He looked back at the Priest. There was now a name inscribed above him “Priest_or_Priestess_choose_one Lvl ????”

“Thank you, priest.”

“No problem, my child”

The priest went on one of the benches and kneeled.

He immediately went out of the church.

“Maximize. Quest.” He commanded the fireball beside him. He remembered very well that DoughnutKin said it’s the ultimate quest. He needed answers.

It’s been ages since he played a game, but he knew a Main Quest is the story line or the reason of living, well, that’s according to the books and games. If DoughnutKin and the others have this “Save the City” as their main quest or whatever, then he should also have one.

A blue floating blue monitor popped up before him.

Main Quest

Hidden Quest (1)

Side Quest (1)

| Quest | Stats | Items | Map | Music / Sound (Off) | Minimize |

“Main Quest.” He said hurriedly. His forehead sweating in anticipation.

404: Page not found

System Override in Place

| Quest | Stats | Items | Map | Music / Sound (Off) | Minimize |

“What-what this even mean?” It’s a phrase the least he was expecting. It seems that even in afterlife nobody can’t escape System Errors.

He was no programmer, but he was sure an error was a bad thing; a disruption of a flow. Errors like these were easy to deal with if he was still on Earth. In his previous life, there was an I.T. Department was just one call away. But, here, he doubted there was even one.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It’s a habit of his whenever he encountered a stressful situation. He opened his eyes and gave a long exhale.

The error was one of his problems now and on his checklist to find out. Just staring dumbly on the screen won’t do anything. He was now in an unknown world that he doesn’t know how things really works. The most important thing to know is to investigate and know how the system here works.

And that was what he was going to do.

Going to the Mayor’s Office might shed some details regarding this world. He thought.

“Maximize. Maps.”

The fireball beside him took in a form of dark rectangular shape. There’s a blue circle in the middle. It shows around 3 meter away from him are only lit. Everything was dark except for silhouette of the Cathedral’s area and the road he went previously. There was no indication where the Office was.

“Minimize.”

He looked around for someone to ask for directions.

“Hey!” he shouted one of the daredevil people by the stacks of straw.

“Where’s the Mayor’s Office?” he asked.

“Right there!” A people shouted back while pointing towards the right. “It’s not hard to miss.”

He looked where the person pointed at he saw large sign of “Mayor’s Office” in front of a standard building. It was really not hard to miss.

“Thanks!” He shouted.

He walked to the Building. Upon reaching it, his monitor popped up.

“PIIIIING~”

Congratulations on Completing the Quest.

Reward Receivedf: A shoddy Shield

| Quest | Stats | Items | Map | Music / Sound (Off) | Minimize |

“PIIIIING~”

Quest: Enter the Dark Area of Existential Crisis

Reward: +25 Levels

| Quest | Stats | Items | Map | Music / Sound (Off) | Minimize |

This could be the overridden system Main quest, he thought. When will it stop though? Unlike the others; it’s continuously giving me quests.

“Minimize.” He decided to read it later after completing the task on hand.

He went in the Mayor’s Office. Everything was pixelated; from the Ceiling to the floor, except for a blonde human person wearing a pixelated pink dress sitting behind a brown oval desk. I_was_at_a_different_castle Lvl ???? was in indicated above the person’s head.

He walked towards the desk.

“Hi! I’m here to apply for Citizenship?”

“Welcome” The woman cheerily greeted him and handed out a piece of paper “Please fill this up while I’ll just tell the Mayor you’re here.”

She proceeded to go through the door behind her.

“Okay.” He started filling the up the “Citizenship Papers.”

“The Mayor will see you now, Mr. Mark.” The receptionist smiled at him while giving way to the door behind her. “Please go in and hand him your papers.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m Neil, the City Mayor.” The person behind the desk introduced himself and gestured at the chair. “Please sit down.”

The first thing that came to Mark's mind was the mayor’s body was buffed. The bulging veins prominent on the mayor’s hand while holding a stamp that might snap in two in any minute now. Looking at the face, the striking feature was the long grey beard which was almost on the chest area. Opposite the threatening aura was a pair of soft kind eyes.

He looked up and read “Kneel_before_me Lvl ?????”

“Thank you and nice to meet you, Kneel uhhh before me.” He sat on the chair.

Neil looked at him for a good five seconds and put down the stamp.

“Nice to meet you too, NoobityNoob69. Just call me Neil.” Neil said in soothing voice. “We’ve been looking for you this whole week. We thought something has happened to you.”

“I’m sorry. I got lost.” His weak reasoning.

“Okay we understand. It’s hard to deal with your own death and all.” Neil solemnly said to him. “But still, I want to thank you for coming here.”

“You’re dead too?” He asked. Neil looked at him straight in the eye.

Was my question rude? Maybe, the question was too straightforward.

“I-“

“Everyone’s dead in here… I mean died on Earth and summoned here.” Neil answered.

“Oh.”

He didn’t know what to feel with this information. Happy that he is not alone, or sad because they all died.

“Is this the Purgatory?” he asked in an uncertain tone.

“Truth is ... nobody knows. Some think it that way. Well, some says this is Heaven. Some even say its Hell .We all have contrasting views on where we are right now.” Neil said. “I’m sorry if it’s not the answer you are looking for.”

“No. Thank you for telling me.”

“Okay. May I have your papers?” Mark gave him the paper. Neil grabbed a pen and read the paper. Stopped on a certain section. “There’s no game title here. I mean what’s the last game you played.”

“It has no name. My friend died before he completed the game.” He explained.

“Okay.” Neil started to write down something, but the pen broke into two. He grabbed the extra pen on the table.

Mark looked at him in concentration on writing slowly. “Snap!” and the pen broke again.

The calm face that Neil exuberated sudden went dark. A hint of reddish glow came from his eyes. He threw the broken pen on the trash beside the table; full of other broken pens. He proceeds to open the drawer; but stopped there were no pen left. He grabbed a knife instead from the drawer and pricked his fore finger. Then, began writing the words “unnamed” on the sheet of paper. The table made a noise while he wrote.

Having a knife on the table meaning that this happens a lot. Mark observed. He gulped and reminded himself to never anger the person in front of him.

“Okay. But do you fully know how to play it or how it works?” Neil asked him.

“A little bit. It’s been 10 years since I played the game.”

Neil pursed his lips. “I hope you try to remember as much as you can. It will help you in the field. I don’t know if you already, but It’s like a system rule in here that every person who was summoned here gets the game system or perks of the last game they played. The earlier you remember about it; your survival chances increases significantly.”

“Survive? Do we die in here?” Mark asked him.

“Yes. But, before you think of something else. You are re-summoned on the Cathedral.” Neil said in a hurried tone.

“That’s good to know.” Mark said halfheartedly.

…that his nose will have some repercussion. He wanted to add. He was sure that he won't be summoned in the Cathedral.

Neil’s face became stern. “What I’ll tell you is the most important; if you die some of your memories will be gone. It can be names of the people you know or their faces. So, please survive as much as you can.”

And the face softened again. “Not remembering the face of the people you once knew is hard for anyone. Some became depressed for a time. That’s why we encourage for newbies to go the memory bank. You can write all the person you know and have it safe keep there.”

“I will.” Mark said solemnly.

“By the way…” Neil handed him a flyer.

“I’m sorry, but what’s this?” Mark eyes scanning the piece of paper.

“Living here in City Zero is not …free. But for first time summoned people, like you, can live here for this month free. After that , though, you need to subscribe the City Zero 5th Class Citizenship for 9.99 Gold per month. One of the perks is you can sleep in the Castle; food’s not included. If you want food, you would want upgrade it to 4th Class Citizenry.” Neil sounded a high pitched salesman rapping, and coughed. He pointed at the flyer, his calm voice back. “All the perks and details of each citizenship class are indicated in that flyer.”

Mark looked again the flyer. He didn’t understand most of the Mayor was saying just the $9.99 subscription. There’s a price in living here it seems.

“Your subscription will help all the people working who made the entire city livable until now.” Neil said and stuck out his hand for a handshake. “Welcome to City Zero.”