A thunderous boom split the air. The world went white. Will put his hands to his eyes.

He regained vision swiftly. Will rushed to the door and threw it open. White lines of energy ran across the ground. Fractures of light that dimmed even as he watched.

Overhead the sun was splitting in two, a thin corona of energy circulating between the two new celestial bodies. Like an infinity symbol created around two burning beacons.

Barking pulled his gaze a way. A dog’s barking. Followed by a vile cackle. Will looked down the street to see a green skinned humanoid dragging itself free from the white cracks in the ground. The creature had razor-sharp teeth, squashed cauliflower ears, and a set of beady eyes. Its arms and legs were stubby, and it was clad in a rank looking loincloth.

‘Goblins.’ Will muttered.

‘Goblins. Bloody hell, what an adventure.’ Herc said, stepping up beside him. The barking of a dog came again, from further up the street. A pack of three goblins had surrounded a small...was that a pug?

The dog snapped at them and growled, as much as a pug could do so. The goblins had jagged, rusty blades in hand and hesitated. Perhaps perplexed at the idea of a pug, which, to be fair, was not an uncommon thing.

The goblin nearest them snapped its head in their direction. It put its knife between its teeth and dropped to all fours, skittering at them.

It leapt at Will’s face and tucked and rolled. The creature scrabbled across the ground and grabbed its knife from its teeth. It slashed out at Will, stabbing its dagger into the ground, just missing his thigh.

Will booted it fair in the nads. The oldest fighting move. No one would accuse him of playing dirty when you were fighting a goblin. Still, not the most heroic way to enter the apocalypse fight.

Hopefully no one saw that.

The goblin squawked and stumbled backwards. His heart pounding, adrenaline triggering his fight or flight, he surged upwards and ripped the claymore at it. With a wide overhand swing he brought it down on the goblin.

The sword cut into the beast’s torso, and green blood spurted everywhere.

You have slain a ‘goblin runt’.

+10 XP.

Will blinked the flashing notification away. Herc charged past him and screamed. ‘Shotput.’ A solid iron ball snapped forward and clunked one of the three remaining goblins in the head. Jacob darted forwards, trying to get into a knife fight with another. Maddi swung her hockey stick and smacked a goblin away.

Cackling from above was their only warning before five more goblins leapt onto them from the roof. Two of them seized Maddi’s hockey stick and bit in. She threw them back, losing her weapon, trapped in the goblin’s jaws.

Two more of the goblins rushed at Will as a third went for Maddi.

She reached into her backpack. A copy of Tony Robbins’ latest book snapped the goblin in the face. Maddi browbeat it back with the hardback tome, green ichor smearing over the novel’s face and the handsome speaker’s image.

‘The path to success is to take massive action!’ Maddi screamed, smacking the goblin into an uppercut and launching it up in the air.

Will lunged forward, his blade skewering a goblin. Further notifications blinked on his screen and he ignored them. Will charged the remaining pack of goblins that had cornered the pug and looked ready to skewer it.

Will’s claymore lashed out again and soared wide, lodging into a timber post on the wall.

‘Damnit.’ Will said, as the goblin switched its focus to him.

The goblin leapt onto him and its knife slashed across his left biceps. Pain erupted in his arm and blood poured down it. No spurt so it probably missed the artery. Will only just caught the goblin’s knife hand.

The goblin opened its mouth to bite his face and....a book clocked it over the head, knocking it down.

Maddi stood over him, taking heaving breaths. ‘The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity, Amelia Earhart.’

She offered him a hand and hauled him up to standing. The goblins all lay slain. The pug growled at them, eyes flicking back and forth.

Will got down low and reached into his backpack. He pulled out a small bit of jerky and held it out. ‘Come on boy, I’ve got snackos.’

The pug sniffed the air. Tentatively it advanced and lowered its head. It snapped up the snack and darted back. It settled on the ground chewing.

Jacob coughed. ‘Oy, beastmaster, check your notifications.’

Will pulled up the blinking lights in his vision.

System combat review:

5x goblin runts slain +50 XP.

New stream subscribers attracted: 1.

Total subscribers 1.

Insufficient audience reach with current monster battles. Seeking new source of entertainment for viewing stream. Low popularity streams will be terminated.

Game Master reviewing local parameters.

Local...monsters? detected. Giant spiders. Deadly snakes. ??? what is a crocodile??? Why would you make spiders that big...seriously?

Calculating chance of local monsters increasing viewership.

Probability high.

Engaging prime directive override.

Congratulations local life form, you have been enrolled as a Beta Tester.

PS keep the pug, he seems to be popular with the viewers.

Will blinked. What the hell, he hadn’t agreed to be a beta tester. Will had played enough early release beta test games to know they often came with bugs, but sometimes lead to cool content.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

‘Oy, dickhead.’ Will shouted, staring up at the sky. ‘What are you playing at?’

Maddi raised an eyebrow. ‘What are you going on about?’

Will shook himself. ‘Something about a beta testing program. You guys didn’t get that?’

Herc shook his head, wiping blood off his shotput. ‘Nope.’

Jacob looked over from the body of a goblin. Multiple shallow cuts had hit his arms. He tore a strip off his shirt and slapped it over the wounds.

Maddi raised an eyebrow at Jacob’s bleeding arm. She rolled her eyes and reached into her backpack, pulling out clean bandages and sterile water. ‘I hope you’ve had a tetanus booster.’

‘You got a better weapon, Jacob?’ Will asked.

Jacob shook his head. ‘Nah, mate, if you want a rogue class, gotta use knives, everyone knows that. Unless you’re hiding a crossbow somewhere around here?’

Herc shrugged. ‘Might be one in the sports department.’

Will grimaced. Knife fighting was always messy, that’s what they’d taught them in the reserves. Meant you were going to take some punishment. You didn’t get into a knife fight unless you wanted to get hurt. He glanced back at Jacob.

A bark cut him off, and the pug looked up at him, wagging its tail. Will reached down and held out a hand. The pug paused, its muscles tensing, then it slowly accepted his pat.

‘What now?’ Herc asked.

Will unfurled a map of town. ‘Our primary objective is the same in any survival scenario, shelter, water, then food.

Then we can freak out.’

He could feel panic and several other emotions simmering beneath the surface. He shoved them down tightly. There shouldn’t be any consequences for suppressing your emotions.

Right?

The others nodded. Survive first, then mental breakdown from the apocalypse.

You have been offered a Quest!

QUEST: ESTABLISH A HOME BASE

Requirements:

* Large building cleared of enemies

* Gold

* Metal Ore

* XP

* Five level five citizens

Hidden Bonus Objective available. Explore, excel, evolve to uncover.

‘We need somewhere big, somewhere that not too many people would be in to claim our base.’ Will said.

‘Somewhere with access to water, hopefully some open ground for livestock, chickens, a garden.’ Maddi added.

‘Somewhere with a fence,’ Thomas said.

Jacob stabbed a knife into the map. ‘The university it is.’

The others all looked around and burst into laughter. The college campus would be mostly deserted for summer holidays. Hell half of the town was seasonal based on the college, then a bunch had fled towards the capital when the announcement came. It had walls, it had chemicals and supplies, it had food and an agriculture department.

‘Alright lets move out.’

Maddi grabbed her chewed up hockey stick and tucked the book back in her satchel. Will looked down at the goblin’s body. He reached down to try to loot it and a screen popped up.

Two gold.

One poor quality knife.

The goblin corpse degraded into ash and blew away in the wind. The rusty knife and two gold sat before him. He tried to pull up an inventory, but no additional screen came. He threw the gold and knife in a sports bag.

‘Everyone loot the corpses. Like you would in a game.’

Between them, they gained fifteen gold, three poor quality knives and a flask of ‘goblin water’. The murky brown contents of that one he handed to Jacob.

‘Gee...thanks.’ Jacob replied.

‘Maybe coat your knives with it?’ Will said.

They set out down the streets, cutting to main street to save time. The streets were deserted, curtains were drawn, and cars had run off the road.. The white glowing fissures were fading, but left behind cracks in the earth. Was that where the goblins had come from?

Jacob held up a hand. He lowered himself to the side of the main street, where sand met a bridge to the other side of town. ‘Tracks.’

‘What are they?’

Jacob squinted, turning his head side to side. ‘I can’t figure it out. It looks like some kind of lizard. Not anything they trained us for in the reserves. Goanna maybe?’

They looked at the big stretch of bridge to the other side. Cars jammed haphazardly where people had crashed or just bolted. ‘Don’t love that open space.’

Herc clapped them both on the shoulders. ‘Come on you two, what’s the worst that could happen?’

‘A troll that lives under the bridge.’ Jacob said.

Herc unslung his ball and hammer, which was for all intents and purposes a medieval flail. ‘All I heard was XP windfall. Don’t you want to be the hero that slays the troll? Otherwise how do you save the princess?’

Jacob and Maddi both snorted.

‘Princesses are overrated.’ They said in unison.

Maddi cocked her gun. ‘We need to get stronger. If the XP wants to come to us…’

Will nodded. ‘Jacob, you go first at least and scout it out.’

Jacob nodded, getting up on tip toes and slinking forward. He tip toed towards the cars.

‘What the hell are you doing, you knob-jockey.’ Maddi called out.

‘Trying to learn stealth.’ Jacob shot back.

‘Looks like you’re trying not to poop.’

‘Well, I bet it works.’ Jacob said.

‘What is with all this shouting?’ Maddi crossed her arms over her chest.

Jacob flipped her off and crouched low commando crawling into the maze of cars.

They waited. Will felt the sun scorching down overhead, heating the pavement, yet it felt welcome, like an old friend.

Five minutes.

Ten Minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

‘Something is wrong, we’re going in.’ Will said. ‘Maddi, you’re up front with me. Herc, on my flank, but give yourself enough room to use that flail.’

Will drew the claymore and started forwards, winding through the cars. Abandoned, their engines dead. Motors had gone with electricity. Even the older petrol motors for some reason.

Why?

Will bent down to the ground, mulling the new physics of their world. He saw a scratch in the dirt, a symbol Jacob liked to use in their online games. A knife in a heart.

Kneeling down at the ground, he caught something in his periphery. A glint of fangs.

A blur of scales and teeth launched from under the car. It snapped at his ankle, missing by a whisker. Will jammed the claymore down through its elongated jaw. The creature was the size of a German shepherd and 40kg of muscle. He locked eyes with it and stared into its cold reptilian soul. He felt an understanding, as a notification blared at him.

The creature roared until Herc slammed his shotput down on its skull.

You have learnt the skill ‘Identify’.

Beta test monster 13 (Kobold beta test variant)

Level 1: HP 50

Description: Kobolds spliced with crocodile DNA. The unholy fusion of a trap loving reptile kobold with the ancient predatory crocodile. Generating potential names: Crockbolds? kobodile.

Name generation ongoing.

Further beta testing suggested.

‘‘Beta test huh?’ Maddi said. ‘Not so tough.’

Growls erupted all around them. Jacob burst from stealth atop a truck. ‘Up on the cars, dickheads.’

Snapping kobolds burst from underneath the cars around them. Will scrambled atop the vehicles. Jacob hauled them up and they stood back to back on a flat pickup ute bed.

A kobold launched from the ground and Herc’s flail smacked it down, then came swinging past the rest of them on its backswing.

‘Easy, Herc.’ Will hissed.

Herc dropped it and brought a javelin off his back, using it like a spear. Kobolds started swarming from over the sides of the bridge, more crawling out from under cars. A kobold snapped at his face.

Potential name generated: Krobolds? Feedback requested. ?

‘Feck, no.’ Will hissed, waving the notification away and jerking his hand from the snapping jaws.

A smaller kobold (he refused to call them anything else), ran up the side of a car and leapt at them. It bristled with hair, festering mandibles, and dark eyes.

Beta test monster 64 (Kobold beta test variant)

Level 1: HP 44

Description: Kobolds spliced with spider dna. he unholy fusion of a trap loving reptile kobold with the dextrous mobility of a red back spider. Generating potential names: Red-bolds? Spiderbolds?

Your feedback is important to us.

The pug leapt from his side and scrabbled onto the kobold. It grabbed onto the creatures ear and swung through the air.

Will swung his claymore, cutting the spider kobold from the air. Purple ichor splashing across him. ‘How about Massive nope-nopes.’ He cursed.

Beta test name accepted. Variant 64 renamed as ‘Nopes.’

‘What, I was just kidding...’ Will bumped up against Maddi, and nearly lost his balance. The flatbed ute had frak all room. Maddi whipped up her hockey stick. ‘Hold me,’ she said. The ute tray rocking back and forth. Will’s hands settled on her shoulders, and she whipped the hammer toss chain off her torso. She swung it in an arc and splatters of blood burst onto the sides of the cars. The kobold mass reared back and scuttled back over the sides of the bridge.

System combat review:

You have slain 2x kobold variants slain

2x Nopes slain

+60 XP

New stream subscribers attracted: 30

Stream subscribers lost: 5

Local monster beta test outcome - suggest ongoing test.

Thankyou for continuing as a Beta Tester.

PS give the pug a name. Branding is popular amongst stream subscribers.

Ding! you have levelled up.

[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1056728480768868442/1111863882277982301/CJ_Timms_pug_in_post_apocalyptic_city_4aa74bc5-959a-43d7-a0f8-7a97eda637ec.png]