How To Die Very Very Fast (Kenshi Quest)

Welcome to the world of Kenshi, home to orbital lasers, skin spiders, and many more crimes against humanity. As a desert world with a violent wildlife and toxic lands, survival is always at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Racism and misogyny are a religion, slavery is a business, and cannibalism is a culture. A perfect paradise if you were a psychopath.

The moment I first started playing Kenshi, I fell in love with the game. Although there are cheeky ways to become overpowered, just one moment of inattention can lead to your carefully molded character being chowed down on by carnivorous giraffes with beaks. Sometimes you have no choice but to leave the squad you had trained since the start to die valiantly holding off a horde of hungry spiders, just so that the one person who hadn’t lost their leg yet could escape.

Perhaps what made me fall in love with the game the most was that there was no true end game. You are not some chosen hero who must defeat an evil being that is threatening the world. You are nobody. You can die just as easily as anyone else, be enslaved just as anyone else can, and can get strong just as anyone else can. The world is a shitty place, and you can either help make it less shitty, albeit still shitty, or shittier. Truly, you have a variety of options. Kenshi, at its core, is a roleplay game; you make your own story. Ever wanted to be a drug runner? A tech hunter, braving the wild to explore ancient ruins? A white male with a penchant for enslaving… well, everyone else? Kenshi has your back.

And thus, I present to you, my very first Quest! Hopefully it does not crash and burn within a few days. This is my first attempt at writing such a type of story, and I am still an inexperienced writer, so bear with me!
The mechanics of this quest are as so:

• Voting will be open for 5 days each time unless stated otherwise. Since Kenshi is not super well known, I’m assuming this Quest won’t have much traction. Additionally, I am a super busy person so I will only have time to write on the weekends, and I will tend to post on Sunday nights or Monday morning. To keep a regular schedule, assume that voting ends on Friday at night/Saturday in the morning.
• Unlike the game Kenshi, you are a singular person. You are not a hivemind that can hire someone into your group and can send them off to die with a smile on their face.
• Beyond story-wise encounters, random encounters will also be a thing, both in cities, out of cities, and even in your own base (if you decide to make one). These random encounters will be decided by a dice roll every in-story day. Additionally, leaders of a raid won’t be kind enough to send you a letter of intent like the game does.
• Your character stats will be represented like Kenshi’s (see below). However, the growth rate will be slowed down to more realistic levels. Additionally, an attribute Charisma will be added. These stats will be used to decide the fate of encounters in accordance with the actions you choose to take, such as certain tasks requiring a certain level.
  
  Spoiler: Stats
• Grievous, bodily harm can and most likely will be applied to your character. Plot armor can only protect you from horrible decisions so many times; perhaps next time, don’t try to run through Cannibal territory with a broken leg. However, due to state-of-the-art prosthetics, a missing limb can easily be replaced with a robot limb at the small cost of all your money! So never give up! Fight on!
• Speaking of never giving up and reckless stupidity, get back onto your feet and fight even if you just got beaten black and blue. Just like in the game, the Toughness attribute will only rise if you don’t cower away!
• Although in the game you are no one special, during the character creation, certain liberties will be allowed to show the world who’s boss. Of course, you can choose to not take these liberties and slum it with the rest of the poor folk.

Other mechanics may be added as needed; I honestly haven’t thought this out too much, but if I fretted about everything it would never get published.

This Quest is going to be written such that even if you do not know anything about the game and lore, you will be able to learn as we go along. To start the beginners off, have these maps below! The first one shows the region names and the second one shows the political affiliations of each region!

Spoiler: Maps

Next are the species you can become in Kenshi!

Spoiler: Greenlander

Primarily from farmer cultures, they still tend to be an aggressive race and are easily led astray. The worst of them live in ignorance, knowing only greed and fear, reacting to anything different with hatred and violence, but the best of them are some of the greatest civilised scientists, engineers and warriors in the land.

Spoiler: Scorchlander

Scorchlanders tend to value personal freedoms above all else. They don't tend to get along well with rules, regulations and religions, and as a result have a reputation as social misfits and are often found in more adventurous professions. Despite this however, they are highly creative, making them natural-born traders and skilled weaponsmiths. Honest to a fault, laughing in the face of manners, moderation and anything sensible, they make loyal friends, passionate enemies, and are great fun to drink with.

Spoiler: Shek

A warrior society that values strength and hardiness above more intellectual pursuits. They are sometimes a little humourless and have a reputation as dumb brutes, but this is not always the case. Their external skeletal plates provide a natural armour but hinders more dexterous pursuits like sneaking around.

Spoiler: Hiver

The Hive, also known as Hivers, are a Race of stick-like humanoids who are meant to collaborate under a collective mind, ruled by a Hive Queen and her princes. Hive characters are separated into many subspecies with their own unique appearance. The majority of the Hivers care for little else other than the Hive's happiness and survival and are willing to give their lives for the Hive as a whole.

Spoiler: Skeleton

The Skeletons are a complete mystery, nobody knows where they came from, or how they were made, but they are suspected to be thousands of years old. Fully sentient, and capable of feeling sadness, anger, excitement, compassion, thrill and enjoyment, although they don't posses the ability to express anything visually. This, combined with their dry sense of humor, often confuses the other races, whom the Skeletons see as somewhat volatile and unpredictable. They have no prejudice or fear of death, and make for brutally effective warriors.

Also, have this brief overview of the three main factions you will be having to deal with:

Spoiler: Holy Nation

Ever wanted to use your white, male privilege? Well look no more, for the Holy Nation has that and more! Believers in Okran and haters of Narko, these guys are religious zealots who happen to also own the best plots of land throughout all of Kenshi. Better not laugh around these guys though; humor is a sin, as well as being a woman with opinions.

Spoiler: The United Cities

Ever wanted to be arrested for the horrible crime of being poor? The money grubbers of Kenshi, these guys have two sets of territories; UC North in the Great Desert and UC South in the wetlands. Ruled by nobility, dressed in their fashionable pajamas, the UC is known for their burgeoning slave market and charity projects in the form of a blade through your guts.

Spoiler: The Shek Kingdom

Ever wanted to have your taxes in the form of food? A warrior culture with their own version of Valhalla, these guys just recently came out of a war with the Holy Nation and are weaker for it. Populated mainly by the Shek species with a culture that despises weakness of body, these guys are raring to fight anyone they can, only held back by their wise Queen. Honestly, one of the better places to live in Kenshi.

If there are any suggestions to make to the Quest mechanics or explanations are needed, I will be more than willing to hear you out. So without further ado, Character Creation begin!

 

‘I’m… I’m a skeleton, I don’t even eat food. Why would I be carrying any?’
~ A random skeleton moments before being jumped by a gang of hungry bandits

Character Creation

You wake up with a startled gasp, eyes wide yet unable to see anything around you. Pain racks your body and head as you come to, shards of broken memories flashing by. Confusion rears its ugly head, and you wonder why everything was so painful. What exactly were you doing the night before that caused this? Why couldn’t you remember? You knew something had happened, but nothing comes to mind no matter how much you think, as if there was a big gap in your memory of last night. No, you realize, as panic begins to set in. Even before that, you can remember nothing.

Your brain begins to feel as if it was swelling up and tensing at the same time, the same feeling as if you were to suck in your stomach. Who were you? Why couldn’t you remember?

Your brain melts.
Who are you?
Your body rebels.
Who are you?

Static fills your mind, and suddenly everything connects. That’s right! You are…

[X] A normal person from Earth (Isekai!)
[X] A Holy Nation Farmer (Must be a Greenlander Male)
[X] Son of a United Cities Captain
[X] A Shek Warrior Initiate (Must be a Shek)
[X] Rogue Drone (Must be a Hiver)
[X] Lonely Relic (Must be a Skeleton)
[X] A Nobody
[X] Write-In

More memories begin to fill in, one by one. Your name was…

[X] Ceras
[X] Ryoko
[X] Beanhop
[X] Write-In

…you were a…

[X] Male
[X] Female

…and a…

[X] Greenlander
[X] Scorchlander
[X] Shek
[X] Hiver
[X] Skeleton
[X] Write-in

Your life filters in, from the very beginning. Every hobby that you had, every simple pleasure you enjoyed, and every skill that you trained. That’s right, you are good at…

Choose 5 skills/attributes. In order, these skills will be set to 30, 25, 20, 15. and 10 respectively. All other skills will be set to 1.

[X] Strength
[X] Toughness
[X] Dexterity
[X] Perception
[X] Charisma
[X] Katanas
[X] Sabers
[X] Hackers
[X] Heavy weapons
[X] Blunt
[X] Polearms
[X] Melee attack
[X] Melee defense
[X] Dodge
[X] Martial arts
[X] Turrets
[X] Crossbows
[X] Precision Shooting
[X] Stealth
[X] Lockpicking
[X] Thievery
[X] Assassination
[X] Athletics
[X] Swimming
[X] Field medic
[X] Engineer
[X] Robotics
[X] Science
[X] Weapon smith
[X] Armour smith
[X] Crossbow smith
[X] Laboring
[X] Farming
[X] Cooking

You know that everyone needs a goal in life, a reason to wake up. But what is yours?

[X] I don’t know yet
[X] Destroy (insert Faction here)
[X] Reunite the World
[X] Live a Simple, Happy Life
[X] Write-in

All of your memories finally came together and the pressure in your head lessens. But despite that, you can’t help but feel that something is off…

[X] Just your imagination (You’re not special, the way Kenshi was meant to be played)
[X] The RTS player (Access to some of Kenshi’s game mechanics such as time stop, the map, and remote viewing of your squad)
[X] The Holy Flame (Fire magic that can burn and/or heal. Better hope the Holy Nation considers this a good thing.)
[X] Experienced (Choose 5 more skills/attributes to set to 30; you may also double up on a skill up to a max of 50).
[X] The Network (Remember the no hivemind rule? Throw that out of the window. Joining your squad means loss of autonomy. Expand your fair rule.)

Your pain fully subsides after what feels like hours, and you begin to close your eyes. Whatever problems had happened the night before were the problems of tomorrow you. Blissful sleep takes you.

 

[X] Plan "The Unusual Tranmigration of the Running Robot"
-[X] A normal person from Earth (Isekai!)
-[X] Jonathan
-[X] Male
-[X] Skeleton
-[X] Athletics
-[X] Toughness
-[X] Stealth
-[X] Charisma
-[X] Robotics
-[X] Create a New Faction
-[X] The RTS player (Access to some of Kenshi’s game mechanics such as time stop, the map, and remote viewing of your squad)

---

‘Beep.’
~ Beep, right before consuming a metric ton of drugs

Chapter 1
Buried

~/scripts $~/cor/stup.sh
LARM FUNCTIONAL
RARM FUNCTIONAL
LLEG FUNCTIONAL
RLEG FUNCTIONAL
TORSO FUNCTIONAL
VSPKR DAMAGED
PCORE FUNCTIONAL
Warning: libconveg library was unable to be loaded
War-
^C

SUPERSEDED BY ADMINISTER
INCOMING TRANSMISSION – datestamp 15889 2224421 2332
SELF-TERMINATE

~/scripts $~/../bin/st.exe
File Not Found: /root/bin/st.exe

~/scripts $~/cor/stup.sh
LARM FUNCTIONAL
RARM FUNCTIONAL
LLEG FUNCTIONAL
RLEG FUNCTIONAL
TORSO FUNCTIONAL
VSPKR DAMAGED
PCORE FUNCTIONAL
Warning: libconveg library was unable to be loaded
Warning: module shbg not found. Defaulting to jared
MFIBERS FUNCTIONAL
VALIDATING PMX
Warning: Could not locate PMX at default directory $LD_PMX_PATH=/root/usr/MU442/lib/pmx
Searching alternate directories…
^Z

SUPERSEDED BY #!###%#^^@#%%#@
UPLOADING PMX TO root/usr/temp/lib/pmx

~/scripts $export LD_PMX_PATH=$LD_PMX_PATH:/root/usr/tmp/lib/pmx
~/scripts $fg
Found pmx at root/usr/tmp/lib/pmx
Loading…

Consciousness bleeds into being. Darkness grips your heart as you fall, fall, fall, fall, fall into the void.

MU UNIT 442 ONLINE

MU Unit 442? You don’t know what those words mean, but they wedge themselves into your mind. A fan begins to spin. The air around you begins to burn. Feelings that you did not notice were gone begin to blur back into existence.

Pinging ST_1

Where were you? Grain falls into your eyes. You can’t move as if the weight of the world was pushing you down. You begin to panic as more words pour into your head like an unrelenting torrent.

Accessing COM_SAT_28
Triangulating coordinates
Unable to visually locate
EMF Module docked
Location verified
~/scripts $~/cor/lbmf.sh

Suddenly you could move, as if the weight upon you was never there in the first place. But it wasn’t you that was in control. Your left limb draws down into the void before slamming upwards. Your legs begin to kick with force you didn’t know they ever had, snapping back into place nearly instantly.

The void relents.

MFIBERS DAMAGED
Repair is recommended

And the light of day breaks through.

---

You crawl out of the rapidly filling hole of sand in utter confusion at your situation. Your last memory of anything was going to bed at your home the blaring of a horn, gasping for air which was most definitely not in the smack dab middle of a desert. What kind of cliché development was this even supposed to be?

A tumbleweed flies by.

Your eyes twitch. Or rather, they would have twitched if you actually had eyes that had muscles to do so. Because being kidnapped was oddly enough the least surprising thing that happened so far, especially when compared to suddenly becoming a robot of all things. Still unable to believe it, you bring your right arm in front of your eyes, gazing at the skeletal construction of it.

If this was an isekai, it was obviously a very shitty one. What the hell are you supposed to do? Where was the instruction manual for this new body? If your body broke or rusted, how would you go about fixing it? Did robots get robot cancer? What happened to Johnathon Jr? So many questions, yet so little answers.

Okay, you decide. There is no point in worrying about things that you have no way of solving, so you choose to focus on the important stuff first. Procrastination was the name of the game.

Step one, where were you? You look around. A desert.

Step two, how are you? Not doing very good, you determine.

Step three, any cool, overpowered abilities granted by the isekai gods? You begin to strike poses, hoping to activate some hidden function in your body. Despite your limbs being of metal, they were surprisingly flexible to the point of ridiculousness. Your poses begin to become more elaborate as you continue. About halfway through, you abandon step three and move to step four.

Step four, can you make a living as a contortionist? Yes, you decide as your leg hangs over your shoulder.

Step five, decide where to go next. You put your hand to your chins as you consider where you were again. As far as you could see, there was no sign of civilization. Perhaps if you were to climb the hill behind you, then you could get a better vantage point. You close your eye- wait, you had eyelids? You file away that small tidbit and begin to consider your options in the darkness of your mind.

~/scripts $|

Your thoughts slow to a stop as you stare at the blinking line in front of what was obviously a terminal prompt hidden on the insides of your eyelids. You were a robot now so you don’t find this exactly too surprising, but how are you supposed to interact with it? Is it voice-activated? Were you even able to speak?

You open your mouth and flinch as static blares out. You let out a quick prayer in hopes that the static was a result of bad speakers or something similar rather than a feature. With speaking obviously a no-go, what others way are there to communicate? Thoughts? You are a robot and are most likely connected to the terminal in some fashion, so it won't hurt to try.

j, you think.

~/scripts $j
Error: Unknown command - j

And Ocaam's razor strikes again. Time to see what else you can do. Though you aren’t the best user of computers out there, you know some basic command line operations. Hopefully the language this terminal uses is similar to the few you know.

dir, you try.

~/scripts $dir
Error: Unknown command - dir

Windows didn't work, so maybe Linux? ls, you try.

~/scripts $ls
whst.sh ccup.sh nvg.sh

You ponder, .sh files? Maybe you didn't get isekaied considering your operating system was clearly Linux or Unix based. Regardless, you have three different shell scripts in this directory with no idea what any do. You decide to try to read one.

~/scripts $less whst.sh
Error: Unknown command - less.
~/scripts $cat whst.sh
Error: Unknown command - cat.
~/scripts $vim whst.sh
Error: Unknown command - vim.

And of course it can't be that easy. You could just ignore them, but if one of them was your ticket out of this desert? It would be worth the risk to run one of them.

whst.sh, you decide to try.

~/scripts $whst.sh
Accessing COM_SAT_28
Transferring visuals…

What did that mean? Trans- The world expands around you as you go limp. Your once limited view becomes something more as you stare at your prone body from the skies above. COM_SAT, the terminal had said? Did you have connection to a satellite that you could see through!?

Step three was back on the table, it seemed.

Wait, was that a town at the top of the hill? Yes, it was! It is just beyond the crest of the hill, past your usual sight so you did not notice it until now. Without even knowing how you are doing so, your view rushes forward to see inside of the town. But before you can get near, you suddenly become unable to move any further. A pressure builds in your mind as you can only helplessly stare at the large walls of the city blocking your sight of what lay inside. You try to ascend your view higher above them, but no matter how hard you concentrate your sight refuses to do so. Didn't you have a connection to a satellite? What kind of arbitrary restriction was this supposed to be?

The pressure continues to grow.

Well, if you couldn't see into it, you could just walk into the town once you found the entrance. You don’t want to get your hopes up, but for a while you had feared that you were by yourself in a large desert, and that if anyone did exist, they would surely be in far greener pastures. Just the knowledge that you weren’t alone was gave you small comfort. But just as you relax, you remember a very important fact.

You are a robot.

If you really weren’t isekaied into a fantasy world and are actually the victim of an experiment, how would the government react? Would they kidnap you and do their own experiments? And if you were an isekai, were robots common in this world? Or would you get lynched the second someone sees you?

Before you can decide what to do, you hear a distinctive plop noise, and you are suddenly shoved backed into your body which lurches forward from the ground alongside your fear at the sudden change of perspective. A time limit? No, that didn't matter right now. You had to concentrate. As far as you could tell, you have very little choices. You could…

[X] Continue Step 3. Learning more about these ‘scripts’ and what else you can do in the terminal would be helpful to your survival.
[X] Continue Step 5. Go to the town. Considering they had large walls, you obviously don’t want to meet what they're keeping out.
[X] Continue Step 4. Get those Dexterity gains.
[X] Write-in.

---

(A/N) Sorry about the late post. Gonna make my excuses; I got absolutely sick. Like, struggling to get out of bed sick, which put me behind on school, work, and research quite a bit. I still feel pretty horrible, but I didn't want to let my lateness get to the point where it would be embarrassing to post the chapter.

Only one decision to make this chapter; There isn't a lot that can happen early on without your guy's input, but as the story progresses and every decision isn't a life or death choice with consequences that propagate forever, I will start to give multiple decisions to be made per chapter. When I start to feel a little better, I will try my hand at drawing what I imagine Johnathon would look like. Also, I'm trying to set up a script to autowrite out my file with Johnathon's stats into QQ format so expect that later.

And my respect for Quest writers has gone up immensely. Having to ad-lib a chapter without being able to plan out multiple chapters in advance is painful.