by Arthur Stone
Cheater was busy with this new math. “Does this apply to bonus stats, too?”
“No, they’re separate. Divide the sum of them by seven and round down to the nearest whole number, and that’s what’s called your ‘bonus level,’ or your ‘bonus stat level.’ Each of those levels also gives you a ten percent boost. But to your bonus stats, not your base stats. Now do you understand how much you’re losing by not assigning those points?”
“I do. Saving them up instead of investing them in my stats right away prevents me from increasing my base values.”
“Yeah. The only bad side of going up a level is reduced experience when you beat an enemy. But experience is hard to obtain anyway, and better stats are always better stats.”
“I get it, I get it.”
“Your base values can be boosted in other ways, too. Have you noticed how some players walk everywhere with tension bands, or don’t walk at all but run everywhere, or are always lifting weights?”
“Yeah, they’re all over the city.”
“And have you ever thought about why? Don’t answer that question. It was rhetorical. So listen up. Everyone who gets here starts at level 0. But that doesn’t mean we all start off as equals. If you look at that additional info for your stats, you’ll see a base multiplier for each of them. Let’s say you have a Strength multiplier of 1. That would make my earlier weight calculations accurate. But let’s say you were a top weightlifter before you came here. You could deadlift four hundred and fifty pounds and throw dumbbells over tall trees and stuff like that. Well, the System might set your Strength multiplier as 2. Doubling your final result. So two guys with the same Strength multiplier can have very different max carry weights. It’s like that with every stat. If you lived behind a computer screen and never took a decent flight of stairs in your life, your Agility multiplier might be 0.6 or even 0.4. Resulting in much lower capabilities in that department. That’s how it works for both base stats and bonus stats. Hidden stats don’t have multipliers, though. Or at least they’re unclear. They’re still poorly understood, or perhaps poorly constructed.”
“But you were talking about the guys running and lifting. What’s the point of doing that? Can these multipliers be changed?”
“Hey, you’re starting to use your brain! You might want to make a habit of that. Develop yourself, or atrophy, and your multipliers will change. Lifting weights does that for Strength, obviously. Learn how to run, to hit quickly, to dodge blows and even thrown objects, and your Agility, Speed, and Reaction multipliers will improve. Develop your mastery of the theory and practice of camouflage, and you’ll boost your Stealth multiplier. For Perception, try to notice everything and pay more attention in general. Even ability-related multipliers can be boosted by spiritual practices, meditation of all kinds, cleansing yourself from evil thoughts, or even prolonged abstinence from sexual activity. Now, since you’re a virgin here, you have a chance at becoming a great wizard. Assuming you survive the spermotoxicosis. By ‘wizard’ I mean having powerful abilities, of course.”
“What about your Luck multiplier?”
“Who the hell knows? That’s the hardest one to figure out. If anyone knows, they’re keeping mum. Some people share secrets, and others don’t. Of course, information is good for trading, too. But everything I’m telling you now is no secret. Everyone with a mind to figuring things out finds all of this out eventually. And has higher survival chances as a result. Haven’t you noticed some things about you seeming to improve on their own? Maybe skills from our former lives affect things. We don’t understand everything. So maybe something is affecting your growth rates. Look and see. The System encourages you to search whenever you come in or respawn, and it means it.”
“Wait. So if a child is brought in...”
“Kids don’t ever get brought in,” interrupted March.
“Fine. Let’s say a very tiny girl is brought in. She’s fragile, weak, shy, and ugly, and she’s never paid attention to anything but books and the Internet. And then there’s a master athlete who also excelled at the shooting range and at fencing, and would meditate for hours under an icy waterfall. Here, all of her multipliers will be bad, at least initially, and all of his will be high. In order to be his equal on the field, she’ll have to get seven or eight levels ahead of him. Which is a difficult thing to do, since he’ll be leveling up too. Right?”
“So what?”
“Just tell me if I’m right.”
“Yes. The athlete will be better than her in every respect here.”
“So we are not born into this world as equals. In fact, things are very imbalanced.”
“So? Did anyone promise you things would be fair? Just be glad you’re not the girl who loves books. Your multipliers are probably fine.”
“Great. Well, I’m getting out of here.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t you hear Tat? People are looking for me. She covered for me, but not well enough to last for long. This is the second time, which means it’s time for me to get out of here. I’ll be gone by tomorrow. You can keep growing your roots into the floor and pouring beer up your nose if you want, but remember that I recommended Tat. If you ever want to go hunting, take her with you.”
“What do you think of all this, babe? Do you really want to hang out with an alcoholic? I’ll help you pump those stats. You won’t even have to shoot, just watch. Plus feed me, get me a cold beer when I ask, wash my socks every evening, and help me release some sexual buildup.”
“Cheater, can I please, please hit this clown?” Tat asked quietly.
“I never said you couldn’t. Please do. This is where I head out, though. I’ll leave you guys to your inspiring dialog. If you want, turn yourselves into a little party. Tat, you keep the truck. It’s not bad. The clusters around the stable are pretty safe, so I doubt you’ll get yourselves into trouble if you’re driving a short distance. If you get attacked, the truck has a machine gun and plenty of ammo.”
“Where are you off to without a vehicle?”
“I know exactly which direction I need to head, and so do you. I’m just going to continuing gradually moving that way.”
“That’s a long way to go on foot.”
“I know. They say no one of my level can even get close to the border. So I’ll make my way slowly, pumping my level as I go. By the time I get there, I’ll be at a level that’s good enough for me. A truck would just be trouble. I can go more places than a vehicle can. Plus, they make a lot of noise.”
“You’ve planned all of this out, haven’t you?”
“Yeah. So look, I have one more question. All of you leveled players have pumped your Accuracy more than any other bonus stat, I’m guessing. Right?”
“Usually. But that starts to break down at high levels of Accuracy. At that point, regular rifles don’t pump Accuracy anymore. Not even large-caliber machine guns do in every case. And remember that you get less experience from big guns, anyway. Artillery barely gives you anything. Grenade launchers are a little better, but they still take a decent penalty, and so they won’t give you much Accuracy. So the best shooters get their Accuracy up to something like 35. They say some unique players have a multiplier of 2 for Accuracy. Those are the snipers that can hit a fly out of midair. And choose which of its legs they want to hit. At fifteen yards, anyway. And if you’re looking to pump your Accuracy with that bow of yours, why did you pick such pointless mods? Even without them, some of the experience will go to your Agility and Strength, since wielding a bow requires both. At least a little of the experience, anyway.”
“Well, I have a plan. But now—” Cheater rose— “it’s time for me to get going. Enjoy your beer and your conversation. March isn’t the most pleasant conversationalist, Tat, but he is reliable, so don’t let his nonsense get to you. It’s just his way.”
* * *
Cheater practically ran to his hotel. Once he arrived, he couldn’t stand the temptation any longer, so rather than go up to his room, he sat
in a luxurious chair right in the lobby. He let his racing heart calm and then took his next round of prizes, washed down with some lifejuice. All he was taking was a few inexpensive items: yellow peas, black stars, and simple amber thread. They would enhance his character, if only by a small amount.
Once his daily self-improvement ritual was complete, he hastily assigned his distributable points to his stats, and then finally gathered the courage to look at his multipliers.
As expected, most were pretty close to one. 1.15 Strength, 0.91 Willpower. But his magical stats were disappointing. 0.9 Ward of STYX, 0.88 Talent Rank.
Nothing else was outstanding, except for the two stats he expected: Luck and Accuracy.
Luck made sense. The System had determined that Cheater was lucky, and his multiplier was 1.97. Two, for all intents and purposes. He couldn’t see what this value was when he started. Perhaps it was more modest and had been boosted after a string of lucky events. No one seemed to understand how this multiplier or even this stat worked, so the increase might have been a significant one, for all he knew. His Luck itself was at 32. Cheater’s bonus stat level was 14, so its base value was multiplied by 1.4. Then came the multiplier, bring it up to 88.
So all three values are multiplied together. And the result is my “real” Luck level. That was the number that affected so much of his life. It was impossibly high, especially for a newcomer.
After all, Luck was difficult to pump. Even reaching a Luck of 10 was a decent accomplishment. A pumped player with a standard 1.0 multiplier who had reached a bonus stat level of 40 and thus had a 4.0x bonus level multiplier would, if his Luck value was 10, have a practical Luck of 40. Cheater’s Luck could only be matched by people with a multiplier of around two, but there were few such people in the world, and when his Luck reached 30, they had fallen hopelessly behind.
After all, Luck pumped itself. The more of it you had, the more it influenced situations, and so the more of it you got.
His Accuracy, though, was different.
Much different.
Amazing. Unparalleled. He found “thirty hidden levels added,” with an explanatory note: Special System compensation for failure to provide standard rewards: an additional thirty levels has been added to this stat. These additional levels do not count towards the calculation of experience assignment for victorious encounters. These additional levels are not displayed in any public screens. However, the player may show them to other players via an uneditable screenshot of their stats window. Additional levels for the Accuracy stat do not affect the players bonus stat level (bonus level).
So Cheater had received these thirty levels when he had naively and stupidly swallowed three of the most valuable prizes at once. The System had been unable to give him the standard reward since he was a level 0 newcomer. He had been so incapable that he had not perceived the strange increase. Either he had missed something in the message at the time, or this part had been relegated to the archives, like the long list of infecteds slain in the underpass.
But that wasn’t all. His Luck multiplier was a full 2.69. What is it that March had said? That some legendary heroes had pumped their true Accuracy up to seventy or eighty.
Cheater’s Accuracy had been at that level since the pearls. He had taken down a helicopter with a bolt rifle once his Accuracy value had hit 5—which had translated to dozens of levels for his actual Accuracy. Now that it was at level 30, his true Accuracy was 112, after all of its multipliers were applied.
March had not even hinted that such values were possible. Perhaps Cheater was the only shooter of his caliber on the entire Continent. And his bonus level was only at 14. Once he got it up to 30, his Accuracy would be astronomical.
Perhaps he shouldn’t have bothered with the bow. Maybe he should ignore his base stats and throw all his effort into pumping his bonus stats. Getting his Accuracy up to 120, 140, even 150. What would that do for him? Ten consecutive hits from a decent weapon at a single point on an elite’s armor, even if the elite was at level 100, would probably get through. Assuming he was using expensive, large-caliber rounds. Would 150 actual Accuracy do that kind of magic for him?
He had already seen magical things happen. The elite he had just killed had been a quest elite, with capabilities that were less than those of wild elites, but still, he had achieved something unheard of for a newcomer.
But the players must have compiled some kind of writings on stats and calculating them, something more substantial than slender brochures for beginners. He’d have to ask around to find out more.
March’s explanations seemed like enough on the surface, but perhaps there was more to all of this.
Cheater was thankful, of course. With March, he would have been missing a very important piece of knowledge. Now he felt motivated to continue pumping. “Level” was not some token number, but an extremely important value. When it went up, everything else went up with it.
Each level was an additional ten percent boost.
Cheater at last got up and went to the counter, accepting the key that the clerk offered him.
The woman gave him a knowing smile. “I see you’ve leveled up.
Congratulations. Perhaps I might send some champagne to your room to commemorate the occasion? Or even some chocolates.”
“Not really high enough to be celebrating yet.”
“Some players believe that 13 brings them luck.”
“Everything brings me luck,” Cheater responded as he left.
His head was still overflowing with all of his numbers and with ideas on how to best increase them. Yet he had not failed to note that the hotel clerk had been a little too familiar. The previous man at the post had been more professional. Cheater waved away the thought. Probably just a personality thing. He opened his door.
Something barely perceptible moved in the darkness of the room.
All of Cheater’s thoughts rushed out of his head,
followed by his consciousness.
Chapter 20
Life Seven: Cuffs
Negative effect received: unconsciousness. Current location: Cluster 274-165-39. Region: Interfluvial Steppe. Current revives remaining: 93 lives (initial value minus 6). Active quests: Survive, Search, Learn Secret, Help, Ask Correct Question, Find the Player Kitty. Current status: returning to game. You will remain stunned for fifty-six seconds, though this time may change based on your game circumstances. Hint: There are no safe locations on the Continent. You may find yourself attacked anywhere at any time, with various consequences and by enemies with various goals.
So he was still alive.
Was that good news? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But he would try to stay that way.
Cheater could see nothing, at first. Then light pierced its way through, and the skin of his face was suddenly in contract with some kind of coarse fabric. Had someone covered his head? Maybe.
So what now? He heard the monotonous sound of an engine, then felt the continuous vibrations interrupted by bumps and potholes. His body was tossed to the side. That must have been a turn in the road.
His wrists were twisted back painfully by something metal.
They were taking him somewhere. In all likelihood, they had put the back over his head, cuffed or even shackled his hands, and then attached him to a chain suspended from the roof.
And things were not likely to improve anytime soon. Perhaps it was just a bachelor party arranged by March, but probably not. He had to escape or kill himself, and fast. To hell with this one life. He’d be willing to give up a full half of his lives to avoid imprisonment at Romeo’s hand.
How can I escape when I can’t see a thing? He could try removing the bag from his head. But sometimes he could hear the kidnappers’ voices over the sound of the engine. Multiple people were nearby, and they were unlikely to react kindly to any bodily movement from their prisoner.
If Cheater arrived at their destination, where these kidnappers’ client was waiting to collect him, his situation and his chances woul
d not improve. He was likely going to the center of the spiderweb. That network spread out from the man, its tendrils stretching across the region, seizing the loyalty of each and every miscreant and lowlife.
