2. Trash

Ardan woke up to the sound of dripping water above his head. Groaning, he sat up and realised he was lying on something soft, yet lumpy. It also smelt terrible. Garbage bags. Great. The grey screen still floated in the air in front of him, imposing on his vision, but as he tried to move it away, his hand passed straight through it. Was he hallucinating?

Finally, he focused back onto the screen and read what it said.

Welcome to League Of Progression! (L.O.P)

Would you like to begin the tutorial?

Yes/No

(Please select a preference by speech. You can change this later in your settings)

“Tutorial? No, I don’t want to do a tutorial. I want this thing out of my face.”

He shook his head, trying to clear the drowsiness. Was this a dream? He pinched himself to make sure.

It wasn’t.

The screen changed, its edges growing wider, taking up even more of his vision. The words inside it warped and transformed along with it.

L.O.P is a platform that enables players, such as yourself, to grow stronger, gain powerful magical abilities and much, much more! To begin your journey in the League of Progression, please choose a progression target.

Please note that choosing a progression rate will have permanent effects and is unchangeable.

(Insane)/Fast/Medium/Slow

(To see more information, say ‘information’ out loud. To select, say your choice out loud.)

Ardan scanned the screen trying to see if this was really happening. It was. Examining the choices he had in front of him, Ardan realised that these texts resembled an RPG progression video game, the only game he didn’t like. They were brain dead games, consisting of nothing but grinding, grinding and more grinding to get stronger.

Though he didn’t like them, he had still played one before and knew the basics. This option, though, was one he had never encountered before. Progression rate? What could that mean? Did it have something to do with the name of this ‘game’?

Maybe he shouldn’t have been so impulsive and done the tutorial after all...

How was this even happening? Games were played on computers, not in real life. Speaking out loud seemed to have worked once. Would it work again?

“Information?” He asked hesitantly

The screen extended out the bottom, more words filling up the space.

Progression Rate Information

Progression rate is what determines the rate of your growth and difficulty of daily quests. Slow progression rate will entail you to half the amount of EXP you’d normally receive, but doubles your overall health points. Slow progression is recommended for those who want to play it safe. Fast progression will entail you to double the amount of EXP you’d normally receive, but halves your overall health points. Fast progression is recommended for those who want to become the strongest.

Then there was insane. Why was it apart from the other three? It was also shaded black, which was strange, compared to how the others were all primary colours. Ardan got a mysterious feeling coming from that option, and couldn’t contain his curiosity. Surely there must have been some information about that option…

He examined the information part of the screen again, and was surprised to see he had indeed missed out something.

Progression Rate Information

Insane progression rate enables the user to gain 1-100 times the amount of EXP you’d normally receive, but has multiple side effects, including halving your overall health points.

“That’s insane…”

Progression Rate has been chosen.

The screen flickered off, finally revealing his surroundings.

“Wait! Wait!” Ardan burst out loud, frantically swiping his hands through the air, trying to bring the screen back. He hadn’t meant to choose insane as his progression rate, it had been an accident. Yet, the screen didn’t reappear.

Frowning, Ardan finally looked at where had ended up and almost threw up.

It was a garbage room.

Fortunately for him, the bags of trash were tied well, so the smell was bearable. It was disgusting, though. No door was in sight, and how far down the trash went was anyone’s guess.

“Hello?” He called out, holding his nose - the smell was bearable, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant. The room was only a few metres wide, so he made his way to one of the metal walls, trying to search for a way out. Ardan didn’t have the time or luxury to think about how he got here.

Feeling the walls, which were rather warm for some reason, he edged his hand underneath a trash bag, trying to find a door handle or some means of escaping this smelly prison.

“Preparing for incineration in two minutes.” A female voice blasted through a speaker in the corner of the room.

“Incineration? Wonder what that means-”

Then a sinking realization dawned onto Ardan, as he felt the feeble mound of garbage bags begin to rumble below him. Before he could panic, a high-pitched sound disturbed his thoughts.

Squeak!

A mouse perched on a bag of garbage at the opposite end of the room, facing Ardan curiously. Suddenly, a little glowing window popped up next to the mouse’s head.

Trash Rat Lvl. 1 HP 10/10 AP 2

He didn’t have time to worry about it, because there was the looming issue of getting out of the room without being incinerated alive. Ignoring the rat, Ardan clambered over a falling trash bag, scanning the room for any handholds which he could hold onto. As he peered over the mound, the mouse climbed into a small tunnel at the back wall.

The garbage chute! Why hadn’t he thought of that before?

Soon it came to his attention that the trash below was doing a little more than trembling. With a grunt, Ardan waded his way towards the chute, grabbing onto the ledge. However, the mouse had other plans for him, jumping down onto his head, digging its sharp claws into Ardan’s scalp.

- Alert! - You have taken 10 damage.

He cried out in both surprise and pain, but didn’t let go of the ledge. Luckily, this new screen that had appeared was much smaller than the others and disappeared in a few seconds, allowing him to yank the mouse - or trash rat - off his head. The rat hissed at him, then bit Ardan’s hand ferociously, trying to escape.

- Alert! - You have taken 19 damage.

He didn’t know how much health he had, but he could definitely tell that it hurt. Though Ardan’s intentions weren’t to harm the animal, he hurled it across the room. The rat’s squeal pierced through the air, abruptly stopping once it impacted the wall.

- Alert! - You have dealt 3 damage to [Trash Rat].

“Beginning incineration.” The woman’s voice blared through a speaker in the ceiling.

Ardan could no longer see the rat through a shifting mass of garbage bags. He hoisted himself up, into the chute, sitting up to lean over the edge.

- Alert! -

You have slain [Trash Rat Lvl. 1] [Assist]

You have gained 12 EXP (x27)

Two dinging noises roused him from his proud victory. The notifications that appeared seemed to be important, but Ardan was too busy recovering from his close call. As they faded away, he realised that he still hadn’t escaped this… garbage dump? He turned around and looked behind him, into the darkness of the trash chute and his only means of escape.

Making a face, Ardan got to his knees and began a slow crawl into the chute. Weirdly, the metal box seemed to be slowly heating up. Might have had something to do with the incinerator and the metal chute Ardan was crawling in.

Crap.

Picking up the pace, Ardan crawled deeper into the chute, which began to slope upwards. At first, the incline wasn’t that steep, but the further he went, the steeper it became. By now, it had reached close to a forty-five degree angle, making it considerably harder to crawl up. The heat wasn’t helping, either. Ardan had been forced to take off his jumper - extremely hard to do so in such a cramped space - and leave it behind. The rising heat also made the smell ever-so-much worse, and he felt like passing out.

After crawling for what seemed to be years, the passage flattened out and a little exit (or entrance?) came into view. Ardan barely managed to push the flap open and drag himself outside, collapsing onto the ground in a heap.

Wow, had this been an adventure. He couldn’t wait to go back to his room and take a nice nap. Suddenly, the memories of what had happened before waking up in a dump came flooding back.

Dr Halper had… tried to kill him?

Ardan also had the small problems of finding out what the heck the doctor had done to him and where in the entirety of Domhain he had ended up.

“Dad, who’s he?”

A little elf girl at the end of the corridor pointed towards him, tugging on her father’s sleeve. The father looked in Ardan’s general direction for a moment, before pulling his daughter away in a protective gesture. He must have thought he looked like a homeless guy or something. He probably smelt like one.

“W-wait! Where am I?”

Ardan clambered to his feet and trudged towards the pair’s direction. After spending so long on his knees, his legs felt a little wobbly and unsteady. He was in some sort of open carpark, probably for the massive apartment that towered over him. The father of the girl tried to hurry the girl along, but instead, she squirmed out of his grasp and ran towards Ardan.

“Who are you?” The girl curiously asked.

Ardan must have looked menacing to her father, standing close to two times taller than the little elf girl, because he approached him with his guard up. As he got nearer, Ardan could see that this elf had light green hair and hard, red eyes. There wasn’t anything distinct about his facial features, but his eyes squinted slightly, both in concern and cautiousness. The elf’s attire was very casual too, unlike other men Ardan had seen on the internet and around the orphanage.

“I’m Ardan. Where are we?”

A small window appeared beside the girl’s head, reminding him of the strange ability he had acquired.

Sandria

This time, there was no level, HP or AP included.

As the father got nearer, he saw that, though Ardan was tall, he was still a child. Regardless, he still firmly grabbed his daughter’s shoulders and moved her out of the way. Wouldn’t hurt to be careful, would it?

“We’re in Greixol right now. Where do you live?”

Greixol. Well that sucked, because Ardan had never heard of it before.

“Uh, I live in… an orphanage? I’m not sure how I ended up here...” His voice trailed off and he looked down, expecting the elf to walk away with his daughter. Instead, he put a hand on Ardan’s shoulder and gave a sympathetic smile.

“You’re a tall one, aren’t you? Let’s get you cleaned up before we get you home. My place is just around the corner, so we can talk more there. First though, I think you need a shower.”