Well, isn't that just lucky?

Precisely two miles away from the entrance to Kohl's dungeon, was a settlement of ninety-three humans, all living underneath a blue sign that read 'Living Room.'

Their...town, if it can even be called that, was not large by any means, shacks built of furniture and scraps, a wall of furniture and sharpened metal, people wearing tattered clothing, even their weapons were not all that noteworthy as they were just scrap or lawn mower blades.

So, it was exactly something Kohl expected due to what he knew about this...SCP.

Next, Kohl wanted to get the survivor's attention, so, he got all the birds in the IKEA, to begin swarming the town, flocking overhead, and it didn't take long for them to take note of his birds, and as he called upon more birds, he suddenly pulled back, having all the birds begin flying back to the Dungeon.

Leaving behind a bird to keep watch, Kohl some of the birds continue searching for more settlements but left the rest around the area of his portal to keep watch.

Unfortunately, the lights were soon switched off, plunging the area into darkness, curiously enough, the town had plenty of light from the widely available light sources in this IKEA.

Seeing as the bird couldn't be seen, Kohl managed to get an even closer look at the town, seeing that even though the people of the town remained vigilant and ready with guards using spears fashioned from lamp poles and lawnmower blades. Along their wall, was a series of holes in their walls, more than likely to allow the humans of the town to attack from inside the walls.

Kohl was also able to see that the people were getting power from various outlets across their settlement, seemingly being plenty in number due to the many lamps that were showcased in the area that needed power.

Suddenly, however, the bird could hear a phrase being chanted like a mantra in the distance outside the walls.

"Excuse me, the store is now closed. Please exit the building."

All sounded the same, but coming from every direction around the town, and those on guard duty seemed to tense.

Soon enough, however, Staff members could be seen, first only a few, then more, then dozens.

And while they charged toward the town, intent on ripping the people in the town apart, I felt a bird that was keeping watch next to my portal, die.

Immediately switching over to the birds in the area around his portal, Kohl grew annoyed.

Dozens of Staff trying to catch the birds, and rapidly approaching my portal.

'Well, if you want to cause problems, I'm happy to oblige,' Kohl thought to himself as his Elementals began heading towards the portal, with the Air Elementals arriving within two minutes and the others as much as ten minutes.

By that time, a few more birds died, and the Staff began pouring into my Dungeon, which was incredibly foolish, as the Air Elementals sent out sharp winds that cut them apart, and the staff's attacks couldn't harm the Elementals.

[SCP-3008-2 Construct Slain! +0.005 Mana]

'Oh?'

Although it would take killing 200 if the Staff to even get a single point of mana, Kohl still found it to be somewhat profitable, seeing as the Elementals would gain exp as well, though just as little.

Though Kohl had a feeling he wouldn't be able to collect the mana from the 3008-2's if they were to be outside the Dungeon, so, he had the birds fly back into the Dungeon, leading the many Staff members to chase them right into the 'claws' of the Elementals waiting on the other side.

For hours the Staff attacked and invaded Kohl's Dungeon, giving Kohl a few points of mana, and a few levels ups for some of the Elementals.

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By the time the lights flipped back on in the store, there was a hill of corpses around the portal, there were so many in fact, that most were burned to ash by the Fire Elementals to prevent thousands from stampeding into the Dungeon the next night.

You see, the corpses of the Staff, whole or not, draw more Staff to their location during the 'night' of the store, meaning, if enough are killed in a single night and not removed, the staff's numbers the following night could double, triple, or even quadruple. For the settlements in the store, that many would be a death sentence as their walls cannot become sturdy enough to handle such numbers.

Think about it, their walls were made of what they could scavenge from their surroundings, whether that be furniture, metal scaffolding, or whatever else they could find, and due to the Staff all possessing greater strength than that of humans, it wouldn't take long for them to break through any sort of barricades and walls the survivors set up.

However, Kohl came up with an idea.

He would make the survivors around his Dungeon, become dependent on him, dependent on his resources and the system.

He could 'offer' food, water, materials and components, weapons and armor, and most importantly of all, the System, of course, they'd have to fight for it, and Kohl would have to limit the number of deaths to ensure repeated diving and reliance.

Perhaps once he obtains enough rule slots, he could do something that would prevent most deaths in his dungeon, but for the foreseeable future, he will just have to stop his monsters from striking fatal blows manually.

Now, to see how well the 'Living Room' Settlers fared after the night.

---

[Jay's POV]

"Come on, grab under the arms, I got the legs," I told a man by the name of Chase, as we hoisted a Staff member off of a pile of other staff members and onto a cart we fashioned from some tables and what little rope that could be found.

We pilled as many bodies as we could, before carting the bodies a mile away, and repeated again and again.

I helped with the first loads but was soon called upon by Clair.

"Come on Jay, you're going to miss the meeting!"

She ended up dragging me back into the settlement and into a sort of garden the town had made over the years from scavenging a small garden area a few miles out.

This garden is where we discuss topics concerning the settlement and discuss any issues the town or individuals may be facing.

I guess you could say we were a council.

I was in charge of scavenging and making sure the town stayed safe.

Jake, a rather carefree and relaxed man, was in charge of keeping the walls and our equipment up to shape.

Sarah, a rather strict woman, was in charge of keeping everyone fed and keeping stock of our supplies.

Dr. Bright, while we don't really consider him a doctor, patches up our guys and loves telling stories about some kind of secret society in his home Earth. Keeps us entertained, and certainly gives us a chuckle with all the stories he has, also made a few crossbows for us, which was certainly helpful during the night, though they do break quite easily.

Vernon, a rather tall man acted as the sort of main counselor or therapist like Clair for those in our town, the man helped quite a few of us greatly through our problems.

Then there was Clair, she acted as our sort of Leader, and kind of helped everywhere.

"So, are we going to talk about it?" Jake asked.

"The Birds?" Bright asked.

"That, and how about how last night had a lot more Staff than usual?" Vernon spoke.

"Who knows, this damned place doesn't make any sense," Sarah replied, scoffing.

"...Anyways, the birds. Thoughts?" Clair spoke up.

"Unusual, not in regards to being here, more to their pattern and behavior, did you guys notice the fact that they were all in sync?" Bright asked, folding his arms over the dusty lab coat he wore and the amulet around his neck.

"Yeah, it was kind of creepy, like they were all robots," Jake spoke up, and Bright suddenly had that creepy smile on his face.

"It also almost seemed as if they were trying to lead us somewhere..." Dr. Bright noted, causing everyone else to frown at him.

"What? We are trapped in a store, intelligent birds are where you draw the line?" Dr. Bright asked, acting offended.

"Intelligent or not, I'd like to see where they were heading, for a whole flock to get trapped here? Unlikely, especially since they are rare in the first place, I have been here for a few years myself, and even then, I have only ever seen a single bird, not to mention, even if it was just a coincidence, are you guys really going to back off from the chance to eat something other than the garbage we normally have to?" Dr. Bright continued with a chuckle.

"Hmm, I'm down for hunting them, though how are we supposed to catch them? Not to be rude or anything, but it's not like we could use the crossbows, otherwise, there would be very little left," Jake voiced his concerns.

"Can you both stop talking about eating them? Have none of you even begun to think that maybe these birds have been trained? Their unusual behavior could be the sign of them being trained by people," Sarah voiced out.

...

Eventually, everyone agreed to find out if the birds lived nearby, and that's it, Clair didn't think we should waste time and walk too far only to be unable to make it back in time.

So, Clair had Charles, a guy named Luke, me, and unfortunately Dr. Bright head out in the direction the birds flew away to.

Dr. Bright decided to 'tag along,' and Clair was more than happy to throw him at us, much to our displeasure.

It's not that Dr. Bright is a bad guy... It's just, well...the man is a massive clutz, and way too big of a problem-maker, the man quite literally, is a danger magnet, and his constantly shifting curiosity makes it quite annoying to travel anywhere with him.

I just hope his presence doesn't cause some kind of troubling thing to come up.