Leo stared at the baseball bat in his hand. He hoped for a weapon. But not like this. It could be categorized as a blunt weapon, yet his face couldn’t hide his disappointment. Even a mace would suffice for him, but a baseball bat was taking it too far. Leo sighed from the thought of the system pranking him. ‘Wait. Let’s not be too fast in judging,’ he stared at the aluminum bat and used Identify.

[Stein’s Experimental Aluminum Bat]

[A whim of a renowned artificer, enchanting a strange weapon from a distant world.]

[Level requirement: 1]

[Attack: +21]

[Effect: Str +1, Dex +1]

[Effect: Increase physical damage against human, demi-human, humanoid by 30%]

[Effect: Indestructible]

“I take that back,” Leo said, his lips slowly curving upwards. “The effects are pretty good except using it on a human is…” he lost his words. The effect was basically saying he would have no problem dealing with humans. “But hey, at least I don’t need to worry about it being broken.”

He swung a couple of times, having a feel of this new weapon of his. Leo wasn’t much of a baseball fan as he preferred gaming over anything else. Yet he did see a few clips of how those cleanup hitters swung their bats. And it was enough to be a reference for him to mimic it. It wasn’t exactly the same, but at least he got the posture right.

After a while, Ken got back half-naked with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

“Yo,” Ken said, baring his upper torso. For a small guy, he did pack a few muscles here and there. “Do you see this?” Ken pointed at his body.

“See what?” Leo confused.

“This man, the muscles. I’ve got muscles,” Ken said.

“We all have muscles, Ken, if we don’t, we can’t move, we can’t stand, we can’t—”

“Shut up, and hear me out,” Ken cut Leo off. “Before this, I’m a skinny-fat with a potbelly, and now…” again Ken showed off his lean abdomen.

“It must be the effect of strength,” Leo said. Fighting throughout the whole day wasn’t enough to get rid of those stubborn fats. Thus the only possible reason was the status points especially strength.

“Exactly,” Ken said, grinning over his new figure. “Now think about it. Since Charisma is the stat that kinda for the social type of class and spells like charming and shit, do you think it will help us turn into Chris Hemsworth?”

Leo fell into a daze for a while, processing the ridiculous idea proposed by Ken. Then he shook his head, “I don’t think that’s possible, but it might be possible becoming a bit good looking . . . but why Chris Hemsworth?” Leo asked.

“The man has beautiful hair. You can’t deny it after seeing it up close,” Ken explained. Remembering a time when he went to the first Thor movie premiere and saw the gorgeous man passing right in front of him.

Leo shook his head. “Enough of Thor. Right now, I have something important to tell you,” Leo said. “Have you distributed your new points?”

“Not yet, why?” Ken asked.

“It’s like this…” Leo explained the discovery in regard to Luck.

After listening to it, Ken didn’t hesitate and spared one point to Luck. And it happened. The same thing occurred as Ken was granted the same title and the list of rewards.

“So what are you going to pick?” Leo asked.

“Same as you,” Ken replied. “Kitchen knives aren’t going to cut it anymore.”

“Let’s just hope you won’t get something normal like this bat of mine,” Leo said.

Ken chose his reward, and a sword emerged out of thin air. It was a gladius, an ancient Roman sword. And Ken was beaming.

Leo, on the other hand, looked with disgust. Not towards the sword but at his trashy luck. He wanted nothing more than a cool-looking sword, but Ken got it first. ‘As always, life is never fair,’ Leo thought.

Ken admired the gleaming blade in his hand. It wasn’t light nor heavy. It felt just right in his grip. And compared to those kitchen knives, this gladius was at a whole nother level.

[Gladius]

[A short double-edged blade. Mainly used by the Ancient Romans soldiers.]

[Level requirement: 5]

[Attack: +36]

‘Don’t have any effect, but it's still a sword,’ Leo thought.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Ken said with a smile. Swinging it around with the audible sound of air being cut.

“I think you need a shield,” Leo said. “A tanker without a shield is hardly a tanker.”

“True. And I think I know what to do about that,” Ken said with a plan in mind.

“Good,” Leo turned around. Walking away to the door.

“Where're you going?” Ken asked.

“Sleeping,” Leo replied. “Today’s been a hard day, and I need all the sleep I can get.”

Leo went out and searched for anything that could be used as a substitute for a blanket. In the end, he took the tapestry hanging on the wall. It was big and wide, more than enough for a single man. Then his phone rang. It was his father, yet before he could pick it up, his battery went out. ‘The news must have reached dad.’ The indestructible main entrance showed what happened to the other side. And the chaos was surely noticeable as it was hard not to see a rhino rampaging in a lobby.

He went back to his cubicle as his charger was on his office desk. The door was pushed open, and the lights were still bright like it was daytime. Looking around, most of the cubicles were empty. He asked one of his co-workers, and he said most of them were hiding in the rooms. To them, out here was pretty much serving them to the beasts in a silver platter.

Leo found a seat in his cubicle and went on charging his phone. He opened his computer and tried to video call his father. It took a while, and his father answered. And boy, his father was glad to see him safe and sound. Leo reassured him that everything was fine, and after much advice from dear father, the call finally ended.

He laid the tapestry under the table and layered it to make it thicker for a good night's sleep. But before he did so, he paid a visit to the shower. The sweats and grimes were washed away by the cold shower. But as he went out of the washroom, someone had been waiting for him.

“Atwell wants to see you,” Kareena said. She appeared the same as before as she was too busy discussing the prospect of getting out of here with the higher echelon of the company.

“Can’t we do it tomorrow? I’m kinda lacking in sleep here,” Leo said.

“But it’s important, she wanted to—”

“Whatever I know you know, so there isn’t much to be discussed even if I see her,” Leo cut her off. “And if you trying to say that she wants me to train all these people then that would be a no.”

Kareena frowned. “Why not? Isn’t that the best way of getting out of here? You said it yourself, to escape here we need half of us to reach level ten.”

“I did say so, but I’m still not going to do it,” Leo said, passing by Kareena with their shoulders slightly touched. “A bigger group means a lot of heads. And where there’s a lot of heads, egos will clash. Knowing first hand how hard it is going through the jungle, I ain’t going to take the responsibility of babysitting a bunch of grown-ups.”

He did say that he wanted a bigger group, but not to the extent of being a whole company. It was quite burdensome to shoulder that role, and Leo was more comfortable with a smaller team with Ken and perhaps along with Kareena if she was up for it.

Then their eyes found each other.

“You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover,” said Kareena. “In this kind of situation perhaps the people will be more willing in cooperating.”

“And that’s where you’re wrong, babe,” Leo got closer to her and said, “people don’t change easily, and in this kind of ongoing tense situation, it’s every man for themselves.”

He sniffed around a bit and made a face. “I think you could use a shower, the smell is kinda…” before he could end his word, Kareena slapped him at the shoulders. Not once but many.

“You shouldn’t say that to a girl,” Kareena said, fuming. She had forgotten about the matter of Atwell as Leo poking her beehive was more infuriating.

Leo raised his palm in surrender. “Sorry not sorry, and now I need some sleep,” he said, grinning.

He left, and Kareena chased him. They exchanged banters for a while, and after Kareena noticed she had sidetracked from her initial purpose, she left to meet with Atwell.

Leo, on the other hand, found some fresh clothes in the office storage room. He thought of searching for something to use as a pillow, but he got something better. It was the clothes prepared for the canceled company’s athletic meet-up. Some kind of event to promote a healthy lifestyle for the employees. He adorned the simple tee and tracksuit pants, readied for a good night's sleep. Leo returned to his desk and lay on the tapestry. He hugged his new bat and fell asleep for the rest of the night.

He woke up the next day. The frown on his face showed it wasn’t a good start for a Tuesday morning. In the background, he heard people yelling at each other as if the whole world went down. Well, to be fair, it did. But it wasn’t that bad.

Leo got up with his bat and went to see what was going on. They were standing at the office entrance, arguing with one another. At one side, a group of his co-workers was prepped and readied with bags slung over their shoulders and in their hands something that was more or less useful for a weapon. On the opposite side, which was the loudest. They didn’t seem like they had any intention of coming out of the building.

“Are you guys crazy? You’re all going to die if you go out there,” said Karen. A brunette with her makeup still intact even after all the chaos from yesterday. “We should stay inside until the government knows how to rescue us.”

“But didn’t you listen to the announcement from Atwell? She said that to get out of here, we need to reach level ten,” Ben said. He was a man with broad shoulders and a figure that fit with the epithet of a bodybuilder.

“Don’t feed on her delusion. That woman is just going crazy from all the stuff that had been going. And with her job at stake, it’s enough to drive a cold bitch like her to go mad,” Karen said. Her arms crossed over her chest while feeding to her own denial and delusion.

“Stop denying it and just accept it, Karen. We all see those messages floating in our eyes. It could be a mass hallucination, but this? A whole building teleported to a jungle is not something mere hallucination could do,” Ben said, standing his ground. As he and the others had come to realize the severity of the situation. Then Ben’s eyes found Leo standing to the side, leaning at a cubicle. He remembered that time when he ran upstairs and saw Leo preparing to fight against the wild beasts.

“Leo,” he walked over and stood before the man with the bat. “Can you help us?” Ben’s eyes showed his sincerity.

Leo looked behind Ben and saw the rest of the men who were readied, numbering up to fifteen. It wasn’t surprising for them all to be men. He then sighed, knowing he couldn’t get out of this. “So, do any of you play an RPG game?”

He took them to the elevator corridor and discussed the overall plan. Leo explained everything about the role tanker, supporter, and everything in between so this group could get the gist of it. Surprisingly to him, most of them had never played an RPG game. So he took a bit of time explaining about their futures in regards to class choosing. Looking around at these co-workers of his, their choice of weapons left much to be desired. A broken table leg, a lamppost, a fruit knife from the pantry, and a swiss army knife were some of those things.

“First thing first, I need to get you guys some better weapons,” Leo looked up the emergency layout and found out there were more emergency boxes.

They went to the door but were stopped by some security guards.

“Guys, I need you all to stand back,” said one of them. His hand held out to them.

Ben frowned. “Haven’t you heard from Atwell? If we want to get out of here, we need to get through that door and fucking kill those beasts.” He couldn’t just stand around any longer.

“Sorry, sir. But I’ve got my orders,” said the security who had the last name Whitaker on his name tag.

“And it’s from Atwell, am I right? So we shouldn't have any problem getting through that door since the last announcement was an order from her,” Ben said. Stepping up to the security guard with his tone turning a bit aggressive.

“But my orders—”

“Quit with the orders and let them pass,” a voice came from the back. All eyes turned, and Leo noticed who it was. It was the head of security, Mr. Bauer.

“But Jack, Madam Vice-president told us—”

“I’d been informed by her. The new order is to let these men go and help them in every way we can,” said Jack Bauer.

“Good,” Leo said, approaching Jack, who was more or less his height. “Then you wouldn’t mind sparing a gun for us would you?” he grinned.

Jack turned stoic as the matter of gun was a sensitive one. “Firearms are strictly for the guards, and—” before he could say further, Leo had already turned around.

“It’s fine then,” Leo said. He took his shot and tried. But he knew it would be hard to get a gun from these security guards. In this kind of situation, a gun would no doubt give them a sense of security. For Leo, on the other hand, he thought it might be useful in taking down the rhino if it was still there in the lobby.

With the staircase unlocked, he led a team of five people that included Ben. A smaller group would be more efficient than a fifteen-man group in a narrow staircase. Going up the stairs according to the map in his phone, Leo secured three fire axes. Yet the staircase was rather empty and silent. It was the one where he, Ken, and Kareena fought.

Leo was relaxed as if strolling down at a garden, descending down the stairs. But the rest behind him were anxious, sweats raining down their backs as their eyes couldn’t stop darting around.

“Hey, Leo,” Ben whispered. “Aren’t we going a bit too fast? Shouldn’t we be more careful?” Even Ben looked nervous with his big build.

“It’s fine,” Leo replied. “I made a barricade down at the second floor. It might not be enough to stop them, but at least the numbers won’t be too many.”

“You made a barricade?” Ben was surprised. “But how?”

“It’s not actually a barricade. It’s just a bunch of expensive tables stacked over each other,” Leo replied. “If you ask me, mahogany wood is quite durable.”

Ben saw Leo differently. He knew that Leo stayed and fought, but he didn’t know the matter about this barricade. Then he wondered. “What level are you right now?” Ben threw a question.

“Me? I’m level nine,” Leo said, smiling with his teeth hidden.

Ben's jaw fell. “Then you just need another level to reach level ten. But how?” he asked out of curiosity.

“If you stay and fight, you probably would have the same as mine,” Leo said simply. Then his eyes narrowed down as his hand gestured for everyone to stop.

“What is it?” Ben asked, gripping the fire axe in his hand tight.

“Look alive,” Leo said as his perception went off. “We finally found our first guest.” He eyed at the open staircase door of the fourth floor. Then a silhouette came out on all four.

It was a leopard, and it too found them.