Maids VS Apocalypse

A clear blue sky met Mark when he opened his eyes. He remained still and watched it for a while, but then strands of silver hair came into sight and replaced the beautiful view with a gorgeous one.

"Am I in heaven?" He asked.

"I do not believe that is the case." The beauty replied monotonously. "Now that you are awake, Master, I believe it is unnecessary for this to continue. My legs have grown numb so I would appreciate the chance to move them."

Mark hesitated for a while then lifted himself up, a sigh of regret escaping him as he glanced at the ruby-eyed girl.

What he had just experienced was the legendary lap pillow, and though he enjoyed every moment of it, he still couldn’t help but feel like something was missing.

"We really need to get you back in uniform."

Lara held him with her eyes then looked down at her clothes and understood that he was referring to her maid uniform.

"Indeed." She said after a moment of thought. "I can not help but feel that something is missing without it."

Lara has the face and the figure to bring out the best of anything she wears, but her appearance in the simple military uniform couldn’t even compare to her original look.

Mark felt that the lap pillow would’ve felt a thousand times better if the silver-haired girl was in her elegant maid dress and so he vowed to ask her for a retry once it was fixed.

Sitting on the dusty ground, Mark tried to recall what knocked him out. He remembered trying to run from the Stone Rhino, getting bashed and rolling in the air before falling on its head.

He then remembered the lines of texts that appeared moments before he lost consciousness.

"I killed one of them..." Mark muttered, staring into space with eyes wide open. He then turned to Lara and asked "Did you take care of the rest?"

"Yes," Lara replied curtly.

A sigh of relief escaped Mark, but immediately after he began to recall his fight against the Stone Rhino.

When he stabbed it with his spear, when it stumped him into the ground, when it bashed him with its horn, and when he fell on its head. Through it all, he felt nothing.

No matter how many of the beast’s attacks he took, none of them dealt him any damage.

"Lara, what is a Force Field?" He asked.

So far he had been comparing it to the Nen from a certain shounen anime. There was one key difference, however. He didn’t feel anything while using the Ability. Though it protected him from harm, it didn’t grant him any additional energy or strength. It was as if the Force Field itself didn’t have a direct effect on him.

Lara seemed a little puzzled, as if not understanding his question.

"The Force Field is the physical manifestation of one’s Mind Power."

"So... It’s not life force?"

Lara tilted her head a little at his question.

"No, Life Force is an application of Aether. It’s a very advanced concept even for those from Higher Realms."

Mark heaved a sigh.

’Well, at least it’s not blatant plagiarism...’

"Is the sleeping beauty finally awake?" Came a mocking voice that shattered Mark’s line of thought.

"Tche..." Mark turned to him with a glare, but Ramsay only scoffed in return.

"I warned you about letting your MP drop below 50 yet you still passed out."

"Well, I ran out of fucks to give so forgive me for not caring about your opinion, Sergeant Rider." Mark shifted back to Lara, his expression making a 180. "Thanks for saving me."

"I only did my job," Lara replied. "That said, Master, Sergeant Rider is right. You expended a lot of Mind Power to take down one beast. You cannot afford to lose consciousness every time you find yourself in a crisis."

Hearing her agree with their so-called superior dealt a heavy blow. Mark still saw the logic in her argument, however. The Stone Rhinos were far from the deadliest monsters he would be facing going forward.

This time he survived because others had his back, but who knows if they would have the leeway in the future.

’I have been passing out a lot lately...’

"Since you’re up, you better get back to sealing that Rift." Ramsay pointed behind him. "Move it, Private! We still have thirty-five to go!"

"You already said that before." Mark sighed. "Are you running out of dialogue options?"

A couple dozen meters away was the hole in the Dimensional Border separating their world from the underworld. The corpses of several Stone Rhinos were scattered around it, their blood dyeing the already red landscape.

Staring at it for some time, Mark scratched the back of his head and sighed again. He then got up and went about working on his quest.

After walking to the Dimensional Rift, he pressed Y on his imaginary controller to open his Inventory. He then selected a certain item and pressed the A button on the "Use" option.

A second later, the item manifested in front of him.

It was white in color and resembled an oil barrel in both shape and size. A small dot on its top blinked a few times before turning from green to red. Lines spread through its surface, and the next instant, the item opened up to reveal what was inside.

The barrel-like item was nothing more than a storage unit. It contained several disc-shaped drones that took off as soon as it was fully open and flew toward the Dimensional Rift.

Each one began blasting the outline of the Rift with a peculiar blue beam, and as they did, the cracks surrounding it gradually disappeared. A few seconds later, the hole itself began to shrink.

"This is going to take a while..."

Heaving a sigh, Mark looked around him then walked to one of the dead Stone Rhinos. Unlike his crude attempt, Lara seemed to have taken care of the beast in one clean strike to the back of the head.

It went to show the difference in skill between them, but that was only natural, considering she was a powerful warrior spirit from another world while he was nothing but a mentally challenged game developer.

’Now that I think about it...’ Mark glanced in Lara’s direction, a troubled look slowly taking over his face. ’Is she a Servant?’

The instant that thought crossed his mind, Mark went through everything he had learned so far. Before long he was heaving a sigh, relieved that what he feared wasn’t true.

’The lore is too different.’ He sighed again. ’For a moment there I thought I was in a Fate fanfic...’

The concept of summoning a powerful being to fight for you wasn’t limited to the Fate series, but Mark couldn’t help worrying that his author was leaning too much into the plagiarism territory.

"You can take them if you want," Ramsay shouted from a distance. "Just put one aside for dinner!"

Mark was confused, but then he realized that the Peace Keeper was referring to the carcasses of the Stone Rhinos.

"Wait, we’re gonna eat these things!!?"

He didn’t know why it never crossed his mind until now. Monster meat was a staple food source in a lot of fantasy works so it was only normal to include it in their diet.

That said, Mark had a feeling it was yet another prank from the motorcyclist so he made a mental note to not eat any monster meat until he ate it.

’These things are mutated animals, right?’ He grimaced while staring at the carcass beside him. ’Are they even safe to consume?’

As those thoughts crossed his mind, the blade-like horn jutting out of the rhino’s nose caught his attention. It was then that he recalled yet another problem he was facing: how to obtain Gold.

In the world of Maids VS Apocalypse, the word Gold didn’t refer to the metal itself or coins made from it but to a digital currency.

The main way to obtain said currency in the game was to complete quests and sell item drops from monsters. Since he had yet to find proof that the former was possible, his only choice was to try the latter.

’Maids VS Apocalypse has quests where you hunt monsters to sell materials harvested from them.’ Mark thought. ’Maybe the rhino’s carcass can be sold as well...’

After some deliberation, Mark decided to give it a try. He stared at the carcass in front of him until a System notification popped up.

[

Would you like to move this Item into the Inventory?

> Yes

No

]

He pressed A on his imaginary controller and the next instant the entire carcass disappeared. Pressing Y to open the Inventory, he saw that a new item had been added: [Stone Rhino’s carcass x1]. He selected the item, and from the options menu that appeared, he chose "Sell". A new window appeared.

[

Item: Stone Rhino’s carcass

Type: Monster corpse.

Grade: E

Description:

The dead body of a Stone Rhino. The meat under its stone-covered hide is edible, but it requires thorough cooking.

Would you like to sell this item for 20G?

> Yes

No

]