Chapter 1: Los Angeles 1984
Translated by: Chua
Edited by: I
In a simple and sloppy looking room. The white bedsheets had turned yellowish, giving off a pungent smell. The surrounding furniture was simple and old, covered by a layer of dust, and the ceiling seemed particularly low. This combination gave off a pressuring feeling, leaving one unable to breathe properly. Atop the wall, an antique clock was showing 4:51 PM in the afternoon.
“My wounds…. How is it they have completely vanished?”
Lying on the bed, Sheyan opened his eyes. He did not feel any urgency to get out of bed, but instead reflected on the recent happenings, and then unbuttoned his shirt to look at the mysterious mark on his chest then finally deciding to get out of bed.
He had always been composed and witty since young, and with his strength now restored, he appeared extremely calm not showing a hint of confusion from the recent strange events. Instead, he had a very smooth and natural expression, even a slight hint of excitement as though he had been here many times already.
The floor was in a mess with many ancient looking beer glasses and bottles laying around, the labels on these items were all written in english. Sheyan picked up a beer glass, glancing at the label which said: Year 1984, Mirage Beer.
“This is?” Sheyan paused to think. Sheyan was a sociable person, making lots of friends during his time at sea, especially at the end when his status became higher, his circle of friends was naturally very broad.
One of his friends in the steel industry, William Musi, was an extremely wealthy and flaunting man, and his hobby was collecting bottles of famous beer. Before he had showcased his entire beer collection, no matter if it was the 1874 english beer from the UK, or China’s number 1 beer and even beer from Russia and Slovakia, he had it all. The value of all this could be said to be worth at least 10 million dollars.
This brand, Mirage beer was also part of his collection, because this branding was very prominent, earning its reputation as a super beer. Once it had dominated the american markets, however it was in 1984 that Budweiser company acquired it. Because the beer industry was booming then, beer bottle designs were trending, and even the Coca-Cola company copied its design.
In front of Sheyan was obviously a newly produced tank of Mirage beer. Was he actually brought back to the 1984 era in America? The mysterious voice from before actually had such power to be able to bypass space and time. Then… what is the meaning of the test that the voice mentioned from before?
Suddenly, a loud siren “DA DA DA DA… “ filled the peaceful room, this sound was actually coming from the table. Sheyan immediately stood up from his bed following the mysterious siren. He had already taken a few lives recently, and was now overflowing with a baleful aura.
The sound originated from an old typewriter on the table, although nobody was using it, it operated by itself, as lines of ink one by one emerged from the paper underneath
Contract sample 1018, Congratulations on entering the nightmare realm.”
”
“This is the variation that you will go through in the Nightmare realm – the Terminator world.”
“This is your variation type of the Nightmare realm, if you have queries on this world, you can refer to the relevant materials beside you, take note: Under normal circumstances, this world has certain prerogatives.”.
“WARNING: You can interact with the various characters, but you cannot tell them or use whatsoever methods to leak out knowledge or confidential secrets of this nightmare realm.”
“WARNING: You must complete the task given to you within 48 hours or there will be consequences.”
The word consequences was bolded, as glaring as blood itself giving one an uneasy feeling as though it was an extreme taboo.
“Main Mission: Dispose of the Space-time convergence.
“Mission summary: Skynet has made preparations earlier to dispatch and send out the terminator with the plan of assassinating critical relevant characters in history. However, to activate time-traveling and send the terminator over, they must create an extremely stable space-time convergence in the present.
“Mission goals: Eliminate the Skynet’s space-time convergence in this world.”
“Mission pointer: You may be attacked during this mission.”
Mission pointer: By accepting this mission, you will be bestowed with special capabilities, enabling you to penetrate through disguises and see the space-time convergence.
Pointer: You can achieve several milestones in this world (including other worlds beyond this).”
“Efficient user: If you can accomplish this mission without killing any unrelated person right from the start of this mission until your last.” (This excludes mission objectives of killing certain individuals, the rest are categorized as unrelated)
“Butcher: Accumulating a total of over 100 innocent lives killed in this terminator series. (This milestone can only be achieved through close-quarter combat, statistics will only count if you deal more than 50 damage points to each person)
“Machine predator: You must accumulate more than 3 terminator kills.” (Your damage counter to the terminator must total up to more than 50 points)
“Love spark: Sarah Connor’s affection points to you must exceed 50.”
“Treacherous ally: You must kill 50 cops.” (Your damage counter to each cop must exceed 50 points)
“……”
“….”
“Unable to view the remaining milestones… Power level is not adequate.”
“Achieve the different milestones to unlock the relevant titles.”
“Every contestant can have a title, and you can only wield one title at a time. Different title will invoke different special abilities, in most situations, you cannot change your title after entering a battlezone.
WARNING: After accepting this mission, you will face unimaginable dangers. Likewise if you complete a dangerous mission, your rewards will naturally be greater.
Sheyan examines this paper repeatedly, carefully reading it 3 times, absorbing as much of the information into his brain as he could. Shutting his eyes to think, he turned to look at the side of the typewriter.
A magazine was placed over there.
This magazine looked extremely new, completely contrasting its ancient surroundings, with the words “TERMINATOR” written clearly at the front.
Obviously this magazine contained information on this world. Looking at his mission objectives, this item should be specially designed for it, that means if he lost it, there will not be a second copy.
It was the year 2029 30th of July, 2:23 AM in the wee hours of the morning. The revolutionary army general John Connor led the Californian army to launch a fearsome attack against the base of Skynet. 31th July in the early morning, the revolutionary army suffered heavy losses as it marched against Skynet. Connor and the revolutionary army’s Kyle Reese disregarding their personal safety, courageously charged into the Nucleus zone. At this moment, Connor saw a T-800 robot suddenly vanished into a strange vortex.
After extensive investigations, Connor concluded that it was a time travel machine robot being sent back to 1984 with the aim of eliminating his very own mother, trying to rewrite the course of history by preventing Connor’s birth. Reese suddenly proclaimed courageously he was going to protect Connor, abandoning his personal safety, he jumped into the time vortex. Before he left he promised: “Trust me, I will be back!”
Two days later, Connor walked out of the base. Fifth of August, the revolution proclaimed Reese as ”Missing.”
Year 1987, May 12, 1:52 AM in the morning, suddenly a T-800 robot appeared through a time vortex. 2:01 AM: Reese appeared through the time vortex. Because most of the information were burned during the war, Skynet was unable to find any information on Sarah Connor’s whereabouts. The two of them without a known destination begun looking for her. That day, the T-800 robot consecutively murdered two Sarahs, one called Sarah Anna Connor, the other was a called Sarah Louise Connor, however both were the wrong woman.
From the future, the killing machine was named: Terminator. The story begins from here….
Although these materials were not reliable,Sheyan had a basic understanding towards the Terminator world. With the knowledge from all these materials, he could confirm one thing: He was sent back in time to 1984, the first destination of the terminator in the movies! His memories of how to use this information would be extremely advantageous.
Being very familiar with his mission, the words from the typewriter slowly faded away dissipating into the stale air. However its contents were already captured into the symbol on his chest – He could access the nightmare imprint at anytime. He could also voice out questions and receive answers from it.
After accepting his main mission, several huge red numbers appeared in his vision and started counting down. 48 hours, entering the terminator world in approximately 5 minutes 31 seconds. Beneath the numbers there were several options, Sheyan thought for a moment and shouted out:
“TIme: Year 1984, 12th of May, 10 in the morning.”
“Address: California, Los Angeles. (North latitude 42.19 Degrees, west longitude 83.2 Degrees)”
“Scene: Terminator’s first appearance”
“Difficulty level: Easy”
“Pain limits: 70”
“Individual extra strength: 50.”
“Present extraterrestrial vision: 0.31”
“Additional tips: In a peaceful environment/scenario, contestant’s death will not trigger any loot to drop. Initializing personal digitalized character information sharing. Contestant can use his nightmare imprint to scan a person’s attributes.”
“You are free to roam about and interact with any character. You will be forgotten after leaving this world.”
“Mission counter: 1”
“Your original appearance has been restored, and you are free to adjust your appearance within this Nightmare realm. Any doubts, you can ask through the Nightmare imprint or use your powers to get an answer.”