A Play For Time Ch. 3 (System Apocalypse) (Patreon)

A/N: Well now, would you look at that. Another chapter. And this time with an actual story title. I'm not completely in love with this one, so if you think of something better feel free to throw it my way and I'll consider it.

EDIT: Switched to "A Play For Time" at a patron's suggestion. Like this one a lot, probably stick with it I think.

Also thank you for all your guys' feedback last chapter. Really appreciate the ideas. Going a bit of a different direction from a lot of the suggestions, but I'm still taking your proposals into account for sure. Hope you guys enjoy!

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The world had gone crazy in the past week and all Alice could do was knuckle down and try to survive. The arrival of the System had turned everything on its head. Society hadn’t collapsed… at least not in the States, but it was teetering on the edge. All of a sudden, the things that had mattered before Initialization didn’t matter after it.

She’d been going to college and working part-time as a coffee barista… but not anymore. What was the point? Sure, some people were still trying to go about their old lives while sitting at Level One, like somehow that was going to work out for them. But Alice knew better. She knew she had to get out there and get to work or she’d only get left behind.

Games… their new world was based on video games of all things. The System had basically turned reality into one massive MMORPG and wouldn’t you know it, that was the only type of game Alice was familiar with. She’d played a ton of MMOs back when she was a teenager with a lot more free time. Frankly, she’d probably put too much time into such things back then. Or so she’d thought.

Now that their whole world was one big game, people like Alice had a leg up on the competition. She was already Level Eleven, which was a huge deal when you got your Class Evolution at Level Ten.

Of course… she had some regrets regarding her class choice. When she’d first gotten over her shock back at the start of Initialization, Alice had gone with what she felt she knew the best from her MMO days. Every MMO she’d ever played, she’d only mained one class… the stealth class. And so of course when she saw Rogue was one of the basic four classes she had available to her, she’d picked it without a second thought.

In hindsight, she wished she’d put a bit more time into the decision. Being a Rogue in a video game was one thing. It was super cool to be able to use an MMO’s Stealth Mechanics to always get to land the first blow in any encounter. Rogues, at least the ones with two braincells to rub together, got to decide when they fought and when they didn’t.

Sounded good on the face of it… but in practice, in a real world situation, it was terrifying. What if her stealth failed her? What if she got caught out of position? And worse than that, she was a melee class. She didn’t even get a shield and sword like Warriors. No, she got a pair of daggers and that was it. If her first blow didn’t land properly, then she was basically opening herself up to dying every single fight.

Being a Priest or Mage would have been better. Healers were ALWAYS in high demand after all, and Mages were super mobile ranged fighters that never had to get up close and personal to land a killing blow.

Alas, Alice didn’t exactly have time for regrets. She’d had levels to grind. The world had changed and she refused to be left behind. Of course, her class evolution, while giving her access to stronger stealth and new abilities, came with an entirely new problem.

Shadow Thief. That was the name of her class evolution. Could have been worse, of course. Could have been Blood Assassin or something. Still, while playing a Shadow Thief in a video game would have been cool as hell, having a class literally named after a criminal activity wasn’t exactly the best. Alice hadn’t ever stolen anything from anyone, but her class… well, it didn’t inspire confidence did it?

That was all fine though. So what if she wasn’t some hotshot healer with a strong party to support from the relative safety of the backlines? So what if she wasn’t some super powerful mage who could tear through enemies in the blink of an eye? She wasn’t going to let that stop her.

It was just like the President had said in his address to the nation a few days back. They needed to stand tall in the face of this adversity. They needed to face these challenges head-on and not give up, no matter what. The President’s own son was out there grinding levels and working hard for America. So how could the rest of them do any less?

Alice was willfully ignoring the parts of the President’s speech that talked about camaraderie and teamwork, about coming together in these trying times and relying on one another. All of that… didn’t really apply to her, she felt. It didn’t really apply to anyone who’d chosen the Rogue class. She wasn’t about to become a criminal by choice or anything, but it seemed pretty obvious to her that the System was designed around two types of play. Group and Solo. And the Rogue class as well as its evolutions seemed to be specifically geared towards Solo Play.

Of course, that meant it was unlikely a Rogue would be part of the Triumvirate when all was said and done. Even now, there wasn’t any Rogues in the top one hundred over on the Leader Board. At Level Eleven, Alice was currently in the low twenty-thousands. That was pretty damn good when you considered it was counting the entire population of Earth, even if one did account for the mass deaths so far.

The ones at the top were in their low twenties already. Except for the one in first place. That was weird actually, because the name and Level were both in question marks and the class was Chronomancer of all things.

Still, setting aside that outlier, Alice wasn’t too far off from the front of the pack. However, it was clear they were pulling ahead, and even clearer that it was because they were grouping up and had people to rely on to get shit done.

She only had herself. And that meant taking every edge she could get. That’s why she was here in The Graveyard today, hunting for Rare Undead.

The Graveyard was interesting. She’d played a few MMOs that had systems like it. The place was effectively an ‘Open World Dungeon’ sort of. Basically, every graveyard in the entirety of the United States (and maybe Canada and parts of Mexico apparently) had become an entrance to ‘The Graveyard’.

Graveyards were no longer quiet resting places for the dead anymore. They were now monster spawners, filled to the brim with zombies and skeletons and other shit that would kill you in an instant if you didn’t put it down first.

The deeper you got into The Graveyard, the stronger the undead got. Near the entrances, there were thousands upon thousands of people constantly killing low level shambling corpses and the like already. But deeper in, the living got a lot sparser, and the dead got more numerous.

More importantly, an Open World Dungeon like The Graveyard didn’t have bosses you were supposed to kill in a linear fashion like most of the dungeons or raids Alice remembered from her teenage years. It didn’t have a specific optimal route either, though she’d certainly kept an eye out for such things.

Instead, from what she’d been able to gleam, Rare Undead could spawn from time to time. Creatures that were stronger than their normal counterparts but also gave way more experience and even rare drops when killed.

Back near the entrance to The Graveyard, Rares were one in a million. And given how much competition for kills there was back there, you had a better chance of winning the lottery, really. But the further in you got, the less competition you had and the greater the chance of one spawning there seemed to be.

Just yesterday, Alice had killed a Rare Undead. A slobbering ghoul of a thing with massive, sickly claws. She’d managed to lure it into a trap that had flipped it upside down into a hole, and then basically stabbed it into the crotch while it was buried to the waist until it had ‘died’.

From that, Alice had gotten her eleventh level and a rare dagger, an item called a ‘Ghoul’s Claw’ that was pretty much a dagger handle with one of those sickly claws stapled on top. The thing was awesome though stats wise, and now she was desperate to find more Rares like that.

Only… she’d been going deeper into The Graveyard for a while now. Longer than she would have preferred. Further than she would have preferred as well. She should probably turn back, it was just that… well, for the past twenty minutes, she hadn’t seen a single undead mob as far as the eye could see.

And that was weird. It wasn’t like The Graveyard’s ambiance had changed or anything. The place was still spooky, perpetually overcast, and filled with all the right sort of ‘Fantasy Graveyard’ elements to let her know she wasn’t anywhere safe. But the undead that were supposed to populate the area were nowhere to be found.

It didn’t make any sense, and Alice loved herself a good mystery. Her curiosity, more than anything, was going to likely be the death of her one day. Even knowing that though, she couldn’t help herself. She’d kept going, despite recognizing that she was far deeper into The Graveyard than she should be.

Just when she’s reaching the point where she’s about to give this up as a waste of time and turn around to start heading back however, Alice… hears something in the distance. It sounds like someone casting spells. That more than anything should be enough for her to turn back or at least skirt around the area. No group that’s this far out in The Graveyard is going to appreciate someone with the class ‘Shadow Thief’ walking up on them no matter how nice she tries to be.

… Except she only really hears what sounds like one person. Not a group. And that… well, that deserves to be investigated, right?

Swallowing thickly, Alice creeps every closer, never once turning off Stealth. She slinks along the sodden ground of The Graveyard, stepping gracefully between holes in the ground that mark empty graves as she goes. Until finally, she creeps up from behind a dead tree and peeks around it to see something… utterly insane.

It’s a Mage. Just one single, solitary Mage. And… he’s being chased by a veritable horde of undead. A hundred? Maybe two hundred? There are too many for Alice to count, that’s for sure. They’re moving towards the Mage as one big, massive horde, and look like they’re about to overtake him when… he suddenly disappears in a flash and appears on the far side of them.

He hasn’t escaped their attention though. Hundreds of sightless eyes and rotting faces swing around in his direction and begin making their way towards him all the same. Is he… playing with them or something? But just as that thought runs through Alice’s head, he thrusts his hand out at the ground at their feet, a shimmer appearing in front of them.

The undead aren’t smart enough to avoid it. They walk right into the shimmer and begin to fall apart right before Alice’s very eyes. But even as they fall apart, some of them keep going. The shimmer is clearly an AOE, or ‘Area of Effect’ spell… and while it does plenty of damage, it doesn’t kill them.

But then, clearly the Mage doesn’t intend for it to. Just as the horde is about to reach him again, he disappears in another flash and reappears behind them once more. Another shimmer spell and they take even more damage… until finally, some of them start to fall apart.

Alice’s mouth drops open as just a few more passes see the undead horde destroyed to the last. H-Holy shit… how much experience was that? How much LOOT was that?!

She’s so damn curious that she’s actually about to step out from behind the tree and ask when she suddenly finds she can’t remove her hands from the tree’s trunk. Her eyes snap from the Mage back to the dead tree in front of her, only to realize in horror that the tree’s bark has burst open in places… and curled around her hands.

Cursing, Alice tries to pull free, only for her struggling to make the tree come alive even faster. It’s only then that she sees the thing for what it really is. It’s not a dead tree at all… it’s an Undead Tree, and it’s just as much a monster as anything else in The Graveyard.

“N-No… no, let me go!”

Her Ghoul’s Claw is still sheathed at her waist. Her hands are trapped so she can’t even punch the damn thing. She tries kicking it, but while that chips away at it’s health bar a little bit, it doesn’t do much…

Worse, the branches overhead are slowly arching down towards her, while the center of the tree opens further and further, starting to resemble a maw. Alice’s eyes widen in horror, her struggles growing wilder as she fights all the harder… but to no avail.

No, this can’t be how she dies. This can’t be-!

“[Time Splinter]!”

Alice jolts as the tree all but explodes on her. She barely manages to shut her eyes in time as bark and splinters galore rain down on her. She feels a couple cut her cheeks, but most of it just smacks harmlessly off of her leather armor and then falls to the floor. Suddenly, she’s free, the monster dying in just one spell. Whether that meant the tree monster was weak, or the spell was just that strong, Alice doesn’t know.

What she does know is that she almost just died. Rather ingloriously too. How embarrassing would that have been, if she’d died to a fucking tree of all things? Shaking a little bit, having to clench her hands into fists to keep her fingers from trembling, Alice finally opens her eyes, swallowing hard as she sees the Mage looking in her direction.

He’s clad from head to toe in all-concealing robes, such that she can’t even see his face. And his name and Level are… question marks?

??? – Chronomancer – Level ??

Alice’s eyes widen as she realizes she’s looking at the top of the Leaderboard, standing right in front of her in the flesh. This was, supposedly, the strongest person on the entire damn planet!

“The trees this far out are just waiting for the unsuspecting to lean against them for a rest. They won’t attack if you don’t stand close to them for a while, but they’ll go for you the moment you let your guard down. Be careful.”

That confirms he’s male at least, with a deep voice like that. She also confirms that he knows she was watching him for a while, given he just told her that the trees only go after someone who hangs around them long enough to attract their attention. Alice’s face is bright red in embarrassment, but before she can think of something to say, he turns and disappears in a familiar flash, leaving her standing there with the tree’s loot and a million burning questions.

Well, a million burning questions alongside deeply burning embarrassment. That had to have been the absolute worst First Impression she’d ever had. Mortified and humiliated, Alice doesn’t try to follow the strange Mage. She knows better. Instead, she turns and begins making her way back to The Graveyard’s entrance. She was done for the day. She’ll try again tomorrow, once she’d gotten the shakes over nearly dying out of her system.

… And frankly, as she creeps her way back out of The Graveyard, Alice is glad she made that decision too. Because the path she’d taken might have been empty on her way in, but it wasn’t on her way out. The undead that that Mage must have killed with his AOE tactics were all respawned by the time she started her retreat.

Each and every last one of them was above Level Twenty-Five until she got back into more familiar territory.

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A/N: Dun dun DUUUN. Also for those who might be wondering, yes Alice is a major character in this story. Or at least that's my plan right now. What do you guys think of her? Like her? Hate her? Don't care about her atm?

Either way, we get some more world-building done here. Still flying by the seat of my pants, so all feedback and suggestions are massively appreciated.

I'm currently trying to decide on whether Chapter 4 should be a Caleb POV, an Alpha Squad POV, a mixture of both, or something else entirely... like maybe a partial Caleb or Alpha Squad POV followed by a forum post POV to show people chatting about the new world they find themselves in and what not?

Feel free to weigh in on what you guys want to see the most and we'll see if I can be swayed in any particular direction lmao.