puddles4263

Chapter 544

Hank measure the man in front of him. Everyone who he had run into in Donnyton had a certain… something. It was purpose, Hank eventually decided, but the part of him that had been raised by Rick refused to let it lay at that. There was a certain surety about them, but it was more than that.

They were decisive and believed in what they were doing. However, that was tempered by the knowledge of their own weakness. It was a delicate balance and one that so many of them seemed to ea...

Chapter 543

Randidly chuckled wryly at the rewards for this Path. The attributes were a nice boost, but what was the focus of his attention were the allocatable stats. He wondered whether 6 was high, relatively speaking. In terms of rewards for Paths, it was undoubtedly high. But Randidly wondered if he gave Neveah an even bigger amount of power through his enormous stats.

This did remind Randidly that he needed to contact Neveah and see what she was up to. Obviously, she wasn’t in any dang...

Chapter 542

That previous chapter was a joke. It was a normal weekend. No sacrifices. Don't ask any unnecessary questions.

There were ten thousand people standing in front of him, gazing intently up at Donny. Donny kept his face neutral, impassive. The sunlight sent speckled stars of gold careening off of his armor. Honestly, Donny was surprised so many people were willing to look so directly at him, all things considered.

But the air was somber. There was a seriousn...

Status

No chapters tonight, as I'm visiting my girlfriend's family. So releases might be at weird hours while I'm there.

I'll get a release out Saturday. If I don't, assume I've been sacrificed in a cult.

Chapter 541

Donny steepled his fingers, his expression grave. “What do we know?”

“They knew the location of the mine. They knew its defenses, at least in the general sense. They knew the location of Tellumurite in the mines. They retrieved the Tellumurite. It’s hard to tell if they knew our shipping schedule, but they struck two days prior to the packing day. Therefore, they received five days worth of the mineral.” Mrs. Hamilton said smoothly as if she was checking off items from a...

Chapter 540

Tatiana looked at the kid in front of her with her eyes narrowed. “Step away from her. We appreciate your help, but we will take over now.”

A kid he was, even if he was built like a linebacker and carried an iron wrecking ball like it was just a balloon. He shook his head slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. The poor girl was sitting behind him on the ground, shivering. Tatiana knew rationally that the kid had probably carried the poor girl here, but now he was a violent male ...

Chapter 539

When Randidly presented his Porpoise to the man who handled all purchases on the drone plant, Henrik Doc, the man sighed in an extremely exaggerated manner. It seemed that everything the man did was exaggerated, from the way he dressed to the way he coifed his hair.

“This… is your first attempt, I suspect?” The man drawled, walking over to the Porpoise and flicking it. There was a clearing ringing, one that Randidly was somewhat proud of. It was made of a weaker derivative o...

Chapter 538

The facility where the drones were being researched and produced was a hundred times nicer than the place where Randidly was before. So much so that Randidly was getting a little annoyed as he walked around. Included on the premises were a cafeteria and a gym that could support weights up to a ton.

Partially, this was for the workers, but also it served as a convenient way to test the drones. Foreman Davey, who now wanted Randidly to just call him Davey, showed him the different l...

Chapter 537

I've struggled a lot with this chapter, for what I think are obvious reasons. Let me know what you think.

A knock at the door interrupted Randidly’s thoughts. Bemused, he stood and walked to the door. The last time someone had interrupted his work he had been press-ganged into the military for a day. What could it be this time…?

To his surprise, it was Sonya standing there when he opened the door.

“What are you doing?” She asked him with a f...

Chapter 536

Decklan sighed. “This was fun. Do you really have to go so soon.”

The man covered in the strange liquid obsidian chuckled. His right arm was cut to the bone, but he didn’t seem particularly bothered by how useless it was at his side. “Don’t play coy. We both know that an operational sortie from Donnyton can get here within 10 minutes. There isn’t enough time to see which of us is the winner.”

“I would say the judges are unanimously in my favor,” Decklan sai...

Chapter 535

Tera snatched one of her knives out of the corpse of a nearby monster and flicked her wrist. That knife materialized within the neck of a bull that was charging at the newest member of their squad, who had fallen on his ass.

Decklan’s squad was not a numbered Squad, so sometimes it was hard to recruit from the normal people of Donnyton. Even recently, with such a huge influx of population into the area. Still, those people needed time to grow into their Paths and Skills, and adj...

Chapter 534

Randidly wished he was a puddle, so light and heat would evaporate into nothing and he could escape this place.

"Well, he may be an ass, but at least the foreigner sticks to his guns," Tatiana said dryly, looking at the large projector screen that was set up right next to the steel workers town. Most everyone who lived and worked there had awoken that morning, surprised to find a screen had been erected. Apparently it had been done by the Unity Church.

And after a sufficient...

Chapter 533

“Oh wow, how many years has it been?” Sydney said with a laugh, pouring two cups of tea. Then she raised her eyebrow at Ezekiel. “Still enjoy rum?”

Ezekiel’s smile was sharp as he examined the young woman in front of him who had once been his son’s playmate. She had certainly matured into a confident young woman, but that was not unexpected. Even when she was just a toddler, Ezekiel could tell from the way that Sydney led his son around that she would be a force of nat...

Chapter 532

Only two, but the second is a bit longer again. Also time off Rand, but now that I know where we are going, I needed to check in with most people to make sure they are in the right place. Plus, lots of Randidly coming up. 

Nathan considered saying something, perhaps saying some action to Thorn to save the lives of these foreign soldiers. Yet he stayed still, simply watching what transpired. When Thorn went through the laborious effort of raising its core o...

Status

No chapters tonight. I spent my usual writing time outlining the rest of this arc. Trying to keep all the different plotlines accounted for.

Well really, I'm just trying to figure out which ones to emphasize so the payoff at the end is that much better.

Expect three tomorrow!

Chapter 531

The first thing that occurred was relatively innocuous, but it made the squad leader’s skin crawl. Abruptly, they found themselves back where they started, with a no trespassing sign standing between them and the cabin. Below that sign, there was a smaller sign that said beware of dog.

“Illusions, as we thought.” His watch chirped. “And the drones are seeing the same thing you do; it looks like the Skill doesn’t work on you individually, but on the world itself. Troubles...

Chapter 530

And I'm back! Chapter 531 will be about 1.5x as long as usual, because I wanted to get that all out tonight.

For the first time in a long time, Randidly felt exhausted. The day had been long and full of trials. Although there was a strange intermittent humming from his Illusion, it seemed to have survived. Unfortunately, the mental troubles didn't seem to be very close to being over.

"This is where you live? I suppose I should have assumed from your bare ...

Chapter 529

It was becoming hard to direct the insects now, so Randidly largely let them go, buzzing too and fro, attacking monsters and leaving people alone. As he straightened, the old woman was there with her arms folded, regarding him frostily.

Sighing, Randidly said. "Look, you saw the notifications, right? A new magical apocalypse has hit earth. Everything is governed by the System. It lets you grow strong, but it also throws monsters like that at you. You were stuck in frozen time for ...

Chapter 528

One thing that Randidly noticed was that there were an absolutely mind-boggling amount of people stuffed into these apartment buildings. Likely, around one thousand a pop. His group alone would clear six of such buildings, with almost 90% of that group moving back towards the designated location. But rather than cheer Randidly up, this chilled him to his core.

Because the number they had been given was 10,000 people that they could save. Randidly estimated that he had already sent...

Chapter 527

“Senator Firefly, the floor is yours,” the Speaker said, sitting down in his chair, as Gary rose. Gary flashed a smile to the room and took his time slowly walking to stand at the podium in the center. His suit was charcoal with a maroon shirt and a crimson tie. After an offhand comment from Randidly, Ms. Terrygate had spent an increased amount of time sewing as she attempted to raise her Skill

At first, Gary had been dubious whether such effort was worth it, and whether sewin...

Chapter 526

“And what is our role?” Tatiana said. The group of volunteers stood around them, listening intently. They too wondered what exactly the military has in store for them.

Sergeant Phillip glanced at Tatiana, and then blinked, then looked at her again. Tatiana’s suggestive smile inched wider. It seemed that the good sergeant was so intent on his mission that he hadn’t truly looked at any of them. Now, he was momentarily struck dumb by Tatiana’s sensual appeal.

‘This ...

Chapter 525

Congratulations, your Skill is 30% complete. Please continue to provide a powerful image to assist in the formation of the Skill.

Randidly sighed. He couldn’t stall anymore, he would have to move to meet the military for the expedition soon. He had hoped that when he put his mind to it, it would not take too much effort to reform As the Sun Stills. But without the assistance of the battle against that spear-user who focused on the sun, he was having a hard time ...

Chapter 524

Idk what it was about writing in an airport, but I got weirdly political drama for a bit. Think of it as a narrative vacation?

Paolo and Kayle saw them off. Hank’s group would travel with the East End-ers South to their Village, and then would continue to Star Crossing, and take a Teleportation platform to Donnyton. Again, Hank was a little dubious about the process. But at least he understood why these people didn’t seem to have any vehicles; they could ju...

Status

No chapters tonight, but I think I'll try and release 6 between tomorrow and Wednesday. A reminder there will be no releases Thursday through Sunday, but I'll probably have some written for when I get back~

Chapter 523

So it was, about a month and a half since Randidly had arrived in the Zone, he had $9,670.00, and was just about to begin the smelting of what might be his final batch of metal as a steelworker when there was a knock at the door to his rented workroom.

Randidly paused. This… had never happened before. Was it Foreman Davey?

But when he opened the heavy metal door, there were two unfamiliar men in military uniforms. Both were wearing packs that contained expandable exosuits....

Chapter 522

It turned out that becoming friends with Randidly Ghosthound was one of the best decisions that Gary Firefly had ever made. Every he touched seemed to go well. He had inquired about Rand’s stats and Skills and had been refused with a bright smile. Still, Gary didn’t really care about the details. It was enough that this young man produced results.

Within the past three weeks, since Gary had met Rand, the young man had given him enough high-Level carcasses that West Providence ...

Chapter 521

Gary Firefly was a meticulous man. It was what earned him his job as a curator at the National History Museum, and it was what enabled him to best take advantage of the arrival of the System, letting him become a Senator. He ate the same breakfast every day: squeezed apple juice and sauteed spinach and peppers. It was the reason he had lived to the age of 58 before the System, and the reason he would continue living to be 100, now that he had used his stats to reinforce his Vitality and...

Q and A!

Gonna go live in a little less than an hour.

Will try and post a few chapters before then. 

Announcements

Just two quick announcements.

First, I'll have a Q and A session this Sunday in discord, at 2 PM Eastern time. I know it's short notice, but I'm on vacation the end of this month, so I can just have another in June now that there is a discord.

For those of you who cannot make it, comment your questions here, and I'll answer them.

Second, there should be discord roles associated with being a Patron now, so there is a Patron only channel. If you connect Patreon to discord, you should...

Chapter 520

Alan softly rubbed Jane’s hair. The sleeping girl stirred, but only a little, and rolled over.

“This is all for you, so you can be strong, far stronger than me,” Alan whispered. “This is all for you.”

His wristlet buzzed, and Alan withdrew his hand from rubbing his daughter’s hair; he didn’t want her to wake. His first reaction was annoyance, but then he noticed it was Ezekiel calling him, and his attention sharpened. Ezekiel hadn’t checked in with Ghost yest...