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LOOT DROP Chapter 11: Runaway!

  LOOT DROP Chapter: 11

  Damp, dark, and smelling of an acrid scent, Fisk sighed as he finished another round of exercise and rose to his feet to stand within the basement of Sam’s workshop.

  “Hm…” Faith let out watching Fisk who was shirtless and busy throwing a series of jabs and punches at the air as he rotated repeatedly on his new leg.

  She blinked, observing what appeared to be an injury to the left side of his body, like his skin was twisted in an odd way with marks across his torso.

  “Enjoying yourself?” Fisk asked, jolting Faith from her trance.

  “Oh, uh, I brought you some new clothes. Lunch is almost ready so uhm, yeah… yup,” Faith replied as Fisk paused what he was doing to tower over the woman with his glistening body pooling beads of sweat downwards, “Yup yup. Uh huh…”

  “Lunch?”

  “Hm?”

  “Lunch, you said something about lunch?” Fisk said, waving his hand in front of the woman's face.

  “Oh! Right! Yeah! I'll bring you some!” Faith said before turning and fleeing up the stairs.

  With Faith gone, Fisk shook his head before grabbing the drab tan tunics as he eyed his system.

  Support System Menu

  Title: Nobody

  Name: Tony Fisk

  Level: 0

  Race: Other

  HP: 70/70

  SP: 80/80

  MP: 50/50

  CLASS: Classless

  ???

  ???

  ???

  Free Points: 30

  STRENGTH: 9

  VITALITY; 7

  SENSE: 10

  DEXTERITY: 30

  ARCANA: 5

  EGO: 20

  TRAITS: None

  SKILLS: Observe LvL:1, Airburst LvL 1, Air Kick LvL 1.

  SPELLS: None

  Two new skills appeared on Fisk's screen as he reviewed his system, the add-ons from his new leg that were highlighted blue.

  Airburst LvL 1: Unleash a burst of air to propel oneself in desired direction. MP: 10

  Air Kick LvL 1: Kick with leg and release a blast of air: MP: 15

  How the hell do I use these without a controller? Fisk frowned, poking at the screen repeatedly.

  “How's the new leg?”

  “FUCK!” Fisk jolted, turning to face the woman who had materialized from thin air. “You have to stop doing that!”

  “Doing what?” Eve asked, the tiny gnome of a woman sitting on a crate of smithing goods smiling as she watched Fisk's reaction. “I'm just checking in to see how my number one anomalie is doing. And how are you doing by the way? I see you’ve already gotten your first player kill.”

  “Yeah, didn't want to but he forced my hand,” Fisk said, still tapping at the screen in front of him.

  “Speaking of appendages, how is the leg?”

  “Feels like I never lost it to an IED,” Fisk said, attempting to kick with his new leg.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to activate these skills?”

  Eve smirked, “Have you never played a video game before?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Not since like… the Atari? And the-”

  Eve winced, blinked, and cocked her head to the side in disbelief, “ATARI?! They don't even make those anymore! Oh, you're messing with me.”

  “Kinda. It's slim pickings when you're deployed in a combat zone low on malaria pills,” Fisk muttered. "I did managed to find an Atari though."

  “There are few things that can catch me off guard Mr. Fisk, but I'm genuinely surprised you found a working Atari of all things,” Eve said, floating beside Fisk to eye his system. “If you want to activate a skill, you need to visualize it.”

  “Visualize?”

  “Pretty much, you can even activate the desired skill via voice, go ahead and try it.”

  Fisk looked back at his screen before taking a breath and- “Airburs-TFUK!”

  -4 HP

  Suddenly Fisk went flying, his head hitting the base of the ceiling before landing sprawled out on the floor.

  “Ha!” Eve laughed, the woman floating in the air and spinning in circles as she pointed at Fisk, “Nice one!”

  Fisk growled, wiping the blood from his mouth from biting his tongue, “Not cool.”

  “Sorry, I don't have a lot to do these days,” Eve said as Fisk picked himself off the floor.

  “You said visualize, so, all I gotta do is think right?”

  “Yup.”

  Fisk inhaled, taking a stance, the core of his body low as he prepared to perform a kick.

  “You took martial arts?” Eve asked, noticing his stance.

  “Some karate as a kid, the army tried to roll out a revamped ‘combatives’ program but just like the last one,” Fisk said before throwing an expert side kick. “It failed.”

  “Doesn't seem like it failed you.”

  “Got lucky, had a good teacher,” Fisk said, bracing himself for the shock before throwing another side kick but this time while activating a skill.

  Fisk's metal leg whirred, steam flowing from the joints as the air shifted, the space around Fisk seeming to visibly wane. Then a blast of wind exited from the foot of Fisk's leg and struck the base of the wall, blasting Fisk back into a pile of barrels and weapons.

  “Nice,” Eve said as Fisk sat up from the debris he found himself in, ready to tackle the flying woman only to stop as he eyed his handiwork.

  “Oh…” Fisk muttered, eyes wide, his gaze focused on the cratered bricks that had once been a solid wall. “Shit.”

  “Language Mr. Fisk,” Eve giggled, “I don't think Samantha is going to enjoy that.”

  “You could have warned me about the recoil!” Fisk yelled before face palming and laying down on the cold floor laden with unfinished items, thinking about how he was going to pay for this. “Wait… how do you know her name? Come to think of it, how did you know I killed a player? Are you watching me?”

  “Of course I'm watching you,” Eve said, her tone serious. “You are my final hope. The final hope for the denizens of this realm.”

  “So you keep saying, but not actually clarifying what that means. You sent me after your tokens, but I don't even know what crushing them will entail or what it means if you gain control of this game.”

  Eve raised a brow, “Is Prometheus having cold feet about our deal?”

  “No,” Fisk shook his head, his eyes staring at his leg as he stood up, “You gave me the ability to walk again. A new lease at life. I always pay my debts, even if it's something small. So, I'll help you regain control of your creation.”

  “My creation…” Eve smiled, her face almost tearful at Fisk's words, “Thank you, Fisk. You might not understand, but it means a lot to me that someone acknowledged my work. But. As gamefied as it may seem, this realm is more than a game. The artificial life you interact with more than AI. Be mindful of how you interact with this world, please.”

  “Yeah, I'll keep it in mind,” Fisk said as the tiny woman vanished, her presence replaced instead by Faith who came down the stairway holding a tray of food that quickly hit the ground as she spotted Fisk's mess.

  “You…” Faith said, “Oh no… what did you do?!”

  Fisk clenched his jaw, “Malfunction?”

  “MALFUNCTION?! What kind of malfunction causes a hole in the wall?! Sam is going to be so mad! So so so mad! She's going kill you! Then she's going to kill me!”

  “It's fine, I'll fix it,” Fisk dismissed, only for the building to shake slightly. “...”

  “Fix it huh?”

  Another rumble, this time louder and more violent, the crack in the wall spreading a fissure towards a support beam that cracked.

  Fisk and Faith shared a look.

  “We should leave.” The pair said in unison before escaping out of the basement in a mad dash.

  “Huh? What's going on?!” Sam shouted as Fisk grabbed the blacksmith’s wrist, pulling the confused woman through the crowd of equally confused players. “Hey! I asked a question! What's-”

  Finally outside Sam’s jaw dropped as she spun, just in time to witness her workshop collapse, burying the players within.

  “My… my shop! My home!” Sam screamed as dozens of players and AIs surrounded the scene.

  “Fisk, we've got to go!” Faith yelled, attempting to pull Fisk away as players began noticing his metal leg.

  “What did you do?! What happened?!” Sam shouted, turning to the pair.

  “I swear it was an accident! But I'll pay you back! I promise!” Fisk yelled, dodging a hammer thrown at his head as he turned and fled through the village with Faith leading the way.

  “Fisk!” Sam shouted as others turned his way, a myriad of players now focused on the culprit of the cave in scurrying away on a metal leg.

  “Hey wait! I want to asked you a question!” A player said, snatching Fisk by the wrist just as he and Faith approached the village gate.

  In response, Fisk's free hand came up, in it, his shotgun that blasted the player point blank with both barrels.

  “My… you're racking up a kill count.”

  Suddenly Eve’s voice, the woman in his head as screams sounded.

  “Come on!” Faith yelled, grabbing Fisk amidst the pandemonium as several players moved on Fisk.

  Fisk turned, eyeing his mana. Between his two test uses of his new skills and firing his shotgun, he now only had fifteen MP to his name. Enough for another bullet or…

  “Shit! Hold on!”

  “Huh?!” Faith let out as Fisk pulled her close, their bodies close together as Fisk yelled “Airburst!”

  The pair soared, leaping over the rushing crowd and through the gate leading to the wilderness outside as Faith screamed.

  With his metal leg taking the brunt of the impact, the pair tumbled, hitting the earth with Fisk tucking Faith close to himself with his hand on the back of her head to protect her head.

  “Come on!” Now it was Fisk's turn to drag Faith forward, this time into the unknown forest away from the pursuing crowd of players.

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