A few weeks ago I set the challenge of a LitRPG writing prompt on Reddit and Facebook. I read the entries and narrated my favourite one. Bellow is the writing prompt and the narration of the winner.
You owe a huge debt to a gambling company so you are working in the mines of the most popular, fully immersive, MMORPG to try and earn the money to pay back the loan. As you fight of the 100th scorpion that infests the local mine, an item drops that makes your task both easier and much harder at the same time.
Race: Elf (Least suited to mining)
Class: Mechanic
Winning text:
One last hit!
“You hit desert scorpion for 15 damage. HP remaining, 5.”
I heard the sound of snapping metal and my rusty iron sword fell to the ground in several pieces.
“Basic Iron Sword durability 0 out of 100.”
Well, this was it. The end of the road. At least this scorpion will give me a painful and drawn out death to look forward to. I look in my inventory one last time, even though Id checked my inventory every 5 minutes to see how my ore collection was going. I saw the only item left, other than gathered ores. My mechanics wrench, given to every mechanic class in their starting location. In a last attempt to screw the developers I took the wrench and wedged it into the sword handle from my broken iron sword.
I took one last swing at the scorpion as it jumped towards me for its killing blow.
.
.
.
.
“And stay dead” I yelled, exhausted.
Phew! I can't believe that worked! Ill have to leave the mine now to pick up a new sword and regen some health but I feel exhilarated after winning that last fight.
How much had I even earned so far? I opened my inventory to check my progress.
1000 coal, 300 iron, 100 silver and 5 gold . I had leveled up my mining a ton so that I could now mine gold but i still needed to level up enough to mine mithril before the money really started to come in. Selling at 500 gold per smelted bar of mithril I would soon start to make a dent in the £50,000 I owed the black circle… I had been over confident. Just lull them into a false sense of security I told myself. I forgot I also sucked at poker.
Aaaagggg!!! I just wish I could mine faster. Why didn’t I do the proper research on races before entering the game? DWARFS! Why didn’t I pick a dwarf! These pathetic elven arms and soft hands were never meant to perform manual labour.
I sit on the gold ore vein waiting for it to respawn, head in my hands, trying as hard as I could to cry and let it all out. Screw this game and its “full immersion”. Sometimes you just need to yell and shout and cry but, as capable as they say the technology is, it still doesn't give the same emotional catharsis that a good IRL hissy fit does.
I slide my hands down my face, dragging my perfect elven skin with them. As my eyes adjust to the glaring desert light I see something lying next to the scorpion I just wasted. I slowly walk over, more out of resignation than any real sense of curiosity, and pick the item up.
“Mechanised Desert Scorpion Sting.
Effect: The sting now contains thousands of tiny nanobots capable of enhancing any chosen attribute.
Secondary Effect: The nanobots multiply every hour, increasing their effect. However, excess nanobots must be siphoned off into a new host before death by overexertion.”