Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

I didn’t have any time to relax after the two Site workers left, because the earlier noise that Raffiel didn’t contain caused a few more zombies to approach me. But after all the absurdities that I’ve seen so far, I started to realize how stupid I was for being afraid of a few slow-moving undead. Why the hell would I be afraid of a few dead corpses when I’ve seen literal Eldritch Horrors and Demons?

I laughed at my earlier actions and charged at the stupid hoard. My upgraded status made me move faster than I had ever done before, and the zombies were so woefully slow that there was no way they could ever catch me. I dashed between their clumsy grasps, smashing heads as I went along. Before long, Noe gave me a notification.

“Congratulations, Host Watt.” The system said, “You have gained one level along with 3 free attribute points. Would you like to use them to upgrade a stat now?”

I killed the last zombie before making my way to a quiet corner to see exactly what Noe was talking about.

Host Watt Thefuck:

Class: Level 2 Commoner

Free points: 3

Attributes:

HP: 94/94

MP: 0/0

Strength: 39 (+10)

Dexterity: 45 (+10)

Endurance: 42 (+10)

Intelligence: 36 (+10)

Charisma: 42 (+10)

So I seemed to have gained 10 HP on the level up, and I could put those 3 free points into any of the other stats. Now here’s the question, where should I invest my points into? The logical choice if I were in this Trial normally would be to put them into Endurance or Strength for a better chance of survival, but my priorities were slightly different than the norm. I wasn’t in any real danger here, not with Noe’s help and, if I really needed it, I could also seek aid from Q and the rest of the Admin staff. Plus, if I put any more points into my physical stats then I was in danger of not being able to control my own body.

No, my biggest danger was if the people from Central found out that I wasn’t who I said I was. Which led to two choices that made sense for my current situation: Intelligence or Charisma.

Hey Noe, I thought, Explain what the Intelligence and Charisma stats do.

“Acknowledged.” It said, “Intelligence determines how fast the Host can process and retrieve information. The higher the Intelligence stat, the faster Host Watt can formulate plans, and learn new information. It does not make the Host smarter.”

Ok, makes sense so far. Could be useful, given how little information I had about the situation as a whole.

“Charisma is the tendency for people to have a good impression of the Host. A higher Charisma stat will cause individuals to trust and like the Host more.”

Wait, does that mean that if I had a really high Charisma stat, people would believe anything I say?

“Negative.” Noe answered, “Charisma will only make it easier for other individuals trust the things that Host Watt say. If Host Watt says something completely unbelievable, then the Charisma stat would have little to no bearing in making others believe them.”

So what you’re saying is that although Charisma helps with gaining trust, it ultimately depends to my bullshitting skills?

“Affirmative.”

That made my choice easier. I chose to dump all my stats into Charisma.

Host Watt Thefuck:

Free Stat points: 0

Strength: 39 (+10)

Dexterity: 45 (+10)

Endurance: 42 (+10)

Intelligence: 36 (+10)

Charisma: 45 (+10)

Thinking faster would be helpful, but if I screwed up even once with my Arbiter disguise then I was dead. I’ll dump every free point into Charisma until my identity as an Arbiter would be irrefutable, at least for the people working on this Site.

With a new goal in mind, I started to go around looking for some zombies to smash. Raffiel really didn’t lie about incentivizing growth via the status screen; there was something cathartic about looking at your numbers go up and seeing your own growth. I went a little overboard with the new excitement because I spent the next 8 hours doing nothing but smashing zombie heads, and I only stopped when I was physically unable to move.

Strangely enough, it was still dark out, and the rain never let up. I would have thought that only a few hours had passed had Noe not kept time for me. I guess day would never break in this strange Trial ground.

Since then, I was able to level up to 7, which made me… still weak compared to everyone else. Well, at least I’m now at an even starting point. And I’m probably hunting these stupid zombies faster than the rest, so I’ll eventually surpass everyone here!

After putting all 15 extra points into Charisma and getting the number up to 60, I sat down in a corner and smiled at the progress that I made. That was when I noticed a problem.

With the adrenaline finally dying down, I found out that I was so tired that my legs felt like they were made of lead, and now that I had finally stopped moving, my rain-soaked body was starting to lose heat quickly. I was starting to shiver uncontrollably within minutes, and I had to find somewhere dry to rest.

Forcing my aching body up, I grabbed my backpack and spear and started to search for some shelter. I initially thought of just picking a random location to walk towards and use the Absolute Luck skill to do the rest but decided against it. If I relied on the skill for everything, then I would never actually grow as a person. What would happen if I ran out of Luck Charges in the future and I found out too late that I couldn’t do anything without the help of Noe?

I could at least endure some rain and cold and solve this on my own. It wasn’t the first time I had been in a situation like this, although admittedly, the last time didn’t involve zombies. Let’s take stock of my surroundings first.

As always, the rain was thick, drowning out the sounds of the empty streets. Occasionally I would hear a gunshot in the distance, although those were getting rarer as time passed on. There was a lot of those in the first hour or so of the Trial, but it was clear that the gunshots were attracting the attention of every zombie in the vicinity, and the poor sods who chose to use guns soon found out that there were more zombies than bullets.

And of course Raffiel would choose to list all those fancy modern weapons first, these bastards probably wanted something like this to happen. But I couldn’t waste any more time lamenting the poor fates of the others. I had to find some shelter fast.

The city I was in looked to be bog standard in terms of its layout. Things were damaged and worn down, but the usual stores and locals were all present. I tried to enter one of the high rises, but all of the entrances were chained up. I could maybe pry one of the doors open, but I abandoned that idea quickly. It would cause way too much noise, and I wasn’t sure that I had the strength to break those thick metal chains.

My next thought was to take shelter in a store, at least I could break the glass windows and enter, but that also proved to be problematic. The interior of every store I saw was filled with broken glass, rusted metal and other hazards that made them impossible to rest in.

I must have wandered around the city for another hour or so, dispatching a few straggler zombies, before finding a location that fit my needs. It wasn’t perfect, but I was about ready to collapse by then.

Out in a small street sat an empty gas station. The front of it was collapsed, but I managed to find a small side door hidden in the back. There was just a small padlock blocking my access, and I was easily able to snap that in two using my spear as a crowbar. The interior wasn’t exactly clean, but it was better than the stores. It took me a few minutes, but I was able to move some debris out of the way to create a small area for me to rest.

Sitting down for the first time in forever, I wanted to just pass out as soon as I could. But there was always the threat of a random wandering zombie finding me, and I doubted I would wake up in time given how exhausted I was. Could I maybe set up some traps? Make my area a little more hidden?

Forget it. I would probably hurt myself badly if I tried anything that complex right now. I was about to pass out at any minute. I had to cheat a little this time, but only right now.

Noe, activate the Absolute Luck skill, and keep it active until I wake up.

“Acknowledged.” It said.

Good, with that skill active there was no way that a zombie would find me now. And I highly doubted that the probability that a zombie passes by this remote area would be too high, so the amount of Luck Charges used would not exceed its regeneration rate.

In other words, I could rest in peace.

Before I could think further, or really think through with my decision, I slumped down and fell into a deep slumber.