#059 – I guess not even another world can escape capitalism

#059 – I guess not even another world can escape capitalism

I continued my journey up the riverside, hoping to find a spot to cross. In the meantime, I wanted to try playing a few more ads just to see if I could get any more information about the world that way.

Unfortunately, playing an ad had a cooldown though. Eight hours, ugh.

But I supposed it was fair, since just one ad had given me so much DP to work with.

As I walked and occasionally had John scout above the trees – I should really get the upgrade for him – the stone building slowly disappeared on the horizon, but in exchange, another point of interest in the opposite direction. Something that looked to be a mountain.

Chat and I agreed that it had to be the place from where the river was coming from, so it was a good sign that I would eventually find a spot to cross relatively easily.

With that said, it still took absolutely forever and the sun set before I reached such a spot.

Falling asleep to the sound of running water was pretty novel. It actually felt like I was out in nature now. The total lack of any animal or insect noises had really thrown me off before.

The next day, I had my shark meat breakfast with a slice of pizza, washed up in the river, and then played another ad. The sense of temporarily losing my skills and the numb feeling of my clothes wasn’t as bad the second time around, but it was still unnerving.

Anywho, the ad this time was about some kind of battle tournament specifically for second-tier individuals. The overenthusiastic dark-skinned man with horns holding the microphone said something about inclusivity, but I wasn’t entirely sure what he meant. Had there been discrimination between different tiers of individuals or something? Weird.

And then it was time to walk again.

I groaned in annoyance, but I actually felt much better about it than yesterday.

I actually had a clear goal in mind, which helped. Not only that, but there were also the ads. Chat was still busy theorizing about and piecing together things from both of them and I had fun chipping in my own two cents here and there.

The conclusion was that this world was... or had been some kind of combination of a fantasy and a sci-fi world. There were all kinds of strange humanoid races and magic, but they also had spaceships and their own version of the Internet.

It was fascinating and I wondered whether I could somehow access their Internet through the system. Granted, they were all gone now, but if their ads had survived, then why wouldn’t the rest of their Internet?

Other than that, there wasn’t much to do for me other than keep walking and hope the damn river became crossable at some point.

To be honest, the fact that my best form of entertainment at the moment was alien ads was... incredibly weird.

“Ugh... Stupid river... Maybe I should just risk it and bubblejump over it,” I mumbled as I sat down on a random boulder to rest for a bit.

My mind randomly jumped to the Phoenix Blessing, and I thought it was kind of funny that I’d had several months’ worth of physical growth since I’d left the water park dungeon.

Although maybe that was why I felt like I’d been walking for months, ugh.

“Okay, let’s scout ahead again, chat,” I declared as I jumped back to my feet and found a tall tree again. A minute later – I was getting pretty good at climbing trees – and a few monkey jokes in the chat, I sent out John above me again and scanned the area.

The mountain was getting closer, but more importantly, I also spotted something else in the same direction. Another clearly man-made structure made out of dark stone.

“Chat! Another point of interest! All of this walking was worth it!”

I didn’t believe there were though. I couldn’t see anyone through John. Only the buildings. And they didn’t look to be in a great state either. I wouldn’t call it ruins just yet, but it didn’t make me very optimistic.

Over the next half an hour, people trickled into chat and I greeted each one of them as I came closer to the city. When I finally reached it, I stopped and stared in wonder.

As I’d expected, the city itself had been built on the river I’d been following. The black stone walls themselves were about four storeys high and seemed to surround the entirety of the city. There was only a hole big enough to let the river through, but not big enough for me to sneak inside through there. At least not in this direction, because of the currents.

Up on the walls, there were small towers clearly meant for guards to look out for threats outside of the city.

But all of those towers were empty.

I wilted just a little, even though I had been expecting this.

Regardless, I steeled myself and walked alongside the walls while looking into the towers, hoping to spot something or someone.

“Hello?!” I shouted. “Is anyone there?!”

There was no reply.

“Hello?!” I kept trying though.

But nobody came.

After a whole ten minutes of walking alongside the wall and yelling out in hopes of someone popping out, I found what seemed to be the main entrance to the city.

The gates were wide open. It should have felt welcoming, but instead, it felt like there just wasn’t anyone left to care that strangers could freely enter the city now.

I wilted even more as I sighed.

“...I don’t think there’s anyone inside, chat.”

Irid123: you can still explore it

GeorgeDoshington: rip

SpoOo0oOon: that’s a shame

JamieWasTaken3: dungeon time?

I hummed.

“Well, I don’t know yet if it’s a dungeon... I guess I’ll see,” I mumbled and slowly walked forward while pulling my naginata out of my backpack.

The inside of the city looked even more dilapidated than what I’d noticed from afar via John. The main street going from the gate was barren and I had the feeling that the only reason why the buildings weren’t more deteriorated was because the buildings were made out of the same black stone. The material had to be pretty resistant to erosion then.

The moment I stepped through the gates into the limits, I felt the familiar feeling of dread, although this time, it was mixed with something else. Some kind of... pride? Unity? The sense of belonging? It was strange.

But either way, I already knew what this meant.

“Chat...” I sighed and stepped back out. “This place is a dungeon.”