<31 August 2024, San Francisco Safe Zone, C-> [Allan Brill] "Fucking monsters," Allan muttered, thrusting his spear forward into the never-ending tide of monsters that pulled themselves out of the ocean. "Had to go and ruin my damn life."

Allan had moved to California a year ago, hoping to start his journey to stardom. He had no plan as to how he would achieve that, but he knew he was special, and others would see that. First, he had tried bodybuilding, but it turns out people don't appreciate chemically enhanced muscles no matter how mainstream taking Tren was in vanity gyms. Then he had tried his hands at singing and comedy; both times, he had been laughed off the stage.

He had finally decided that he would be an actor, and then everyone could see how special he was. He had been sitting in a waiting room, planning on attempting an audition for a minor supporting role, when the damn System had arrived.

Allan muttered mockingly to himself. "User, please accept the System when prompted. Blah Blah Blah. Fuck this."

"Mr. Brill," Veronica Maladova said, "keep up the good work; you have seven more hours on your shift, and then you're off for a week."

"Yeah, yeah," Allan said, looking at the woman who was the bane of existence to anyone working wall section seven one three. He muttered under his breath, "Fucking hate this place. And I fucking hate you, you bitch."

"What was that, Mr. Brill?" Veronica asked a tone that said she knew exactly what he had said.

Allan sighed. "I said that I fucking hate this place, and I hate you."

"Very well, Jake, please relieve Mr. Brill of his position. Kara, take Mr. Brill to the disciplinary board." Veronica said, and the two goons who followed her at a distance jumped to comply.

Allan didn't fight. Fighting got you killed. He didn't understand it; he thought that there suddenly being more space would let everyone chill out, but no. It meant that in the first three days, Corporations had attempted to scramble for land, using the guns that they had and, in some cases, private military forces to kill any who got in their way.

Just because San Francisco had gone from roughly forty-seven square miles to over four hundred and fifty square miles and been declared a safe zone didn't mean it was safe. Allan remembered that in the first three days, the corporations had killed thousands. Best guesses were that with an initial starting population of nearly eight million in the greater San Francisco area, there were only sixty thousand left.

The corporations had been a significant portion of that, but after the fourth day, when the System had taken away all the guns and materials. The waves had started. Once a day, a flood of creatures from the deep flooded up on shore. The response had been for a gang to step in, kill the heads of the corporations, and establish a shore wall that stretched several hundred miles and broke it into a thousand segments. They forced anyone who wanted to stay in the safe zone to participate in their 'grand society.'

Basically, free labor and sometimes worse things. So once a week, Allan had reported to the nearest wall segment and stood there stabbing strange creatures. He knew that many didn't ever come back from the Disciplinary Board. Anyone who spoke out against the wall, the gang, or the way that things were being run went to the Disciplinary Board.

"All I had to do was keep my mouth shut, but I couldn't even do that." Allan thought as he was guided to a cart pulled by a set of large creatures that looked like horses and crocodiles had made a baby.

He was shackled into the back of the cart, and Kara hit the back of the cart. "Take 'im to the D.B."

The driver, an older man who looked bored, nodded and whipped the reins, the cart taking off at a speed that Allan equated to a car. Allan took in a long breath and let out a sigh before muttering to himself, "Well, guess I get to see what's next."

<31 August 2024, Sage's Retreat, ????> [Greg Ard] The incessant pinging and pulses of energy finally broke Greg from his use of the Hibernation-Stasis skill. He took a deep breath or tried to and suddenly remembered where he was; he used another skill, Full Lung, to get a breath before quickly reviewing his notifications. He walked forward and looked out of the cave mouth at the blue orb of Earth so very far below him.

When this had all started, Greg had been less than a hundred yards from the top of Mount Everest. A lifetime of preparation and more money than he cared to admit had led Greg to make a choice that he regretted.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Greg quirked his head. "No, I don't regret it, but I sure do wish I had some more company or a better way to get out of this predicament."

His lungs started to burn, and he let out a long sigh, then used Full Lung. He pulled up his status.

Greg Ard, Eternal Witness - 017 Stat Full Base Level: 17 STR 25 22 Class: Eternal Witness DEX 19 17 Race: Human CON 97 90 Age: 38 INT 23 23 Revive: 73% CHA 18 18 Titles Earned: 17 META 61 58 Personal Mana Rank: S+

"Another level, and I am close to seventy-five percent." He thought to himself.

He had stayed because he had thought that the notifications that he was seeing had been a delusion due to lack of oxygen or something similar. But now that he was out here, he was making do. His class gave him many tools useful for his current predicament, and when he was asked what he wanted as he started to panic, he simply said, "To live. To Survive."

Then he passed out and only started awake when he felt the whole mountain rumble aggressively. And then it started growing taller and taller. He tried to rush down, but a blue barrier stopped him. Somehow, he had ended up in this cave, unable to breathe, as he assumed that the mountain had grown tall enough to not have an atmosphere. His current plan, despite what he thought was best, was to wait for his first-ever revival to accumulate, and then he was going to launch himself forward with as much force as he could and then fall, hoping that he could get to somewhere he could at least breathe a little bit. But he was hesitant.

He let out his air and used Full Lung again. He looked at the ground in front of where he was sitting on the ground, which was a strange purple disc. He picked it up and stuck it in a pocket. "I can worry about that later. For now, I only need another month, probably. Well, back to it, I guess."

He resettled himself, let out the air, and used Full Lung, immediately followed by Hibernation-Stasis, and then Greg entered the Endless Dreaming once more.

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