Life in the North: An Apocalyptic LitRPG (The System Apocalypse Book 1)

by Tao Wong

  “You know, crying is considered real manly in Kraska cultures. Of course, they’re sort of like your earth crocodiles,” Ali floats above me, watching me deal with my thoughts before he waves the notification away. “Let’s go boy-o.”

  “Give me a moment,“ I mutter.

  “You aren’t really going to cry are you?” Ali asks, spinning completely upside down in boredom.

  “No, no I’m not,” I state that confidently. I can feel the grief if I focus but it, like most of my other emotions are muted, like a heavy blanket thrown over a speaker. It’s there, just hard to access. Enough for me to function, at least mostly. I can tell though, even now, the grief is mixing with that rolling sea of anger that I live in.

  Anger…

  “Ali, find me something to kill,” I state dispassionately as I stand up and heft my bag. “Find me a lot of things to kill.”

  Ali for once doesn’t give me lip, just doing as I requested.

  “It’s dead,” Ali speaks placatingly to me as I give the Ground Squirrel one last stab. I might have gone a bit overboard there – the animal is pretty much in pieces. Thank the gods the Loot function doesn’t take into account the body of the creature, giving my prize without the rather nasty stab wounds.

  “Ali, how do I get a better weapon?” I stare at my knife and the creature. Thank the gods I indulged my inner child when I picked it up and got a Bowie. Truthfully, it was way too much of a knife for camping but I had been on a Rambo kick when I bought it. Now, it’s my one and only weapon. Well, that and a can of bear spray.

  “System Shop. That’ll be in a System generated safe haven, which currently is only in Whitehorse itself. You’ll need to sell your Loot to get it though, unless you get some System Credits which only sentients carry,” Ali continues to explain. “Still need to work out your feelings?”

  “Let’s get out of here,” I shake head my head, the rage finally settled. I’m not sure what it says about me, that I took out my feelings on these creatures, but for now, I’m just going to ignore dwelling on that. It’s mid-morning already and I’ve only managed to make a couple of kills so far. Hunting is getting more and more dangerous as even Earth creatures mutate at an increasing rate, out-leveling me and my pitiful knife.

  “Alright boy-o, same deal as yesterday,” Ali waves his hand down the path and I follow his directions.

  Knife held out before me, I jump and swing downwards, the QSM deactivating at the last second as I plunge the knife into the Snowshoe Hare’s head. I hope I hit something important since the hare is now the size of a horse but much broader. It rears its head and only a hastily grabbed piece of fur keeps me on it as I repeatedly plunge the blade into the back of its head and neck.

  A minute later, sufficient damage is done for the hare to fall over dead. A few moments ago, it finally managed to get me off its back by slamming itself into a nearby pine tree, breaking my shoulder and loosening my grip. As I lie on the ground, whimpering in pain I can’t help but wonder why Ali was so insistent I fight the Hare. I give mouth to my thoughts while I heal, pulling myself to sit at the base of the tree and pull another chocolate bar out of my pack. Thank god I always over-packed on the chocolate.

  “Hare? I thought it was a Rabbit,” Ali frowns, floating above the creature. “Damn. And here I wanted to say ‘Nothing’s up, Rabbit.’ “

  “Down!”

  I drop to the ground and am smashed to the side as the creature hits my backpack. I roll, coming up and face-to-face with a rabid ball of fluff with way too many teeth. I stab the walking stick in its maw, the creature biting down on the metal pole automatically. I keep shoving, pinning the creature to the ground as it begins to choke.

  “Move!”

  I jump, releasing the pole as another of the fluff monsters attacks me from the side, too focused as I am on killing the first. I lash out with my knife, cutting at the scratchy fur as I stumble backwards, desperately waving my weapon at it.

  “To your right,” Ali calls out and I look right, backhanding the third Tribble monster. The blow catches it and sends it spinning away, tumbling down the hill. The second monster takes my brief distraction as a sign to bite my leg and I scream in pain, stabbing down with my knife again and again till it releases me.

  I push off, hobbling to where the first fluff monster continues to gag and cough and I kill it by stomping on the creature, repeatedly doing so till it stops moving.

  “Behind you again,” Ali calls out, bored now.

  I spin, getting my arm up in time to let it chew on my forearm rather than my face and then proceed to stab it to death.

  “Well, that’s one way of killing monsters. Maybe try not to let them snack on you as much when fighting next time,” Ali points out helpfully and I snarl at him, looting the balls of fluff. Really, fluff? That’s my loot? Fluff? Then again, what was I expecting from balls of fluff. I dump it in my inventory, grimacing and get moving to the stream I recall being around here, limping my way to it.

  I wash my clothing as best as I can in the stream, Ali keeping watch above me. I work fast, getting rid of as much blood as I can without dampening my clothing too much. Wool or not, wet is wet and early April in Kluane means temperatures are only around 6 Celsius in the shade. As I clean myself, I ask Ali something that’s been troubling me. “Ali, how come the monsters never attack you?”

  “They can’t see me,” Ali answers.

  I frown, “But that first time…”

  “I can become visible with effort, but I can’t sustain it long, not yet at least,” Ali pauses, turning to the East before he speaks. “Time to go pretty boy. Company’s coming.”

  I get up hastily, shaking the water off my hands as I take off at a low jog South West, doing my best to keep as quiet as possible.

  The sun has nearly set when I finally arrive at the car-park. What should have been a half-day hike has turned into a two day ordeal. I’m not surprised to see the burnt remnants of my vehicle, though the hissed word ‘Salamander’ gives me an idea of what could have caused the problem. Or would if I knew what a Salamander was.

  “Giant lizard with a Greater Affinity to Fire magic. Breathes fire actually, some think it’s a lesser variant of a Dragon,” Ali explains. “Good news and bad news too.”

  “Explain,” I murmur softly, eyeing the clearing for monsters.

  “Bad news – it’s headed to your Haines Junction,” Ali motions to the rather obvious tracks. When I don’t bite at his silence, he sighs and explains the good news, “Its presence is likely to drive away most of the monsters from its path. Makes it safer to follow after. If it doesn’t double back.”

  Great. Just great. I’m going to be following a giant, fire breathing lizard on its way to the closest source of civilization that I know of and hope it doesn’t notice me. At least it ain’t called Godzilla.

  I’m not much of a gamer, but my ex was and I’d picked up enough of the lingo to know the term ‘kill stealing’. I would almost feel guilty, ending the life of these Lightning Elk and gaining some minuscule amount of experience from it, but considering they are either mangled or suffering from significant burns, I’ll call it a humanitarian act. Beyond those acts of mercy, I resolutely ignore the roasted, half-eaten corpses that make up the majority of the herd and the Salamander’s most recent meal.

  Level Up!

  You have reached Level 3 as an Erethran Honor Guard. Stat Points automatically distributed. You have 3 Free Attributes to distribute. Class Skills Locked

  The locked skill draws a grimace from me but considering the ridiculous Stat increases, I can live with it. Since I have a brief moment, I pull up my Status Screen to review it.

  Status Screen

  Name

  John Lee

  Class

  Erethran Honor Guard

  Race

  Human (Male)

  Level

  3

  Titles

  None

  Health

  190

  Stamina<
br />
  190

  Mana

  220

  Status

  Normal

  Attributes

  Strength

  15 (50)

  Agility

  18 (70)

  Constitution

  19 (75)

  Perception

  12

  Intelligence

  22 (60)

  Willpower

  24 (60)

  Charisma

  8 (16)

  Luck

  10

  Skills

  Stealth

  6

  Wilderness Survival

  3

  Unarmed Combat

  2

  Knife Proficiency

  5

  Athletics

  3

  Observe

  4

  Cooking

  1

  Sense Danger

  2

  Class Skills

  None (2 Locked)

  Spells

  None

  Perks

  Spirit Companion

  Level 3

  Prodigy (Subterfuge)

  N/A

  Unassigned Attributes:

  Would you like to assign these attributes?

  3 Stat Points

  (Y/N)

  “Whoa! Where did all those skills come from?” Seeing my Status Screen for the first time in days makes an eyebrow go up.

  “You’ve been gaining them all along, I’ve just been hiding the notifications for now,” Ali shrugs, doing an aerial handstand as he waits for me.

  “What! Why?” I growl at the little man, eyes narrowing.

  “It’d be a distraction. It’s not as if you’d have done anything differently, would you? The skill gains from the System get added straight to your muscle memory and mind, so it’s not as if you haven’t been gaining from it as it stands. The rest is just numbers,” Ali sniffs. “Numbers mean jack shit if you aren’t doing anything. Best not to obsess.”

  What he says reminds me of a conversation I had with a school counselor once. IQ means nothing if you don’t study he would always say. Hearing Ali mention something so similar, I can’t help but glare at him, “Next time, give me a summary every night will you? I’d at least like to know what’s happening.”

  Ali sighs, acting all put upon as I get moving, adjusting the screen so that’s it’s mostly transparent as I get walking. I continue studying it, trusting in the little man to keep me informed. As annoying as he is, he’s a good lookout.

  “Ali, the maths doesn’t make sense.”

  “You got a few points from all that running and hiding you’ve been doing. And once you got a class, your Stats back paid into your Hit Points,” Ali states as if it’s the simplest thing in the world. To him perhaps, but it’d have been nice to know that could happen. The Help Guide he’d provided had given some understanding of things, but there obviously was still a lot that I didn’t understand. “Don’t expect any more though, you’ve leveled up to a point that unless you became a professional athlete, you’re better off spending your time leveling.”

  I nod at his words and then try to decide on what to do with my free points but realise I have no clue, all of the minimums are so far away they might as well be on the moon. At a quick calculation, I’d need at least 18 Levels to get just my Strength up to my class level if I didn’t put any points into it. Instead, I leave the points unallocated for now. Maybe I’ll figure out what exactly I need later.

  “Ali, question about messages. They seem to change in tone, from businesslike to well, kinda dickish.”

  “Ah, well the base System messages are what you see mostly, the businesslike ones you mention. However, the GC has control of the messages too, so occasionally they take a hand especially if it’s something that interests one of their observers,” Ali explains.

  “Observers?” I grunt, eyeing him and then the surroundings.

  “Yeah, but you’d have to do something really big to get their notice. Don’t worry about it, not as if you can do anything,” Ali points out and I nod. I still find myself hunching my shoulders in a bit - Big Brother is watching.

  A couple of hours later, I pause and pull out my compass. A quick reckoning of the path ahead and I look to Ali who nods confirmation to what I’ve guessed. The Salamander has changed course, moving away from the Junction.

  Scarily enough, the Salamander is going to be one of the least powerful regular monsters that will inhabit the park from now on, using the overgrown and leveled up native fauna for its food source. Thankfully, the Salamander is dumb, a creature of pure instinct that roams the park and its surroundings.

  Readjusting my backpack, I pick up the pace. Hopefully, there’s a car or some other vehicle I can borrow that’ll get me to Whitehorse. At the very least, there will be survivors who I can join.

  Chapter 4

  Crossing out the Park nets me a simple message and a reward. Nowhere close to getting enough for another Level Up but every little bit counts.

  Quest Complete!

  You have survived Kluane National Park and even managed to keep all your limbs!

  5,000 XP Awarded

  As I near Haines Junction, I try to recall what little I know of it. Town population of around 800, so there should have been at least a few hundred survivors left, if the numbers hold true. The smoke that I see rising from the center of the one road town has me worried though, so I take my time, diverting into a few local houses that make up the approach to the few buildings that make up the town center. I find a car and even keys but nothing works, the cars too new. Damn System.

  I luck out when I do so, coming across food and clothing that I can use along with a real weapon at last – an abandoned .56 caliber rifle and a box of bullets. The rifle itself is trigger locked but thankfully, the trigger lock key is easy to find hanging on a nail right across the case. Thank the gods for human laziness.

  Signs of struggle are everywhere including a few over-turned cars, pools of blood and smashed windows. Disturbingly, I find no bodies, though perhaps the survivors have collected them all for burial. At least, I hope that’s the case, though with the way many of the animals I’ve met have expanded their diets, I don’t hold much hope.

  Armed with the new weapon, I venture closer to the town center. Never know what could be awaiting me, though I’m praying that Frosty’s is still standing. I could definitely make do with their milkshake, burger and fries.

  Beyond one derogatory comment about the peashooter I picked up, Ali has been uncharacteristically quiet. A somewhat unfair observation perhaps – when it’s time to be serious, the Spirit is actually rather professional, if a bit much of a know it all.

  The first sign of trouble is the overgrown mis-shappen head that I spot as I creep closer. Looking like a cross between a Neathredal and Big Foot, the 14-foot tall creature seems to be happily munching on its dinner. Things get even worse when I realise that that’s the kid as the mother, unclothed and very female strides over and drags her kid back to the center of the town. Ali frowns, staring at them and then a glowing green bar floats above their heads along with a short descriptor

  Ogre Youth (Level 12)

  Ogre Matron (Level 21)

  I breathe deeply, quelling my pounding heart before I creep forwards further. Something about the meal the kid was holding nags me. I have to know, and when I do get close enough to see, I suddenly wish I didn’t. I’ve found the villagers, or what’s left of them. Surrounding a cookfire, there’s a good baker’s dozen of the adult Ogres, mostly in the Level 20 ranges, lounging after a truly epic feast. Playing in the bone pile is a pair of children, sword-fighting with the thigh bones of the former residents of Haines. The only consolation I have is that it looks like the villagers managed to kill a couple of the Ogres by the bodies that are laid aside with care.

  I come to my senses when I realise my hands are aching, clutching the rifle so hard all the blood has gone from my fingers. Crawling back
into hiding, I force myself to breathe deeply and take control of my emotions. Every time I begin to do so, I recall the small bones that I saw, the half-eaten face and I recall another child, crying and wondering why no one ever came to help. I draw a deep shuddering breath, my hands shaking and unshed tears in my eyes.

  “There’s nothing we can do John. It’s time to go,” Ali murmurs consolingly.

  “I’m going to kill them. Kill them all,” I hiss as rage burns within me, overflowing from its confines and wrapping me in its familiar embrace.

  “Not a chance. Even that kid could take you down with a single hit. Give it up, we’ll come back another time,” Ali insists.

  “I. Don’t. Care.” I snarl, standing up and moving as the anger consumes me. I’m not sure where, but I can’t keep still any longer.

  “You can’t do this. As a group, they’d be a challenge for monsters five times their strength!”

  Suddenly, I can feel the anger cool, turning ice cold as a mad plan forms.

  The plan has three parts. Each part insanely dangerous. To complete the first part, I dump 2 points into Agility and another into Constitution to raise my Stamina. I’m going to need to be fast and fit for this.