Tanya had awakened 5 days go in the border regions of this Zone as they called it From her perspective one moment she had been lazily watching TV at night the next it was mid afternoon and all the TV displayed was fuzzy static There were strange words in front of her floating in the air She blinked several times and the words went away Had she taken a nap
There was a dull roar outside almost like a lion or a tiger Tanya went to the window and saw a Lion with brilliant sapphire fur proudly roaring at the sky seemingly defying the world with its bestial majesty
Ah ’ Tanya thought to herself This must be a dream ’
A good dream too because Tanya quite liked lions
The dream did however go swiftly south After only two minutes of watching Tanya had to admit that the people fleeing down her road from the lion were remarkably realistic for a dream and the level of detail in the gore of their deaths left Tanya profoundly disturbed at her own subconsciousness
Shaking her head she turned away from the window just in time to see the lights in her house flicker and die winking abruptly out Tsking to herself Tanya walked to her fridge and removed a coke and was halfway through the pure slightly painful pleasure of chugging it when the door was kicked in by a man with green skin
Tanya stepped into the living room and stared at the man’ for a long time It looked back and forth his eyes squinting as he sniffed
You are an orc Tanya said surprised at the surety in her own tone An ex boyfriend had been extremely into Dungeons and Dragons and while things were good between them he had brought her to sessions with his friends To her surprise she had enjoyed the sessions a lot it was a nice stress relief to be allowed to be someone else someone who didn’t share her anxiety and her family stresses After the two of them broke up however Tanya was somewhat at a loss as to how to accomplish that on her own
At her words the green skinned man twisted to look at her Then he smiled revealing broken yellow teeth Instincts Tanya had never realized she had screamed at her and she was out the back door faster than she would have believed her 32 year old body could carry her Luckily it seemed the sapphire lion was gone although the bodies of his prey were not so Tanya had to be careful not to look too closely lest she lose her nerve and start panic crying
The green skinned man barreled out of the house behind her and chased her to the next street over steadily gaining ground on her sniffing all the while When she reached the next street she blinked because the houses were wrong This wasn’t the street next to her But she heard yelling voices shouts to head this way for assistance so Tanya gladly fled in that direction
When she rounded the corner Tanya wouldn’t have been able to explain what she expected to see Men and women marching in leather armor weren’t one of them They waved her over asked if she was hurt and when she wasn’t she was asked to stand with a group of other uninjured people about a dozen that followed behind the 10 or so armored people
Out of the corner of her eye Tanya saw a black man with a giant iron ball crush the green skinned man as if it was nothing then step over the body to continue to move through the neighborhood
After about 10 minutes they met up with another group and then all of the Newbies’ as their rescuers referred to them were sent to a community center that had been turned into a triage unit And a holding area it seemed while the people with medieval weapons figured out what to do with them
Oddly Tanya didn’t feel worried Her constant companion anxiety seemed to be taking a break not because there weren’t things to be anxious about but because there was so much that it didn’t even know what to react to Large men with sharp knives The fucking lizard that she saw breathing fire That she saw a woman walk through that fire like it was nothing and impale the monster with a spear
Or even the weird notifications that popped up about her Leveling Skills or unlocking Paths as if this was all a game
When the people were brought into the community center they were asked if they had any medical experience Having worked for her mother as a veterinary assistant for several years Tanya cautiously raised her hand She felt guilty but she figured she might be treated a bit better like this
Very soon she was bandaging cuts and slinging arms with broken bones It was far beyond her usual duties and those had been near 8 years ago but again she felt strangely empty There was nothing to do but work right now so Tanya threw herself into it trying not to dwell on anything else
She could smell blood however
When Tanya arrived there were about 50 people in the community center By the time she started treating small scrapes and bruises there were almost 400 and it was becoming increasingly difficult to move through the space Several times people came up to Tanya who had been given a bright green vest to ask what was going on
What had happened They asked What are the messages
Tanya could only shake her head and ask the people to please stay out of the walking paths so she could treat more people After all Tanya had those same questions burning in her heart
The man in charge of the armed group and who ran the community center was named Dinesh There was a part of Tanya that still believed this was all a dream or if it wasn’t it was just a strange tragedy that had struck briefly but normal life would swiftly resume Although her cell phone said there was no service she was sure the authorities would have it back online quickly After all how else would they rescue all these people
But then she watched a young girl probably not even 7 come in with an iron bar stuck through her stomach Without even batting an eye Dinesh pulled out the iron bar from the girl’s stomach causing her to scream shrilly
He gestured his face calm Hold her down If she struggles this will be harder than it needs to be
Tanya wanted to ask what was the point as she had a pretty good idea what a stomach wound meant for the victims but she had a secret hope that maybe this wasn’t as bad as it looked Then Dinesh pressed his hands to the wound and muttered something and Tanya watched the wound heal within seconds
Tanya blinked at him
He appeared to misinterpret her look and shrugged in an embarrassed fashion I don’t want you to think I wasted your time making you use first aid when I could heal them all But it would be a waste of Mana and this way you can Level your First Aid Skill You’ve gotten it correct
Recognizing the name from the notifications Tanya nodded extremely numb
Is this all just a game She whispered
Dinesh smiled bitterly Welcome to the System
With Dinesh vouching for her Tanya was allowed to stay on in Donnyton instead of being sent to Franksburg which was a larger city but was apparently inferior in some way Tanya didn’t really ask any questions She was struggling already with understanding what the System meant for her
The old world was dead Dinesh told her Monsters roamed the countryside People had Stats and could gain Levels Some people gained Classes and grew even more powerful Dinesh was one of those people Tanya quickly realized although he never explicitly said it
In addition it became clear rather quickly that Dinesh wasn’t just someone with a Class he was the captain of a Squad And that Squad was relatively well respected even by the Squads with lower numbers which Tanya gathered were a higher rank She was able to discern this while watching most of the other people in her area were shipped off down to Franksburg
Not that it really mattered to Tanya She wasn’t close with any of those people
She wasn’t close with much of anyone anymore
Almost as if he forgot Dinesh looked up at Tanya a blank look on his face Oh what did you do before
Before what Today’s weirdness Tanya said shivering
To her surprise Dinesh smiled sadly Ah yes I had forgotten To you it has been but a day Let me tell you I’ve lived with this for a little over a year and a half