Apocalypse respawn

[Number of simulations remaining: 1]

[Unable to activate the next simulation - the receptacle is not ready yet.]

[Who to continue with?]

[Choice 1: Rargnes-dreamer]

[Choice 2: Rargnes-empathetic]

'What good will running do to you?' thought Rargnes. 'What isn't progressing is collapsing. If you do nothing, you die. What's so difficult to understand?'

Yes, they had almost no chance of defeating the noble, and even if they somehow managed to do so, that wouldn't solve their problems - they might not save enough doctors and researchers, they might not be able to provide them with all the necessary facilities and they might not have the mental to continue researching but what choice did they have?

'You don't want to die uselessly? You want to preserve your life? I agree that confronting the noble is ambitious, maybe something only a madman would go for, but this is what we need to do. By running away, you only wait for death: you neither fight for the honor of your other's versions nor for the glory of having contributed to something greater than yourself. That is but the choice of a kid: by wanting to preserve your life, you will die with a 100% chance of wasting that life completely.'

He was just manipulated by his body and his fear. But, of course, the body could only exist in the present moment: he couldn't see the long run. Thus, humans weren't doing the right things.

Rargnes chose the second option.

[Simulating Rargnes-empathetic.]

***

"Another one!" Rargnes exclaimed as he picked up a class upgrade token. "And? How much? How much?" A military man beside him asked, turning to the group that encircled them.

"12 hours 41 minutes! He didn't beat the record!"

Then the group laughed and shouted: "Drink! Drink! Drink!"

A soldier swore softly, grabbed a bottle, and drank it, gulps passing down his throat until he had finished it in one go.

"Yeaaah!"

They partied all night, the bottles of alcohol ending up on the floor, broken.

The next day, they were gone inside their car, music blasting their ears, trackings tokens since the other opportunity have been deactivated. 

Days upon days passed.

***

"Quick, quick," a goblin shouted. "He ordered this and it would be better not to keep him waiting too long."

In front of him, a band of goblins secretly transported portals in carts, crossing the noble's territory. 

***

Rargnes woke up and stretched in a bed in an abandoned house. Shards of glass littered the floor from the broken windows.

From time to time, voices spoke in his head. They were disjointed fragments, a jumble of people and goblins. Most of the time, the voices talking were strangers, but he was receiving more and more words from beings who seemed familiar to him, like this goblin - though he had no idea where he could have met him.

They only remembered the days they had spent in the noble's world.

Judging from their size and their surroundings - the wasteland in which they currently found themselves, the group had concluded that they had probably been the natives of this world. 

They remembered nothing more, their memories canceled by the king's power. One of them had even lost all his memory, but since they had woken up together, he felt familiar enough, and they met nobody else, they decided to go stay with him.

Each member scanned the landscape and activated radars in search of a portal, to no avail. They had been traveling for days, and apart from the corpses they had spotted a few hours from the cave in which they had woken up, they had seen no trace of humanoids.

The days turned into weeks and then months. The cities were abandoned and depopulated. Only the dwellings of the residents who had once populated this world remained, their photos immaculate with blood in broken glass frames.

Supplies were plentiful. The people who once reigned supreme in this world had technologies to make food last longer, enough to ensure their food consumption that was far superior to that of normal humans. 

To pass the time, they trained, shot at each other, beat each other up, and lodged in magnificent rooms that would have made the fortune of resellers.

If they ever found an exit, it would be a good source of income."Hey, look!" Jeza gestured to Rargnes, who looked where he was pointing his finger. A deer. "Check out how I'm going to kill it!"

He focused and crouched down to get into a sprinting stance as the voices behind him bet on how long it would take him to tear the animal apart.

"3 seconds," said one, looking at his pocket watch.

"No, at least 5. Have you seen the distance?"

Jeza propelled himself, covered hundreds of meters, and reached the terrified deer, but before it could run, the soldier had already spread his two arms wide, plunging his fingers into the animal's flesh, which bled profusely and died.

The group laughed. Rargnes rummaged in the bags attached to his belt and felt the dozens of class upgrade tokens flow into his hands, causing his smile to widen.

Suddenly, the group turned to their right, and a dreadful noise resounded. A masked person in a costume had appeared from nowhere, approaching as he was surrounded by goblins and humans. Two seemed familiar.

"Sengrar?" "Commandant?"