There was a bright flash before the grizzly bear in front of me had a smoking hole in its head. It dissolved into grey goop as I lowered my laser rifle. Burst was amazing! It enabled to me to one-shot monsters fairly easily, though there was something that concerned me. I had used the scope on the laser rifle to try and kill a monster in the distance. When I pulled the trigger, there was the usual flash of light. The only problem was that the deer I had been targeting just started looking around. It was like it had noticed something was wrong, but wasn't sure what.

I ended up using burst to try and kill it, but the deer only flashed blue and took off. It was nothing like the devastation I had just wrecked on the bear. When I compared it to what I knew of lasers from before nanite world, I could only come to one conclusion. The lasers were dissipating in the air. Air caused photons, particles of light, to scatter. Pretty much everyone knew that. It was the reason why our sky was blue.

It also meant that weapons using concentrated photons, AKA lasers, suffered from scattering. That meant that I would have to use the sniper rifle for long-range shooting. Still, after that fight with the bobcat, I wasn't worried about the lethalness of the rifle.

So far, it had been three days since I started off from the tree. I ended up buying a tent and some cooked food from the store. Speaking of tents, it was getting fairly close to night time. I accessed the inventory and pulled out the tent. It was a bundle of metal poles and tarps. I had been in the boyscouts for two years back when I was a kid, just long enough to learn I wasn't cut out for the wilderness. Still, it was enough that I could put together the tent fairly easily. Ten minutes later, the tent was finished. When I nailed the last stake in, a blue screen appeared in front of me.

You have just formed a temporary shelter, Congratulations! You will not be attacked while in the shelter, though this does not apply to monster waves.

I dismissed the message like I always did before accessing the shop. Buying a chicken pot-pie from the shop, I turned around as it formed from the ground. I know, intellectually, that what I was really eating was just nanites. Still, it was something else entirely to see it form in front of you. It was like hot dogs. You know just how gross hot-dog factories are, but you still eat hot-dogs. I very much doubt that you could watch people making hot-dogs in front of you and still eat it without throwing up.

Once I was done eating, I accessed my status page.

Name: Tony Eisen Species: Nanite-Human Gender: Male Level: 27 (265 Status Points) Age: 27 Agility: 60 Charging: 45 (EP Regen Rate: 90EP/Second) Dexterity: 4 Intelligence: 60 (Percieved time: 1.6x normal speed) Shield: 50 (Shield Points: 500. Costs 50EP/Second) Storage: 5 (Energy Points: 50) Strength: 15

My nanite count went up from 52 chunks, 54 fragments to 57 chunks and 9 fragments. I'd had more, but the tent cost 180 fragments and the meals were a handful of fragments every day. I had killed a few monsters while wandering, not many at all really. A level 10 grizzly, three level 5 bobcats, and a level 1 salmon. I tried to avoid most of the monsters I saw, simply wanting to find a human. Sampson was killed by one of the bobcats when we were walking. It jumped out of a tree onto his face, killing him within seconds. I summoned another wolf after I killed the bobcat, but it wasn't the same. I could tell, he was different.

I kept the wolf, though I didn't name it. It was outside right now, guarding the tent. I know GAD or whatever sent the system messages said that the tent would protect me from being attacked. I didn't trust it. I wasn't going to put my faith in the very thing that killed all of humanity before placing us in this giant rat maze.

As I laid down on the sleeping bag in my tent, I thought about what I was trying to accomplish. There was a little under 2 days left until the next beast wave hit us. I needed to find humans before that, otherwise I was going to be in a lot of trouble. Unlike before, I didn't have a house to hide in. It was wide open plains with overgrown forest everywhere else. If I went into the forest, I'd be hit before I even noticed. In the plain I would have nowhere to hide.

I was sure that I could defend myself, but not from overwhelming numbers or surprise attacks. If only there was a way to get into contact with everyone else...

I sat upright with a jolt. A radio! I would bet you a million bucks that was what police officers and government officials thought of when they discovered they were all alone. I went to the store and checked on the price of a radio. For the just a reciever, it cost a chunk. A low power transmitter cost ten chunks and could transmit a mile or two. A higher power transmitter for 50 chunks could broadcast over 60 miles.

I bought the reciever for a chunk, leaving me with 56 chunks and 9 shards, causing the black box to assemble itself before me. I pressed the button marked power, causing blue numbers to appear on its digital face. It was currently tuned to 99.9. "-peaton a loop... If anyone is out there, my name is Major Kincade of the United States Armed Forces. I am currently at 35.78 N, 78.638 W coordinates for longitude and latitude. If you buy a GPS from the store, you can type in these coordinates. Gather anyone you come across and direct them towards my location. This message is recorded and will repeat on a loop... If anyone is out there..."

I let out a whoop of joy as I heard the news. My hunch had paid off! A major was a high-ranking officer, someone that had training in war. He would know what do in order to defend against the next beast swarm. I laid in my bed, content with what I'd found out. As I drifted off into sleep, my face remained in a permanent smile as I finally felt hope.