Game Tester In The Apocalypse - Chapter 4
Marco sat on the sofa with his backpack beside him. The backpack was filled with packs of noodles, stacks of bread, and gallons of water. He decided that clothes would become too common to stock up on and he could just loot anywhere.
Also, it should have been impossible to fit all of the items in his backpack, but with the help of the system inventory, he was able to easily stow them away. His backpack had 10 inventory slots the food and water took three slots, while another two for extra clothes and pants, while another two was used for knives.
Currently, he only had kitchen-grade weapons and most of them were knives that dull easily. He wondered whether these knives would even last several infected before running out of durability.
The news was still filled with random speculation about the strange events happening all over the world. Numerous end-of-the-world crazies were also showcased on various news.
His post on his social accounts garnered the same response and he was even labeled for fear-mongering and acting without proof.
“Are they blind?! Can’t they see shit when they look at it?”
“People were acting crazy and biting people to death, and they’re not zombies? There’s even footage of people rising up from death!!!”
“If you don’t want help, then I won’t help you!”
“Just wait for game updates then! Harrumph!”
Marco felt perplexed. He was called a doomsday sayer and troll all over the place. As usual of the internet army, they don’t believe anything until it was too late.
“Humpf! I’ll just focus on surviving then.”
“First, I need to upgrade the system. Since it’s currently pre-alpha, a lot of the features were missing and I need to load them back.
“I don’t know how they will translate to real-world but I hope they’re as effective in-game.”
World Simulator was an ambitious game that wants to be as realistic as possible. Still, some features were maintained for ease of playing like collecting resources, crafting items, and building bases.
Most skills were passive and only offer a great boost to the players. However, having advanced knowledge of the game, he could take advantage of his experience to learn everything that’s useful ahead of everyone else.
“First things first.”
Marco grinned before suddenly talking to himself. “The tutorial sucks. Everything included there was common knowledge. Though it might be useful for beginners, intermediate and hardcore players would find it lacking. I suggest providing a tutorial that involves physical actions which could help introduce the basics that encompass the new world.”
As usual, a series of text appeared as the system log presented the verdict.
-[Feedback acquired. It will undergo consideration…
-[Accepted. Downloading references… Generating tutorial sets suitable for players.
-[Tutorial generation complete. Installing…
-[Installed. Thank you for working hard at the game. Continue working hard.]
After the system log finished its job, a new exclamation mark appeared in front of him.
(!)Basic Tutorial(!)
‘Hey, hey! Just because you added the word basic to the tutorial doesn’t mean that it changed!
Marco sighed dejectedly. What did he do wrong? Was he speaking incorrectly? Were his thoughts not transmitted properly? Nevertheless, the basic tutorial was already in front of him, so he might as well check it out.
With a blink of an eye, the basic tutorial opened and showed a series of tasks.
[Welcome to the new world, (Marco Ison)! I’m the guide that will help you get through these difficult times. Let’s not die on the first day, alright?]
[Task 0/2
Gather sticks. 0/10
Gather stones. 0/10]
Marco only felt a raging cry about to come out from his throat.
Ask and you shall receive!
He requested a tutorial that would help him and other players in this new world, and voila, a generic tutorial template from any early access game was delivered to him.
He doesn’t know whether he was doing something wrong or the great power behind the system just fails to understand him.
Marco took a few deep breathes before calming down. When he thought he regained composure, he stared at the task given to him and suddenly felt his nostrils flaring.
You want sticks!? You want stones!?
I’m in the furthest room on the second floor! Where can I find sticks and stones here?! Am I supposed to go down now?
Marco gulped. ‘Is that the only way?’
Although the apartment was located on the outskirts of the town, the population here can still be considered high. There might not be many zombies roaming outside since it was still early in the morning, but there is a guaranteed small number of them. Also, he couldn’t be sure that there are no more zombies on the second floor, which would prove dangerous to his current state.
The more time he had to think things over, the more he realized that his life was in peril. The excitement from earlier burst like a bubble as another shroud of fear tried to consume him. Fortunately, he was able to calm down after thinking that as long as he doesn’t go out nothing bad would happen.
“But I can’t just stay holed up here.”
Marco was conflicted. On one side, the threat was real and they’re outside. On the other, the dissatisfaction of not being able to finish a task bugged him deeply.
After another round of contemplation, Marco willed himself to stand strong with the answer he believed in!
Complete the tutorial!
The professionalism got the best out of him which might cost his life. In the end, it could even be called achievement addition that only gamers would understand.
In RPGs, once you see a floating exclamation point, you have to click them. Accept the quest, and finish it. He was practically brain-dead at this point and mainly relying on instinct.
Quite idiotic, right?
Besides, after countless early access games that he had played, he had never encountered circumstances where the characters die.
That should be a rule, right?
No one dies at the tutorial stage.
System, you hear me?