Dante was on the verge of beating the final boss of the biggest new RPG game on the market when the world ended. He was the very first person to have reached the end game content and was on track to set an impossible-to-beat clear record for a solo player. Of course, this was mostly because he made a career out of breaking video games and posting videos of them online. The game companies eventually started paying him for finding the glaring glitches and exploits he used to break their games, and the videos earned him royalties based on the number of views he got.

Business was good. It had afforded him a gorgeous penthouse apartment in Miami, with a huge pool on the patio that overlooked one of the most beautiful beaches in the country, and a chauffeur to drive him around in his outrageously overpriced car.

This is why he had no qualms about putting a bat through his computer monitor when the power went out. By the time he was finished blowing off steam, there were bits and pieces of keyboard and monitor scattered across the room, and the desk itself was covered in dents and missing a leg. He had just lost hours of work. He pulled out his phone after he had calmed down a bit, and was shocked to see that it was dead too. Once he started checking things, he found that every single piece of electronic equipment in his entire suite was dead.

He grabbed his wallet and headed for the door, determined to figure out what the hell had happened. As he was about to grab the door handle the world around him rippled and a pleasant female voice sounded from nowhere.

Alert: Aegis initializing. Beginning conversion.

Alert: Planetary biospheres damaged. Long-term viability assessment: Low.

Alert: Database search has identified viable species. Commencing biosphere restoration.

Warning: Biomass required for restoration of planetary biospheres exceeds current reserves.

Warning: Sapient population density beyond optimal levels. Risk assessment: Extreme.

Alert: Converting 46.87% of sapient population to biomass.

Alert: Biospheres successfully restored.

Warning: Sapient population density beyond optimal Levels. Risk assessment: High.

Alert: Dispersing excess sapient population to lower population zones.

Alert: Beginning introduction sequence.

Dante tumbled backward from the door in a mad scramble when a second ripple washed across the world and a wave of nausea twisted its way through his gut. He stumbled backward and tripped on a decorative table, smacking his head on the hardwood floor. He groaned and clutched at the back of his skull in a futile effort to stop it from hurting. He was only just beginning to process everything that voice told him when a strange warbling filled his ears.

His eyes shot open in shock and terror as a strange four-armed, three-eyed being seemed to partially materialize in front of him. A quick glance to check for more ghost-like aliens warping into his room sent the one in front of him zipping around chaotically and he concluded that he must have hit his head much, much harder than he thought.

The alien ghost-hologram thing smiled at him, displaying an impressive array of pointed teeth that were even more unnerving than its turquoise-colored skin and finned ears. A few rapid blinks allowed him to tentatively confirm that it was actually in his head somehow and not in the room since he could see it even when his eyes were closed. “Gree-gree-greet-Salutations sapients of Planet Eee-Yarth, it is our mos-mos-mos-great pleasure and sad-sad-sad-sorrow to announce the com-com-com-arrival of Aegis to your ar-ar-area-region of space.” The image hovering in front of Dante sputtered and jumped as the voice spoke from seemingly everywhere around him. It was clearly speaking a different language from the one Dante was hearing, the lips and mouth of the image not matching the sound even when it wasn’t spazzing out.

“Age-age-age-eons ago several peop-peop-peop-sapients began to study the secrets of the void. They wan-wan-want-sought unlimited energy and faster than light travel.” The alien image vanished, only to be replaced by a beautifully rendered three-dimensional view of half a dozen aliens that were clearly of different species, working on a giant machine of some sort. “In their attempts to cap-cap-cap-harness the limitless power of the void, they brok-brok-brok-shattered the framework that held our universe together.” The image zoomed outwards, causing Dante to feel a bit motion-sick. What could only be described as tears in the fabric of space and time shredded whatever happened to be in their way as they opened all across the city he was being shown. Unspeakable horrors poured out of the tears and began to destroy what little was still standing, slaughtering whoever and whatever they caught, even if what they caught was each other.

The image flickered back to the fin-eared turquoise alien. “My people discovered the spreading fractures in the universe before they hit-hit-hit-struck our homeworld. We could not stop the cascade. As the roiling void energies struck, we released our greatest technological work-wor-work-masterpiece into the heart of the void storm. Even as I make this recording, the nanite clouds consume our people, our world, and our solar system. They will enter the void, changing and shaping it, they will travel with the cascade, and they will offer a chance of salvation to other sapients that would otherwise perish.”

The vision vanished as though it had never been there, and there was an ominous pause before the pleasant female voice spoke in his mind again. “Welcome to Aegis. Nanite conversion of sapient pending user class selection. WARNING: due to trial and error that resulted in the complete destruction of four thousand three hundred and sixty-six sapient species we have adjusted the class and leveling system in an effort to improve the survival rate. Quantifying statistics of the various sapient species resulted in a reliance on numbers that were an estimation of their to-to-top-maximum possible level of ability. This led to either complacency or overconfidence and ultimately death, and as such statistical measurements are no longer provided to the user. You may select one available class per level, and periodically you will gain access to feats that are associated with that class.

NOTE: You may change your class every time you level, but keep in mind that some classes will render you unable to select opposing classes, while certain combinations will unlock additional classes.

NOTE: Unless specifically stated, levels in a chosen class will not provide access to higher-level feats of any other classes you possess. For example, a level one Mystical Healer and level two Paladin adding a level to their paladin class will not acquire the feat given to a level two healer.

NOTE: levels are capped at one hundred. Upon reaching level one hundred you may choose to evolve. You will gain a passive ability based upon your overall class and feat selection and reset to level one. Classes you gained access to will remain unlocked, and classes you were restricted from will remain restricted. Each evolution will increase the amount of void energy required to increase your level.

Please select a starting class.

Dante’s shock started to bleed away into a confused numbness as the voice droned on about levels and classes, still trying to process the previous statements implying that half the world's population was dead. His mind cleared in a flash, though, when a list suddenly populated in front of him filled with names of what he assumed were classes. He gingerly reached out into the three-dimensional image and smiled in surprised delight when it smoothly and intuitively responded to his touch.

A few deft flicks had him scrolling through the available classes rapidly. Some were utterly useless in his opinion, like Cook, General Laborer, and Librarian, but others were very, very interesting. Kineticist for example, or sorcerer. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any in-depth information provided with the class names, just a hype-style blurb. No numbers to crunch, no list of skills to munchkin to the point of breaking the balance of whatever this was in his favor, nothing.

Sorcerer: harness the limitless power of the void to your will and use it to manipulate the elements themselves!

Kineticist: void energies shift and change your mind, granting you more control over kinetic energy with every level! Shatter the laws of motion and inertia!

Dante thought about it for a long while, idly skimming through the other classes he could see. If that info dump was accurate there were more classes he couldn’t see yet. It also sounded like he needed to do some planning if he wanted to optimize himself. He grabbed a notebook off of the floor near his devastated desk and started to jot down his guesses about the possible synergy between certain classes, and whether it might be best to focus on a single class to the max level. His information was extremely lacking in detail, but he was fairly confident in his ability to game the system since it was what he did for a living. He didn’t expect to get it absolutely perfect with so little to go on, but he didn’t need to be a perfectly min-maxed god, he only needed to get close. Most plebs will just take what’s offered without thinking about it at all, and that’s not counting the fools that have never touched a game of any sort that will be lost.

No, he just needed to be stronger than everyone else, and he could do that with ease. The real question holding him up was which class to start with. He grinned to himself. That wasn’t a hard question to answer at all, of course, he was taking Sorcerer. Kineticist looked awesome, and toying with the laws of motion was certainly something he wanted to play with eventually, but Sorcerer would let him throw fireballs in real life! Assuming he hadn’t lost his marbles, which he supposed was a real possibility. He was pretty sure that crazy people don’t question their hallucinations though, so he was gonna run with the assumption that this was happening for now.

User has selected Sorcerer! Your first level in Aegis comes with a one-time ability to make minor cosmetic changes to your body, please make your wanted adjustments now! A three-dimensional version of himself sprang into existence in front of him, complete with sliders arrayed around it that changed how he looked. After playing with it a bit, he finalized his changes. Removing the pudge gained from a career revolving around exploiting video game glitches, altering his facial features a bit, and adding some muscle tone now that his muscles weren’t “padded” anymore. He looked over the image of himself with satisfaction, and after a moment’s hesitation, he made a couple of last-second changes before finalizing everything.

A shimmering cloud of silver and black enveloped him, dissolving into his flesh and flowing through his veins in a rush of power and pleasure. The world went black suddenly, no sound, no smells, no sense of touch, nothing except the pure and utter ecstasy that flooded through his body, imprinting new knowledge and expanding his mind until he was one with the universe for a moment. A fleeting moment that lasted for an eternity, yet ended in a flash. When he recovered he glanced around blearily as he got his bearings back. Before he had a chance to test or check anything the voice spoke up again.

Warning: insufficient void energy available for the creation of exclusion zones, postponing the creation of exclusion zones until sufficient void energy has been collected. Suppressing Rift development in remaining dense population areas to reduce the level of spawning voidlings until exclusion zones can be established or void energy depletes.

Warning: approximately fourteen gooblesplots until initial voidling spawn, prepare to defend yourselves sapients!

Dante blinked in confusion. “What’s void energy?” he muttered, not expecting an answer.

Void energy is the very essence of the void and is a major component in the physiology of voidlings. Aegis can use this energy to augment items, create pocket dimensions, and provide local species with exclusion zones that prevent voidling materialization within their boundaries. Warning: exclusion zones only prevent materialization, manifested voidlings are still capable of physically entering exclusion zones.

Well, that was useful. It even explained exclusion zones. “How do I collect or spend void energy? Wait, before that, what is a gooblesplot?” He didn’t want to be asking Aegis about things that could wait until after he knew he wasn’t moments away from getting eaten by some crazy Lovecraftian horror from another dimension.

Translation error detected! A report has been filed! Thank you for your assistance in identifying this issue! Converting to local time… one gooblesplot is equivalent to approximately point eight five seven six seconds.

His eyes widened as he realized that he had twelve seconds from the moment he got that warning to prepare, and he had spent it asking Aegis questions. He jolted to his feet and recoiled in fear as he heard something glass shatter in the kitchen. Then the door going that way was blasted open by a huge hairy fist. The fist was attached to the most hideous cross of a gorilla, a pig, and a snake he could have ever imagined. The thing was mostly a giant hairy ape, with a pig-shaped head and a forked tongue that flickered in and out between its huge chipped tusks. Because a pissed-off gorilla wasn’t bad enough, gotta give it bigger teeth and probably snake venom too, because why not?

Acting on pure instinct, instincts he hadn’t had until moments ago, he raised his hand towards the creature and shouted, “Pyrus!” a stream of crackling flame erupted from his fingertips and bathed the creature in a glorious baptism of fire. He reveled in the smell of burnt hair for the first time in his life, and he laughed with glee as the beast flailed about in a futile effort to extinguish the flames. It smashed holes in the walls, shattered the kitchen door into splinters, and flattened a display case in its rampage. He barely paid attention to the stream of flame as it sputtered and went out, its job was done, and now he just had to wait for the stupid monster to finish dying.

What he didn’t expect to happen, was for the beast to run out of hair and promptly stop burning. Now he found himself facing an utterly furious, heavily-charred pig-ape and those new instincts of his were adamant that he couldn’t cast any more spells for a few hours at least. Which left him with only one reasonable recourse. It was time to make a strategic withdrawal. He bolted to the front door and sprinted out into the hallway without a second thought, only to panic as he realized he was quite a distance off the ground, and the floor was gone.

He landed on the ground with a wet crunch and a flare of blinding agony that only lasted a moment before becoming a terrifying numbness. Stuck prone on a forest floor that had definitely not been there before, he could only stare helplessly upwards as the charred pig-ape leapt out of the random chunk of the building that had evidently been lodged in a tree during Aegis’s dispersal of sapients, caught itself on a branch, then climbed to the ground swiftly.

As it stood over him, blood oozing from its damaged skin and mixing with the drool splattering on his cheek, he couldn’t help but be glad the fall had paralyzed him and that he couldn’t feel anything as it bent closer. He was quickly proven wrong though. The pig-ape was indeed venomous after all. Its venom attacked the nervous system directly, and his final screams echoed through the trees as the monster took its time, making sure its prey suffered for having the audacity to burn its fur off.