Alpha Zero (Alpha LitRPG Book 1) by Arthur Stone (top 5 books to read TXT) 📕

it than that. I realized that, in addition to everything else, my hands were too unaccustomed to complex motor functions. It had been years since I performed any kind of challenging manual task, so now it was all I could do to wiggle my fingers like a newborn. The amulet’s boosts were helping, but not sufficiently so.

I had a long way to go to master this body.

The sawing process was long and painful. Figuratively painful for me, and quite literally for Rycer. Twice the poor merc nearly passed out from the pain, and a third time when I finally pulled out the arrow shaft sans its tip.

Bandaging the profusely bleeding forearm also fell on me, Krol having entrenched himself fully in the role of spectator who could do nothing but “ooh” and “aah” and grab his head with both hands in horror. When the time came to swab the gaping, oozing eye-socket, I didn’t even bother asking the man for help.

As soon as I finished, something happened that I had never before experienced. The world went dark for a moment, immersing me in a state similar to the one I had entered when looking within.

Words flashed before my eyes, rendered in the same strict font I had used when systematizing all the information that had been revealed to me earlier today.

You have potentially saved a human life! You receive:

Lesser Symbol of Chi x2

Personal Talent Mark, Novice Healer x1

Trying not to betray the bemusement that took hold of me, I left the wounded in Krol’s care as I made for the river, anxious to wash off another person’s blood and mull over what happened.

So shocking and unexpected was this development that I had forgotten all about my fear of arrows, though I’d make an easy target now for any archer hiding in the bushes. Relax... The bank is fully secured.

The assurance helped. Besides, caution was a luxury now. It was imperative to make sense of... myself.

The fact that I was seeing information presented in letters and numbers wasn’t too far fetched. Simply put, I had converted the visual forms favored by the natives into strict data, which I found easier to work with. It was as natural for the residents of Rock as text on a computer screen was for humans of Earth, only the former didn’t need Wi-Fi to access the network. The same higher forces whose presence permeated every single physical particle in the world—as well as concepts and events without physical form—neglected nothing and no one under the Rock sun. It was what the locals referred to as ‘the Order.’ Truthfully, I found it pretentious as hell. It wasn’t enough to capitalize the word, no—you had to use all capital letters, and accentuate each letter in a specific way. Alas, I couldn’t think of a way to recreate the unique spelling of the term in any human language I knew.

At any rate, it was the foundation of everything in this realm. It was precisely the Order that kept Rock and all of its constituents from sliding into the abyss of absolute Chaos. My own world was halfway to the same infinite chasm, so this one was somewhat more fortunate.

Now, don’t ask me how something that’s infinite could have an end. The local philosophers could spend days on the subject, throwing around a million theories and conjectures and still not arrive at a plausible explanation.

Even realms of Order had room for Chaos, and my second life was a prime example thereof. Deprived of the ability to interact with the parameters of the Order, from the vantage point of the locals, I was an absurdity to be pitied. Something akin to a harmless circus freak. All of mother’s great efforts to fix me had been for naught. She had only flushed the last of the clan’s savings down the drain, pushing the Crow past the point of no return. She might have even deemed the arrival of the band of assassins a mercy, allowing her to leave the stage with honor—a fine solution for a noble.

But then something unexpected had happened. Pitiful degenerate that I was, on some very basic level I had somehow managed to connect with the Order. And the invisible controllers that governed this reality had somehow recognized my affinity for processing information differently from the natives, and allowed me to customize my interface not in visuals as they did, but using strictly numbers and letters.

And now, another unexpected development. The higher powers had apparently decided that successfully treating the wounded soldier was a significant enough achievement as to merit a reward.

Turning away from the caravan while leaving one hand in the water, I used the other to find the pouch on my neck. I loosened the string, opened the mouth, then looked inside, giving each item a focused stare. And it almost didn’t surprise me when the world faded once more as information about the contents displayed before my eyes.

Lesser Symbol of Chi x17

Medium Symbol of Chi x4

Lesser Essence of Stamina x2

Lesser Essence of Agility x1

Lesser Essence of Equilibrium x11

Lesser Essence of Melee Combat x10

Lesser Essence of Iron Skin x10

This was Rock’s universal currency. And it was more valuable than any coin, which was why it had merited being stored in this clever container. In the good old times, it used to be filled to the brim, but those times were long gone—mother had spent way too much on experiments trying to make me whole. Still, even this was enough to last a few months of living modestly.

Too bad the treasure was of no use to me. If ever I flashed it anywhere, it would suffer the same fate as the coin purse, leaving me with nothing and bringing me a few months closer to certain death.

As soon as the amulet lost its charge, I was a goner,