Damon Bishop was locked in place as the System Apocalypse announced her arrival to Earth—or planet Terra, as she insisted on calling it—right on schedule.
In defiance of common expectations, our society’s armageddon failed to appear with the impressive speed and force of a comet—nor did we fall to the subtle invasions of some doomsday virus.
Rather she announced her arrival haughtily, in the form of an impersonal assistant’s voice with a robotic quality. One who claimed to have come to help us Integrate.
Into what exactly? The Megaverse. Details pending approval.
The integration occurred at approximately 6.03 PM, Thursday, February 29th, 2024.
[Calculating adjustments for optimal Integration…]
...
[Due to insufficient energy and faction diversity, planet Terra native sapients shall be placed in lull, with additional species drafted for liberation. New Integration date: Null…]
[Planetary link to the Megaverse Celestial Hegemony System established. Astral magicore installed. Initializing topography Shuffle for optimized environmental diversity and energy density at Pylon germination sites…]
[Commencing adjustments…]
…
Damon was having a difficult time catching everything being said, his mind still reeling from the strange sensation of time stopping, and remaining stubbornly stuck on trying to figure out the unnatural source of that voice. His body meanwhile was standing completely frozen along with Tom, Sarah, Ken and everyone else. He wanted to do something, anything, yet his mind was moving like molasses as the voice kept droning and the alien process proceeded uninterrupted.
[Greetings from the System, natives. Congratulations are in order, for your planet has acquired atmospheric magicka as of… this very moment.]
…
[Verifying core installation… hmpf. Lousy bootstrap.]
…
…
…
[Hmpf. Stubborn. But there! As of this very moment.]
[On that note, your planet has begun Integration into the Hidden Megaverse Realm, as the 27th prospective planetary Lordship of Axargandr Lee’s Celestial Hegemony. Welcome!]
[Verifying planetary qualifications…]
...
[Qualifications verified. Expedited Integration advised. Requesting assembly council votes for premium invitation…
…
[Requested votes not cast.]
…
[Impasse… Active Lordships abstain, recording reticent acts. Requisites reached: Obligatory council review scheduled: Imminent.]
[Calculating readjustments...]
…
[Initializing Continental Shuffle.]
[Competitors for motivational rivalry remain sorely missed. Boosting predator populations intermittently.]
[Analyzing result: Insufficient. Lull requirements remain. Commencing full diversity project authorization - 100.]
[Recalculating scope of readjustments…]
...
[Proceeding with enhanced Integration.]
[Technological progress: Redundant.]
[Reset initialized…Targeting: Vulnerable electronic technologies, low energy synthetic chemicals, advanced materials obtained using obsolete reductionisms.]
[Reset to baseline from initial scan proceeding. Prognosticated Origin Paths no longer remote from set Paradigms: Vigorians, Envokers, Raptures.]
[Recalculating scope of adjustments…]
...
Magicka!? Boosting predator populations? What in the squirrel’s hidden nuts is going on?
What with having a really difficult time telling how long the droning voice had been going on for, Damon was starting to get a really bad feeling. At least his mind was adjusting at this point—was what it felt like, the overpowering voice now at least letting him think—Damon took that opportunity to try flexing and resisting with all his might for the first time. Yet nothing happened, no matter his efforts—it was useless. He kept trying as the voice went on, yet despite his ongoing struggle, his body remained in stasis, having achieved nothing except slowly forming a thin layer of frozen sweat.
[Approximating one week for adjustments to be executed. Full Integration estimated to commence in: 156 hours]
[Calculating predicted native survival rate… Abysmal.]
[Readjusting…]
...
[Access to Aspirant Classes granted: Chronicles UI locked until Aspirants earn Explorer or Artisan status.]
[Dispensing PSA: The urge to hide away may tempt when great change comes. That way lies oblivion. Cast away doubt and fear. Origins established in the appropriate window may empower your Core and light the way for your planet for ages to come. First, one must achieve the Dao in Three - earn a true Class and the chance to Explore - This way lies the Path to total freedom in shaping your futures. Origin Explorers set to be released early for pioneer purposes. End of PSA.]
…
[Verifying full qualifications review...]
...
[Qualifications reviewed. Planet Terra status in limbo. Full Lordship potential in question—number of Celestial Lords questioning Master analysis: 12...]
[Analyzing Celestial Council…]
...
[Aberrative endeavors detected: Fruitless pattern repeating.]
[Counteracting - Extending lull: 1000]
[Proceeding with Integration facilitation protocol. Activating All-natural Healing IV to nullify further interference prior to Integration completion…]
[Calculations complete…]
[Recalculated native survival rate… Dismal.]
...
[Excuse the delay.]
[Dispensing conclusive PSA: Integration has the potential to be the best of times, or the worst of times. Which is determined by you. What is on offer is a future of unlimited potential where even the lowliest creature can strive for the Heavens and reach that elusive gate within their lifetime. For now you need only self-reflect as global adjustments are completed… End of PSA.]
…
[Countdown: 155 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds.]
And as easy as that, time and movement, even external sounds seemed to suddenly resume. It was jarring, bringing home how everything had been so still despite the ongoing bombardment of outlandish messages.
Damon was midstep, and now he fell forward and had to catch himself as muscle he’d previously failed to command suddenly flexed all at once. It was a feeling like the floodgates had opened up all over, his pores gushing as he failed to draw breath due to the cramping. When it finally ended, with his body feeling like he’d just finished a 10 round spar, his body started hyperventilating. The sensation did not last for long, but the loss of any sensation but pain throughout his body was completely alien, like his brain was attempting to catch up with his very grip on reality. So, rather than allow the feeling to spiral out of control, Damon focused inward on his breathing, on quickly bringing his body and churning thoughts back under control. Drop. What. Happened. Stay within this moment. Stay in your breathing, don’t let what’s already past affect you. Recover, then reset.
Recalling his coach’s old affirmations really helped.
We’re safe.
BZZZZZZZZ—”What the hell just happened;Did you all hear that? I think I’m having a stroke;I heard it too, what the actual fuck is going on;Hey, what did she do, was that Siri? My phone’s not working;I think it’s an internet prank? It has to be!; No. No prank. I have never experienced the like, not even on the TV. Not even in Japan.”—BZZZZZZZZ
With sound now having returned, and everyone chattering at the same time, Damon almost had to hunch over as he felt a dizzy spell coming on. But it seemed that not everyone was as badly affected as him. Then there was some new, unfamiliar noise buzzing in the background—it was incredibly distracting. Did she say she was doing a ‘Continental Shuffle’? What the hell is that supposed to mean?
When Damon finally managed to bring his breathing back to normal, rather than keep heading for the elevator, he turned around as if caught in a trance, walking over to go look out the window—hoping to see if he could spot any actual changes going on. Meanwhile his new coworkers kept discussing whether they’d all heard the same strange voice, saying the same strange things.
Tom, Abi and a few others noticed how Damon had moved away on his own and went to follow, looking to see if something in particular had caught his attention.
Damon was watching for signs of distress down the familiar-looking main street where the tramline went by, yet everything looked perfectly alright, including the parking lot where he could see Tyler handling a customer, both looking slightly stunned, but unharmed.
Then Damon spotted a blistering movement from the buildings across the street, accompanied by the loud noise of glass shattering in the distance, barely giving him time to yell out. “Duck down!”
Damon lunged and only just managed to reach Tom in time to force his head down, before one—two seconds later the windows exploded and cut those who’d failed to react to ribbons. Glass shards showered across eyes and faces at supersonic speeds, splattering a shocking amount of blood all over the walls and screens of their workstations.
The building rattled and shook as if an earthquake had struck them at that same moment. Everyone yelled out at once, either in pain, or surprise and panic—
The quickest reactions went running off, either to escape or possibly to find something to help. Damon almost went to check on the wounded to see if they were alright, but the painful screaming made the answer obvious—then suddenly the ones struck seemed to diminish into traumatized shuddering, only a few seconds having passed.
Sarah was among those who had gone running and returned first—evidently having been the first one who remembered the nearby Armory’s first aid kit.
Damon moved to keep the closest wounded lady from writhing while Sarah applied the bandages.
—No more than a minute or two had gone by, yet by the time the blood was being wiped off—all they discovered was how the flesh beneath the congealing wounds was already being knit together somehow, all on its own.
It was their first ever sight of true magic.
They backed away feeling shocked, but Damon could vaguely recall the System having mentioned activating a healing boon of some kind. That’s what that was, right? Wait, even my bruises are gone. Then, it’s real. But then what the hell was that countdown about?
Too many things had happened way too fast. Now, they were moving, the street outside suddenly shuffling by like the building was on rails.
Thankfully Ken was stepping up to take charge, shouting over the noise. “You are all okay. Stay as calm as you can. We may need to move soon, breathe deep for now, and prepare yourselves for anything. We will keep eyes out so you may recover yourselves here for now, until we confirm the building is safe,” He told the group, nodding to those who had been injured and now looked to him for assurance.
With the window glass gone, Damon went up to risk another, longer look outside, and this time he saw a completely shifted landscape. The Continental Shuffle was evidently named for the scope of the thing, but it neglected to describe the level of detail that this System Shuffle went into.
Every street in between the buildings, including the main with the tramline, was all gone. Torn completely apart, and just gone. Shuffled off, supposedly.
But that was far from it. Their entire building was moving too, somehow smoothly. It must have all been stripped from the surrounding landscape in a huge chunk, not even leaving behind the grounds which their foundation was settled in, or it was easy to assume as much from how the other buildings atop their own floating islands were looking. They were now stuck on an isolated, moving piece of land, cut off from any rescue or useful infrastructure besides their own parking lot.
Even so, it appeared they ought to reckon themselves on the fortunate side of things.
The huge, modern glass building which they had been situated across the street from was not so lucky. Evidently, the System had failed to recognise its glass structure as a proper building? As a result it tore the whole thing apart in front of their eyes—into a hundred million pieces, rather than moving the entire glass complex wholesale—the resulting mess swiftly turning gruesome, forcing them all to look away. The people had been screaming, everyone trapped inside. Damon risked another look, only to see the fountaining corpses that resulted after the fact, watching in horror as it all flowed away, moving off into the distance as part of a great, messy flood of haphazard materials.
All set to be used up for parts.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
They watched the strange new landscape of floating islands for who knows how long, the mood having slowly turned from primarily panicked and confused to everyone being frightened, wary and somber once it became clear they were in potentially great, but not immediate danger. Every island was heading off in a different direction, spreading into the landscape surrounding the city, each one aimed at an unknown destination.
Communications were down, leaving them all cut off and stranded in every way.
When nothing else happened for the next hour, they cleaned up the blood, then made a collective decision to move the whole team from the labs upstairs to get a better view from the rooftop, which is where they met up with the twenty or so odd people from the rest of the building—mostly staff from the downstairs garage and cafeteria, soon doubling their numbers.
Tyler came up to Damon, who wordlessly passed him a vaporizer from his sling bag to help them both deal with the stress for a few minutes, eyes soon bloodshot but helping to relieve some of the building tension.
In spite of the smoothness of their bizarre ride there was no real relaxing though, not with the entire horizon looking like it was shaking in the distance. Those must be more islands moving around, coming in from all over. But where the hell are we being taken?
Over the course of the extended day they saw numerous other buildings pass them by, some completely unrecognizable as being from their own city. Another few hours later, they started seeing landmasses with buildings that were certainly from other states entirely, and a number of them sported further signs of tragedy, but something was different from the victims who had been sliced up by their glass building. Ugh. Have those bodies been chewed on?
It was too far off to tell anything about the remains for certain, so Damon was reluctant to be the one to speak the morbid thought out loud, not wishing to cause false alarm in case he was wrong. That particular island had moved off in a new direction before getting close enough to tell anything at all for certain, including if the floating island harbored any dangerous predators.
We’ll have to keep an eye out, but come on. Of course people are not already being eaten. That can’t be it. There’s nothing in nature that would attack and eat 40 people when they’re protected inside a building. That’s a ridiculous notion, animals don't take risks like that. We really should be safe, for now. Yet Damon’s subconscious remained stubbornly adamant, clinging to the notion it was a possibility when he failed to think of anything more likely to cause such injuries in this strange, unstable new world.
He almost went to share his worries with Tyler, but again something held him back. I’ll just deal with it, if it’s really that. At least we’ve got weapons.
If he was wrong, and predators were about, then it seemed they were fortunate in a way, with their building being located in the center of their now mobile landmass, and in a structure which the System evidently considered sound enough to be worth keeping intact as is. Some buildings they passed had been inexplicably split in two, leaving the people inside with a wall short. Oh. Or maybe they were previously terraced?
After so many hours of the same droning sound, they started getting used to the constant motion of their shuffling along, and so they figured they ought to try and see if making food was possible. Well, if we gotta hunt later when we stop then we definitely have ways of making a fire… Using the gas torch in Abi’s office, worst case. Man, I hope something else still works, or it's gonna taste like crap. We should have ordered seconds at Mama Gio’s. Gah.
Sarah came up to check on him, interrupting the hopeless thoughts. “Hey, Damon was it? Are you alright?” He gave her a nod, and she assured him she was fine too when he forgot to ask. “Wanna come with, and help me bring up the cafeteria microwave?”
That was better than doing nothing, like he had been so far. But when they got down there it was completely dark, which was predictable now that he thought about it. But the lights being out had not been as noticeable upstairs where the sun was still shining in through the broken windows. We must have moved through several time zones, shouldn't it be the middle of the night?
“Shit, the electricity is really out all over, I don’t think the microwave will work even if we hook it up with a battery. Not unless we modify it… heavily.”
They kept looking for a while, hoping a backup generator they didn’t know about had kicked into gear to keep some hidden section of the building running, but it was no use. “Nothing. Damn, it even took the juice out of the car batteries too.”
Every single one they found was as dead as a doornail.
Oh yeah. She mentioned targeting our electronics, but chemicals too, didn’t she? Damon had been hoping the target of the sabotage was their phone service, since the battery was still working the last time he checked.
Sigh. True enough, his phone was now fully turned into a brick. He tried the vape again too, now nothing. Double crap.
They started walking back to the roof, determined to return later to find a better solution, once they'd had something to eat.
In the meantime Damon tried to raise the mood. “I’m sure the System left us the gas tanks, and I'm pretty sure I saw a bag of marshmallows back in the storage room. If only for tonight; we're eating well! Let's just call it here, for now."
Sarah nodded reluctantly, all out of ideas.
The propane gas being left turned out to be true enough and the others were bound to have had better luck finding ingredients, so they brought the cylinders upstairs one by one, then went and shared the news as everyone returned from scavenging and got settled back in on the rooftop. Tom was keeping everyone busy making a circle to cook the expiring perishables in, then they chowed down while quietly discussing the events of the day.
Turns out there was not much left to say. They had all been overloaded with information that left them with more questions than answers. Everything they’d known to be true about their world now all of a sudden in limbo.
Damon began pacing. “What was it again, what did she say she wanted us to do? Like, self-reflect? How is that supposed to help in a situation such as this one, exactly?”
Nobody had an easy answer for Damon. “Didn’t she say we were meant to get access to an aspirant Class or something to help?" He looked Tyler in the eyes, despairing. "This supposedly ‘Magical Class System’ or whatever, has provided us with zero useful information so far…”
For once today, Damon got lucky.
Upon saying the magic words, Aspirant Class—a System voice message was prompted, along with several accompanying scrolls covered in alien scribbles, that all hovered in front of his eyes. Although it seemed that only Damon could hear her sudden voice and see the hovering digital scrolls, because the others failed to react and tried responding, while Damon was so distracted that he failed to hear- or even note who was speaking.
“I believe she wishes to see how we deal with the crisis. She said we are candidates for a Lordship of some kind, yes?” There were all around nods, confirming Ken’s words.
“Maybe we’re meant to—” Before Tom could finish speculating, Damon realized his delay and had to interrupt them to share his new discovery.
“Holy shit, everyone say the words Aspirant Class out loud. I found something!”
What the System showed them was like something straight out of an RPG. Several digital but still ancient-looking scrolls were hovering in their vision, and what they offered was world-changing. Although the System voice had returned to read the text out loud, she was now sounding even more robotic, making it clear the message was pre-recorded.
Aspirant Class List:
Auxiliary (Light Weapons) – Aspirant Class – Lightly built warrior focused on endurance and using the terrain to your advantage. Learn finesse and evade well—a misjudged counterattack may end the Path dead in its tracks. Attributes focused on the shortsword, punch dagger, light spears, buckler, and a variety of throwing weapons. Stat growth awarded per level: +4 Strength, 1+ Perception, +3 Mana +0 Grace - Points for free distribution: +0.
Auxiliary (Heavy) – Aspirant Class – Heavy set warrior focused on strength and winning in direct confrontations. Master your weapon and decapitate the enemy, swiftly. Slowing down leads to naught but a Path of failure. Attributes focused on the battleaxe, falchion, warhammer, and a variety of improvised weaponry. Stat growth awarded per level: +6 Strength, +1 Perception, +1 Mana, +0 Grace - Points for free distribution: +0.
Venator (Light Weapons) – Aspirant Class – Long-range hunter focused on agility and turning the enemy’s weakness to your advantage. Position wisely. Get caught and you may be eaten next, ending as nourishment for the Path of another. Attributes focused on the shortbow, dagger, hatchet and a variety of diverse projectile weapons. Stat growth per level: +4 Strength, +2 Perception, +2 Mana, +0 Grace - Points for free distribution: +0.
Venator (Trapper) – Aspirant Class – Ambush hunter focused on perception and modifying the local terrain to your advantage. Learn stealth, and predicting the actions of your enemy. Allow them to surprise you, and pay the price of a Path cut short. Attributes focused on the use of hatchets, daggers, the sling and the blowdart, as well as a variety of traps. Stat growth awarded per level: +2 Strength, +4 Perception, +2 Mana, +0 Grace - Points for free distribution: +0.
Augur (Wand) – Aspirant Class – Enigmatic visionary capable of predicting their area of expertise in an ever-changing world. Bend the local forces to your will, smite your enemies and march forward across their smoking carcasses. Attributes focused on developing a latent mystical potential. Misjudging your talents will ensure your faltering before ever taking the first step on your true Path. Stat growth awarded per level: +0 Strength, +1 Perception, +1 Mana, +0 Grace - Points for free distribution: +6.
What’s all this, what are those stats even supposed to mean… like, I just pick strength and immediately get bigger and stronger, as obvious as it looks?
Clearly they were being offered a new empowerment of some kind, yet it felt sort of dubious to assume that it came with no strings attached. Oh, and I guess Grace means luck. Right. But didn’t she mention that our predicted survival rate was… was it abysmal? Dismal? Guess this is to make up for it, to keep us alive somehow. There’s gotta be some sort of goal in mind for us then?
That settled it. Damon decided to take the plunge and pick first to see if that provided them with any more information, since he already knew what choice he needed to make anyway. Learning magic would have been sweet, but that was clearly meant for someone capable of figuring out a lot more about whatever the hell was going on.
Not knowing whether the choice was permanent, or if it was perhaps leading him down a doomed path, Damon touched the prompt and waited for a great change to come over him.
[Confirm choice: Aspirant Class - Auxiliary - (Light Weapons).]
*yes*
A quick white light flashed, then followed—a great feeling of nothing. Damon looked around, and behind him on the lab floor was an iron short sword and a flimsy-looking buckler.
Nothing else happened. Damon looked around. “Yeah. Great, that’s gonna really help,” He finally voiced.
Damon tried prompting another window to open, hoping against his better judgment for something to show up and at least reveal his current stats. “Class page! Attributes sheet! Status!”
The roof full of his new coworkers all looked at him weird.
Sigh.
Why can’t one thing, one single thing today, just the once… just be simple?