Chapter 3: Basic Preparations

The information that appeared after the tutorial opened was simple and direct.

The red bar with a plus icon was his health bar. If it gets depleted, he would die. It can recover naturally by keeping hunger and thirst levels above a certain level. Health won't recover if under a debuff(sickness). The only exception was when ingesting medicine that helps improve health.

The yellow bar with a thunder icon was his energy bar. If it goes down to a critical level, he can't use active skills. If it totally runs out, he would pass out and would only wake up when his energy bar was refilled.

The white bar with a muscle icon was the stamina bar. If it reaches zero, the player won't be able to move. Upon entering a certain level, the body would feel heavy. The lower the stamina value, the higher rate of food intake needed.

The compass, mini-map, and Hotbar needed no explanation for Marco. It was ingrained in him what those are and he only needs to test their functions whether they have undergone some changes.

He finished reading the whole tutorial in under a minute and the only thought that entered his mind was "This is it?"

Marco felt scammed. He was expecting something that would guide him on how this real-world version works, but it only explained things that he already guessed.

Nevertheless, Marco fell deep into his gamer instincts and summarized the things that he needed.

That's right, he needed.

He was a game tester with a conscience but things are different now. Although he still plans to test balance the game, or in this case the world, he had to prioritize his safety first. As long as he was alive, he could alter the difficulty of this world. With the world undergoing various changes, he could die any time now due to any random fucked up reasons.

That's why he needed to think fast and adapt faster.

While contemplating about things, his neighboring apartment suddenly turned rowdy. There was a couple who lived next door and they were supposed to be heading out for work now.

Marco normally wouldn't even see or hear them, but the furious bellow from the man resounded in the hallway.

Their front door forcefully banged open followed by a scuffle between a man that scuttled outside with his girlfriend latched on his back. The woman appeared normal except for the missing irises from her eyes completely turning them white. And if biting someone's flesh off was normal, then she could really be considered normal after chewing several times.

After blindly moving around trying to remove his girlfriend from his back, he suddenly bumped on the railing and toppled over.

Although there were only two floors on this apartment complex, falling from the second floor with additional weight behind you would still cause possible death. Even if he didn't die, he would still be injured, beyond salvageable.

Marco knows nothing of that. He just remained frozen by the door with his ears open listening for any other noises nearby.

He felt thankful that his room was at the furthest corner on the second floor. That meant there was no reason for anyone to come over here. Either people or zombies.

"Oh shit, this is really bad. The game's initial phase is starting. In the game lore, only thirty percent of the human population remained. I need to help people become aware of the situation. With my information, more people could survive the initial phase. I also need to prepare my survival gear in case I need to leave this place."

Marco glanced at his computer, then towards the burnt wall socket. Since he wasn't sure whether it will explode again if he plugged the computer in, he decided to use his phone instead.

He spent a few minutes making a template message, then copied and posted them on all his social accounts.

Most of the content was about the incoming calamities. Zombies, mutated animals, and natural disasters. He also explained about possible random events like acid rain and wild monster spawns.

After posting on all of his social accounts, he hurriedly grabbed his backpack and opened his closet.

The first thing he did was to pick a new set of clothes. He wants to see whether he could get more slots wearing comfortable clothes or he had to trade convenience and be practical.

Marco had to place different shirts on his inventory at a time to see if they had inventory slots. Sadly, none of his shirts had an inventory slot except for a black collared uniform with chest pockets, which gave one inventory slot.

With this series of actions, he realized that you need actual storage space for an inventory slot to appear. Regular teeshirts don't have chest pockets, so he'll just have to make do with this. Besides, there was no way that he would go naked outside just because wearing teeshirts doesn't give a benefit.

Also, his jeans had two front pockets and two back pockets giving four inventory slots in total.

"This is interesting to find out, but it's troublesome to check each item one by one for their description.

"Can't I just stare at them and see what stats they have? It works for the inventory, so why not outside..."

While Marco was grumbling to himself, a series of text appeared on his bottom-left vision. A chat log listed a series of messages that appeared to be from the developer.

-[Feedback acquired. It will undergo consideration...

-[Accepted. Updating...

-[Update complete. Focus on a random item and set a thought command for ease of access.

-[Thank you for working hard at the game. Continue working hard.]

Marco became shocked after reading the series of messages.

"Can you see me?"

He immediately looked around trying to see if someone was near him. Although he knew that he was alone inside the room, it was only an instinctive reaction when he felt he was being watched.

Unlike earlier, there was no pain involved when something was updated.

Marco stared at his hoodies and spoke, "Description!" in his head.

Seconds later, a bunch of words appeared beside his clothes together with the essential information needed.

Black Hoodie - Common

A cheap cotton hoodie bought from the store. Durability: 100 Def: 2

Since the hoody covers most of his arms, it gave an additional point in defense than a teeshirt would normally do.

After several minutes, he finished picking and changing into a new set of clothes. He looked into the mirror and found himself looking good. He considers himself average-looking but not too shabby. Unfortunately, everyone always thinks they look better than they normally do.

Wearing a black hoodie and worn jeans, paired with running shoes which made him feel that his footsteps had become lighter, he felt like he was ready for war.

A young man with a hulking jelly belly posed in front of the mirror as he wore very tight-fitting clothes. He even smiled confidently as if he was the main character satisfied with his new outfit before setting out for his own adventure!