Choose Your Apocalypse (A LitRPG Apocalypse, Progression, System Fantasy) [CYA]

<Alex, Real - Endure, Outside a Bodega>

Alex was looking around, and noticed that there were fewer cars parked around than he remembered… and the ground didn't have any bloodstains from the undead that they'd killed…

He blinked a few times as the memories surrounding the bodega came into clearer focus.

Oh… this is the wrong one. The one we need is at least one street over… He almost said something, but decided it was better to wait.

It didn't take long for them to all clear out the bodega of anything useful, partially because the pack-teachers even grabbed the shelves in most cases.

They said that if they were running out of space they could eject those and leave the food within, and if they had the space, the pre-organized food would be easier to deal with.

Alex, for his part, noticed some candies that looked like this world's equivalent of a few of his favorites, and he took a moment to grab them for himself.

Who knows when, or if, I will ever have access to them again. This was meant to be an 'Apology Tutorial' so he could understand if the System had little things like this sprinkled throughout for them to take advantage of, if they so wished.

The System also seemed to be open to them simply choosing the manner of their death. Thus, Alex wasn't really inclined to be grateful, but he would take what he could get.

With the food gathered, Alex decided to break the news to the group. "Natasha?"

"Hmmm?"

"You didn't complete your quest, did you…" It wasn't a question.

She blinked a few times before her eyes unfocused, clearly allowing her to look at something he couldn't see.

Hah! It's her system face… I don't know if I should tell people I call it that… He'd decide later.

"No. Did I miss something in the store?"

Alex shook his head, preventing her from going back in. "No, we didn't miss anything. I… I think this was the wrong one. We were a couple streets that way when we bought the food and fought the wight."

He pointed.

Mr. Weston gave him a flat, unamused look, Ms. Woods laughed, covering her mouth as she shook in amusement, and Mr. Southard just shook his head, a grandfatherly smile of incredulity evident across his face.

Natasha sighed, momentarily pinching the bridge of her nose in evident frustration. "Very well. Let's go get that, then."

Still, it seemed to have broken the 'store-looting' ice, and the group was more willing to raid the shops and eateries on the way, though there wasn't much of use as most establishments had been in this area to cater to high schoolers.

As much as Alex was curious about what fake board games the System had manufactured for the Never Bored, Games shop, and he was very tempted to see if full seasons for fake Anime and other TV shows had been created behind the brightly colored shop selling content of that type; they really didn't have the time.

…He also really didn't need a ton of number 2 pencils. Though, the school supply store did have him wondering if the 'pencil' killer skills would have been better.

Yeah, if I had survived the hallway… which I wouldn't have.

Regardless, they gathered a bit more for their base before getting the stuff that Natasha actually needed—along with Alex yoinking some more candy—so that she could complete her quest.

That accomplished, their group left, heading toward the closest magic shop that Alex had marked, killing undead along the way.

They raided any store they came across—the pack-teachers finally fully resigned to the need—including many restaurants, hoping that at least the nonperishable goods would still be useful.

They did, in fact, find a lot of things like flour and oils that they hoped the rescued lunch-ladies and homemakers could make use of. There was often some perishable stuff as well, given that, even with the power off, there were many magically powered appliances and features which still functioned.

The streets and businesses were surprisingly deserted as well save for the very rare roving undead.

It seemed that, even though their base had been protecting them, the undead could vaguely sense them, somehow. That had caused those that did spawn, or grew in power elsewhere, to head their way. At least, that's the only explanation Alex could think of for why so many undead had been spawning nearby and few were in evidence further out, because once they got a block or so from the school, the streets were mostly empty.

Every so often, Alex would pause and pulse Detect Life and Detect Unlife. He still felt the odd harmony from the two spells as he used them one after another, but nothing had yet to come of it.

Twice they detected huddled, living people in nearby buildings, each time with undead massed nearby, even if they weren't acting like they knew exactly where the living were.

Huh… right, the previous outbreaks in this world proved that the undead could at least vaguely detect where the living were. I really need to remember that.

Even so, the results struck Alex as like a game where the enemies were clustered near the prizes you wanted, in this case the still living civilians.

They went and freed the two groups, taking each back to the street beside the school and sending them toward the entrance before heading back out as a group. The last time, Grant joined them, having done all he could to help seal off the streets for the time being.

Kaylee was also ranting about someone bringing a bunch of hard alcohol and leaving it lying about for the students to get into.

Alex didn't stick around the base long.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

<Kaylee, Real - Endure, Base Building>

Kaylee rubbed her temples. I need to take another cycle out of here, to get away from all of this.

That wasn't entirely fair. The teachers and administrators of the school were doing a spectacular job, especially given all that they'd endured.

She'd had all the signage removed because she was tired of people asking if the 'Canned Food Drive' meant that they had plenty of food. They had some because of that, but it had apparently only just begun.

An extra hundred cans of food was nice, but when they had more than a thousand people? Yeah, it wouldn't go far.

The school counselors were working overtime in capacities they were really never meant to fulfill, comforting those with family too far away to be reached. Some even had 'final messages' that had been sent to them as their family or friends were nearing unpleasant ends.

She shuddered.

Yeah, she'd take admin work over that any day of the week.

It was no wonder that students had turned to alcohol, even if she couldn't figure out where it had come from.

Natasha had laughed when she'd learned of it, but Kaylee still believed the woman when she claimed to not be the source.

Alex is a likely candidate, but he wouldn't be that foolish, right? What possible use could alcohol have that he would grab so much of it? And from where?

She gestured with her hands as if to sweep the topic away from her mind.

She had a base to manage and detailed base management screens from the System to delve through.

The largest decision she had to make was a choice between 'absolute' defenses and 'ablative' defenses.

The choice should be obvious. They wanted their defenses to be absolute, but the System had a wonderfully foreboding message that said simply:

Apology Tutorial Courtesy Notice:
Absolute defenses will be disabled during any 'rush' or 'surge' style sub events.

So, that was lovely. She had still paid the mana cost to have those expanded over their now much larger base, which included every building bordering the street surrounding the school. She'd done that so that when there was no 'rush' or 'surge' event, their ablative defenses wouldn't be under assault.

As to what those were? Well, when Lenka and Grant had sealed off the first street, she'd gotten a notification. She could duplicate their work for mana.

That was why she'd had everyone focus on a single street, after the most basic barriers that the system had required to claim the territory to begin with.

Grant had finished up what he could do and left once again, and that rankled a little. She preferred to have him around, but she couldn't argue with his utility in the field either. They needed the pack-teachers gathering as many resources as possible and bringing them back as soon as possible.

She'd already instituted rationing beyond the level they'd need to get to the thirty day mark their quest indicated with the food they already had, so portions would only be increased from here.

That should reduce grumbling in the days to come as she was, hopefully, able to relax restrictions.

But she was getting off topic.

The real question wasn't which she would do. The System warning had already made the need for ablative defenses obvious. The question was the balance.

They didn't have infinite mana, though the massive number of people they had did give them a lot to work with.

So, she had to decide how much 'absolute' defense to have to keep their ablative defenses in good shape for whenever these surge events happened, while having those same be strong enough to endure through.

There was also the fact that both had ongoing mana costs, so if she instituted them too soon, she would be reducing the amount of mana they could bank. Too late and… well… everyone was dead.

So, you know, no pressure.

She groaned, rubbing at her temples once more as she scanned the menus, submenus, tool tips, and vaguely threatening notices.

One thing was for sure, she might want to find where all the confiscated alcohol was being stored. She wanted to snag some for herself… for later… when this was all over and done with.

Yeah. Definitely not before then.

<Alex, Real - Endure, Outbound Once Again>

Throughout these back and forth trips, Alex did his best not to think about all the apartments that didn't have living people in them. He tried to not even think about the former residents of those they raided almost at random.

Broken doors and disheveled spaces made that hard much of the time

Bloodstains more so.

Most people had been uninitiated, and if he understood correctly, it would take a lot of uninitiated people to raise an undead's level. The fact that they'd been killing undead with levels in the late teens meant that each had killed hundreds—if not thousands—of people and 'spawns' to get to that point.

It was sobering, disheartening, and even a little horrifying if he took the time to think about it too much.

He couldn't fathom how different it would be if every dead had come back as a level 1 zombie, and stayed that way…

Maybe that's part of the point of this? To show us that even the things we think we will understand won't be exactly as we expect.

He shook himself, not allowing himself to think further on the topic and firing off his spells once more.

Alex let out a groan. "Found the shop."

Natasha gave him a puzzled look from a bit back, away from the corner he was looking around. "How do you know?"

He gave her a flat stare before sighing. "Well, aside from the fact that I can read a map and have led us to the correct location on said map—and the large sign saying 'Magic Shop' on the building where I am leading us—there's a mass of undead waiting out front and that's sort of a clue."

The Russian woman shook her head. "Video game logic."

He grinned at that. "Exactly."

The pack-teachers ignored the exchange as they seemed to do with any topic related to this being a System generated world or in a Tutorial of any kind.

From what Alex had seen, there were two dozen ravagers, a bunch of fodder, and at least three death squires waiting for them, all of which just 'happened' to be in front of their destination.

There was also what looked like two not-so-nascent flesh golems, conglomerated from at least quite a few bodies each. Though they not only seemed smaller than the 'Plague Guard' variety, they lacked that moniker, hopefully meaning they would be more susceptible to magic.

Alex conveyed what he'd seen to his group, and they agreed that the teachers should hide in one of the cars out of sight of the coming clash.

It was an unintuitive choice, but they all thought that the added protection would allow the teachers to be safe, and hopefully ignored, even if more undead came up from behind during the fight.

Most of the cars were unlocked, and Alex's pulsed spells had already shown that there weren't undead within any.

When he glanced at the make of the car they were locking themselves into, he had to stifle a barked laugh.

Toyord? Yeah… I'm not interested in the abominations of TV series created as background fodder for this tutorial. Though, he conceded, it might actually still be better than some shows that had been created more recently… pre-System.

The teachers were soon settled down in the car, hunkered in so they couldn't easily be seen. The doors were locked to give a couple extra moments of safety in case a wandering undead came past, and the fighters were psyching themselves up for the coming fight.

Natasha, John, Pilar, Grant, and Alex were soon ready.

Hopefully, it would go quickly, and no other opponents would 'happen' to be close by and drawn in.

It's fine, Alex. That almost never happens.

Alex took four deep breaths as he made eye-contact with his companions.

Natasha was checking over her spear, but nodded when he glanced her way, her eyes only briefly touching his.

Pilar seemed mostly lost in thought, and if Alex was lip-reading even half-right, she was going through chemical compounds. Even so, she gave a nod at his glance as well.

Grant was shifting his massive hammer back and forth between his hands even as he bounced on the balls of his feet. "Ready."

John was checking over his guns and making sure they were free in their holsters and easy to draw. Then, he seemed to think better of it and drew both, pointing them to the sky. "Ready."

Alex grinned. "Let's go."