Chapter 4 – Survival of the Fittest

One moment Luke was standing in the small, odd office and the next he was in an open-air tower with arched walls that let out onto a breathtaking view of ruins, mountains, valleys, plains, and forests in different directions.

It looked like a kingdom of great beauty that had fallen to seed thousands of years ago.

A breeze whipped around the tower, ruffling his black cloak. The brisk, fresh air filled his lungs.

He wasn’t used to it, not where he lived and worked at any rate. Smog wasn’t as big a problem as it had been, but this was… supernaturally clean. It felt good to breathe in.

His apartment never had this good of a view for sure.

Luke took a few moments just breathing in the refreshing cool breeze and drinking in the panoramic view. Flashes of light caught his eye, and he saw several other towers, miles off, filled with groups of people.

He did his best to track distances between them. He used the mountains of rubble, the curving once-glorious architecture, and the buildings with holes in them that gaped like skulls at him as landmarks to orient himself.

Dark shapes moved in and out of the scattered ruins below, too far to see clearly. Whatever they were, they didn’t seem human.

A nearby flash of light as tall as a person had him reaching for his sword instantly. This is it,he thought soberly.

“Luke?!” It was Johnathan Case. Because of course it was. Who else would be able to look better than Aragorn himself in that green Archer’s cloak?

Before Luke could say anything, or even relax, he was wrapped up in a tight hug by the senior developer turned Archer. “Oh man! It’s so good to see you!”

With another flash of light, Dexter Banks tumbled forward, wearing a gleaming bronze breastplate and a helmet with a longsword strapped to his hip. “Woah, where’d that chick go?”

John was there in a flash, helping him up to his feet. “What chick?” he asked. “I was talking to some middle-aged guy.”

Before they could speak further, more flashes fired off. Luke shielded his eyes, knowing what to expect, but still found himself blinking spots out of his eyes.

Half of the people in his tower were screaming or shrieking over one another. A quick glance at the other towers showed Luke that more people were arriving, though he couldn’t tell for sure since his eyes were still dancing with purple spots.

Luke was still reeling from the surprise that he wasn’t in the middle of a group of strangers. It was nice to be around familiar faces.

For some reason, he expected to end up in this new multiverse utterly alone.

Most of the people he knew. They were all from his office, even if he didn’t interact with most of them on the daily. Aside from Dexter, Alison, Alden, John, and Janet, there were 6 other people making for a total of 12.

Maybe who I’ve ended up with is proximity based, Luke guessed.

Everyone nearby appeared to have successfully picked a class. Since the initialization happened to everyone on Earth, there was no doubt some people would be panicking too much to make a sensible choice.

Maybe some people didn’t even manage to sign. It chilled his blood, thinking of all those people potentially left behind.

It was pretty easy to spot each person’s class, if only because they all had at least a part of their iconic equipment on them. The effect was slightly spoiled by the khaki slacks or skirts that were worn beneath the armor.

Rachel Harris, assistant to Alden Tate, clutched a spellbook as if it was her yellow legal pad, her tattered mage robes shimmering with silver thread picked out on a background of blue velvet.

The Big Man, Alden Tate himself, had clearly trained for this in whatever C-Suite training course executives take because he quickly put a stop to all the stammering and talking over one another. He organized them into sub-committees by checking out what classes everybody had.

It turned out that they had two of each class, a statistically implausible result in Luke’s eyes. Then again, there were several people who might have worked in the same building but were definitely not part of his group.

Perhaps the System balanced things to give them a better shot?

That can’t be a good sign. If an uncaring multiverse gave them a fighting shot, then there must be a damn good reason for it.

Naturally, Tate tapped John to be his Number Two, much to the annoyance of his assistant who merely satisfied herself by scowling at the back of John’s perfect head.

“Your people play these sorts of games, right? I went to see that dungeons movie recently,” Tate said. “Anybody here play dungeons and dragons?”

A few hands tentatively went up. Luke decided to keep his own counsel, which got him more than a few looks from his co-workers who had seen him playing games on his work computer during breaks.

There was no need to bring unwanted attention to himself.

For once, he was banking on his superpower of anonymity to help keep him out of the limelight. He didn’t know what to expect, but he was pretty sure that being noticeable was going to be a one-way ticket to an early grave.

He was surprised to find himself tingling with excitement, the likes of which he hadn’t felt since he competed in the regional fencing bouts.

He wanted to test out these new powers, determine what stats did, and get his first level already. The first few would be integral, and the faster he got them, the better.

But once again, he was stuck with his coworkers, listening to what his bosses wanted to say. He hoped it would at least be useful.

The panel of “experts” were placed beside John and Alden as people rattled off questions at them. They did their best to answer, and Luke got more than a few interesting tidbits.

He hadn’t thought to ask about the stats, and it seemed a few people had. Not enough to get a full glimpse of what they all do, but he learned that Vitality gave 10 points of HP, Wisdom 10 points of MP, and Endurance 10 points of SP.

Beyond that, it was anybody’s guess. He had already guessed at their sources due to his stat spread hardly hiding anything. He doubted that Wisdom would increase his HP, the only other stat equal to his Vitality, but it was always good to get confirmation.

Luke looked at his stats again and frowned when his Dexterity still showed 8. Maybe they round down, he guessed. He’d know with a single level of Rogue. That 5% boost from his [Ambidextrous] skill would bump it up to 11.

Surreptitiously pressing a hand to his belt, Luke counted a dozen small throwing knives nestled there. Good, he didn’t need to expend mana yet to make new ones–something he still didn’t know how to do.

A shimmering blue light rolled out from some central location to the west–assuming the sun rose and fell in the same direction as on Earth–washing over each of them just as Alden was about to say something.

[Assessment Test]

Duration: 30days, 24h:0m:0s

Assessment Type: Survival

Your standing within the Company and subsequent debt forgiveness is wholly dependent upon the ranking you achieve by the end of the assessment period. Loyalty Points (LP) are earned by killing creatures or other interns, the amount split between eligible combatants. A portion of an intern’s currently held LP, based on remaining interns, is awarded to their killer.

LP can be used in the Company Shop to purchase a wide assortment of goods, but be warned that doing so might cause your ranking to shift as points are lost and gained across the assessment field.

Rank is based on the number of remaining interns, Loyalty Points, and level at the end of the assessment. Additional rewards will be given to the top 10 in each of the following categories: Most Loyalty Points, Highest Level, Most Kills, Most Loot Pilfered, and Last Survivor.

What calm Alden and John had been able to establish was instantly shattered. People started to shout and talk over one another as they read the impossible magical message before them.

So that’s what the debt is for, Luke thought. We have to work it off in this… competition? Test? Strangest onboarding program ever?

Janet screamed and pointed at a nearby tower, her free hand flying to her mouth in horror.

They all turned to watch as a group of people–likely another dozen–scuffled and fought amongst each other. A shining flash of metal caught the late afternoon sun, and a body went tumbling over the edge of the tower.

It sank out of view, blessedly hidden by a half-crumbled dome of a long-dead building.

Alden clapped his hands to get their attention. “Listen up people, I don’t know what’s going on any more than you do, but I do know that our goal is to stay together. Humans have banded together since the ice age. Let’s not turn on each other now.”

“Well said,” John chimed in. “We’re not savages, whatever that message said. It also said we’ll get LP split up amongst us for fighting monsters, right? Well, there’s nothing that says we have to fight things. This is a pretty defensible location. Tall, good sight lines, I say we hunker down and wait it out.”

Luke’s thoughts lingered on that defensible location bit. He had his doubts. They didn’t know what else was in the tower. Neither were they on the top. There was a domed roof over their heads. Anything could be up there.

Not to mention, the domed ceiling was uncomfortably dark.

“Our Archers and Rogues can go out and scavenge for food and supplies,” John continued. “There aren’t that many points of ingress. We’ll be fine.”

As John was soothing everybody back into a tentative calm, something was bothering Luke. He slowly tilted his head back to look up into the domed ceiling shrouded in shadow.

Something shifted and moved, a deeper darkness against the gray-black background.

“John…” he said softly, glancing around the tower and locking on to the spiral stairs at the edge that would descend deeper within.

John looked over. “What’s up, Luke? Got something to share?”

He nodded and very slowly pointed up. “I think we should go down very quietly and back away without making any noise.” He followed his own advice as he made his way to the stairs toward the edge of the tower.

The thing unfurled from the ceiling, revealing big leathery wings. Its gruesome, bat-like snout poked out of the darkness for more than just Luke to see.

It wasn’t waking up, merely shifting or shaking like a dog mid-sleep might, but that vital detail didn’t seem to reach Jefferey Grant.

He saw the great big creature, swallowed a lungful of air, and screamed as he pointed at it. “It’s a monster!”

Luke winced at the man’s stupidity.

They all watched in horrified silence as the creature, now fully roused from its slumber, dropped from the shadowy recesses and landed like a black leathery cloak on the Healer.

There was no time to react.

The creature took a bite out of his neck. A crimson spray fountained out of the wound, causing another round of shrieks and screams that brought more of the flying batlike creatures down from their roost in the shadows.

Luke drew his sword inelegantly, making sure to give the others room and to keep his eyes on the ceiling as it disgorged nearly a dozen monsters onto the group.

He was willing to bet that there were exactly 12.

We’ve been set up, Luke thought as another pair of coworkers were picked up bodily by the swooping bats. They were flown out over the edge of the tower and let go to fall to their death.

The Healer’s body collapsed bonelessly to the ground, his lifeless eyes glazed over. The monster’s eyes flared with a sinister red light.

The stairs were too far away and there was too much chaos to break through toward them. Luke steadied himself and held his scimitar in both hands, ready to fight.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t ready for the bulkily armored form of Tracy Beckman from accounting, who bowled into him. Luke, braced for an attack from above, hadn’t thought to defend against his own allies and sprawled to the ground painfully.

Something sharp gouged at his back, but his cloak dulled the pain to a slight annoyance. He turned to thank whoever had picked him up, and his stomach dropped out before he could utter a word.

[Dire Bat - Level 0]

Beating its purple-black leathery wings to flight, the monster clutched Luke in its talons and hauled Luke into the air out of the tower.

As soon as they were out of the tower with the ruined monuments of a long-dead city below them, the bat let go.

Luke plummeted to his death.