Chapter One: The System Descends
The new chapters of my favorite progression fantasy novels were all that kept me going. I couldn’t keep up with the various masterpieces without being subscribed to their authors’ Patreon pages, and I couldn’t pay for those subscriptions without a job. Although this cashier work killed my legs, made my back ache, and slowly convinced me that embracing the sweet release of suicide was a better alternative to trudging through life as a nobody who worked a shitty job just to stay alive long enough to go to work again, those fantasy novels maintained the tiny spark of motivation in my core.
Unfortunately, that motivation was exclusive to reading more fantasy novels. In short, I was addicted and had no other goals; no direction in life, unlike my friends, who played sports in hopes of going pro, or actively cultivated their instrumental talents and produced music, or just diligently studied in a high-paying field so that they could make as much money as possible after high school and college. My loving parents worried for my future, but since I was at least motivated enough to get my driver’s license and a job, they did little to influence my life’s trajectory, which I was thankful for.
I had no talents or hobbies to exploit for an enjoyable career, nor did I have dreams that required a lot of money to accomplish. I was destined to be just another cog in a vast machine that churned without recognition of my existence. I was a nobody…and to some extent, I was fine with it. After all, there was so much quality entertainment out there to pass the time with.
“Umm, excuse me, I asked that you not place the frozen items in plastic bags,” the customer in front of me reminded as I mistakenly did just that, pointing to the insulated bags they brought from home.
“My apologies,” I said with a half-smile, quoting one of my favorite fantasy characters. “It seems I’m tired.”
“Ohh it’s okay,” the old customer said kindly with a wrinkly smile. “We all zone out a bit after a long, busy day of work. I hope you feel better soon.”
But it hadn’t even been a long or busy day yet, I lamented in my mind as I scanned eighty dollars’ worth of steaks. It was past 4 PM by now but I’d been assigned the afternoon shift today, so I’d only been working for an hour or two, and that was on top of the fact that today had been slow, despite not all staff being present. I was just weak, easily distracted by my thoughts, and bad at my job. Ironically, no matter what my bosses thought, being permitted to discreetly listen to music with earbuds would only boost my productivity. Unfortunately, they made it crystal clear on my second day that I wasn’t allowed that luxury.
What had I expected? They didn’t even provide us cashiers chairs to sit in while we worked. “Rules from up top” they’d said. Our legs hurt? “Just something you’ll have to deal with, or consider finding a different job”. I even suggested bringing my own chair, and they laughed. I couldn’t really blame them for enforcing their bosses’ rules, but I sure as hell wanted to throttle the people who didn’t have to work my shitty job yet created such harsh rules around it.
The System Descends
Welcome to the multiverse, and may fortune favor the ascents of the bold.
The entire grocery store froze. For one calm moment not a peep escaped a single customer or employee. Only the air conditioning, overhead music, and deli cooking machinery rumbled, blasted, and whined.
Then all that, too, died right alongside the indoor lighting, and screams pierced the air.
“A power outage?” someone nearby asked.
“What were those words? Is someone playing a prank!?” somebody else shouted in frustration.
“I heard them ring in my head!” the old lady in front of me panicked. “Was that God? The rapture?!”
But I didn’t panic. My heart beat like a war drum in my ears, my legs trembled, and my palms grew sweaty, but I didn’t panic. I wasn’t even afraid—I was ecstatic.
I knew exactly what those words that were beamed into my brain represented. I knew exactly what a “System” was in this context. I knew exactly what being welcomed to “the multiverse” meant for our lives.
That part of me who wasn’t satisfied with the hand I was dealt in life ballooned, and a deep, insatiable hunger was born already eating away at my insides.
My future had changed.
I spun on my heel so that I faced the huge windows at the front of the store, and sure enough, something new populated my vision. The parking lot was still present, but beyond that I could no longer see the gas station and stores across the street…actually, the streets that connected this small grocery store to the rest of the county were also gone. What replaced them was a beautiful birch forest of trees with horizontal dark streaks scattered atop a pristine white bark.
We’d been isekaied.
I pulled my phone from my apron pocket—no reception, just as expected.
“Please don’t panic! Don’t panic! Everyone please make your way to the front of the store! Associates, assist them, then meet around me!”
A female voice boomed over the rest as the only manager in the store today walked around instructing everyone according to protocol. This wasn’t the first time the power went out. The last time had been during a storm that knocked trees into the local power lines, and since this store only had a limited backup system to rely upon in such circumstances, there were a lot of things to do. Flashlights had to be gathered, customers had to be guided out of the now-dark store, the fresh foods prone to spoilage on display had to be covered in plastic sheets to keep in as much cold air as possible, etcetera.
“Niko, where are you going!”
But I had other plans. Ignoring the manager I bolted to one of the two entrances, forced open the now-dead automatic doors, and took in a deep breath before dashing straight for the tree line.
‘Status Menu.’
To my absolute delight, a video game-like prompt appeared in my mind and vision just like the warning of the System descending.
Niko Tess
Strength: 10
Endurance: 10
Chi Condensation (Level 0)
Agility: 10
Vitality: 10
Race: Human (Tier 1)
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Attribute Points: 0
[Titles]
However, it didn’t contain the information I expected. Or rather, it contained new information that completely changed my speculations about the magic system I now had access to.
‘Chi Condensation, huh? So there’s gonna be classic xianxia cultivation? That complicates things, but it’s not the worst outcome, unlike if it was an unfamiliar system that I’d have to spend much longer learning. Next test… Inventory.’
Nothing appeared upon my mental uttering of the command, to which I was disappointed. Inventory systems always made things easier.
By now I’d crossed the parking lot and entered the birch forest, and though I wasn’t an outdoorsy person, even I appreciated the biome’s natural beauty. Bushes rustled, the cool wind caressed my face, and leaves crunched beneath my sneakers as I ran, and I was grateful for the System’s decision to integrate Earth while it was autumn in the northern hemisphere. Had it been winter it might have been too cold to stay outdoors for long. Had it been summer I would have struggled under the harsh sunlight and heat.
‘Sunlight…’ I thought with curiosity, prompting me to look up at the sky. ‘Yeah, one star. Maybe we were isekaied onto a very similar planet to Earth. That would certainly make things easier in the time-keeping department. Speaking of…’
I slowed down, pulled my phone from my apron pocket, and began the count on a stopwatch app. In case our new planet’s day-night cycle was different I wanted to keep track of time in an intuitive way. Then more ideas came to mind.
‘Time? Clock? Map? Calendar? Uhhh, universal time?’ Nothing happened. ‘Identify,’ I mentally commanded while staring at a random rock on the ground. Still nothing. I sighed in disappointment at the lack of the convenient tools many video games provided, then I picked up the largest rock I could find because I realized I’d forgotten to bring a weapon.
Just in time, too, because several meters away the rustling of shrubbery gave away a furry animal’s position before it flashed toward my face. A decade spent playing competitive PvP games was all that sabotaged the creature’s assault as I managed to take a single step to the side before turning to face it, rock raised high.
It was a striped weasel with a long tail over half a meter long, and it hissed at me before turning tail, attempting to flee after its failed sneak attack. In the half-second the thing took to change direction I had a decision to make, and without hesitation I parted with my weapon because there was no way I was catching a healthy weasel in an environment that favored it. Launching the rock with as much power as could be granted with an overhand throw, I watched as the projectile struck the weasel true, causing it to squeal and squirm. Unwilling to let the miracle go to waste I closed the distance between us with two steps before trying to end the creature’s existence with one quick stomp to the head.
“Ew,” I muttered, made uncomfortable by the cracking and squishing beneath my shoe as I prepared to stomp again just in case. But with the appearance of a small prompt I discarded my discomfort and stepped away from the corpse with a big smile adorning my face.
[Title earned: Early Murderous Bird]
I raised my arms to the sky and cheered loudly before eagerly opening my Status Menu’s Title screen, adrenaline and euphoria coursing through my veins, narrowing my vision so that all I could see was my achievement.
[Titles]
Early Murderous Bird: The early murderous bird gets the worm. Be among the first ten of your people to kill a higher-leveled spirit beast after your world’s integration into the multiverse. +5 Attribute Points.
Breathing heavily I mentally scrolled back to the first page, seeing that my Status Menu had indeed changed, now showing a “+5” next to Attribute Points where there used to be a zero.
Without hesitation I spent one point on Endurance for the sake of science, needing to know how I was affected by the change in numbers.
Niko Tess
Strength: 10
Endurance: 11
Chi Condensation (Level 0)
Agility: 10
Vitality: 10
Race: Human (Tier 1)
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Attribute Points: 4
[Titles] Early Murderous Bird
A few minutes passed as I simply stood there next to the weasel corpse, holding the rock in my hand again. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, I could not feel a single change in my body or mind from the additional point. It was bad because the lack of change could have indicated I needed to do something unknown and potentially difficult in order for the increase in my Endurance stat to mean anything. On the bright side, it could have meant that the change in that stat was just so small that I didn’t notice it and that it’d be safe to increase my Attribute Points at any time—it would have really sucked if I needed to be secluded in a safe environment because getting stronger temporarily put me in a vulnerable state, or something.
Neither satisfied nor disappointed with my findings I looked down at the corpse and pondered on whether I should return to the grocery store. On one hand I was distinctly aware of the fact that the multiverse I was now a part of had xianxia cultivation aspects to it by the fact that I was at the Chi Condensation stage, and that stuff could typically only be explored through meditation, which I had a feeling I needed to do in order to gain any real power, Attribute Points or not. On the other hand…I was bloodthirsty. The euphoria from gaining my first Title had not yet dissipated. I wanted more, and nothing could stop me—fate was clearly on my side by the fact that I’d been lucky enough to acquire an understanding of the multiverse by chance before even being integrated into it.
I also felt much better about my decision to pay for all the novels I’d read that I could have looked for pirated versions of. If those authors had unintentionally saved mine and many others’ lives with their imaginations, the least they deserved for their efforts was for their writing careers to be fruitful. The same went for video game designers, I supposed.
I had to take full advantage of my head start if I wanted to make anything of myself. The message that accompanied the System’s descent and my [Early Murderous Bird] Title were very clear that rewards were granted to those who acted quickly.
Another glance at my Title was all the convincing I needed to continue my jog into the birch forest’s depths, rock at the ready.
I hadn’t even taken ten steps before a mass collided with me from the left, sending me tumbling painfully to the ground as sharp pains erupted in my left arm and side. Now on my back facing the sky I moved on instinct through my daze, swinging my arm up and around to strike at the beast that was clawing and gnawing on my elbow, smashing its face with my rock.
Regrettably, the retaliation hurt me almost as much as it hurt the spirit beast, as every successful attack caused the creature’s fangs to dig deeper and its efforts to redouble, but it wasn’t too long before it let go, unable to continue sustaining damage. After peeling itself off my mangled limb the beast backed up, eyelids blinking furiously as blood poured everywhere from the top of its head, and the mix of a whine and growl escaping its throat. Teeth clenched, I scooted backwards and rose onto unsteady feet. The agony in my arm was like nothing I’d experienced before and my belly felt cold from shock, but I stood my ground, preparing to achieve revenge.
Now that I had a good look at the beast—which looked like a cross between a bear and a cat the size of a large dog—it was also lightly bleeding from a ghastly wound on its side. Perhaps it had lost a fight a few hours ago and had attacked in desperation, needing food. Regardless, instead of fleeing it pawed at its face and maintained eye contact with me the best it could through the blood running down its head. Though it also stood its ground, I could see it struggling to stay standing. Taking a rock to the head a dozen times couldn’t have been pleasant, especially after whatever caused the wound on its flank.
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I hissed through my teeth as the breeze aggravated the exposed flesh of my left arm, but I clamped down on any part of my mind that wanted to complain or make a run for it. Despite really not wanting to be clawed and bitten anywhere else I was unlikely to outrun a large, four-legged forest mammal.
Plus, one of my six stats was Vitality, which usually translated to healing wounds. Although it was only an inference, I was confident that this new world’s magic system had methods of recuperating from such injuries as a mauled arm.
I just needed to kill the spirit beast who’d done it to me so that I could return to the store.
Though my nerves were on fire my eyes were full of determination. I faked a step forward, prompting the bearcat to overextend by committing one of its front limbs to a defensive swipe. In that same moment I chucked the rock at its face and pounced. The rock struck true once more and successfully inflicted my opponent with more pain and confusion, giving me the opening I needed to land a full-force kick on the beast’s sternum.
The “fight” was over as soon as the rock had landed, I realized as I brutally kicked the mammal to death, alternating between smashing my shoe into the spirit beast’s face and its gruesome wound. It frantically swiped at the air around it and hissed so fierce my skin crawled, but its claws found no purchase or blood from my rubber soles, and when it tried to extricate itself from its beating by flipping to its feet, I crushed one of its paw.
The one time its claw landed I quickly bounced backwards to check the damage. It tore straight through my uniform’s dress pants as though it didn’t exist, though thankfully only left a thin line of blood. Like the scratches at my side from its initial assault it hadn’t been a deep strike, saving my mobility, allowing me to return to the stomping.
Eventually it was too bruised and tired to continue struggling, and its skull was crushed between my foot and the ground just like the weasel’s. I was immediately rewarded with another prompt. More tired than I expected to be, I checked my reward while huffing and puffing, catching my breath as quickly as possible in case some other spirit beast popped out of nowhere.
[Titled earned: Punching Up]
Punching Up: Level doesn’t mean everything. Slay a wild spirit beast at least 5 Levels above your own without assistance. +5 Attribute Points.
Though I was exhausted I still found the energy to raise my right fist to the sky and utter a few words of thanks to the System…because I would not have survived the bearcat attack without some serious luck on my side.
I turned and began the walk back to the grocery store with a newfound respect and fear for the wildlife of this new world. The bearcat had not only been injured but also my swinging arm had intercepted its sneak attack, keeping its sharp bits mostly away from my vastly more important hip and intestines. Had those been gouged instead of my elbow, even if I’d still won the fight, I would have had my mobility severely limited and might have even died later due to blood loss or infection. Though, I might still die those ways from how gory my elbow looked.
In short, I would not have returned to the grocery store triumphant or at all had either my elbow not been in the right place or the beast not been previously wounded.
Bone-tired and still suffering greatly I eventually found my way back to the parking lot, where the sight of dozens of confused customers and employees standing around and outside the storefront met my eyes, half of them on their phones looking sad. It seemed nobody from my work was familiar with System Apocalypse novels—the thought of which brought me both joy for how I’d become someone important and disappointment for how I would completely lack true peers.
Additionally, with the change in angle I saw the parking lot from I noticed that the grocery store wasn’t the only store isekaied. The entire strip of buildings and even the unattached stores that used the same parking lot were here, including the pharmacy, which was great news.
“Hey! Wha— Is that blood?! Where’d you go?! What happened?!”
An older coworker whose hair shown silver in the outdoor light and whose name I’d never learned saw me first and immediately jogged over with wide eyes. When he got close enough to see the details of my arm his jaw dropped even more and his gait sped up.
“Whoa! This is serious! Like, really really bad! Quick, let’s get you a water bottle and first aid kit! Can’t use a faucet, unfortunately; besides the whole backside of the store being pitch black, plumbing doesn’t work.”
The man whose head reached up to my nose put his hand on my shoulder and guided me toward the store, shooing away everyone who tried to speak to me, including other coworkers. I gave them a reassuring smile as we passed, trying not to show how tired I was or cringe from the agony.
When we entered the store proper and left behind most of the rowdiness I glanced at his nametag and voiced my thoughts.
“Thanks for the help, Roger. And the plumbing doesn’t work because the pipes are no longer connected to anything, I’m afraid. We’ll have to make due with rain and bottled water unless we can find a stream, or something.”
Roger glanced at me with a raised eyebrow and opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself as his eyes laid upon the first aid kit that hung from the wall next to the managers’ office.
“Stay right here,” he said before running over to retrieve the kit and a step stool. Then, scratching the back of his head, he said, “Y’know what? Sorry for dragging you here; it’s a bad idea to do this in here where we’ll make a mess, though you’ve already bled a bit on the linoleum. Can you take the step ladder out onto the parking lot so nobody has to mop up your blood?”
I nodded and carried the stool in my functional hand past more concerned strangers, but I waved them away. After choosing a spot far enough away from the entrance and sitting down I watched Roger haul over a 24 pack of water bottles. When he reached my side he tore the plastic wrapping open with his teeth, quickly took out a few bottles and twisted their caps off with speed and precision.
“Bite down onto your shirt. Don’t want you losing your a piece of your tongue,” he ordered firmly before gripping my wounded arm tightly and holding up a water bottle in the other. When I didn’t do as he said he frowned, then barked in a deep, commanding voice, “THIS IS SERIOUS! DO IT!”
I hadn’t known him as anything but a sweet old man so I flinched at the tone and sheepishly used my unoccupied hand to roll up the top part of my shirt and inserted it between my teeth.
He began pouring, and the searing hell from when the bearcat bit me returned in full force. I bucked and almost fell off the step stool onto the asphalt but Roger’s grip was as hard as steel, even painfully pulling my skin by keeping me in place.
Groaning through my nose I regained myself and sat as still as I could, biting my uniform hard.
“Oh my God!”
A few gasps of shock came from a few coworkers and some customers who’d followed us and were watching when deeply scarlet-stained water splashed around my feet.
“Is he going to be okay??”
“Will his arm heal???”
“I’m gonna be sick…”
I tried focusing on the words spoken around me to help deal with the pain but it just wasn’t enough, and soon my eyes were watering. It didn’t get better when Roger stopped pouring water and began cleaning the wound, either.
‘Breathe, Niko. Breathe!’ I told myself, struggling to maintain a normal breathing pattern. ‘Focus on your stats! Actually, wait, I still have points leftover!’
I felt like a fool as I stared at my Status Menu through blurry tears—though the tears didn’t really matter because the screen somehow appeared in a layer in front of them, making them the first thing I saw even if I closed my eyes. Somehow I’d forgotten about the Title rewards so soon after receiving them. Though to be fair, the bearcat attack had been at the forefront of my mind for a while now.
Without hesitation I dropped 5 Attribute Points into Vitality, bringing it up to 15, hoping the increase would be substantial enough to save my arm because I wasn’t convinced that it would ever regain full functionality without extraordinary assistance. The last 4 points I kept in reserve. What I needed them for would change depending on whether my left arm healed and whether I quickly learned a magic spell or two. If the elbow healed then I could invest in physical attributes so I could fight like a warrior, but if it didn’t heal and I couldn’t become a spell-slinging wizard then I’d put them into Vitality.
To be honest I kinda didn’t mind the idea of my arm being crippled so long as I could cast Magic Missile or something. Magic being magic, even through the pain of having my elbow disinfected I couldn’t help but become giddy when I imagined myself wielding some.
But I also wanted to keep all my limbs healthy if I could help it, so I hoped that the elbow would heal and I’d learn an offensive spell.
“I, uhh, think we’re done here. This is the most I can do for an emergency treatment,” Roger finally said after wrapping my elbow in cloth bandages. “But this is by no means enough, young man. Come, let’s get you to the pharmacy. It was supposed to be open today so there’ll be someone there who can do a bit more to help.”
Roger and I stood but I shrugged off the hand he’d placed on my shoulder to guide me with. When he turned back to face me with another raised eyebrow I smiled, saying, “Thank you very much, Roger, but there are things I have to take care of quickly around here.”
“Really? More important than saving your arm?”
This time it was my turn to raise an eyebrow. “I think we both know it can’t be saved without a miracle, which I’m not too worried about, really.”
“There’s still the risk of infection,” he countered with an annoyed huff, clearly irritated that I didn’t seem to be taking my health seriously.
I shook my head. “The risk of infection isn’t my top priority right now. The lives of everyone here are at stake if I don’t move quickly enough—not just my own.”
Roger and I stared at each other. I could see the idea of dragging me to the pharmacy float around in his mind, but he ultimately detached his gaze from mine with an annoyed sigh and stared up at the sky while rubbing the back of his neck.
“Aauughhh, whatever. You seem confident, so I’ll trust ya. If you need me I’ll be drinking. I always leave a bottle of scotch in my trunk,” he muttered while pulling his car keys out of his pocket.
Chuckling, I watched him walk to his car for a bit before turning to face the only three coworkers I’d tentatively call my friends, who’d been waiting silently since they saw all that bloody water pour. Sam was blond and he’d shown me several videos of cool kickboxing fights on YouTube. Malachi was tall, enjoyed sports, was generally friendly, and made many attempts at being funny. Kate was another blonde, short, and the only other person who read fantasy books, though she never got into progression fantasy or anything LitRPG and was probably almost as unfamiliar with the situation as everyone else.
“Umm, do you wanna talk about what ha—“ Kate began asking, but I interrupted her.
“There’s no time. You’ll hear me explain everything soon enough. For now, unless you have something urgent to attend to, just follow me.”
I walked past the three toward the largest crowd around, ignoring them as they continued asking me to expound on what I was talking about. I soon found myself lightly pushing past older customers who had turned to the closest authority figure in this time of mass confusion.
“Excuse me. Pardon me. Please step to the side a bit. Sorry, but yes, I need to get through. Excuse me.”
I eventually made it to the center after having my wounded arm painfully jostled several times and stood close to my boss, who was holding the hands of and softly consoling an incredibly old black lady with hair that was completely white and whose presumed family member also stood nearby. Unfortunately she wasn’t the only really old customer in the store or parking lot at the time of the integration to the multiverse, since the county the grocery store was in had a higher average age than the rest of the United States by a decent bit. Part of that was due to the fact that there were multiple gated communities nearby for the wealthy and retired.
I wondered how long all these old, frail people would survive.
“Whatever it is, it’ll have to wait, Niko,” Agatha said patiently without even turning to look at me. “I need some time with a few of our customers, though I’d definitely like to hear about what happened to your arm later.”
Not expecting to be brushed off like that I took a moment to think over my approach, and in the mean time took a good look at her. My boss was far from what most people would imagine after only hearing her old-sounding name. She was probably the polar opposite, in fact. With a stature reaching around six feet and four inches, a weight-lifting hobby, and features belonging to an East Indian runway model, Agatha was quite a sight to behold. It was easy to compare her to a goddess, and I imagined that she’d become a powerful warrior.
“Agatha, I know what’s going on, and if I’m not listened to we might all die. Just say or think the command ‘Status Menu’ and you’ll have an idea of how much the world has changed, even if you don’t understand it.”
The manager frowned when I continued speaking, but a moment after I said my piece her eyes went wide and she finally turned to meet my gaze. With no small amount of self-satisfaction I held back the urge to say anything smug.
I just couldn’t help it; Agatha wasn’t a bad person, but she was a stickler for rules no matter how bad they were for the people beneath her. No music, no chairs, time your breaks carefully, no complaining, and do not go to the bathroom too much. In fairness, she was just first-line management whose job would also be put in jeopardy if the higher-ups noticed that the numbers weren’t exactly to their liking or that the associates liked their jobs too much, but she didn’t come off as empathetic to us. In every other way she seemed to care deeply about people in general—as proven by how she’d been consoling the elderly who were still having trouble comprehending that the grocery store and everyone in it had been teleported somewhere else—but she showed no understanding of others’ struggles when it pertained to work. Her attitude for jobs—being that everyone should be satisfied with what they get—was one favored by the ruling class and not helpful for advancing workers’ rights.
But then again, my political knowledge in that field was also quite limited and I’d never had much motivation to change the world either until now, so was it wrong to criticize her?
No. Because we weren’t allowed to sit while we worked the registers, and that bullshit was just evil.
Agatha let go of the old lady’s hands and left her with the family member after a few parting words, before gesturing for me to continue.
“We’re not on Earth anymore. I don’t know exactly where we are and it doesn’t even matter, but I have a general understanding of what that message everyone saw and heard was talking about. How do I know all this, you’re probably thinking? Well, I shit you not, this is a popular fantasy novel scenario in a genre called the System Apocalypse—mixed with some other things, probably—and I can prove it. Open your Status Menu again and mentally command for your Titles screen to pop up.”
Agatha had been listening intently the entire time despite how unbelievable everything was, and she seemed to do exactly as I said before turning back to me.
“It’s empty, right? Well…”
[Titles]
Early Murderous Bird: The early murderous bird gets the worm. Be among the first ten of your people to kill a higher-leveled spirit beast after your world’s integration into the multiverse. +5 Attribute Points.
Punching Up: Level doesn’t mean everything. Slay a wild spirit beast at least 5 Levels above your own without assistance. +5 Attribute Points.
My Titles screen thankfully became visible to Agatha just like I’d wanted it to, and she flinched at its appearance before scanning the contents. Her jaw dropped, and her eyes flicked between my bandaged arm and the screen as she regarded me in a different light.
“Oh my,” she muttered softly under her breath as she began making her way out of the crowd of customers. “This is a lot to take in.”
“Indeed. And most people will react worse than you have, which is why we have to move fast. Get everyone on the same page and then get the ball rolling on ensuring everyone’s survival. Since we and the buildings have been teleported off Earth we’re not getting electricity, gas, or plumbing back unless we build it all ourselves. Lucky for everyone here, I’ve given this scenario some thought while daydreaming at the register,” I admitted with only a bit of shame. “Most important task right now is probably to cook as much meat as possible, before tallying up everyone transported with us and all our resources.”
Now rapidly tapping her foot against the ground, my old boss nodded. “Agreed. Since the electricity is never coming back on, and the meats will spoil much faster than everything else, they have to be cooked now. I’ll get people to help me with that right away. Anything else I need to know immediately? Like if any, umm, spirit beasts are going to attack, or something? Maybe something magic I need to know about?”
Agatha’s stare was piercing, and a bit of guilt welled up from my earlier smugness, even if I hadn’t shown it. As much as I disliked that she followed shitty rules, she was fit for leadership positions and decisive.
“Uhh, nothing like that, I guess. But could you use your assertive voice to gather everyone here before you go so I can explain the situation in detail as soon as possible?”
I thought it best to give everyone as much time as possible to think over their new reality, regardless of whether they accepted it. I didn’t like the idea of anyone staying in the dark for much longer, since I knew I had to spend my time aiming for Titles and wouldn’t always be available for my knowledge.
Agatha only thought on my suggestion for a few seconds before shaking her head, and before I could argue with her she explained her reasoning. “Not yet. Yes, we want everyone on the same page but I’d rather they be calmer when they hear what you have to say, and not everyone is here yet. Just before you returned from…your hunt, I sent out a few people to go around to the other stores to round everyone up. You’ll have to wait until they return.”
Feeling dumb for not having thought of the same thing, I chewed my lip, nodded, and we separated. My next order of business was…
“Malachi, Sam, Kate…it’s time we meditate for magic.”
The three ex-coworkers who’d listened and followed me when I went to talk to Agatha gave me faces with varying levels of confusion and they tried to talk, but I hushed them once more and led them some distance until we reached the center point between the crowd and the edge of the forest. Although I thought our results would be better if we were completely amongst the trees, I didn’t want to risk us being attacked by spirit beasts, so we had to settle for the relative peace and quiet of the people-less parking lot. Though there were still a ton of cars around I prayed that nobody would start an engine nearby and disturb us.
“C’mon, are you allergic to explanations?! WHAT is so hard about telling us what’s going on?!” Kate demanded when we came to a stop and I instructed them to sit in a circle, reflecting the others’ opinions as well.
“A System apocalypse, Kate. That’s what’s going on. And not even an easy one, mind you. I killed some magical animals out in the forest earlier and didn’t receive any notifications about experience gains or witness anything magical happen to the corpses—gods, it would have been cool to absorb a spirit ring. If we meditate for a while and find nothing then we might be in a bad scenario where we can only grow stronger by consuming spirit stones—magical resources—or something. And you do not want that outcome, because we’ll basically be locked out of magic for a while unless we get SUPER lucky.”
My acquaintances were not as amused by my explanation as I was. I felt kinda cool explaining progression fantasy stuff as though I were an expert in our new situation.
“Bro, what are you talking about?” Malachi asked in a flat voice.
“I like the mentions of magic, but all of that kind of meant nothing to us,” Sam added, scratching his head. “Kate, you also read magical shit, right? Can you translate?”
“Well…” Kate squirmed uncomfortably under everyone’s attention. “The only things I understood were from some anime I watched, not the books. It seems we won’t be able to kill stuff to level up? But why would you expect that to be the case anyway? It’s not like…”
The shawty paused for a moment before whispering to herself, “Stats,” and her eyes went wide.
“HOLY FUCKING SHIT!” she screamed, bringing her hands to her forehead and looking around at her colleagues in stupefaction. “GUYS, SAY THE WORD ‘STATS’ AND IMAGINE PULING UP A CHARACTER SHEET LIKE FROM AN RPG!”
“I prefer the phrase ‘Status Menu’ myself, actually,” I mumbled with a smile as Sam and Malachi did as she said before expressing their own disbelief at the wondrous phenomenon. Then when they’d checked their empty Titles screens, I showed them my own.
“[Early Murderous…] That’s savage!” Sam complimented while waving devil horns at me. “But what made you think you could just go out there and kill stuff without…” He paused, pointedly looking at my bandaged arm. “Well, I guess you didn’t get ‘em for free. So, spit it out! Was it worth it? Think the rest of us should try our luck out there? Did you use a weapon? What were the, uh, spirit beasts like?”
Malachi nodded along. “Exactly what Sam said, dude! Tell us!”
I laughed at their reactions, then stopped myself, wondering what else I expected would happen. These guys didn’t know shit about Literature RPG System Apocalypses or xianxia cultivation, so why wouldn’t they have so many questions?
“Umm, I’ll start off by warning you that you shouldn’t even think about getting the [Punching Up Title] for now. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I’m pretty sure the spirit beast that had 5 Levels more than me was completely exhausted and no longer had the advantage of magic. It was severely wounded, probably only around one hundred pounds, and I still almost died. I was just lucky, and I’m not going out there again without a weapon, though I did use a rock to smash its face with. Also I had no idea it was that strong; I haven’t found a way to see their Levels.”
“And what about the other Title?” Kate inquired curiously.
“You read it. Says you need to be among the first to get it, and I don’t know how far down it goes. Maybe if you’re in the first one hundred you’ll get one point as a reward, but I don’t know for sure and I don’t think it’s worth it anymore. I was aiming high and had the time, but by now I doubt you’ll get anything worthwhile for that specific Title when there’s a chance you’ll get attacked by something much stronger than what you were looking for. We’ll have to aim for harder stuff.”
Opening and closing his fists, Sam asked intently, “Are you completely sure? I’m hyped for all this magic shit and I want to get stronger just like you do. Any bonus I can get is good.”
I shrugged. “I’m not going to stop you, but FYI, if I don’t find some magical healing spell or treasure or something, I’m only going to be able to use one arm.” I held up the bandaged elbow for emphasis. “Besides, I don’t know if you saw, but as soon as the System descended I bolted out the doors to get ‘First’ Titles. If within a couple minutes I was only in the top ten for [Early Murderous Bird], do you think after…”
I pulled my phone from my apron pocket, turned it on, and laid it face up for everyone in the circle to see.
“It’s been 15 minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised if over a thousand people have killed a Level 1 spirit beast by now and there are no longer any rewards. You have to keep in mind that there are over 7 and a half BILLION people. If you want my advice—which is the closest thing you’ll get to a consultation with an expert for now—then we have to aim higher. We have to be the first of something new, and I have a possible achievement in mind…but if it exists, getting it will be boring and tedious.”
I pulled up and shared my Status Menu, pointing at where it said “Chi Condensation (Level 0)”.
“I doubt many people will have figured out how to cultivate by now, and this might be our biggest bet for a good ‘First’ Title, for now.”