“NPC shop?” I questioned bewilderedly, and one of the menus I had been so desperate to find answered me.

NPC Shop

Perks

Equipment

Consumables

Territory

Balance: 2 Soul Shards

I started to panic and swiped the screen away as the weight of those three letters settled in my consciousness. A terrifying thought resounded in my mind, and I wondered if the command for the shop matched the other menus. I prepared myself and quietly mumbled, “NPC stats.”

“Fuck,” I groaned as the window appeared.

I didn’t even bother to look and just swiped it away. It was evident from the shop’s name, but a second menu named as an NPC menu left me no choice but to stop clinging to denial. As far as the apocalypse was concerned, I was an NPC. I had played enough RPGs to know that there were only three types of NPCs.

First were the “protected” ones, who were either immune from damage or would respawn when killed. These were far more common in older games where players were limited in their ability to affect the world around them and in starter zones or safe zones. The second type were the main characters in the story. These NPCs played a large role in the progression of a digital world’s story and would only truly die when it made for a compelling plot point. The chance of survival as one of these was high short term, but about fifty-fifty long term. The final type of NPCs were disposable. They were randomly generated villagers and soldiers that existed only to provide ambiance, immersion, and entertainment for the players. These were the soldiers in armies who fought and died on the battlefields only to be replaced for the next battle. They were the farmers who lived in contested towns that would be slaughtered when a monster faction seized control. They were the middling nobles and common merchants that players would assassinate to gain status in the evil-aligned guilds.

Based on the fact that the couple that had been murdered by goblins had not respawned when they died, I was reasonably confident that left me in the third category. Unless I had somehow fucked up by not taking the tutorial or ending up trapped here, humans were not the protagonists of this apocalypse. And if we were all NPCs, who the fuck were the players?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took me a few hours and multiple panic attacks to come to terms with the new development. I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting. I suppose I had assumed that humanity would be the protagonists in a new chapter in their story. That we were meant to face these monsters, grow, and reconquer our world or fail because we failed to seize the opportunities we had been given. I had believed that my fate was in my own hands. If we were all NPCs, then that implied that players existed. These players would explore our world, likely with an insurmountable advantage like respawning when killed, decades of experience, faster leveling, or all three.

I hadn’t spent much time trying to guess “why” the world had been made into a game. I had simply been focused on survival, my own sanity, and doing the best I could now that the game had begun. Rather than “Why,” the first question on my mind now was, “Who?.” I had stopped believing in god a long time ago, but what else could do this to a world other than a god? Creatures out of myth and fantasy had been seemingly created from nothing and now infested this building like rats. New land and buildings had been squeezed into space that didn’t exist before, not to mention the blue windows and the power they granted.

I could feel each point of endurance enhance my body. I felt the blood flow from my latest wound lessen with the benefit of the first aid perk. If anything besides a god could create something like this, they were powerful enough to be no different from gods.

With reality torn asunder and the laws of a fantasy RPG ruling the world, it only made sense to compare this to games I had played and fictions I had read. In the case of Bellam Aeternam, “players” had been drawn to the world where the “NPCs” lived to champion the causes of various warring gods and to wage endless war until only one faction remained. This was the worst scenario I could imagine, as potentially immortal players waging endless war wouldn’t work out too well for the helpless bastards that lived here. In some games, it was one-sided with the righteous gods summoning champions to save the world from evil. Receiving reinforcements from these “players” to fight against the monsters would be ideal… but something had created the monsters, and it was likely part of the same system that had designated me as an NPC. I doubted that the god behind this was that benevolent. The final type of stories that came to mind were about bored gods turning a world upside down for their own amusement. Champions would be sent to the world without purpose and would make their own choices that could save or damn the world around them.

My thoughts had raced in endless circles for hours, and I had no answers to show for it. I had no way of determining who had done this, their motives, or what the “players” would do to this world when they arrived if they hadn’t already.

I sighed and told myself I was overreacting. Nothing had changed in the short term. I was still at the top of a tower full of monsters and had to either drive them out or secure enough food to outlast them and wait till they turned on each other because of starvation. The long term implications were horrifying, but if I didn’t live long enough to experience them, they wouldn’t matter.

I needed to get moving before I started thinking too much again, but first, I needed to check out the shop. I needed to know if there was anything available for sale that would increase my chances of survival.

“NPC shop.”

NPC Shop

Perks

Equipment

Consumables

Territory

Balance: 2 Soul Shards

I hadn’t noticed earlier, but I had twice as many shards as the system said I earned for leveling up. I had no idea where the second one had come from. Right now, I desperately needed armor to protect myself, but perks could provide a permanent bonus that might improve my chances of survival, so I tried “Perks” first.

I was forced to give up almost immediately. The cheapest perks available cost 100 shards and they had pitifully small bonuses like a more efficient metabolism or slightly improved senses. I sighed, and moved on to “Equipment”

NPC Shop - Equipment

Weapons

Armor

Balance: 2 Soul Shards

I tapped “Armor,” and the window expanded to fill my vision. It was filled from top to bottom with various armor entries, sorted by price, and then alphabetically. The options were seemingly infinite, but I couldn’t help being disappointed. Everything available for a single soul shard was extremely underwhelming. I had hoped that a piece of a soul would hold some real value, but all that was available in exchange for a single one were things like knee pads or leather gloves. My dreams of getting some chainmail or even some propper leather armor were crushed.

Just as I thought, “What would two shards get me?” the list reformed, only displaying things for two soul shards. Everything available was extremely mundane, but it was a big step up. There were bike helmets, metal chain “cut resistant” gloves, and a wooden plank with a handle mounted on it for a shield. As I scrolled through, a few things caught my eye. There was a padded leather jacket, but I didn’t know how well that would protect me from being stabbed. Eventually, I found the item that seemed like the best deal I could get for two soul shards, football pads.

I selected the football pads, and the plastic and foam pads suddenly appeared in front of me. They hovered for a few seconds before falling to the floor. It was the design I had seen used back in high school, where the padding covered the chest and shoulders, and an elastic strap on each side held them in place.

I awkwardly slipped on the pads and was happy to find they were a perfect fit. There had been items that were probably more useful since the short goblins usually stabbed me lower down, but they were all small, minor pieces. For the price of a single thigh-pad, most of my upper body was protected.

The next thing I wanted was to take another look at my stats. I hadn’t been in the best state of mind at the time, and I wanted to know where I stood,

“NPC Stats,” I called out, and the blue window answered.

Name: Mark Level: 1 Species: Human Current Stats: Base Stats: Agility 7.3 Agility 6 Dexterity 16.7 Dexterity 16 Endurance 5.1 Endurance 5 Intelligence 10.2 Intelligence 9 Perception 8.1 Perception 8 Speed 4.1 Speed 4 Strength 4.1 Strength 4 Willpower 24.4 Willpower 13 Traits Persevering Willpower +10 Abilities: Charisma Intimidation -/- Recovery Hibernation 7 Battle Skills Weapons Melee Blunt Weapons Strength 1 Spears Endurance 0 Ranged Thrown Agility 3 Active Skills Defense Block Endurance 1 Covert Skills Weapons Melee Short Blades Dexterity 3 Combat Assassination Chain Assassination Speed 1 Critical Strike Dexterity 4 Sneak Attack Agility 4 Concealment Active Sneak Agility 4 Passive Stealth Agility 2 General Skills Body Senses Detection Perception 1 Tenacity Pain Tolerance Willpower 4 Medicine Application First Aid Intelligence 12 Misc. Skills Professions Janitorial Cleaning Willpower 10

“Christ,” I groaned. My endurance, speed, and strength were all pathetic. I had known about my endurance already, but seeing two more stats so low left me groaning at how much more training I would have to do. My two best stats were willpower and dexterity. Dexterity was likely from endlessly fighting using VR gloves in-game, but the willpower was absurdly high. I had always been the hardest working player in my guild, which is how I had ended up running it when the old GM quit the game, but I had never associated that with willpower.

There was a trait listed called “persevering” which boosted the stat by ten, but I wasn’t sure what I had done to earn it. The only thing that came to mind was the period in my life when I decided to be a professional gamer. It hadn’t been easy starting out, and the second I quit my job to focus on it full time, my parents had kicked me out of the house. It would have been so easy to quit and return to a normal life, but I persevered until I achieved my dream. It took many hundreds of sleepless nights and countless missed meals to break through and reach the peak of Bellam Aeternam, and all I had to support myself along the way was gear sales, $DKP, and mercenary work until I managed to land a spot on a sponsored team for the guild. Even after landing a spot, there was always an endless grind for drops, quests, gear, and reputation in the games to stay at the peak of the player base, and the multi-day marathons I often found myself doing took a toll on my health. I was always pushing myself past the limit of exhaustion to endure a siege or beat a rival clan to an objective.

Out of everything on the stat page, there was a single word that had left me guessing since the day I first woke up in the apocalypse. I tapped my finger on “hibernation,” hoping the system would provide answers. A new window appeared.

Hibernation: Sleep through the bad times and wait for spring. If you fall asleep while injured, your body will conserve energy and focus on recovery until you are healthy enough to function normally or require sustenance to continue healing. You heal twice as fast while sleeping and heal an additional %10 faster per level. Current level (7).

It was a bit of a letdown, to be honest. I had already worked out that I healed faster during my hibernations, although it was nice to finally have a number. For some reason, I had hoped for more. I wondered if the percentage bonus was multiplied by a base %100 or the %200 of the ability. It meant that my healing rate could either be %270 or %340, but I had no way of checking the math as I didn’t know how long wounds were supposed to take to heal.

All my skills were what I had expected. The only mystery left was where the bonus stats were coming from. There was a difference between my base stats and my stats besides the plus ten to willpower. Most of the stats weren’t even numbers either. I tapped on “agility” to see if there would be more information.

Agility: The ability to move the body. Improves reflexes, dodging, balance, and acrobatics. 6 base + 1.3 from skills = 7.3 AGI

I counted out my agility skills. Thrown was level three, sneak attack was four, sneak was four, and stealth was two. They added up to thirteen, so I figured each skill level increased its governing attribute by a tenth of a point. It meant there was yet another tangible benefit to raising skills besides their skill bonus.

I knew there were other menus to explore and more information to find, but I wanted to clear out the last floor between here and the floor I met Chez on. I had fifty-one more floors to clear after that one, and I had just had all the stress, brooding, and thinking I was up to handling for the day.