with a wave of my hand, reaching for the card hanging around my neck instead. PvP. Loot. Party Games.
There was a lot to do.
When I finally opened the door and saw what awaited me, I immediately tried to shut it back closed.
It would not budge.
