The Systemic Lands (Dark Progressive LITRPG)

"So, you are coming with me, then?" I looked at Tyrese and his posse.

"I got voluntold by Boss Carlos," he said.

"Voluntold?" I asked. I was pretty sure I knew what he meant, but I was curious about what he would say.

"When he looks at you and asks for a volunteer." That sounded about right.

"So, the new person?" I asked.

"That's Tim."

"Then Hans, Greg, and Laura with the bow," I recalled their names.

"You actually remembered," Tyrese said.

"Easy names. If someone named them Tyrese, I might forget." He shook his head at that.

"Let's do this. So, that way?" Tyrese pointed and I nodded.

"Yes. Brown slimes should be treated like blue slimes, but swords are easier to use on them instead of clubs. Also, you need to look very carefully. I haven't seen any too high up in trees, but you never know."

We made our way past the North gate into the brown slime forest.

"Anyone walk outside the walls to another gate?" I asked.

"No. Well, I haven't heard about it. Have any of you?" Tyrese asked his people, and they all responded with a negative. We walked a bit more before I came to a stop.

"Alright, there is the first slime. Look carefully." They all looked, but it was clear they were having a hard time spotting the brown slime. "You can tell because it looks a bit clear and reflects the light more than the trees or roots." I walked over and stabbed it with my sword, causing thorny roots to spring up.

"These last about 100 seconds. After that, they turn to dust. Haven't been pricked by any, but I would not recommend it." I picked up the crystal.

"Come on." They followed me, and I came to a stop again. "Spot it?"

"There?" Amanda pointed.

"That is a root, so no."

"There." Tyrese pointed.

"You got it," I replied with a nod.

"They are too smooth. The roots and tree bark have more creases," he said. Huh, that was clever of him to notice. The difference wasn't that much. Still, it was a good catch. That was the kind of thing that made having other people around useful. They might notice things I didn't.

Tyrese killed it with his sword and picked up the crystal.

"That's about it. I am going to grind the brown slimes. Unless you needed something else?" I asked.

"No, we should be set. We will take it slow," Tyrese said. I gave him a nod and left. I spent the rest of the day hunting brown slimes. My thoughts drifted to how people were so useless at the start.

They got stuck in a rut of buying food with points and then ran out. When they truly got desperate, there was nothing left that they could do. There was no material one could just pick up to hit slimes with. One had to buy a club.

Using your fists was asking for a painful death. That was what had probably happened to people. Or they got too weak to move and just expired in some forgotten corner of the city. Or they were depressed and gave up on surviving. I could only shake my head. The lack of foresight and drive to survive was quite scary.

But I didn't blame them. People have a hard time adapting and forcing themselves to change. There was a reason I had been fat for so long. Now I was just slightly plump, at least. It was honestly kind of frightening how quickly I was losing weight. Without a scale, I could only guess, but I pegged it to at least two pounds or a bit less than a kilogram per day.

That was insane, but I had pushed through the pain. It was probably slower now. I had only used the fruit to stave off hunger and had been depending on restorations for the long-term upkeep of my body. That was another point that I had lucked out in. Without the restoration the store offered, I would be far worse off.

I tried to think if I could have made it without the restoration. The short answer was no. Blisters, chaffing, soreness, fatigue, and a lack of proper food and rest would make it very hard for me to continue at the blistering pace I had.

My thoughts drifted back to other people. If I took a random selection of 250 people between the ages of 16 and 63 from America, while avoiding people with guns and possibly weapons, that would create a certain bias towards specific types of people.

White-collar workers from the inner city with a higher than average body mass. There would be a lack of military people. both current and former, a lack of active criminals, and an abundance of city and suburban people.

That didn't mean certain groups couldn't slip through the selection process, but their numbers would be far more limited. That also didn't consider personal temperament, understanding of the logic of this place, and the ability to ignore the fear of death and the unknown.

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That left me in the equation. I was the kind of person who just wouldn't quit and was willing to risk my life but was also very cautious with game knowledge. I didn't fault any of the other people for their weak wills and sub-optimal choices, but I judged them. Also, I was annoyed with their choices.

I didn't want to have to explore new areas. I would rather sit back and do some accounting. That made me wonder if this place was a capitalist hellhole or a socialist hellhole.

It could be a capitalist hellhole since it rewarded people for their individual efforts. Likewise, it could be Socialist since there was universal healthcare and food, while also putting everyone at the same starting line. That was it! It was like the tv show I had been watching just before I was teleported, Squid Game.

There was no higher message involved. It was just suffering, death, and stupidity. The Almighty System sure liked to put its boot down on people's necks. There was nothing to do but endure. A Systemtocracy, rule by an uncaring System.

There was no higher authority or separate group of people to appeal to, which made this situation unique. The best comparison to Earth would be the hunter-gatherer tribes millennia ago. But with those ancient tribes, the challenge was more survival from nature and possibly other tribes.

Here, it was more survival from monsters and humans tossed into an environment they don't understand, with rules that aren't explained. That fear they had would just grow over time. They either learned to deal with the fear or went crazy.

As for the knowledge and understanding of this place, that came from way too much reading and thinking. If there were a million people who had read as much as me, doubtful, then say only half that could actually translate the knowledge into actions. That was way less than one percent of the population, even with the limited selection criteria.

That meant there was only a limited chance for each arrival and then their temperament had to be considered. What I really needed was a SEAL team who could come in and just start going ham on the monsters, paving the way for me. Instead, it was just me trying to wrangle things and get people off their fat asses.

The reason I wanted more people working was the store upgrades. There were other reasons, but that was the main reason. I had very little doubt that the third upgrade would cost 100,000 points. I was not about to save that all up myself.

The government, Carlos and Red Dawn, had to put in some work and get the people to work. Dammit, I had to push myself even more. I was earning them at 300 crystals a day, which meant a rate of about one crystal every two minutes. I needed to push myself to one every minute to get my crystal intake up to 700 a day.

Today, I was getting 400. I stopped thinking about life and how it sucked and focused on moving and killing slimes. The annoying part was waiting for the thorny roots to disappear. Brown slimes were too slow.

I finished the day with only 367 crystals. My best day of grinding yet, but nowhere close to what I wanted. I walked through the city at night back towards the plaza, before finding an empty building I stayed for the night.

The next day I cashed in my crystals, only handing out a 5 crystal tip to the guards. After a 53-point restoration, I had 3,757 points. It tempted me to buy some upgrades but I held off. I was going to save up a bit. I wanted a buffer and a couple hundred points no longer cut it in my mind. I wasn't struggling that much either, so a larger buffer wasn't a loss right now.

Even if I purchased upgrades, the cost for the next one was 515 points. The scaling price also made me slow down. I made my way to the South. To the West were the blue slimes, North was the brown slimes, East had the grass plains, and South was another pine forest with large, tall trees.

I reached the gate without that much difficulty and entered the forest. As I advanced, I went very slowly, while checking every angle. I also made sure to look up quite a bit.

Something moved. I paused and listened closely as I heard something stepping on the pine needles. I looked in that direction and spotted a form moving through the trees. The distance was great enough that I could only tell it looked like a wolf.

I banged my sword on my shield and then listened again. It was a wolf. Not an overly large one and it had a brown and gray coat, which let it blend in. It was only the one wolf as well.

It rushed at me, and I used my shield to block its initial charge. I then stabbed it in the neck and shoulder area. I yanked my sword free, and the blood was red. The wolf and the blood quickly turned to dust leaving a crystal behind. At least the monster didn't make too much of a mess.

I took the crystal and began wolf hunting. I checked behind me and knew the way back to the city. From what I could observe, the wolves patrolled. The blue slimes might have done the same thing, but they were so slow and ignorant of most stimuli that I never really considered it.

The thing about the brown wolves was that I could draw them to myself. I would bang on my shield with my sword, and they would rush at me with the self-preservation of a lemming running off a cliff.

The key thing was to space out the engagements, so I didn't run into two at once. I blocked their initial rush with my shield and then stabbed them in the neck and shoulder area, and deep into their body. It was a lot more exhausting than the slimes, but it felt quicker.

I ended the day with 216 crystals. I didn't risk staying out even as the sun set. While I had avoided any injury, the brown wolves were quick and stealthy. They didn't leave behind a mess like people did, but then they would have been a source of meat.

No free food around here. I was stuck eating fruit and vegetables that evening. I really wanted tacos. Once that thought entered my brain, I thought of all the foods I wanted. Pizza, tacos, pizza, pasta with alfredo sauce, tacos, turkey with stuffing, apple pie, ice cream, pizza, and the list kept going on and on. I really wanted pizza.

I rubbed my face and let out a sigh as I sat on the second floor of an empty building. That store upgrade needed to come soon; I wasn't a rabbit. I wanted bread and meat. This was probably one of the biggest things to make me want to chip in for a store upgrade. I wouldn't chip in, but there was a trickle of temptation.

I decided that I would hunt wolves here for the next two days, and then go back to the plaza to cash in and get repayment from Carl. After that, I would probably check out the plains. I had kind of been expecting green slimes in this part of the forest. The fact that there were brown wolves instead made me think there might also be wolves in the plains.

I should also take the chance to leave from one gate and come back through a different gate just to confirm they weren't portals. The stone city reminded me of Minecraft with block protection.

Someone built a city and then protected all the blocks. Also, the square houses didn't help with the Minecraft vibe this place had. Minecraft cities were often deserted, which was another creepy similarity. The only curved things in the city were the walls, outer roads, and pillars.

Some houses intersected with each other as well. Most buildings had the default layout of a square with nine rooms. If they intersected, then a room or two might be removed to make way for the other building. Everything was also two stories with no design marks or other personal touches on the inside or outside, just gray stone.

I kind of wanted my own place to spend the night, but I wouldn't waste the points unless I could make it secure. I missed any kind of bed. There was a lot I was missing.