A bat?
A grotesque creature, completely red, with eyes the size of baseballs, with blue blood. But despite these characteristics, he was easily recognized as a bat.
"Was that supposed to be a fruit bat?" The scarred Black Man asked.
"Certainly bizarre ..." The others commented.
"Tsk, to think that we spent so much ammunition on a small bat."
BD, however, did not seem dissatisfied.
BD approached the bat only to be stopped by Ralph.
"We don't know if it has any poisonous properties, don't be careless."
BD thought for a moment and took off his own shirt and covered his hand. Then he went to the bat and picked it up.
He was light as a feather, and his eyes were bright, though strange.
"Something's been bothering me ..." Ralph said suddenly.
The group then looked at him.
"Why the hell did you decide to hunt this animal?" Ralph asked while frowning.
No matter how hard he tries, he can't think of a justification.
BD smiled slightly and replied:
"The world is changing so much that we have to stay up to date."
That did not remove Ralph's doubts, though.
"Let's get out of here before another strange beast appears." One of the men suggested, and the rest agreed.
"Good job." The man with the scar said as he patted Ralph on the shoulder, the rest of the group also praised him.
Ralph smiled bitterly and remained silent.
Although he is not a good fighter, he has a certain pride in his own brain.
After everyone left the woods and arrived in the city, Ralph waited for the others to move away to question BD.
"Do I think I deserve an explanation?"
BD didn't look surprised and said:
"What I had to say has already been said, now it's up to you to try to figure out the rest, not even I fully understand it ..."
BD took Ralph to his house and said:
"If I were you, I would keep this pistol in a safe place ... Here, get this ammo, it could be useful in the future." BD threw a small bag of ammunition at Ralph and before the latter could say anything, he left quickly.
Ralph sighed and unloaded the pistol, putting all the ammo in the bag.
After entering the house, he realized that everyone must be sleeping and avoided making too much noise.
He threw himself on the bed after taking a shower and storing the gun and ammunition in a safe place.
Normally, he wouldn't hesitate to dig a hole and bury these things, but as BD said earlier, times are changing so fast that it's good to be prepared.
As he fell asleep, he remembered the video beast and the magical bat, so strange ...
*
BD on the other hand, did not go to sleep, instead he met the others in the group under a bridge.
"And to think that the boy had such a quick mind, you did well to take him with us." One of the men spoke.
BD smiled slightly and said:
"Although doesn't seeming, he is quite capable ... Enough with the chit chat."
Everyone then put on dignified expressions.
"Has anyone here noticed any kind of change?" BD asked while paying attention to the expressions of others.
Everyone was looking at each other, and one by one they denied it.
"This is not right, according to the sergeant in the video, whoever kills a beast gets one of those points." The woman spoke seriously.
"We cannot completely trust someone we don't know." The scarred black man shook his head.
"Moreover that boy is not here ..."
"Anyway, if one of us is lying, there's no way for the other to find out, right?" BD spoke suddenly.
"What are you getting at?" The woman asked.
BD just shook his head and got on the bike.
"You are so stubborn ..." BD said before he left.
"Son of a bitch ..." The woman swore.
The rest of the group did not like BD's attitude either, but one by one they left the place.
*
When Ralph woke up, it was already lunchtime. After brushing his teeth he went down to eat, only to be met with strange looks.
Smiling bitterly, Ralph tried to ignore it and ate until he was satisfied.
After that, he opened the messaging app and saw that Ana had tried to talk to him at dawn, and that BD had also texted.
Ralph thought little and opened the BD's message.
BD -> Watch out for shadows, and your own mouth.
Ralph -> Look for something to do, do I look like someone who likes riddles?
Then he opened Ana's. As expected she wanted to meet with him, and according to her "make plans for the immediate future".
A sense of déjà-vu covered Ralph. He was used to receiving this type of message a few years ago ... And for some reason he feels that it will arrive at the same place as before.
"Sigh ..." He texted Ana saying he can't drive to her house and that she can come to his house if she wants to.
Ana may not seem like it, but she is extremely jealous, so much so that even after they finished she continued walking around him as if nothing had happened.
And her problem intensifies as the relationship progresses.
But it's not like Ralph has no problems, he doesn't like to be watched all the time, as if he doesn't have privacy. And he also has a habit of keeping things extremely clean, which Ana don't cares about in the same way, despite maintaining basic hygiene.
That and also had been other minor differences.
When they were in high school, the small intrigues accumulated so much that they ended up after deciding to live together for some time, to "test waters".
"Tsk, I don't think she has changed, and I don't feel like I want to change anything either ..." He put his hand on his forehead and shook his head.
Perfect for each other, this is how others describe it, and how he sometimes thinks. But the reality is far from that.
Ralph shook his head and got rid of the thoughts, he didn't have much to do and decided to play a little Hollow Souls to calm down. He had bought the game but didn't have a chance to play it yet.
After dying a few times, he decided to continue playing as if his life depended on it.
"What's up with these minions ?? They are ridiculously strong." He spoke to himself.
After some time playing, he started to get the hang of it. Dodge at the right time, block attacks at the right time and attack when the enemy is not on guard.
Anyway, this strategy did not work against a Minos Demon, and he had to keep climbing a tower to kill the Boss.
"Don't you get tired of it?" Torvi spoke as he watched Ralph play.
Ralph decided to ignore the girl, but he can't when he saw her holding something.
"How did you find that !?" He shouted as he stood up and tried to take the pistol from her hand.
"Easy !! It's not like I'm going to shoot someone with this ... But I'll tell you, you can't get enough of yourself, huh." Torvi spoke as he ran from Ralph.
"Give it back to me before mom or dad sees this."
"So you call them after all ..." Torvi spoke in a cold tone.
"... You don't understand, this is not mine."
"Isn't it yours? So you might have just met Black Drama last night, Huh."
Ralph sighed and put on a tired expression.
"What you want?"
Torvi smiled slightly and pointed the pistol at the computer.
Containing his own fury, Ralph said:
"Is there a need to get to that point just to play?"
"Hmph, you almost always deny my requests."
"..." Ralph thought for a moment and nodded.
Torvi laughed coldly and said:
"Do you think I'm going to fall for this trick? Speak in a clear voice."
"Tsk ... I let you play on the computer, as long as you return the pistol."
"Do you really think you are in a position to bargain?" Torvi smiled brightly and went to the computer.
Ralph can only sigh bitterly, what a most annoying girl.
He then checked the ammunition, it seemed that Torvi didn't realize that the gun was out of bullets, less bad ...
After thinking for a moment, Ralph decided to try to explore the "status".
His situation changed from "Injured" to "Healthy".
But what really caught his eye was something else.
[Ralph Karman]
Age: 20
Level: -
Talents: Infinite (Useless); Aura; ...
Situation: Healthy
Skills: (Standard);
Beast Skill: Illusion, lv0;
Stats:
Strenght: (Standard)
Agility: (Standard)
Intelligence: (Irregular)
Dexterity: (Standard)
Vitality: (Standard)
Resistance: (Standard)
Will Power: (Standard)
Latent Energy: (Irregular)
Available stats points: 1
-
A new skill emerged, and he gained a point.
After a brief moment he understood the possible reason for this change.
-That bat ...?
The only explanation is the bat's death, although he has no way of knowing if he was really the one who killed him in the middle of so many shots.
------
[Attention, the exploration mode has been activated due to confirmation of the killing of the first beast.]
------
A window suddenly appeared, startling Ralph.
"... What !?" He almost screamed.
Before he could reason, another window appeared.
---
[The stats points have been unlocked.]
---
"..."
All of this was shocking Ralph, who considers himself a quick-witted person.
-That ... is increasingly looking like a game.
"What is it? Why are you making that face?" Torvi noticed Ralph's strangeness and asked.
Ralph remained silent, he doesn't know how to explain, and he doesn't really know if he should.
Ralph got up and went outside, ignoring Torvi's gaze. Under a tree, he called BD.
"Hello?" BD's voice came.
"Son of a bitch, no more riddles. You knew that from the beginning and you didn't tell me."
"..." BD was silent for a while, he enjoys thinking about what to say.
Ralph took a deep breath and said:
"This is being too much for my head, let's have a beer to talk."
"...I can not."
"Come on, man, you owe me that. The fucking world seems to be turning into a game."
"... Sigh" BD sighed and finally agreed with Ralph to meet up for the night.
After hanging up, Ralph leaned against the tree and sat down, putting his hands on his head.
"My status"
Seeing the information, Ralph thought for a moment and said:
"Beast Skill"
---
[An ability that was gained by killing a beast, there is a low probability of being gained.]
---
"Exploration mode" Ralph said after remembering the information in the window earlier.
---
[You can explore some of the deepest features of the platform and the new world.]
---
Ralph frowned a little and said:
"Platform"
---
[Semi-permanent support for evolution in the new world.]
---
-Does this mean it will disappear at some point? And what about "new world" and "evolution"?
Ralph tried to extract more information, but without success.
Ralph then decided to explore the most visible features of this "platform".
"Talents"
---
[Special and sometimes unique characteristics and special abilities of a being.]
---
"Skill"
---
[Skills that have been mastered and are not innate.]
---
"Level"
---
[The sum of your physical and mental ability with your soul power and latent energy.]
---
Ralph tried to extract more information about the terms described, but he found nothing useful.
-It seems that this mode of exploration is something auxiliary.
Ralph came to a conclusion, some things he will have to discover on his own without the help of the platform.
"Stats"
---
[Levels of specialties of a being]
---
"???" Ralph was a little confused, but comparing this with the rpgs he came to a conclusion.
"This is basically the same thing"
Ralph laughed bitterly and checked the only thing missing:
"Stats Points"
---
[Used to increase a being's specialty levels]
---
Ralph laughed unintentionally, he can't understand why the words are so complicated.
-Who or what created this, whatever or whoever it might be, could just make it look more like a game.
"Could just completely imitate the game system," Ralph told to himself as he stood up.
After hesitating for a moment, he decided to try to apply the stat point in intelligence, and it turned out that it worked.
The intelligence stat has changed from "irregular" to "1".
---
[The specialty's base will not change even after applying points.]
---
After reading the window that appeared, Ralph was quick to understand.
-You mean then that the "irregular" basis of the specialty has not disappeared.
In a nutshell, it is irregular +1. If the base was "Standard", after applying a point it would be Standard +1.
Although Ralph does not know the real difference between "Standard" and "Irregular", he feels that irregular is a 'higher' base, because intelligence has always been his specialty, at least from his point of view.
-Despite having better understood how this platform works, there is still a lack of a lot of information... But I doubt if I can get it in the short term.
Ralph thought as he returned home.