Granite City

8:15 am.

Granite City

Just as Kyle feared, they did not make it to the safe zone that night. Too many civilians didn't have the stamina to keep going. So, they camped out in an abandoned school they came upon and it's surrounding residential blocks with the military setting up a guard perimeter.

After the many hours of walking and resting that followed, Kyle learned exactly how fast his bars refilled. Each was unique.

His green bar representing his stamina filled up almost consistently when he wasn't doing anything. The problem was it never reached full. Not only did every thing Kyle did, from moving around, eating, and even being conscious, consume very small amounts of stamina, but as the day progressed, the bar shrank in overall size too.

Kyle guessed it was because he needed sleep to restore the full capacity of his stamina. He was proven correct when the green bar matched his full blue bar the next morning.

His Mana filled up very slowly, but was fairly consistent as well. It took about an hour for his mana to reach its maximum amount after being nearly empty. The headache and lightheaded feeling faded at around twenty-five percent. So, he made sure to try and use Monster Harvest as often as he could without going below that mark.

What was really concerning was his health bar. The blood red bar hadn't moved up past fifty percent. He resolved himself to pay closer attention to his bars from now on as he doubted there were extra lives or re-spawns, no matter how much this felt like a game. He wondered if there was something he could consume to replenish his health. His dinner hadn't done so. He hoped he would run into a potion or herb that would do the trick.

Kyle's inventory was now completely full, so he had unloaded a few slots while at the school the next morning to make room for his loot he acquired the previous day. He looked everything over as the survivors started lining up to continue walking towards the safe zone.

Jut had collected quite a few fangs, a couple pelts, stacks of monster meat, and a lot of mana chips. He shared the later with Brick, but the soldier would only take items from monsters he had killed personally. That seemed reasonable to Kyle, but even if he would lose out on some items, he preferred the method of all loot going into the pot and the team got equal cuts. That wasn't happening with Kyle keeping the loot from his pets' kills. And even not knowing the man well, Kyle considered Brick to be on his team.

As nothing had changed in any of Kyle's other interfaces or menus, he took his place in the line of survivors and moved along. His pets stayed close and Brick arrived shortly thereafter. They exchanged friendly greetings and started marching together.

The more Kyle saw, the more he realized that every inch of city, and likely the world, had been impacted by the system and monsters. Not a single building or street looked unblemished as they continued winding their way North.

Around noon, the word reached back to Kyle and Brick that the first of their number had reached the Safe Zone. Unfortunately, it would take a while before they could see the casino for themselves.

Before they laid eyes on the place, however, Kyle felt something change around him as he entered the area marked as the "safe zone". It was like the weather had gone from being very windy to calm in an instant, yet nothing really changed. He looked around for a while, trying to figure out what it was. He was brought back to the present when Brick nudged him.

Kyle's heart sped up at the sight of Slatewell Casino. The building looked like a castle turned modern. Four high rise hotel towers were connected by sky walks. The central tower was just as tall and contained the restaurants, gaming floors, and showrooms. All of it was sleek and sharp, more for aesthetics than security. He remembered coming here a time or two and had enjoyed each of his visits.

The property was on the larger side of the upscale casinos in the city, so it was massive. The sprawling grounds and surrounding shops even felt like a small village had cropped up just in front of the casino. The large parking lot was surrounded by mansions and high-end condominiums. To Kyle's surprise, there were very few vehicles in the lot. He probably passed most of them on the way there, abandoned in the street and no longer running.

All Kyle had to do was march a little longer and he could possibly feel safe for the first time in days. That's what a Safe Zone was, wasn't it? He knew thoughts like that were dangerous. Why did he let his guard down that easily? Because they had finally reached the system designated "safe zone"?

Kyle passed a house as he walked and something leapt out from between it and it's neighbor. He was able to react, pulling the bat out of his pouch. However, the blue and black fur had already blocked out the light. Claws raked his skin as he fell backward. He was already thrashing around trying to get the monster off of himself before he landed. Then, just as suddenly, the weight was gone.

Kyle sat up and looked around. Brick was standing in front of him holding Kyle's bat defensively, which he did not remember dropping. There was no monster corpse to be seen either.

"Where did that fucking cat go!" Kyle yelled in frustration but didn't stand up. His attention had moved to his dangerously low health bar that was trickling lower by the moment.

Brick turned and looked at Kyle before he cursed. "Don't move."

Kyle started to feel woozy and more people than Brick had moved in around him and were touching him.

"The monster pounced, then was gone. Not even Gunther could react quickly enough. I almost didn't notice it happen until it was almost too late." Brick said, holding pressure to Kyle's arm.

"It might have been a little late anyway." Kyle breathed as he watched his health hit ten percent and continue to slowly fade.

His body felt heavy and he couldn't move much. He didn't understand why though. He hadn't taken much damage that morning. He had been very careful when he attacked and didn't take more than a light tap here or there. Yet, his vision grew cloudy and he nearly collapsed after his health bar sank below what he estimated as five percent.

In the blackness that threatened to swallow him, a warmth spread from Kyle's arms, through his core and back to his extremities. After what could have been hours, or seconds, he was blinking and sitting up straight once more.

Two hands where pressed to his bare arms. That was where the warmth had come from. He followed the arms to Elizabeth's face. Her hands were glowing and she had her eyes closed in concentration. Was she healing him?

"What are you doing?" Kyle asked weakly.

Elizabeth didn't answer right away. It was a long few seconds before she broke contact and the blue light faded from around her hands. She looked at him and scowled, clasping her forehead for a moment like it hurt.

"Healing Touch. The skill I received was a spell."

Kyle blinked, processing that. Elizabeth was glaring at him. "What?" He asked, confused.

"Have you not been treating your wounds? If you don't do so properly, your health bar won't fill very quickly."

Kyle felt his ears heat up and he looked away for a moment. "I felt fine." He murmured and shrugged. "I figured I could take care of it once we were here."

Her glare turned into a scowl. "Next time, I will just let you die. Things are different now and I am not going to help others pretend otherwise." Elizabeth shook her head and walked away.

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"Thank you!" He called after her. She gestured rudely behind her as she disappeared into the crowd.

Despite what looked like a near Mana crash from using her spell, Kyle's red bar was only half full. It did appear to be filling up a bit more however. Once they weren't moving anymore, he was going to treat any wounds that remained thoroughly, just as he had originally planned.

The vibe around Kyle and Brick was a heavy one. They were supposedly in the Safe Zone and Kyle wasn't the only one attacked. Multiple people were hurt and a few were too badly wounded to survive the final distance or died instantly when other monsters hopped out of yards or windows. So far, the "Safe Zone" didn't seem very safe.

Once they began walking again, they passed a line of men and women who looked to be guarding the property with guns and other weapons. The security looking folk looked past the people flooding by, indicating they were looking for monsters. Kyle kept walking until he passed under one of the sky walks and into the main courtyard of the casino.

A crowd had gathered in the courtyard like walkway leading up to the main tower. A platform had been set up just outside the main doors, and the people were gathering around it.

Kyle was lost in the crowd in seconds. The grounds were so large and open, yet the people overflowed out in every direction, well past the casino grounds entirely. The crowd had to number a lot more than their original couple of thousands. If he had to guess, Kyle would say it was more like a couple hundred thousand people were there.

Just when the crowd started to get board and shift around, a man stepped onto the podium after exiting the main building. Even Kyle, who could barely see the man, recognized him. He was Adam Slatewell, one of the richest men in Granite City.

In his mid to late forties, Adam had greying and thinning blonde hair. He was average height with the ponch of a wealthy, inactive man. His clothes were tailored to hide that fact a bit, however. A speaker system started up and Adam drew everyone's attention with a small cough.

"Dear citizens of Granite City. Thank you for coming to the Slatewell Safe Zone. Follow your prompts and wait to check in. You will be assigned rooms and the food court will be open at all times. As you can see, we are very crowded, so rowdiness will not be tolerated during this crisis. Once everyone settles in, we will look into what tomorrow holds. I know it seems grim and like the world has ended. I need you to know we will make it through together. We all need to come together as one and see that next morning as a group. Everything else will come easier after that."

"Now, having been granted the title "Leader of the Safe Zone", I have access to some Lore from the system that you may not. What makes this property safe is that Monsters cannot spawn here. However, that doesn't stop them from wandering in. We need those who are strong to move to the perimeter of the zone and kill any monsters they find along the way. We will then set up patrol duty for those willing to do so to keep the monsters out."

"I am able to issue a quest for that, so please head to the reception desk on the ground floor to receive the offered quest. The more who do, the faster we will be able to call this zone actually safe."

"Past that, relax, eat, get cleaned up, and settle in. When I know more, you will too."

With a wave of his hand, Adam smiled and left the podium.

Kyle wasn't impressed. It felt like a lot of nothing to him, but the crowd didn't break out into screaming and yelling either. Instead, a small buzz started and grew. It was like every one started talking to each other slowly and people began to move about and lines formed.

The Casino had booths set up around the grounds for registration and sorting people into housing. Kyle wondered if there was even enough room for everyone in the casino's hotel.

Kyle immediately made his way through the crowd to one of those booths with Brick in tow and got into line. The press of people was overwhelming and he had to force himself to breathe to stay calm. They waited for nearly an hour and his pets started to get very restless. Kyle was even beginning to forget why he was there when he made it to the front of the line.

The employee behind the booth was a short, middle aged man with dark hair in a staff uniform. His tie was straight under a deep red coat and his pants were squarely pressed. It was all designer quality and gave off the feeling of luxury. If the help was this well dressed then it had to be classy, right? Or so they wanted everyone to believe. It seemed to work on most people.

Kyle didn't really care. He focused on the worker as his registration began.

"Name?" The man asked

"Jut Zoak" Kyle said, before spelling it aloud. He didn't want to give his real name. He had been considering a cover name ever since he noticed there was an empty slot for a name on his information screen. Maybe the system allowed power over someone if you know their real name? Kyle wasn't going to risk it.

Kyle received a key card with a tower and a room number on it. Bricks was on the same floor in the same building so they walked together. In fact, it was the exact same room. Kyle really hoped there was more than one bed. Not that he would complain, a safe place to sleep was better than nothing.

Their passage through the population to their room was stressful and agonizingly slow. Everyone was crowded together and frustrating to move past. Yet, the small group eventually made their way into the northeast tower and up the stairs.

When Kyle entered their assigned room, he realized how the casino intended on fitting more people in the buildings than he expected. The room had been converted to a barracks style bunk system. There were three sets of two bunk beds stacked in and around the room with no other furniture besides two couches. It would feel cramped with six people and the animals, but it would be survivable.

What would have been a suite did have a bathroom that worked and what would have been the bedroom was made into a room for pets or children. He must have been placed here especially for that reason. Fortunately, his animals were the only ones there for now and they had no problem going into the empty room to get away from the noise and people.

Kyle and Brick each claimed a bed silently, still processing what had just happened. One minute, they were being attacked by beasts and trying to survive, and now they, after far too many hours, were sinking into a soft bed behind walls that actually felt safe. At least, more so than the Mall did.

Kyle decided to go through his notifications with his Guide. He had chosen to save everything until he wasn't aiming for that one more moment of survival before a monster attacked him, or people ignored him and left him for dead.

Let's do it.

His Guide didn't respond with text to his thought. Instead, the first notification appeared without him having to concentrate on the exclamation point. It had lit up when he had first walked into the Safe Zone.

Congratulations!

You have completed a [Quest].

Quest Travel to the nearest [Safe Zone] Objective Reach the nearest [Safe Zone] alive - 1/1

Rank

None

Rarity

Abundant

Difficulty

Very Hard

Description A [Safe Zone] has been formed nearby. You must reach the [Safe Zone] Reward

10 [Mana Chips]. Type: Varied

Ok

Unlike before, the Mana Chips didn't appear in his lap but when he checked his inventory later, the number had gone up by ten. He was sitting at a hundred and twenty-seven now.

The next window was the basic white with black text. It also sounded a little familiar.

[Safe Zones] are safe because [Monsters] do not spawn there. Very powerful [Monsters] will also actively avoid the area due to how the [System] regulates [Manaether] in [Safe Zones].

Use this as a starting place to acclimate your civilization to the [System].

Ok

Kyle only shook his head. He wasn't sure if he wanted to continue with this nightmare or get ready for bed.