Oliver woke up on the floor. “Ugh. What happened. That raid was crazy last night. Huh? I can’t remember how the raid ended. Oh well.”

Oliver sat down on his bed after doing a quick stretch. Sleeping on the floor rarely results in great rest. “Man, I have got to stop doing late night Taco Bell runs. Well, guess I should start my day.”

Just as Oliver stood up to grab a quick shower, words appeared in his vision.

Greetings! Your world has forever been changed, what was separated shall now begin to return. Magic is real as are the beings you called monsters. Many of you have left your world and reached salvation. Now it is time for you to determine what you will do with the rest of your life on this planet.

This system has been chosen to help you interpret the changes to yourself and the world around you. Think or say “status” should you want to view your character sheet or information regarding your skills and abilities. You can concentrate on an ability or area to gain additional information. If you desire to adjust your notifications or display think “system settings” and your options will appear. These options are limited by person due to a multitude of factors.

“Is this a joke? Am I still dreaming?”

Query Accepted

This is not a joke. You are awake. What your people understand as the apocalypse has begun. Prepare yourself.

“Okay...” Oliver said as he slumped back onto his bed.

“So, I have a system and if I believe the words appearing before me, the apocalypse has started.”

Correct

“And the system listens and interacts with me...”

Correct

“That’s not creepy at all.”

Good

“Okay, seriously system, are you just messing with me right now?!”

Query Not Accepted

“Yea, you’re totally screwing with me. Of course, the apocalypse starts, and I get a snide system.”

Query Accepted

“That wasn’t a question!” Oliver quickly cried out.

As stated in the initial release, each system will have subtle differences, settings, and permissions based on a multitude of factors. Your mind is filled with sarcasm and random fantasies. Based on your memories, your preferred form of communication is snide sarcastic behavior. The system settings have been adjusted to compensate.

“Okay, that’s fair. Let’s see, system do you know the one about...”

Query Accepted

Yes! Again, in your mind. Initiating scan to determine if brain was damaged during integration.

“Hey! Come on now! Why you gotta be like that?!”

Scan complete. Results inconclusive. Additional observation required.

“Geez. Okay, got it. You’re probably right, a completely helpful system without snide comments would probably be more of a shock to me than the apocalypse. Well, if we are stuck with each other let’s get started. What was it again?... right show me my Status.”

Name: Oliver

Race: In Transition

Level: 1

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 6

Constitution: 8

Intelligence: 17

Wisdom: 14

Charisma: 9

Spiritual Attunement: Unaligned

Core Stage: Not Formed

Spiral Stage: Not Formed

Health, Mana, Stamina Values & Regen Rates per hour (pH)

HP: 20

HP/pH: 5

MP: 43

MP/pH: 42

SP: 70

SP/pH: 24

“Well, no surprise that my physical stats aren’t the greatest. A life of video games and good books has rarely driven me to be very active. Though I would go with James and others on trips and such. What was one of the rules of surviving the apocalypse...” Oliver snapped his fingers as he remembered. “Oh yea, cardio! Well, I’ll work on it. My intelligence looks pretty good, and my Wisdom isn’t too bad either, must be from all that reading. I’m surprised that my Charisma looks decent. I mean maybe it comes from being part Italian, who knows, but I’ll take it.”

A new notification popped up.

You have been granted one perk and based on your stats one basic spell. Please choose from the following...

“Alright! You are making a better impression now system, keep it up.”

DO NOT PUSH IT

“Okay, okay. Got it, you can mess with me, but I can’t really mess with you, is that it?”

EXACTLY

NOW CHOOSE!

“Got it. Please display the available perks.”

—————

A few hours later...

“Alright system I will go with the Favored Magic Type perk.”

Favored Magic Type

Description: Choose a magic type or ‘school’. All spells of this magic type have double the potency and are a quarter of the mana cost. In addition, spells of this type do not require magical components or an arcane focus. This grants you access to one tier higher spell. Magic Type Chosen: Fire.

You must now choose your first Tier 1 spell. Due to your chosen perk, you may also choose one Tier 2 Fire spell.

“Sweet! Two spells to choose from!” Oliver exclaimed.

First spell selected: Weak Fire Arrow

Weak Fire Arrow

Description: Summon and shape a Fire arrow that shoots a target causing fire damage. Please note: The fire damage from this spell is increased due to related perk.

Tier 2 Fire spell chosen: Minor Fireball.

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Minor Fireball

Description: Form and shoot a minor fireball causing force and fire damage. Please note: The fire damage from this spell is increased due to related perk.

As he was now working with fire Oliver had to say the classic Beavis & Butthead line. “Fire! He, he, he, he, he. Cool, he, he, he, he, he!”

Smiling Oliver summoned a fire arrow before dismissing it.

“Ye be a wizard, Oliver!” Oliver exclaimed in excitement.

Query Accepted

You cannot choose a class until you reach level 13.

“That is not what I meant, and you know it!”

Correct

“You son of a... woosah, woosah. It’s not like you can do anything to the damn system to begin with.”

Correct

“Errrrrr... Okay you know what, no. I am going to be the bigger man here.”

Debatable

“Son of a... wait you know what? I walked right into that one, didn’t I?” Oliver exclaimed.

Query Accepted

Correct

“Alright. I’ll give you that one. Now what can I expect out there? Man, I wish I had gone on that birthday trip with my buddy. One, I feel kind of bad he was alone on his birthday. Second, that cabin is stocked and a great place to hole up and survive this apocalypse.”

QUEST RECEIVED

Find Old Friends

Description: You have realized that you will need resources and a place to use as a base of operations in the hopes of surviving this apocalypse. You also realize the most precious resource is someone you can trust to watch your back. Lucky for you, you know exactly where to find these very things. Unluckily for you, the location is not exactly close.

Objective: Reach Shadow’s Cabin before you or your friend are overrun. HINT: It will take time for the realms to merge. The faster you get there, the easier it will be. WARNING: Do not take too long to decide. The clock is ticking... like seriously, why aren’t you moving already?

Please note: This quest has been auto accepted on your behalf as it is the best course for survival. This is mandatory and cannot be rejected.

“Okay system we are going to have a serious talk.” Olive complained as he finished getting dressed, started to figure out what he needed to take, and began to load up his backpack.

Once Oliver finished his packing, he loaded everything into the old pickup his buddies had spent time fixing up. Oliver and his friends were preppers, not on the extreme side, but they all had emergency rations and had some level of additional resources should the end of the world occur.

“You’re not paranoid if you’re right!” Oliver repeated the popular prepper saying to himself.

As part of his final preparations before heading out, Oliver did a quick ‘circle of safety’, which consisted of doing a 360 degree walk around the truck and checking the tires and popping the hood to do a quick check to see if anything wrong stood out. He wasn’t a mechanical wiz like one of his buddies, but he watched his buddy and his buddy’s friend Kevin rebuild the engine, so Oliver knew just enough to know everything looked right. As this truck had zero computer chips in it, he figured it had a far better chance of starting up than his car, plus extra fuel was already loaded into the back of the truck.

‘The quest said make it to Shadow’s cabin. If that was the case Paul was no longer with us.’ Oliver thought as he remembered the crazy old genius.

Paul adored Oliver’s best friend and made it clear if anything happened to old man, his buddy inherited the cabin along with everything Paul owned. Oliver remembered the conversation as they were all sitting there on the cabin porch enjoying the quiet.

“If I ever die or am raptured, and you didn’t join me, then I want you to have the place. I never had any kids, wife cheated on me while I was at war, so I kicked his ass and booted her to the curb. I consider you like the son I never had... Shadow. Why you youngins like to use your gamer tags makes no sense to me. Though I guess when I think about it, when I was in the war, my buddies and I gave each other nicknames too.” Paul said as he shook his head and stood up, “Now, let’s go inside and you can try some of the moonshine I made.”

That was how Paul was, he would get right to the point, maybe reminisce for a moment, then act.

“If the cabin doesn’t reference my best friend’s name, then it looks like my buddy took on one of his gamer monikers. Shadowalker, or Shadow for short, was one of a few handles his best friend went by when they gamed. Oliver had a few go-to names himself. One of his favorites was from a sci-fi series he loved, Farscape. It wasn’t what he used when they raided every week, but it still was one of his go-to handles. “Eh, why not. If everything is changing, maybe I should too. System can you update my name to Laraaq?”

Query Accepted

System settings update complete. Name has been changed from Oliver to Laraaq. If someone inspects you, they will now see Laraaq.

Displaying Status changes:

Name: Laraaq

Perks: Favored Magic Type (Fire)

Known Spells: Weak Fire Arrow (Tier 1), Minor Fireball (Tier 2)

“Thanks System.” Laraaq said out loud.

You are welcome... sci-fi nerd, I mean Laraaq.

“You just couldn’t pass up the dig, could you?” Laraaq stated.

Correct

Cannot having you die of shock from your system being nice to you.

Shaking his head at his system’s antics, Laraaq got into the truck and started up the engine. His mind shifted to the journey he was about to undertake. That made him think of his buddy. “Funny enough I bet Shadow would appreciate the fact that I’m bringing the truck to him. I doubt his electrical car is going anywhere, ha, ha, ha. Time to do this.”

“Alright System, time for a Road Trip!” Laraaq said as he pulled out of the driveway after shutting the garage and locking up.

As Laraaq drove off down the street, he did not know if he would ever come back to the place, he called home. Laraaq thought to himself, ‘I sure hope so.’

Driving down the street Laraaq immediately noticed how no one was on the road. It had been at least half a day since the initial notification. “It looks like after the notification everyone found the nearest place to bunker down in.” Laraaq commented to himself as he slowly drove by several abandoned cars. Some had rolled to a stop somewhere; most had crashed into something.

Query Accepted

Millions of humans chose to be saved and were immediately taken when this event started.

“Wait, what? Why wasn’t I given that option?”

Query Accepted

You have no faith. There was only one path to initial salvation, that option required strong faith or innocence.

“Innocence? Explain please.”

Query Accepted

Those that did not have enough mental development or had limited capacity were automatically saved unless they had committed great acts of cruelty.

“I am not sure I understand that answer. Could you please elaborate.”

Query Accepted

Most human children under the age of 16, most pets, and mentally disabled were automatically taken and spared what is to come.

“I guess kids make sense as their cognitive brains are still developing. Why stop at 16? The brain still develops way past that age.”

Query Accepted

That was the average age. Cognitive development was considered, some children older than 16 were taken and some younger were left. It was decided that by that age they should have enough cognitive development to begin to understand faith and the difference between right and wrong.

“Have you met the younger generation? I would not make that assumption, especially with some of the crappy non-existent parents out there.” Laraaq commented.

Do I need to run another mental health scan? Think about it.

After a long pause…

Query Accepted

It falls to the parents to develop the cognitive skills of their children. Many cultures have different ages of adulthood. The decision was made to take the average of 16 and factor parental responsibilities for any children from 16 to 18 years of age. Some were saved, some were not. Cruel acts were considered for those children without faith.

“So, what I am understanding is anyone from 16 to 18 if they are here, it was because the parents didn’t raise them right. Also, any kid younger than 16, if the kid wasn’t a little shit chances are they were taken. That means, any kids I see under 16 I might want to be wary of.” Laraaq summarized.

Correct

“Well at least that means I don’t have to feel bad about throwing a fireball at some little jerk off if they are still here.”

That’s the spirit!

Laraaq pondered what he just learned. He mentally resolved himself to be very cautious around younger kids still around and decided to take a ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ policy in that regard.

Keep that mindset and you just might survive this apocalypse.

An hour into his drive Laraaq encountered his first monster. At first, he just thought it was someone who was in shock or maybe drunk as they just meandered around listlessly. As he got closer to the individual, Laraaq realized they were missing half the skin on their face.

“Of course, the apocalypse had to have zombies. Just great.” Laraaq lamented before steeling his resolve. “Well let’s find out of this is a fast moving or slow-moving zombie.”

Laraaq maneuvered the truck closer to the zombie. Whether it was the sound or proximity of the truck, Laraaq didn’t know, but the zombie began to move in his direction. “Slow moving, that’s perfect.”

Laraaq took his foot off the gas and rolled down his window. Sticking his arm out the window, he cast Weak Flame Arrow and shot it right at the zombie. The first shot went wide and missed the zombie entirely. Not wanting to give the zombie further opportunity to get closer, Laraaq cast a second Weak Flame Arrow. This one flew true and smacked the zombie right in the chest and ignited the zombie’s clothes.

“Uhh, uhh.” The zombie moaned as the fire spread from the clothes to the zombie’s torso and face.

Shortly after the whole zombie caught on fire and then collapsed in the middle of the road.

Notifications appeared in Laraaq’s vision.

Congratulations! You are the first human to kill a former human turned into a monster within 1,000 kilometers. You have gained the achievement: Kill Them All & Let God Sort It Out! This achievement grants you the Titles of Ruthless Hunter and Early Adopter.

Congratulations! You have gained the title Ruthless Hunter! This title is gained when you kill a former human who was transformed into a monster or dark aligned creature. This grants the following bonuses:

Stats and damage increased by 25% when battling with former humans that have turned into monsters or dark aligned creatures.

Congratulations! You have gained the title Early Adopter! This title is gained when you are the first to kill a former human turned monster or dark aligned creature This grants the following bonuses:

Experience gained on first kill tripled. When you level up, humans will gain 5 attribute points, which are commonly referred to as ‘stat points’, to distribute into any area you choose. This title grants you an additional 5 ‘stat points’ per level. This is not a retroactive title and only applies to levels gained after receiving this title.

Congratulations! You have gained +125 experience for killing a level 4 undead zombie. This experience is tripled due to achievement title. Total +375 experience.

Level Up! Congratulations! You have reached level 2! +10 stats points per level. Total stat points to distribute: +10!

“Sweet! Now that I am a hunter, I should get a 1967 Chevy Impala. System can you notify me should we encounter a 1967 Chevey Impala, preferable in black?”

Query Accepted

Should one come within your sensory range, and you miss it a warning notification will go off in your brain.

“Thank you, System.”

You are welcome, Dean, I mean Laraaq.

“Okay, so that confirms you can read my thoughts and or past memories.”

DUH. I thought we already established this. You sure are slow on the uptake.

“Hey! I just didn’t know you could go back into memories of past shows I used to watch.”

Do you really want to get into a conversation on things you have watched in the past?

“Uh… no, we are good. And for the record… never mind, let’s stay focused on the present System, yes that’s it, better to focus on the present right now for my safety.” Laraaq replied as he put the pickup truck in gear and continued along his journey.