Curiosities

It was Kirk's turn. He'd have been lying if he said he wasn't nervous. He'd invested everything he owned, after all. If he came away empty-handed, he'd be out a fortune.

Kirk reached inside. His sense of touch seemed to have dulled; it was as if his hand had entered the inside of a woman. Something hard brushed his fingers, shaped like a sword! Kirk was overjoyed and hurriedly grabbed for it, only to discover, to his dismay, that it had slipped through his fingers. He kept groping around until something hard bumped against his hand again. It seemed to be a stone, though he couldn't be sure. He wanted to pull it out and get a better look.

But just as he drew it to the mouth of the vortex, a System Prompt appeared: "This draw has ended. Rewards have been issued."

"Are you kidding me? I just wanted to get a better look!" Kirk nearly broke down. What use was a stone? Was he supposed to knock someone over the head with it?

At that moment, the spatial vortex vanished like a roadside peddler who'd sold counterfeit goods: it had taken the money and disappeared without even bothering with the usual reminders.

Kirk cursed, but there was nothing he could do now. All his money had bought him was a stone.

Little Fatty, on the other hand, was quite interested. He kept urging his big brother to take a closer look.

Sure enough, it was a round, pitch-black stone. Toss it into a pile of coal and you'd never find it again. Furious and heartbroken, Kirk hurled it far away. Little Fatty cried out, "Big brother! That isn't an ordinary stone!"

Kirk said, "Of course I know it's no ordinary stone. Does it sing or something?"

The fat man yelled, "No! It's floating!"

Kirk hurried over to retrieve it. Sure enough, the stone was floating above his hand, as if it had no weight of its own. Its properties gradually appeared:

Valkyrie Brune's Requiem Stone

(valkyriebrynhild'srequiem stone)

[Rank] Unknown Curio (65% fragment), Space Unique Item.

[Nature] A vessel for receiving souls. Warrior's Souls are protected by Odin's divine power and can remain in this divine stone forever, never vanishing into the passage of time and space.

[Origin] Any Earth plot instance where the Norse Gods might exist.

[Material] "Lord God's Grip"—the first armrest stone on the right side of Main God Odin's throne.

[Equipment Slot] Any position in the inventory; requires soul binding.

[Description] A seemingly heavy, pitch-black stone that floats in the air, yet weighs almost nothing in the hand. Struck by an unknown divine power, it split apart two-thirds of the way through. Frost covers its surface and seems destined never to melt. The inscriptions on it are also incomplete.

[Explanation] The Valkyries were the daughters of the great god Odin, and their name originally meant "War Virgins." There were twelve of them, tasked with bringing the souls of warriors who had died bravely in battle to the divine realm of the Norse Gods. Odin greatly favored the souls of powerful, fearless warriors. He made twelve Requiem Stones and gave one to each of the twelve Valkyries. This fragment belonged to Odin's most beloved eldest daughter, the chief goddess who received souls, the shield-bearing Valkyrie Brune (valkyriebrynhild). For countless years, Main God Odin had continuously caressed and imbued this armrest stone with his right hand, leaving it filled with almost limitless divine power. She had once used this mighty Artifact to guide the souls of countless brave heroes into Valhalla in Asgard.

During the battle of Ragnarok, the Valkyrie Brune fought under Odin's command to defend Asgard, the Divine Kingdom. Her foes were Hrym, the King of Frost Giants from Jotunheim, a direct descendant of the Wisdom Giant Mimir and the Giantess Bestla. Though she ultimately slew the King of Frost Giants, who was nearly Odin's equal, she fell into an eternal slumber from her grievous wounds. The Requiem Stone she had worn over her chest was also shattered by Hrym's final blow, and its fragments scattered across the world.

[Details] Engraved on the fragment is the Requiem that Valkyrie Brune sang to guide Warrior's Souls:

"Lowly mortals! You will never know the supreme greatness of the Gods!

The sky is our garden!

The clouds are our cushions!

The ocean is our bathing pool!

The earth is our courtyard!

The ice mountains are our will!

Lightning is our fury!

The World Tree is our pillar!

Gladsheim is our palace!

Asgard is our home!

Giants are our mortal enemies!

Humans are our servants!

Hel is our prison!

Only the bravest souls earn Odin's favor and enter Valhalla, never to perish!

Become a warrior of the Gods! Receive eternal life! Fight for the Divine Kingdom!"

(The inscription below is missing due to damage...)

[Space Unique Skill]—[Odin's Summon]

The user must expend 100% of their own energy and pay the required Soul Crystals. For a limited time, they can use [Odin's Summon] to summon the powerful Warrior's Souls within the Requiem Stone to fight for them. The strength of the Warrior's Soul may be limited by the Plot Difficulty. The time it remains in the plot world = (the summoner's Intelligence + Wisdom) × 60 seconds. Once the summoner has learned the relevant skills, the Warrior's Soul can benefit from the summoner's corresponding attributes and abilities.

[Collecting Warrior's Souls]

A Warrior's Soul can be any Plot Character or plot creature, and may also be a Contractor. To recruit a Plot Character, the following conditions must be met:

1. If a Plot Character's hidden Favorability toward you exceeds 80 and their compatibility with you is above 90%, then, provided you were not directly or indirectly responsible for their death, there is a chance they will willingly become your Warrior's Soul and protect you forever.

2. If the Plot Character is hostile, you must kill him yourself (the damage dealt by the killing blow must account for more than 80% of the total damage that caused his death). The Warrior's Soul may then recognize your valor. After you pay a certain price, such as Soul Crystals, you may recruit him as your Warrior's Soul, and he will protect you forever.

3. If a Contractor dies, he must do so willingly to become your Warrior's Soul and protect you forever. The state of a Contractor who becomes a Warrior's Soul will be permanently fixed, and no item can ever be used to revive him in the system again. The Contractor himself will know this clearly, so don't think you can trick them into agreeing.

[Prompt]: This equipment is a fragment, so there are many restrictions on recruiting and summoning Warrior's Souls. The strength of Warrior's Souls will be heavily suppressed by the power of the system, and the summoning cost may bankrupt you outright. The system encourages you to actively search for other fragments. They can be fused, and once the inscriptions are complete, the stone may regain more divine power, unlock higher-level equipment skills, lower the requirements for recruiting Warrior's Souls, improve the effects of summoning, or even ascend into the true Artifact from Valkyrie Brune's era! You may find relevant information in any Earth plot instance or space where the Norse Gods or Giants might exist.

[Prompt]: This item must be soul-bound before use. Once bound, it cannot be traded or dropped, and the system will reclaim it if the Contractor dies. While bound, it cannot be detected by any scouting skill.

[Afterword]: The only reason you could get this from a sixth-generation mutated fat man in The Walking Dead world was that the fat man had an extremely faint trace of direct ancient Giant blood. After Hrym's divine power shattered the Soul Stone, one of the ancient Giants who fought in the battle picked it up and swallowed it. The soul stone lay dormant within the Giant's soul and was passed down through its bloodline, until you killed one of its countless generations of descendants.

"So that dead fatso actually had Giant blood in him. No wonder the worse his injuries got, the faster he recovered. And no wonder eating people restored his strength..." Little Fatty muttered. "But big brother, this is the first time I've seen an introduction this long. It looks pretty awesome."

Kirk asked wearily, "Little Fatty, let me ask you: if I left you in an endless desert, where you were about to die of thirst and hunger, and gave you a choice between a box of food and water and a box of gold, which would you choose?"

"I'd choose the food and water. Staying alive is what matters."

"Exactly. Staying alive matters more than anything. Now I've got this thing with Valkyries and souls and all that. Apparently, it can even be upgraded into an Artifact someday, so it sounds pretty impressive. But we've never even heard of Soul Crystals, and we don't have any Warrior's Souls. Where can we find them? How do we use this thing? We know nothing. How much is it really worth to our survival?"

Kirk sighed and continued, "We basically emptied our pockets just now. We spent 10,000 survival points, all our Team Contribution Value, and a lot of Skill Potential Points. You could say the reward we just got only let us break even."

Little Fatty looked dejected. "T-Dog died too, and we lost quite a few people."

Kirk patted Little Fatty on the shoulder. "Come on. We still have to report back to Rick and the others."

By now, the team clearing Sector C had been almost completely wiped out. They no longer had the strength to complete the mission and could only withdraw in defeat.

Kirk and Little Fatty couldn't think about anything else now. To hell with the mission—everyone was dead. All Kirk wanted was to get back to the team and sleep soundly.

It was the fifth day. The zombies would undergo their third mutation that night. Maybe they'd even attack the city!

Why was staying alive so hard? Kirk cried out inwardly.

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