《The Joker, The Trickster, and the Magician》Dead
Advertisement
WARNING! [Bleeding] effect has multiplied!
WARNING! User's Health is under 10%
WARNING! User's Health is under 5%
...
You are dead!
The system is going to be revoked.
...
Unknown to Wolfram, with his body fallen on the ground and bound by small metallic threads, he laid in a pool of dried blood. The room was half destroyed with many soldiers lying around him, they were deader than dead.
Some with missing limbs and other with smashed heads, a gory sight to behold. He was unconscious so he couldn't witness what was happening to his broken body, which was burned from the strong electricity that invaded him and burned his organs and caused nonstop bleeding, which led to his imminent death.
His broken body was slowly yet surely being healed thanks to an unknown power that invaded his body and used it as a permanent host.
It wasn't some kind of alien but a formless energy that was gentle and mysterious, it stretched to all parts of his body, allowing him to gain a bit of vitality and giving some color to his skin, which, at first, made him like a corpse in a morgue.
Card System being applied, please wait....
As this robotic voice resounded inside the ears of the unconscious Wolfram, a normal-looking deck of cards appeared from within his chest and floated a few inches above him. It was a strange sight but it became way stranger when this clustered cards began separating until 52 cards were aligned next to each other with their back to the roof and their front side facing the prisoner.
The cards flashed with a red, white and an even mysterious black light that illuminated the dark room, which had no light in it from the very start.
Then, one by one, the cards started entering his chest beginning from the ace of hearts... two of hearts, all the way to the king of spades.
When all the deck could no longer be seen, Wolfram's body shook violently and the same lights from before appeared, the place where his heart is, flashed with a red light, all his limbed emitted a bright white light, as for the weird black light, it emanated from his head.
After that, his appearance had some change as a small dark star similar to a tattoo appeared under his left eye, it wasn't particularly big but it could be seen and it's rather attention-grabbing.
The lower part of his eyelids also suffered a change as they were now black, similar to the makeup woman make but what made it strange is that only the lower part was black whereas women do all the area around the eye.
Card System applied successfully!
Checking compatibility with the user..... 100%.
.....
An unknown amount of time passed before Wolfram's eyes fluttered before they opened, at last, he felt numbness and heaviness assault him as the injuries were still affecting him. The agony he was experiencing due to the electricity was now gone but the slash marks caused by the torture were still present.
Fortunately, they seemed to have recovered a bit as some scabs appeared and the blood stopped leaking, however, that didn't mean he wasn't feeling pain, it was just not to the point of making him unable to move.
Advertisement
Slowly, he moved his numb limbs and got up with his back leaning on the wall. He surveyed his surroundings and saw the various pools of blood, headless bodies, and severed limbs, his eyes didn't even flinch when he saw such a gory sight, in fact, he let out a loud laugh that made him feel even more pain yet he still laughed as his eyes flashed with happiness.
"Hahahaha ladies and gentlemen, karma as its finest! Hahahahaha..."
He continued laughing for who knew how long before he stopped and started dragging his tired body near a body of a dead soldier who was missing his head.
His stomach was grumbling from hunger and thirst, his lips were dry and the stench of blood was nauseating, to say the least. Wolfram ignored the starvation and stretched his arm, pulling the handgun of the soldier and checking if there are any bullets in it. The magazine was full which made him feel a bit relieved. He wasn't sure on what happened but he intended to kill as many soldiers as possible before he is taken down.
That wasn't the only weapon he took from the corpses, he snatched a military knife and a rifle from other corpses too. He hid the knife and the handgun and held the heavy rifle, which he could barely hold. The more he rested the more tired he became so he mustered his strength and stood up while gritting his teeth as the pain was nothing to scoff at.
The room wasn't particularly big and the entrance seemed to be blocked by medium-sized rocks and some leftover metal that was half broken.
"Reinforced room my ass, an earthquake was enough to turn this place upside down... well it matters not since it's in my favor."
Wolfram licked his lips as he put the rifle down and started pulling down the rocks trying to move them out of the way. After a few tries, he sat down, panting again as some of the injuries opened a bit and the pain came back.
As he leaned on the shattered wall, Wolfram felt a weird wriggling sound inside his rear pocket. He had already changed his outfit and wore a clean one he got from a somewhat intact corpse, one that didn't have any messy gore or dried blood.
He didn't know if wearing a soldier outfit will trick the guards outside but even buying enough time to kill them is more than enough, he isn't going to befriend them or something like that, after all, he can't change his facial appearance.
He slowly reached his hand in the pocket and took out what's inside with a frown on his face. When he looked at the object he was holding, the confusion on his face deepened as he examined the seemingly ordinary deck of cards.
He fiddled with the cards until he noticed that the card at the bottom of this deck was a bit weird, it was jet black and a bit thicker than the rest.
He put the cards on the side and inspected this card with a bit of surprise. Normally, he wouldn't be surprised by anything, however, what was written on the card was really astonishing.
There was a picture of him at the upper left part and what's weirder is that he had a tattoo under his left eye. Maybe those scientists experimented on him and did some tattoo but that was rather unlikely.
Advertisement
Wolfram ignored his picture and proceeded to examine the rest of the information written on the card. All the letters were written with shining gold characters which made it look quite appealing, much different to a shabby ID card that normal citizens have.
'What the hell? Why did they bother to create this if I was about to die? Anyways, this looks great! I even look handsome in this picture.'
As he further inspected this dark card, Wolfram came to understand that this wasn't made by those scientists, or at least, that's what he speculated after spending fifteen minutes thoroughly reading what's displayed on it.
Wolfram Sakimoto
Race: No Race
Class: 1 Star Trickster
--
Cards Control : 1
Cards Sharpness : 1
Cards Speed : 1
--
Strength : 1.5
Vitality : 0.4
Speed : 1.3
Perception : 1.9
Magic : 2
Magic Control : 1
Magic Resistance : 1
--
Card Points : 1
---
Wolfram understood the meaning of these numbers after pondering for a bit, he didn't know if they were real or not and from the looks of it, this was similar to modern games where they rely on some kind of status to see how strong the players are.
He wasn't very knowledgeable about them but he understood the concept, however, the magic thingy and the cards stats were confusing.
He unconsciously touched the Cards Control which led to a sudden change to the black card. All the contents written on it instantaneously changed and a row of golden characters appeared in his sight.
*Cards Control : It shows how efficient and nimble the trickster is when he's using his cards, the higher the number the more tricks he could perform.*
He tried tapping again on the golden characters and just like he guessed, the front page which displayed the stats appeared before him again.
He checked the other stats which he couldn't understand and slowly came to understand their roles.
Basically, the cards speed is how fast the cards are when he throws or perform tricks with them, as for the sharpness, it just means how sharp they are, literally.
The Magic stats is about how strong the unleashed magic spell is, Wolfram didn't understand this and didn't bother trying to figure it out. He first thought this is some kind of a joke but soon rejected that idea when he did a little experiment.
When he tapped on the Card Points stat, it stated that the trickster could gain CP (Card Points) through various ways with the most efficient one being slaying living beings, their race doesn't matter, only their level does.
The higher their level the more CP he'll get. CP can be distributed to any of the displayed stats.
The stats related to him can be raised in another way too, that is by looting stats cards from the corpses of the enemies. Basically, every stat has a unique card to it, such as Strength Card, Perception Card and so on...
Apparently, there is a 50/50 chance that a stat card will drop, furthermore, they are randomly generated. For example, a muscular soldier has a high chance to drop a Strength Card but he can also drop a Perception Card, even dropping a Magic Card is possible too.
The experiment Wolfram did was rather simple, he used his one and only Card Points and added it to his lowest stats, Vitality. Once he did that, he checked his stats again and just as he guessed, his Vitality became (1.4), moreover, he felt his tired body become a bit sturdier and the flowing blood that leaked out of his opened wounds stopped gushing out.
He was still feeling pain but he knew that his body was miraculously recovering, albeit the inhuman experiments they did to him, he was still recovering his strength every passing minute.
"Hahahahaha ain't this a motherfucking good day!"
He doesn't know what exactly happened, how did these cards appear or how could he see stats on this weird dark card but in all honesty, he doesn't care at all.
What matters is that he's still alive, he may be injured but he'll recover, the soldiers around him are all dead and he's currently in a safe place. All he had to do is get out of here, one way or another, no matter how many more lives he has to take.
Despite the hunger that was assaulting his stomach, Wolfram patiently waited for foty minutes before he got up and started checking his body. He spent all that time fiddling with the normal deck of cards he found in his pocket, despite never playing with cards in all of his life, he found himself proficient in handling them.
He can't do amazing tricks like those famous magicians but he could throw them in a somewhat straight line or perform some simple tricks that fool the naked eye. He didn't know how he was able to do so but he just did, like an innate talent that he was born with.
The cards weren't that sharp, at least not to the point of being able to cut the lifeless corpse of the soldiers. What's more surprising is that the thrown cards will disappear after some time and come back to his deck as if they were never thrown.
When he finally got up, he could feel his body pumping with energy, even the knife scars he had gotten from the torture were no longer painful or leaking blood, they seemed like old scars that had long since they healed, scabs had appeared and if he doesn't purposely tire himself to death, then they won't hinder his movements that much.
With how his body is right now, although he's not in his peak state, he could still run and battle with experienced soldiers, even if he's ganged up, he can still handle it if there is not an absurd amount of enemies charging at him.
Wolfram stretched his body and tucked the deck of cards in his rear pocket, he positioned the handgun in a place where it's easily accessible in battle and hid the military knife, with a fully loaded rifle in his hands, he walked around the shattered room to inspect the corpses before he leaves this godforsaken room forever.
Advertisement
- In Serial62 Chapters
Dungeon Scholar
Girl meets dungeon. What could go right? A story of a good-hearted Scholar driven by her compassion and curiosity. She might be a little combat averse, but um, isn't that only logical? Love me a good grimdark, but sometimes I want to read feel-good fiction that isn't pure action, romance, or comedy. The plot and characters of Dungeon Scholar won't be all happy and fluffy, and the world will be more dungeons and monsters than rainbows and puppies, but overall the sweet moments should overshadow the bitter. Let's say three dollops of sugar for every pinch of salt, with lemon slices left on the saucers? Enjoy. Note: This is NOT a typical dungeon story. If you are here for the dungeon aspect, then fair warning this will seem incredibly slow-burn to you. The dungeon will eventually become the most important 'character,' arguably, or the second-most important narratively, but you might jump out the window in frustration long before that happens. At its heart, the story's core remains 'girl meets dungeon,' not 'dungeon meets world.' (To be clear, this does or will have a plot! It's just the more conventional story-like elements contribute to Rowena Loress's greater story, not the other way around; no conflict takes center stage until it becomes personally significant to her. Meanwhile, have some Slice of Life.) Updates every Friday Cover made using Waifulabs Written using 4thewords (referral code: UZJRY55368)
8 121 - In Serial23 Chapters
Fantastic Advancement
Waking up naked, alone, and confused, Vincent finds himself on an alien planet with an environment and rules he does not understand. Join him in his process of discovery and mastery of the inscrutable and ill-understood laws and principles that will come to govern his new life. Right now (Aug. 2019), each chapter is an average of ~3.5k words, and I update two or three times a week. NOTE: Cover art is a Creative Commons image, from https://www.photosforclass.com/search/insect/1 EDIT: I am not Kate Banner. I did not publish this work under the title "Advancing in a Legendary World".
8 219 - In Serial22 Chapters
Rolling Stone [Monster Evolution LitRPG]
War rages across the mountainside, glittering phalanxes of mail-clad dwarves fight back unending waves of goblin warriors while dark forces creep through the shadows, taking advantage of the chaos. None of that matters to Stone. He's a simple pebble, newly awakened and curious about the strange world he finds himself in. He doesn't know the first thing about the unending conflict that engulfs him or the grand machinations of fate that have left their imprint on his very soul. Why would a rock care about any of that? It isn't nearly as much fun as leveling up. After all, he might be a pebble, but that won't stop him from rolling toward his destiny, alongside his unfortunately stuck partner. Chapters length: 4000 - 6000 words. I will be uploading every day for the 1st week, then 2nd and 3rd week one chapter every 2 daysand from 4th 1 chapter per week. - now here!If I reach my goal on Patreon, I will increase it to 2 - 3 chapters per week. Cover done by Super-Amazing-And-Overall-Great person: TrolljanEdited by God-Editor BlancWarning: Heavy LitRPG. I mean... There are literally status screens that made me slightly insane.This novel will contain strong language and gore—no explicit sex scenes. Discord: The Stone Lounge
8 207 - In Serial11 Chapters
NOVA INTERIT.US
It's 2063, and the town along with much of the nation are in disarray. The decay started years before the Great Event. Our town still had hope thanks to the five families, who'd created a blockchain based water distribution system for the locals, a valuable secret hidden from the Global Water Commission and their network of mercenaries. Earlier in the mid-2040's, right after the state secessions of Idaho, Montana, and Texas, the Global Council of Water Commissioners made their deals and moved into towns throughout the country. They called it "the integration." The Commission and their contractors integrated with municipal water departments, using their organized network to invade like parasites on local services. It all coincided with the 29th Amendment to the United States Constitution, later referred to as the Regional Trident Plan. Nova is a story about survival, power structures, the turning of relationships, and the networking between people and the systems to which they belong. It’s about A.I. blockchain possibility, and its potential for human betterment versus our detriment. It’s about the question of whether or not we need to be saved from ourselves, and by who or what? The Great Event at the end of the first chapter might just be what actually saves us. The epilogue will take place in 2517. This scene is fully sketched and the full arc of the novel is set. I expect to finish Nova Interitus by summer of 2023. This is realist hard-sci-fi dystopian fiction. I hope you find Nova to be a challenging and consuming story. This is not something I planned to write. It all came to me in a dream and I haven't been able to stop writing it. This Royal Road posting is basically a beta test with chapters and drafts to get some feedback and see if there's any readership for this narrative. For the full experience read Nova on Substack. I will be narrating a podcast version later this year there. https://novainteritus.substack.com/
8 145 - In Serial44 Chapters
Laus Deo
Abigail and Elias just had the worst day of their lives: burying their parent's after their unexpected deaths. All mourning is put on hold when an irate angel appears in their house and demands their help.Humanity is in trouble. The seal on the demon kingdom has weakened and if it's not taken care of soon, well...all Hell will break loose, literally. Earth will become the stage for Heaven and Hell's eternal war.The siblings join forces with the angel, while trying to keep up with the demands of normal life.Among all this, Abigail begins to suspect their parents' deaths might not have happened the way the police report says they did.
8 145 - In Serial19 Chapters
My little freshman
Eren is currently a senior at Sina high school and has his eyes set on a certain cute, raven haired freshman, but he's already taken. Eren will go to far lengths just to make Levi his, but how far will he take it? (There will be eventual Ereri)*I do not own any of the characters from Attack on titan or any of the art that is used. Credit goes to all artists*
8 151

