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2024-10-29 19:42:56Following her swift footsteps, they ran through the darkness until they reached a crumbling house. Leo gave Draven a wary look as he paused at the entrance.
"Can we trust her?" He asked silently.
Leo shrugged and replied, "We don't have another choice now, do we?"
Draven's heart was still racing from the encounter with the creature, and he spoke up, "Uuh... Hey stranger. I'm sorry to say this but... are you sure about this place? I'm not trying to be rude but this place looks like it's about to crumble any second."
She turned to face them, her expression calm and somewhat bored.
"You can go back if you want. I prefer having the place to myself."
They pushed open the creaking door to reveal dusty furniture, weapons, and equipment inside.
Then Leo spoke. "I'm Leo, and this is Draven. Thanks for your help back there."
A faint smile appeared on her face as she nodded. "I'm Elena. It's not every day that I come across dumb people. How long have you both been here? You don't have to make a ruckus when fighting. You'll only attract more danger to yourself. You two can call me El."
Draven said with a mix of irritation. "Look, Elena, I mean El." He corrected himself quickly. I appreciate your help, but we were just doing what we had to do. I don't know anything about this place. So I'm not dumb. We're not dumb."
With a bored expression on her face, she looked at him. "Suit yourself," she said as she took off her weapon.
"Sorry we made a bad first impression." Then Draven walked up to her and extended his hand.
"I'm Draven. This is Leo." He gestured towards Leo.
"I came to this game today, and met Leo and yes also met you too. I'm such a social butterfly." He flashed her his bright smile but she seemed less interested in talking to him.
Leo chuckled nervously. "Nice to meet you Elena."
"El." She corrected him.
"Oh, sorry. Nice to meet you, El."
Elena waved her hand, "No need to apologize. Now that we know each other, follow me."
She walked to a door in the corner of the room, but as she opened it, a hidden passageway appeared. There was an underground staircase leading to an astonishingly well-preserved sanctuary.
They descended into the underground hideout and Draven couldn't help but ask. "Wow, this place is lit. How long have you been here?"
His question was met with silence.
"That may not be a question you want to ask." Leo whispered to him.
"Oh. But how long do you think she's been here?" He whispered back.
"Well... She already has her special powers and a cool hideout. I'd say 5 days to one week"
"Wow. But the game ticket was open just today" Draven couldn't get how these players had already reached higher levels while he was just here.
"Time isn't the same here. Here, time is faster. Time is slower in the real world." Leo explained to him as he continued walking, "So those who came before you have higher levels than you."
"Ohh." Draven nodded his head, "Got it."
They climbed the staircase silently until they reached a big room. There were things on the wall too, like a sword adorned with an elegant bronze hilt. A fighting cane with an unfamiliar style. This firearm had a long barrel and a container of metallic balls next to it. The sword caught Leo's attention. He was just about to touch it.
"Don't touch anything." Elena scolded.
"Alright, alright." Leo raised his hands like surrender.
There was a shelf on the wall full of wearables, like a duelling vest etched with symbols and marks. It was a shield lined with metal and wood. A ring adorned with numerous gemstones.
Then Elena spoke, "Both of you are new here. That means you don't have your powers yet or don't have acquired any wealth now."
"Wealth?" Draven asked.
"Everyone has to acquire wealth in the game in order to survive in the game and reach higher levels. This wealth grants you special armour in the game and you can do other things in game or in the real world too.I am sure your system has already told you about this."
"Oh, I see," Draven replied. He thought about what she had said for a moment.
Elena, Draven and Leo continued walking in that sanctuary. The soft glow from mysterious crystals cast an otherworldly light around them. Turning around, she stared at them.
Draven furrowed his brow. "In the real world? What does that mean? I thought our wealth was just part of the game mechanics."
Elena nodded. "You're partly right. Our special wealth is indeed game mechanics, but they're also connected to the real world also. In this world, they are used to acquire unique powers, but you can also use your money in the real world."
Leo chimed in, "So, you mean our wealth will also be available in the real world at the end of this game?"
Elena nodded. "Exactly. The more we explore the game's world and acquire our respective wealth, the more we can unlock our characters' true potential. This money is the key to unravelling FortuneCraft's deepest secrets."
Draven scratched the back of his head. "How do we learn about the system more and unlock these special powers?"
Elena looked at him like he was silly. She shook her head and replied. "It starts with research and sometimes even embarking on quests specifically related to the wealth system. We'll need to find clues, decipher ancient texts, and interact with non-playable characters who can guide us on our journey."
Leo leaned in as he was intrigued. "So, it's like a mix of in-game knowledge and uncovering the game's hidden wealth system."
Elena nodded. "Well.... Something like that. As we progress, we'll uncover the true potential of our characters. It's not just about defeating enemies and completing quests; it's about understanding our past, our wealth system, and the source of our powers."
Draven, now fully engaged, asked, "And once we acquire this wealth, how do we use them effectively in the game?"
Elena was becoming irritated. "Have you never played an RPG in the real world before? I called you dumb before and this just goes to prove my point."
"Hey!" Draven protested.
She rolled her eyes and continued."Once we understand the system, we can strategically use them to solve puzzles, overcome challenges, and defeat formidable foes. It's not just about brute force; it's about skill and creativity in using our powers to outsmart the game's challenges."
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FortuneCraft in Apocalypse Oracle
Elena explained the concept of games and their importance, but she couldn't help but feel a growing irritation at the stupid guys in front of her.She spoke, her tone tinged with annoyance, "So, understanding our characters is essential. You'll know more about yours when we find the Oracle of the Shrouded Sands."Draven looked puzzled. "The Oracle of the what?"Elena rolled her eyes, barely concealing her frustration. "The Oracle of the Shrouded Sands, Darwin.""It's Draven to you""Whatever. The Oracle of the Shrouded Sands is a mythical figure in this game world who possesses knowledge about our characters which are associated with the amount of wealth we can acquire. Finding the Oracle is one of the primary objectives in uncovering the full potential of our characters.""So, how do we find this Oracle?" Leo chimed in."There's a map. There's a map leading to it. But the map is long lost. No one knows where it is. Some say the map was torn into two equal halves."Leo looked at her t
FortuneCraft in Apocalypse Second Half Of The Map
“How long until we get there?” Draven asked, gasping for breath.“Don’t be a whiny child,” Elena snapped back. “And by the way, which one of you wanted to see a pretty lady, huh? Shouldn’t you be patient enough to see something that brings you pleasure?”Draven rolled his eyes. It was so critical of Elena to bring up past discussions that didn’t favour her whenever she wanted to make a point. He didn’t have a problem with it, except that they had been walking for such a long time and he was sincerely tired. How hard was it to get to some persons who would help them get the map? Of course, he won’t voice it out just yet, since Leo was kind enough to take the words right out of his mouth.“Don’t you think we should have met this person by now? He asked.Elena shot him a glare. “We’ve only been walking for two hours.”“Only?” Leo asked, his tone higher than usual. “Only? My god, I’m wasting my breath talking to you like this. I get that you’re very strong and all that, but if you hadn’t
FortuneCraft in Apocalypse Betrayal
Draven peered at the sky. He realized then that evening had come, but because of Elena’s power. She was able to manipulate the elements just a little more than what it was. Now darkness panned over them, starless and close. It felt as though he would be able to reach it if he just stood just a bit.“What are you doing?” Leo asked.Draven looked down from the sky to her. Yes, what was she doing? Her smile was maniacal, almost like she had these whole things planned inside her head and she couldn’t wait for them to hear it.“My friend would be required to speak with Draven alone,” Elena said and looked pointedly at Leo. ‘If you can just give us a moment.”Leo peered around her shoulders and saw only the dark woods behind her, which seemed to turn darker each second. “I don’t see any friends of yours.”Draven felt wrong, but he didn’t exactly know where the feeling came from, or its purpose. Naturally, seeing Elena’s powers were not exactly charming, yet it felt as though there was somet
FortuneCraft in Apocalypse Night Striker
Draven ran into the woods, the sound of his heartbeat louder than his own breathing. He vaguely wondered if she would run after him, if she could track him. The whole night had ended too fast, too dramatic. The effect of her fake night was beginning to wear off. It was difficult to hide in the daylight, but easier at night. If she raised the effect, it would still be dark, but not as pitch black and starless as it was.Draven touched trees as he slowly made his way around and continued to run in slow patches. Damn that girl. She had killed Leo, and it could have been him. It could have been him. He stopped for a moment and bent over, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breathing.“The bag,” he whispered to himself. “The map.”He had nothing. All he knew was that Leo had disappeared into thin air and he had quickly fled the scene. Elena had stared too long at the damage, at the air where he disappeared. She had brushed it aside as a mistake, and was ready to focus on Draven
FortuneCraft in Apocalypse System Updated
The monster turned away from Draven. It seemed impressed that it had more prey than usual, and a startling number at that. Six of them. Six players. Draven knew this by their outfits, and the way they stood. They were probably a gang, he mused. They might have heard him and the monster and came to have their own pound of flesh, so he dare not imagine that they had come for him, to save him.“What do we have here?" one of the players hooted. “Been long since we saw one of these.”“And with a player at that,” another hooted.“A level one player,” the first one countered the second one. “He doesn’t look like he would last long here.”“Doesn’t he?” A third player stepped forward and brought out his weapon. “Why don’t we try it out, hmm?”The monster stepped away from Draven noiselessly, like it was floating in the air. He had recognized their new company as a threat and had considered taking them out. Draven leaned up on his elbows and moved back a bit, creating more distance between the
FortuneCraft in Apocalypse Samurai
He woke up with a start. Draven touched his chest to see if he was alive. After confirming that he was indeed alive, he took in his surroundings. He was still in that damned forest, and the dead bodies of the players were no longer there. Maybe they had vanished. He wondered if that wasn’t the case, if he had simply walked on until he fainted out of distress. After all, he hadn’t rested for hours and his memory felt fuzzy.Groaning, he stood up. His back hurt, his whole body hurt. Draven stretched out his arms and his sides, then his back. It felt good. He craned his neck from side to side in an attempt to stretch it; the crack he heard left a satisfying feeling within him.[System activated. Welcome, Draven.]Draven stood upright. He vaguely remembered that he had reached level two the night before. He’d killed those two people-in self defense, of course, and he had his XP increased. He was sure of it, even though his memory felt vague due to all those strained activities the night b
FortuneCraft in Apocalypse MASTER
There was a cracking sound, like metal on stone. Draven’s head and brain were a mess, so he did not immediately process what the noise was. It took several long minutes and the continuation of the noisy metal on stone for him to finally realize that it was actually a sword grinding on a stone. Only a sword could grind and make such a high pitched sound. He wouldn't have continued lying down there if his body hadn’t automatically tensed, ready to spring. In one second, he jerked up from his sleeping position; his action was more instinct than concern. His brain was still fuzzy, but he processed his thoughts as quickly as possible. Draven knew now that this was a virtual video game and it was so very brutal. For all he knew, someone might be sharpening that sword to kill him.“Welcome, Mr. Draven.”He jerked around, startled. He hadn’t even processed where the noise had come from, much less behind him. Now he could see that it was his virtual sword trainer, but his brain was still fuzzy
FortuneCraft in Apocalypse LEO!!
On the second day, Draven learned archery. It came as a surprise to him when Master woke him yet again and handed him some arrows and a bow. The bow was pretty weak, probably not strong enough to hit its mark.“What matters is not the equipment, but your skill and aim,” Master said at the confused look on Draven’s face.Draven sat up and held the arrow and bow in one hand, examining it. “What is this?”“We will be learning archery today.”“No more swords?"“Don’t you know? Have you not been notified?”“Notified of what?”Master watched him, saying nothing. He didn’t have to say anything at that moment, because then Draven heard the system whirring within him.[Congratulations, your training has earned you a few skill points.][Skills unlocked: None.][Skill points earned: 5][Experience: 70/300][Points earned will enable you to learn more skills that are not on the charts.]Draven sat up. It didn’t take him long to process the information; his brain had been super active these days,
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The End
Draven couldn’t believe it was over. Three months later he was still thinking if he was making the right decision. Assistant David sat in his living room with a bunch of documents in front of him. He paced up and down, not sure what he would do.“You can just sign here,” the man said for the umpteeth time. “It’s not really that hard. You sign that you’ve taken ownership of the game and you decide what you want to do with it.”“But I don’t want ownership of the game,” Draven said again. He had repeated this exact words countless times but the guy didn’t seem to be hearing him.“You should have known what you were getting yourself into when you challenged late game owner Timothy—” David paused and looked to the heavens. “May his soul not rest in peace. You should have known that killing him would automatically make you the owner of the game. Those were his rules.”Draven rolled his eyes. He was sure that Timothy had made that rule because he didn’t believe anyone would be able to defeat
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Darkness
Timothy laughed. His laughter was vivacious and full of life. This was what he wanted, after all. The very end of judgement day where he would punish all those who failed him; those who went against him and those who was party to his torture.Here was Draven, the strongest man to ever grace his game. Timothy knew he was going to be a lot of trouble in the future and so he had specifically looked into him. Now that Draven has waged war with his full chest over a woman, he was ecstatic. This was historic, and he was living a historic time in the present. How many men brought knives to fight for their loves, anyways?Smiling, he snapped his fingers. A single door opened and his assistant ran to him carrying a box.“You’re about to experience an historic moment with me,” He said to Draven. “Diane will be our goddess Diana, and we will be the lowly men who are fighting for her love.”Diane scoffed. “You don’t have to do it, Draven. The guy is nuts. Let’s just get out of here.”“But darling
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Sword
Draven panicked for a minute. He thought for sure that the darkness and pressure meant he was losing his consciousness, but that wasn’t the case. One minutes there was stark darkness and the next minute they fell into an extremely white room with hard cardboard. They fell through the sky, hitting directly on the wood and groaning in pain. The stark white color of the room blinded them. It was brighter than a sky or white paint. It was so bright that Draven closed his eyes and tried to regain his or he r senses. He knew there was a betrayal in the group—which wasn’t surprising as their group was made of weird, diverse people, but he needed to see who exactly did it.He won’t even be surprised if to was Lara. She was the one who had led them to the cage, after all. She was the one who offered to test the waters and make sure the portal was okay. Who in their right senses tests water and portal to make a point of the portal not working? Unless he or she was working with Timothy and knew
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Statement
No one said anything after Diane’s statement. They were so tired and hungry and unsure of what to do next. Draven’s goods felt heavy to him. His sword even felt heavier than normal. He didn’t believe he came back to this game to be ridiculed and placed in a very unstable condition because of a silly fight that was going on between two lovers. When he looked at Diane, he wondered if she was toying with them again. Was she afraid to meet Timothy or what? He knew that the portal might likely take them to Timothy as the owner can easily manipulate events, but at least he was ready for that stage. He could exactly tell what Diane was thinking when she was looking her nose down on the portal.“We cannot just stay here,” Lara said. “Do you want us to keep waiting for him to keep finding opportunities to kill us? We’re certainly going to die of hunger if we keep waiting!”“She’s right,” Draven concurred. “We can’t keep lying about in wait like lambs to a slaughter. We must make the first move
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Awkward
Everyone was super awkward after the kiss. Leo avoided for the rest of the morning. He didn’t want to talk about it but it was too late; Draven had seen them and announced to the whole pack in the morning that the kiss was probably the most hottest he’d seen.“Whoa,” Diane said excitedly. “You two kissed? That’s great. Are you like a couple now or something?”“It’s nothing like that, okay? It was just a kiss, and a mistake at that,” Leo piped up.Even though he didn’t want to talk about the kiss or look at Lara’s face, he was glad that Draven brought it up. At least he’d air his opioid publicly about it so he won’t have to be in an awkward space with Lara.“Ouch, Leo, you’re a player!” Diane said, laughing. “You can’t say those kind of things to someone when you’ve kissed them!”“I didn’t kiss her, okay? She’s the one who kissed me,” Leo defended hotly.“It’s still hurtful that you say it that way. Have some feelings, pal,” Diane said, her laugh increasing.It sounded mocking and cont
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Thoughts
Leo could not sleep. Draven had been out for close to an hour, yet he wasn’t back yet. Lots of thoughts assaulted his brain, but the one that stayed the most was Diane.Diane. Diane. Diane.He bet she was here to true their life again, and that bet was true. If Leo was the one to handle this, he’d definitely not want to help her out the way Draven was. It was as if the guy didn’t want to learn any lessons about why it’s dangerous to just not help anyone for too long. Draven was lenient when it came to Diane and he didn’t like it one but.He turned his head to the side and saw her sleeping peacefully.“Yeah, like you didn’t just send someone to their death,” he murmured to himself.He wondered if Draven was still talking to the game creator or if he’s been killed. If he was truly killed, Leo won’t honestly know how to handle that. He tried not to think about it because it was depressing enough. He sat up now, still watching Diane. If she had been careful, they won’t be in this shit hol
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Dissappearing
Draven waited until everyone was comfortable with him being their security for the night before he left into the woods. Diane was surprisingly quiet and compliant. It was like she was into her head too much to care about what Draven wanted to do. Seeing that all odds were in his favor, Draven waited a bit before withdrawing to the forest. He walked deeper and deeper, wondering if he should just sit on a log and wait for Timothy to appear.“Hi Draven.”He yelped and fell to the ground, startled. His shouts of surprise startled the forest a bit, and so Draven waited it out to make sure no one was coming to check what the noise was before turning his head slowly to the side. There was Timothy, standing under the moonlight. He looked attractive and mysterious and just too handsome to be standing there. Draven sat up as he brushed away the small dirts on his body.“You scared me,” he hissed at Timothy. “You know you should learn not to sneak up on people like that.”“I didn’t sneak up on y
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Dumb Ass
They camped inside a cave, just as Draven wanted. He’d taken his time and made sure they covered a 12 hour distance just so he could find the perfect place for them to camp. Finding a cave was not just the problem—and caves were pretty scarce. The problem was finding one that was deep and big enough to accommodate more than three persons. When he finally found it, it was nearing dark. The blanket of darkness that fell over them was just the right thing Draven needed to carry out his plans. He’d been thinking for hours how he would get away with talking to Timothy without anyone noticing and this was the best part.“A cave?” Lara asked in disbelief when they stood before the place. “Isn’t this kind of weird, Draven? Some crazy monsters might be in there!”Draven nodded in understanding. “Leo and I are going to check it out and see if it’s free of monsters; how about that?”“I thought you said we were getting to the end of the game,” Lara moaned.Draven gave her a confused look. “Lara,
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Long Mile
They walked a long mile, Draven and Leo leading the way while Lara and Diane walked behind. Diane stayed at the far end so she won’t walk on the same lane with Lara. There was something suspicious about the young girl that she didn’t like. Diane wasn’t usually suspicious of people but when she does, her instinct was definitely right—just as it was right with Draven and Lara. Leo cleared his throat and glanced at Draven. “So… were you lying?”“Was I lying about what?” Draven mumbled.“You know… about what Diane said?”“Why would I be lying about that?”Leo cocked his brows at him. “Don’t forget that I know you all too well, Draven. I know when you lie out of necessity and when you lie out of leisure. I usually don’t catch the leisure one but the necessity one is very obvious.”Draven glanced at him with an amused expression. “Really?”“Yup. You get all tense and defensive and violet most times if you’re pressured about it. It’ll make you want to protect that little lie of yours quite
