Interlude 13 (Continued…)

Budi Kogoya – [Hard Mode Tutorial]

Branches creak and groan within the dark and eerie forest. Gnarled things, like grasping fingers, they stretch and intertwine. Interlock to form a confused, nigh impenetrable canopy. The occasional beam of moonlight managing to penetrate this cultivated gloom. Shedding light on thorny brambles and creeping, ever-present mists. Illuminating the low cloud cover with a sickening red radiance. The sanguine runoff which oozed from the bloated, blood-red moon, hanging high up in the perpetual night sky.

More groans resound throughout the dreadful forest, though these were by no means a natural phenomenon. They were accompanied by the shuffling of feet, of several in fact. By the crunch of dry leaves and the snap of fallen branches. Abruptly, several silhouettes could be seen parting the blood red mists. Lurching forward with shuffling, noticeably awkward gaits. Arms hanging limp at their sides, legs digging deep furrows through the earthen terrain. At a glance, they looked human. Well, human enough. Although, even without an unobstructed view, it didn’t take long for one to realize that they were nothing of the sort.

An instinct, so deep seeded and primal, as to have been forgotten entirely—buried beneath years of progress and prosperity—clawing it’s way up from the depths of antiquity. Every fiber of one’s being screaming at the sheer wrongness on display. At the clear subversion of the natural order.

+—|-Undead Squire-|—+

•[Lvl 19]•

+—|-Undead Archer-|—+

•[Lvl 33]•

+—|-Undead Knight-|—+

•[Lvl 45]•

Out from the mist shrouded gloom of the twisted tree line, an army of the undead emerge. Easily numbering ten thousand strong. Dressed such that—but for their sickly green pallor, cloudy eyes, and lightly peeling skin—they wouldn’t have looked all that out of place at a renfaire, the un-living horde shuffled ever onward. Pointed unerringly towards a small, poorly assembled stockade. Surrounding it on all sides, they converged like an oncoming tide.

And, as they neared, they also began to change.

The lethargy in their limbs growing less pronounced. Stiffness transitioning into fluidity with barely a break in between. Slack faces became animated once more.

Close proximity to their sweetly smelling prey bringing new life to the undead in a major way. Their loose formations tightening up. Their listless officers groaning orders, which were then quickly obeyed. Discipline reintroduced into the rank and file, multiplying the threat they posed severalfold. Suddenly from atop his skeletal horse, a lvl 50 undead lord raises his chipped and rusted broadsword high, it’s bone chilling groan reaching across the entirety of the mist laden valley.

There comes a moment of perfect stillness

Then, with a striking air of finality, the undead lord lets his sword drop, initiating the charge. The tide of rotting bodies converge on the pitiful fortifications all at once. Looking to sweep over the three meter tall walls, to get at the succulent flesh within. A victorious war cry torn from the throats of all in sundry.

Right before the six dozen automated crossbow turrets poke their heads above the parapet, and begin to mow down the undead army like a farmer reaps his field.

Meanwhile, as the undead army is busy being massacred, within the lousy manmade fortifications, inside of a rundown wooden shack barely fit for human habitation, Budi Kogoya reclines atop a deluxe queen-sized mattress. The twenty-five year old utterly oblivious to the war still raging on the outside.

Far too engrossed in playing games on his phone to care.

Both the presence of the phone, and the extremely high end mattress, utterly incongruous with the dirt floor, rickety walls, and that whole apocalypse thing that was supposed to be going on.

Budi yawns so wide his jaw pops.

A distant impact causing his hut to shudder and quake ominously, dust raining down from above. Budi freezes, considers whether it’d be worth getting out from beneath his warm covers to see what that was all about, then shrugs.

“Nah! I’m sure it’ll sort itself out. Probably.”

Another massive yawn takes his facial muscles for a joyride.

“Oh, man. I really need to stop pulling all nighters. That last ten pull though… Three fives stars, zero pity, on a free to play, like, that just doesn’t happen. Oh, Bakti would be so jelly.”

Grinning to himself, if with a shade of melancholy at being separated from his old friend for so long, Budi was just about to roll over and take a well deserved nap, when he remembered something.

“Oh snap!” he snatched up his phone. “I almost forgot!”

Swiping until he’d found what he was looking for—the mysterious app that’d randomly appeared on his phone after everything had gone sideways—Budi tapped on the “Imperial Daily Lottery Distribution System,” and promptly claimed his daily log in reward, grinning at the pretty sizable bonus he received for keeping up a fourteen day streak.

Suddenly, in the far corner of his shed, what he’d designated the “loot corner” a deluge of shiny gear, weapons, and consumables appeared from out of thin air, until near half the shed was unnavigable due to all the sparkling objects. His task done for the day, Budi flopped back onto his soft, goose down bedding, utterly exhausted.

Resolving himself to sort through the loot pile tomorrow, Budi had one final thought before drifting off to blissful oblivion.

Would be cool if it gave me more of those defense turrets next time… least those are some times useful. Seriously, what am I supposed to do with fifty different kinds of legendary helmet?

By the time Richard’s bombshell of a letter finally reached him, Budi was already fast asleep.

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