The Greeter’s in pieces at my feet and I’m barely panting.

Around me there’s still fighting going on, but I bask in my victory, the pleasure of getting to remove something that’s in my way in a definitive manner.

And I hate myself for the feeling.

This is what my father taught me; violence. Physical, mental, emotional; he used all of them to get what he wanted.

I promised my mother I wouldn’t turn out like him.

Hey, it’s a brand new, violent world out there. Enjoy it.

Shut up.

I turn and look at the ending fight. The gnomes are nothing for the others. It’s just a question of mowing them down. Lazy swings send any that get close to me flying.

“Remind me not to get on your bad side,” Griff says when it’s over.

I want to tell him this isn’t me, but my father’s already laughing at the idea. I know I have anger issues, but those don’t have to define me.

Fuck.

We collect the loot, the usual vitamins, cans marked as food which Elizabeth assures me is like all the others they found. I’d expected actual meals out of this place. It has—had—a deli counter, for God’s sake.

Among the junk is [determine good dungeon boss level loot, add exposition about it] and once everyone had everything, I head reach for the door.

I don’t think so

Do you really think I’m going to let you get away with trashing my place like you did? The lot of you were supposed to die! I even gave you the perfect side effect to make sure that happened.

You cheated!

“Chuck?” Elizabeth asked.

“Give me a minute.”

So they can’t see this?

Hey, you’re the one trying to run off, not them. And I am not done with you. You’re staying in here until I can remake the Greeter and have it take you—

Dungeon Identified as Walmart #1344 is behaving outside system accepted parameters. Sanctions are being enacted.

Hey, I’m in charge here. Get out and—

Initial sanction: loss of communication privilege with non-dungeon created entities

There’s more than one system? Fuck, that’s going to get confusing. The least they could do was make those damned pop-up different colors or something, so I can tell them apart.

Second sanction: conversion of remaining resourced to system approves currency, subset, local currency, American dollars. Awarded to adventurer group.

A box the size of a deck of card appears before me and I grab it without thinking as it starts falling.

Item: Currency

Value: 10,000$

Holy—

Final sanction: transfer of responsibilities

Do you wish to assume responsibilities over Dungeon identified as Walmart#1344

Yes/No?

What the fuck for that mean?

System Query: Special, Dungeon Responsibility

To assume responsibility over a dungeon grants you control over it’s autonomy, allowing you to dictate its type, limit how many resources it can invest per levels and establishing the reward distribution tables. You can also withdraw a portion of the dungeon’s resources for your own use based on your level of investment.

Responsibility cannot be transferred. Only gained on default of previous holder due to allowing the investment to elapse or death.

System Query: Special, Dungeon Responsibility, Investment

The investment represents the time and energy you spend managing the dungeon. The more present you are, the higher your investment is. Investment requires your interaction with the dungeon in person, altered through potential boosts purchased through the system store[error, system store not currently available try again la—Addendum Dungeon related store established locally and accessible]

Minimum investment required to maintain responsibility, converted to local time calculation, simplified to level of local inhabitants: 1 hour per month.

Do you wish to be responsible for dungeon identified as Walmart #1344?

Yes/No?

Okay, having access to this thing’s resources could be nice. But there’s no way I am sticking close enough to be here every month. How do I buy the boost that lets me manage it at a distance?

System Store: Dungeon

Remote managing Boost:1,000,000 resources.

Available resources: 10,000

Right, that isn’t going to happen. And since I can’t transfer it, there’s not even a point in mentioning this to the others. I will no. And try to open the door.

Do you wish to exit the dungeon?

Warning, the dungeon has not been cleared in its entirety, calculating.

Area of the dungeon explored: 56%

Dungeon created monsters destroyed: 83%

Secrets quest: Rescue the hostage, cleared.

Boss monster, cleared.

Situational bonus for dungeon behavior: already awarded.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Result: experience gained tripled for all surviving group members. Extra bonus for each member, based on exiting now: 3,500 USD, +2 attribute points, +1 ability point, +3 skill/spell points (70% of potential bonus)

Yes/No?

You don’t need to share the cash anymore, my father’s voice whispers. You are going to need all of it.

I want to argue with him—with that part of me—but he’s right. The fact the system is giving out money means it’s still a thing, and I can imagine how quickly everything’s going to be based on this again. Unless I to all my traveling through the wilderness, how many people and towns of sorts am I going to come across? How many of them are going to demand some form of payment for me to cross whatever gives them the power to demand money for it?

It’s my paranoia talking, I tell myself. But how many bridges were toll bridges because they were the only way to get over the St-Laurence? How much ferries charged anyone who didn’t want to have to drive around to whatever other way existed to cross a body of water? How about all those toll roads that have been popping up over the last decades?

Sure, some of my worried is paranoid, but fuck, most of it is just based on experience.

I am going to need every dollar I can find. I’m pretty sure of that.

That resolved, well mitigated, I think yes. I am done with this place.

“Mom! I just gained three levels!” Terry exclaims as I pull the door open and step outside.

I breathe in the fresh air. The sky is streaked with red from the setting sun. We were in there a lot longer than I thought. It’s going to be nice to just sit down somewhere and—

“What was that about?” John asked in a low voice. “You just stood there, holding the door.”

I close my eyes and try to ignore the green bar ticking down. “The dungeon didn’t want to let us out, and the system had to intervene. Then it was calculating our rewards.”

“We could have gotten more.”

I look at him. “Did you really want to fight more of the things in there?”

“For that extra thirty percent? Yeah, I think it would have been worthwhile.”

“Then you’re welcome to do the next dungeon we come across.”

“Hey, I just meant that—” he watches me for a second. “Right, the words, not the tone. You’re okay with me doing that if we find another dungeon.”

I can’t hide my surprise. I can count on one hand the numbers of time someone actually understood my explanation. Fuck, even—Nope, not going there. I was doing so good, not thinking about that time.

“Chuck,” Hanz says, “I think we should distribute the food we got to everyone waiting.”

Giving the stuff away for free? Didn’t you say you’d need more cash?

Being generous is an investment that always pays off, my mother’s voice counters

My own thought is ‘why the fuck are you asking me permission for.’ And more of the green bar disappears.

I nod and go find a spot away from everyone to sit for a while.

* * * * *

The sun’s mostly set. Only the west, over the mountains, had purple left in it. I’m far enough from the fires that have been lit through the parking lot I can see the stars. I’ve driven enough in the middle of nowhere that it isn’t the rare occurrence it used to be, back in my youth, but there is still something profoundly comforting about the vastness of space. About how insignificant I am in the grand scheme of things.

Looking up at the stars silences my father’s voice and lets me think. Before, I’d used these opportunities to think about my future, unmarred by my never-ending paranoia. For a little while, I could imagine going home, staying there, maybe give being with someone another try. They never lasted, but it was nice to believe I could be normal for a few minutes.

Now, all I can do is think back on what I went through in the dungeon. How many times I got my ass handed to me, or nearly did, and I only survived because Terry and John were they to take over.

Fuck, Terry’s a kid and he’s acting like this is normal already. I used to pride myself on being adaptable. That’s one trait anyone living on the road needs. But now? I have no idea what I’m doing. It feels uncomfortably like when I grew up, with my father constantly changing my reality around me.

Only now there’s been only one change, and it’s sticking around. So what’s my excuse? Am I too old to learn a new trick?

My health is only up to half. Griff was out of mana by the time he’d healed everyone else a little, and with this armor on, I’m tough enough to deal with being injured. If that mask was a hat, I’d keep that on all the time.

I’m procrastinating.

I know what I have to do, but it means dealing with someone else, and as with any time I’ve had to do that, I’m fighting it. It doesn’t matter how much I like the person. People mean trouble.

Fuck, I barely saw my mother once a year on her birthday, and I loved the woman.

I push up and start walking toward the fires. He’s going to be at one of them.

People greet me as I pass, thank me for the food they ate; like I had anything to do with that. The religious gang is in its own corner, but it’s smaller. Down to twenty-five, at a glance.

I find him alone, and that surprises me. “Do you mind if I sit?”

Terry looks up at me, surprised, then smiles. “No, go ahead.”

“Where’s your mother?”

“She’s around. She’s probably with one of the guys who was hitting on her while we distributed the food.”

“She left you to have sex?”

He grins at me. “What, you disapprove of her not spending all her time looking out for me?”

I close my mouth. She’s entitled to her own life like everyone else, and Terry’s definitely not being ignored by her. “Your father?”

He shrugs. “He was never in the picture. My mom called him the biggest mistake of her life, with the only redeeming quality being that she got me out of the deal.”

I’m procrastinating again. “Must have been rough.”

“Her folk helped her with me at the start, but my mom’s not the kind who let others do the work for her. We moved to Bristol when I was three and it’s been the two of us ever since. We’re going to—” he stares into the fire for a few seconds. “We were going to Harrisburg in Pennsylvania to visit them. I hope they’re okay.”

“I’m sure they will be.”

The look he gives me tells me he knows it for the platitude it is, but then he smiles. “How can I help you? As flattering as it would be, I don’t think you’re here just to enjoy my company.”

I chuckled. “That easy to read?”

“You’ve made it pretty clear how much you don’t like all of this. How much willpower is being here costing you?”

I glance at the bar that’s held steady since the last group to try to get my attention. “More than I expected. The darkness makes it easier to imagine there’s no one there unless they get my attention.”

“So being around me…”

I shake my head. “That’s not how it works. I can get comfortable around a few people and getting to know them helps. I’m just not… a trusting person at heart. So it’s harder for me.”

“But you know about it, can’t you just not act on it?”

I glance at the bar as some green ticks off.

“I’m doing it, aren’t I?”

I shrug. “Knowing I have a problem, even having the system tell me about it and offer ways to mitigate them doesn’t mean it’s easy. Half the time I realize what’s happening when I’m already down to half my willpower, the other half, I just don’t care and I keep doing it. It not just about deciding to do something and sticking with it.”

“It is for me.”

“Lucky you,” I reply sourly.

“I’m going to ignore the tone and just take the words.”

I stare at him. That’s twice in a few hours. Two people who actually listened to what I said.

Yeah, the world must have ended.

“So, what can I help with?”

“How do you do it? Be so comfortable with all this? You were on it from the moment the identity sheet appeared. You have an idea of how all of this works. You seem to be getting a handle on it faster than any of us.”

“Part of it is growing up on MMOs. Those are—”

“Video games, I know. I’m not that old.”

He nods and tries to hide the smile. “This is what the worlds is now, basically. I don’t know what ‘game’ I’m playing, but I still know some of the basic rules that are going to let me excel at it.”

“And what are they?”

“Have you looked at your sheet?”

“The other night.”

“How about when we left the dungeon? How much Xp did you get? What level are you? How did you distribute the points?”

My shrug covers up my anger as him demanding so much of me and I miss what he said as I push it down. I came to him for advice.

Yeah, knowing that isn’t helping the drop in willpower.

I look at him once I realize he’s been quiet.

“You went all still.”

Don’t!

“It doesn’t take much to trigger me. And anger tends to be my first reaction. It takes a lot of willpower to keep that controlled.” Fuck off, dad.

“Sorry.”

I shrug. “It’s not something you could know, and even knowing, there’s no way you’ll be able to prevent it from happening. At least now I can see how close I am to snapping and I can leave. I still have ample. What did I miss?”

Terry studies me and I force myself to remember he’s just a kid. He isn’t making plans to take advantage of me.

“The first thing you need to do, well, the main thing you need to do, is try to game the system.”

Okay, maybe he’s not as innocent as he leads on.

“I don’t mean cheating, although in some games it will look like that since most people don’t bother working out the limits of what’s possible within the rules. And here, I don’t know what those rules are yet. Also, the system’s not this computer that’s just going through code. It can think and adapt, so any loopholes it doesn’t want will vanish. But that still leaves you with your sheet and figuring out what you want and then making that happen.”

“So go around killing monsters and exploring dungeons for experience?”

“That’s one thing, but you can also train your skills and your spells, if you have those.”

I shake my head. “I thought I had to put points in my skills for them to improve.”

“Didn’t you get a pop-up when one of your skills went up?”

I try to think back. “I set it so the pop-up didn’t happen after one of them nearly got me burned to death in the plane.”

Terry nods. “They can be pretty intrusive. In most games you can adjust the transparency, but I haven’t found out how here. But skills go up as you use them. You probably gained a few levels with your staff through the dungeon.”

“Something seemed to click in the middle of one of the fights,” I say, remembering the moment of clarity and how better I understood how the zombies moved afterward.

“Aren’t you checking what level it’s at?”

“I’d rather we keep talking. I can do that later.”

“Sure. But that’s the core of it. You go through your sheet, figure out what you want to be good at, practice it if it’s a skill, put points in the attributes that match the skills and effect you want. You’re strong and tough. So strength, endurance and health.” He considered something. “Probably some dexterity to help with accuracy. Intelligence and Aether are only really useful to magic types like me. And charisma… well, it’s a dump stat in any system that’s ever used it. I don’t expect it’ll be different here unless someone wants to be a politician or something.”

I look toward the religious group. Or something.

“You have any pointed for how to spread the points?”

“Without more information on how the system works, I’d say twice as much in your important stats as the rest, but don’t ignore anything. Not even Charisma. If it’s there, it as a use and it isn’t because we don’t understand what it is, that it isn’t going to be important.”

“Right. Me, the charismatic recluse.”

“You’re already a leader, so your charisma had to be decent.”

“Terry, you have seen the result of some of my decisions, right? I’m not a leader. I’m just some guy going in one direction who’s managed to pick up a bunch of strays.” I realize how that can sound to him. “Sorry, I don’t me you and your mom, or even John and—”

“Chill, I know. I’m a magic type. Been putting points in my intelligence. It makes me better at pickup nuances too.”

“Maybe I should consider raising that, then. I’ve never been great with nuances. So if I want to get better with my barbell, all I have to do is swing it around?”

“I figure that would do something, but actually fighting would probably be better. And you get the experience from killing the monsters. What level are you, anyway?”

I pull the sheet up only long enough to see that. “Six.”

He whistles. “I guess with all the times you took on the big monsters, that makes sense.”

“What level are you?”

“Four.”

“That seems low. You did a lot of the fighting.”

He chuckles. “You have no idea how the experience system works, do you?”

“No.”

“Me neither. But in most games, it starts real fast, then slows the higher you are. If, after all this, you’re only level six, and this is the start. I’m thinking that as it gets harder to level, the stuff we’ll get out of it is going to be a lot more powerful.”

“You’re making it sound like this might turn into some super-powered stuff.”

“You’ve clearly never played and MMOs. The high level players are basically gods. The only thing that can give them a challenge are other high-level players or the dungeons. If they could do whatever, they wanted in those games…”

“And you’re saying our world might turn into one of those?”

“Unless the system has something in place to nerf high power…well, I can’t call us players, people, I don’t know it can be stopped. And I’ve been looking through the queries. I can’t find anything showing it has.”

“Fuck.”

Someone like me with the power to rival gods of legends. That’s a scary thought. Then I have another, scarier one.

My father, with that kind of power.