“I’ll take a sip later if you offer,” I smiled, then asked again, “Orcs? Goblins? Even though I lost my memory... I feel like... Isn’t all that...”
“Fantasy stuff! Exactly! Everyone knows that. Or did you think there were real goblins living here?”
“Not exactly... but why did you call yourself an orc?”
“That’s how things work around here. You’ll get used to it.”
“I don’t know...”
“I’m telling you, you’ll get used to it. It makes things easier — just think about how hard it is to say all these acronyms... GBL, ORL, HFL... And then there’s also variations...”
“What? What kind of variations?”
“There’s a bunch. For now, though, all you need to know is that you’re an ORC. ORL, ORC, get it? I’m an orc, too. If you get demoted to GBL, you’re a goblin.”
“What if they cut my arm off to pay my debt?”
“You’ll still be a goblin. But if they take a leg, too, you become a zombie. A goblin missing two limbs is a zombie.”
“A zombie?” I repeated, staring at the man. Was he joking? He had spoken all this nonsense with a straight face.
“Exactly! Easy to remember. Not too long ago I heard the Maximus squad leader telling his assistant: ‘We need three more, they can even be zombies if they’re not too stupid.’ It was short, easy to understand. No need for long explanations: ‘We need three more people with GBL status but missing two limbs.’ See what I mean?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Much easier. And quicker.”
“Exactly!”
“Can you list them, starting from the bottom?”
“I’m already running late as it is...”
“It won’t take long.”
“Well, okay... Worms at the bottom. That’s clear, right?”
“Clear as a bell. No arms, no legs. Just list them in ascending order.”
“Well... Worms, zombies, goblins, orcs, halflings. But that’s just the short list — there are variations, too. But don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. It’s easy to remember. You already learned zombies and worms, right?”
“Hard to forget,” I said thoughtfully, organizing the list in my mind, looking at it from the side, and deciding it definitely made sense.
This class system really was convenient — it was accurate, memorable, with no numbers or dull, tedious abbreviations. But why did they use fantasy races?
Hmm... He was right. I’d have to get used to it.
“Is that all the races?”
“Far from it.” He waved a hand and stood up. “Sorry, man. I really have to go. I don’t want to be a goblin again. I’m happy being an orc.”
“You mentioned elves!”
“All I know about them is that saying. Everybody says it.”
“We all serve the elves?”
“Yeah, that one.”
“There’s one race you forgot to mention,” I said.
“Which one? Although I didn’t mention all that many. I’ve only heard about them, never actually seen them.”
“You’ve definitely seen this one. And heard a lot about it. Touched some of them, even.”
“Wow. You got me, dude... What race?”
“Humans! We’re humans, have you completely forgotten?”
“Humans? Ha! You got it wrong, dude!”
“What do you mean?”
“Here,” the man looked around the hallway and our surroundings, sweeping his hand in a broad gesture. “The only ones who live here are creatures like us. And who are we?”
“We’re human.”
“Nope! We’re nullform! You’re nullform. I’m nullform. Our races are nullform! Worms, zombies, goblins, orcs, halflings — these are all nullform races. But human isn’t a nullform race at all! So you’re wrong! Good luck, Eleven. Oh! I almost forgot. Do you want a sip?”
“I appreciate it,” I said.
I took a small sip this time, then carefully put the lid back on the bottle.
“Wait.” I stopped him before he could leave.
“More water?”
“No. You helped me, and I want to thank you.”
“No problem...”
“I owe you water, and I’ll definitely repay my debt. If you have any problems, let me know. I’ll do my best to help you. Got that?”
“Thank you!”
“No, thank you. Good luck... Orc.”
“You too, fellow orc! Take care you don’t turn into a goblin! And pray you never become a worm!”
“Never become a worm…” I muttered, looking at my swollen left elbow that still didn’t seem to be shrinking. Where the hell was I? What was this place? Worms, zombies, goblins, orcs, halflings. I had that part down, at least.
A worm was bankrupt. Wiped out but still alive.
A zombie was a goblin crippled by the system.
A goblin had GBL status and might be missing an arm.
An orc... Number of limbs didn’t seem to matter. An orc was just someone who tried to regularly or periodically complete ORL jobs.
A halfling was someone with HFL. High-Grade Full-Time Labor. Hardworking and, assumedly, thrifty folk.
This system was getting to me...
And with all that considered, all the races triple fours had listed were nullform.
Which was also fitting in this situation. After all, that was our official status.
We all were nullform here.
Volitional nullform. And the human race wasn’t a nullform race.
We were not human. Based on what I knew of the local beliefs and the system, we all gave up our human status willingly.
This is some serious bullshit...
“How’s it going, zombie?” I impulsively asked a man who was using the wall to jump deftly along past me on one leg.
