Enter System Page 2

  Some will be strong enough to form Safe Zones. Within these Safe Zones you may find shops to help you acquire additional System equipment. This is encouraged if you wish to survive and thrive. New and mutated creatures will not spawn in these Safe Zones, but as a human once said, humans are the most dangerous animal. While creatures will not appear in these Safe Zones, beware your fellow man within them.

  Your planet is now linked to the entertainment network of the System and you may find yourself watched and gaining renown or notoriety. Infamous subjects are even more interesting to watch than those who are famous, more unpredictable and more entertaining.

  Good luck on your adaptation to the System!

  Marc hit return on his laundry list of corrections to the world-wide message that had just gone out. Even if it wouldn't go out again, perhaps his corrections would increase the quality of future messages from the System, or at least he hoped they would.

  * * *

  He turned to the other three, just as a new screen popped up. He'd set his to mostly translucent, located in the upper corner of his vision so he could still see just fine. From the way the others' eyes flickered he knew that they'd moved theirs to the various corners of their fields of vision as well.

  The new message caught his attention as soon as he started reading the text. It had already become a habit for him to open another screen when receiving a notification and he didn't even think about it as he corrected the text and reported the corrections to the System.

  System Message:

  You can now claim your three items to be upgraded to System. You are allowed one clothing/armor, one weapon/tool, and one miscellaneous item to upgraded. You will receive a disallowing message if you try to upgrade something stronger than allowed at you current power. You are given two hours to complete these claims. Any unclaimed claims at the end of this time period will be lost.

  “Shit, only two hours? I hadn't given this a lot of thought yet,” Rob said. “I figured we could just claim them whenever.”

  “Well, I know what I want to claim,” Marc said. “Felicia, you still up on your shotgun skills?”

  Marc knew that Felicia's family were also hunters and her dad had taught her how to fire and maintain a shotgun. Marc's own father had given him a more intensive firearm instruction course, covering long guns, shotguns, and pistols. Because of this, his first thought for the weapons was to raid his father's gun safe. When Marc had turned eighteen his dad had showed him where the spare key to it was hidden, in case of emergency.

  And if this isn't an emergency, I'll deal with him being pissed off later on, when he gets home, Marc thought.

  Then he swallowed.

  If he gets home, Marc added mentally, but he and mom are such ancient military buffs, plus he knows his guns, so if anyone would make it back it would be them. I'm sure they would've returned already if the government hadn't locked down travel after the first message. They claimed it was to prevent rioting and unrest, but why that would prevent those things, I don't know. It sounds more to me like locking down travel would increase them.

  Felicia turned to him and nodded.

  “The Mossberg?” she asked.

  Marc nodded. The Mossberg 500 pump action would be a fine weapon for her right now. The one in his dad's gun safe had the shorter barrel, which was better with buck and bird shot, allowing it to spread faster although reducing the accuracy at longer ranges. Since Marc was planning on taking a rifle, which would be much better at long range, they'd have both distances covered for firearms. Jeff and Rob hadn't had the same training in firearms, their families not sharing the interests of his and Felicia's, so they'd have to find something else for them.

  He headed across the hall from the workout room they'd all been in.

  “Wait here a second,” he said, then slipped into the room.

  After a moment's fumbling he opened the fake electrical outlet where his dad hid the spare gun safe key, then called the others in once he'd concealed the compartment again.

  “Alright, let's get some weapons,” Marc said.

  He popped open the gun safe, grabbing the Mossberg first and handing it to Felicia. She grinned as she grabbed it, then he took out the tricked out AR-15 with a high quality scope that was his dad's pride and joy.

  He'll understand why I took his instead of the spare, Marc thought, I hope he will anyways.

  Felicia's face took on a look of displeasure, but Marc ignored that for the moment, calling up a screen and trying to claim the rifle.

  This weapon is stronger than allowed to be converted to System at your current power level.

  “Shit!” Marc cursed, then looked over at Felicia.

  “Denied?” he asked.

  “Stronger than allowed,” she replied.

  “Well, keep them with us. We can still use them even if they aren't System enhanced. I hope anyhow, but System stuff will probably do better if I were to guess. Ammunition is in the cases over there, they're labeled with marker on tape. The top of each one should say what's in it. Take as much as you like, or at least as much as you're willing to carry,” Marc said.

  He, himself, took five spare magazines for the AR, each holding thirty rounds. Along with the one that was already in the AR, he had one hundred and eighty rounds of ammunition. Thinking back to his dad telling him that there was no such thing as too much ammunition unless you couldn't carry it all, he also grabbed a couple of extra boxes of ammo, shoving them in his pockets for now.

  He slung the rifle on his back and held the magazines in his hands as he turned to leave the room.

  “Um,” Jeff said, staring at the other guns in the safe, “how about us?”

  “Jeff, what are the four rules of gun safety?” Marc asked.

  Jeff looked confused and shrugged.

  “I don't know.”

  “And that's why the rest of the guns are going to stay in the safe,” Marc said, turning and locking the gun safe again. “Besides, the System wouldn't let us upgrade these to System level, so we need to find other weapons, and I know just where we can find three more.”

  He left the room with the others following, keeping the gun safe key on him for now. He hoped that he'd figure out how to claim and upgrade firearms to the System and if he did, he'd want the rest of those guns later.

  Marc led the other three to his dad's home office.

  “In here,” he said.

  The other three had never been in his dad's home office before, so they stopped dead when they got a look at the mannequin that resided there, and what it was adorned with.

  “Is that armor? And spears and a sword?” Jeff asked.

  Marc nodded.

  “It's replica stuff, but I'm hoping claiming it with the System will make it more functional. I mean, the armor is functional already, but the gladius and pilums aren't sharp at all.”

  “Pilums?” Rob asked.

  “The javelin type spears sticking up over the back of the armor. That's a mock up of a Roman Legionnaire's getup. We'll need to be careful of the spears. The originals had a soft iron tip so they could be thrown and foul an enemy's shield. I don't know how well they'll convert. They might get soft iron tips like the originals, or they might just stay like they are. The replicas used a harder metal for the tips since they're mostly ornamental.”

  Jeff had walked up and pulled the gladius from the scabbard.

  “Can I?” he asked. “I'm going to try for a rogue style class and this would be perfect for back attacks.”

  Marc looked from Felicia to Rob. Neither of them seemed to mind.

  “Go for it, but I'd take the whole belt and scabbard too. I bet it registers as a single item, and a scabbard will be useful.”

  Jeff nodded, sheathed the sword, and started unbuckling the sword belt. Once he had it off, he got a look on his face that Marc knew meant he was messing with his screen. A moment later, the belt, scabbard, and parts of the sword they could see flashed briefly with a gold light.

  “There
we go,” Jeff said, then drew the gladius again. It had looked pretty good before, but now it looked perfect. The blunt edges and point had been honed down and sharpened, enough that Jeff winced when he ran his thumb over it.

  “That'll do,” he said, then sucked at the drop of blood on his thumb.

  “Spear?” Rob asked.

  “Sure, grab one. Do you want the other Felicia?”

  She shook her head.

  “No, I want something blunt, like a baseball bat or a tire iron or something. I've had some training with blunt weaponry.”

  “Okay, we'll finish up in here, then find you something,” Marc replied.

  He grabbed the other pilum before he and Rob both claimed them. The shafts grew heavier as the wood altered somehow, becoming more solid. The tips also changed. They weren't as soft as the original pilum used by the Romans, but they also weren't quite what Marc had expected from a spear head.

  I see, because they changed them to something closer to javelins, not spears. Still, we should be able to use them like short spears and have a single ranged attack with them. Not that throwing our System weapons away like that would be a good plan, he thought.

  “I'm going to take this also,” Marc said, gesturing towards the armor. “Lorica Segmentata, some of the best armor of its time. I bet it converts over well.”

  He laid a hand on the armor and claimed it. He was surprised when the shield that was attached to the armor also glowed.

  “Well then, I guess I'll tank for now. I've got other plans for later, but I can't do anything about them yet. So I'll tank for the moment.”

  Felicia looked at him curiously, and he waggled his fingers. A look of understanding crossed her face. She knew that he preferred playing a Mage in most of the games they'd played, so it made perfect sense to her.

  “Alright, let's see what else we can find to claim,” Marc said.

  * * *

  Chapter Two

  Marc told them they were welcome to anything that they wanted to claim, if they could. So they started hunting.

  In the garage they found a tire iron for Felicia. She was happy with it since she could use it for either blunt or piercing damage, swinging the socket end for blunt, or thrusting with the other end that narrowed to something like a thick screwdriver blade for piercing.

  They also found a pair of trash can lids. Not knowing what else to try to claim as armor, Rob tried one of those after stringing it so it would fit on his arm better. It glowed and changed. Obviously his attempt had gained some cred with the system since he now had a shield as opposed to a jury rigged garbage can lid. Felicia duplicated his efforts, but Jeff looked at Marc greedily.

  “You still got that old leather coat you grew out of?” he asked. “I bet it would fit me and work as light armor.”

  Marc hadn't wanted to get rid of the coat. He'd been sure that if he just lost fifteen pounds he'd be able to fit into it again. So he sighed and led them up to his room, tossing the coat to Jeff.

  “Here you go, all yours,” Marc said.

  “What do we want for our miscellaneous claims?” Felicia asked.

  “Quality of life stuff?” Jeff replied.

  “Sure, why not,” Marc said. “I know what I'd like, but I don't know if the system would classify it as a single item or not.”

  “What's it hurt to try?” Jeff asked, ogling the coat he'd just claimed.

  Marc shrugged, then grabbed his MP3 player. He'd gotten a lot of shit about having that as opposed to just using his phone, until he pointed out that his MP3 player took a microSD card and while his phone worked, he couldn't put his entire music collection on it, not enough storage. With the microSD card in his MP3 player, he could have his entire collection with it at all times. The ribbing had stopped eventually.

  Now he picked up the player, his Bluetooth speaker and headphones, and the flash drive that held his collection. The player and accessories used minimal charge so he normally charged them on a solar unit in his window. He plugged everything in, connected the Bluetooth accessories, then tried to claim the whole setup as a single item.

  “Damn, didn't work. I got everything but the solar charger though,” he said. “Not gonna be of much use without a charger.”

  “The electricity is still on,” Rob said.

  “Yeah, but for how long?” Marc asked.

  “Oh, yeah, that might happen,” Rob said, nodding as though he hadn't thought of that.

  He's a great guy, but Rob isn't exactly the sharpest cookie in the box, Marc thought.

  Felicia had wandered over to the window.

  “Hey Marc, can I have your solar charger?” she asked.

  “What? I mean, I can still use it to charge this, I hope, for now at least.”

  She just looked at him.

  “Alright, fine,” he said.

  Felicia could wrap Marc around her little finger. He'd been crushing on her for years, but never worked up enough nerve to ask her out on a date. She was a really good friend as things were and he was scared of losing that, so he'd never asked. She knew she could pretty much play him however she liked, but resisted using that most of the time.

  Now he realized that she hadn't been playing him.

  “Here, I'm giving it back to you,” she said.

  “Huh, what was that all about?” he asked.

  “The system wouldn't let me claim it, said it wasn't mine. Once you gave it to me I claimed it, now I'm giving it back.”

  Marc blinked.

  “You shouldn't have done that. You should've claimed something for yourself?”

  “I did, remember a good chunk of your music collection is stuff I recommended to you. I saw you got the external speaker claimed, so now we can keep it charged and all listen to it,” she said.

  “Oh, well, thank you anyhow.”

  Jeff was shaking his head.

  “Gotta be something worth claiming as miscellaneous. It's good to know that you have to own it to claim it though. So, two of us still have to claim our miscellaneous. Any ideas?”

  “Maybe a folding knife? Something that would be as much tool as weapon? Or would that only fall under the weapon/tool category?” Felicia asked.

  “We can try,” Jeff said. “Hey Marc, got a folder around anywhere?”

  “Only a small one. I don't think that's what you're after.”

  He reached over to his desk and pulled out a small folding knife, with maybe a two inch blade. He tossed it to Jeff.

  “It's yours for the test,” he said.

  Jeff concentrated for a moment then tossed the knife back to Marc.

  “Nope, counts as a weapon/tool according to the system.”

  He fell into thought for a moment, then his face brightened.

  “I've got it! How much time do we have left?”

  Marc checked the time.

  “About an hour and twenty minutes.”

  “Good, ten minutes to get home, that leaves me an hour to find the stuff. I'll be back guys.”

  Then he dashed out of the door. A few seconds later they heard the front door close.

  “Well, that happened,” Marc said.

  “I guess he remembered something he owned that he wanted to claim,” Rob said. “I can't think of anything myself though.”

  “You want us to help?” Felicia asked.

  “Please,” Rob replied.

  They sat there in thought for a few minutes. Marc was thinking back to some of the tabletop dice RPGs he's played.

  “You know, in the role playing games I've played, there's a few things you always want to have when you go out adventuring. Think we ought to work through those?”

  Rob nodded eagerly.

  “Well, a ten foot pole is out. I'm sure we'd be able find something like it wherever we are,” Marc started. “But rope? Or maybe a waterskin? I suppose canteen would be more appropriate here, not likely to find a waterskin around, but I think there might be a canteen in our camping gear. The camping stove needs fuel and would probably be con
sidered a tool anyhow, if cooking will be a craft for the System.”

  Rob was nodding along.

  “Probably rope then,” Felicia said. “I imagine if things are going to deteriorate, then rope would fall apart faster than a metal canteen, yeah?”

  Marc shrugged.

  “When I checked the help on initial claims it said that more complex things would deteriorate faster, some things wouldn't deteriorate at all, and others at a moderate rate. So pretty much as useless as most of the help files have been.”

  “I wouldn't say that,” Felicia said. “Some of them, like the preparation ones? I'm glad we found and read those.”

  “Okay, I'll give you that one, but the help files are all hard to read and even if you understand them some of them aren't actually that helpful.”

  Felicia nodded.

  “You've got a point, but let's get Rob set up, okay?”

  “Good plan, we can talk later. Rob, you want rope, or a canteen, or would you like to look through the camping stuff and see if there's anything else you'd like to claim? If it's all going to deteriorate anyhow, you're welcome to any of it you like,” Marc said.

  “I think the rope, like you said. But you put a bunch of stuff together to claim and it let you. Is there a climbing hook or other climbing gear that we can attach to the rope before I claim it?” Rob asked.

  Marc blinked. He hadn't actually expected Rob to add a useful idea to the process, but he had.

  “Yeah, I think we've got carabiners and there are some pitons from when dad used to rock climb, maybe a few other things. I don't know how many the System will allow though.”

  “Well, let's go find out,” Rob said, standing.

  Marc led him out to the garage where they rummaged through the camping gear. They ended up with a fifty foot section of rope, five carabiners, and seven pitons along with the tool used to drive them in. That was a small pickax on one side and a hammer on the other. Marc was pretty sure the System wouldn't allow the tool, but maybe the other stuff.

  Easy enough to drive the pitons in with a rock if we need to use them, he thought.