Arthur had a considerably bad day at work today.
Sighing to himself, he locked the door to the simple three-rooms flat behind him and loosened his scarf. Having made a detour to his bedroom to set his things down, Arthur turned back to the kitchen to settle his dinner.
He accidentally dozed off while marking the students' work, and by the time he woke up, ten minutes had passed and there was a blanket on his shoulders. The female colleague sitting beside him simply smiled and said something about the others taking a nap on the job now and then too. He guessed that meant he wasn't in any serious trouble for slacking at work, but he did feel really guilty about it. He was paid to teach, not sleep in the air-conditioned staff room in the middle of the day.
"Maybe it was a bad idea to try and finish that stack of instructions in one night." Arthur muttered to himself, accompanied with yet another sigh.
He figured that if he was going to test the Dreamer, he better do a good job. So after his conversation with Kiku, he made himself a nice cup of tea and spent the night reading the unreasonably thick device instruction and game manual. By the time he was done, it was nearly two Am and he only managed four hours of sleep before rushing to work.
Four hours was definitely not enough for what he had to deal with.
When the Grandfather's clock in the living room struck nine, Arthur kept the last plate in the shelf and turned to prepare for sleep. He was dead tired for one, and he did agree to meet Kiku in the game at this time. Since it's a weekend tomorrow, Arthur figured that he might as well sleep early.
Putting the Dreamer on, he adjusted himself in a comfortable position in bed, and closed his eyes. He dozed off almost immediately, remembering only the faint buzzing from the Dreamer.
When Arthur opened his eyes again, he was half floating in an empty space. In front of him was the projection of a digital screen, with words being constantly typed on it.
"Welcome dear player," He read. "To the survival game of a lifetime. "
He supposed the screen was right about something; to be able to experience a zombie apocalypse first hand, that's more than enough for one lifetime.
"A year ago, America was attacked by a disease that appeared out of the blue. The disease wiped out more than ninety eight percent of the American population. But instead of resting in peace, the diseased and deceased came back as what we call zombies. These zombies know little but to kill and to feed. And you, dear player, are their favorite food- This sounds very familiar."
Arthur paused the reading for a moment, wondering where he had read about something similar before. Then it hit him that things related to zombie apocalypse; be it movies or games or books, the all seem to have similar background story such as this one. He laughed to himself at the lack of creativity on the game programmer's part and continued reading.
"America's now abandoned by the world, and you are our only hope left. Summon your courage and depend on your wits. Locate the other survivors and work together to find the rumored cure hidden somewhere in this country. Best of Luck. America's future is in good hands."
The moment Arthur had finished reading the last sentence, a strong beam of light suddenly shot out from the screen and filled the space. lest damaging his sight, Arthur screwed his eyes shut and shielded himself from the light with his hands. Even so, the light was still too bright for comfort.
The lights finally died out after what felt like forever, and opening his eyes, he found himself in yet another place. It was a room this time, a little bigger than his bedroom. The room was poorly lit; the only source of light was from the cracks on the painted window fixed on one of the moldy walls. Arthur squinted, waiting for them to get used to the darkness as he fumbled around.
Judging from the ragged furniture in the room, he figured that this must be the player's bedroom; in other words, his bedroom in the game. The air in the room was rather stale but bearable, though he was a little disturbed by the faint scent of blood that was slowly reaching him.
Something's dead in this room.
While he panicked at the realization, his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness. Boy he wished he had not, for what he saw probably gave him more shock than a zombie ever could. The room was in a worse state than he thought: dirty clothes thrown all around, papers and magazine dating a few months back sprawled all over the damp ground. Several of them had photos of panic and death, and the headlines all spoke of the disease and zombie outbreak.
Empty bottles and cans piled up at a corner of the room, tattered food packaging was littered all over, and Arthur seriously couldn't find a single spot on the ground that he could consider moderately acceptable. All four walls of the room were heavy spray painted on. Judging from the colors, there had been several different layers of graffiti on them. The latest coat was in blood red, spelling words like "We're doomed" and "There's no hope".
Well, seemed like he wondered wrongly, this can't be his room. No way would he be that desperate, not even in a game scenario.
It was then when he noticed the source of the blood scent.
There, lying in a corner, was a dead rat the size of a small cat. He didn't know how that even made sense but there it was, lying on its back and bleeding from god knows where. The blood was still oozing out though, so the rat must have died a while ago. A blood trail led from the rat to the painted window, giving him some ideas about the death of the rat.
Poor fella, dying in a place like this.
Arthur had a feeling that if he doesn't find a way out of here, he would be next.
…
Speak of which, he seemed to have forgotten about something.
"Oh, right. Kiku." Snapping his fingers together, he called the menu bar out and enabled the chat option. Immediately, a chat popped up.
"Hello Arthur Kun. How has the game been?" It was only voice chat, like a phone call. But Arthur figured that he would eventually meet Kiku in the game, and thought less of it.
"Hello Kiku. Sorry for being late. I was… stunned by my surrounding." He explained, smiling sheepishly even though Kiku couldn't see it.
"I see. If that's the case, I take it that you are still in the Player's room?"
… So this wreck of a place… Was really his room?
"Ah… Umm… I guess you can say so…"
"Arthur Kun, to officially start the game, you have to escape from your room. "
Escape the room? In a zombie survival game? What?
"Escape. From this room." He repeated doubtfully.
"Hai." Kiku replied with the least bit of hesitation.
"Right." Be that way. What was he expecting. "There's no door though…" Now that Kiku had mentioned it, he realized that the room was literally all four walls. Apart from the painted window, there's no other opening.
…
Window. Huh.
"Kiku, am I allowed to destroy things in this game?" He asked, scanning the room before picking up a wooden chair.
"Please feel free to do so. It's a first-hand experience game after all. Alfred Kun specifically made it that the player has a free range of choice and action. 'You can do anything as long as you can think of it! It's a flexible game about wits and courage!'… Was what he said."
Truth to be told, the only thing Arthur wanted to do now was to clean this mess up. He coughed.
"This Alfred… He sounds like a very noisy person." Arthur guessed that 'Alfred' was probably the name of that American game programmer.
Kiku chuckled softly. "It's best to know the person of subject by yourself to affirm your conclusions."
"Right, can't wait." Arthur rolled his eyes; predicting that his encounter with Alfred wouldn't be a peaceful one. "Well then. I'll be excusing myself now. Let's meet up soon." He stopped in front of the window and held the chair up.
"Hai. The area within five meter radius from the Player's room is the safe zone. So feel free to explore the place, or call me if you need assistance in any way. All the best, Arthur kun." With that, the chat closed with a soft beep.
"If I'm allowed to do whatever I want in this game," He grinned, and swung the chair at the window with all his might, smashing right through the thin glass. "Then this game might actually be worth my time."
A smashing entrance, check.
Arthur grinned contently at his work. The moment the window broke, rays of light and fresh air entered the room, bringing a brighter side out of the messy place. Not that it was a side Arthur would better appreciate though. The light only made more parts of the room visible; messy, dusty parts.
It was then when Arthur noticed something that wasn't there before.
Sitting in a corner just made visible by the light, was a metal baseball bat.
…
Arthur and the bat had a few moments of silent argument before he sighed in defeat and walked to pick it up.
He had expected the need for weapons in such games, but using a blunt baseball bat was still a little too much for him to accept. For one, he had never played baseball before. So to him, that bat might as well be a piece of glorified metal stick. Apart from blinding swinging that around, he had no idea what he could use it for.
"I swing it at their head…right?" Swinging the bat about to grasp the feel of it, he decided to make finding a better weapon his first objective.
He took a few more minutes examining the place for usable items, and apart from a lighter stained by a strange fluid that he refused to recognize, there was pretty much nothing left for him to take. Nodding to himself, he gave the room one last glance, and leapt out through the window.
"There should be a kitchen knife somewhere…" Staring at the few run down houses in the safe area, Arthur muttered. He's been cooking his own meals for as long as he could remember; a kitchen knife would definitely be better than this glorified piece of metal.
A/N: Man this is one of the most interesting piece of story I've done in a while. Let's guess how long i can drag this before Alfred enters the game. /laughs/
Reviews are appreciated~