Arthur’s heart skipped a beat as he heard the boy say the word. It had been so long since he had heard it and considering how he’d lost almost all of his family today, he couldn’t express in words how profoundly it made him happy to hear those words from the still alive boy. Tears of joy would have streamed down his face, had his tear ducts not run dry many hours previously – there had been a lot of crying today.
Pushing past the tears, he approached the tied-up boy and while he started undoing the bonds he said gently, “Yes, young Lucas, I am your grandfather. I am your father’s father. Now, can you tell me, is your big sister alive?”
The stunned boy shook his head, before stuttering out a reply, “B… big sister Emily was killed by one of the… gr… Green men.” Lucas then began tearing up, and sniffling, and his breathing grew more rapid.
Arthur quickly got on the floor next to Lucas and embraced him in a warm hug. He patted the boy on the back as the young boy let out all of his sadness, fear, and shock into the former butler’s chest. The boy had seen and experienced more than any child should ever have to, and Arthur had to be there for the boy now that he had no one else.
After a few minutes of crying, Arthur tapped the boy on the shoulder and said gently, “I think we’ve spent enough time here, it's time to move on.”
The boy looked his teary eyes up at Arthur and nodded. He didn’t seem like he had truly gotten all of his emotions out of his system, but Arthur felt that if they stayed in the same place too long, they wouldn’t be able to escape either the horde of undead or the hordes of goblins. He quickly got the remainder of the chains off of the boy, and then looked the child in the eyes and said seriously, “Remember, stay very close to me, do not leave my side. Do you understand Lucas?”
The boy nodded, “Yes grandpa.”
Arthur smiled, gently grabbed the boy’s hand, and then began quickly moving down the stairs and towards the exit of the emporium. He only needed to kill a few goblins to get out of the building itself, yet once he was out in the alleyways, he could see a mass of hundreds that seemed to be patrolling some sort of perimeter. The boy next to him was clearly very scared. Yet, Arthur’s stern expression and prior demonstrations of combat ability were clearly giving the boy some sense of safety as he wasn’t totally breaking down. An admirable resilience despite everything, Arthur thought to himself.
They snuck down the alleyway and towards one of the main roads. Once out and onto the main road, Arthur made for a Volkswagen that was conveniently parked nearby, and he “hot-wired” the car. Lucas silently got into the other front seat, and then Arthur pressed his foot against the accelerator and drove as far from the city as he could get them. He needed a lot of space to think, to spend his stat point horde, and figure out what he needed to do to take good care of Lucas now that the system had “integrated” Earth into its “web of worlds”.
As he drove, he tried asking Lucas the questions that every grandpa in existence always asked, and always genuinely wanted to know the answers to. Unsurprisingly, the boy was quite shy, and his shellshock about the whole situation would likely never fade, but he did manage to give short and sweet answers to all of Arthur’s questions. Lucas was apparently unique among Albert’s children in that he knew who his mother was, what she looked like, and even in which city she lived. However, he had been denied the possibility of meeting with her after Albert and she broke off whatever relationship they had that had led to the conception of Lucas.
In return for the boy sharing information about himself, Arthur started telling the boy stories from his own youth and the less disgraceful stories from Albert’s youth. The boy seemed to be intrigued about both equally, and Arthur made sure to plant the seeds of trust within the young Lucas. Arthur was not naïve, he knew that the boy was still processing everything, so he would need to wait before he could start playing the role of the boy’s guardian. The boy had just lost his main parent, his father, even if according to the boy Albert had been an abusive parent.
After about an hour of driving, Lucas asked a heartbreaking question seemingly out of nowhere, “Do you think my mama is still alive Grandpa?”
Arthur gripped the steering wheel hard before replying softly, “I don’t know. However, what I do know is that whether she remains alive or is no longer with us, she would wish for you to focus on staying happy and alive.” The boy simply nodded but panic and anxiety were clear on his face. Arthur wished with all his heart that he could promise the boy that his mother would be fine, but he couldn't do that. He had seen the bodies of his own children this day, and giving the boy false hope would only cause distrust and misery to stur within the boy's heart later as time progressed. Arthur had to keep his mind focused on driving.
Once Arthur had driven past the suburbs, he drove through the open countryside until eventually stopping the vehicle on top of a hill. Neither he nor Lucas had a cell phone, nor did they have a map, and so Arthur wasn’t so sure as to where they were exactly, other than somewhere probably much safer than “Albert’s Sex Emporium”. He once again grimaced at both the name and what it implied. Did his son truly think that was a name fitting to give to a building that also served as a home to his children? It truly boggled Arthur’s mind.
Lucas raised his head to look around. He could see gentle green rolling hills, small river streams, and even what looked to be stone church buildings off in the distance. He must be in the countryside. He hadn’t ever been outside of the city, and so it was truly incredible to see so much verdant green grass covering a beautiful landscape. He looked to Arthur to ask him about it and saw that the old man was seemingly staring off into the distance. Lucas looked curiously at his grandpa, before asking, “Grandpa? What are you doing?”
Arthur was startled by the question. He replied informatively, “I am just looking at all my system prompts to see if I have levelled up.”
Lucas’ expression was blank of any reaction. He clearly had no idea what Arthur was talking about, his next words confirmed it, “System prompts? Levelling up? As in like in a videogame?”
Arthur dismissed the system prompts in front of him, looked at the boy and asked, “Earlier, did you hear all those big explosions?”
Lucas nodded.
“A little bit after that, did you see a blue panel appear in your vision?”
Lucas shook his head, “No Grandpa.”
Arthur nodded his head in response. He thought about why Lucas hadn’t received a system, then thought of a potential explanation. He spoke softly to Lucas, “Then it seems you are still too young to receive a system. So let me explain what your grandpa knows so far.”
Arthur then began giving a child-friendly account of his journey so far, embellishing some parts of the story so as to make him be cooler in Lucas’ eyes. As he explained what the system was to the 7-year-old, he found himself grateful that he hadn’t yet started spending any of his stat points. The boy’s experience playing video games had clearly given him a much better understanding of the gamification elements of the new changes to all of reality. The boy had questions about everything, and Arthur could tell that the young man was finding the prospect of one day getting his own system to be exciting as well. Arthur could only hope that this discussion about his system would give the boy a distraction from thinking about the last few hours.
After a few more hours of Arthur’s stories combined with system talk, the boy had a great big yawn. The sun was barely setting, yet the boy was clearly tired. Arthur couldn’t blame the kid for being so tired – it was even a mystery to Arthur himself as to why he wasn’t tired himself. However, prioritizing the boy’s well-being, Arthur lulled the boy to sleep and so the boy dozed off to sleep in the car seat next to him. Arthur smiled at the unconscious boy. As, even though his first few hours with his grandson hadn’t been defined by familial love and warmth, he had managed to save at least one of his descendants from death. That alone was keeping him from falling into the chasm of despair.
With the boy now asleep, he once again brought up his system prompts.
COMBAT LOG:
You have killed [Vermin] Zombie (Lvl:7) x 21.
Reward: 2,583 EXP
You have killed [Vermin] Skeleton (Lvl:9) x 55.
Reward: 5,445 EXP
You have killed [Vermin] Hoondud (Lvl:15) x 11.
Reward: 8,734 EXP
You have killed [Vermin] Goblin Infantryman (Lvl:12) x 12.
Reward: 3,372 EXP
You have killed [Vermin] Goblin Infantryman (Lvl:11) x9
Reward: 2, 709 EXP
You have killed [BOSS][Vermin] Goblin Captain (Lvl:25)
Reward: 5,982 EXP & 1 Skill Point
(Note from User Manual: You have defeated a monster considered a [BOSS] monster. Defeating monsters tagged with this marker will grant you extra system rewards as well as a lot of exp.)
Arthur had been interested to learn that the dirt-legged undead had been called Hoonduds and that the reason he had struggled more with the final goblin had been because the green humanoid had been considered a [Boss] monster. Arthur wondered to himself with some consternation whether there were any other [Boss] monsters more powerful than mere goblins. The thought of mythical creatures wreaking havoc on the world sent shivers down his spine. He looked back at his system prompts.
You have levelled up! (x2)
Stat Point(s) awarded: 5.
New Level: 11
Progress to Next Level: 7,195/12,000
You have REACHED the SECOND Level Milestone [Lvl:10]!
Reward: +10 Stat Points
BONUS: For being the FIRST-ever PERSON from EARTH to reach LVL 10 your Trait: Lucky, has been leveled to [Lvl:10].
Arthur now had an astonishing 35 stat points to spend. He had also been the first ever person from Earth to reach level 10, though he had no idea how that was even possible. He had imagined that elite soldiers of various armies would have been the obvious candidates for the top spot in terms of levels, but ominously that didn’t seem to be the case. Instead, an old man who only half a day earlier was in a retirement home ready to die had taken the top spot. Arthur didn’t know whether to be proud of himself or frightened for humanity by this turn of events. He then looked at the two most important system prompts he had received yet.
FULL SYSTEM ACCESS GRANTED!
* You now EARN ‘Coins’ for each notable thing you do that is recognized by the system. These coins can be spent in the system-operated ‘Coin Shop’ or exchanged on the user-operated ‘Coin Marketplace’.
(Note from User Manual: All Transactions that take place in the ‘Coin Marketplace’ may be subject to region-specific automatic tax regulation. Please check system-recognized local by-laws for details.)
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
* You shall now earn Skill Points, Trait Points, and Level Points from notable things performed that are recognised by the system.
(Note from User Manual: Points of these varieties are rarely given out and are thus extremely valuable. Spend cautiously for you may never get the opportunity again.)
* Off-world travel is now open to you!
* The Cultivation Menu is now open to you!
* Class Selection is Now Available!
CLASS SELECTION AVAILABLE:
(Note from User Manual: Classes offered in your initial Class selection are those that the system has assessed to be most in line with your actions and mentality so far. If you haven’t done anything remarkable yet, wait to complete Class selection until you have, as the benefits of doing so shall make the wait worthwhile.)
Choose between the list of classes below:
1. Guardian Butler | Rarity: [Epic] | Grade: [Rookie] | Description: You live to serve, you fight to protect, and your master is discipline itself. | Current Class Bonuses: 2x multiplier to Stat Point gains, 2x multiplier to EXP gain, and 2x multiplier to Skill EXP gain for related skills. 4 skill points per level.
2. Assassin | Rarity: [Rare] | Grade: [Rookie] | Description: Your blade is a pinpoint killer and death is all that awaits those who find it pointed at them. | Current Class Bonuses: 2x multiplier to EXP gain and 2x multiplier to ALL weapon and concealment-based skills, and 150% boost to all damage dealt by Small-bladed weapons. 3 Skill Points per level.
3. Leviathan | Rarity: [UNKNOWN] | Grade: [UNKNOWN] | Description: Your fate is to either slay the legendary monsters of the multi-verse; or become one. The only question is: shall you accept this fact in time to be the one to make the choice? | Current Class Bonuses: [UNKNOWN]
4. OTHER OPTIONS (32 OTHER OPTIONS) (FOCUS TO SEE FULL LIST)
Arthur cringed a little at the class descriptions. He felt they were a bit grandiose to describe him. Sure, he had killed at least a hundred or so goblins and near that number of undead, but with enough strength and skill, anyone could probably do the same. So, to be described as someone fated to slay legendary monsters seemed extremely ridiculous to Arthur, someone whose main priority now was giving a relatively normal life to his young grandson. His own glory, power, etc, all came second to looking after the only family he had left.
Thus, the class selection became easy. He selected the Guardian Butler class. And, with that done, all of his system prompts disappeared. He smiled weakly before then uttering, Status, under his breath and he now had the tough job of distributing his large stash of stat points.
Earlier, Lucas had been adamant that Arthur put more of his points into the system stat. Lucas suspected that the Gains and Threshold perks were related to how much he gained from his actions, and just how much exp or whatever he needed to gain certain levels. Arthur hadn’t really given those stat names much thought, but if the boy was right, which he suspected he was, then it would certainly be worthwhile to invest in the system stat.
However, many of the other stats also had worthwhile perks that would prove useful if he ever found himself in a pinch. The only stat Arthur was unsure about was the Spiritual stat, though he now had a suspicion that this stat had something to do with the “Cultivation menu” that had opened upon reaching level 10. With so much ignorance and guesswork posing as knowledge, Arthur found striking the right balance in distributing his stat points almost impossible. Eventually, he decided to simply wait for further knowledge to spend his full stash, but he would spend 15 as of right now.
Arthur knew he was only kicking the can down the road, however, the more the system revealed itself, the less Arthur was certain about any of his decisions being the right ones. He had more to think about than himself now and that meant taking decisions that would ensure both his and Lucas’ future prosperity. Part of that was choosing his stats correctly, and the other part was returning to a situation that Arthur was intimately familiar with. He needed to become a butler once again. This was not only driven by his nostalgia and sense of duty relating to his profession but also the knowledge that the safest place Lucas could be in would be some heavily guarded compound owned by an important person somewhere out in the multiverse. However, that part of his plan to stabilize the boy’s life again was far out of his reach as of now. So, at this moment, he had to focus on making the right decision about his stat points.
He eventually decided on a distribution. He would put 5 points into his System stat, 5 points into his Physical stat, and 5 points into his Mental stat. Once he finalized his spending, three system prompts appeared before him. He checked the Mental Stat Point Shop first.
Brain Processing Speed (Lvl:3 -> Lvl:4) | Cost: 1 Mental Point
Brain Capacity (Lvl:3 -> Lvl:4) | Cost: 1 Mental Point
Brain Subconscious Function Capability (Lvl:2 -> Lvl:3) | Cost: 1 Mental Point
Battle State (Lvl:1->Lvl:2) | Cost: 2 Mental Points
NEW: Pain Resistance (Lvl:3) | Cost: 5 Mental Points
NEW: Enhanced Memorisation (Lvl:3) | Cost: 5 Mental Points
Arthur had benefitted immensely from the Battle State perk and so investing 2 points into it was the easiest decision he was presented with. Upon finalizing the upgrade, the next upgrade for Battle State appeared and it only cost 3 Mental Points. However, Arthur decided against spending all 5 of his points on the Perk, and he contented himself with already having upgraded it once. With his 3 remaining points, he brought his Brain Processing Speed to level 5 and his Brain Capacity to level 4.
Upon finalizing his point expenditure, he felt his mind literally expand and his brain’s pathways become… slicker. It felt incredible. It even took a few minutes for the changes to become normal to Arthur. Once he acclimatized to the new mental sensations, Arthur refocused on his two remaining system prompts. This time he looked at his Physical stat point shop.
Bone Strength (Lvl:5 -> Lvl:6) | Cost: 1 Physical Point
Organ Function (Lvl:3 -> Lvl:4) | Cost: 1 Physical Point
Muscle Strength (Lvl:6 -> Lvl:7) | Cost: 1 Physical Point
NEW: Enhanced Dexterity (Lvl:3) | Cost: 5 Physical Points
Arthur was less certain as to what to do with the points he had put into his Physical stat. Furthermore, the perk Enhanced Dexterity intrigued him, but he also knew the immense value of increasing his Muscle and Bone Strength. However, he couldn’t dismiss the importance of the Organ Function perk just because he wasn’t really sure what it was doing. After all, he kind of required his organs to function well to be an alive person. He pondered adding more stat points to his budget, to solve the problem, but decided against it.
With a hesitancy unfamiliar to the old butler, he distributed his points after at least an hour of consideration. He put 2 points into Muscle Strength, 2 points into Organ Function, and 1 point into Bone Strength, missing out on getting the Enhanced Dexterity perk for now. With his spending finalized, his body once again filled with strength and his muscles became more and more refined. With the changes finished, Arthur then finally brought his attention to the system stat point shop.
Thresholds (Lvl:1 -> Lvl:2) | Cost: 1 System Point
Gains (Lvl:1 -> Lvl:2) | Cost: 1 System Point
Personalisation (Lvl:1 -> Lvl:2) | Cost: 1 System Point
NEW: User Coin Pouch (Lvl:1) | Cost: 1 System Points
Arthur looked at each option with some trepidation before deciding quite quickly what he should spend his points on. He put 2 points into Thresholds, 2 points into Gains, and the final point to get the User Coin Pouch. He didn’t know precisely what the difference between a User Coin Pouch and the User Inventory was, but he was glad to have both. After all, if either was halfway as useful as the User Manual perk then they’d become vital to Arthur’s future.
Arthur felt nothing as he finalized this round of point expenditure. The system prompts had now all disappeared, and he was left all alone, sitting in the car, watching as the moon rose up into the sky. It was during this moment of quiet solitude that Arthur let himself release the full waterworks, and he cried silently about all the loss he had experienced. He reminisced sadly about all the memories he had of his children, for this moment would likely be the closest thing to a funeral that any of them would receive. In just a few hours, he had lost so much. Yet when his mind went to the darkest places, he looked next to him, and he reminded himself that he hadn’t lost everything.
This mourning period lasted until the sun rose 8 or so hours later. Arthur was surprised that he had managed to stay awake for so long at his age. It had been nearly a full day since he had slept, yet he felt totally awake and aware. He assumed it had something to do with the system, as everything did now, but he couldn’t be sure as to exactly what part of the system it was. However, whatever part it was, he was grateful for it as it had allowed him to keep watch over his sleeping grandson during the night. Though he had needed to occasionally get out of the vehicle to kill a zombie or two as the night progressed, he had been relatively undisturbed.
An hour or so after the sun rose, Lucas awoke. He rubbed dramatically at his sleepy eyes before he seemed to remember where it was that he was, and just what had happened yesterday. His sleepy smile quickly drooped and became a sad frown, then tears started streaming down the young boy’s face again. Arthur felt sympathy for the boy, he was now living the whole affair of yesterday again in his young mind. He picked the boy up and put him in his lap and held him as he cried his heart out.
Arthur didn’t know how long he had been holding the boy when his vision had been suddenly blocked by a large multi-coloured system prompt. Just looking at it was daunting.
1 DAY TUTORIAL COMPLETE
Congratulations Earthlings! You have survived a single day on your newly system-integrated planet!
The whole multi-verse is now open to you, and in turn, you, on Earth, are now open to the hospitality of the rest of the Multiverse.
You have shown your resilience thus far and thus you shall be rewarded!
Those who have shown themselves to be exceptional among survivors will receive especially good rewards.
(On the Level Leaderboard you rank 1st)
(On the Total Monster Kills Leaderboard, you rank 3rd)
(On the Notable Achievements Leaderboard, you rank 1st)
(On the Skill Level Leaderboard, you rank 1st)
Reward(s): 10 [Gold] System Coins, 10 [Silver] System Coins, 10 [Bronze] System Coins, 10 [Iron] System Coins, 10 [Copper] System Coins, [Gold] grade System Shop Membership for Life, A Complete System Map of Earth.
Arthur hadn’t got a clue about the full implications of the prompt, but he was at least grateful that he now seemed to possess the system’s own preferred currency to use in the shop. He quickly dismissed the prompt with his mind and refocused his attention back on tending to Lucas’ tender state. And, after an hour or so, the boy finally ran out of tears, and he simply flopped back into the car seat beside Arthur’s own. He looked to have totally exhausted himself from just crying, Arthur could only be warm to the boy in response.
However, with the boy now awake, Arthur cleared his head of doubt and thought about what he needed to do. He first decided that it was necessary for him to try and go back into the city for a bit. Arthur needed to find himself and his grandson a secure source of food and water, as he knew that dying of starvation or thirst is just as final as dying to some horrific system monster. And, though he was confident he could probably figure out a way to make the river water drinkable, he was not as confident in his game-hunting abilities. So, he needed to venture back into the city and see what he could find in terms of food there. However, food and water weren’t the only things he needed to look for in the city.
He also needed to look for people. He had been on edge whilst driving yesterday as there hadn’t been anyone else out on the streets. He had thought up myriad explanations of why this could be, with all of them seeming implausible and or having the most catastrophic implications. The first explanation he had thought up was that people were simply hiding in their homes, or in their bunkers if they had one. This was an end-of-the-world scenario, so he could imagine that a lot of people would be hesitant to leave the apparent safety of their homes.
However, this theory didn’t explain where all the people who had been out and about when the system first arrived had ended up. Sure, it was possible that they had all been killed, but the mere thought of that many people simply being slaughtered at once just didn’t seem realistic. People could die in large numbers, that was obvious, however, there were always those who would by luck or skill manage to escape, yet the thugs and Lucas had been the only alive people he had seen. This issue of missing people led him to another hypothesis, which was that somehow the other survivors had gone into hiding individually. Or they had somehow performed some kind of clandestine rendezvous somewhere in the city, to a place that Arthur just simply wasn’t aware of.
To Arthur, finding out if there was some kind of meetup point for local survivors was important as he wanted to find the boy somewhere out-of-harms way to spend the day whilst he fought with monsters. He had probably already traumatized the boy enough with his display of violence yesterday, and he doubted that the boy’s fragile mind could handle much more and remain intact. Though Arthur could say the same about his own mind, he was much less concerned about himself than he was about Lucas. For he had been alive for almost 9 decades. He had gained more than enough fortitude within himself to sustain himself mentally, even in the face of the goriest scenes imaginable, but the boy, on the other hand, had barely reached sentience. And yet he had now been exposed to scenes that would make fully-grown men into quivering, incontinent messes.
Arthur hoped that the boy’s resilience would make him well-suited for the hard times that seemed to be just around the corner, otherwise, Arthur wasn’t sure whether he’d be able to muster the will to continue living should his grandson either perish or lose any innocence and humanity and become some kind of monster. The world had changed dramatically, and it would likely only change more, but for now, Arthur’s ambitions and priorities remained the same. The prosperity and longevity of his family were his main goal and in pursuit of that end, Arthur could not afford any mistakes.