"Greetings, Earthlings!"

With a soft groan Lily opened her eyes while clutching her head. Where was she? Her head was pounding and her eyes stung from the bright light surrounding the place. Suddenly, there was a shift in the air along with a powerful draft, and then as if she had unintentionally walked into the middle of a convention hundreds of voices could be heard. Many sounded as confused as she currently felt, others started shouting in anger or screaming in fear.

She cracked an eye open and her jaw dropped at the sight. Where the hell was she? It looked as if she was in the courtyard of some medieval castle. There were people as far as her eye could see, and none seemed to understand what was happening.

Before she could give the situation further thought herself, the voice which she had heard earlier made a reappearance.

"I gladly welcome you all to Alteria!"

This time Lilith managed to locate the source of the voice, it looked like a kid wearing a blue sundress. Long golden blonde locks, clear blue eyes, and a dimpled smile. She was quite beautiful, as if an elf or a fairy, though she strangely lacked any shoes.

Oh, and she was also floating above their heads.

"Congratulations, you've all been granted the honor of being part of the 76th Summoning!"

The shock and awe of the masses from seeing a floating child quickly wore off as people began shouting at the young girl.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Who is that? What is this, some kind of sick prank?"

"Where's the exit!"

Seeing that the crowd was about to descend into chaos the fairy-like girl quickly shouted to regain everyone's attention. However, nobody paid her much heed, all rushing towards the large gate they saw behind the girl. She didn't take kindly to being ignored. A sudden pressure-filled the area, causing everybody to collapse onto the floor. A few stronger people tried to resist on their knees, but the sign of defiance only seemed to serve to provoke the girl and as if gravity had increased many times over, their knees visibly sank into the earth.

She didn't end it there.

Muffled screams could be heard accompanying the crisp sound of snapping bones as their legs were reduced to a bloody pulp. Yes, Lilly thought to herself, the girl truly did resemble a fairy. It was too bad she had forgotten how tales of fairies ended to end outside of Disney. The blonde girl didn't blink an eye after her display of casual carnage, and her beautiful grin suddenly took on a far more sinister tone.

"Now then, as I was saying, welcome to Alteria! You've all been transferred here from your previous world in accordance to the sacred ritual. Be thankful, for it is a great honor bestowed upon you lowly lot!"

This time nobody said anything to interrupt the terrifying girl. Whether it was out of fear, or because of the lung crushing force exerted upon them was up to debate. Was she even human? Or a demon in disguise? They didn't know, but many prayed for salvation in vain regardless.

"I suggest you listen carefully, because I am only going to say this once, everything you know about your previous life- toss it away. The moment you entered through the gates, the door of the past had already closed behind you. You've all been granted a new life, a new fate, so embrace it and rejoice! Those who cling to the past are doomed to die alongside it."

Suddenly she clapped her hands with an impish grin. Another burst of light not dissimilar to the one which brought them all here flashed behind her, the once empty courtyard now had many new additions. One, a large billboard filled to the bring with hundreds of flyers, each depicting a unique symbol. Next was a large round fountain, its surface etched with strange moving symbols, crawling around as if alive. Finally, was a series of doors, each one with its own coloring and shape, and each was moving. Some seemed to teleport, others fly into the sky, and some sunk deep into the earth.

Lily was sure that she had even saw one which had eyes embedded into its frame actually look back at her.

"There's only one rule to this place. There are no rules! No matter what you do we will not restrict you in anyways, absolute freedom! Your only goal is to survive, stealing, killing, whatever you want! The laws which once bound you do not apply within this place."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The young girl had a beautiful smile on her face. It was all teeth, yet even with half-lidded eyes everyone could clearly see the madness in her eyes and hear the delight in her voice at the mention of killing.

Lilith couldn't help the shiver that raced down her spine, nor the thumping within her chest, her eyes widen as she committed everything to memory.

"This is the [Quest Board], here you may attempt challenges to gain great rewards which may help you survive and perhaps even thrive in this new world. Rewards come in many forms, such as Skills, Stats, Relics, and Achievement Coins. They have been helpfully color-coded and even placed in order from easiest to hardest for you all! Of course, I don't have to tell you that with bigger risks comes bigger rewards, no?"

From top to bottom there were six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

"Remeber, each quest may only be attempted once, regardless of its outcome. Next, you have the Nexus, this is where you may spend the Achievement coins you have earned, just think of it as a nifty shop for all your needs, of course, the stuff you can get here won't come close to what you could earn from doing Quests."

A devious smirk filled her face as explained, and while they had no idea what exactly were "skills, stats, and relics" they were quickly gaining the idea. Quests were a limited resource that would give them the edge they needed.

"And finally we have the Dimensional Gates, these are portals to other planes! You may gain AV coins come accomplishing feats in them. Killing monsters, retrieving unique materials to sell at the Nexus, or even taking over a kingdom! The possibilities are endless, well, if you don't die that is!"

A peal of chime-like laughter filled the air, but nobody had any pleasant sensation towards the melodic sound. After a moment she started scratching her chin before snapping her fingers as she remembered something.

"Oh yeah! So, Skills are abilities graciously granted to you pathetic lot to make sure you don't end up dying too early. You'll learn more about it if you reach level 10 and qualify. Relics are items with magic in them, and stats are a general measurement of your capability. Ok, that's about it, good luck, try not to die too early, and make it at least a bit entertaining for us, will you?"

And as if she couldn't be bothered anymore she disappeared in a burst of light with a half-assed explanation. A few minutes passed and nobody dared to so much as breathe too loudly in fear of her coming back to slaughter them. After a silence that seemed to last an eternity, it was deemed that the coast was clear and everyone started to get up. Many stumbled, and Lilith's eyes widened in shock as she took in the surrounding.

Corpses of small children, young adults, and elderly were scattered all around her, some from drowning in a pool of their own blood, others bled out from their shattered legs, and some from their crushed lungs. It was a gruesome sight, and the smell of iron and puke hung heavy in the air.

However before anyone had time to take it all in, a loud ping echoed throughout the field.

Day 00:

First Trial: [Minor Zombie Horde] Commencing.

"The Dead shall rise once more,

From their graves, they will rise

take heed of the tide crashing onto your shore.

Return them from once they came

and such grace shall bring a surprise"

Objectives:

Defeat 300 zombies

Survive until sundown

Hidden Objective:

?

Accomplishing either objective shall end the [Trial]. Rewards shall be calculated and distributed according to contribution at midnight. A new [Trial] shall be issued every 7 days. Prepare yourselves.

4:59

Oh... Oh shit. Lily stared at the large hovering screen in front of her face. Taking into account what the little flying bitch said a bit ago, it seems whatever system or people were controlling this was going to keep sending them increasingly hard trials. And it seems they determined that apparently having a bunch of random, and probably traumatized, people fight 300 zombies would be an easy task. Or at least the easiest their ranking would go. And having 50% of the people here not die would also be an accomplishment.

Fuck.

Just as she was cursing the Gods, or however was working with the she-devil, another screen popped in front of her face. Thankfully she was far more grateful for its message this time.

Chose your armament...

She could see a hologram of herself around with a bunch of spheres. Every time her hand touched one an image of a different weapon would appear on her image. A spear, a sword, and a longbow. She spent a bit of time checking the list before deciding.

She went with a metal club.

While the idea of swinging a sword sounded badass, she hadn't the faintest idea of how to use one, nor a bow and arrow sadly. She would've been just as liable of poking out her eye or shooting someone else as she was a zombie. Hopefully, they'd be like in the movies. Slow, dumb, and only needed a headshot to solve.

She was really regretting picking up sewing and lessons in etiquette rather than fencing right about now. But hey, how hard could swinging what is basically a metal pole be?