Congratulations Rations suitable for the human species has been made available as a Tier 1 item in the shop. One day's worth of sustenance will cost you 100 credits.

Congratulations Rations suitable for the human species has been made available as a Tier 2 item in the shop. One day's worth of sustenance will cost you 1000 credits. The Tier 2 rations are more suitable to a human’s sense of taste.

I’m kind of curious what the rations taste like. Its getting close to lunch so I spend the 100 credits to get the cheaper option. The ration I receive is a black brick. It tastes terrible. Like burnt chicken that was dried, ground into a powder and then compressed like a pill. The taste of charcoal is almost enough to make me want to spit it out. I do manage to choke it down but I’m not keen on eating another one anytime soon.

During a break from hunting I pestered the system for information on how to get off of Earth. It seems I need to either raise funds to buy a spaceship or raise my citizenship classification to 20 in order to access the teleportation system. A third alternative is to buy passage on a passing starship but there is no way of knowing when one will come. With that In mind I have been hunting with the intent to buy a starship.

It seems a bit early to say this but so far nothing much has changed. There are a small number of people like me wandering the streets killing MONSTERs but for the most part people are still going about their regular lives. I did something I rarely do this morning, I watched the news. It was mostly the same stuff you see every day, though there was some coverage on the voice. The giant insects and other pest animals was brought up, it seems that despite the increase in size there have been no reported issues. Well, I’m still going around and hunting them. If I can keep myself fed this way then why not?

Good morning Lucas.

An analysis of system data has revealed that your initials form the word Law. This suggests that your name acts as a charm to promote lawful behavior. In recognition of this fact you have received the “Lawful” bonus trait. This grants you a protection from Unlawful behaviors. Further when acting to uphold the law you will be empowered. The “Traits and Titles” option in your MENU has been unlocked.

That was interesting. My middle name, Arthur, was given to me to remind me of my uncle. My mother and her brother-in-law never got along. My dad’s family always knew he was a petty criminal but they kept that separate from their relationship with him. On the friday before I was born he was arrested after a robbery gone wrong. In remembrance I was given the combination of his name and the initials LAW.

Well I go back to my hunting. As I’m walking down the street I notice a large MONSTER reaction through my skill and walk up to the door of a small house.

I ring the doorbell and shout through an open window, “Exterminator! Hello?” After waiting for about a minute I knock on the door. When the silence continues I decide to try opening the door. The door, as it happens is unlock. “I’m coming in!”

What I see reminds me that cats are carnivores. A calico with a bloody mouth standing over its former owner will do that to you. That might just be me though. I quickly shut the door and pull out my cell phone.

“911 what is your emergency?”

“I just found a mutated housecat standing over its owner, with a bloody face at uhh… 1632 German drive. I think the owner is dead.”

“Oh. That seems unfortunate. How large is that cat at the moment?”

“When I closed the door just now it was kind of… pony sized? Bigger than a lion anyway. I’m one of the uhhh, hunters by the way.”

“I see. I will dispatch an ambulance to your location. I would like you to leave the line open until you have cleared the house.”

“Gottcha, I will put you on speaker then.”

Once I was done I put my phone back in my pocket and started charging a Mana bolt. Once I feel ready I open the door and look for the cat. Thankfuly it was still eating its former owner so all I had to do was aim at it and send the bolt flying. “Mana Bolt!” The sphere of energy I had gathered into my hand shot forward and struck the kitty in the mouth blowing its head off. I begin charging another Manabolt and step through the door looking for the other MONSTERs that my skill was reacting to. Thankfully there were only a number of insect, none larger than a normal sized house cat. I finished clearing the house then spoke to the 911 operator. “That does it, the building is clear.”

“Thank you for your service. The ambulance should be there in approximately five minutes.”

The next step was selling the corpses to the system. The cat was worth almost a million credits but the insects were hardly worth mentioning. When the ambulance showed up I showed the EMTs into the house. “Looks like this is going to make the news”

“Yeah, so much for harmless.” The EMT seemed distracted.

“Credit for your thoughts?”

You have proposed a trade.

You offer 1 Credit

You request information on what is bothering the EMT

The EMT stopped what she was doing. “Yeah, could you go check on my parents for me?”

“Sure, just give me an address.”

She pulled out a notepad and wrote down an address and a phone number. “Could you call me if something bad has happened?”

I nodded and left.

Something had happened. Thankfully her parents were alive. After I got the address from her I walked home to get my car. Her parents lived across town from where I was and the drive took me about an hour to complete.

When I got there there were clear signs of MONSTERs coming from the house. I rang the doorbell and called out. “Exterminator, I’m coming in!” I started by checking the door knob. Thankfully it was unlocked. I started charging up a Mana Bolt while dialed 911”

“911 what is your emergency?”

“I gave the operator the address and said, “I’m one of those giant insect hunter, responding to a situation, can you tell me anything about what I’m walking into?”

“One moment…. Yes, There is a trio of giant chihuahuas, it seems they came in through the backdoor of the residence. No injuries at the time of the report. An ambulance and animal control are on the way. The ambulance should be there in about ten minutes, animal control has an ETA of an hour.”

“Thanks. I’m putting my cell on speaker, then I’m going in.” I began by circling around to the back of the house. The backdoor was connected to the kitchen so I took the liberty of acquiring a heavy cast iron skillet as a melee weapon. Once I was ready I closed the back door behind me and began walking through the house.

The first chiwawa I found was drinking water from an overflowing bathtub. I closed the door on it, I could deal with it later. The second was trying to chew on the EMT’s mother’s shoe collection, the shoes were too big so it was just swallowing them whole, Again I closed the door on it. The last one was clawing its way through another bedroom door, quicker than I was happy with. I whistled at it. “Here doggie,” and retreated to the kitchen before applying my Mana Bolt to its face. I sold it though the inventory and began charging another Mana Bolt. The next one I took care of was the one chewing on the shoes. I called it into the kitchen like I did with the first one and made another clean kill. The third one was more of an issue. I Opened the door to the bathroom and managed to remove one of its legs. The fact that it wasn't dead meant I needed to fight it off with the skillet.

“Sir, are you okay?” The voice of the 911 operator snapped me out of my daze.

“Yeah, the dogs are dead, I’m going to go through and kill any mutated insects I can find, you can cancel the animal control.”

“Okay…. Are you injured, and is there any indication of the people who called?”

I looked myself over, I was uninjured. “I’m good, I’ve been boosting my Endurances, seems like it serves the role of boosting defense in games. I’m checking on the owners now.” I walked over to the bedroom door that the third chiwawa was clawing at. “Are you okay in there? You daughter, the EMT sent me, I’m on the phone with 911 right now, there is an ambulance on the way.”

The EMT’s father answered me. “We’re fine, I’ve got a bit of gash on my arm. One of those damn things took a bite out of it. It’s nothing dire but I do need the ambulance.” The 911 operator repeated what he said and I confirmed his statement for her.

“I’m hanging up now. Thanks for your help.”

“I tried to keep the blood down when I killed them but you have a mess in your kitchen, I’m going to clear out the insects now.”

“Thanks for the help. You said Clarissa sent you?”

“Did I? I didn’t get the woman’s name, just your address and her phone number.” I handed him the slip of paper.

“Yup, thats clair. You said you are an exterminator, do we owe you anything?”

I chuckled. “No, I sold the bodies through the MENU. That’s all the compensation I need. I’m not even a proper exterminator. I kinda trespassed in a home across town when I detected a MONSTER and found the resident dead. I called myself an exterminator as a joke. I called 911.”

The old man chuckled. “Hello? 911? I just broke into a house, The owner is dead. Send help?”

I nodded with a grin on my face. The man's wife walked out of the room they were in mostly naked, she was only wearing a torn robe. After she turned the corner I shouted after her, “You may want to draw a fresh bath.”

“Let’s go sit down while I call Clair.” I nodded and lead the way to their living room.

The old man hit send on his phone right as the door opened and a ringtone walked through it. The man and I turned to the door to see his daughter walking up to him.

“Hello again. As you can see your parents are safeish.”

The EMT, Clarissa, nodded meekly. “They ended my shift early, once dad is loaded up I’m off duty. I was so scared when the call came in for my parents house.”

“Hey, system. What is the current Safety rating for the city?”

The current SR is about 60-66. Most of this is from hazards. Ignoring environmental concerns the recommended CL for this area is 45-50. It its estimated that this will increase to 70-75 in the during 24 hours EQST.

Clairissa looked at me. “That seems bad. If things keep like this I don’t know how long we can survive.”

I nodded. “I’m focusing my growth on endurance. I was up to CL 40 when we met earlier. Status.”

Lucas Arthur Williams

Citizenship Rating Class 2

Social Class Nomad

System Credit 3,526,321

Combat Class None

CL 40

Physical Strength 100

Physical Endurance 305

Physical Control 100

Mental Strength 100

Mental Endurance 310

Mental Control 100

Growth Rate Rapid

Augmentation Points 45

I boosted my PE to 310 and spilt the rest between MS and MC. “Skills.”

MONSTER Detection 240 yards

Mana Bolt

CAMPING Projection 7.2 foot sphere

“How strong are you now?”

“I just boosted myself to CL43, If I’m understanding these numbers right now then I am 310% as durable as I would be without the system, my Mental endurance is the same while my MS and MC are at 120% Whatever that means. I did see some boosts to my skills though. Speaking of which, have you raised your citizenship class, I’m currently a class 2”

She shook her head, “I’m only a CL 15”

I nodded half ignoring her. “Your mother is too long. Would you go check on her?”

“Oh, sure. I will be right back then.”

“Hey um, exterminator guy? She fell asleep. She has some bugs on her though, would you carry her to the living room?”

I got up and walked into her mother’s bedroom. She must have fallen asleep after changing into a pair of pajamas “No need.” I focus my energy and use the center of the woman’s bed as the focus. “CAMPING Projection.” The energy leaves me and a glowing sphere appears around the bed. “That will keep any MONSTERs out. Let’s let her sleep.”

We walked back to their living room and sat down again. “The CAMP aura should last until about ten tomorrow morning.”

“I get monster but why is that skill called Camping?”

“MONSTERs and CAMPING are system acronyms. MONSTER stands for Mana Influenced and Mutated Creatures Labeled as Useable for Use as Raw Materials. CAMPING means Dangerous Mutated Creature Repelling Aura and Anti-Mutation Zone. Removing Aura from that somehow makes it CAMP.”

“Ahh. So it's a skill that keeps you safe for when you sleep?” I nod.

“I’m going to leave a note for my mom. Could you drive me to Saint George’s? That’s where they would have taken my dad.”

“Sure.”

Our drive to the hospital was quiet. Clarissa was clearly worried about her dad. When we got there he was ready to go. There were a lot of injured people flooding into the hospital. When we were back on the road Clarissa's dad said “Two days.”

“What’s that?”

“Two days was all it took for things to become an emergency. How was Ginny holding up?”

“Mom passed out, possibly before you left. Mr aahh….”

“Lucas, Lucas Arthur Williams.”

“Lucas used a skill he bought from the system to leave her protected.”

“It projects a sphere that keeps MONSTERs out and keeps things from mutating inside.” I turned on my headlights. The sun was setting and I was beginning to feel tired. I pulled into a gas station parking lot. I looked at my fuel gauge the tank was about half full. “Clarissa, did we leave your car at the hospital or something?”

“No, I car pool.”

“I’m going to fill up as a just-in-case. Would one of you drive us back to your house?”

Clarissa nodded, “I’ll fill the tank. Just hop into the passenger seat and take a break.”

I nodded off and before I knew it we were back at clarissa's parent’s house.

Clarissa’s Father looked at me and said “You two should just sleep here tonight. Lucas, are you good for another of your safety bubbles?”

“Yeah, I don’t think I could pull off two though.”

Clarissa handed me my car keys and smiled awkwardly at me. “My bed is big enough, we can share. Now isn’t the best time to worry about scandal. I would prefer to keep you close by to squish anything that needs it anyway.”

“There is some squishing that needs to be done, nothing big as far as I can tell. I will leave that to one of you. Show me the bed.”

Clarissa led me to the room that the chihuahua's had trapped her parents and I projected another CAMP aura onto her bed, one that would last till ten in the morning. I laid down and fell asleep.