Enter System Read online

  Enter System

  Natural Laws Apocalypse #1

  By: Tom Larcombe

  Text copyright © 2021, Thomas Larcombe

  All Rights Reserved

  This is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, businesses, places, and events

  are the products of the author’s imagination.

  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,

  or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover by:

  SelfPubBookCovers.com/ Viergacht

  Dedicated to my wife, Heather, who keeps me writing, one way or another.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter One

  Marc gasped as he took a hit to his armor. The creature had managed to strike around the shield Marc held and caught him in the side with its club. He returned the strike with his own weapon, sinking the thin metal tip of his pilum into the creature's chest. Marc's weapon was designed as much to foul an enemy's shields as it was to damage them, but these creatures didn't have anything but makeshift clubs so the party was using the pilums as short thrusting spears.

  Robert was beside him, fighting with the other pilum they had. He wasn't armored, but he did have a makeshift shield that was more than adequate to defend against these creatures. The hobgoblins were nearly the size of a human and as strong as them as well, if not stronger. Fortunately, this was a small group of them and both the real and makeshift equipment wielded by Marc's group far outclassed that of the hobgoblins.

  Jeff came out of nowhere from behind the enemy, sinking their best weapon into the back of a hobgoblin. The creature slipped off the gladius that Jeff had used on him, falling to the ground. That left only a single hobgoblin, but Felicia was already engaged with that one. She had a makeshift shield, like Rob, but only a tire iron for a weapon.

  Marc, having volunteered to tank for the time being, stepped over and intercepted an attack the hobgoblin had aimed for Felicia. As he thrust with his pilum, she slipped to the side and brought her tire iron down on the back of the hobgoblin's head, laying it out. Unsure if it was dead yet, Marc stabbed his pilum down carefully, thrusting it into the hobgoblin's heart.

  As they looted the hobgoblins' bodies, Marc shook his head, knowing that just a few days ago he would never have imagined something like this in his future. Up until a few days earlier, everything had been normal, or as normal as the world got during some of its crazier times. Then all this went and happened. As the corpses shimmered and disappeared after being looted, he couldn't help but flash back to the start of the massive changes that had occurred.

  * * *

  Marcus Aurelius Cavanaugh was Marcus to his parents, Marc to everyone else who knew him. His parents were Roman history buffs and, as a result, he'd ended up with a name he despised. The only people not family who knew his full name were those who'd read it on paperwork he'd been required to fill out, otherwise he kept his mouth shut about it.

  Marc was sitting back in his chair, scanning the news on the web. The past six months, ever since the beginning of the current year, had been crazy. UFO sightings had increased tenfold and the jokes about streetlights had been old and stale before that, now they almost hurt to hear.

  Then there was the Prophet. Somehow, some graffiti artist somewhere had figured out how to graffiti subway stations and the interior of apartment buildings without ever being seen. Then he must've spread that knowledge to others because it was happening worldwide.

  The Prophet starting hitting the papers when a graffiti message appeared on a subway station during rush hour. The message appeared on the wall while people stared at the painted letters materializing out of nowhere: 'The System shall return!'. The graffiti had been signed 'Prophet' and that was all anyone knew about the artist. All the copycats had been signing theirs the same way too, probably in order to unnerve people even more in Marc's opinion.

  Marc shook his head as he skimmed five new articles about the sightings of UFOs. Personally, he thought that the military had just developed some incredible new technology and not told anyone. As for the Prophet? Well, the guy was obviously disturbed, but subways got really warm during rush hour, so something like invisible ink, just with paint instead of ink, sounded reasonable to him.

  It's all just like the rest of this year has been. Everyone's going crazy so the media thinks that they need to share some peoples' psychoses, Marc thought.

  He shut down his browser and opened the MMORPG he'd been playing for a while now. It was more in-depth than a lot of them, offering more than just combat. The crafting options were insane and there were all kinds of things to do in the game that didn't involve fighting. He was logging in for a fight though. His guild was about to try one of the newer bosses that had been recently discovered and they wanted him there with his high level Mage for the attempt.

  Logging in and joining the group, they proceeded to teleport to somewhere close to the new boss, then move in and start the fight. Things were going just fine at first, then Marc's vision blacked out, or more accurately, blued out. At first he thought his computer had crashed, but then he realized it wasn't just the monitor but his entire field of vision covered in blue. The white text on the blue background had fooled him at first and he'd just ignored the text thinking it was a standard BSOD. Now, he started reading the words, wincing as he noticed the horrible offenses against the grammar and syntax of the English language.

  * * *

  System Message:

  We thank inhabitants of Sol-3 for participation in our extended alternate natural laws beta test. For the past 6237.3 Sol-3 years you developed under alternate natural laws, showing that even with harsher conditions humanity still develops planet destroying weapons, given enough time. We have removed weapon after it was successfully constructed and you now return normal natural laws. In three days, Sol-3 time, the alternate natural law beta test will terminate and original natural law conditions will return in conjunction with the System.

  Marc blinked, several times.

  It's almost as bad as reading those overseas instructions that are allegedly written in English, but that only have English words, not grammar or syntax, he thought.

  About then he realized that the message screen was still covering his entire vision. He tried to wave it away, with no luck, then found himself wishing that it would go away. The screen flickered and finally disappeared when he mentally clicked on a small icon in the upper right corner. His cleared vision revealed that the party had crashed and burned, wiping to the boss.

  I guess it wasn't just me then? Marc thought. I'd worry more about that, but I've never done any hallucinogens so it shouldn't be a flashback. I haven't been out of t
he house yet today, so no-one drugged me, and my computer isn't nearly powerful enough for someone to be messing with me that way. Hell, most of the people I know are in the guild and wouldn't have timed it so we'd wipe, so what's that leave?

  * * *

  Across the world, everyone had been affected by the screen. For many it was more of a nuisance than anything else, word eventually spreading on how to get it to go away. For others it was a breaking point. Unable to move the screen or do anything about it, they snapped. For a large subset, it was fatal. For drivers and passengers in vehicles at high speed, airline pilots and passengers, and many others, the screen was the last thing they saw.

  * * *

  Marc was disgusted with himself and started cursing out loud.

  “Damn it, I should've left the screen up. Maybe it would've taken input somehow? It took mental input to clear it away, so if I'd left the screen open I might've—”

  He stopped dead. When he'd said the words 'screen open' a smaller blue box had opened up in the upper right side of his vision with a cursor blinking in the upper left corner of the box. He quickly tried thinking at it, but nothing happened.

  Well, it was a verbal command that opened it, so maybe verbal input?

  “Test,” he said.

  The word appeared in the box and when he hadn't spoken for a second, the cursor dropped a line, paused for a millisecond, and then the second line of the box showed the word “error”. The cursor dropped to the next line.

  Marc took a deep breath, then spoke slowly and plainly.

  “Help,” he said.

  The word appeared in the box and a moment later the cursor dropped a line, then text appeared beneath it, the cursor plummeting down the screen, leaving a series of lines containing single words or phrases. Marc had caught the first line before the screen started scrolling. It had read: “Help is available on the following:”.

  The last two entries caught his eye. They were 'waiting period' and 'verbal'.

  “Help verbal,” Marc said, wincing again when he saw the mangled grammar of the help file.

  Verbal:

  The system may interacted with directly in three ways. Mentally, verbally, or in a hybrid fashion. You current settings: hybrid. You can 'set system' to verbal, mental, or hybrid.

  Marc wasn't too worried about it at the moment. There was no-one else home since his parents were at a conference. If they were home, he probably would've set it to mental right away, but as it was he didn't care. There was no-one to think he was crazy and talking to himself.

  “Help waiting period,” he said.

  Waiting Period:

  This is the span of time between announcement of System commencement and actual System commencement. It is good time to prepare by building stats or gathering equipment. Limited equipment may be converted to System at commencement of System rule.

  Marc shook his head again. He thought he understood what the messages were saying, but they were poorly constructed with horrible grammar and sentence structure. He should know, he was minoring in English in college. His teachers would have a stroke just trying to read these messages.

  Okay then, training stats. So, is the system like a gaming system? he thought.

  He zipped through help file after help file, finally making a plan.

  So, either I've gone insane, which is entirely possible and seems more likely than the alternative, or the world is about to be governed by some sort of system that functions a lot like a video game. I want to check one more thing though.

  He looked for help on ways to report things to the system, unwilling to suffer through the horrible system messages any longer. Once he'd found a way to report it, he pulled up his logs, which were something else he'd discovered from his help searches, and mentally typed in corrections to all the messages he'd read.

  My replacements may not be perfect, but they're going to be a damn sight better than what was in there before. Assuming, of course, that the system pays any attention to my attempts at editing, Marc thought. Alright, now on to training.

  * * *

  Marc had been on the treadmill for almost an hour, and already received two System messages.

  Endurance: +1

  Endurance: +1

  The doorbell rang and he gratefully shut down the treadmill, grabbed a towel, and headed for the door.

  “Guys,” he said after opening the door. “What's up?”

  “Like you have to ask?” Jeff said.

  “Good, then I wasn't going crazy,” Marc replied. “I was wondering, but didn't want to waste any time.”

  “Waste time for doing what?” Rob said.

  “Didn't you explore the system help at all?”

  He was greeted by three heads shaking no.

  “Quick then, say 'screen open' and watch what happens,” Marc said.

  Three voices chimed in, then two hands went up to poke at the air, right about where the screens should be if they hadn't been adjusted. Felicia, the only female in the group, mumbled something under her breath.

  Adjusting the positioning and size of the screen was another thing Marc had discovered how to do and as he watched Felicia pinch the air in front of her, he realized that she'd been right on top of things. As soon as she'd gotten her screen open she must've mumbled her way into the help screen and then started adjusting and repositioning it.

  “Just say help followed by whatever you want help with, or just help for a list of things with a help topic. Use your mind to scroll back up the screen, just like you did to close the first one,” Marc said. “Oh, and all of you come on in before someone thinks we're going nuts here.”

  The three managed to enter the house while still working with their screens.

  “Damn Marc, have you been working out?” Felicia asked. “You're drenched and it smells like sweat.”

  Marc blushed.

  “Uh, yeah? Try 'help waiting period' and you'll see why.”

  * * *

  They spent the three days trying to improve their stats. Marc's dad had some weights in the room with the treadmill since he kept himself fit, working out religiously as a holdover from his days in the military. With four of them, they couldn't all work on their physical bodies at the same time, so Marc had brought down a laptop and hunted down some mental puzzle pages. They seemed to help increase the mental half of their stats.

  Charisma and Luck were the only two stats that they couldn't figure out how to work on. Jeff had suggested chatting some ladies up in local bars but that was vetoed. First, none of them were twenty-one or older and second, they didn't want to waste time like that. Maybe Charisma could be worked up like that, Luck too according to Jeff's theory, but it seemed more important to work on the physical stats.

  There'd been a mention of spells in the descriptions for Willpower and Intelligence, so they were working on those stats too. Given his preference Marc would go for a Mage build, or something that allowed him access to those spells plus the ability to defend himself and others in melee, so he split his focus evenly between the physical and mental portions.

  Endurance, stamina, even mana all seemed to increase relatively easily, but the main stats were more difficult. In three days, Marc had gotten only one point to Strength, one to Constitution, and one to Willpower. Strength was when he managed to lift more than he had been lifting on his prior sets. Constitution was when he felt like he'd pulled a muscle. He'd stopped the physical training for the rest of the day after that and when the muscle felt normal far faster than he'd thought it would, he'd gotten the message on his Constitution bonus.

  The Willpower increase had come after he'd managed to force himself to continue training, going straight from the physical to the mental with no break in between. Aside from that, he'd gotten himself seven points of Endurance, an extra twelve stamina points, and ten additional mana points. Strangely enough the additional mana was from working on advanced math puzzles. With his minor in English, he was also majoring in Mathematics, not any of the branches of
it, but pure math, so he found that encouraging.

  The rest of the group hadn't stayed right through, at least not at the start. After a trip back to their respective residences, they'd returned with bags that contained clothing changes and the like for a couple of days. From that point they had stayed, and the four of them took to training as though their lives might depend on it. During their breaks, they posted to forums online, telling people about how to use the screens, how to train to increase stats, and anything else they could think of that might help the others survive.

  Marc had also sent his dad an email trying to describe what was happening but was very discouraged that he'd never received a reply. He was worried that his dad was going to think he was going nuts, but if the message everyone had received had gone to his father as well, then at least Marc had given him some clue as to what was going on.

  Then the countdown started. Ten minutes before the shift a countdown timer showed in everyone's vision, counting down the final time before the change.

  * * *

  System Message:

  Welcome inhabitant Sol-3, to the System.

  You natural laws are now being reset to norm. You are allowed to select three items that convert to System grade. These items will be restricted by power level, so you can find some that will not convert now. Try again later when you are more powerful and you may succeed.

  Marc groaned in pain from reading the start of the message and immediately pulled up another screen to report the grammatical errors as he kept reading.

  Sol-3 is granted a period of one Sol-3 year to adapt to the system. At that point travel will be allowed to and off of Sol-3. Expect a period of turbulence on Sol-3 until this time period expires. The System will be make changes, additions, and subtractions to the world during this time. New creatures will challenge personal skills, old creatures may change to do the same. Collect resources and experience to gain strength and ensure survival.