Alice shifted uncomfortably on the plush seats of the dinner she had visited many times before.

It was a safe space she could visit from time to time when things got tough and she needed a free meal and the friendly company of Amelia, or as she preferred to be called Ame's, Owner of Ame's fine dining.

The place was by no means bustling with business as it had its issues, as addressed by the rats currently scurrying towards the back of the bathroom nobody ever used for reasons best left unsaid.

The few saving graces of the building were its closeness to the white house, and the surprisingly good food.

Still, none of this really mattered at the moment to Alice as her eyes darted between the paper currently sitting on the table in front of her and Amelia herself.

The woman was surprisingly young for the owner of a business being only 29 years old. Alice suspected that Amelia's parents were rich, which would be why the place even remained open despite its many health code violations.

Alice briefly heard the news from the radio that played in the kitchen of the run-down diner, it was the same old news, however. The nightly repeat of the fact that oil prices were still up by 10% and the latest speculation about the strange circular object hovering near the moon.

It had appeared over 4 years ago and still, no one could figure out anything about it.

Yet all this really did not matter to Alice, who had been homeless for the last two years and only recently turned 16.

As far as Alice cared as long as she had a meal to eat and didn't need to hide from strange men everything was just groovy.

Finally, she stopped stalling and with a big smile and genuine happiness she nodded a meek sign of agreement to Amellia.

"wonderful! I've been trying to get someone to help out around here for ages. Now just fill out that application Darlin and ill be right out with one of my pancakes to celebrate."

With those wonderful words, Alice began the herculean task of filling out the ever-dreaded job application forum.

As she wrote she noted that the only other customer was a family of 3. The father seemed to be some sort of cop with his badge placed on the table, though he was probably off duty considering the company and the fact that he was wearing a long-sleeved denim sweater paired with some basic blue jeans.

The woman sitting next to him was dressed in a white blouse and what appeared to be bell bottoms finished off with a yellow scarf tied neatly around the neck. Finally was a young girl dressed in a costume that reminded Alice of the comics she used to read as a kid, squirming with barely controlled excitement.

After a moment of watching them, she got back to her application and finished it just in time to see Amelia come out carrying too plates of chocolate chip pancakes with a thick helping of syrup.

Alice's mouth watered with anticipation of her favorite comfort food. Then she frowned as a numbing sensation began to engulf her body. Then her world was consumed by a searing blue light.

Tower of babel initilizaing... connecting to reality monitering stations 97, 98, and 103. Connection stable. Connection successful.

Creating system

....

System successfully created, authorization granted to vice. System renamed to [Vice]. succesful. Upgrading 90% of life forms to [Monster]. Granting system access to qualifying races. Qualifying races removed from monsterization. Moving all Qualifying races to monitered realty earth 98.

Integration successful. Granting classes.

.....

Congragulations! Alice Ryes. Your plannet has been granted the oppurtunity to improve! You have been granted the legendary class [Survivor]! Have a Happy system day!

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

Name: Alice Ryes.

Race: human

Realm: Reality

level: 1

Ranking: -10,000

Class skills:

[Infinite inventory] [basic survival skills] [Markswomen basic] [Street fighting] [Scrappers constitution]

Alice felt the tears come to her face as sorrow filled, she had realized that this... getting a job? Getting her life together?

it was just drug filled dream because even years later she apparently couldn't stop herself.

Because the only thing that could explain what was going on was drugs.

She waited for herself to wake up, ready to scream and cry and hate herself for thinking anything could be different.

After a few seconds of nothing happening though she wiped the tears from her eyes and realized that this couldn't be a dream.

Because it was all too real. Everyone in the diner had odd expressions on their faces as if they too were staring at a screen only they could see.

As she noticed that all passersbyes had also stopped in the middle of what they were doing, it finally clicked that this was not her breaking her promise to herself. A great relief washed away her confusion just as a new message appeared on her screen.

Upgrad of 90% of all lifeforms complete!

A flash of red just as blinding as the blue light seared her vision, at first nothing happened but only a minute later did she hear the first scream, then the next, and the next one after that.

She jumped as an explosion nearby caused the very ground to shake, and great roars of some mighty beast could be heard above her.

The entire world was nothing but a cacophony of screams and destruction.

The girl in the costume had begun balling as the mother tried her best to comfort her. Alice was frozen unable to move no matter what she tried to will her body to do.

In Alice's panicked state, she noticed a woman in a red dress running for the end as some large beast with scales chased her.

Once the woman reached the door she began banging on it, begging to be let in. As the monster loomed closer she started banging on the door, then resorted to trying to use a pair of high heels to break the glass doors.

Somehow her efforts were futile and Alice could only watch while the large monster snatched the woman in its aligator-like jaws.

She still screamed and begged even as the creature tore her apart, blood began to cover the door and soon Alice could see nothing.

All she could hear was the sicking crunch as the monster finally finished its meal. Then she jumped in pure terror as she heard the beast crash into the walls trying to get into the small diner for more victims.

Yet instead of breaking through, Alice saw a blue glow for the briefest of moments and heard the monster growl in pain. After a moment she could hear the monster running in a different direction. She almost let out a sigh of relief before she heard a shrill scream. This time coming from inside the diner.

As she turned she saw the young girl staring and screaming at 2 monsters that had just left the bathroom. Their heads were rat skulls, Their humanoid bodies were covered in dark grey fur with long spindly arms ending at a set of claws as large and sharp as knives. The look they gave the girl sent shivers down Alice's spine because all she could see in those dark beady eyes was hunger.

before the monsters could react the father pulled a gun he had concealed in under his shirt and fired 3 rounds in an inhumanly quick and accurate matter. Alice swore she saw the gun practically teleport into his hands. Unfortunately, It was not enough to kill the thing, and in a single motion, he pushed his daughter back towards her mother and raised his left arm to intercept the beast's maw as it lept for the girl. Blood poured down the man's arms as the teeth of the monster dug into his arm, but he kept the gun firmly in his grasp and managed to get another shot in before the beast smacked the gun out of his hands with one of its claws.

The gun slid across the floor stomping right in front of Alice's feet but she was too frightened to move or do anything.

"GET AWAY FROM MY DADDY!!!!" the girl screamed surging forward, at the time Alice's mind was too muddled with fright to process the fact that the girl was somehow floating off the ground! The young girls small fists punched the beast. Alice prepared for the punch to fail, to be nothing but a waste of energy that should have been spent on running. Instead, the beast was sent flying into one of the walls coughing blood as a small child-sized fist-like crater formed around its stomach.

Alice's sluggish mind felt relieved. Then she remembered the other monster which had been biding its time.

The creature lunged for the girl's throat and without hesitation or pause, Alice grabbed up the gun and got into a shooting stance that she had no possible way of knowing how to do. She fired 1 shot. 2 shots.

Then 4 more before the gun ran out of ammo. Each shot hit the creature on its side forcing closer and closer to one of the nearby walls before the father charged it into the wall.

Another blue shimmer of light could be seen as the monster began to convulse with increasing intensity, as the part of its fur that had been touching the wall lit on fire.

A fire that spread as the monster screamed and cried in pain until finally it died. Alice registered the knives in its torso as one might register a pizza with vanilla ice cream on top.

A wave of nausea hit Alice as soon as the adrenaline left her body and she hunched over throwing up onto the ground and feeling her mind slowly go dark as unconsciousness took hold. The last thing she saw was the families table, sitting on it was a birthday cake with 6 candles.

"Birthday? Rad." was the last thing she said before her body crumpled to the ground.

As those events transpired many other fires burned across the world as monsters attack everything with hunger and malice.

Yet the wheel in the sky simply watched its red glow having turned back to a blue one. It would watch and see what would unfold and nothing more.