The first thing Alistair did was backtrack his steps to find the family he had sworn he would go back for if he was able to. It wasn’t difficult for him to find with the Regional Map, and with his new Agility and Endurance, he could maintain the speed of a sprinter for more than a mile.

As he ran around the blocks, he noticed more orcs and humans in backyards, and even some houses set on fire and ransacked. It was like America had been invaded by the Mongols and somehow lost.

He looked at his map, trying to get a sense of directions. Following the compass, to the east of his house was campus, and to the west was more into the city, with more compact housing and apartments. The house he was trying to get to was around a mile southwest of his house, and he made it there in under three minutes in a jog, barely out of breath.

Along the way, he had noted several groups of survivors, but he kept his distance. They ranged from ten to forty people and while they probably weren’t as strong as him, he couldn’t face all of them at once. He had shown trust to Donna and Jules and Robert, but he wasn’t trying to push his luck if he didn’t have to, not before he could come from a position of strength. He genuinely wanted to help his extended neighbors out, but if they were in a group, they could survive on their own for now.

He stopped at the house he remembered from before, where he had heard the family upstairs. It was a small white house with a red door and wind chimes. Alistair’s heart dropped as he saw the door was broken in. He stepped inside, fearing the worst.

The body of the orc he had one-shot with [Mana Punch] was still there. It was joined with several others. Four bloody bodies were strewn over the stairs, like a sacrificial altar to the heavens. From the looks of it, the parents had died first near the base of the stairs, protecting their daughter and son as they tried to make a run for it, but their efforts were futile.

Alistair would never forget the looks of horror on their faces. He imagined his own parents desperately trying to protect him and his older sister Evangeline from certain death. Blood dripped from his palm as his nails dug into his skin as he made a clenched fist. It wasn’t his fault, he knew that, but he still felt responsible all the same.

With his own hands, he dug a small grave for the family. It wasn’t much, but he felt they deserved a proper burial. They all felt so light to Alistair now, so fragile. This was happening worldwide, and perhaps even to his family and friends.

It was all the more reason to level up, he knew. In the old world, even the most powerful men in the world could be ended with a single bullet. From what Alistair gathered from the Quests and the nature of the Pathfinder AI, the Final Frontier Empire was a place of warfare and might makes right. Why else would they encourage widespread bloodshed and the development of combat prowess? If he wanted to effect any change, he would have to rise above everyone else.

Alistair had searched for orcs in the area with his Regional Map, but there weren’t many dots in the area. It was looking like the surviving humans had finally banded together or perhaps other individuals had reached Alistair’s strength since most of the remaining orcs were concentrated in two regions.

One of the regions was to the north near the very end of his map. That was obviously the abode of the orc prince Kalgur Bykrozz. Alistair couldn’t help but notice his name, which like the other orcs, sounded like it came out of a Drizzt Do'Urden novel. Maybe the system offered some translation service.

There must have been over 100 red dots not to mention the golden circle of Prince Kalgur. Alistair didn’t feel even close to ready to deal with him yet. So, he focused on the other area teeming with orcs, which was directly opposite the prince, in the south.

In the woods to the south, there must have been over two dozen orcs in a concentrated area, with many others roaming the streets and squatting in houses. He figured that unlike in his area, this inundation of monsters had managed to defeat the natives and set up a crude camp.

As Alistair ran over to the region, he noticed that every minute, it seemed like a new dot appeared in a very specific area of the orc’s forest. He guessed it was probably something like the cracks that had spawned all over the roads; a mechanism for the creatures to enter their world.

It took Alistair just under fifteen minutes to make it to the outskirts of the orc’s territory, which he judged from where their outer patrols seemed to end. By then, the wound in his side was starting to close up, and the pain had nearly subsided. He still couldn’t get over how amazing his body had become with the growth the Pathfinder AI provided. Checking his status screen, his health had gone up to 77, and his Mana to 29, almost enough to do three [Mana Punches].

His Mana (and probably his Health too, but he couldn’t be certain since he wasn’t injured before) was regenerating faster than ever with his increased Intelligence and Wisdom. At least, he thought it was due to that since those two stats increased his Mana pool. He had a Mana Pool of 80 now, and having a higher regeneration rate would do good when he slept.

Slept? Alistair ruminated on his past day and night. It should have been something like 5 in the morning yet the red light of the giant moon never yielded to the rising sun. It wouldn’t surprise him that they had the ability to hide the sun’s rays, but it was still shocking. He was awake for over twenty hours, yet he still wasn’t tired. He had all the energy in the world as he crouched down in an alleyway and spotted two leader orcs walking down the sidewalk.

They were around five blocks from the start of the forest and Alistair noted that they looked different from the war-orcs he had seen thus far. They wore identical metallic armor, far more ornate than the leather armor of the previous leader orcs. Each dragged around a menacing mace that looked so heavy Alistair wasn’t sure even if he could wield it adroitly.

He activated [Inspect] on the pair.

Name: Renak Drogish

Species: War-Orc (Partially Evolved)

Level: 14

Name: Larz Kilgatan

Species: War-Orc (Partially Evolved)

Level: 14

He frowned at seeing the levels of the orcs, which were higher than those of any opponent he had faced. It didn’t matter in the end, however. You didn’t get stronger by beating up on weak opponents, and Alistair had complete confidence he could beat the two lumbering orcs.

Like a big cat stalking its prey, Alistair moved silently with the artificial night. With his 28 Agility, he had never felt so in control of his body and he made no noise as he ducked in between houses to get behind his marks.

Renak the orc had no idea what hit him as Alistair rushed in a blur of speed, his fist connecting with the orc’s unarmored, ugly mug. He went skittering several feet backward, his partner turning toward Alistair in shock.

Alistair quickly pivoted to the second orc, delivering a roundhouse kick to his side. To Alistair’s surprise, his strike wasn’t powerful enough to knock Larz over, instead just shifting him several feet to the left and eliciting a grunt of pain.

Larz heaved up his mace with a single arm and swung it in a massive arc down at Alistair. There was no way it could have hit him at that speed, but as he jumped out of the way, his ankle buckled underneath him. Alistair cursed under his breath as he realized his kick had damaged his foot and ankle without him noticing. The orc’s armor was actually pretty tough.

He didn’t have much time to contemplate his busted foot as he just barely managed to get out of the way of the swing of the mace, a small crater opening up just where Alistair’s feet used to be. Sweat chilled on his forehead as he realized how close to death he had just come.

A sense of danger struck Alistair as he turned to his left, just in time to see an enraged orc unleash an arc of terrifying momentum. He tried to contort his body out of the way, but he was too slow to dodge the blow entirely and it glanced his off arm.

A wave of unadulterated pain coursed through Alistair as he rued his own stupidity. He should never have assumed the first orc was down for the count from just one blow. Because of his mistakes, he had almost died twice in short succession and really didn’t want to make that a third. The missing chunk of flesh from his arm could wait as he jumped back and observed the two angry war-orcs rushing at him.

Renak, the one he had punched in the face before, was lunging towards him from his left, while Larz, the one he had kicked straight in the breastplate, was after him from the front. Time seemed to slow as Alistair imbued his fist with Mana and threw an uppercut [Mana Punch] at Larz while simultaneously sidestepping Renak’s wild swing.

With the momentum of his uppercut, he turned towards the remaining orc, letting his weight travel forward as he charged up another [Mana Punch]. The blue aura surrounding his fist, make it stronger and heavier, and as his knuckles connected with the orc’s grotesque visage, he felt a satisfying crunch of bone.

The speed of his punch was so great that it forced his enemy’s face down, sending the orc plummeting to the ground at terrifying speeds. In his wake, the sidewalk cracked underneath him, and the orc lay unmoving. This time, Alistair was not as naive to lose track of his first opponent, and he turned back to confirm that the victim of his uppercut was indeed dead.

While the battle was a complete success, as Alistair’s right fist smoked with dissipating Mana, he could not be pleased. His inexperience had almost cost him his life. Why on Earth had he tried kicking the orc’s metal armor? His foot was still sore from the blow. His style of fighting needed to be more precise, more clinical. If he was eschewing the path of a brawler and going for a style of a fast and untouchable martial artist, he had to make better use of his Agility.

“Your technique is shit,” a female voice called out. “And why on Earth are you punching people?”

A notification popped up in his vision.

Warning! Someone is using an investigation Skill on you.

Accompanying the Pathfinder’s screen was a sense of unease coming from behind him like someone was watching him, and he turned around to see a young woman.

She was of average height with curly brown hair and blue eyes and was wearing a white tank top that showed off her toned arms. She looked around his age, and with her photogenic looks and physique, Alistair wouldn’t have been surprised if she was some kind of gym model in the world before.

He activated his own [Inspect] in return. It did pique his curiosity to see that he received a notification informing him she was using a Skill on him. He had never gotten that before and surely others had [Inspected] him before.

Name: Alexandra Lykaios

Species: Human (Unevolved)

Level: 13

After seeing her level, he looked at her with more caution. He had mentally let down his guard with her after seeing she was a lone woman, but that was just him forgetting that physical appearances meant little with the influx of stats. A woman of her level could potentially incapacitate him with one blow, if she had invested a good portion of her stats to Strength, or had some Skill to do so.

“Excuse me?” he said, not sure what to make of her accusation.

“I said, your technique is shit. I was a semi-pro MMA fighter, that’s why I’m telling you. And why are you fighting bare-handed?” Alexandra, as it seemed she was called, took out a tactical knife and flipped it over.

“It’s been working out for me,” Alistair responded, some defensiveness seeping into his tone. “Are you also grinding levels?”

“Not sure what ‘grinding’ means in that context, but sure. I killed a bunch of the high-leveled orcs and I got a Quest to kill someone named ‘General Krazz’. It took me forever to find him though,” she said, still flipping her knife over.

Alistair looked at her carefully. After nearly dying to the two leader orcs, he didn’t feel confident in facing over twenty of them alone. He grappled with showing her the map, but in the end, decided to go for it. His gut told him that Alexandra wasn’t a bad person.

“I found an item called Regional Map. I assume the General guy is at the mass of the orcs in the forest,” he said, opening up the item and pointing out the swarm of red dots.

“Woah, that’s really cool,” she said, waving her hand through the holographic projection. “Isn’t this crazy? Like one day it’s like Independence Day and now we’re in some video game.”

“I guess so.” He didn’t have as positive of an outlook on things, even if he admired the abilities his body had gained.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s a tragedy, of course. All the death.” She didn’t seem so broken up about it, but Alistair said nothing. “And anyway, that’s my target, right there.”

She stuck her finger at one of the dots on the map. After five seconds, the dot changed to green and grew larger, and a prompt appeared in front of Alistair.

Contract: Alexandra Lykaios offers Alistair Tan Limited Quest [True Orc Slayer]. Both parties will work together to complete the Quest to the best of their abilities and not cause each other harm until either the completion of the Quest or 24 hours, whichever comes first. Accept (Y/N)?

“How did you do that?” Alistair exclaimed.

“Long story, I’ll tell you after you accept,” Alexandra said with a wink.

Alistair considered his choices. He could attempt to complete the Quest on his own, not accepting the prompt. But he wouldn’t get any rewards from it, if there were any, and presumably this level 13 woman would be very angry that he had stolen her Quest. Conversely, he could let her do it in on her own. He didn’t like that idea; he needed levels to complete [King Orc Hunt], and this area was the only other source of powerful orcs. Plus, while she was probably quite strong, it didn’t feel right to leave her to her own devices when he could help. If their cooperation proved fruitful, perhaps she could even teach him how to offer a Contract and he could do the same with his own Quest.

“I’ll accept it if you show me your list of Badges. I’ll do the same.” It was a gamble, but he still heavily suspected an evildoer would have been rewarded with Badges the same way he was rewarded with “Good Samaritan”.

For a second Alexandra just looked at him in a puzzling fashion before smirking and opening up her Badges. “That’s a smart idea.”

Badges:

“Premium Initiate” (Untiered Mythical Badge): The Final Frontier Empire welcomes your planet at the highest level of hospitality. All Stats +10%.

“Fledgling Strength” (Tier 1 Legendary Badge): Reach 50 Strength before level 15. Strength +20%.

“Orc Slayer I” (Tier 1 Temporary Rare Badge): You have ended the lives of the highest number of monsters (orc) in your initiation subregion. +15 to Strength, +10 to Constitution, +30 Health. Upgradeable (?/?).

His mouth physically gaped in shock as he saw her second Badge. 50 Strength? That was inconceivable to Alistair. His highest attribute was Intelligence at just 30, and Alexandra’s Strength was probably twice that.

“Your Badges aren’t the worst either, Mr. Good Samaritan. But I think conversation can wait,” she said, pointing to three orcs exiting the forest. “I have to keep my lead on Orc Slayer.”