DIE TRYING [A Roguelite Extraction LitRPG]

It hit.

Of course it would hit, that thing flew so fast the crack of air deafened him and the pressure wave ripped his organs up before the physical fist actually slammed into his body.

No fucking way.

But the burst of light right before the golem's hand was the last thing he saw with his actual eyes.

His vision zoomed out, turning grey like it had when he'd opened the System lootbox, except time wasn't paused. There were fleshy splotches just under the fist, scattered around where it collided. They turned to ash, floating upwards like Leon's had.

I'm… dead? After all this, I'm dead? How am I still thinking though?

The fist started reeling backwards against the street, winding back to the golem on an invisible line. Under it was just mashed up blood and flesh turning into ember and ash. He could see his work clothing there, completely drenched in his blood but oddly growing clean as the smoke and ash drifted off of it. Crushed up metal daggers were stamped into the ground, as was his mithril collar, and whatever parts of Illy's looted backpack remained unripped.

He could also see what looked to be black writhing smoke, in the rough shape of a flattened human venous system.

It was writhing in the air as if in pain, spreading outwards on the ground, searching desperately for something. The edges were dissolving into the air fast, losing cohesion.

The blackrot, it's dying off too.

Of course it would, his body wasn't there anymore for it to live in.

If he could laugh, he would have. Well. That was one way to beat the blackrot.

Then a System message appeared in full, directly in front of his face.

YOU DIED

Wade didn't know what to say. Play had told him the golem would one-shot him. But he hadn't thought that would actually happen. He'd been too high on his own prior success against the mimic. Too filled with the idea that dying happened to other people. The blackrot had made him feel invincible. Everything was working out for him until it just... didn't. All at once.

All he saw was the world fade into darkness.

What would happen now? Was he going to hell? Or heaven? Or just staying like this forever?

The list of quests he was on populated the view. Most vanished away one after another, removed.

Then a new message appeared.

Failed to extract. Round ended.

Final Round Score: S-Tier

Enemies defeated: 19
Quests completed: 4
Difficulty Modifier applied.
Four storefront coins rewarded. (4/4 possible)

THE GAME recognizes your accomplishment. You are the first player to achieve an S-tier score after a round. A gold lootbox will spawn on next round.

Traveling to storefront…

The darkness blinked. Sound was the first thing Wade felt. Someone was talking, a distance away.

"Listen listen listen, your divinity, baby, let's not do anything too hasty here."

He groaned as the pain hit him. That was the second thing he noticed. Every old ache pre-blackrot came flooding back like unwelcome guests. Somehow, impossibly, he had his old body again. Wade lay still with his eyes closed, just waiting. He could feel a floor beneath him. Not cold, not warm, just solid and real. Slowly, he opened his eyes.

Stars. Nothing but stars in every direction. Clouds of celestial universes expanded around him, bathing him in light. It was as if the universe itself exalted his existence. He rolled over, on his knees and only saw stars below him. And Earth. His Earth. Africa was visible, while clouds obscured the other continents he could see.

He stayed there for a moment, just stunned, floating in the void around his planet. "Where the fuck am I?"

Then text appeared in his vision, like it had in the past.

Play's Storefront - Divine Realm

Sanctuary Zone

The System, ever present, greeting him with the location of the new zone.

The voice behind him continued. It felt more like an echoed out distant thing. "Maybe, and I'm just spitballing here, we don't need EVERY limited edition collector's set? No? Right, right, silly me."

Male, and very fast talking. Like a sleazy new york used car salesman.

"Just flash that card at them." A girl's voice this time, bouncing across the space until he could hear. She sounded bored. "I don't pay you to complain about things Zinny."

"Except you don't pay me at all. That's like, half the problem here. And that 'card' you so charitably think can solve world hunger, is a credit card that's already just about maxed out. Specifically MY CREDIT CARD."

The desperate last three words Wade could hear with absolute clarity, the echo loud enough to reach all the way where he was.

"Ehhhh, just open another one~"

He looked over that direction, standing up on what felt like glass of some kind. Just so transparent he couldn't see it at all.

As his eyes adjusted, he could see a thin blurry blue line in the distance around where the voices came from. He squinted, missing his glasses.

Taking a few steps forward, he found the 'floor' stayed solid enough to walk on, even if he couldn't see it at all. Step by step he started to get closer to the glowing blue ahead.

It was a boundary of some kind, a small square. And he was walking down a very slight incline, so he could see it clearly at this angle.

As he walked, he started noticing something other than the stars. There were glowing yellow orbs all around, closer than the stars, more like a solid field, hiding among the background. The closer he got, the more densely packed he noticed they were.

As for the blue square boundary all the way at the bottom… A TV, that was for sure. Right in the middle of it. Playing a game of some kind, first person shooter. And in front of that TV was… some kind of obscured grey thing - no wait, it's a couch. A butler-looking man was right by it, pacing around in a circle, muttering to himself. Wade couldn't tell the details.

He walked forward, feeling more confident in his steps, passing closer to the field of yellow orbs. One was close enough he could tell details.

Turns out, the yellow glowing orb at the center had blinded him from the more intricate detail around it. It was at the center of a stone of some kind. Thin and vertical like a tombstone. It looked like it was floating, parts of it hovering under the glass floor, breaking into smaller shards. He got a little closer, seeing something tiny at the base: An abandoned hand-made toy of some kind. A few twigs all woven together into a small basket. There was a ball of clay inside. Writing was glowing on the stone looming over the little item. Wade squinted and could tell the bigger words out.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

Aleph Foundling. 8 Years old. Catch-a-ball.

The rest of the wording was too small to read. Paragraph after paragraph of it. He turned, now knowing what shape to look for in the darkness. He could see a small line of the little tombstones, all leading up to the blue glowing boundary at the bottom. Hiding in plain sight, pretending to be stars among the background. Hundreds of them from all directions, all leading up to the center blue boundary line. Looking more like string lights all connecting in direction to the centerpoint.

"Where am I?" He muttered, feeling his voice. He got back up, and continued walking to the centerpoint, following the line of tombstones. All of them had some kind of trinket or handmade item at the base. A few had parchment.

Ogrin Strum. 79 years old. 'A story of the missus and her stately beard.' Seven books and one unfinished draft.

This one had a pile of papers, all neatly stacked. Wade felt touching those papers was… disrespectful. Something about the care they had been stacked together, perfectly centered before the rock face. He didn't know where the feeling came from, all he knew is that this wasn't somewhere he should be. He turned back to the glowing circle ahead, past all the tombstones, and increased his pace down.

More detail popped up from the couch and TV. There was a girl there, sitting, facing the screen. White hair shimmering from the light of the stars around. And what looked to be a pink gaming headset on, with ears. She was listening to music probably, given how she was bobbing right and left on the couch. The first person shooter on the TV moved, the character jumping in the air to land some kind of sniping shot across the map at the apex of that leap. The man turned back to the woman, coughing into white gloves.

Wade was so close to the glowing square boundary now that he could see the man's features even in the dim screenlight.

Like the human version of a shark. Slicked back short spiky hair, a sharp nose and teeth that seemed as if they were sharpened. Impeccable business suit, right down to a perfectly centered tie. "Look, your celestial shopping spree ma'am, I'm not saying buying the three hundred dollar money-grab for digital pixels is a bad idea. I'm just not saying it's a good idea either. And stressing that point. Greatly."

As he got closer he could see the setup. The screen was giant compared to the couch, and inched up nearly five feet away. The woman there was playing with a wired controller, hooked up to a playstation?

They didn't seem to notice him, even when he was just a few feet away. Almost like they couldn't see past this boundary line. Wade brought one foot forward, and crossed the glowing line.

The room collapsed around him. Four walls boxed him in. The universe vanished away. Lights appeared above, the dim kind in a basement. He could see shelves of figurines on the sides, and about the same amount of books. A trashcan was almost overflowing with empty bags of cheetos, half-crushed green plastic bottles, and styrofoam ramen cups. There was a doorway out, white light beyond. And about a dozen thick cables snuck through it, as if the room here had no outlets to work with.

Which it didn't. Wade could see a giant gaming tower off to the side, a clean desk and setup. RGB lights all over it. The pink RGB lights. And perfectly white panels. This was the image he'd gotten from Play.

"Where am I?" He croaked out.

Both the butler and the girl stopped, then turned.

He saw her first. Large purple eyes with some kind of constellations at the center of those black irses. They looked almost soulless, as if the girl had given up on everything in the world. Her hair was unkept, messy. Like she'd woken up with a bird's nest and there wasn't enough coffee in the world to fix it.

She smiled. A deep, unsettling thing. Like a crazy girl that's seen her new favorite obsession. "Zinny! Why didn't you tell me he was finally here? Go get him some clothes and snacks for us."

The butler smoothed back his hair once more, other hand straightening his black tie. "Right, right, totally more important. I mean, it's not like I was in the middle of preventing financial catastrophe or anything." The butler named Zinny turned to Wade, smiling deep, hand grabbing a folded up set of dingly looking pajamas on a night table nearby before marching up to Wade and thrusting them into his hands. "Any preferences for refreshments human? We've got everything from Mountain Dew to Cheetos, and by that I mean only mountain dew and cheetos. Take your pick, it's all I can afford right now until I sell a few stocks and go collect on a few debts. A certain someone wanted only the best computer parts money could buy, and scalpers are a special breed of evil when they hear words like that."

"What?" Wade didn't know what was going on. By habit, he reached down for his pants, only to find he wasn't wearing any. Actually he was completely… free in his most natural state. Hands instantly went to cover himself up. Fortunately, they were full of pajama, so it wasn't too hard to hide everything. "What the fuck?"

The girl waved him away, turning back to her game like he didn't matter anymore to her. "No need to be flustered mortal, average size, nothing to worry about."

She'd been spawned back in her game, having been shot to death while she'd turned around to talk. A menu of some kind popped up and she bought herself a gun to equip, then set out. "Really, did they have to shoot someone standing still? All right you assholes, no more mercy."

Wade looked around desperately, "Where's my stuff? And my phone?!"

The girl waved him away, eyes laser focused on the game in front. "Not right now, busy. Zinny handle him."

The butler on the side sighed, holding his two hands out. "Let me clue you in kiddo: Golem versus everything you own. Golem won. To the surprise of absolutely nobody, I should add. Your phone? Confetti. Anything with more dimensions than paper? Currently exploring exciting new careers as premium gravel. Mithril collar included. But hey, think of it this way: Your clothes are all clean of blood, right where you left them! No bleach needed, trust me that stuff gets messy. And you kept your scroll of raise dead for next time, that thing's in the System's hammerspace or something."

Wade stared at the man. Identify.

Level 86 Greater Infernal Essence - 100%

Then he turned his gaze to the girl on the couch.

Level 294 Primordial Divine Essence - 100%

What the fuck did that mean? His addled head tried to reconcile all the different things going on at once.

The game on the TV froze. Then returned to the menu. A message appeared.

"WHHHAT?! ZINNY THEY BANNED ME AGAIN!" The girl screamed, one hand pointing at the screen, while she snapped her gaze up to the butler.

"You had seventy three kills and one death, and only because you stood still while talking to the human." The butler said, exasperated. "Not to mention half those kills were wall-penetrating headshots - on a fresh account. What, did you think the anti-cheat system was just going to send you a congratulatory pat on the back?"

"Just because every other human out there crouches behind the single most obvious possible spots on the map doesn't mean they need to mass report me just to finally win." She threw the controller on the floor, groaning. "It's not my fault they all suck! Zinny, get me a new account!"

"Who the fuck are you people? Where am I?" Wade asked, putting on the new clothing. "Am I actually dead?"

Or better yet, had it all actually been a lucid dream? The original hope of it all raced back into his mind. Please, whatever god there was out there, have it all end up being a weird drea-

"Nope, you're not dead." Zinny said, sighing as if this wasn't good news. "Welcome to… basically hell in my opinion. Allow me introduce your new eternal tormentor, the divine nuisance herself: Play, goddess of games and stories, long may she reign over our collective suffering, etcetera etcetera. Now, do you need some help putting that on?"

The girl grabbed a smartphone at her right side, and frantically typed something out, then climbed over the couch, the menu of the game completely forgotten. One hand leaned forward to him while she balanced on the couch, showing him the screen. He read the text message on her phone, gawking.

Congrats on your S-tier score! Told you it was worth putting you in the deep end~
(b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b

Wade stared at the phone. Then up at the girl.

This was Play. This was actually Play.

…

He lunged out to strangle her.