//------------------------------// // Slapping Zombies Into Everything // Story: Zombies And RPGs // by locke_jaw //------------------------------// “Wait, we’re all Alicorns here?” Tomes asked Spooky as they walked towards the town’s southern entrance. “I thought the horn in your helmet was just for decoration.” “Yep.” Spooky replied. “That way, any player can play their desired classes regardless of race. But I gotta admit, having an Earth Pony’s strength and a Unicorn’s magic takes a while to get used to.” Tomes hummed in agreement. He didn’t want Spooky to know this but he’s currently cherishing this moment. Being able to walk in peace in this newly corrupted world might just become a luxury that he’d rarely enjoy. The corpses of zombified NPCs scattered down the path might ruin the moment a bit, but it’s still better than fighting all the time. Combat in this game was not like the other ones he played. In a PC or in a console, the only things that the game requires of you when doing combat were your wits and quick hooves. All you had to do was to employ a swift tactic to defeat your foes and hope that your hooves were quick enough to execute them. But in a VR game, everything’s different. It involves all the player’s senses to do even just the simplest of things like walking. Before, all you had to do make your character move was to press a couple of buttons in a keyboard or a controller. But now, you literally had to use your entire body to move your character because you are the character. And to be honest, it’s pretty taxing. Tomes had just fought two battles today: the first one happened just a couple of minutes after his spawning and the second one occurred just moments away after the first battle ended. But it’s not all bad though. At least his character was now at level three. And he learned a new spell called ‘Frostbite.’ When used, the spell will stun the target for three seconds while also dealing one hundred damage to it. Spooky told him that starting from now, he’ll get a new spell every two levels, which means that he’ll get a new one once he’s reached level four. “That’s awesome. So anyway, back to topic. Tell me more about this ‘cling’ skill.” “Oh yeah.” Spooky said, stroking her armor clad chin. “That’s the reason why the zombies in this game are super annoying. It doesn’t matter how high your level is, in the rotten eyes of the undead, everypony’s fair game. And once they got ya, they got ya. Never letting go, unless attacked by a third party combatant or something.” She looked at Tomes before continuing. “Here’s some useful tip in the future, never wander in a graveyard alone.” “Noted.” Tomes said as he slowly approached field of corn that stood quietly beside the road. As Tomes walked closer, he noticed that the cornstalks were twice his size when it comes to height. And when grouped together, they look like a towering wall of green, silently looming over to anypony who passes by. Another thing that caught Tomes’ attention was that each stalk was filled to the tip with ears of corn. If he hadn’t known any better, he might as well think that these stalks might collapse due to the sheer weight that they’re carrying. Tomes reached out a hoof to touch one of the corn’s ears. As his hoof made contact, the piece of corn let out a soft snapping sound, as if it may come off from its stalk. “Whoa.” Tomes said, quickly pulling his hoof back in surprise. “That piece of corn almost got off of its stalk when I touched it.” Spooky snickered. “Of course, silly. Anything in this world can be interacted with.” Tomes let out a pondering hum. He reached his hoof back up again. This time he picked the corn for real. The piece of produce emitted a satisfying snap as it detached itself from its stalk. As he gripped the corn with his hoof, the phrase ‘You lost karma’ suddenly popped out from it and disappeared just as quickly as it came. “What the!” Tomes cried out, immediately dropping the corn. He turned to look at Spooky, confused and a bit annoyed. “They implemented a karma system here?” “Oh yeah.” Spooky said while scratching metallic part of her head. “I forgot to tell you that they have that, my bad.” Tome sighed. “Dang it. I know games would sometimes tend to avoid spoon-feeding their players with instructions but this goes a little bit too far. It’s a freaking RPG, and it has a lot complex things that one just can’t figure out without reading a manual or going through a tutorial. Can’t they just provide us with a set of instructions upon starting or at least download it directly to our minds like they did before in the character creation stage?” “Actually, they do.” Spooky walked around the pile of dead bodies lying on the road, looking for something. Once she’s found what she was looking for, she gestured Tomes to come and stand beside her. “See this?” She said while pointing her hoof at th e corpse of a pony wearing a maid’s outfit. “This is a waymaid, or was a waymaid. It’s an NPC that would welcome new players as they enter the town of Eubby. Once the player’s are inside, these waymaids will go and offer them two choices on how to learn the basics of the game. The first choice was to directly download it to their minds, like you said earlier. While the second one is to have you go through a tutorial stage that involves a quick tour around town while also gaining some exp along the way.” “Unfortunately, due to whatever this is...” She paused to wave at the chaotic environment that surrounded them. “You didn’t get to enjoy the full waymaid experience.” Tomes continued to stare at the waymaid’s corpse. “A shame indeed. Even when zombified, this waymaid is still good-looking. Are they uniform in design or do they differ from one another?” “Nah. They all look the same everywhere you go.” “I can live with that.” Tomes trotted towards the part of the corn field where he dropped that ear of corn. He picked it up and showed it to Spooky. “I’m keeping this.” “Cool.” Tomes looked down at the corn and looked back at Spooky. “How do I put this in my inventory?” “Oh. You just hold it and think about putting it in a bag or something, it’s that simple.” Tomes gripped the piece of corn tightly in his hoof. He formed a thought in his mind about putting the ear in his virtual inventory. Not a second later, the corn disintegrated into a cluster of small, glowing existence cubes and flew directly into the stallion’s chest. Tomes gestured to Spooky. “Shall we?” As the two entered the town’s southern gate, they were welcomed by a sudden body falling in front of them. It made a squishy thudding sound as it fell on the corpses that were already lying on the ground. The adventurers stared in horror at the horrific sight in front of them. Tomes inspected who it was before the character turned into a series of existence cubes rapidly fading in the wind. She’s a level one warrior named ‘Swift22.’ And judging from the weapon the mare was wielding, she was a warrior. While Tomes continued to nervously stare at the disappearing avatar, Spooky quickly spied the surrounding area for the one that caused the player’s demise. Spooky quickly pulled her swords with her wings, their blades instantly ignited as she pressed the handles’ buttons. She was expecting to fight another zombie, but she was dead wrong. Standing before her was another player character, a level one warrior named ‘2hongs.’ He looked weary and beaten up. His health bar looked like it was just one hit away from zeroing out. His mana isn’t faring well either. More than half of it was already spent casting skills, or skill. And instead of equipping the sword in his wings, this stallion was wielding it using his unicorn magic. That’s one way to tell if the pony playing behind the character was a unicorn or a pegasus, from the way they wield their weapons. Like her, a pegasus would usually equip their swords in their wings since its one if not the most flexible appendage in their body while unicorns as with any object they’d come across, carry it with their magic. Before 2hongs decided to swing his sword at Spooky, he abruptly stopped. He took a quick glance at his opponent. Just from the way she looked he can already tell that she’s no novice. And if the full metal suit of armor doesn’t give it away, her level that was located beside her health and mana bars stated that she’s at level twenty-five. To be put simply, this character’s twenty-five times stronger than him. And not to mention that she has an ally, although this mage was only level three, he can’t deny the fact that currently they outnumber and overpower him. Killing another newbie is one thing, but killing these two? It’s on a whole other level. So instead of facing these two like some bloodthirsty mad stallion, he picked the more rational choice and ran away from them. But before he could get a good distance between him and the newcomers, he was suddenly hacked to death by another player. And before his murderer could get away, he was ganged up by a crowd of novices and was beaten to death. And once their foe was defeated, this crowd turned against each other, leaving a single novice that’s on the brink of death. And the single survivor was nabbed by a rampant zombie, killing her instantly. Spooky sheathed her swords back to her body, its blades sizzled as it touched her armoured barrel. She couldn’t believe what she had just seen. Players killing players, not minding all the karma they lost. And the remaining survivors were getting picked off one by one by the rampaging undead. And not to mention the current state the town was in. The town was in shambles. Every building she laid her eyes on was ablaze. The structures from afar created a bleak image of a burning silhouette that looked like towering charcoals slowly turning into embers. She can barely see the sky in the town due to the huge of amount of smoke coming from the scorched structures. It was also accompanied by a dense bunch of existence cubes rapidly floating above due to the mass killings happening in the ground. Spooky’s ears were filled with all kinds of screams. Some of them were from fear, others sounded like whimpering misery, but what troubled her most was the screams that sounded like delighted madness. Most of those screams came from the ones who thoroughly enjoyed this abysmal scenario. They were the ones who embraced the anarchy happening in town with open hooves. The ones who mindlessly slaughter every player they found, the ones who burned the buildings to the ground, and then loot whatever’s left of that scorched place. “Holy Celestia. This place is a mess.” Tomes said, speaking Spooky’s mind. “It’s like Tartarus came on Equis.” Spooky snickered. “Came on Equis. In all seriousness though, this is pretty bad. I can only imagine what’s going on in other places that are bigger than Eubby.” “It gets much worse, I guess. If a town as small as this is capable of such carnage, then bigger locations would do more...a heck of a lot more.” “This was supposed to be a no kill zone. There shouldn’t be killings happening in here. This is supposed to be a safe haven for beginners to gather around and g-” Spooky watched another player gets killed in front of her. She cringed under her helmet. “What has this game world come to?” Tomes looked at Spooky who was shaking her head disapprovingly at the murder fest happening in front of them. “Didn’t you say we’d find some answers here? How are we going to find anything with all this chaos running around?” “I do not know.” She replied. But before she could continue, Spooky spotted something unusual from afar. It was a coffee shop, an undamaged coffee shop. On a normal basis, this sight would be pretty mundane. But given the current circumstances, the building stuck out like a sore thumb. Upon further inspection, Spooky saw three ponies idly sitting on one of the shop’s coffee tables. All three of them were wearing from what Spooky can tell, were Cerberean armor sets. These suits of armor can only be worn by players who have reached the level of forty or above. The armor features a dark, triple horned helmet, as if comparing itself to the three-headed mythical hound. Every metal plate covering the body was pronounced, especially the pauldrons, making its wearer appear bulkier than normal. Its shoulders, chest and legs were encrusted with brightly colored gems. And the gems’ colors differ depending on what element the character’s using, and so is the armor’s paint job. (The ones that were sitting on the table were wearing blue, red, and green painted armor.) And to finalize the look, a thick looking cape that reached down the hind legs perched heavily on its wearer’s shoulders. The name of the red one was ‘10thBBox,’ while the blue one was named ‘XxDEXMACHINAXx,’ and the green one ‘Hejira101.’ Their levels were 45, 43, and 42 respectively. Below the red mage’s name was another name that said ‘Us Heirs.’ And beside it was the word ‘Leader’ written inside a parenthesis. The other two members had the name as well, minus the ‘Leader’ part that is. Standing near them was a fiery being in a jet black, metallic cuirass. Whenever a zombie would charge at the resting group, this burning entity would incinerate it to ashes. The experience points would then be earned by 10thBBox, who was holding up a staff that looked like molten magma shaped into a long rod with his wing, raising it up and summoning another flaming creature in jet black armor. Spooky eyed the fire type mage and trotted closer towards him. “Maybe I do.” She said to Tomes without ceasing her steps. “Quick, follow me.” The red mage looked at the approaching ponies that were walking towards his group. He doesn’t know who the blue mage was but he knew the red warrior pretty well. As the burning entity was about to engage the approaching players, he ordered it to stand down and look the other way. He gave the two a short wave as if to acknowledge their presence. “Well, well, well.” He began, looking at Spooky’s character. “If it isn’t 50shades Peed. Is this how you’re going to leave your quote unquote legacy in this game? By picking on low levs in Eubby?” “As if I would do that you retardis!” Spooky shot back. “That same fucking question also applies to you. And it’d be a whole lot more pathetic, considering your high fucking level!” Tomes was surprised at his friend’s sudden outburst. Did she just insult the leader of a clan that has members who were twice as strong as her? He gritted his teeth thinking of how this will turn out. So before things could get out of hoof, he immediately dragged the irritated Spooky away from the high level party. Tomes placed both of his forelegs on Spooky’s shoulders. “****, girl. What the **** are you doing?” “Wait.” Tomes had to let go of Spooky to touch his lips with a hoof. He was horrified at what just happened. He doesn’t know why, but his curses were suddenly bleeped out when he spoke. He looked at Spooky, confusion and surprise etched on his face. “What was that?” Tomes could tell that Spooky rolled her eyes underneath her helmet. “Your profanity filter is on. Turn it off in your settings if you want to hear your curse words clearly.” Tomes did as he was told. He swiped a hoof in the air, the game menu appeared. He pressed the gear icon on the menu and a small window popped out over the other, overlapping it. With his hoof, he scrolled down through all the different options in the window until he saw what he was looking for, the profanity filter. He pressed the switch beside it and its status was changed from ‘On’ to ‘Off.’ Once the game menu was closed, he placed his forelegs on Spooky’s shoulders again. “Shit, girl! What the fuck are you doing?” He removed his legs off the armoured mare, all the while giving out a sigh of relief and also wiping off an imaginary sweat on his forehead. “That’s better.” He looked at Spooky like she had just grown another head. “That’s a fucking clan leader right there! Do you really want him and his gang too unleash Tartarus upon us?” “Wait, that voice.” The red mage said, directing the Tomes and Spooky’s attention to him. “That voice sounds familiar. And the name too.” He leaned his head forward before proceeding. “Tomes? Tomes is that you?” Tomes narrowed his eyes. “Gloomy? Gloomy Shades?” “Bruva?” Bruva! At the cost of everypony’s discomfort, specifically Spooky, The two mages exploded into a huge embrace. Like two friends who haven’t seen each other, they both shared the tightest bear hug they could muster. Their hug was so tight that existence cubes popped right out their bodies like disassembling puzzle pieces. Both of them lost one HP. After they had their fill their fill of brotherly compassion, they loosen their holds on each other and eventually let go. “Whassup Bruh?” Gloomy greeted, his normal accent dissolving into a strange sounding one. “Nevuh be uh Bruh!” Tomes replied, speaking in the same manner as Gloomy’s. “Same, Bruh! You back in the game now, Bruh?” “Nah, Bruh. Your sister just forced me into playing this.” “Hey!” Spooky interjected. “I didn’t force you to play this game!” Her words got her a knowing look from Tomes. “What? I’m just a great convincer, that’s all. And will you please stop with the fabricated masculinity. You guys just looked like pathetic try hards...and also gay.” The two mages just hoofbumped each other while snickering like idiots. From the way they looked, it seemed like making others uncomfortable, particularly Spooky, was their intention all along. And this made the mare angrier than ever. And in order to avoid pissing off Spooky even further, Tomes ceased his snickering. And so did Gloomy. They cleared their throats, a gesture that they’re now getting serious. “Oh and by the way, what are you doing here, Gloomy? On a beginner’s town, that is.” “My boys and I were the exploring towns and cities in the Seventh Region to see if they too are experiencing the same pandemic.” He gestured to his two allies who were standing behind him and were silent during the whole exchange. The two gave Tomes and Spooky a short wave. “And?” “It’s everywhere, dude. Bakeland, Erricade, Axoun, they’re all under attack by an unknown undead army who seemed to have just sprouted out of thin air. But at least they were faring well against the zombie infestation, considering the large number of high levs spawning there.” He paused to look at the chaotic sight which is Eubby Town. “Eubby on the other hoof, needed our help in dealing with these things so we eventually chose to stay.” “You call sitting in front of a coffee shop helping?” Spooky retorted. “We’re taking a short break! We’ve been fighting for almost an hour now!” Gloomy showed Spooky his staff. He opened a skill slot with his right hoof and pressed the image that resembled the walking suit of armor standing guard. Upon activating the spell, he pointed the staff on an empty area so that no character or object would impede his summoning. Gloomy’s magma staff glowed red and launched a magical energy to the spot he was pointing his staff on. Existence cubes began materializing out of thin air and quickly formed themselves into the same jet black armor that the creature was wearing. The insides of the armor started heating up. The gradual increase in temperature quickly lit the inside of the armor with a hot, yellow glow. Powerful streams of fire quickly surged out of the armor’s holes, like a rocket’s thrusters. The fires in the bottom hole continued its concentrated surging while the left and right holes took the form of a fiery arm. The fire stream in the head area slowed its burning into a dancing flame, it looked like a long orange mane getting blown in the wind. “See that?” Gloomy said as he commanded the newly summoned creature to walk away from them. “I’m spawning five of those things around town to help the noobs who are constantly dying in this place!” “Is that an elemental?” Tomes asked Gloomy, a strong hint of awe filled his voice. “Can water type mages summon it too?” “Of course, Bro. Any mage can summon an elemental that’s based on their respective element. You’ll learn that spell at level ten, though.” “Yeesh.” Tomes winced. He never thought a spell like that would take so long to learn. “That far, huh?” “Yep. That far.” “There are burning buildings everywhere and you kept on summoning fire elementals.” Spooky said in a conspiratorial manner. “Am I sensing a connection here?” “Hey, don’t just assume shit out of nowhere.” Gloomy quickly defended. “We didn’t start the fire. It was always burning since the world’s been...” He paused to clear his throat. “Gone to shit. And speaking of shit, let me just summon another elemental to clean it up.” Gloomy swiped his hoof in the air again to open up his skill slot. He pressed the elemental spell again, only to find out that he can’t make a new one anymore. “Huh, would you look at that.” “What? What is it?”Tomes stood behind Gloomy to look at his skill slots. Above the fire elemental icon were the words ‘Maximum Limit Reached.’ “I just reached my summoning limit of five.” Gloomy turned to look at Tomes. “I can’t summon elementals anymore. If I can’t summon them anymore, that means they’re no longer dying. If they’re no longer dying, that means no one is attacking them anymore. If no one is attacking them anymore, that means-” “Oh for the love of...” Spooky growled. “Just get to the point already!” “There are no more zombies attacking my elementals! Not anymore!” Gloomy cried back. But in his haste to reply his voice made a cracking whispery sound. “There, happy!? Kids today, no respect for foreplay.” He sighed. “Turd.” “I’m sorry, what was that?” Gloomy leaned in closer to Spooky as he spoke. He placed a hoof at the tip of his ear to further emphasize the fact that he didn’t hear Spooky’s insult. “Can you speak up? I can’t hear you. Your voice is as low as your level.” Tomes would like to react to the burn that Gloomy has laid on his sister. But something strange was happening to the town. The fire has suddenly died down, the buildings built themselves back up, and the NPCs were revived and then reverted back to their normal selves. “Umm, guys?” He called out to the Spooky, Gloomy, and the gang. They seemed to ignore him as their attention was focused on the two siblings who were at the brink of starting a fight. “Why don’t we head down to Axoun for a quick match? I’ll show you what this low level can do.” Spooky dared. Gloomy scoffed at the thought. “Girl, I’d wipe you.” “Tough talk coming from somepony who always hides behind his allies during combat, why don’t you ditch your warrior and archer friends and let’s just settle things between the two of us. Just one on one style, classic stuff.” “Guys.” “First of all, I’m a mage. That’s what mages do. We’re a support a class. Our role in combat is to rain down all kinds of spells on our opponents while you, the warrior, must protect us from getting attacked. And secondly, I am not a coward. I can handle myself in a fight. I am not a pony who would hide behind my friends just because I’m afraid to get my HP scraped. I’m just playing the way my character’s supposed to be played.” Spooky grinned underneath her helmet. “So how about it, turd? One round should be enough.” “Guys.” “As you wish. Just don’t beg me for a rematch once you’ve lost...horribly.” “Ooh, dramatic pauses. I’m so intimidated right now. Hey check this out, I can do it too. You are...a turd.” “Guys!” “Not now Tomes, the adults are talking.” Tomes raised his wings halfway upwards, as if he’s surrendering. “Oh sure, fine, chat away. While the town here is miraculously rebuilding itself, I’ll just stand over there wondering why. But don’t let me stop you from your spit fight. Please, banter more.” “What?” The siblings cried out in unison. All attention was now on Tomes, and the peculiar sight behind him. The skies that once glowed crimson, as if the heaven has bled red was now back to its clear and calming blue state. The buildings that earlier looked like giant piles of ash and burnt charcoal has now returned to their rustic forms, quietly standing over the town, casting cool shades for its citizens to shield themselves from the hot sun. The citizens, who before were rabid bloodthirsty zombies who thought of nothing but finding their next victim has now changed back to their hospitable looking selves, as if nothing bad has ever happened to them. Before anything of these could absorb into their minds, the group found themselves slowly disintegrating into existence cubes. The feeling felt eerie, kind of numbing to be honest, Tomes recognized this strange sensation. He felt this before, when he was about to enter the gate that lead to the World of Alluna. A sudden thought struck him. He’s going to be teleported, again. “Ah shit.” Once all their virtual bodies have been completely disintegrated into glowing cubes, these cubes compressed themselves into a surging beam of light and were shot into the sky. Upon reaching the clouds, the beams curved themselves downwards, aiming directly at the town square. Dozens and dozens of beams flew towards the square at the same time. When there’s only meters left before they came in contact with solid ground, the beams once more turned into existence cubes and these cubes compressed themselves again to resemble the players’ virtual forms. Those who already knew how the game’s teleportation system works, mainly Spooky, Gloomy, and the rest of the high levels, stuck their hooves up into the ground, landing safely, unfortunately for those who don’t, like Tomes, landed with their faces upon hitting the ground. “Ow.” Tomes caressed the bruised part of his face with a hoof. It’s a good thing that pain was quickly fading. Although he did wonder if it’s possible to turn the pain receptors off in the game’s settings. Tomes stood back up and dusted himself off. He knew that it’s impossible to get dust on your clothing in this game but old habits die hard. He turned to look around to see crowds of novices standing with him in the town square. All of them were looking upwards in the same direction, muttering indistinctly about some kind of mysterious hooded figure? He doesn’t know, so he just followed the direction on where they’re looking at and there it was. It’s a large image of somepony projecting themselves on the sky. It’s wearing a polished black suit armor covered in purple robes. The robes were trimmed with golden sashes, giving its appearance a somehow sacred look. The helmet it was wearing looked like a gas mask crafted from the future. Its eye holes were covered in dark tinted glass that made its face look more lifeless than it already was. Tomes had to swallow hard at the image projected in front of him. It’s not scary, but it is indeed creepy. It somehow emitted an aura that it’s not somepony you should be messing with. But what can you do if this pony was the one messing with you? This whole experience was making Tomes uneasy. And to make matters worse, the pony spoke. “Took you long enough.” Everypony went silent after hearing the pony speak. His voice was deep, and cold. His looks were already creepy enough, the voice just added fuel to the fire. “And that was just a taste, a taste of Death. And more of it will come. Twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours till the next...and the last. Prepare yourselves, or not. You’ll still perish either way.” And with that, the projection faded into the wind. Bit by bit, the unsettling image of the dark figure was slowly replaced with bright blue skies. The once quiet crowd of players who were all ears to what the figure was saying just seconds ago erupted into incomprehensible chatter. Tomes saw Spooky nervously fiddling at the small windows of her game menu like she was desperately looking for something. “Is something wrong?” He asked her. “I’m trying to find the logout button. I have a feeling that this game may be hacked and I’ve watched plenty of shows about VRMMOs getting hacked and the first thing these hackers will do is to remove the lo-yeah nope, still there. Okay, I’m good.”