When the old world ended, I was more or less like I'd always expected I'd be. Nervous, but mostly calm, as I quietly read a book in the most secure place I could be in at the moment. In this particular instance it was laying in my dry bathtub wrapped in blankets, fully dressed, and two guns within easy reach in case the oncoming disaster happened to make people a bit more 'mistake prone' than they usually were. I doubted that they would be, but then again, considering the amount of honking and other traffic noise that occasionally filtered in from outside, who could say for certainty.

Now why exactly people thought getting out of the city would somehow help them avoid a 'Major Celestial Event' I couldn't begin to understand. I was certain however that emergency personnel would be absolutely thrilled to deal with the imbeciles who were taking the Shelter in Place order as instructions to run for the hills. It made me glad I'd been washed out of the officer training program for filling out paperwork incorrectly or else I'd be out there dealing with the idiots instead of in my apartment with three floors of 1960s construction between me and the 'Major Celestial Event'.

I doubted that it would help me much, the types of celestial events that would give us time to react at all were not the kind to be deterred by a few dozen feet of concrete. Chances are it was a new meteorite coming to smite who knows how many human's off the planet for this or that reason, depending on who you listened to. Most anything else would have been moving near light speed and offered us, at best, a minute of lead time before it hit us.

So with the immediate future looking to be 'Dinosaurs 2.0', I'd taken the time to call my various family members to let them all know I loved them, shared my hopes with my various friends around the world that I hoped to hear from them after the event passed, made my peace with god and now quietly waited while reading that old army manual on sniping using a gun the military had phased out around the time of 'Nam. Some would argue not the best way to potentially meet your maker, but I could think of many far worse ways to go. Still, either way I likely wouldn't have to go to work tomorrow, so big plus there.

It was roughly around the time I was reading an overly detailed passage on how to load a specific configuration of the rifle in question that I found my eyes struggling to focus. I began to see double of everything as my eyes began to completely unfocus in a way my glasses did naught to aid. Hmm that is rather unexpected. I calmly mused, putting the bookmark into the manual and setting it on the nearby toilet seat as the light of the yellow bulb seemed to brighten and darken at random, likely a further failure of my eyes. How curious, I couldn't think of any celestial phenomenon that affected the human body in such a way. A particularly strong electro-magnetic field maybe? No, such a field would have likely killed the transformers and left me in utter darkness.

Perhaps something more abstract, something more spiritual maybe? I pondered as the increasing distortion of my vision reached the point of making the tiny room seem to breathe, threatening to fully enclose around me while simultaneously falling away. I wonder if this is the Rapture?

I could hear several of my neighbors loudly panicking through the paper thin walls of the complex, going by the sound of it, the fat bastard above me was stumbling drunkenly towards the door. Again, a bit silly in my opinion. This was hardly the type of thing you could flee from or to be scared off by shouting. I did however fold my hands and request what respite the Lord was willing to offer.

It was as my short informal prayer ended that I found myself no longer in control of my own body, unable to compel it to move or even open my own eyes. An edge of alarm entered me as I quickly collaborated the information I had to hand. This lacked the numbness of electrocution, didn't have the heavy leaded sensation of sleep paralysis, nor did it share the sense of spiritual decoupling one got from certain hallucinogens. My body was relaxed, but instead of the spreading pins and needles of being put under there was a growing heat in my chest slowly spreading out through my body in waves fully independent of my own heartbeat. This was followed up by a rather new sensation, an impossible level of looseness, as if I had suddenly been turned to wax and was now melting and running together in the heat of my own body. I focused all of my willpower against the melting relaxation to try and force open a single eye, to allow myself to at least witness my end. Control still eluded me, my eyes seeing nothing more than the dim black of my eyelids shifting slowly over to blue as the melting sensation was joined with a new far more unpleasant if less alien sensation. The far too familiar sensation of falling.

The fall was intermittent, with what seemed like a dozen random stops along the way for no reason before my plummet resumed. The duration of each fall seemed indeterminable to my perception, now far too deep in existential panic to do something as banal as count the seconds between the drops. My mind reached for explanations for these sensations, demanding a reason even as it howled and gibbered in animal terror. Surely this must be a dream! No, I know the feel of dreams, finding myself frequently lucid enough to alter them when I find the scenario on offer less than compelling. Then this must be a hallucination! A gas leak or something! Possible, but we have hallucinated before o' animal instincts of mine, this is far different from even that time we made the mistake of visiting the spirit world. Well there must be a reason right!? Then give me one!

As if in answer to a near non-verbal demand of my hindbrain an almost comically soothing and artificial voice, lacking in an noticeable gendered tone rippled through me.

**SYSTEM ADMIN COMMUNIQUE**

Greetings, Earth Inhabitants!

Congratulations on achieving a remarkable milestone in the cosmos! Earth has officially survived more mass extinctions than any other reality we monitor—what an extraordinary testament to resilience!

As a reward for your world's remarkable endurance, during the upcoming System Integration, you will be granted direct control over the evolutionary forces that have shaped your planet. This is a unique privilege, allowing you to guide your world's future development directly.

Prepare to embrace this new power responsibly, and stay tuned for further instructions as we move forward with this Integration.

Warm regards,

**System Overseer Ω**

This announcement brought the infighting between my higher and lower brain functions to an end as the announcement as both found themselves rather shell shocked by the unexpected intrusion into my mental sanctum. And then the sensation returned with a vengeance.

A swirl of color and madness engulfed me as it had only once before as I found myself briefly exposed once again to an impossible and truly alien landscape that I had only seen the like of once before. I had no chance to try and place myself before being dragged out of a world of impossible colors into one of muted grays, tumbling lost in the endless swirling mist moving at what felt like super sonic speeds in deafening silence until I noticed and was rudely deposited in front of something new. Something, blue.

And etching into it slowly into this new broad blue plain these words appeared.

–System Integration Underway–

–Welcome User: Joe Palmar–

–You have 1 Mandatory Evolution remaining–

–Beginning Evolution–

–SetUserLevel_0–

–Error_NoTraits–

–Accessing_Psychological Profile–

–Collating...–

–SysAutoGen_Traits_4–

You have been assigned the following traits:

Grappling Strike F

Tremorsense F

Medium (Long) E

Constrict F

–Please wait while we finalize your stats before Ability Selection–

I found myself stunned as I read the words, feeling a bubbling tingle that sank far deeper into flesh and bone. I hurriedly read the message again as I turned it over in my mind, absorbing the full implication of the message as the too deep sensations grew. My mind went red as one simple conclusion was reached. I was being VIOLATED. It was only my current helplessness that kept me from lashing blindly out at my surroundings, but this deep, soul deep, apoplectic animosity remained. It could not burn itself out, so it simply hardened into a cold cruel choler blade waiting for a proper target to sink into.

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I swear upon my life and soul, to see vengeance done for this. In the name of the one true God, I swear to do all in my power to find and end the demons who have done this to us. With the Lord’s guidance I declare now before him and his angels that I will see humanity avenged. I ask that the Lord give me strength in this task and that Gabriel guide my blade, in whatever form it might take, unerringly into their hearts.

As I ended my oath, I could feel eyes upon me. Powerful eyes of a magnitude difficult to describe beyond overly poetic allegories. The most accurate of which that sprang my mind, despite feeling not quite right would likely be, I looked up into the starry sky and the stars looked back. I desired to quail before such a gaze, but despite it all I forced myself to remain firm and resolved. I had sworn an oath in the Lord’s name and I was not about to crumble and abandon it at the first hurdle. I know not whether it was the eyes of the Lord or those of the self named Overseer that looked down at me, but I could feel the smile that accompanied the gaze before it passed.

If I possessed a body I likely would have collapsed in a minor nervous breakdown with the passing of the gaze. But I remained a formless presence before a blue screen with a wall of text. Text that, I now realized, was fading away. My non-existent eyes locked onto the vanishing text as it found itself replaced with a new block of information.

User: Joe Palmer

Species: Gigaboa

Rank: F

Health 210/210 (++)

Stam 40/40

Level: 0

Exp: 0/25

Special: Tremorsense F

Traits 4/4

Grappling Strike: Your strikes now inflict the Grab condition.

Next Upgrade: E

Tremorsense: Feel low frequency wave through object you're touching to see with more than just your eyes.

Next Unlock: E

Constrict: Allows you to inflict additional ongoing Impact Damage to targets afflicted with your Grab. Moderate Stamina drain. (Health+)

Next Upgrade: E

Medium: Your form is medium sized and very long, weighing no more than 400lbs. (Health+)

Next Upgrade: D

Abilities: 0/4

Empty:

Empty:

Empty:

Empty:

Mutagens: 0/5

Empty:

Empty:

Empty:

Empty:

Empty:

–Proceeding to Ability Selection–

–You have 2 Points Remaining–

That cold choler regained some of its heat as I took in this new information. These, aliens? Demons? Monsters. These monsters had the gall to not only alter my form without my consent but to turn me into a snake of all things!? The casual cruelty on display would have been enough to have put me on the edge of violence were I not already to the level of nigh on feral with furor. Had I the ability to lash out at the moment I didn't doubt I would have driven my fist into the nearest wall hard enough to shatter it or my hand. Alas, I found myself caught with no body to pilot and no meaningful way to express my resentment.

I simply continued to fume as I found my consciousness dragged away from the blue screen and through the omnipresent fog and sent tumbling towards a glittering grid of lights that I didn't ever recall noticing before. I did not attempt to scream or fight it, I refused to give these beasts playing with me the satisfaction as they dropped me down in front of the grid of lights and waited.

My senses drifted over the sparking and swirling stars, only to realize they were all locked inside a massive gray translucent cube of titanic proportions. It was almost mesmerizing in a way. It reminded me somewhat of observing a city at night from on high. Countless lights in the darkness zipping about at seemingly random, yet with a pattern that was more felt than seen. I let myself watch the darting lights in the cube for a moment, to center myself again. My gaze lingered on one of the icons which seemed to take notice of me at the same time, promptly darting towards me and expanding into a small icon with a message emerging from the mist below it.

|Venom F(2pts): You secrete a deadly venom to be injected into your target. Upgradeable|

I gave the icon the best sneer I could manage while lacking a face. If I was to be reduced to a simple serpent, I would not be one that operated in such a manner. Poison and venom were the tools of cowards, effective and useful, but far too easy to misuse and I absolutely did not trust myself with them. The icon, as if sensing my distaste for it, darted away backing into the swirling collection of lights with all due haste. I turned my gaze inward to avoid calling forth any more now revealed to be bodily mutations from the depths of the cube as I silently fumed at the way these Overseers seemed to be making a game out of this new hell they sought to inflict upon myself and the rest of the world.

Not only had they completely reshaped us into animalistic form. They had offered us no option in the form we would take, despite promising ‘direct control over evolutionary forces’. More than just that, it seemed in my case that they were deliberately making choices to be as offensive and aggravating to me as possible. I did not care to be toyed with, that had led me into trouble in my youth, and I had no doubt it would do the same now were I not careful. Omega and anyone else responsible for this would die. But I needed to be smart about how I went about this.

Turning my gaze back to the box of mutations I found myself immediately confronted by a ‘Noxious Scent’ option. A low growl rumbled through my soul as I used the insults to sharpen the cold blade of rage I was slowly nursing. Brushing past several other equally insulting offers such as ‘Adhesive Slime’, ‘Shaggy Fur’, and ‘Projectile Vomit’, I finally became fed up and snarled internally, Do you not have Hands?

Despite not speaking aloud, the lights in the box responded, sending forwards a particularly radiant option which announced itself as 'Manus Musculature'. Before I could do more than acknowledge its existence the icon flashed red, highlighting its outrageous cost of thirty five points before flitting away back into the gray cube. I was mostly certain that the impish giggling coming from the icon as it left was entirely in my head, but it did nothing for my current mood.

Prehensile Tail then! I demanded, If I am to be forced to be a snake I refuse to be without some way to manipulate the world around me!

|Prehensile Tail F(2pts): Your tail is flexible enough to carry or manipulate simple objects. Upgradeable|

An acceptable 'compromise'.

–Purchased Ability: Prehensile Tail F–

–Updating User–

–Error–

–System Integration Incomplete–

–Entering Standby–

May yooouu ssssuuuff

An intense vertigo rocked me as a sensation not dissimilar to the moments just prior to passing out began to engulf me as my grip on my thoughts seemed to spill like water and spiral down into a singular point once again. Passing briefly into the thoughtless numbness of pre-dream sleep before slamming once again into wakefulness. Only to find myself crammed into a too small space seemingly wrapped around myself in a way I'd not felt since I used to force myself into the narrow cabinets in the kitchen during games of hide and seek. Wherever I was, it felt slightly slimy and carried an oddly familiar smell of... No. They wouldn't be so cruel as to-

A happy chime interrupted my thoughts as words danced across my eyes in this cramped darkness.

–System Integration Complete–

–Leaving Standby–

–Updating User: Joe Palmer–

–You have 1 Message–

**System Communique**

Congratulations, Joe!

Due to your high cooperation metrics detected by our core systems, you have been chosen to participate in the First Wave! You and other users across the newly reformed planet Earth have been selected to forge the way into this new world and now hold the power to shape the path of your planet as we move forward!

Local species have been subject to sweeping improvements, please remain aware of your surroundings and your new place in the local ecosystem.

As a special gift for participating in the most difficult phase of the Integration, you will be provided with additional Quest rewards until the commencement of the Second Wave!

Please remember that every choice leads to evolution, and every evolution is a step closer to supremacy.

**END OF MESSAGE**

–Quest Available: Hatch!–

–Reward: 25xp–

–Bonus Reward: Random Mutagen–

I hope a rooster eats your cock you fucker! I mentally roared from within the confines of my new egg.