Shortly after Clover left the factory, Dr. White entered the elevator with a group of injured hospital patients. It had taken a long time – much longer than he had expected to check every nook and cranny of three floors. With how the System had rearranged things, it was a miracle the search hadn’t taken even longer.

Hallways randomly ended, blocked off by a wall from another building, stairways leading to nowhere – the seeming randomness of the changes increased as they climbed the hospital’s higher levels.

Occasionally a monster would pop up, slowing their progress to a crawl. Considering how many he had seen outside, there were surprisingly few in the hospital. Thankfully, no one from the rescue party had died. Though there had been some close calls.

His side ached where a level 1 Deep Ant had bitten him.

He hadn’t been fast enough - by the time they had reached the upper levels, more than half of the patients had died. Despite saving more than a hundred injured and trapped hospital patients, he still felt like a failure.

He closed his eyes, bone-deep tiredness weighing down on him.

Even now, he could hear the rustling of leaves. They had followed him, taunting him for what he had done. Everyone else he had asked hadn't been able to hear its call. He wasn't sure if it was a blessing or a curse. All he knew was that what he learned from the tree had allowed him to save many lives.

Dr. White, or Sunny as his father used to call him, slumped against the burgundy walls of the elevator, staining them an even deeper shade of red.

He hadn’t slept for so long. All he wanted to do was collapse.

A small hand tugged on his sleeve. “Are you okay, mister?”

His eyes shot open.

A small boy stared at him with wide eyes.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” These innocent faces. That’s why he had done it. He clenched his fists.

With a ding, the elevator door opened, revealing madness. An older woman with gray hair cartwheeled across the floor. And Jonathan, one of his patients who was normally too sickly to move, practiced taking ferocious bites out of the air. What the hell happened here?

Mrs. Lee, the head nurse, rushed over and explained the situation. He tiredly nodded along as someone came over to heal his wounds. He never would have guessed that Clover would have been the one to spark this change.

The healer worked. [Healing Touch] wasn’t enough to completely patch him up, but it was enough to get him back on his feet in fighting shape again.

After their wounds were treated the rest of the motley crew of fighters that had worked with him to clear out the hospital gathered around his bed. Most had family members on the upper floors; they hadn’t taken much convincing.

At the start of this disaster, when monsters had burst through the walls with no warning: he had tried controlling the situation, but no one had listened to him.

People were trampled over in the crowd's rush to escape. His words fell on deaf ears.

In a panic, some had left in the middle of the night. He had the feeling they had died. If only he had found the right words earlier, they would still be alive. If only he had gained the right Skill and completed its Upgrade Quest earlier. Leaves rustled in the dawn's light; in what could only be a mocking tone.

“Thank you. Without you, I’d never have been able to save my boy. We’re going home now,” the Mexican man, Jose, said. The words were heartfelt, but they felt hollow to Sunny. Those around Jose grumbled in agreement, ready to return to their lives.

Dr. White sighed. From the top of the hospital, he had seen the truth of this new reality. No one could survive this new world by themselves. Compared to the set of wings the size of a building he had seen gliding through the clouds, humans were too weak - too insignificant.

From the top of the building, he had also spotted the other half of the hospital, not far away. It was obvious to him what he had to do.

He climbed to his feet, ignoring his aching body. “If you choose to leave now, I will not blame you. You have done more today than I could ever repay. But I have one question for you. When you leave here - what will you do?”

He spoke louder, leaning on his speech Skill to carry his voice. “After seeing the monsters in our halls, do you think you can face them alone? By ourselves, none of us would have made it to the top floor of the hospital. It will get worse. This is only the beginning.”

“What are we supposed to do; you want us to just abandon our families? Even if I know it’s almost impossible, I can’t do that.”

“No, I’m saying the exact opposite. We need to band together! We need to create a safe haven where our families can sleep without fear. Alone, our knowledge is minuscule, but together we can rebuild a life worth living.” With doubt in his heart, he activated his most powerful Skill. In his ears, the leaves rustled madly as if they were being blown around by a tornado.

“While the monsters are less active during the day, we can work together and clear a path. First, to the other half of the hospital, to regain valuable medical resources and free those trapped inside. Then to your homes, clearing a path back to safety.” He raised his hand into the air, feeling like a fraud. “Who’s with me!”

There was a silence so thick that you could hear a pin drop. No one seemed to want to go along with Sunny's plan. His MP dropped precariously. He felt lightheaded for a moment, but he kept himself steady. The sensation of using too much Mana too quickly faded away.

The man guarding the gate stepped forward. “I’ll do it. I’ll help.” Dr. White's eyes widened. The guard, Jeb, something about him had changed. He had gained a new determination in the time since he had left. Before, it had taken a good amount of persuading to get the man to do the relatively safe job of guarding the door, but now he was the first to volunteer.

A murmur passed through the crowd, and soon they had all stepped forward in agreement with his plan.

Congratulations! Speech has reached Level 6.

Congratulations! Speech has reached Level 7.

Congratulations! Speech has reached Level 8.

Congratulations! Persuasion of the Cursed Forest has reached Level 5.

Congratulations! Persuasion of the Cursed Forest has reached Level 6.

His health dropped down to the single digits. His knees wavered, and he felt like someone had squeezed all the water out of him with a vice grip, but he kept himself steady.

That was the curse – the price for using the Skill. Alongside a high Mana Cost, he lost HP in proportion to how much [Persuasion of the Cursed Forest] had to influence its targets.

It wasn’t mind control. He couldn’t make people do things they absolutely didn’t want to do, but he could help move people in the right direction. Or at least that’s what he told himself.

At the end of the day, he wasn’t sure who he was convincing: them or himself. Was this really the right thing to do? Before the System, he would never have considered controlling someone in this manner, but he didn't have any good choices left. The situation was that dire. He watched impassively as his HP fell another point.

The leaves stopped rustling, leaving him for the first time that night.

He looked around the room – at the families reunited, at the smiling children who would have been trapped on the upper floors of the hospital if he hadn’t used [Persuasion of the Cursed Forest], at the sickly patients who now had a chance to take back their lives - it was unrealistic, but he wanted to carve out a place for these people.

His mouth felt dry, but he steeled his resolve. Saving the sick and dying couldn’t be the wrong decision.

Once this was all over, he’d never use the Skill again. Of that, he was certain.

A plan was formed, and within thirty minutes, a group had left for the other half of the hospital.

----

A raggedy man sprinted out of the building, running from nothing.

“They’re coming!” he screamed.

Not even a second later, a crooked horn of bone rocketed out of the window of an abandoned office building, causing glass to rain down on the street. Before the man could react, it stabbed into his leg, knocking him to the ground.

A loud rat squeak rang out from a pile of rubble. Moments later, a trio of Bone Rats raced out of the ruined buildings surrounding the hospital.

Ignoring his injury, the man forced himself to his feet. He limped towards the defense perimeter that surrounded the front of the hospital. Before he could make it to safety, another jagged horn of bone pierced his back, allowing the weak Bone Rats to catch him.

Clover gulped. The man didn’t even have a chance to scream before the monsters tore into him.

Everyone: the group from the factory, Clover, and Claire watched, frozen in shock as the beasts worked. This wasn’t a professional fighting force; no one knew what to do. If Clover shot at the monsters, he’d have a good chance of hitting the man.

Fortunately, it was a quick death. Within a couple of seconds, the man died.

Unfortunately, all the monsters involved in the slaughter received a massive boost in power from killing the Level 1 man. The bone monsters twitched as they grew larger - their bone ornamentation growing slightly more powerful and ornate to match. That one kill earned the Bone Rats 2 Levels each.

Clover watched with dread as the monsters continued feasting on the corpse, chewing through it like piranhas. With each bite, they underwent a small evolution, growing more powerful. After a couple seconds of eating, the trio of rats had gained another level.

This needed to stop now. Still, Clover didn’t immediately intervene. The three Bone Rats were around as strong as the one that had almost killed him in Walmart, and whatever was shooting those spikes of bone was still at large. Caution was needed.

“Stop them!” a man wearing a heavy green jacket screamed, coming to the same conclusion as Clover. The man hoisted a shovel and charged forward.

It was a simple order, but not all of the group followed it. Some hurriedly finished loading the trucks, some retreated behind the barricades they had created, and others charged at the monsters, following the brave man. Their response was an uncoordinated mess lacking the cohesion they had displayed earlier.

On the other hand, the monsters somehow managed to display a more coordinated front than the humans. Bone Rats poured out of the buildings, charging forward together in a wave of black. There were a lot of them, but not an insurmountable amount. If he had to guess, there were around 20 - less than the number of humans, but still an intimidating number.

Gunfire rang out, quickly culling the monster's numbers before they even got close. However, more Bone Rats swarmed out of the abandoned buildings as fast as they could kill them. The enemy's numbers mounted as they pushed forward.

Eventually, the two forces met in a clash of weapons against claws.

Without saying a word, Claire ran off toward the hospital.

“Wait,” Clover said. She didn’t hear him; his soft voice was drowned out by the sound of fighting. He paused, unsure what to do.

Clover considered following, but the path she had run through had been engulfed by the fighting. There was no longer a safe and direct route to the hospital. If he wanted to go after her, he’d have to take a massive detour around the battle.

By that point, the battle would likely be nearing its end. His focus shifted to the battle as he noticed something strange.

Within the chaos, a Bone Rat with two heads knocked the trio of ravenous rats off the corpse, bringing them to attention. They stopped eating, though, by this point, they had already experienced a significant increase in power. At their apparent leader’s insistence, the trio raced towards the approaching mass of humans.

The two-headed monster, who was an astounding Level 9, roughly dragged the half-eaten corpse along the floor, moving it towards an abandoned building.

As it walked, the Level 9 Bone Rat magically launched shards of bone into the crowd of humans.

Great, now they can do magic; that’s almost as bad as them learning how to use guns.

The man with the green jacket blocked one of the shards with the flat of his shovel, barely moving in time to avoid injury. However, others weren’t as lucky. Three people groaned in pain, trying to remove the jagged horns that had impaled them.

As soon as the two-headed monster retreated from sight, the constant influx of Bone Rats stopped. By that point, more than two hundred had gathered on the street.

Clover swallowed a lump in his throat. Not long ago, he had promised himself that he would be smarter - that he wouldn’t needlessly risk his life fighting a horde of monsters. He could leave. No one would know that he hadn’t helped. Certainly, no one would blame him.

He wasn’t a hero - it wasn’t his job to help.

Clover’s gun felt cold in his hands.

When he first charged a monster, Clover knew what he was running from, but he didn’t know what he was sprinting towards. Now, he’d seen it with his own eyes – they’d eat him alive. Crush his bones in their maws and drink his blood. A terrible fate that he wanted to avoid at all costs, but as he watched the group be overrun by monsters, he knew he had to do something.

He adjusted the bandages wrapped around his head. This was an opportunity. If he stuck to the outskirts of the fight and shot down isolated Bone Rats, he could gain massive amounts of Experience.

Plus, he had promised he would help Claire rescue her brother. His chair wasn't fast enough to safely cut through the battle, but indirectly, maybe he could help her. If he shot down enough Bone Rats from a distance, he could slow their approach and buy Claire a little extra time to escape.

"God damn it! What am I getting myself into?” Clover wheeled his way out of Walmart and skirted around the edges of the fight, searching for an angle where he could shoot without worrying about hitting people in the crossfire.

He found it a good ways away from the fighting but still uncomfortably close. If one of the rats were moving at full speed, they could reach him in under five seconds. However, he didn’t trust himself to land a shot if he was further away. Plus, most of them were distracted.

A skinny Bone Rat broke off from the main pack and locked eyes with Clover. It charged forward on four legs.

Clover raised his gun and switched off the safety. The monster pounced. He fired three times, shooting the monster out of the air. It crashed into the ground in a tumble of limbs.

Congratulations! You have defeated a Bone Rat - Level 2. +150 Exp.

Class: [Blank] has reached Level 3. +5 Stat Points.

Clover’s lips twitched upward; having a gun really made things easier. He could do this.