Body Cultivation Hurts - Chapter 1

Waking up in his dorm room, Nathan just laid there staring at the ceiling as he moved his legs back and forth under the soft sheets. There was much he’d missed after the Divine Monarch’s Genetic Modification System had been implemented. Mostly it was the simple things.

The system hadn’t been considered the apocalypse when it first appeared, but a boon from the heavens. There had been little death during the initiation. Anyone with minor or major physical infirmities had been healed overnight. Even people with supposedly impossible to cure diseases or debilitations had been made anew.

Letting out a deep sigh, he pulled out his old cellphone—something he hadn’t seen in more than a decade. The first thing he looked for was the date. He had a week until initiation and the Monarch’s Tower appearing. There would be portals that led to it throughout the world in numerous locations, but the tower itself would appear in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at the equator.

Foolishly, not every local government took the Divine Monarch’s early warnings seriously. The federal government was warned, however. Only a few of the major portals were neglected.

After seeing humanity wiped out, Nathan remembered one major gate that had amongst the most catastrophic loss of life. It was within an hour of what would’ve been his future college. He didn’t have a choice.

There was a part of him that hoped that what he knew of what was about to come would never happen. That for some reason, this time it would just be one big dream. It only took a single search on his phone to find articles about local mayors receiving the Monarch’s warning.

Throwing off his covers, he gathered his thoughts while he got dressed. He stopped when he spotted himself in the mirror. It was like seeing himself in a dream. It was him, but it wasn’t. This hadn’t been him for a very long time. He was built well thanks to his years of MMA training. He noticed the scar that neatly split his left eyebrow in two, leaving a small patch where hair didn’t grow.

He remembered the day he’d received the wound. The larger boy’s knuckle had just grazed him as he moved back. The blood had flowed before he realized that he’d been struck. He’d fallen to the floor as much out of shock as from the force of the blow. There was no rational reason the boy had hit him. It was bullying plain and simple—the first time it happened. The one he always remembered in his dreams.

His story was a common one. He’d been bullied in junior high. It grew more and more vicious over a period of weeks. His father caught on without him having to say anything.

When Nathan finally admitted what was happening, his father had grinned. “Good. Now you have a decision to make. You can either handle this like a boy or a man?”

He hadn’t exactly been able to put it into words, but “handling it as a man” was the last thing he wanted to do. He just wanted to make it stop. His father had other plans.

Wanting to make him proud, Nathan answered as his father hoped he would. “As a man.”

He wasn’t sure if that had taken courage or if he was just more afraid of his father’s disappointment than the physical pain of getting beat up. Even if he’d chosen differently, he knew the man. His father would’ve made him take the ‘right’ path regardless.

It wasn’t his first time seeing the old pair of boxing gloves and mitts his father brought out minutes after their conversation had ended. He’d learned to ‘throw a punch’ when he was much younger. It simply hadn’t interested him enough for him to pursue it as a sport and his father hadn’t forced him. But now necessity motivated him.

The next day, he fought back. He’d struck his main bully square in the nose. It was a beautiful shot despite how awkward he’d thrown it. However, unlike in the movies, it didn’t cause his bully to stop. The boy he hit was a head taller than him and Nathan hadn’t been strong enough to give him more than a bloody nose. Thankfully, it had been a Friday.

That night, his father asked him in detail what happened. Then they hit the mitts. The next day, his father took him to a local gym. In wasn’t boxing they were training, but jiujutsu. He lost at sparring repeatedly, but the guys he rolled with were patient and explained everything as they went. It was a different kind of humbling. The productive kind. They even showed him a few of the simplest moves and let him practice on them.

That Monday, the bullying continued. It wasn’t as physical because the teachers happened to be fresh from the weekend and arrived before too much could happen. After school, he returned to the gym.

His grappling improved with each class. He hadn’t hit puberty as early as his bullies, so he was still rather scrawny. Even if his boxing was improving, he was simply too small to throw a punch that could cause enough damage to dissuade this strain of bullies from continuing.

Every day he went to the gym. Every day he hit the mitts with his father. The next real encounter with his bullies was on Wednesday. There were more than one of them, so he did what he could. He grabbed on to the biggest and tried to grapple with him. A second guy laid on top of them both, making it impossible. Taking it to the ground allowed him to get by with less damage than normal, though.

It was a Friday two weeks from his first grappling lesson when everything changed. His main bully came at him alone. Nathan feigned an overhand right and went for a double leg take down. The boy was too big to slam, but he fell. Once Nathan was on top, he realized the boy had no idea what to do. He had little experience himself, but it was far more than his opponent. He wasn’t confident enough to go for an armbar yet, so he simply got in full mount and rained down punches. The boy tried to grab him and throw him off—he did everything wrong.

After that day, the boy never bothered him again. None of them did.

He hated bullies and took it upon himself to pursue those that went after his classmates. He silently thanked his father for making him do what he didn’t want to.

Nathan was supposed to have classes today, but he’d already confirmed nothing had changed. He needed money and needed it fast. His school loans weren’t an option. He had about $2,000 in the bank that was meant to tide him over for food and necessities. That wouldn’t be enough. Then he thought of his vehicle. It should work.

Later that afternoon, he finally finished the paperwork to sell his car. It was only a few years old, which garnered him $14,000. At the same time he’d traded for an old jeep that only took $3,000 off his total. Goodbye, sedan. Hello, cheap, and high-mile SUV. It would work for what he needed. It’s not like he’d be using a car again in a week.

The next thing he did was gather information on all the gun shops in Orlando and surrounding areas. With the Genetic Modification System coming, guns would grow more and more useless as time went on, but that was then. For the pre-initiation, they were perfect.

He decided on three ARs and a bolt action .30-06. He needed two ARs to rotate between to keep them from overheating. The .30-06 was for the bigger targets. That was only the beginning of his purchases. The four rifles cost him just under $2,500. What cost him nearly as much were magazines and ammunition. He wouldn’t have time to reload, so having preloaded mags were essential. He already knew what he was looking for, so he did the background check and could pick up the guns tomorrow. He drove around for the rest of the day buying up the mags and ammo.

That night he called his parents and spent some time with them over the phone. He called the brat, his younger sister, who was seventeen. She wouldn’t be a part of the initiation right away, but as soon as she turned eighteen, she’d be ported to her own initiation. He’d been able to help her out just a little his first life, but this time would be different. He would spend the time writing down all the information she might need while he was away.

He also skipped the gym that night but went for a run. There was too little time for him to make any advancements with his physique. He began loading mags after that and writing out what his parents and sister would both need to know. He stretched and did some bodyweight exercises during breaks.

The next day, he skipped class again, not bothering to even contact the teacher. After picking up his new rifles, he took them to an outdoor range to get them sighted in. It wasn’t something he was proficient at, but there was no lack of people willing to help. His eyesight wasn’t yet enhanced, so optics were necessary for what he had planned. He would’ve preferred to meet the monster horde at more than two hundred meters, but he doubted his marksmanship. He hadn’t shot a gun since before the first initiation after all.

That changed quickly as he put five hundred rounds through each AR before the day was through. He used a portable rifle tripod, so it was mainly his shoulder and shooting finger that were sore. Spreading a few sessions like it throughout the week should prepare him to cope with the physicality of what was to come. He was still young enough that sore muscles recovered quickly.

He spoke to Kyle, his best friend who had called him when he didn’t show up that night at the MMA gym either. They were the same age, but his friend had entered the workforce instead of going to college. He’d ended up as a craftsman instead of a frontline fighter in the tower, but Nathan knew he could trust the guy after what they’d been through in his past life.

“Been dealing with a few things. I’m going to need your help this Saturday.”

“Count me in,” Kyle said.

He gave him more information about the time and place. It was as simple as that.

Nathan didn’t step foot into the classroom a single time after his rebirth. He spent the week making sure he was loose, his endurance was in place, getting used to shooting a rifle again, loading mags writing out information to help his friends and family, and spending time with them. Last time he hadn’t seen his parents and sister for ten months until she turned eighteen. According to the Monarch’s rules, that was the age people would start their initiation into the tower. There were no exceptions except in different cultures where the age was younger.

When the day finally came, he already had the jeep packed. He was testing some headphones that would protect their ears from the gunfire while allowing them to speak when Kyle arrived. It wasn’t just ammo and rifles he’d packed away, so his friend didn’t notice anything out of the norm. Some of the things he had plenty of was not so healthy travel food like jerky, chips, energy drinks…

“What happened to the mustang?” Kyle asked, doing a double take when seeing at the jeep. His friend was a scrappy black guy from the Midwest. He kept his hair short to his head so that it wouldn’t be grabbed while grappling. He was a laidback country boy. They both had cauliflower ear from grappling and wore it as a badge of honor.

“Traded it in to get some cash.”

“Eh. You have enough problems getting girls with a decent vehicle, but now?”

Nathan nudged him with his elbow.

Kyle added. “What are you going to do with a bunch of cash anyways besides spend it?”

“I’m investing it,” he replied with a smirk.

They arrived at the top of the hill overlooking an old local monument in a park an hour north of the city. He’d spent time examining the terrane online and had chosen this spot, not just because it looked down at the sight where the portal would appear, but it also provided the best routes for retreat. That was the real reason he’d invited Kyle. Not to fight the horde, but to drive from location to location. He wasn’t sure if he could stop this first monster wave alone, but he’d do what he could to change history.

After parking, he got out of the jeep and pulled some lawn chairs out of the back. He then grabbed the cooler and sat it between them. Once seated, he felt Kyle’s gaze settle on him.

“Take a seat.”

His friend did as he asked.

“So what exactly are we doing?”

“For now? Waiting.” He was purposely being cryptic. On one hand, he knew Kyle would think he was crazy if he just came out and said it. On the other, they were friends, so he had to mess with him. It would be a sobering day for his friend, but Nathan still had a decade of experience to fall back on. He wasn’t nervous. Something had to be done so he would do it. The system would even reward them for it. It was a reward the local government would’ve received if they would’ve taken the warning seriously, but since they didn’t, he was happy to take it off their hands.

“Imagine a poral appearing there before the statue and a horde of zombies stepping out. Not real zombies, mind you, for they might look like people, but they are really the lowest level of demon. Up close, you’ll be able to tell they certainly aren’t human. They don’t really look demonic I guess, but are smooth skinned, hairless, and ugly.

“Anyway, if they appeared, how would you fight them off?”

His friend gulped on a swig from his energy drink before tilting his head back and thinking about it. “Maybe soak the area in gasoline then set it on fire.” He nodded to himself.

“Not a bad idea, but humanoids don’t die quickly from fire. If they walked through it and got it covering their legs, it might slow them, making them easy targets. Some might die after a while.”

Kyle snorted out a laugh. “You know this, do you?”

“It’s messed up, right?”

“So why are we here? You okay, man?”

He gave his friend a look and grinned broadly. Was he okay? Just yesterday he’d witnessed humanities greatest warriors get slaughtered, leaving the world defenseless. The Monarch would initiate his Genetic Modification System today to help Earth get stronger. Sadly, the Monarch’s estimate of the demon hordes arrival was off by decades. Nathan only had ten years to get strong enough to fight back. He wasn’t even sure he could win. So was he okay?

“I’m great. Never better.”

“Then why are we here? I don’t mind just hanging out, but why here of all places?”

“There’s something I need you to do,” he said, pulling out his phone. Bringing up his email app, he brought up the saved message he wrote up and sent it to everyone in his contacts. A few other messages were more personalized. He sent those emails as well. “You’re about to get an email from me. Forward it to everyone in your contacts. You’re old enough that you’ll be forced into the initiation, but your two brothers will remain here until they’ve turned eighteen. You parents, as their guardians, will join when they do.”

Kyle had his phone out and was bringing up what he received. “What are you on about. What initiation?”

“Zombies, remember.”

“I thought you said they were demons.”

“Technically, you’re right. They act more like zombies. The slow-moving kind, but they aren’t that slow. In a straight line they can kind of stumble quickly.”

He chuckled, but it slowly fell from his face as he read what Nathan had sent him. “I can’t send this. They’ll think I’m crazy.”

“We only got a few hours until it happens. I’m telling you now so that you have time to make any phone calls you need. You don’t have to talk about what’s in the email. Just tell them you love them. You’ll be able to speak to them again once you’ve unlocked the contact system in the tower, but it might be a few days, or even weeks, before you have the chance.”

His friend had turned serious. “That’s crazy. There’s no way.”

“Click on a few of the links at the bottom of the email.” He waited as his friend did as he asked.

“You’re saying this is true? It sounds like conspiracy nonsense.”

“It does. But reports from multiple elected officials in different parts of the country… I know it doesn’t make sense.” He gave his friend a pointed look. “You don’t even need to believe me. Just wait. Do you agree that if portals and demons are possible, then me getting some mysterious warning is just as possible?”

Kyle slowly nodded.

“There will be close to two thousand portals that appear across the US. Only about ten of them will be major ones. The feds don’t believe it as much as most local governments don’t, but they’ll still have people on site just in case. This is one of the few areas where not only will they not have people on site, but it will also be the site of one of the rare major gates. Instead of dozens of demons, there will be close to a thousand.

“The people in this small city are spread out. Many of them have guns, so they might survive. However, these things might not be strong or that fast, but they hunt by swarming. According to the warning I received, more than seven hundred people are going to die.”

His friend snickered. “If that’s true, then what can we do?”

“I told you I sold my car, right?” Coming to his feet, he waved for him to follow. Pulling open the back, he removed the tarp. Two gun cases and stacks of loaded thirty round mags were sitting there. “This is only half of the mags. Another hundred are in the back seat.”

Kyle stood there wide eyed. “You dun went crazy,” he muttered.

“You won’t need to touch a weapon. I’m going to need you to drive. We go from hill to hill as they chase us. You won’t need to go over thirty miles an hour, so your biggest hurdle will be keeping your adrenalin under control and not crashing. I don’t know if we can kill all of them, but keeping hundreds of people from being devoured alive, that we can do.”

He didn’t take his rifles out of their cases and closed the back.

His friend just stood there trying to grasp what was going on. Nathan answered the question that had to be swimming through his mind. “You’re here because I trust you. Not to keep a secret, though. I’m asking you to spread the word. Once the portal appears, we’ll also call the police before I fire the first shot. I’m not asking for blind trust. You’re here because you can keep your cool in a tight situation. That’s all I need from you. We won’t take any chances and I’ll pick them off as we fall back.”

Cupping the man’s shoulder, he led him over to his lawn chair.

“I’m going to call my parents if you don’t mind. They won’t believe me, but I sent them a similar email. It will be a year before they join me in the tower since the brat is still only seventeen. I’ll call her after them.”

Kyle just nodded.

Getting dad on the phone first, Nathan took a blunt approach to speaking with him. He didn’t give details but reassured him he’d be just fine and prepared him as much as he could for what was about to go down. He was pretty sure his father didn’t believe him, but he took it seriously, regardless. The man knew him well enough to know that at least Nathan believed it. When his father said he was going to call mom to have her head home early, Nathan decided to call Liz, his little sister, next.

He didn’t say much. Only that he’d sent her an email as well as backup messages to her social media accounts with important information. He hinted that something like a terrorist attack was about to happen and that she should get home. Telling her that mother and father were heading home already was what got her moving.

Halfway through the conversation, he saw Kyle make his first phone call. It seemed his conversations with his father and sister had taken this from a prank in his mind to something insane but possibly true.

“Love you, Brat,” Nathan said, before hanging up and calling mom.

She was worried, of course, but he reassured her. He was the only one in the immediate family over eighteen that didn’t have a family of his own. The Monarch wasn’t creating the portals and sending out monsters to harm people or create destruction. He wouldn’t have warned governments if that were the case. Nathan knew there was one mistake the peak realm cultivator had made, however. He believed that people would trust his warnings.

The Monarch was ultimately trying to save Earth, not destroy it, but democracies and republics were not something the cultivator had a lot of experience with. Many people would die because of it.

When he finally got off the phone with his mother, Kyle was already done with his own conversations. He was staring down at the statue of some long dead local guy.

“You can come clean and tell me it’s all nonsense now,” Kyle said without the intended humor in his tone. “I’ll only smack you around a little. Really.”

“I don’t know if I should tell you or not, but it wasn’t just a warning I got. It’s more like a prophecy of some sort. It said that you’d end up a craftsman with a specialty in divine metal work. It will require strength, but mostly endurance and a fire specialty. There are two main paths you can take. Fire mage with some endurance and strength enhancements, or energy cultivator with a fire cultivation. Either will work. I’d recommend fire cultivation.

“You won’t advance quickly at first, but in the long run you’ll be much stronger. You’ll be able to master your craft without limiting your fighting ability. Focus on getting your talent rank as high as possible.”

He went on to explain about the Point System, and how there would be a trial before selecting his path. To earn more points before choosing this path was essential. It would be the difference between advancing to the peak in a thousand years or a century. Not that they had that long. He hoped the system would reward them handsomely for what they were about to do.

In the end, he prepared his friend as much as possible.

Only after Nathan was finished did Kyle speak. “So it’s like a bloody game?”

“Yes, but it’s also the furthest thing from one. The Divine Monarch that created the system studied our literature and media to design it. So it was made to act like a game for our benefit and easy understanding. Beyond that, you could throw all the game jargon aside and it would still be a massive training construct.

“There are a few primary ways to progress. Earning points by impressing the system will allow you to buy upgrades. That’s universal for everyone. Beyond that, there are two separate ways that paths will progress. Gathering energy from the monsters you kill and gathering it from the environment.

“Cultivation makes use of the latter method. Superhuman Enhancements require the first method. There are many monster paths—think vampire, werewolf, goblin—that have their own versions. Some require, you guessed it, drinking blood, eating, etc., while others allow a hybrid of the two. The ones that allow gaining energy from kills are the quickest to advance, while those that gather it from the environment have the highest potential. That’s another reason to choose cultivation. It has top-tier potential.

“Spend time when you get to your initiation to absorb all the information you can. Ask questions until you’re sick of it then ask even more. Look deep into as many paths as you can even if you have no intention of taking them. The path options are based upon your genetics as much as what the Monarch wants to offer. Some insanely overpowered paths might be offered to all, but their cost will vary depending upon how much energy it would take for the system to implement the change. So I’d recommend fire cultivation, but there still might be better options.”

Kyle was just shaking his head. “You said vampires.”

“I did.”

“Blood suckers with fangs, flying, super strength…”

“Yup. Any kind of blood, by the way. Drinking human blood will be strictly off limits once the justice system gets set up. Vampires have a hybrid advancement system allowing them to grow stronger through killing and the environment. It makes them one of the strongest monster paths and they’re powerful from the beginning. And no, sun doesn’t kill them, but direct sunlight is like a major debuff.”

“I’d ask you if you’re kidding, but what’s the point?”

Nathan laughed. “It’s time.”

Without so much as glancing in the monument’s direction, he headed back to his trunk and opened the gun cases. Three scoped ARs and a .30-06 stared up at him. He took out the standing tripod and set it up. Pulling on a mag-full tactical belt, he made sure his tripod was set up within reach of his rifles and extra mags. He’d gone over in his mind multiple times what approach he would use. Now that he was ready, he grabbed both headphones and binoculars then rejoined Kyle who had come to his feet.

The portal had practically swallowed the monument and then some. It was like a giant, glowing black hole the size of a three story building. There seemed to be a translucent sheen over its surface.

“Put these on,” Nathan said as he proceeded to explain how they worked. He then handed him a pair of binoculars. “Do you want to call the police, or should I do it?”

His friend didn’t answer right away.

Grabbing his shoulder, the guy flinched.

“Uh, you do it.”

Taking out his cell, he dialed 911. “There’s a large group of crazed people, we’re talking hundreds, at Gatortail Park. They’re attacking everyone they see. They aren’t armed, but my friend and I are. We’re trying to fight back as we retreat to safety. Please send help.”

As soon as the lady repeated what he said back to him, he replied. “Got to go.” And hung up.

“That’s the best we can do.”

Kyle swallowed. “You weren’t lying.”

“As I said, you didn’t have to believe me, just to wait. If you want to get in the driver’s seat to get ready, you can. Don’t go until I say, of course, and there’s no need to go more than thirty miles per hour. They aren’t that fast. No crashing and getting us stuck with them surrounding us, got it?”

“Yeah… I—I think I’ll stay. Got a gun for me?”

“What are the gun safety rules.”

“Uh.”

He gave him a look.

“I’m nervous, okay.” Closing his eyes, he gave a simplified version of them.

“Don’t point a gun at me.”

“Don’t point one at me,” his friend shot back with a smirk.

Nathan shared his smirk. “Slow and accurate,” he said as he led Kyle to the back of the jeep. “Also, you’re responsible for driving. Go through a few mags, but then head to the driver’s seat. Repeat what I just said.”

He did.

Taking his backup AR out of the case, he handed it to Kyle fully loaded. He then showed him how to load a full thirty round mag. There was a trick to it. Most of the mags he purchased were the easier kind to insert, but he’d had to buy them in surplus. Those that didn’t have enough give only had twenty-eight rounds.

“I won’t have time to help with malfunctions, so just bail if you’re having problems.”

His friend just grinned at him. “Who do you think you’re talking to? No sling?”

He shook his head. “I’ll be switching between two ARs to limit overheating and using the tripod. Once we’re mobile, I’ll be in the backseat.”

Kyle shrugged. “No worries.”

They heard the police sirens in the distance. It was then that the first figure stepped out of the portal. It had been years since Nathan had seen one of these low-level monsters of the demon race, but it was like he’d just seen them yesterday. Their faces were boney. It looked like the skin had been stretched taut over their faces. They had no hair or ears to speak of. They only stood about five feet tall.

“You don’t have to shoot them in the head,” he confirmed. “Remember, they aren’t zombies from horror flicks.”

He heard a police car pull up on the other side of the gravel road opposite his jeep. Nathan had yet to pick up his rifle, so he stepped out from behind his vehicle. His hands were out to the sides, and he was already motioning for them to come.

One officer got out on the passenger side with his gun out, pointing at Nathan.

“We’re about to be attacked,” He called out, and motioned with his thumb for them to look behind him.

The portal was more than three stories tall so even if it was at the bottom of the hill and a few hundred meters away, it was impossible to miss.

The officer slowly rose. His handgun lowered as he did. “What the hell?”

His partner got out of the driver’s side with his gun in hand. The man looked slack-jawed at the portal.

Nathan approached slowly with his arms still up. “Do you guys have rifles? You’ll need them if you do.”

The officer on the driver’s side realized he had completely lost himself in the moment and raised his gun to point at Nathan before thinking better of it. “Rifles? No, but we have shotguns.”

He didn’t exactly mind letting them borrow his rifles. More people might be saved if he did. However, there was a selfish reason to why he’d only invited Kyle. The more zombie-like demons he killed, the better the rewards the system would give. He needed those points to get the best start possible. There were paths and advancements a person could get during the initiation that would never be available again. The cost of others would skyrocket.

“Come, take a look,” he said, motioning to his binoculars strapped to his neck, he waited until the officer motioned for him to take them off. The man holstered his handgun.

He quickly led the man over to the side of the hill to get a better look but skirted around to the front of the jeep. Showing off his arsenal before they saw the gathering horde would only confuse the situation.

By the time they stepped to the other side of the vehicle, binoculars were no longer necessary. A couple hundred monsters had already exited the portal. They weren’t slow moving, and sluggish. Their heads were jerking from side to side and each of them lurched when they moved.

“What are they doing?” The officer asked more to himself than expecting an answer.

Nathan replied anyway. “Hunting.”

The second officer joined them with their shotguns in hand. He stopped short. “The hell…”

“Call it in. Get everyone out here you can, immediately.”

The guy started to run back to the car before returning and handing his partner a shotgun, then taking off again.

“Go ahead and take off,” the officer was starting to say, when there was a blood-awful scream and one of the zombie-demons ran in their direction. As soon as one of them moved, it was like a wave of the monsters started teetering toward them.

The man thought twice about the shotgun before strapping it over his shoulder and unholstering his handgun again.

Perfect. If the officer was the first to open fire, Nathan wouldn’t have to worry about them pestering them while the monsters were running at them.

“This range,” the officer muttered.

“My friend and I have your backs. We had some rifles in the trunk. We’ll leave if those things get too close.”

The officer just nodded. He was trying to line up a shot with his handgun from two hundred meters out. It was a 4” barrel, so it would be nearly impossible to be accurate with any consistency.

Another police vehicle pulled up. Two more officers hopped out. The one that had called it in greeted the driver. He led the man to the trunk where he pulled out two ARs.

Nathan noticed the officer that had been aiming his pistol had retreated in a hurry. He helped them grab a few cans of ammo and moved to set up at the top of the hill.

Hurrying back to his own vehicle, Nathan checked on Kyle who had put the rifle away and was all but hiding. He didn’t blame him for the same reason he didn’t take the officer around back to show off his arsenal.

“Grab a few mags. They have ARs so we’re going to share.”

Finally having something to do beside staying out of sight, Kyle did just that and they each took out a few handfuls—nearly five hundred rounds.

“Gentlemen,” Kyle called out as they marched over to where they were setting up. He’d never been shy and wore a big grin. “We come bearing gifts.”

For a moment, the four officers stopped what they were doing and turned to look at them.

“There’s two of you?”

Nathan nodded. “We’re armed, and we’ll follow you’re lead.” He didn’t really intend on following their orders but knew that in a matter of seconds all that would matter was putting rounds down range.

“Sergeant,” one of the officers with an AR cried. He was speaking to the man who’d been aiming with his handgun.

The man looked out at the field. A few of the zombie-demons had made it halfway. Their mouths hung open and their heads were tilted to the side as if trying to best judge how to bite their distant prey.

Turning back, he nodded to Nathan and Kyle one last time before stepping up to the edge of the hill and yelling, “Halt.” He warned them they were the police and would open fire, but instead of slowing, the zombie-demons sped up. Their top speed was an average person’s jog.

By now there were close to a thousand monsters stomping toward them.

“Fire!” The Sergeant screamed.

Nathan and Kyle had already run back to get into position. It was far later than he would’ve gotten started himself, but having the extra help could make a huge difference.

Kyle had grabbed his rifle and was already aiming when the command sounded. He began firing.

With steady, sure movements, Nathan placed a few mags in his friend’s pockets, informing him over their headset. The man nodded at him, even though he wasn’t sure it really registered.

Then he grabbed his first rifle, stepped up to the tripod, took aim, and fired.

The air filled with angry pops as five different firearms rang out.

The horde was spread out and only a few demons had yet to draw near. He decided to trust the officers to take out the closest ones. He aimed for the denser groupings. His target was center mass. Hitting the ones in front should slow the larger groups as they fall. He hoped to slow their approach with this tactic.

He continued with his controlled pace. It wasn’t really a slow one, but he made sure to have something in his sights for each trigger pull.

As soon as he was empty, he ejected the mag, put the rifle down in its heat resistant case and grabbed the next one. He was unloading again a moment later.

Mag after mag, he switched rifles each time. He wasn’t pulling from the mags on his belt, but those stacked in the truck. He wanted some on him in case he needed something quickly if they had to retreat. Kyle didn’t have much trouble inserting the mags, so soon he needed more. They were doing well at keeping the horde back, so Nathan told him to toss the spent mags and gave him five more.

He was aware enough of his surroundings as more police and sheriff vehicles pulled up. He nodded in the direction of one that pulled up right behind them. Kyle was completely oblivious.

As he returned to his tripod and started to fire, he spoke to his friend, informing him that he’d have to be careful if they needed to flee. There were a lot of vehicles.

Thankfully, the new officers that arrived did little more than give them the odd look before joining everyone else with another rifle and unloading on the horde of monsters.

His AR as well as everyone else’s easily handled the range, but it didn’t have the best stopping power for the job. A .556 was a high velocity round, but small. There were many rifles, and handguns for that matter, that did more physical damage to the human body. That made accuracy important.

If he had to pick one thing to really be thankful for, it was the fact that these monsters were at the lowest level. The same creatures were just a minor evolution away from being extremely difficult to kill with anything but the highest caliber rifles. These same ARs would be almost useless in the tower after the first floor.

He continued to focus on tearing through the frontrunners in every major pack of the creatures. It wasn’t long before he noticed Kyle was slowing. He too was feeling some fatigue, but he had pushed himself early in the week to get the initial soreness in his trigger pull out of the way. Even then he was still switching between his middle and index fingers.

“Pace yourself,” he warned his friend.

It was a small miracle that they weren’t forced to retreat. Seeing how good things were going, he asked Kyle to, “Grab some mags from the back seat and take them to the Sergeant. Move slow and be loud about it so that you don’t startle them.”

He wasn’t sure how many rounds the officers had, but he was confident he had far more.

His friend didn’t hesitate to do as he asked. It seemed fatigue was really catching up with him. In almost every way he was in as good of shape as Nathan, but he had been firing at a rapid pace and wasn’t used to it.

Kyle returned a minute later. The Sergeant was with him. Seeing what was in their trunk, the man just blinked before nodding to himself.

Nathan lifted his voice to be sure the man could hear him. “There’s more in the back seat.” Turning back to the horde, his expression darkened at what he saw. He quickly emptied his current mag before switching it out for the .30-06.

The rate of fire slowed as officers started calling out to each other after they saw it as well. It was a new demon, two heads taller than the rest. Instead of a skinny, taut torso, this one was thickly muscled with small horns on the side of its head in place of ears.

The sergeant cursed before taking a few more mags from the back seat and running off.

It was then that the drawback of having so many people helping showed itself. Not just one, but two, maybe three AR rounds struck the evolved demon.

Jumping back and to the side, it shook itself while scanning the horizon. It spotted them almost immediately. Instead of running at them like a brain-dead zombie, it lowered itself and hid behind the other monsters, weaving through them as it came.

“Try and down the things in front of the big one,” Nathan called out to Kyle.

“Got it.”

Nathan had several five round mags ready for the bolt action, but there weren’t near enough of them to waste ammo, and he had no idea how many of the higher-level demons would show up.

Focusing on his breathing, he took his time.

Kyle wasn’t the only one taking aim at the evolved mob. Thankfully, the number of demons it could hide behind was thinning quickly. He was careful not to get too excited.

Breathe. Breathe.

When the creature finally became visible, he didn’t fire right away. It jumped sideways. It was the reaction he was waiting for. With a smooth trigger pull, he struck the monster high on the chest just under the throat. It took a few more steps, then seemed to tense up before it fell dead.

“Yeah,” Kyle screamed, forgetting his voice cut straight through the headset and into Nathan’s ear.

“Dude.” Nathan had it turned up louder than he should have because there were so many rifles going off.

“My bad.”

A few minutes later, Nathan realized there were no longer any new monsters exiting the portal and they had thinned the number drastically. It looked like they might actually pull it off. The only disconcerting thing was that their rate of fire had dropped drastically. Some of the officers may have been out of ammo, but he suspected most of them were like Kyle and weren’t used to firing off hundreds of rounds back-to-back without stopping.

He was once again switching between ARs. Even if the others had slowed, he didn’t dare. The system would offer points for the best performance, most kills, support of others, etc.. He was sure he had dropped as many as anyone else, including the boss monster. Sharing his ammo would also be considered further assistance, as would calling the police, arming Kyle, and so on. One of the reasons he had gotten Kyle to take the mags to the officers was to get his friend in on the sharing bonus.

Before it was over, his right hand was cramping up, so he’d switched to shooting with his left hand. At least, for the trigger pulls. It was something he normally wouldn’t even try, but the tripod made it viable.

When there were only a few more left, he was the last one firing. He glanced back to see about ten officers standing behind him and off to the side with Kyle watching. They were all armed, but half of them were favoring one hand.

Returning his attention to his rifle, he fired two more shots, then scanned the field. He didn’t see anything getting back up, so he totted the rifle back to his trunk, placed it in its case, then shook out his hands.

As soon as it was done, the group congratulated him—and themselves—on pulling it off.

“I nearly melted my barrel,” one officer sniffed. “No wonder you kept it going. Switching between two was smart.”

“What I want to know is why exactly you seemed ready for this,” the sergeant said, but despite the implied accusation, he held out his hand.

Nathan took it, finding he lacked almost all grip strength to shake it. He wasn’t the only one.

“Sergeant Mires.”

“Nathan,” he said, shaking the man’s hand. “Thank you for showing up when you did. As for your question… I knew this was going to happen.”

The sergeant shifted uncomfortably when Nathan started to explain. It wasn’t just him that knew, but so did the local mayor. He asked for the sergeant’s email, then forwarded him the information he’d prepared for his family and friends.

“This will explain what is about to happen. Send it to everyone on your contacts. That goes for everyone here. If you have kids under eighteen, you’ll remain here until they’re of age. The email will mainly help you and those that remain. The system will reach out to you as well. The rest of us are about to port into our personal chambers for the first time and our initiation will begin.”

He was bombarded with questions and doubt, but he wasn’t as young as he looked. At least, he been thirty-two the first time he died. As for being intimidated by the surrounding officers, he was actually as comfortable as could be. He’d been a high rank player before his rebirth, which was really just a soldier by a different name.

He explained the best that he could, but it wasn’t long before he held up his hand to stop them. “It’s about to happen.” Turning to Kyle, he gave him a direct look. “I’ll contact you in a week. Take your time choosing your path, and just try to have the Contact System Trial done, otherwise you won’t have a way to respond. You’ll be able to contact your family after that as well.”

His friend was literally shaking with adrenaline, but also fully engaged. “You got it, man. I’ll see you soon.”

There was one email he almost didn’t send but decided to do it just in case. It was pre-addressed to every news organization he could get his hands on. Not that he believed any of them would bother checking their email after what was about to happen.

After pushing send, he recognized the familiar tingle of qi surrounding him. “Here we go,” he announced. The next moment, almost half of the people standing there were gone.