Clover waited at the edges of a meeting, listening to people talk - countless voices arguing over meaningless things. The talking dragged on as these types of things usually do. He wasn’t sure if it was his System enhanced Perception or his imagination, but a clock incessantly ticked in the background, distracting him from what they were saying. Each second he wasted here was a second he’d never get back. He was eager to get started already.

He fiddled with a small piece of clay, shaping it into a bird.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 21.

Clover took a deep breath, he had only a limited amount of time left on this Earth, but with all the Levels he had gained yesterday, surely he had bought himself some extra time. He wasn’t sure how much exactly, but it was definitely enough to sit through a meeting.

In short order, the meeting ended, and people divided themselves into groups - their tasks for the day assigned. Clover let out a sigh of relief. Finally, it was over. Of course, he was also given a job. There wasn’t much room for people to skate by doing nothing in the apocalypse. Not everyone volunteered to work, but a sizable majority did.

Clover wheeled to an area filled with stacked cardboard boxes - his group had been told to meet here. Claire waved at him. Behind her Jeb, the gate guard he had saved yesterday, someone he didn’t recognize, and Paul, the strange guy who was good at [Mana Bolt], sat on folding chairs.

“Good morning,” Clover said, as charismatically as possible - following the sage advice of a Youtube video he had watched ages ago by making his voice deeper. First impressions were important. He was determined to make a good one.

“Are you alright? Do you need some water?” the man he didn't recognize asked with a raised eyebrow.

Clover flinched backward as if physically struck. Had the man on the internet lied to him? Devastating.

He coughed once, playing off the strange voice he had made. ”I’m fine. I just had something in my throat.”

To his relief, everyone seemed to buy his excuse. Inwardly, he promised to never make this mistake again - no more deep voices for him.

“Now that we’re all here, we should go around and introduce ourselves since we’re going to be working together today,” Paul said. He wore a new baseball cap today - Clover didn't recognize the team logo.

Clover didn’t volunteer to go first. At night he was still haunted by the time he had messed up an introduction in the second grade. Ten years later, he still remembered how he had gotten his own name wrong.

It was a general trend in his life - messing up social interactions. He wasn’t bad at them per se; he just didn’t have a lot of practice.

“All right, I’ll start,” Paul said. “I’m Paul Neman. My favorite color is green, and before all this happened, I was a construction worker. I like sports. Oh, and I like [Mana Bolt]. It's fun to blow stuff up with it.”

Clover gave a polite clap - the others joined him.

“Hi, I’m Jeb Bedder. I used to be a car salesman. I took [Strike], so I can hit things kinda hard now.” He smiled at Paul. “Which is fun.” Jeb adjusted his suit tie - slightly torn from yesterday's events. “Last night, I had a nightmare I was late to work. I’m not sure what that says about me.”

Another round of claps followed. Clover enjoyed clapping.

“I’m Ron Burgermen. Before you ask, I know it's a weird name. No, I didn’t choose it, and yes, I have considered changing it,” the words quickly spilled out of his mouth, so familiar to his tongue that he didn’t even have to think to say them. “I don’t like hamburgers, and I have [Healing Touch], so I can patch you up if something goes wrong. Not that anything will. I hope.”

Clap. Clap. Clap.

“I’m Claire. I like books - mainly spy and fantasy novels. I was supposed to go to my first year of university at the end of summer, but that’s not going to happen now.” She shrugged. “Last night, I unlocked a new Skill, so I should be especially good at beating the crap out of small monsters.”

Huh, Clover thought she was older than that. They were probably around the same age.

Everyone had introduced themselves - it was his turn. The boy in the wheelchair swallowed his saliva. “I’m Clover,” he said, making sure to pronounce his name correctly. He didn’t want to go another year with people calling him Blover. “I like watching TV, and I have these golems.” He made Mr. Cat, the Second, run in a circle. The other golems sat on either side of his chair, guarding him.

The group clapped after Clover’s short introduction ended.

Finally, they moved on to discussing their mission. His group had been assigned the task of retrieving supplies from a local grocery store. Which wasn’t particularly hard in of itself, but the store was quite a ways away, which meant if a wave of monsters attacked, they would have to deal with it themselves.

Though, everyone on the team was a high Level, at least compared to the average of the factory. They should be able to handle whatever came their way as long as they were smart.

Really, this was killing two birds with one stone, he’d collect food which would lower the chances of a riot breaking out in the factory, and at the same time, he’d kill monsters, raising his Level.

They briefly went over their plan.

“Clover, not to be rude, but are you sure you should come with us? You could die,” Ron said, his eyes focused on Clover's wheelchair.

“Don’t worry about him. Clover’s the strongest one here. He's the only reason I'm still alive - I want him here,“ Jeb said before Clover could respond.

Clover smiled. Jeb had exaggerated a bit, as all car salesmen tend to do, but he appreciated the praise.

“He’s tougher than he looks,” Claire added.

Paul nodded. “Let’s go. The sooner we finish, the better. I don’t want to be stuck working all day.”

They moved towards the gate - someone else had taken over Jeb's role of gate guard.

Clover glanced around the factory one last time; Stav was still missing. The old man hadn’t returned to his bed last night. He shook his head.

“Eventually everyone will have to fight. I’m just choosing to do it now - while I still have a chance,” Clover said.

You can’t hide from fate forever.

They left the factory and entered the parking lot surrounding it. Yesterday, while he was asleep, a defensive perimeter of broken cars had been set up. Already groups were working, adding another layer to the wall of metal.

They loaded into a large white delivery van - it looked like the type of car that someone would abduct small children in. Luckily, no one in their group was into that sort of thing. He entered through a ramp that descended from the back two doors. It was easy to get in, but he wouldn’t be able to make a speedy escape.

With everyone, including the golems in the car, Jeb turned the ignition the engine hummed to life. Off they went into the unknown.

Clover gazed out the tinted windows, watching the city pass by. His reflection looked back at him; it didn’t look right. Something was off about it. He unraveled the thick wrap of white bandages on his head and poked his jaw. Maybe he had lost a bit of weight? His features were slightly more defined. Unable to put a finger on the source of the feeling, he ignored it - a tried and true solution to most problems.

The van bounced as it went over a bump in the road. They weren’t going fast - the roads were somewhat clogged with debris, and they were on the lookout for monsters. Though, like yesterday morning, the streets were abandoned, making it easy to get to their destination. Before long, they passed the other half of the hospital. The corpses of mutated animals lined the ground, evidence of the battle that had taken place here.

Birds and other small scavenging animals picked at the monster’s remains, pulling meat from the bone.

“Sorry for not helping you with that last bit. Is your brother alright?” Clover asked. Clover wasn’t sure if he actually would have followed Claire through the mass of monsters. It was debatable at best, but he thought it right to apologize anyways. There was no reason not to.

“It’s fine. I probably shouldn’t have run off without saying anything. Besides, if you hadn’t helped me get a gun, I wouldn’t have been able to get into the hospital. As for my brother, he’s alright - a bit shook up but fine. Right now, he’s sleeping. With all he’s been through, I don’t think he’s waking up anytime soon.“

A trio of birds with blood-red eyes stopped their feast and turned their heads to watch as the van passed by.

Despite their ominous surroundings, their journey continued without any problems. Really, his only complaint was that there were only two seats, leaving him to bounce around awkwardly in the back.

After a mile or so, the modern cityscape abruptly ended. Quite unnaturally, the large glass buildings gave way to fields of grass spotted with the occasional house. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. To the left, a whole residential housing community had been teleported, picket fences and pools in all, into the expansive grass field.

But that wasn’t what caught his attention - now that his vision wasn’t obstructed, he could see far into the distance. Miles away, a forest with large twisting trees wrapped around the perimeter of the city for as far as he could see. There definitely hadn’t been a forest there before.

At least from this side, they were trapped - cut off from the outside world. Odds were, the military wasn’t coming to help them. Who knew where the System had teleported them?

The black asphalt road continued uninterrupted through the changing environment. They followed the path through the grass till they reached the grocery store. It wasn’t right on the road, but the terrain was mild enough for them to cut through the field without any problems.

To the side of the store, by a patch of flowers and overgrown grass, the tractor he had seen wading through hordes of monsters on the first night had broken down - its owner was nowhere to be seen.

He wondered what had happened to its driver.

“All right, let’s be quick. Avoid unnecessary fights. We don’t want a repeat of yesterday,” Ron said as Jeb parked the car.

“Yes, I’d like to avoid almost dying again,” Jeb said. The car salesman stared out the window with squinted eyes, thoroughly searching his surroundings before leaving the safety of the vehicle.

“Got it,” Clover replied. The back doors opened, and Clover and his golems exited. He took a deep breath, savoring the fresh air, then focused. Everything looked calm and peaceful, but it wasn’t. At any moment, he could be attacked.

Clover scanned the area for threats. There weren’t any outside, but that wasn’t reassuring. Monsters seemed to like to stay indoors during the day.

As a group, they filtered into the grocery store. It was small compared to Walmart - not nearly as majestic.

Not even a minute after they entered the building's shadow, Clover heard an animal squeak to his left. Immediately, he used [Track]. The Skill put up a paltry resistance, but it quickly folded. He was getting used to using magic.

Congratulations! Track has reached Level 8.

Red footsteps sprung up from the white tile floor, leading to the cereal aisle. “Watch out; I think there are monsters over there,” Clover quietly said as he pointed.

“Oh shit, what do we do?” Ron whispered so loud that Clover wasn't sure if it could still be considered a whisper. After hearing the news, Ron had immediately taken cover behind a vending machine. Though that wouldn't help him much, he was the closest one to the cereal aisle.

“Blow them up, of course,” Paul said, much less concerned.

“You can do that?” Ron whispered back.

“No. I wish; that would be cool. I was speaking metaphorically.”

Before Paul could explain what the hell he meant, an impossibly large scaled squirrel with two fully grown snakes attached to its back showed its face. More popped out behind it. After a tense moment, the approximately seven low-Level monsters made a strange sound - a partial mix between a snake’s hiss and a squirrel’s squeak, then they charged toward Ron.

Adrenaline surged through Clover as he thrust his hand outward. Paul was already firing into the crowd. After taking a second to aim, he used [Mana Bolt: Barrage]. The monster didn’t dodge, either too dumb to bother or unaware of the threat the magic posed. Two bolts of Mana struck the Scaled Squirrel in the chest, crushing bone and cracking its scales in a spray of blood.

The Level 1 monster collapsed - its charge halted.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt Barrage has reached Level 3.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached Level 17.

Clover blinked. It was that easy? The monster wasn’t dead. Still, the quick attack had taken it out of commission, at least for a little bit.

He kept his gun in its holster. He didn’t need it yet.

He ordered his golems to attack, leaving the specifics to them, and continued shooting into the crowd of monsterized nut stealers. Partial Exp Kill Notifications streamed in as he and Paul rapidly whittled down the Scaled Squirrels numbers.

Those that got close were promptly bobbed on the head by Jeb. Taking them down with a heavy application of [Strike].

To their left, three more Scaled Squirrels joined the fight. “I got it,” Claire said. An orange sparking fire burst to life in her hands.

“You were the one who lit the chair on fire?” Clover asked.

“No, that was someone else with fire powers,” Claire responded with a slight blush. She launched the attack, setting the squirrels aflame.

A loud crack rang out as Bob the Elephant cannonballed himself onto the head of a fallen Scaled Squirrel, imitating the form of a drunk middle-aged man at the pool.

Congratulations! You have slain a Scaled Squirrel - Level 1. +100 Exp.

His other golems attacked an already dead squirrel.

To the sound of burning monsters, Clover continued using [Mana Bolt], finishing off the last of the monsters charging Ron.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached Level 17.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached Level 18.

Congratulations! Class: [Blank] has reached Level 9. +5 Stat Points.