Still talking tough, Zack put his hands on the keyboard and mouse and officially began his journey to link the fire.
He was still pretty excited.
Nebula Games was one of his favorite game companies.
Even though their games often messed with players—like "Overcooked," which had him washing dishes to this very day, or "Valiant Hearts: The Great War," which had made him shed more than a few tears not long ago—
You still had to admit, these games could really touch a player's heart.
And now, with "Dark Souls" as Nebula Games' first big title, he couldn't be more hyped.
Passing on the flame of hope in a world of despair—just thinking about it got his blood pumping.
Sure, it might make him cry a lot again, but so what?
He was ready.
On the road ahead in the game, there were many strange, blood-like symbols he couldn't read.
Zack knew what they were though, because during the online launch event, Lucas had already explained this special system.
Players could also leave messages in different parts of the game world.
It was one of "Dark Souls'" main features—basically like a message board.
Of course, the messages had a set format, and all content would go through review.
If someone left bad or inappropriate remarks, they'd get a warning, and repeat offenders would be banned from online play.
Looking at the system messages in the game now, Zack followed the prompts and tried out different moves—rolling, light attacks, heavy attacks…
Unlike other games with flashy combat moves—
"Dark Souls" felt heavy and solid.
Rolling, slashing, and even hitting a rock gave strong feedback.
The only thing Zack wasn't used to was how quickly the stamina bar ran out.
Roll once, swing a few times, and it was empty.
Even running drained stamina.
It felt a bit limiting.
But Zack didn't think too much about it—he figured he'd probably get more stamina later through leveling up or gear.
After all, he was just a blank-slate character right now.
Before long, he ran into his first enemy—a creature called a Hollow, which looked like a skeleton foot soldier.
But it was super easy to deal with. He just smacked it twice with his little "drumstick" weapon and its health bar was gone.
"This little guy's way too easy. Wait, this game doesn't have a minimap?" Hannah, who was sitting next to him, commented now and then.
Zack, still playing, was also a bit puzzled.
Even though it was still early in the game, he could tell "Dark Souls" was different from other games.
There was no difficulty setting before starting, and these enemies were way too weak.
No challenge at all.
As for the minimap, he wasn't used to it being absent, but he had a guess.
"We probably haven't reached the story trigger yet. Later, we'll meet an NPC who'll give us a map," Zack said.
Moving forward, he found a corpse near something like a fountain and picked up a blue flask.
"An Estus Flask? Orange is for health, blue is for magic—like Fanta and Gatorade," Zack joked after reading the description.
"Who even renames items like that?" Hannah rolled her eyes, though she had to admit it did sound kind of catchy and easy to remember.
Continuing on, they saw more messages on the ground teaching the player things like how to raise a shield.
Basically, it was a tutorial area.
Here, Zack learned combat arts, dual-wielding, and other basic controls.
The path was filled with weak, slow, stiff enemies that went down easily.
The little "drumstick" from the starting gear could take them out in two hits, and the small wooden shield was surprisingly good for defense.
"How is this game even considered hard?" Hannah muttered, watching Zack mow down Hollows while remembering the "high difficulty" label she'd seen in the store page, feeling a bit annoyed.
She's not really going to sit there the whole afternoon, is she?
Hearing his girlfriend's complaint, Zack chuckled. "Can't help it. With my skills, it's hard to die even if I wanted to!"
He finished off the small fry, and the soul count in the bottom right kept going up.
He didn't know exactly what it was, but he guessed it was probably money or experience in the game.
Still no idea what it was for.
Moving forward, under the cold sunlight, the rugged mountain path split into two.
One led straight to the cliff edge, where there was a huge half-open stone gate. The surrounding buildings were crumbling, clearly very old.
The other was a narrow winding path to the right.
"The cliff road should be the main story path, and this little winding path probably hides some collectible items."
As an old gamer, Zack quickly figured out the difference between the two routes.
All those years of gaming weren't for nothing — he had the experience.
"My gut tells me there's definitely a big treasure in there!" Zack said proudly, sneaking a glance at his girlfriend.
Hannah rolled her eyes. "Big treasures usually have scary beasts guarding them. With your skinny arms and legs, you'd probably drop dead on the spot."
"No way. Even if there's a monster, it should just be a bit tougher than the zombies earlier." Zack was feeling relaxed — after all, his total beatdown of the zombies had given him a lot of confidence.
Going deeper in, the narrow rocky path was covered in dried vines, and Zack spotted a message on the ground ahead.
He opened it and saw three words: "Turn back now!"
Turn back?
No way he was turning back — he'd already come this far, so of course he had to see what was inside.
Ignoring the warning, Zack moved forward.
He passed a small pond and arrived at a cave-like area.
Not far away, a huge crystal lizard was lying there.
Zack's eyes widened when he saw it.
The thing was enormous.
"Looks like you really did find a big treasure," Hannah's voice came in right on cue.
The crystal lizard seemed to notice the uninvited guest entering its territory. It stood up and stared at Zack's character like a predator.
"No big deal. This is probably just a mini-elite monster. Look at that short health bar — I'll smash it with two chicken legs!" Zack took a deep breath, and the more he talked, the more he believed it himself.
Yeah, that health bar was short!
Definitely not a boss — maybe it just looked scary but was weak inside.
Thinking that, Zack charged forward with his little chicken leg weapon and a beat-up wooden shield.
(End of the Chapter)
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