After a while of people talking to the guard, and quickly giving up on getting anything useful out of him beyond basic directions, it was finally our turn to approach.
"Hi," I say. "Do you need people to help with something?"
I hesitate a little as I speak, mostly because his eyes are distracting me.
There is a lot of stuff back on Earth about strange eyes, about what they mean, what they hide, what they say about someone. In this world, I have a feeling that kind of thing is going to be less myth and more reality
The guard's eyes are hollow.
Not blank, exactly. Hollow. It is hard to explain. Maybe it was not even a look so much as a feeling, like there was something behind them that did not quite connect properly.
"Yes!" the guard says brightly. "We would be very grateful if you could clear four zombies from the nearby woods!"
The moment he finishes speaking, a blue screen pops up in front of me.
[Accept Quest?]
[Keep the Village Safe: Kill 4 Zombies]
[Reward: Class System & Level 1 Adventurer Class]
[Yes] [No]
I read through it once, tap yes, then glance over at Sheral.
"Just say what I said, I guess."
"Well, alright then."
She steps into my place, about three feet from the guard, while I move aside.
"Do you have something for me to do?" she asks.
"Yes!" the guard says in the exact same tone as before. "We would be very grateful if you could clear four zombies from the nearby woods!"
After making a few notes on her strange clipboard system, Sheral looks back at me.
"I don't like the eyes," she says. "I've seen bodies with more life in them."
"Yeah," I say. "They're creepy, and I really don't need creepy humans on top of all..." I gesture toward the zombie bodies hanging from the wooden spikes. "This."
"Fair enough." She glances toward the others. "Should we go tell the group?"
She already sounds like she knows that is the smarter option.
"Well, on one hand it's safer," I say. "On the other, it might make things more complicated."
"Well?"
She says it like she is waiting for me to stop thinking out loud and commit to an answer.
"Maybe we find one first," I say. "Try to kill it, see if they're runners or not, then decide from there."
"Runners?"
"Oh. In some zombie movies they're slow and mindless, basically harmless one-on-one. In other stuff they're fast, strong, and terrifying. The kind that can kill you before you even process what's happening."
"That sounds like we should get help, Tero. Let's not be stupid."
"Well, usually in games the starting areas don't throw impossible stuff at you," I say, which is meant to reassure her but mostly ends up sounding like I'm trying to reassure myself.
Sheral gives me a look.
"Are you getting stupid on me?" she asks. "I'm going to tell the others, and you can stand here and recover from whatever that was."
It is a little mean.
Not unfair, though.
Making assumptions about this world when we probably do not get a second chance is a terrible idea. No respawns. No reloads. No convenient reset if we make the wrong call. I really do have too much running through my head.
So while Sheral goes to talk to the group, I stay near the guard and pace for a bit, trying to settle down.
That is when another thought hits me.
If those bodies are real, I should smell them.
They are rotting corpses impaled on wooden stakes, close enough that the stench should be unbearable. But there is nothing. No rot. No decay. No sour, wet smell of death.
What I do smell is smoke, like a campfire somewhere nearby.
Which means the bodies are probably not real.
Or maybe they are real in the same way the guard is real, which somehow feels worse.
For a second I actually consider walking over and checking more closely, maybe even smelling one just to be sure, but thankfully common sense wins that fight. Real or not, they are still disgusting to look at, and I should probably go help Sheral explain things instead of sniffing fake zombies.
By the time I get over there, though, she does not seem to need my help at all.
Most of the group is listening to her already. From what I overhear, somebody found a different quest involving helping the tavern cook for the night. Apparently that one unlocks the Cooking skill and the profession system.
That sounds dramatically safer than ours.
After a bit more talking, only five of us are willing to go on zombie duty.
There is Jake, a middle-aged construction worker with a sword. The hunter, a guy in his mid-twenties who says he knows how to use a bow. Sheral. Another older woman Sheral seemed to spend extra time convincing. And me.
I get the feeling Sheral is trying pretty hard to make sure the older people survive this, though I cannot tell whether that is because she sees them as vulnerable or because she sees herself in them.
Once everyone has the quest, and after the mandatory short discussion about how deeply unsettling the guard's eyes are, we head into the woods.
Our formation is loose at best.
Jake takes the front with his sword. I end up in the back with my spear still in storage. The other three stay somewhere in the middle, which is not exactly tactical brilliance, but it is something.
We do not have to walk long before we find them.
A minute or two into the woods, we come across a clearing with several zombies standing in it. For the moment they do not charge us. Whether that is because their senses are terrible or because of game logic, I have no idea.
"Um, wait a second," I say. "I think Sheral should use her wand first. That way we can figure out what kind of damage it does."
I say it carefully. I am not a huge fan of telling people what to do, especially when I do not actually know what I am doing.
"Yeah, alright," Jake says. "Take out the unknown first. Plus, real magic. Let's see it, Sheral."
He says it loud enough that I wince a little. The hunter does too.
The zombies do not react.
"Well, alright then," Sheral says. "But don't expect much."
She steps forward, raises the wand, and flicks her wrist.
A ball of light shoots from the tip and streaks toward the nearest zombie fast enough that I barely track it. It hits the thing in the chest with a distinct crunch.
The effect is immediate.
If she had hit it in the head, it probably would have dropped on the spot. Instead, the zombie lurches forward and starts shambling toward us.
The hunter reacts first. He draws and fires in one smooth motion.
The arrow thuds into the zombie's neck.
It does basically nothing.
At that point I decide it is time to stop analyzing and start actually using the weapon I picked, but before I can even pull my spear out, Jake charges.
He swings his sword like a bat and buries the blade in the zombie's skull.
The thing drops.
A blue message flashes across my vision.
[Jake: Keeping the Village Safe: Zombies 1/4]
I stare at it.
Why can I see his progress?
Nobody says anything for a moment. The silence sits on all of us while we process what just happened.
Then Jake clears his throat.
"Well," he says, "that's good news. This is doable, guys."
"Yeah," Sheral says, patting me on the back. "Maybe not for you, though. You really slouched back there."
"Me?" I say. "I was performing the noble duty of protecting the elderly."
"Sure you were."
She sounds amused again, which is a lot better than the tone she used earlier.
"I think it counts for whoever lands the finishing blow," the hunter says. "I didn't get credit for the arrow."
"Yeah, that makes sense," I say.
Then I look at Jake's sword.
"Um, if you're okay with it... it might be better if me and him use your sword for this. It seems a lot more effective."
I feel awkward even asking. If I were him, I probably would not want to hand over the best weapon in the group.
But Jake just shrugs.
"Yeah, sure. We can trade off, if that works." He points at the next zombie. "But I'm doing mine first."
"All good," I say.
The hunter just nods.