Jason

The sky was alive in London tonight. Rain furiously smashes the ground; the thunder was loud and menacing. I finally hit submit. Chapter number 1000 of my book, infinite system apocalypse, was finally released to the public.

Finally. It had been a long journey, but the book was done. The main character reached ascension to godhood and lived happily ever after - or so the readers assumed. There was still room for a sequel if I ever felt like it.

I was a pretty average Londoner. Barely surviving in my shitty flat. Only the funds from my patreon kept me afloat while looking for a job. After graduating from university with an English degree, the job market was not very appealing.

Looking for a decent journaling job was harder than people thought, especially with the ongoing employment crisis.

The lightning was increasing in frequency. A giant beam of light lit up my window, with a deafening crack soon following.

A blue screen appeared in my vision.

System initialis—

///Error///

Hahahaha so foolish, so foolish of them.

Ahem.

Humans! Welcome to the new world. Survive! Thrive! Die! Or do whatever you want! Who cares?!

Okay….There is technically a goal…But don’t worry about it. Bad luck!

Huh?

…

Oh great. Just what I need. This was a system apocalypse, obviously. I tried to think of some key words - status, profile, level, system, administration. Nothing worked.

I suppose this new world doesn’t have a status screen. At least not yet. I didn’t even believe for a second that I was hallucinating. I wasn’t that crazy, not yet.

 I quickly grabbed my backpack and filled it up with food and some spare clothes. Unfortunately, I didn't really own any real weapons and I didn’t think taking a butter knife would be very useful.

Grabbing my phone to check if it was still working, I was interrupted by a system message.

You all have had enough time to prepare. Teleporting to the tutorial! Okay well I should mention that despite it being the tutorial, it lasts a very long time. Pretty typical of those novels you write.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Wait…The system was speaking directly to me and not just to all humans?

I disappeared.

—----------------------------

I appeared in a small, grey room.

Welcome to the room of doom! Here you can do things.

Very, very useful information. Also, the ‘room of doom’? Seriously.

There was nothing in the room except a small sign in the corner saying ‘exit’. Well, that was good at least. I still had my backpack and clothes, which was a great relief. If I had been sleeping when the apocalypse struck, I might have just ended up here in my pyjamas. That would have been bad.

I carefully inspected each wall of the room. If I’m not cautious in the room of doom, then I might as well end it all now.

There was nothing. Nothing at all. The exit sign was the only thing in the whole room. Honestly, why even bother sending us to an empty room? Well, the system already seems kind of crazy so who knows. It also said that you can do things which was plural.

Though, does walking and thinking count as doing a thing? I quickly realised that there was no point to this line of thought. Seeing as there was nothing else to do, I touched the exit sign.

—----------------------------

I appeared at a cave entrance. There was a blue barrier behind me, blocking off the outside world. Well, it’s looking like a dungeon crawl. Too bad the system has given me absolutely no way to defend myself. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Time to toughen up. I knew how these system apocalypses go. The weak-willed die, the strong survive. I must take risks and live.

I noticed that there were four other people around me. There was an old man, who had a flat cap on. He must be another brit. There was a man around my age, wearing full black, with a motorcycle jacket on. It was very practical. He was wearing all black and looked ready to fight.

I placed him as the most dangerous of the people here. The other two were middle aged women.

“Sup. I’m Jason.” I greeted them, “You all from England?” They nodded. 

“Greetings. Richard here.” The old man replied. We went round and did a few introductions. The other man was called Lars. The women were Alice and Nancy.

I urged them to explore the cave with me instead of waiting. Doing nothing would earn them nothing but a slow death. I ended up being the de facto leader of the group.

Unfortunately, none of the group had any weapons. I was the only one who managed to take anything other than clothes or a phone. The phones didn’t work at all. They wouldn’t turn on.

The cave was empty. I was somehow still able to see perfectly despite there being no source of light other than the entrance. There was nothing except a long tunnel. We walked for over half an hour. Eventually, we ended up in a large cavern. It was also empty.

The blue screen appeared again.

Congratulations! You beat the dungeon! AMAZING! For your reward, you each get a ten credit coin!

What? Well. That was the easiest dungeon of my life.

In front of me, a small card appeared with 10 on it. Well, that’s nice, but how much does it help me right now? I’m not seeing a shop to spend it.

I bent down to pick up my voucher.

My vision suddenly went black.