A Gamer's Guide to Piracy - The Horror

Chapter 1 - Paw Patrol


Auguste

[Mission: Beware the explosive start!]

Some guy dressed as a clown has placed three explosives in the lab of the late Dr. Fritz - yes, he's dead! And you didn't do it, you big loser! Disarm the bomb if you want to live!

Objective: Disarm the three explosives

Reward: Unlocking Domain System, Random Bronze Box; Sweet, sweet life!

Hidden Objective: ?

Hidden Reward: [Nagash Special Box]

When Auguste first started talking to himself, he didn't think he was crazy, just bored. When he had daydreams and hallucinations due to malnutrition, he didn't think of himself as crazy - just creative! But now...

Meh.

Another voice in his head, what was it? And if he followed what the voice said, at worst it would be wrong, and it would be a chance to visit the lab a little, now that everyone looked dead. He wasn't crazy! The proof: his madness was hyper-realistic, if that didn't testify to his creative genius! He was a pure artist!

[The system really exists!]

Of course, which fake voice would admit that it was a hallucination? That would take all the fun out of hallucinating.

[…]

"Yes, yes, of course, you do exist…Good boy ! I meant, Voice !"

[…]

The voice did not sound convinced.

"Of course you exist! The proof is in the pudding, I'm going to get those bombs!".

After all, it wouldn't do for the voice to take offense and leave. Even parts of his imagination parted with him : all of his former imaginary friends left after seeking with him. None of them had kept him company more than a few days.

The system can hear your thoughts, you know that ?

Duh! Of course the system could read his mind, since it was a product of his subconscious.

Auguste picked up one of the sheets lying a few steps away from the operating table where the late guard had placed him. Surprisingly strong for someone who had been on the verge of death an hour earlier, he gave the body of the brute who had dragged him to the floor earlier that morning a good kick.

"Aaaah."

The guy wasn't as dead as he looked. The bullet must not have hit a vital organ. Or rather, only a few of his vital organs. Auguste suspected that Dr. Fritz, like any good mad scientist, had performed a few operations of dubious ethics to make his guards and henchmen a little more resistant than the average human.

The guard's eyelids opened. The blow must have brought him out of his coma - perhaps Auguste had magic feet ?

"You…"

The guard let out an agonized gasp. Or maybe Auguste's second kick, straight to the head, had hurt him. Who knows, really.

+ 5 fear points

Auguste kicked a third time. It was, after all, the usual procedure of the scientific method! When in doubt, kick! I mean, when in doubt, kick again!

+ 5 fear points!

"Say, O voice in my head, what the hell is this?"

Note: Killing enemies earns you experience points, which increase your abilities such as Strength, Intelligence and Stamina! Terrorizing your enemies, on the other hand, earns you Fear Points, which you can use to purchase abilities, summon monsters, or even win items!

Collect 50 Fear Points to access the Fear Store

Hmmm... Of all their hallucinations, this was undoubtedly the most imaginative and improbable! And, as his mother used to say (Auguste didn't know, he had no memory of his mother. No memory at all - just a few fragments of a castle, his brother and Doctor Fritz) - as his mother used to say, you had to do what the voices said! But how could he scare this nice guy, this guy who had been cruel to him, who had tortured him, who had laughed at his suffering? Yes, this nice guy who deserved to suffer?

Auguste smiled and showed all his teeth, including the one he was supposed to have lost. Probably another effect of the fruit juice.

Probably faced with the benevolent smile of Augustus leaning over him - an Augustus dripping with blood blacker than anything he'd ever seen in his life, his arm missing the crazed look - Doctor Fritz's lab assistant pissed himself.

+10 fear points

Subject 53 - no, Doctor Fritz was probably dead now, and Augustus had a right to his name - Augustus grabbed the leather thong lying on the lab bench and tied the guard's right hand, too weak to struggle. He continued to smile.

"If even you could do an experiment, I can be an excellent scientist, right?"

Despite the smell of urine wafting through the air, Auguste continued his first science project with a whistle. Grabbing two piles of nuts and bolts from the floor, he set about opening the lab technician's mouth and locking it in place with his improvised device. Whistling one of the few happy childhood tunes he could remember, Auguste strolled around the room, grabbing anything that even remotely resembled products that could be safely ingested: bubbling potions, foul-smelling liquids, scalpels, pieces of tissue - in short, anything his former captor would enjoy tasting. For science, of course.

+ 20 fear points

Auguste returned to him and was surprised to discover that it was possible to scream with his mouth both full and open. What a supple throat!


Auguste

50 XP - You Killed a « Mutated Brute »

30 Fear Points

You have unlocked the shop

"The Shop" ?

A strange tab flickered into reality.

Ghastly Grasp - 1,200 points: Summons spectral hands that can manipulate objects or hinder foes. Serpent's Tongue - 1,000 points: Speak with and command snakes. Flickering Shadows - 20 points: Minor ability to create brief, distracting shadow movements. Banshee Wail - 2,000 points: Unleash a terrifying scream that can disorient and frighten opponents. Skeletal Twitch - 150 points: Can cause a skeleton's bones to twitch, but not fully animate. Dark Resurrection - 10,000 points: Bring back the dead as fully sentient beings, though with limitations. Dullahan's Whisper - 300 points: Can cause an eerie whisper to be heard, but no discernible words. Candle Flame Control - 100 points: Ability to manipulate the flame of a candle slightly. Veil of Darkness - 800 points: Create a small area of supernatural darkness for short periods. Rat Speak - 250 points: Communicate with rats, but limited to simple concepts. Misty Visions - 200 points: Create faint, non-interactive illusions that are easily dispelled. Bone Shaper - 600 points: Mold and shape bones into crude tools or weapons. Army of the Dead - 3,000 points: Summon a horde of weak undead soldiers for a short duration. Necrotic Transference - 6,000 points: Drain life force from a target to heal oneself or another. Chill Touch - 50 points: A weak curse that causes a slight, temporary chill Shadow Meld - 350 points: Briefly blend into shadows, but cannot move while doing so. Ghoul Gaze - 500 points: Temporary paralyzing gaze, effective only on very weak creatures. Whispering Winds - 80 points: Can hear distant conversations carried by the wind, but only fragments. Soul Echo - 1,700 points: Hear the last thoughts of the recently deceased. Dementor's Call - 1,500 points: Emit a chilling aura that saps the will of those nearby.

You have currently 70 fear points

The only things he could get were Flickering Shadows and Chill Touch. Meh. Why not.

You purchased [Flickering Shadows] and [Chill Touch].

It didn't seem strange to Augustus that mysterious information about unholy incantations and knowledge from another era was directly imprinted in his memory. His mother - well, he imagined, as he couldn't remember her - had always told him that a madman who knew that he was mad wasn't really mad. And that you had to accept his madness. Yadadi Yadada. Or something like that.

An explosion rattled the walls.

"Ah yes, the bombs. It had slipped my mind".

All of a sudden, a sharp pain pierced Auguste's leg.

You've lost 50/130 HP

The quest [Beware the Explosive Launch] has been updated. Rewards have been reduced. Disarm the two remaining bombs in less than half an hour (or you'll die. Lol.)!

Hmmm. Where could those bombs be hiding?

Auguste limped out of the room. Now that his leg was sore, his upper body was no longer jealous - now his lower body was crippled too! Yay! He opened the door to a dark corridor with peeling paint and a lot of screaming. Bodies of guards lay on the floor, gaping wounds in their stomachs and bullet holes in their heads. Other subjects and prisoners were probably still alive: Auguste could hear them crying, probably injured or frightened by the first explosion.

He walked down the first corridor, keeping his hand on the right wall. The other was gripped around a metal bar he found in the laboratory. His bare feet on the cold floor didn't hurt strangely - all he felt was a kind of pleasant echo from the blood-stained tiles, as if his soul had somehow left his body and distanced itself from it. After a few minutes of walking, he reached the room with the cells where he had been locked up with the others. The door to the room had remained open - the guard had surprisingly not closed it behind him - but the doors to the cells were still closed.

Auguste entered the room, where the cries and pleas were even louder than usual.

"Please! Come and save us!


Michel

Michel had been a prisoner of the mad scientist for... he had lost track of the days. Probably several years, judging by the whiteness of his hair, which he could see in the distorted reflections of the dirty bars. He'd suffered, lost a lot, cried even more, but this day was undoubtedly the worst he'd ever experienced. First, he had seen another child, a young man in his twenties, taken away by force by one of Fritz's most loyal henchmen, one of the henchmen entrusted with the sensitive experiments whose subjects usually never returned alive. He was a handsome boy who'd already lost an arm in one experiment too many, one of those boys who'd arrived healthy and sweet as angels, but who'd been corrupted by madness during their stay in that hell house. Then gunshots and screams had echoed through the normally silent underground complex. From what he'd reconstructed of the taunts of the stranger who'd stopped by to make sure all of Fritz's subordinates were dead, the mad scientist's patron had decided to get rid of the not-so-successful Fritz. After liquidating the scientist and his team, the hidden boss' soldier decided to plant a bomb right in front of them. To taunt them: trapped in their cells, with the easy to deactivate bomb in sight but not in hand, they were condemned to watch helplessly the instrument of their death detonate. And the old man cursed...

A squeak broke through the screaming, interrupting the old man's mental wanderings. Limping, bloodied, and smiling, a vision of horror entered the room. The missing arm gave away his identity.

"Auguste! You've escaped! What a miracle! Quick...the bomb...".

Looking half-dead, Auguste bent down and deactivated the device with three hand gestures. Rising to his feet, he swept his eyes over the crowd until they landed on his former cellmate.

"Auguste..."

The old man murmured. He'd been here a long time and knew only too well the effect that violence, isolation, experimentation and torture could have on such young minds. Resigned, he couldn't help but shudder along with the other inmates when Auguste, armed with his iron rod, entered the boy's cell, still chained to the wall.

The first blow was the one that killed the boy, judging by the sudden cessation of his screams. But that didn't stop Auguste, who was determined to crush his former cellmate's head completely.


+5 fear

+5 fear

+5 fear

+5 fear

+5 fear

+5 fear

+5 fear

+ 10 XP - You killed [Traumatized Boy That Turned Psychotic]

Ahlala ! What a good harvest! Auguste thought he'd probably been a farmer in a previous life. Wheat wasn't that far away from fear points. Probably. Whistling, he gave one last blow with the iron rod to what didn't really look like a head anymore, before he left his former cell. He would have to hurry and find the other bomb, and then...

"Auguste! Please get us out of here! Get us out of here!".

A cry of supplication interrupted his thoughts, which he was sure would have been very fruitful. Turning to the source of the scream - an old woman in the cell right next to his - Auguste hesitated. She'd been kind to him - insulting him only a few times - but, fear points...

Stepping out of his cell and unlocking the door that led to the one from the previous day, Auguste approached the crude iron bars that a blow from the iron bar would be enough to remove from the stone wall. He raised his improvised bat.

« Strike »

Auguste didn't know anything about baseball - he didn't even know what it was, probably another one of those ungodly voice-induced acquaintances - and his bat came crashing down on the old woman's head.

+5 fear points

+5 fear points

+10 fear points

+ 5 fear points

+ 10 XP - You killed [Defenseless Old Lady]

Yes, the other bomb…But before, experimentation time! `

Approaching the old woman's half-dead cellmate, he touched her with his hand, murmuring the unholy formula of his [Chill Touch].

"Cthar'negath shub'Nigguroth, uln'gha fl'yehn, vormi-leng yuggoth. Ia! Ia! R'lyehn'gha gath'n. Azathoth, ngah'ng ai'zhulss."

The man began to moan as he convulsed...and finally gave up the ghost within seconds, so frail that terror had killed him with a simple heart attack.

« Ah… »

You have leveled up ! You are now level 5 ! Look at your profile for more information !

« My…Profile ? »

Auguste Luvneel

Level – 5

Horror Level - Small Fry

Race – Human

Fear Points : 70 FP

Experience Points : 20 XP

HP – 130/130

MP - 90/110

STR – 8

END – 8

DEX – 4

INT – 11

WIS – 2

CHA – 1

LCK – 6

"Huh…Probably nothing important".

He felt the voice facepalm. Strange thing to do for an imaginary, disembodied voice.

"What's important, is the bomb !"


Lily Perona was having one of the strangest days of her life. That was saying something: she was no stranger to improbable experiences. Until a week ago, her days weren't strange at all. She rose mid-morning, and lived the gentle life of a duke's daughter. Servants would bring her breakfast, she'd take a stroll in the park, insult a couple of poor people... In short, routine. Until one of her nocturnal escapades - necessary adventures for any arrogant noblewoman with no knowledge of the world - turned sour. Probably tipped off by one of her father's political rivals, hooded men had knocked her unconscious with a blow to the head, and she'd woken up in hell: in Dr. Fritz's laboratory. She'd never been the object of his unhealthy experiments before, but the stories of her cellmates were chilling. Brrrrrr! As soon as her father found her - he was probably frantically searching for his seventeenth darling daughter, after all - he'd torture that villain Fritz to death! In the meantime, she was hungry, but - despite her orders - her cellmates refused to give her their rations. What odious characters! So she spent her days shivering with cold, insulting the low-lives who now shared her pitiful situation.

When the first shot was fired early in the morning, she had hopes! Her father was coming to set her free! But the sight of the soldier's uniform as he passed through the door gave her a cold shower. He wasn't wearing her father's weapons. He wore no weapons at all: only the Joker symbol, which she knew from her geopolitics lessons, adorned the back of his leather jacket. And he refused to release her despite her threats, the bugger! Insulting her to the point of spitting in her face! She'd have him hanged as soon as he got out, Joker or no Joker! The day had taken on an even stranger and, she had to admit, terrifying aspect. The lights sizzled and dimmed before coming back. The shadows had begun to move of their own accord. As the prisoners' moans gradually died away, the silence was complete. Until it was broken by strange words.

"Cthar'negath shub'Nigguroth, uln'gha fl'yehn, vormi-leng yuggoth. Ia! Ia! R'lyehn'gha gath'n. Azathoth, ngah'ng ai'zhulss."

And the screams began...


Auguste

Quest completed!

You have completed the quest [Beware the Explosive Launch].

You have received a Random Bronze Box.

Random Box : You have received the [Borgin and Burke's Bronze Box].

You have unlocked the Domain Management System.

You've completed the hidden goal of collecting over 100 Fear Points during your first mission.

You have obtained the [Nagash Special Box].

Do you want to open your boxes?

"Of course."

Auguste didn't want to upset the voice, or else he would find himself without friends. He'd tried talking to other prisoners in the new language the voice had taught him, but all he'd gotten was yelling and Fear Points - or FPs, as the voice abbreviated them.

You have received: [The Necklace of the House Elf] - Rank: Rare

When worn willingly by someone who knows its effects, this necklace will make them loyal to its owner!

You have obtained a [Black Gold Bracelet].

Automatically consumes fear points to recover from injuries. The number of fear points consumed is equal to the strength of the attack measured by the attacker's Dourikis.

You have obtained the [Book of the Dead] Quest.

The great necromancer Nagash has prepared a way for you to reclaim his legacy! But you have to prove yourself worthy.

Goal 1: Conquer your first domain

Goal 2: Raise your first undead

"Cool ! I've never had a friend give me a gift before".

Auguste put the chain in his pocket. He might have known he was crazy, but he wasn't stupid: hearing voices, why not? But creating objects? He touched a glass on a table with the black gold bracelet and knocked it off the table. Defying touch and the laws of physics? This was far too complicated for a simple hallucination. The voice was real. It meant...

"Cool! I've never had a real friend!"

[...]

"Tell me, voice, what's the domain system?"

The domain system is simple: once you've taken control of a place, you can turn it into a domain! You will then receive a number of domain points proportional to your level, which you can spend on monsters and rooms for your domains! Monsters and rooms affect visitors and can earn you FP and XP. Once you've established your domain, a [Scenario] will be triggered. If you succeed in the scenario, you can either keep your domain, which will passively earn you Fear points on a regular basis, or you can collapse the domain and receive a reward based on the success of the scenario!

You've taken control of [A Mediocre scientist's Underground Laboratory].

Do you want to take it over?

"Of course! What a stupid question!"

You are level 5 and therefore have Domain Points = 2^5 = 32 points.

Purchase options:

Zombie - 1 point. Bad all around and useless, but might scare the wimps.

Ghoul - 5 points. Fast and ferocious, but not very durable.

Elite Zombie - 15 points. Dr. Fritz has modified the bodies of some of his servants... so they become more powerful zombies!


A random sergeant from the local kingdom

Sergeant Maccard grumbled into his badly trimmed beard. Fucking Marines! Claiming to be overworked and having to guard the small village harbor against pirate attacks, it was up to him and his boys to go and investigate the origin of the strange noise. A muffled explosion, that had occurred a few hours earlier. Probably a volcano awakening or some kid who'd done something stupid. So he'd taken four of his boys, three solid, experienced ones and a kid Duke Perona had just recruited into his guard, to go and have a look.

Once there, he frowned. Hidden away on a hillside deep in the forest, sat a large iron gate, leaning like a trapdoor over the side of the small hill. As he motioned for two of his boys to pull, the door swung open, and a stench caressed nostrils.

"Ugh. It stinks of death! And literally, too!

Unsettled, the youngest soldier spoke up.

"Sergeant, if there are dead people in there, it's because someone killed them. A...a...a murderer! Maybe we should go and call for reinforcements.

A slap on the back of the head from Maccard's best man brought him to his senses.

"Nonsense, what a coward! Can't keep being such a pussy : you go first!

Even Sergeant Maccard had to admit to being a little creeped out as he made his way down the long, dark corridor that snaked for dozens of meters. Between the smell, the sounds of wind and metal, and the darkness, nothing good could be expected.

The last straw, for the young soldier, was hearing the thud of the door closing behind them.

"Aaaaaaaah".

Running back up the slope, and banging the door with all their might, the soldiers had to face the facts: someone had closed and locked the door behind them. Maccard shuddered. He swallowed.

"Well, boys, no choice. Draw your swords, be on your guard, and we'll head downstairs. If we come across anyone creepy, first we attack, then we ask questions. There's got to be another way out.

Walking another hundred meters, the four soldiers, including the sergeant, arrived at the first circular room, about ten meters in circumference.

"Wait...four?"

The youngest soldier had disappeared.


Perona

Fucking shitty day. Really, fucking shitty day! First the explosions, then the strange words and the screams! The light disappeared and returned erratically. Each time it came back on, one of the cells was empty and its occupants had mysteriously disappeared. She trembled with fear in the dark, hearing shudders and moans. She could see the shadows moving and smiling mockingly at her. Même quand la lumière était allumée, elle se sentait mal - l'attente qu'elle disparaisse était presque pire !

"A... To the right! I see light!"

When the light came back on, she heard voices in the corridor. The door opened with a bang and...random soldier n°39 from her father! At last! She didn't know his name, even if he was one of her father's guards, but it didn't matter! She was noble, she didn't need to be charismatic to be obeyed or kind to be helped!

" Thingy! Thingy there, the soldier".

Perona exclaimed.

"My...Lady Perona? What are you doing in this hell? "

The old sergeant's face was bloody, and his pale companion was shaking like a leaf.

"Anyway, never mind, we haven't got time, these things...".

A low rattle echoed through the corridors, and a creature leapt into the room. It was a stooped, repulsive creature with a broken, deformed body. Its skin was covered in blemishes, pimples and grime, its eyes animated by a gleam of dementia and inhuman rage. Her twisted mouth revealed sharp, blood-stained teeth. Dressed in rags probably torn from her victims, she held a weapon fashioned from the remains of their vile feasts: bones.

With a cry of rage, Maccard raised his long, two-handed sword above his head, and brought it down on the creature. Cutting clean through its arm, the blow did not deter the creature from biting the last soldier by the throat. By the time it was decapitated, Maccard was the only member of the Duke's guard still alive.

« Lady Perona…Hurry »

Another stroke of the blade undid the cell lock and the chain fastener. Unfaithful to herself, too shocked by events, Perona simply nodded instead of complaining about the slight discomfort of the too-quickly broken handcuff.

Running at full speed, without taking the time to glance at the corpse of the soldier who had died in her father's service, Perona and her new guard rushed out of the room.

In the dim, torchlit corridors of the ancient underground complex, Perona, her heart pounding in her chest, raced alongside Sergeant Maccard. Her dress, once pristine and elegant, was now torn and muddied, clinging to her slender frame as she navigated the labyrinthine passageways. The grizzled veteran of many battles, moved with a surprising agility for a man of his size and age. The air was thick with the stench of decay, and the sound of their hurried footsteps echoed through the hollow expanse. Perona's breath came in ragged gasps, her mind racing as she recalled the horrors they had just encountered. And they heard another one. A grotesque and vile creatures of by the scent of fear, it pursued them relentlessly, their guttural snarls a constant reminder of the danger that lurked in the darkness.

They turned down yet another corridor and - a light, there, right in front of them! Saved at last! Running, they arrived in the middle of a large room lit by numerous torches. An open door lay before them, and behind it they could smell the fresh forest air! A glimpse of the light filtered through the leaves of the trees!

Only one small obstacle: standing in the middle of the room was a strange duo. At the back, over two meters tall, stood a lump of putrid flesh and iron that had once probably been a man.

His visage was a nightmarish tapestry of battle scars and necrotic flesh. His eyes, sunk deep into their sockets, had burned with a faint, unnatural light, casting an eerie glow in the darkness. His skin, pallid and mottled with decay, had stretched taut over bulging muscles, a grotesque reminder of his former strength.

The mercenary's gear, once a testament to his martial prowess, had become a macabre assortment of rusted armor and tattered cloth, clinging to his undead form. His hands, which had once wielded weapons with deadly precision, were now grotesque claws, capable of rending steel as easily as flesh.

Before him stood a boy who was, to say the least, strange. Naked except for a loincloth and a lab coat with holes in it, he held an iron bar in his one arm. His angelic smile lit up a face emaciated by hunger and blackened by fatigue. But the air around him had been heavy with an oppressive aura, a mixture of decay and an indefinable, electric tension, as if the very energy that animated him was at odds with the natural order.

« I know we haven't been the friendliest of hosts, but that's no reason to leave like that. I've no Idea what a TV is, but would you like to stay and watch Paw Patrol play ? »

Perona screamed


Auguste

The [Routine Patrol] event has ended successfully!

+ 4 Levels

You are level 9 !

You earned 490 Fear Points !

Would you like to keep the domain or collapse it and earn a mysterious reward ?

« I would like to collapse, pretty please ? ».

[Warning - There is still 1 person alive in your domain]

« Uh ? »

The pink-haired girl, who had fainted from fright when his super-zombie Paw Patrol decapitated the old soldier, opened her eyes.


Tell me in the reviews what you want to happen to Perona !

This rewrite of A Gamer's guide to Piracy was on my mind: what would happen if a horror-based gamer system were integrated into the world of One Piece? An excuse, perhaps, to write a more grim, realistic, world of one piece. Notably inspired by I am Mister Five, The Dark Wolf Shiro and Noodlehammer stories.

Please leave reviews to tell me what you think of this story! They motivate me to write, and I schedule chapter releases according to the reviews!