Error. User currently unavailable for release. Please step out of the chamber in order to be released. Time until forceful ejection: 2:00

Shit. Already?

Liz glanced around the room. The wall closest to her had shifted slightly from its former appearance, gaining specks of shimmering purple that she interpreted to mean an exit.

She shuffled over to it, still marveling at the movements of her legs, at placed a hand onto the surface.

Would you like to exit the chamber?

She shook her head, taking a step away. She still had two minutes, and she would take advantage of every second of those.

Open.

The shop flickered into existence before her, and she hastily entered in a myriad of mental commands.

Maps.

If she was going to be transported back into the cabin, she would need a clear trail to civilization. And while New York was peppered with cities throughout the state, it was always better to be safe than sorry.

She bought a basic map of the area and moved on.

Survival gear.

There weren’t any cars at the cabin, which meant that she would need to go on foot at least as long as it took her to find one. And if she was going through the dozens of miles of countryside between her and the nearest city, she would need some basic camping gear.

A knife, rope, and sleeping bag appeared in front of her, and she thanked her lucky stars that her notes were worth so much to the Void.

1:30

However, she wasn’t just going to be surviving in the wild.

How dangerous is the average voidspawn?

As if reacting to her thoughts, the shop displayed a single item.

Voidspawn Encyclopedia - Acolyte’s Edition

She mentally clicked on it. That would be very useful in the long term, but it didn’t solve her current problem.

She needed something she could actually defend herself with.

Weapons.

Her first thought was a gun, and the shop automatically shifted to an array of pistols.

She mentally clicked on one, and a message flashed before her eyes.

Pyririan Model .40 Pistol (Void Adjusted) Trade rejected. Pyririan Model .40 Pistol (Void Adjusted) worth more than current payment.

She cursed. All of the options seemed to be too expensive, and without a gun, things were about to get a lot harder. She glanced back at the time.

1:00

What else could she use?

She clenched her fists, feeling the weakened force of her grip. She could use her healing powers to get a temporary boost of power, but right now she couldn’t rely on that to fight. Not only did she not understand how the regeneration worked, but she didn’t have the dexterity necessary to fight up close yet. No, she needed something long-ranged until she could get her feet under her.

And while guns seemed to need to be ‘Void-Adjusted’, she thought she knew something that wouldn’t need to be.

Crossbows.

The shop flickered, and her eyes lit up. There were a lot more options than she thought, and even some more exotic-looking ones that couldn’t have been from Earth. She clicked one that looked simple but powerful and bought a couple packs of bolts to match.

While she had never fired a crossbow before, she understood the physics behind them like the back of her hand — store an extraordinary amount of energy beforehand, so that when you release the bolt it goes flying at a deadly speed. It was the same concept as when sprinters primed themselves on blocks, only this acceleration was far greater, and concentrated in a small, bullet-like point.

0:30

“Alright, what else?” she muttered.

A quick glance at the pile that had she had accumulated told her that she needed something to store them with.

Backpacks.

A random, seemingly light and sturdy backpack landed in front of her, and she hurriedly stuffed the rest of the items into it.

0:15

She snorted. This really was like racing, huh? She did her best to hobble as fast as she could to the edge of the room, carrying the weight of the backpack on one arm.

0:03 0:02 0:01 Would you like to exit the chamber?

“Yes!”

Just as the timer clicked down to zero, the world shifted around her.

* * *

Area: Williamsburg City - Minimum Rank: F+, Maximum Rank: E+ Warning! Your rank is currently lower than this area’s minimum Threat Level. It is suggested that you evacuate.

Rich had been staring at the System screen in front of him for nearly half an hour. Despite the voices speaking in his head, despite the tide of black that had enveloped the sky, it still seemed to surreal to him. It couldn’t have been real. It just couldn’t.

But it was, and in his hesitation, he hadn’t made any transactions. All around him, people explored their Marks or magical items, but he was stuck as a normal human, just a bystander in the literal apocalypse.

“Richard!”

He blinked, finally snapping from his trance. The person who had spoken was Jim Maddock, a professional boxer who he had been chatting with before the Void had struck.

“We’re going to see what exactly the voidspawn are like, and hopefully defeat a few.” The man cracked his knuckles, a grin spreading over his face. “What Mark did you choose?”

“I… I didn’t choose anything. I didn’t even use the shop…”

The man frowned, a look of pity flashing on his face. “Well, you can still come out with us. You’ve got solid strength and combat training. Just take a knife with you or something.”

Rich shook his head. “No, Jim, I really don’t think that’s a good idea. Did you see the message? It said that the creatures in this place can get up to E+ in ranking. What’s your threat level right now?”

Jim stared at him. “Well, it’s F+, but that’s just because the stupid System won’t recognize my strength yet! Dude, look at the Mark I got.”

He flexed his arm, and it gradually turned to dark-grey stone. To prove his point, he smashed it against the ground, cracking a floor tile.

“How is anything going to survive a punch from me now?”

“Jim, I really don’t think…” Rich pleaded, but the other man cut him off.

“Look, I know what I’m doing, alright? I fight shit for a living.”

Other humans, in a controlled environment, Rich mentally added, but in the end he didn’t really have many other choices.

He had friends and family out there, at the mercy of the Void. His mom, his siblings… and Sarah. He knew that he should have been more worried for Liz, but somehow he pictured that even if she hadn’t found a way of shedding her spine injury, she’d still kick voidspawn ass while in a wheelchair. Sarah, on the other hand, was a much softer soul. She wasn’t an athlete, like he or Liz were, and the most physical rigor she’d gotten was going on occasional runs with her dog.

The only way he'd be able to help them was by getting stronger, and that meant killing voidspawn.

So, just a scant few minutes later…

“Whoah, I think I see one!”

They had just left the athletics center, and Jim was currently leading a group of about a dozen people out into the destroyed streets. Rubble and overgrown foliage covered the entirety of their surroundings, but that didn’t stop Rich from immediately spotting the creature in question.

It was a wolf the size of a man, covered in pitch-black fur and bristling with aggression.

Dire Wolf - Threat Level: E(?)

A low growl reverberated from across the street, and Jim stepped towards it, his fists raised up in a boxing stance.

“I’ve got this.”

A slew of cheers rose up from their group, but Rich couldn’t join them. He was too worried about what was going to happen next.

As the two figures got within ten paces of each other, the wolf charged.

Jim instantly reacted, sidestepping and pivoting out with a lightning-fast stone fist. The punch hit the dire wolf with devastating force... and the wolf struck back, knocking the man over with a bat of its paw.

Jim skidded across the rough concrete, but the wolf wouldn’t let up, relentlessly pursuing its tasty human morsel.

“Jim!” Rich shouted. They needed to do something!

A woman beside him launched a fireball at the creature, but it easily dodged, growling at their group as it neared Jim’s prone form.

On the ground, the man was trying to harden his entire body, but it was going too slow. Only his top half had transformed, and the wolf was already on top of him.

It opened its jaws, and —

A spear of golden light shot through it. Rich gasped, and a single man leapt through the ruined cityscape, landing next to the creature with powerful thump.

Cameron Brown - Threat Level: D-

“Greetings, Second-Wavers! Don’t worry, help is on the way. I’m Cameron, and I represent the full might of the council of Ashley.”

* * *

An hour earlier...

A wave of darkness passed over an abandoned skyscraper, depositing hundreds of Second-Wavers exactly where they were before the Void had taken them. Confused screams scattered throughout the upper floors as office workers arrived back into reality, but on the ground floor, there stood a single man.

“My Mark of the Umbramancer… my Ancient Shadeslayer Blade… my 678 Spiritual Strength… it’s all gone.”

The man let out a shuddering breath.

“But I have a second chance.”

The Void slowly retreated from the building, but the man held out a hand, grasping onto the last dregs of shadow.

Then, with the entirety of his will, he commanded it to stop.

In this state, he shouldn't have been able to control the Void at all. His Mark was gone, and his pitiful spirit should have been no match for the crushing power of the Void. Any normal man's will would have crumbled within a millisecond.

But he was no green Second-Waver. He was the greatest Umbramancer on earth, forged from the very darkness that he was now trying to control.

More than that, though, he had seen the future.

Thousands of powerful Marked, lying before him in bloody heaps. Millions of corpses, spread out over the length of continents. His closest friends and family, crushed under the foot of an incomprehensibly giant beast.

They had called for his help. They had pleaded with the beasts, begging the Void to spare them. Men and women who held the power to level entire cities, reduced to groveling servants.

They hadn't been spared.

The shadows thrashed, and he roared, his vision swirling with System messages. Something flashed on the back of his neck, and he strained even further, reaching deeper into the Void’s depths.

Open.

The Void rushed back into the room, swirling around him like a raging typhoon. His eyes shifted to a canvas of pure black, and a symbol flickered into existence on the back of his hand.

“I have been reborn before the collapse of humanity. Before they learned of the fate of the Fourth Wave, before the appearance of the Calamity Titans.”

The Void visibly shifted, bending into a hundred blades of razor-thin shadow.

“And I will change the future.”