Let us speak now of Respawns. One of the worst things about the System is the law we now know as the 'Conservation of Respawns'. If you kill another entity with Respawns, you gain the one they lose. Notably, dungeon bosses and their captains typically have Respawns – as will monsters that have successfully killed a 'player' – but the most unpleasant and dangerous aspect of the System is that there are far easier prey for the experienced Adventurers who will descend upon your world when the Galactic System activates – your people.

Thus we find the final injustice of this game: It turns the players themselves into monsters, hunting those weaker than themselves for their own survival.

- What you need to know to survive the Voidbound System, By &*%:・%^%

When the light faded, there was now a mighty Gothic fortress looming over a decrepit city, only... not. It was a cyberpunk take on gothic horror, a fortress easily reaching fifty stories high, with gun turrets competing with gargoyles, neon lights shining from the windows, wavering holograms of screaming skulls and nightmares forming even as they watched. The ruined city was just what was left of San Francisco, fifty years in the future, then abandoned and ravaged by war for a couple of decades. A massive wall, easily fifty feet high, rose up as the changes continued: forged of some metal with a shimmering iridescent appearance, and even as it solidified, a massive pair of gates appeared in the middle of the wall.

The changes did not stop there. A yellow wave rippled out from the wall, and as it passed over the ground, it changed – all the buildings outside the wall simply vanished, hills that weren't there a minute ago erupted from the ground, and the terrain around them, even the ground they were on, reshaped itself in ways subtle and not. Plants that were familiar, others that were like nothing any of them had seen before appeared, spreading like wildfire to create new flora – and no doubt new Fauna, as the doors of the wall opened, and a torrent of monsters and beasts poured out.

There were hundreds of people they could see in their path, and they almost all began to run: There were some who turned what powers they had gained on the rapidly spreading horde, but they were far too close and were quickly overwhelmed: Screams of pain and fear started to fill the air, roars of monsters and beasts, a brutal display that had more than one throwing up, as others just looked on helplessly – knowing that if they moved to help, they'd be overwhelmed as well.

This, in turn, turned everyone's focus inward, on their one hope of safety: because they were only perhaps a mile or two further way, albeit with a good vantage point, and the horde wouldn't necessarily be that thinned by the time it reached them. Jonathan, in particular, focused upon the Fortification spike in his hand, and happily, it now displayed actually useful information.

Fortification Spike

Durability: 1728/1728

This Item allows the creation of a Fortification in an Adventure Zone.

Adventure Zone Requirements met!

To deploy your Fortification, insert the spike at the centre of your encampment.

Without waiting any longer, Jonathan did just that, ramming the spike into the top of the hill while those around him prepared to fight. The moment he did so, however, a wall of toxic green light emanated from the spike, washing outwards to cover easily half a mile, not just encompassing their group, but some of the closer stragglers as well: and once it had taken form, all the monsters that had been approaching them turned away, to move around the toxic green, semi-translucent wall. Everyone looked on in shock, and those outside the wall, upon seeing this changed course to run towards it, as quickly as they could – and Jonathan distantly heard Frank powering up another incantation, hopefully Dave's. He had his own things to focus on.

Fortification Name: *$*￡&*￡$￡&&￡粕・!%^

Level: 1

Dungeon Proximity: Close

Congratulations! You have pressed deep into the Zone, and are within striking distance of the Dungeon!

You and your party are awarded 6 XP!

Time Remaining on Fortification Field: 11 minutes, 24 seconds

You have 20,746 Fortification points to spend!

Options

・ Defensive Wall - Basic

・ Defensive Turrets - None

・ Traps - None

・ Accommodations - Basic

・ Rooms - None

・ Fortification Boss -

This looked more like dungeon design than camp design – with a brief glance at the approaching horde, he looked away from the sight of people being torn apart, trying to block out the distant (and rapidly approaching) screams and panicked, pleading voices to focus on making a safe place for as many as he could. He went into the wall options, first, and was presented with a rather uninformative list:

・ Basic - 36 FP Default, no cost.

・ Improved - 144 FP

・ Intermediate - 576 FP

・ Superior - 2,304 FP

・ Immaculate - 9,216 FP

Without wanting to waste any time, he selected 'Superior' for now, and moved on to Accommodations – to see the same uninformative choices. With no idea as to what they meant, and no time to try (again) to find information on it in the manual, he grabbed immaculate accommodations, reasoning it was better to have too many rooms that too few. Looking at his main screen, he had nine thousand, two hundred and twenty six points left. As he was debating between traps, Turrets, and – Boss? - Frank came jogging over.

“I got a message from Maskeline!” he said, urgently. “He said to tell you to make sure you grab a 'Temple' room – He said it'll boost all of us – and probably a medical bay: the basic boss will do, and that Turrets are better than traps right now! We get more points when we level up!”

Jonathan gave a curt nod, diving into the Boss menu, and Selecting Basic, which cost nothing, then moving into the Room options.

There were.. More than a few.

・ Forge

・ Medical Bay

・ Armoury

・ Casting Chamber

・ Minion Foundry

・ Alchemy Lab

・ Chemistry Lab

・ Launch Port

・ Map Room

・ Temple

・ Docking Port

・ Teleportation Port

・ Mana Well

・ Communications Centre

・ Subsurface Port

・ Dungeon

・ Gallery

・ Training Facilities

・ Physics Lab

・ Biology Lab

・ Genetics Lab

・ Instruction Facilities

・ Treasury

Selecting The Medical Bay first, he was again presented with the same five options – though this time, 'basic' was an option. Working on the recommendation given, he grabbed an Intermediate Medical Bay, and then – figuring that if a god was giving him a boost, the better the temple the better the boost – a Superior temple. Then – having played enough games of this type – added Improved Forge and Training facilities. Moving back out to the main screen, he saw he had 5,194 points left, and opened up the turrets menu. Here, he was asked to select the number of turrets, and then their individual quality: working the math quickly in his head, he grabbed nine Intermediate turrets, which left him with.. He quickly checked.. 10 points. He took one final panicked look at the menu...

Fortification Name: *$*￡&*￡$￡&&￡粕・!%^

Level: 1

Dungeon Proximity: Close

Time Remaining on Fortification Field: 9 minutes, 45 seconds

You have 10 Fortification points to spend!

Options

・ Defensive Wall - Superior

・ Defensive Turrets - 9 Intermediate

・ Traps - None

・ Accommodations - Immaculate

・ Rooms -

◦ Temple

◦ Medical Bay

◦ Forge

◦ Training Facilities

・ Fortification Boss: Basic

Shit. He had to refine the boss, and... Name. Name. He quickly input 'SanFran Recovery Point' in as the name, and dived into the boss options.

・ Skeletal

・ Beast

・ Elemental

・ Digital

・ Fusion

Looking at the blank, uninformative list, he grabbed Digital and hoped for the best.

Congratulations! 'SanFran Recovery Point' Fortification has been designed!

You are awarded 3 XP for creating a Fortification!

Congratulations! You are the first person to build a Fortification on your world! You receive 6,615 FP for your Fortification! Your Fortification is upgraded to level 2!

Congratulations! 'SanFran Recovery Point' is now a level 2 Fortification!

You gain 5,187 FP for enhancements to 'SanFran Recovery Point'!

Another wave of toxic green spread out: The walls were the first things to appear. Superior walls, made of the same iridescent metal of the Dungeon they had seen spawn, reaching thirty feet high, easily ten feet thick, circling them at the edge of the perimeter, enclosing all the people whom had made it to their location. Still strangely permeable to the other survivors that were streaming into the area, far too few in number though they were. Automated turrets appeared spaced around the wall, and began opening fire on the surrounding monsters, even as the light gathered inwards, growing into a colossal spire, Bulking out into a fortification, a castle, that looked big enough to hold an army. Those within looked on, shell-shocked, at the structure that rose around them. Solidifying into existence as the last few survivors stumbled in, and more notifications bombarded his vision.

Congratulations! As the Founder of this Fortification, you are assigned the Trait 'Governor: SanFran Recovery Point'.

For gaining your first Trait, gain 1 XP!

Congratulations! For establishing a Fortification Danger-Close to a Dungeon, you are awarded 2 xp!

Congratulations! You have Levelled up!

XP to Level 3: 1/12

Attribute Increases: You gain +1 Magic, +1 Stamina, +1 Intelligence, +1 Creativity!

Fortification Name: SanFran Recovery Point

Level: 2

Dungeon Proximity: Close

Immunity Period: 27 Days

You have 11,812 Fortification points Available!

Options

・ Defensive Wall - Superior

Durability: 429,981,696

Access: Open

・ Defensive Turrets - 9 Intermediate

Damage: 1728 Physical

・ Traps - None

・ Accommodations - Immaculate

Current Occupancy: 376

・ Rooms -

◦ Temple

Deity:

◦ Medical Bay

Organ Cloning Facilities

9 Suspended Animation pods

Universal Antitoxin

Universal Antibodies

Healing Rate increased by 54%

◦ Forge

Automated Metal Refinement

Alloy database

Material sources within 142.32 Miles automatically populated in Map Room.

◦ Training Facilities

18% increase in skill point accrual

・ Fortification Boss: Basic Digital

9% increase in Training Facilities

Generates Autodoc in Medical Bay

Cybernetic Facilities in Forge

Automates replacement of Traps

Enhanced Turret Targeting and Damage Selection.

Eliminates chance of Teleportation Failure

Enhanced monitoring (Internal)

Enhanced monitoring (External)

Communications Hardening

Research Automation

AI Administrator

Networked (Unavailable at this time)

With a moment's thought, he selected the Autodoc, Cybernetic facilities, and enhanced turrets – the moment he did, the turrets started firing faster and far more accurately, driving the monsters away for now, the bolts of energy they fired seeming to modulate, based on what they were shooting at. With another glance at the screen – now showing 404 occupants – he turned to Frank. “Let's go find that Temple.” The moment he did, he knew where it was, and off the two went, everyone else pouring in after them as the apocalypse cascaded down upon those too far away to help.