Poll World [LitRPG][Reader Polls]

(This is a free vote chapter)

Gen was upside down on her inverted cross and was giving Jasper a hard look. Jasper had tilted his head around to stare at her and seemed to be considering his options. G2n had kept her up way too late discussing phone security, and she really wasn't in the mood to go zipping around the event area on another food binge.

Abruptly, the inverted cross's straps released her, and she collapsed onto Jasper's back, releasing her held breath. Standing, she massaged her sore wrists. As she suspected, the trick with her satanic saddle was that she couldn't control it, and instead, the mount, Jasper, in this case, was the only one who could release her.

"Thanks, Jasper, can we go back to headquarters now? At normal speed please… I'm curious what sort of plan Hon is so excited about."

Jasper didn't respond, but he started lumbering off back in the direction of their headquarters. Gen had a surreal feeling as they headed back. This was the third day of the zombie event, but after everything that happened with the dungeon and being hunted it was difficult to refocus on the event in front of her.

She pulled out her new phone and started looking through notifications. G2n had sold it to her, and she was now in debt to him a hefty 200 emmys. He insisted that it was actually a great bargain as he had programmed the phone himself, and it was completely secure in comparison to her old one.

The details of how the security and encryption worked had been completely beyond her and she was more than willing to trust G2n as the tech expert. For her the only noticeable differences were the phone was bulkier and it was now an ugly brown instead of the futuristic silver of her old one. She resolved to get a more attractive case for it as soon as possible.

There weren't many text messages except from Morna, who had evidently heard about the events of the previous night and had a whole string of angry messages complaining that Gen had cheated her out of the chance to bash in the heads of consortium punks.

Gen ignored those messages and sent a text to Alfred.

Gen: Thanks for the assist yesterday, are you okay?

ERROR: THIS ACTOR IS ON HIATUS AND WILL NOT RECEIVE THIS MESSAGE UNTIL RETURNING

She frowned, so he really had died back there. She had hoped that he had somehow fought his way out and escaped. She felt guilty for getting him killed, but he'd probably be back, right? She'd have to ask someone how hiatus worked in more detail. She knew that the more viewers you had, the faster you would return, but as long as your viewers didn't abandon you, you'd come back eventually.

If Alfred's viewers really did abandon him, then he would be permanently dead, all because she used him as a human shield… She slapped her cheeks, forcing herself to refocus and not preemptively feel guilty for something that might not happen.

Looking at the event information in her visual overlay, she saw that the six incubating special zombies had about 30 hours left. It was currently day 3 of the event, and each event day was 14 hours, followed by a 10-hour union-mandated break during which time the incubation didn't progress. Which meant the incubation was still very far away and wouldn't be done until day 5 of the event.

They were still quarantined, so unless they broke through the wall surrounding zone 98 or the protagonists tried invading, it was just going to be a long, boring wait.

Jasper slowed as they entered the courtyard of the main headquarters. It was basically completely unrecognizable from the original ability testing center. Through the purchase of upgrades and several people's construction-related abilities, it now fully looked like a fortress, complete with a giant wall circling the compound and turrets at even intervals.

There was a giant gate on the East side from which an endless tide of zombie iguanas was flowing out to assault the quarantine wall. From what she understood, it was at a stalemate currently, but steady, low amounts of damage was still being done to the wall, which required the protagonists to waste a steady stream of contribution points to repair.

People waved to her as Jasper and her entered through the giant gate, being careful to not crush his tiny zombie brethren with his massive armored feet. In the center of the courtyard was Hon with an excited expression waving to them. A group of other people had also gathered in preparation to hear his plan.

Many of them were part of Morna's club or subordinates of Paul, but the majority were unaffiliated actors who had slowly filtered into the group to help with upgrading the iguana hatchery and join the general festivities.

Jasper lumbered over to the group and stood at attention while Hon stepped forward.

He spoke, "Now that our secret weapon is here, I can explain the plan!"

He was interrupted as Jasper abruptly flicked his head to the side and bit down on a level 2 actor, chomping her in half with his armored jaws.

Everyone stared at Jasper in horror as he swallowed the top half of the corpse. Gen frowned. Maybe she should have fed him more before bringing him back to base?

Someone shouted, "Look! It was a protagonist!"

Gen leaned over and squinted her eyes, true enough above the remaining portion of the corpse was the damning protagonist text.

+250 contribution!

Jasper took a few steps forward, staring at a level 3 actor who paled beneath his gaze. Moving at a speed surprising for his size, he bit down again, instantly ending the man.

+700 contribution!

Everyone froze for a second before one actor abruptly started to run.

Gen felt something grab her and groaned as the inverted cross yanked her back into position. She didn't resist as red electricity pulsed through Jasper, and he shot like a rocket at the fleeing level 2 actor.

+250 contribution!

Jasper wasn't done either as he flickered around the crowd, shoving some to the side while mercilessly consuming others. His frenzy didn't stop there as he dashed up the vertical wall and started targeting one actor after another.

The spies around the headquarters had caught on at this point as numerous shots and abilities were fired at Jasper. The ones that hit failed to penetrate his impressive armored scales, but the majority missed altogether, failing to keep up with his blazing speed.

Gen felt a tingle from her glove as one of the fingers started to glow.

Attacks dodged! Finger charged!

She'd almost forgotten about her watt a waste gloves, evidently the attacks that missed Jasper counted as her dodging them as well.

A level 2 actor leveled a bazooka at Jasper, and she pointed a finger at him, releasing the lightning in a deafening crack. She couldn't tell if the lightning killed him or only stunned him, as an instant later, Jasper's armored jaws were rending him to pieces.

The carnage continued, and Gen was shocked to find that there were dozens of protagonists who had infiltrated the base. They didn't have a verbose verification system like Susan's group, but they had still double checked that people entering the area at least had antagonist gear like zombie amulets, but as those could be looted it wasn't a very thorough system.

With his murders complete, Jasper licked his blood-covered steel lips and climbed back down to the courtyard center and faced Hon before releasing Gen from the inverted cross.

Hon was sweating as his eyes swam over all the partial bodies around them, but he cleared his throat and said, "Thank you, Gen." Jasper let out a low growl, and Hon quickly corrected himself, "I mean thank you, Jasper, of course…" Collecting himself, he tore his eyes away from Jasper and looked at the group. "So my plan!"

Gen took a look at her notifications and saw that altogether, Jasper had taken out thirty spies. A small tear formed in her eye as she saw that, for the first time in the event, her contribution points were a positive number at +1,300. She hugged Jasper's armored back and whispered thanks, only for him to give her a look of disgust and ignore her.

Focusing back on Hon, she started to take in his master plan.

As everyone knew, he had a UFO that he could alter the size of. He normally wore it as a keychain after shrinking it, but he now revealed that on top of shrinking it he could also make it giant.

His plan was basically to continue Gen's special zombie plan in other zones. The quarantine wall was highly effective at containing the zone in general, but if they made a suitable distraction, the UFO should be able to blitz over a weak point in the wall and escape the zone.

If it was filled to maximum capacity with zombie iguanas, they would have enough biomass to start multiple additional special zombie incubations before coming back to restock and repeat the process.

The crowd started excited whispers as Hon finished outlining the ambitious plan. Gen was a little surprised as Hon was a self-professed idiot, and the plan actually seemed reasonably thought out and potentially hugely impactful. Their own zone had been a massive success despite the quarantine, but the antagonists were still struggling in the event overall.

From the club chat and people complaining in there she gathered that the primary reason antagonists were struggling was simply that they had fewer high-level actors this time around. The distribution of actors was decided based on each individual's viewers and while typically it ended up with a mostly even split of actors between the two sides it seemed this time that protagonists had lucked out.

Susan had impressed Gen when they first met, being level 7 and shooting meteors, but she hadn't realized at the time just how impressive that actually was. As far as she knew, Susan was the highest-level actor in the whole event and the only level 7 combatant. While a single person wasn't enough to control the whole event it was difficult to contend with. From Paul, she'd heard that Susan was exceptional even for a level 7 actor and had already destroyed over a dozen headquarters and assassinated several level 6 antagonists.

The group started dispersing in preparation for Hon's plan, but before Gen could decide where to set up shop making mutagens a human figure plummeted from the sky and slammed into the ground next to Jasper forming a small crater and flinging dust and dirt everywhere.

Shielding her eyes from the debris Gen saw that the new arrival was Morna, she was still missing both her arms, but evidently had gotten some new equipment as she was wearing bright pink oversized boots that went up to her knees.

"Gen! You've been ignoring my texts!"

"Yeah… I was going to answer, but then I realized it was pointless as you just like to complain."

Before Morna could complain again Gen added, "Nice boots, did they make the crater or did you really just fall that hard?"

Morna's angry expression shifted into an excited one, "Yeah! Inversing gravity lets me fly and crash into things, but I kept fracturing my legs when landing, and next thing I knew, I got a poll! They increase the impact and keep my bones from shattering!" Her expression shifted to a sad one, "Too bad they're an event item… I'll need to find something similar when they disappear after the event so I can keep doing my sky smash!"

Gen nodded, during her brief visit to the market she hadn't seen anything like that, but if anyone could find a needle in a haystack it was Morna, unless she got distracted of course…

"So if you don't need anything I was going to start making mutagens for Hon's plan, were you able to hear it from up in the sky?"

Morna shrugged, "Nope! I saw Jasper eating everybody, though! I wanted to get in on the action, but he moves way too quick. Can I try riding him? Getting crucified is on my bucket list!"

Gen glanced at Jasper, and he fiercely shook his head back and forth. Looking back at Morna, she said, "Umm, unfortunately, the saddle straps to your arms so it won't work…"

Morna glared at the inverted cross, "This is discrimination, what type of saddle isn't handicap accessible?"

Gen paused to think, "Most of them?"

A cough was heard from nearby, and they turned to see G2n waiting impatiently. Gen sprawled lazily on Jasper's back and asked, "What's up?"

He looked at her, "I've been thinking about Hon's plan and I want to make a slight adjustment if you could come inside to go over the details."

Gen shrugged and slid off Jasper's back, hitting the ground a little harder than she would have liked. Style-aside, she kind of wanted a pair of boots like Morna's. As she started walking toward the headquarters, G2n stopped her and gave her a look up and down.

"Can you get cleaned off first…"

Gen looked down at herself and remembered just how dirty she was. Jasper had crashed through hundreds of zombies and buildings before sloppily devouring the food stores of a hundred restaurants. Her skin was absolutely caked in everything from zombie guts to queso, and she'd long since lost the ability to smell anything.

She turned to Morna, "Can I borrow your gore cloth again?"

Several minutes later Morna was grumbling that she was pretty sure Gen had overloaded her gore cloth despite G2n's assertion that it wasn't possible. Gen was feeling a renewed thankfulness for what being clean felt like and enjoyed the AC as they stepped in the headquarters.

G2n led them to his office which was transformed similarly to the exterior, dozens of monitors and computers were hooked up displaying camera feeds, system statuses, and reports. G2n sat in a high back chair and extended his ability to connect to a port.

One screen flickered in response, showing an image of Gen's blowpipe.

"I've been analyzing your blowpipe and the exact formula for estimating the incubation time for a given mutagen." His screen showed several basic mutagens side by side, and he continued, "Normally, a special zombie's incubation time is a simple formula determined by how many mutagens are used and the rarity of each mutagen. Your blowpipe's ability to combine mutagens and create new mutagens is an unprecedented complexity."

Gen shrugged, "What does it matter? Once the special zombie starts incubating, we find out how long it will take and go from there."

Morna nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

G2n gave them both looks like they were idiots. He switched windows again to one showing a very complicated data document complete with charts and diagrams.

"It matters because unlike the Jasper and the fusioncrack special zombies here in zone 98 the new special zombies won't have iguanas directing them and will just mindlessly attack. The protagonists are capable enough to eliminate isolated special zombies one by one once they leave the protection of their headquarters. If Hon goes around and starts incubating the same mutagen you used before, each location will take 32 hours to finish, but they will all be offset by the amount of time between them being started."

He looked at Gen, "Unless you're willing to send more sapient iguanas with Hon?"

Gen hesitated but shook her head. "We can protect the six ones here, but a lot of them would be killed if we send them outside even if the plan succeeds overall. My deal with Jasper hinges on me trying to protect the sapient iguanas."

G2n looked disappointed, but not surprised as he continued, "To compensate I've analyzed all 149 switches on your blowgun and mapped out how they equate to conventional rarities. With that I have developed a formula where by flipping a subset of switches we can control the incubation time of the resulting mutagen. If we label them for Hon, then as he starts incubating additional special zombies, he only needs to choose the mutagen with an incubation time closest to the remaining time of our six fusioncrack special zombies. As a result, all for the special zombies will finish simultaneously and not get themselves killed individually. The countdown will basically become a doomsday clock for the whole event."

Morna whistled appreciatively and said, "Twen, I always knew you were an evil genius."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

G2n looked annoyed and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Nothing about using math or strategy is inherently evil."

Morna shook her head, "Both of those are definitely evil."

Gen was still looking at G2n's chart and said, "I like the plan. Good to know how many switches there are too, I never counted them, one question though how did you determine the rarities of the mutagens and everything?"

G2n pulled out a spare fusioncrack mutagen and handed it to her, "Take a look at and squint your eyes the same way you investigate someone's pronouns or check a corpse's event affiliation. It will show you the rarity of an item."

Gen took it and squinted

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It had the glitchy look to it that she was growing to expect from some of LEO's systems, but it still was still barely legible. Taking out her scepter she inspected it.

rubbish

She frowned, her swimming pool was still on cooldown, but she squinted at it in her inventory, and the rarity appeared.

useless

Her eyebrows knit and she took a look at her boomerang next.

pathetic

"Why does all my equipment have garbage rarities?"

Morna shrugged, "You have a bad eye for quality?"

Gen shook her head, "Very least they should've told me about rarities before sending me to the market!"

G2n chimed in, "Don't get too distracted by the rarities. When I went through my orientation, they didn't initially tell us about them either because better equipment is too expensive and it's more important to get what you can afford than to have nothing just because LEO classifies it as garbage."

Gen hesitated, but eventually nodded. All of her equipment had been useful at various points, and aside from the boomerang, which she had bought, the other two were scenario rewards that she got for free.

"What metrics determine the quality? Also, how is the rating calculated? My three pieces are rubbish, useless, and pathetic."

Morna laughed, and Gen glared at her.

G2n actually answered, "Quality is determined by how useful the item is relative to its plot value. LEO determines the rarity, so some people will disagree with his assessments, but overall, it accurately ranks items outside of specific circumstances. The three rankings you have are the three lowest rankings known, in order of quality, it goes useless, rubbish, pathetic, and after that, it goes cheap, functional, and polished. Higher tier items start getting exponentially more expensive, so you're unlikely to encounter something labeled overpowered or reality-breaking."

Gen nodded, she originally thought that the plot value of items was a measure of how useful they were, but it seemed to actually just be arbitrary so technically her swimming pool could've had a plot value of .1 like her boomerang instead of its current .4 and then its rating would increase.

"How do I get higher-quality equipment? Two of mine were from my first scenario, and I didn't see any opportunities to get better ones."

Morna rubbed her fingers together. "Money obviously!"

G2n rolled his eyes, "Aside from purchasing better equipment, higher level scenarios are the main source. There is a degree of randomness in the quality of the obtained gear, but it seems like your equipment is average for a low-level scenario." He looked at Gen, "The other main option is dungeons, has your reward poll resolved yet?"

Ding~!

Gen wasn't surprised by LEO's timing as she said, "It just did. I got… Pasta dishes." She smiled weakly, "Is that good?"

G2n frowned, "I don't know…"

Morna laughed again, "It doesn't sound useful, but it sounds delicious! When can I go into the dungeon?"

Gen shrugged, "I need to make it first… with everything going on with the zombie event and getting chased around, I'm going straight to sleep when we go on break again."

Morna groaned, "Boooorrring! Let's just go get killed and we can leave the event early!"

G2n stood and stepped closer enough to slap Morna on the back of the head.

"No suicides. This event is a rare opportunity for our club to get an exceptional amount of contribution. With this headquarters uniquely positioned to generate so many zombies and Hon's plan, we could get a windfall of resources that the club needs."

He glanced at Gen, "Less common, but still possible is getting equipment as a reward from events."

Gen nodded, she didn't need any persuasion to not get herself killed to begin with. The dungeon interested her, but she was far more invested in the event.

Her phone chimed, and she felt her heart quicken as she looked at it and saw Susan's name in the notification.

Holding her breath, she checked the message and saw it was a picture of Jasper using his armored jaws to tear someone apart. It was blurry, but Gen was in clear view, strapped to the inverted cross saddle.

Susan: Well played Gen. Are you even actually a fresh generated or was the whole thing a set up?

Feeling guilty and a little terrified, she flipped the phone around and showed Morna and G2n the message.

Morna laughed and excitedly said, "Message her back, 'new phone who dis?'"

Gen ignored her as usual and looked to G2n for actual advice.

He seemed to be considering before saying, "She's fishing for information right now. We don't have any infiltrators in their group, so I don't know if things have changed, but the biggest advantage we originally had is that they overestimated us and didn't attack immediately. Maybe we should keep playing that angle to keep them paranoid?"

Gen felt nervous, "Is that a good idea? I know that events are separate from the overworld, but she's literally level 7 can't she ruin my life?"

Morna rolled her eyes, "Pff, only level 7…"

G2n didn't look at her. "It's a valid concern in general, but I've been profiling the upper echelons of the protagonist side, and based on her character, I don't think she'll begrudge or target you outside the event."

Morna shot him a glance, "What the heck… You're profiling them? I don't even know who is on the other team…"

He rubbed his brows, "Which is why I'm doing it and not you." He looked back at Gen, "Susan is a prideful woman and has limited social presence. Many high-level actors focus on the business side of things, but she's an exception, where she is still actively doing scenarios and participating in events rather than politicking."

Gen wasn't fully convinced, but G2n hadn't steered her wrong yet.

The three of them sat and stared at her phone while she went through several drafts before arriving at a finalized message.

Gen: Hello Susan, it's so good to hear from you again. As for our initial encounter, let's just say that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. We're looking forward to what you and your daughter do next.

Gen gulped as she hit send, "I still think mentioning her daughter is too much…"

G2n had shown them images of Susan's recent attacks on antagonist headquarters, and Morna had almost gone full rabid when she recognized the woman trailing after Susan as the same woman who had cut off her arm.

G2n's list of people of interest quickly identified her as Sarah, Susan's daughter. She was only level 2, but her threat assessment was much higher given how much training her background had afforded her. He actually gave Morna a strange look for surviving the encounter.

Regardless, Morna insisted on including something vaguely threatening directed at Sarah after that, and G2n hadn't vetoed it like Gen had hoped he would. His reasoning was that making it personal and inscrutable could only help throw Susan off further.

Susan didn't reply to the message, so they set to work manufacturing mutagens. G2n handled the switch flipping as Gen honestly couldn't tell which label was for which mutagen anymore with the labels all glitched out and crammed together.

She was more than happy to let him hold the blowgun as well because it kept vibrating like it might explode at any second. Morna really wanted to keep getting more samples and see how far they could push the item before it catastrophically failed, and eventually convinced Gen to let her try on the last day of the event.

Gen handled labeling the created mutagens, marking each one with the incubation time that G2n had calculated.

Two hours later, they had several hundred mutagens prepped. Hon would be taking as many zombie iguanas as would fit in the UFO for biomass, but it wouldn't be enough. Outside their zone, Paul's group was coordinating collecting hordes of normal zombies to facilitate additional boss zombies.

Finally, they grouped up with everyone to decide what roles they would be taking in the operation.

Hon obviously would be flying the UFO, and he would be taking Paul and Francine with him. Paul's group would supply manpower for spreading the mutagens once they escaped the zone.

Morna's job was defense. She had inherited a multitude of potent traps from the level 6 protagonist she had killed and was setting up nasty surprises for anyone who targeted the iguana hatchery while the rest of them were on the offensive.

Gen and Jasper were tasked with team distraction. The UFO was fast and had strong defenses, but if the quarantine defenses targeted it all at once, it would be shot out of the sky in an instant.

Jasper's intimidating size, hefty armor, and super speed made him the perfect candidate to draw enemy fire and create an opening for the UFO to escape.

Gen's role was somewhat limited as she had to be strapped into the saddle for the super speed to work, but if things lined up, she'd try using her gloves while Jasper dodged attacks.

The rest of their forces were to be led by G2n and use control rods to direct the tides of zombie iguanas to support Gen.

All prepped Gen walked outside and her jaw dropped seeing the warehouse sized UFO filling a cleared area outside their base. Multiple buildings had been demolished by explosive iguanas to make room.

Her inadvertent destruction of the tractor beam made the loading process a bit more tedious, but they still managed, as someone had used an ability to construct an earthen ramp leading into the UFO.

Hundreds of varied zombie iguanas filtered into the ship like a demented version of Noah's ark.

Gen got a brief glance of Francine entering the UFO while holding a control rod to direct iguanas. She hadn't gotten a chance to touch base with Francine yet, but judging on how they were going with Paul's group to help coordinate things the job expo couldn't have gone too bad.

Gen spotted Jasper sleeping in a corner of the headquarters and walked over before climbing onto his back. He lazily opened one eye and shut it again.

Assuming he could hear her still she outlined their role in the plan, he didn't buck her off so she assumed he was in agreement.

She had a rare break while the massive loading and organization process went underway, and she tried her best to take advantage while lounging against one of Jasper's armored scales.

G2n was grouping the iguanas by type for their assault. He'd gone over the details, but as her own role was being dragged around by Jasper while shooting lightning, she hadn't listened that carefully.

The parts she had heard revolved around using armored iguanas to soak damage before a wave of spitter hybrid iguanas would assault the defenses. Then, as a final wave, a huge group of explosive iguanas would rush the wall all at once.

Then, in that final moment of chaos, the UFO would make a break for it.

G2n emphasized the plan was a distraction, but from the amount of effort he was putting into coordinating things she suspected that he secretly hoped it might actually do substantial damage to the wall.

Eventually, preparations were complete, and Jasper rose to his feet. Gen took a deep breath, preparing herself as she allowed the saddle's tendrils to grab hold of her.

She twisted her wrists experimentally to confirm she had just barely enough range of motion to aim her lightning as long as the enemy was in front of her.

The second G2n said "go" her surroundings blurred as Jasper took off at super speed. She repressed traumatic memories of his binge eating episode as she tried to make sense of their current location.

In what felt like an instant, they were in front of a massive concrete wall with a prismatic barrier. Turrets were all over the top, and she saw dozens of protagonists manning the battlements.

Even while preparing for the main assault a constant stream of iguanas had still been attacking the wall so ability and weapon fire was already tearing into the surroundings when Jasper arrived.

Gen tried to enjoy being a passenger princess right up until she stopped to question how exactly Jasper intended to play his role of a distraction.

She felt a sinking feeling as the giant wall loomed in front of her, growing increasingly massive like a great dam covering the horizon.

Jasper didn't hesitate as he zoomed straight at the barrier, reaching it before any of the enemies even recognized his presence. He didn't stop there as his armored claws sank directly into the wall, easily puncturing the forcefield.

He then flew straight up the side of the quarantine wall moving directly to the top. Stunned silence followed as Jasper looked at ten protagonists manning the battlement who were all staring at his massive form in shock.

Immediately, all hell broke loose as Jasper seemed to blink forward, devouring one and eviscerating another with his claws. Gen felt dizzy as he spun, whipping three more with his razor tail, directly cutting them in half.

There was screaming and the sound of gunfire, and she felt the heat of an explosion, but nothing hit her as Jasper danced along the wall top, leaving destruction in his wake.

People, turrets, sandbags, nothing could stop his momentum as his tank-sized armored body barreled through everything at super speed.

Gen couldn't tell what was even happening, but from a tingling sensation in her fingers, she realized all ten fingers of her gloves were already charged.

Figuring she couldn't go wrong adding to the chaos, she madly activated all ten shooting explosive arcs of electricity in random directions.

Immediately after firing the lightning, she felt the gloves recharge due to the insane amount of concentrated fire raining down on Jasper and failing to find their target.

Jasper continually changed direction, wildly moving back and forth along the wall top and even ducking back onto the wall's side and effortlessly running horizontally when necessary.

Gen channeled her inner Morna as she began to cackle madly and unleashed a continuous stream of lightning in all directions.

A notification flashed across her vision.

WARNING YOU ARE BEING TARGETED BY A LEVEL 5 DOWNSIZER YOU HAVE LOST FIVE LEVELS WORTH OF ABILITIES WHILE UNDER THE EFFECT

Ignoring the notification she just kept laughing, she couldn't summon iguanas for now, but the debuff was meaningless as Jasper was already summoned.

Ding~!

You know recycling isn't a competition, right? Helping the environment is its own reward or rather it would be if I wasn't giving you this poll!

Switching perspectives to avoid motion sickness.

Sam hid behind a sandbag pretending to be dead. What the hell was that? The antagonists had been getting whooped aside for a few weird mutagens that had appeared.

It made it hard to get contribution points, so he'd volunteered for quarantine duty. The work was exhausting, manning one of the hundreds of stationary turrets on the wall, but it was also easy and gave a small but steady stream of contribution points as he shot one zombie iguana after another.

He had almost nodded off to sleep when something blurred past far beneath him. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if he had imagined it, but immediately after, he heard screaming and explosions from just outside.

Confused, he opened the turret and stepped outside just in time for the whole massive gun he had been manning to be ripped off the wall and thrown a hundred meters.

His brain struggled to process the blood-soaked metallic monstrosity looming over him. Before he could even think to activate one of his abilities, his vision went white, and he was deafened as lightning exploded all around him, sizzling flesh and pulverizing sensitive equipment.

Collapsing instinctively, he lay frozen in terror as the monster simply disappeared. His eyes flicked side to side, failing to follow its movement.

It didn't take long to locate the monster however as it was emitting an endless light show of lightning in all directions even as it rushed along the wall pulverizing one turret after another.

He finally recognized it as the special zombie iguana they had been warned about. They'd failed to convey exactly how fast it actually was.

Terrified, he tried to understand how this was possibly fair. Special zombies were massive threats even when they were mindless, this abomination however radiated intentional malice as it dissected the wall's defenses one turret at a time.

Shaking and still deafened, he crawled forward looking for any survivors. As his eyes peeked over the wall, they widened in fresh horror.

The iguanas had already been endless, but in the wake of that monstrosity, a literal army of organized iguanas was rushing the wall.

Half the nearby turrets were disabled and his allies were either dead or hiding. Desperately he conjured a fireball shooting it far below only for it to explode uselessly, failing to eliminate even one of the armored iguanas.

In retaliation, hundreds of spitter iguanas unleashed waves of corrosive spit in his direction, and he ducked for cover.

The forcefield roared to life blocking the ranged attacks, but he gulped as he saw the volley not stopping and the forcefield crackling from overexertion already.

Peeking again, he witnessed the final phase approaching.

The explosive iguanas could deal massive damage to the wall and were always the number one target for their turrets, as even a single one could cause costly damage.

Beneath him however he saw what looked to be a thousand of the bulbous glowing monsters. He shouted a warning, but he couldn't even hear his own voice, still deafened from the earlier lightning.

Too late to stop the approach he cringed seeing the explosive iguanas leap one after another triggering an endless series of explosions.

He still couldn't hear, but he could feel the wall shuddering and saw the forcefield fizzle out of existence. The rocking didn't stop, and then he was falling, the entire section of wall exploding into fragments as the iguanas' suicide attack blasted it to pieces.

As he fell the the sun itself was blotted out by a massive flying saucer rushing past, and he questioned his sanity.

He couldn't question it further, however, as he smashed into the ground.

You have been eliminated!