There was nothing there.

  Or, at least, nothing dangerous that I could see. The opening was a room that was about 20 feet across by 40 feet deep and had a series of bookshelves along the walls. There were wooden tables that looked like they were sturdy despite being very old and worn.

  There were four of these tables, set up two by two. Despite their age, they looked closer to something you would see in a mansion dining room than a dusty dungeon. Each table had three chairs per side.

  There was enough space to walk between the sets even with the chairs. There seemed to be enough room to navigate the bookshelves around the walls.

  There were two torches on each wall, and these looked like the kind that I had found in the room I started in. On the very back wall, facing me, was a recess that had the bust of a man I didn’t recognize.

  It was hard to see, but the bust seemed… off somehow. Like it was unfinished or maybe some attempt at impressionism.

  There was a plaque underneath it but I couldn’t read from where I was at. In front and below the bust was a pedestal that held a stone bowl and some lit candles. The candles were off white and looked like they had been burning for a very long time.

  My body sagged as I took this all in. The adrenaline left me so fast it felt like it had been sucked out of my skin with a shop vac. I felt almost dizzy but also relieved there wasn’t something I would need to kill. That was quickly replaced by the feeling that I might pass out from the very real hunger I was feeling.

  The sandwich was completely depleted in my HUD and my stomach was almost painfully empty. I had never been hungry like this before and I was pretty sure it was somehow a ‘feature’ of the game.

  I took a step towards the pedestal, hoping that maybe the bowl at least had some water in it. I wasn’t sure if that would help my hunger, but I knew you lived longer without food than you did without water.

  If my hunger level could spike this fast I was sure my thirst levels could too. That’s when I saw the massive rats at the farthest end of the room in the lefthand corner.

  The high pitched scream that left my face probably sounded more like dying forrest animal than a human being.

  I had no idea I could make a sound like that. It wasn’t like I was terrified of rats, but I was instantly scared of these ones. I hadn’t noticed them at first, because they had been blocked by one of the tables in the back.

  They were the size of a bulldog and absolutely hideous. Their heads were a little too big for their body and there was something semi-intelligent in their eyes that were now looking at me.

  They both had large underbites that made their dingy teeth poke up past their nose and mouth. They looked like they had some sort of ragged clothing on but the pink flesh of their hands and feet were almost human like.

  Their front legs were a little longer than I felt was normal and when I came around the corner they both stood up on their back legs like I’d seen rats do.

  Their somewhat human features and large stature made them look more like a person pretending to be a rat than a normal rat. There was something on the floor between them that took me a second to recognize as dice.

  “Oy, who the fuck are you yelling at, mate?” The rat to the left screeched in anger.

  “Jeeds, that is no way to talk to a guest,” the other rat said, its eyes squinting with malice.

  I did not feel like a guest at all. A tooltip popped up over the last one:

  Rat Fink (Topside)

  Tribe: Unknown

  Affiliation: Unknown

  Status: Unknown

  If you ever wanted to know what it would be like to take a small human, combine it with a rat, and give it a terrible cockney accent then you are in luck! Rarely found roaming alone, these little cowards usually form gangs of 4 or more.

  When they aren’t constantly fighting in some sort of turf war they can be found gambling or making other poor financial decisions.

  The shock of seeing them for the first time left my body and I leapt back, screaming. The noise and motion caught them off guard as I brandished my knife, my hands shaking. They were very small creatures, maybe half the size the goblin had been, but I was still terrified.

  I had never seen an anthropomorphic anything, let alone a disgusting looking rat humanoid thing. The book’s mention of the bubonic plague flashed in my mind. They looked particularly irritated that I had interrupted their dice game.

  “Ey Jacko, that's your sword, innit?” The rat on the left had said, standing up a bit straighter.

  A Rat Sticker had appeared in his hand, similar to the one I held. From here it looked sharper than the one I held but, that could have just been my fear playing tricks on me. It also appeared larger held in such a small hand.

  “It bloody right well is,” the other rat said.

  I was cringing at their accents, and how they seemed to be mixing things up when they spoke. I supposed I didn’t know exactly how genetically impossible creatures should sound. Still, this felt a little stereotypical and somehow offensive to me.

  “Fucking come and get it then,” I said.

  Where the hell had that come from?

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  I didn’t talk like that. They were almost as shocked as I was that I had said that. A wave of anger washed over me in a way I don’t think I have ever experienced. A notification popped up and I looked at it quickly.

  You are HANGRY.

  Oh, that’s just great. Suddenly my vision was flooded with another achievement, and I took a step back from the rats, hoping they wouldn’t advance.

  Achievement Unlocked!

  You’re Not Yourself When You’re Hangry!

  You’ve gone so long without eating that you’re about to become a literal rage monster! It should go without saying that eating is good for you (there is even a helpful section in your player book that talks about this!) and it should be done regularly.

  But, hey, you’ve already shown that you’re a bit of a rebel, so this isn’t too surprising. What IS surprising is what you’ll probably do next since you’re more than a little cray cray!

  (Bronze Reward)

  I ignored the achievement and focused on the status:

  Hangry

  You have gone too long without eating and are now both hungry and angry. You will find it difficult to ignore impulses and angry outbursts.

  Let’s hope your friends aren’t nearby or they may catch some strays while you rant about the traffic in your town or how terrible gas prices keep getting. Or you might rip one of their arms off and beat them to death with it. It’s anybody’s guess!

  (Note: you can see further details about your status by clicking on the status in your status menu.)

  The descriptions just kept getting weirder.

  Thankfully the rats seemed too confused to react at the moment. I really needed to figure out how to edit these popups. It wasn’t like I could be all like, “Hey mister rat, can you wait to attack me while I do some light reading?”

  I saw an icon in the upper left of my HUD but didn’t have time to take a closer look. The rats were now making a move towards me and I needed to focus. The other rat had pulled out a small club that reminded me of the tiny baseball bats you could get at some sporting events.

  I felt a similar energy that I had when I was about to turn the corner earlier, but this came on a bit more manic. I felt my eyes growing wide, and felt an odd excitement building. I realized I was gritting my teeth and was I… was I growling?

  “That’s right mother fuckers. Come to daddy,” I said.

  Great now I was sounding like some unhinged 90’s action movie villain. I started dancing back and forth on the balls of my feet, moving the knife back and forth between my left and right hand.

  I could feel myself being flooded with what I could only describe as bloodlust.

  It was strange to feel this way but to also feel disconnected from it. I was reminded of how it had felt when I had bought my last bottle of booze.

  The rats looked at each other and then back at me. Their almost sinister look now replaced with something closer to fear and confusion. I wasn’t sure what constituted strange to them.

  Maybe seeing a tall as hell, 260 lb almost fat psychopath in a bloody hospital smock wildly brandishing a filthy butterknife would be strange, but I don’t know.

  My breathing was coming in heaves, which left me feeling like massive bellows had replaced my lungs. My muscles were tense like I was flexing them all at the same time.

  The rats didn’t have anything to say as they both started to back up. They now looked terrified, their eyes wide with their goofy mouths gapped open. The rat on the left dropped his knife.

  For some reason this pissed me off more. I couldn’t be sure if it was the hangry status or something else. I was furious that they wanted to be little tough guys until someone else wanted to play.

  I started moving towards them, my stride long and angry. The rat on the right pissed on the ground as they both continued to back away.

  I was in another world, and my anger had fully taken the wheel. They were moving slowly with fear, their hands coming up to block out the sight of me.

  As if that would help.

  I punted the rat on the left with the full force of my right leg. My left leg even came up off the ground a bit at the end like I was on a football field.

  When I connected it was as if I had kicked a bag full of dog toys, and a soft squeak of pain escaped the rat as it tumbled in the air.

  My slipper came off as the rat flew into the back corner. The rat made a muffled crunch, and another squeak escaped its lips as it struck the corner. It fell down in a heap on the ground, limp.

  When my foot touched the concrete it felt like it had burst open, but appeared to be mostly undamaged.

  The other rat let out an inhuman scream of terror and agony while it watched his friend land in the corner. It was a terrible sound full of pain and loss. I felt the pang of familiarity in that scream somewhere in my soul, but pushed it away.

  My anger had no room for pity or empathy.

  “Jeeds! No!” The rat screamed, looking back at me. “You killed my brother you fookin’ monster!”

  It brought its tiny club up like it was going to take a swing at me. and then lunged in my direction. I moved out of the way causing it go crashing into the chair behind me. The little rat thing went down on one knee, the club clattering away from him.

  I took the knife back into my inventory and, without thinking, grabbed a nearby chair with both hands. Before the rat could collect himself, I had the chair up and over my head. With a grunt I smashed it down on its skull and body. The rat slammed into the ground and lay still, the broken chair now a pile of wood.

  Achievement Unlocked!

  With Prejudice!

  You killed a creature with one hit using an inanimate object! And you did it with such rage it makes us wonder what you have against rat kin. Is this considered a hate crime?

  If it is, we aren’t going to be the ones to tell you about it. We’re cool, right?

  (Bronze reward)

  The rat remained still under the broken chair. My face was scrunched up in wild anger and rage making it feel like a mask. It felt unnatural to me, but I couldn’t seem to break myself free from the insane feeling.

  I looked over at the rat I had kicked, and could see that one of its legs was twitching. Two steps had me standing over to it, and without hesitation I stomped on its head with my bare foot. The rat’s leg twitched a few more times, and then went slowly limp.

  Achievement Unlocked!

  Footlong!

  You stomped a creature to death with your foot! That’s really gross! Put some shoes on next time. And maybe don’t smash defenseless creatures to death with your feet in general.

  (The reward is the therapy you will get later.)

  I wasn’t sure how I was even supposed to collect these damn rewards, but I still felt irritated that I wouldn’t receive one. The rage began to leave my body and I felt myself deflate like a monstrous balloon. It didn’t vanish completely, but felt like it was sitting, ready for something else to set me off.

  It was dim enough for the weight of what had just happened to sink in fully. I had just brutally murdered these rats without even a second thought. I know that I was under some sort of status effect, and that I couldn’t fully control what I was doing. But was that the honest truth?

  It wasn’t like I had screamed at myself to stop or even tried to resist the urge. I just went along with it, a passenger yet again to whatever deeper desire had a hold of me. Fighting monsters and killing to survive was one thing, but I had no idea what I would call all of this.

  Where had the brutality come from?

  The real concern was that it seemed like some part of me had enjoyed it. Was that part of me real? Had that feeling been real? Was it something to do with the implants or was this always in me, below the surface?

  What the hell was happening to me?