While Blair didn’t have the best memory, it didn’t take a savant to remember that the building wasn’t covered in vines. Grass protruded from the cracked floor that revealed the dirt underneath and Blair couldn’t help but assume she was in a world where humans hadn’t lived in for decades. Seeing grass on the rooftop of an old building was one thing but seeing it grow through concrete was humbling.

That reminded her of the Bamboo Torture method that she’d read about on the internet.

It could grow through flesh but growing through concrete was on a whole new level. That brought her to the question of how exactly it happened. If she knew the first thing about plants, they needed time to grow and it couldn’t have been longer than an hour or two in the Tutorial.

Welcome back to [Earth], Player. Approximately 250 Local Years have passed on your planet. Would you like further elaborations?

“Yes,” she almost shouted out.

1. All [Earthling: Humans] under the age of 14 or over the age of 80 have been placed in [Stasis]. You will be eligible to claim them after your [Settlement] meets the qualifications of a [Town].

2. Your world has been split into Zones and [Tier 10] Monsters have been placed on your planet.

3. Your world has been restructured to develop your survival skills further.

“Elaborate,” she said, but the System didn’t give another answer.

The children and old people were gone, monsters were running around, and it said that the world had been restructured. She didn’t know what it meant but it couldn’t be good. What if the System ended up raising mountains out of nowhere just to make it harder for them to survive, or a thick forest?

There were too many implications.

The door was ajar and it was clear that Joshua had already left the room. Considering that she’d stalled for a minute or two at most before walking into the highlighted area, it was odd. There were some time dilation shenanigans at play here and that wasn’t something any alien species should be capable of.

It was downright arcane.

That’s when Blair remembered about Paula. She ought to be at her table down the hall. If Blair appeared where she was before being whisked away, it stood to reason that others were placed close to their previous locations as well.

While Blair knew that Anna was near if proximity was what determined them being placed in the same Raid team, she didn’t know where exactly.

She walked out the door and found the corridor to be the same as the room. It felt like she was walking through the ruins of an ancient civilization, but instead of ancient architecture, there were skyscrapers, apartments, and office buildings. Despite not leaving the confines of the building, she knew what to expect and prepared herself.

Decisively, she walked back to the reception and found Paula standing there, staring at her table in horror. Her mouth was wide-open, covered by her hand. It was clear that she was on the verge of tears.

“Steel Spear, appear!” shouted Blair and dashed to the rescue after grabbing her weapon, assuming that the world had turned into Australia on steroids. When she got there, she realized the reason.

“My lunch,” said Paula, her voice shaky. With quivering lips, she turned to Blair and explained, “It’s gone.”

“Someone probably took it,” reasoned Blair. In her book, the trio that she’d managed to get through the Raid together with were no longer strangers. They were acquaintances, like the distant relatives she ran into in family reunions every few years. That meant her introverted nature had eased significantly.

“No, no, no. It wasn’t taken. Didn’t you see? Two hundred years! How do you think a sandwich will last that long?” growled Paula and rubbed her forehead. She took a seat on the uncomfortable chair that had plants growing on it, only to tumble to the ground when it gave out. After a painful yelp, she managed to stand up by using the table as support, which had surprisingly not deteriorated.

“We can get another one,” Blair added helpfully.

“Two hundred and fifty years, new girl. Canned food might have survived but anything else is gone. The power grid? Gone. Gas? Probably gone as well. Fuck my life, I’ll starve to death at this rate. I’m so out of this shit,” grumbled Paula and looked at the chair with contempt.

“Then we go and try canned food. It mightn’t taste good but it could’ve survived,” said Blair, drawing all the useless knowledge she had to come to that conclusion. She’d heard that canned food could theoretically last indefinitely ages ago. Whether that was true would be put to the test.

Starving could be very real unless they had to hunt down Monsters for food.

“Did you see Joshua or umm, Anna?” asked Blair, wondering how far they’d gone or where. They were the only ones she knew in the office. While there was a very real possibility that she could run into someone from her high school or university, they couldn’t have possibly graduated faster than her and would’ve been coming for the same interview as her.

“Probably outside. There are a bunch of them there,” said Paula and kicked her drawer. It gave out, no thanks to her strength. The processed wood had become fragile with time and even in its prime, wood gave out easily if you hit at the right place with the right strength.

She knew from experience —she’d accidentally dented the wooden doorframe of her bedroom by bumping into it. The stern talking to she received kept it fresh in her memories even after three years.

Blair turned to look at the glass doors and spotted several people outside. They were frantic, furiously typing into their smartphones and some of them tried to get it as high as possible. The glass of the doors was cracked and had been trampled into fine dust on the ground, making her shudder at the thought of falling on that.

That’d be dangerous.

“No service, I’m guessing,” mumbled Blair and pulled out her phone after dismissing her spear. There were no bars. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that centuries of disrepair would completely debilitate their infrastructure, and Blair was a genius. The battery was creeping dangerously close to 0 despite almost being full before being dragged into the Tutorial.

“Duh,” grumbled Paula and casually hopped over the reception desk by using one hand for support. She landed perfectly and huffed, “Always wanted to do that.”

There was no further conversation before they decided to leave the building in unison. Almost at the exact same moment, they started their walk. While Blair wasn’t the fastest walker, her longer limbs let her keep up with Paula until she started gaining ground. The competitive side of Blair urged her to race but the paranoid side of her urged her to slow down, in fear of falling into the powdered glass on the ground —the paranoid side won.

The air was no different from inside the building rather than being fresher, courtesy of the broken doors letting in the fresh air. The chill of early autumn was gone and it felt like summer all over again. The sweater felt stuffy, urging her to pull it off but for modesty’s sake, she didn’t. There was a tank-top underneath that she’d worn because it was comfortable, and it didn’t feel right to be walking around in nothing but a tank-top.

Blair turned left to walk home but what met her was a wall of red light that reached the sky. It stood a hundred or so meters from her current position and bore an uncanny resemblance to the highlighted areas.

“No,” she mumbled and in her disbelief, she walked over to the wall. There were dozens of others there as well, touching the wall or simply staring at it.

When she was close enough to hear the murmurs of the people that had gathered underneath, a pop-up screen met her.

You are currently unable to leave your Zone. Please upgrade your [Settlement] to a [Town].

She walked closer until she was in arm’s reach of the wall and placed her hand on it. It didn’t push her away but it was as solid as a wall. Some others were others trying to hack away with it using their weapons but they bounced off, magically repelled off the wall.

How were they supposed to know how to do that if it didn’t tell them?

Before Blair’s thought process finished, she remembered about the Status Card. Underneath the label of ‘Objective’, there were several lines of text.

Main Objective: Upgrade your [Settlement] to [Town].

Elect a [Mayor], [5 x Council Members], and [50 x Guards]. Choose a [Town Hall]. Survive [10 x Monster Waves] with a population of more than [25%].

First Step Reward: [1000 x Daily Rations (C)] per day

Second Step Reward: Access to [Planetary Communication].

Third Step Reward: [Settlement] upgraded to [Town].

The Objective had split into several parts and all of them were grayed out, which most likely meant that it hadn’t been fulfilled yet. It was clear that most of the Objectives were given to them as a whole rather than to individuals.

Blair opened her mouth, trying to bring attention to the fact but stopped —they were angry and in her experience, angry people didn’t listen well. They’d cool off in a bit and when they sit down to think, they’d realize how to get out.

She turned to the opposite side and took a look, only to spot yet another red wall erected there. It was far, just like the other two walls that made up the square prison they were located in. Give or take, the area they were allotted seemed to be over five miles to each side.

When you knew how far away the Dino Corp’s HQ was, you could estimate the distance to it if you’ve lived in the city for long enough. It just so happened that the building was over five miles from Blair’s current location and was right outside the red wall.

Through the transparent wall, she couldn’t see anyone else.

That made her furrow her brows and stare closer. She glanced behind her back and saw plenty of others flocking outside. It didn’t make sense for a district just as populous as the so-called Gloom Town to not have anyone walking outside.

That’s when she spotted another Dino Corp HQ in the distance, forcing her to look back just to check. It wasn’t hard to tell it. The skyscraper was built from green glass and there weren’t many such colorful designs in the city.

It led to Blair taking an even closer look at the landscape on the other side. The subway station that she’d come out of had to be in eyesight. She checked behind her back before entering the building, yet it wasn’t on the other side of the wall.

“It’s been restructured,” she said out loud. Her realization didn’t allow her to filter her to consciously turn her words into a mumble.

There were people that worked here so they’d figure it out, but that made it a nightmare to figure out the geography. How many Dino Corp HQs were there? Just two? Five? Ten? A hundred?

She needed to find someone she knew.

It was uncomfortable to be alone and the only ones she knew were the ones she was in the same Raid with but she’d lost sight of them all thanks to the hundred or so people loitering around along the same road.