Player Zero:No Exit

3

NO SAFE ZONE

Jack's point of View

I did not move for a long time.

I just stood there staring at the place where the ruin hound had died. The ground was still dark, with the ruin hounds blood. My hands would not stop shaking.

I did something. I killed something. The thing I killed is gone because of me. I am the one who killed the thing.

Not by being strong. Not by being skilled.

By being desperate.

My shoulder really hurt it felt like it was, on fire. Every time I took a breath the pain moved through my chest. The blue screen just sat there quietly like it was waiting for me to fall over again.

I looked down at myself. I saw my body and my own clothes. My eyes were looking at my hands and my feet. I was looking at myself.

My shirt was torn. It was really bad. Blood got over the fabric of my shirt. My legs felt very weak. They felt like they might give out on me at any second. My legs were like that because of the blood, from my shirt.

I looked at my status to see what it says. My status is what I was checking.

HP: 9/50

Status Effects: • Bleeding (Minor) • Malnourished • Fatigued

I said that is great. I did not really mean it.

I did not know how long the bleeding lasted. I had no idea if the bleeding would stop by itself. I was completely in the dark, about the bleeding.

There was no tutorial. No guide. No friendly voice explaining things.

Just survive.

That was the quest.

I put my hand on my shoulder to try and stop the bleeding. It really hurt,. It made me feel a bit better. Then the screen on the thing, in front of me started flashing.

BLEEDING REDUCED

It does things when you do something to it. The thing reacts to what you do.

Good to know.

I looked around again. I wanted to see everything that was there I looked around again. The room was pretty empty. I still looked around again to make sure I did not miss anything.

The ruins were closer than I thought they would be. I saw broken stone walls. Collapsed buildings all, around me. There was nothing moving. That did not mean anything was okay. The hound had come out of nowhere which really scared me. The ruins and the hound were a bad combination.

Staying in the open felt stupid.

I made my legs move. I limped towards the ruins. The ruins were right, in front of me. I had to go there. I was really. I had to keep going to the ruins.

Every step I took really hurt me. Walking was very painful, for me because every step hurt.

I just did not stop I kept going.

Inside the ruins the air felt really cold. The walls stopped some of the noise that was coming from the sky. I found a space, between two big rocks that had fallen down and I squeezed into it breathing really hard.

I sat down in a chair. It felt nice to sit down after a time of standing. Sitting down is something that I really like to do when I'm tired. I sat down. I felt my body relax.

The moment I stopped moving I felt really tired and exhaustion hit me hard. I was so exhausted that it felt like it was crushing me. The exhaustion, from not moving was overwhelming.

My hands were shaking badly. My stomach was hurting a lot. I was feeling hunger strongly it was like someone punched me.

I had not eaten properly in days. Maybe it was weeks. I had not eaten a meal in a long time and that was really starting to get to me. The thing is, I had not eaten properly in days and that was beginning to feel like a long time, maybe even weeks.

The screen appeared again.

WARNING: ENERGY LEVELS CRITICAL

I said quietly "Yes I know that already.

I leaned my head back against the stone wall. Closed my eyes feeling the coolness of the stone, against my head. The stone was really comfortable. I liked resting my head against the stone.

I was thinking about the bridge for a moment. The bridge was really cold. It felt like I was sitting on cardboard. I could hear the sounds of cars driving above me on the bridge.

The funny thing was that this place actually felt even worse.

Under the bridge that is where I knew what to do. I had to be quiet and not make a sound. I had to be invisible so nobody could see me. The main thing was to stay alive and that meant following those rules staying quiet and staying invisible because when you are, under the bridge staying alive is the important thing and to do that I had to remember to stay quiet and stay invisible at all times.

The rules were really trying to kill me. I mean it felt like the rules were, out to get me. The rules were so tough that I thought they were going to be the end of me.

A soft chime broke my thoughts. It was such a sound but it was enough to stop me from thinking about what I was thinking about. The soft chime just came out of nowhere. Broke my thoughts.

NEW FUNCTION AVAILABLE

I opened my eyes.

A little picture was flashing on the screen. It said INVENTORY.

I paid attention to it. Then a new window opened up.

It was almost empty.

Items: • Broken Core (Common)

That was it.

I picked up the shard again. The shard felt warm in my hand like it was alive or something. The shard was giving off a glow.

The screen did something when I touched it. The screen reacted.

ITEM INFORMATION: Broken Core Description: A damaged energy fragment from a low-tier entity. Use: Unknown Value: Low

I said it again "Unknown".

That word was always, with me it seemed to show up I went. The word was really something that followed me everywhere.

I tried tapping the thing to see what would happen. The thing did not do anything. I tapped the thing. Still nothing happened with the thing.

I put the thing back where it was.

My stomach was making a lot of noise. It was really growling. I could hear my stomach growling loudly.

"I was saying to myself I really hope you do not want to eat the food " I said in a voice.

No response. Thankfully.

I leaned forward. I put my elbows on my knees. My vision got a little blurry. I wiped my eyes because I was annoyed with my vision. I was really annoyed.

I was not going to cry.

I have done enough of that in my life.

A sound echoed through the ruins. The sound was really loud. It echoed through the ruins.

Footsteps.

I just stopped moving and I was really scared my body was like frozen in place I froze.

Slow. Heavy. Not running. More than one.

I held my breath. I pushed myself deeper into the shadows. The shadows were really dark. I was trying to hide. I did not want to be seen so I kept really still and quiet. My heart was beating fast because I was so scared. I was hiding in the shadows. I was holding my breath.

Three figures walked into the space that was right, in front of me. These three figures just appeared out of nowhere. Now they are standing there. The open space was empty before. Now the three figures are taking up some of that space.

Not monsters.

People.

They looked like people.

These people wore armor that was made of leather and metal plates. Each of the warriors had a weapon, with them. The warriors had a sword. The warriors had a spear. The warriors had a bow.

Some text showed up above the peoples heads.

PLAYER – LEVEL 5

PLAYER – LEVEL 4

PLAYER – LEVEL 6

My heart started pounding. I felt my heart beating fast. My heart was racing like crazy. The heart was pounding in my chest.

Players.

Like me.

Except not like me at all.

They were loud. They felt really relaxed. The people were. Laughing at the same time.

One of the people asked if they saw the spawn area today. They said that three new players showed up in the spawn area at the time. The spawn area is really busy today the spawn area is always full of players.

Someone said yeah. One of the things they were talking about did not last ten minutes.

The people just could not stop laughing at the thing that the people saw. The people were laughing hard.

I was not feeling well. The sickness was really bothering me. I felt sick.

"Free experience" the third one said. "If they are lucky."

My fingers dug into my palms. I was clenching my fists tightly that my fingers were really digging into my palms. This was happening because I was feeling very anxious about the situation, with my fingers and my palms. My fingers were digging into my palms. It was starting to hurt.

The discussion was, about people. It seems that people were what they were talking about. The subject was people.

About deaths.

Like it was nothing.

They did not see me. The people just kept going. They did not even look at me. I was standing there. The people passed by without noticing the person, which is me.

I stayed still for a time after the people were gone. The people had. I was still standing there. I did not move even after the people were gone.

So that was it.

I wasn’t alone in this game.

That did not mean I was safe.

If the monsters, in the game did not kill me then the other players probably would. The monsters and the other players are both pretty scary. I have to watch out for the monsters and the other players all the time.

The screen blinked softly. It was a gentle blink. The screen just went dark for a second. Then it came back on. The screen blinked softly again.

I just found out something. This world is not a place at all. There are no areas where you can feel completely safe. This world has no zones. You have to be careful you go because this world has no safe zones.

I let out a breath.

That thing is not going to work. The thing I am talking about is not going to do what we want it to do. The thing is just not going to happen.

When the pain in my shoulder was not as bad I got up slowly. I had to move. If I just sat there I would be, in trouble. Sitting still was an idea it was how people got hurt really badly.

I walked through the ruins slowly. The ruins were pretty creepy. I had to look at every thing, in the ruins. I was searching the ruins.

Most of it was useless. Broken stones. Rusted metal. Dust.

Then I found something interesting the thing that caught my attention was this one thing, the thing I am talking about is the thing I found.

There is a chest that is cracked and it is half buried under a bunch of rubble. The chest is small. It looks like it has been damaged. The rubble is, around the small cracked chest.

My heart jumped when I saw that. It was such a shock that my heart jumped. I am still feeling it because my heart jumped.

I pulled the thing free. Then I opened it up. The thing was finally, out. I was able to open it.

Inside was a roll of cloth and a dull metal knife.

The screen made a noise.

ITEM ACQUIRED: • Ragged Bandage (Poor) • Rusted Knife (Poor)

I was about to laugh.

Poor or not, it was something.

I took the bandage. I put it on my shoulder. The bandage is, on my shoulder now. I used the bandage to cover my shoulder.

The pain started to hurt a lot. Then it did not hurt as much anymore. The pain. Went.

HP: 14/50

Bleeding: Removed

I said thank you. I was not really sure who I was saying thank you to.

I picked up the knife. The knife felt light in my hand. The knife was a little unbalanced. The knife was sharp enough.

Better than nothing.

I was standing there. I had it in my hands. Then something weird happened with the thing I was holding. The thing I was holding was giving me a feeling.

The screen flickered. It was really annoying when the screen did that. The screen flickered again. I had to wait for it to stop.

We have a notice. Player Zero has been found to be an anomaly. So we are going to keep an eye on Player Zero. This means that the monitoring of Player Zero will be increased. We are paying attention to Player Zero now.

My chest felt tight all of a sudden. I could feel the tightness, in my chest. It was like my chest was squeezing in on me. My chest was tight.

That does not sound good.

Another message showed up. It was smaller, than the last one.

HIDDEN CONDITION ACTIVE: THE UNWANTED

Description: This world does not know who you are as a player.

Effect: Some things, in the game may not work properly because this world does not recognize you as a player.

I looked at the thing in front of me. I just kept staring at it. The thing was really interesting, to me so I stared at it.

So the game really does not like me. It seems like the game is actually, against me. The game just hates me.

The screen did not disagree.

I took the knife. I tied it to my belt. I used a piece of cloth from the bandage to do this. It was not a job but the knife stayed in place. The knife was now tied to my belt. That was good enough, for me.

I looked ahead to see what was coming next. The road was stretching out in front of me. I kept looking.

The ruins came to an end at a path that went deeper into the dead land. This path was really long. It went further into the dead land. I saw something dark from really far away. It was rising from the ground. It looked like a broken tower. The dead land had this thing that was tall and dark. It looked broken.

I did not know where the path led. The path was a mystery to me. I was curious, about the path.

I was not going to stand still. Standing still was not something I could do. I had to keep moving because standing still was not an option, for me.

I took my step forward. I mean I actually did it I took my step forward and it feels really good. Taking that step forward was a big deal, for me. The first step forward is something I will always remember.

My body was really hurting over. Every part of my body was saying no to what I was doing. It was like my body was shouting at me to stop. Every part of my body screamed in protest.

I just kept on walking.

My life I have found that stopping something is not what helps me. I have learned that stopping had never saved me from anything. My whole life stopping had never saved me. That is the truth.

When I moved I saw a message. It was the last one. The message appeared as I was moving. It was the message.

NEW QUEST UNLOCKED: THE ZERO PATH

Description: Grow without permission. Reward: Unknown Failure: Death

I smiled when I thought about it. It was a happy moment, for me. I could not help but smile.

Not a happy smile.

A sharp one.

“Sounds about right.”

And with that I walked deeper, into a world that never wanted me it was a place that did not care about my presence, the world that never wanted me was full of things and I was not sure what I would find there but I kept walking, into the world that never wanted me.

ready to take everything from it anyway.