"Could you... could you say that again?"
"Oh, yeah, of course," Ashton nodded his head, smiling awkwardly, "I just killed a guy. The one that was screaming his lungs out outside? Yeah, him."
Sam got up from his seat, "What?! Ash, why the bloody fuck would you do that?!"
"Lower your voice, you're scaring Poppy," Ashton sighed, taking the fairy off his head, "Listen, that's just the start of it. That guy wasn't sane. Rather, he was actively insane, and would have only recovered that sanity by killing people."
"... What?"
"Yeah, so, that guy was a 'Marked'. Someone that, instead of killing monsters or animals during the first quest, killed people. Those individuals are designated as a step closer toward monsters, and they are made to lose their sanity in a similar fashion to regular monsters," Ashton explained, crossing his legs, "These people were given a bonus quest that allows them to regain their sanity, which they follow instinctually. That bonus quest is to kill people, just like any other monster. Oh, these people are also not attacked normally by monsters. Anyway, in the process of killing people, they will show certain habits, which will then give them a 'Monster Class'. Basically, a cursed class that will start turning them into monsters the more they level up."
Sam stared at the man sitting across from him, trying to follow what he was being told, "... And... And that guy was one of them?"
"Mhm. He was eatin' people, apparently. Was acting pretty wild," Ashton explained, "So... I killed him."
Confused, Sam sat down, "And... there was no other way?"
"No. He had already killed five people. The only way for him to regain his consciousness would be to kill even more."
"... How many is 'more'?"
"Hm, I don't know. Another four or five? Depends on the individual, how many people they actually killed during the first quest, and how they killed them. Just considering how insane the guy was looking, I guessed it was five that were killed brutally, or one that was... fully tortured to death. But we don't know," Ashton explained, standing up from the seat before walking around the desk, "So just make a post explaining what 'Marked' are, I'll tell you everything you need to know."
"... Can't you just do it yourself?"
"I haven't typed on a laptop in a century. No." Ashton put his hands onto his friend's shoulders, looking over his head at the laptop, "So other tech works like that, too?"
"Hm? Uh, yeah," Sam slowly nodded, clearing his throat. He didn't seem uncomfortable or anything, it was just clear that he still wasn't quite used to the way the new world worked, "Basically, every phone or computer or similar works to access the community somehow. Obviously, right now it's just battery-powered things, electricity doesn't seem to work that well right now, so the desktops aren't an option at the moment."
"Neat, okay. Is there anything else you can do on a laptop that you couldn't do on a phone?"
Sam shook his head, "No, not anything 'new', it's just a lot easier to do certain things. For one, I've explored all the functions now, and some people are seemingly trying to put some order into this place right now. You can make smaller sub-forums on here that other people can join and post on depending on the settings the creator chooses."
Seemingly remembering something, Sam started looking through the drawers on his desk, while Ashton looked through the posts currently on the laptop's screen. Soon, Sam found what he was looking for and held it toward Ashton. It was another phone.
"Managed to trade this off someone. You gave yours to that Backpacker guy, right?"
"Oh. Yeah, no thanks, I don't need it. The Backpacker promised to check in with the community for me. I seriously unlearned how to do most things on a phone, and I don't think right now is the best time to re-learn," Ashton explained, "The Backpacker is actually pretty good with that."
"... So why don't you just take a second phone just in case?"
"No, seriously, I don't-"
"Take the fucking phone, man, you have no idea what the fuck I traded for this, so just take it."
Sam pressed the phone into Ashton's hand. It was turned off, so it shouldn't be syncing with him right now, so the Backpacker's phone was still fully functional, "Uh, thanks."
He gave the second phone to the Backpacker to stash away.
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
"Good. Just in case the first phone runs out of battery before we figure out how to recharge things," Sam explained, but Ashton shook his head.
"No, you can recharge batteries with magic stones."
"... What?"
"Just hold your phone and a magic stone at the same time, and you get the option to recharge. Oh, put that into the post about magic stones you're going to write," Ashton said, but Sam just looked at him with a blank expression.
"And why exactly am I making a post about magic stones?"
"Well, because you'll be making a ton of posts. Just start setting up a wiki on there. I'll tell you everything you need to know, and you make the posts so that people know about it."
Sam groaned, "Man, do you know how expensive it is to set up your own sub-forums? Frankly, I don't know how other people have done it already."
"How expensive?"
"A thousand coins."
Ashton quickly opened his status.
[Ashton Garling] [Age - 23] [Coins - 2218 -> 3261]
[Stats]
[Power - 13 -> 14]
[Resilience - 10 -> 11]
[Speed - 14 -> 15]
[Spirit - 18 -> 20]
[Classes]
+[Summoner - Level 6 -> 7] (!)
Quickly, Ashton tapped his coin amount and pulled the slider to the right. He quickly popped out the large coin and gave it to his friend, "Just tap it against your status window."
Sam hesitantly did as told, and the large coin fell apart into wisps of magic. He blinked a few times.
"Of course. A thousand coins. Sure."
"Hah, if you heard how much money I spent today, you'd cry."
"... How much did you spend?"
Ashton stepped behind Sam's chair again and patted his friend's shoulders, "Don't worry about it. Anyway, I'm going to finance all of your posting, and I'm going to provide you with the information to post in the first place. At least, for the time being. Other people will find out some of this information as well, plus info that I'm not even privy to yet."
With a sigh, Sam agreed, "Fine. I mean, it's a good thing, anyway. However..." he turned around on his chair and looked up at his friend, "I'm not going to act like this info comes from me."
"Dude, come on, that's the whole point. If it's not coming from you, then you're not the one getting the attention."
"No, you're wrong about that," Sam got up from his seat, stretching a bit. It seems like he had been sitting for a while, "First. I don't know why you want me to get attention or why you're trying to turn me into a big leader."
"Because you'd be a good leader. You care about people, you actually like people, and you-"
"Ash, just... whatever, I get it. I'm going to play along, because all this shit's way too crazy for me to sit back and not do anything. Either way, you have no idea how fucking suspicious people are of you. I've been hearing them whisper and ask how you know what you know. If I act like that, then people aren't going to trust me, they're going to question how I know this."
Ashton slowly nodded, "Okay. That's fair, I guess. So what are you going to do about that, then?"
"I'm going to say that my information comes from an anonymous source. I don't know, we'll give you a nickname or something," Sam suggested, and Ashton crossed his arms.
"And you're sure that won't make people question you?"
"No. But this way, we can spread some rumours. Oh, this isn't actually just a crazy strong guy, it's a team of... fucking scientists that immediately started studying the system. It's easier to legitimize the source of the info when that source is unclear, weirdly enough."
Ashton carefully agreed, "Fine. So, I'll be the anonymous source, and you'll be the one spreading the info."
"Great," Sam smiled, sitting back down and looking at the laptop, "In that case, let me make a forum where only I can post... create some sub-pages so that I can actually categorise it... Speaking of, what sort of categories do we need?"
"Hm... That's a good question. Right now, the important parts are system functions, monsters... real-world changes? Like stores, dungeons, that sort of thing."
"Do you want me to only manage this fucking wiki or somethin'?"
"I don't know, man. Can't you just have someone else do it for you on your account?" Ashton yawned a bit, and Sam thought for a moment.
"I think there was actually an option to lock the account onto the device, so it wouldn't switch over... So it would be possible," Sam pointed out, quickly starting to look through his settings.
"Plus, you just need to make the big posts about the explanations and general types. Other people are going to make posts about specific instances in the overall regional section," Ashton figured. People were already making posts like that, and were collecting info in the comment sections of existing posts with similar themes.
While Ashton didn't have experience with this, he did believe in the unwavering human spirit. He believed that people were going to adjust shockingly fast and get used to this world. They would explain it, and learn its ways faster than Ashton could even comprehend.
That was already showing itself.
"Backpacker, could you show me the phone for a second? I want to scroll through the community to see what it's like now," Ashton said, and the backpacker hesitantly nodded their head. While Sam was busy setting up the basic framework of the new forum, Ashton looked through the general regional community to see what was going on.
Just like Ashton had thought, there were a ton of posts of people trying to ask for help, and almost all the comments were about people being nervous and scared.
It looked like one of the forums that had already been created was one that was specifically meant for people to ask for help. They had created sub-posts in that forum about the different areas of Drakewood, where people could comment their exact location within it to help easily narrow things down and sort it out.
There were also groups forming already. For example, there was one sub-forum called 'Drakewood Police Department', which seemed like it was going to be used to try and post public service announcements. Apparently, the police was trying to keep up order to at least some degree, though that wasn't going to work very well.
"By the way," Ashton started while looking through the posts, "Did you already grab your beginner equipment?"
"Hm? Oh, not yet. I've been working on some other things after that."
"Okay, fair. By the way, what's your level now?"
"I'm up to three, but I think I should get to level four soon."
"Alright, good. After you set up the basic stuff, come outside with me again. I could use someone to come with me to the botanical garden. Plus, it's going to get you to level 10 sooner." He gave the phone back to the Backpacker, "And trust me, the quest reward for reaching level 10 is worth it."
[Currently Available Milestones]
[+3 Chapters | 35 Reviews | 23/35]
[+3 Chapters | 300 Ratings | 209/300]
[+3 Chapters | 400 Favourites | 348/400]
[+2 Chapters | 2000 Followers | 1693/2000]
[Current [Bonus Chapters] in queue... [9 Chapters]]
! There, you will find 15 Chapters ahead of Schedule!