Phase 1 of System Integration Started:

-User Interface Initialized 100% | Think 'Status' to continue to the Status screen

-Initial Geographic Restructuring 3% | Time Remaining: 62:37:53

-Increasing Environmental Mana Levels 11% | Time Remaining: 11:14:23

-Introducing Low-Level Random Mobs 5% | Time Remaining: 58:47:01

-Converting Certain Natural Landmarks to Mob Nests 2% | Time Remaining: 67:42:35

Aaron stood still with his jaw slack, in disbelief of what was happening. “What the fuck is going,” he said, questioning if the stress of planning to ask out Ashley was causing him to hallucinate.

It doesn’t matter, we need to get out of here,” John said as he pointed to a cloud of smoke billowing out of the school. Aaron blinked, how does that even happen? The system didn’t say anything about spontaneously starting fires.

Aaron looked down at his hand and counted his fingers. All his fingers were in the place where they should be looking completely normal, though his pointer finger did look a bit paler than the rest. "I guess that’s how my hands are supposed to look," Aaron thought to himself. After using the only technique he knew to decipher whether he was hallucinating or not he was forced to, temporarily admit that he was not hallucinating “You’re right,” Aaron said as he stretched out his fist towards John. “Stay safe.”

John bumped his fist into Aarons and smiled. “Once I get my family out of here, I’ll meet you back in the neighborhood,” John said, then ran into the smoking building.

Aaron tried to move, but it felt like his legs were glued to the ground. Every survival instinct in his body was telling him that running into a burning building was a terrible idea. John made it look easy, but for Aaron, it wasn’t so simple. He was scared. Every moment he delayed, the fire would spread more and the situation would get worse. Thinking about it logically, there wasn’t even that much smoke rising from the building, so the fire couldn’t be too bad. If he moved now he likely wouldn’t run into any problems.

A high pitched scream assaulted Aaron’s ears, as the side door to the school burst open. A short girl sprinted away from the building, brushing past Aaron in her haste to escape. “What’s going on in there?” Aaron asked.

“There are monsters in there,” she said as she continued to run deeper into the parking lot. She shakily fumbled with her keys and threw herself into her car. Before Aaron could ask her for more information, the wheels of her old minivan squealed and she quickly accelerated out of the parking lot.

Aaron slapped himself in the face and forced himself to enter the school. Aaron sprinted down empty hallways, closing in on his location. The graduation ceremony was being held at the school’s gymnasium.

Even though the gym was only a couple hundred feet away from where Aaron entered the school the journey seemed to take an eternity. As Aaron got closer the temperature steadily rose and the sound of screams got louder. Aaron kicked up the side door to the gym and was greeted by chaos.

Broken glass littered the ground as the more athletic students escaped out of the windows. Some people, particularly the elderly, lay on the ground moaning in pain, having been trampled over in the crowds' mad dash to escape. The weirdest part of the scene was the assortment of monsters wandering around the room causing chaos. Hovering over the monsters' heads was a conveniently placed blue box. The box was mostly empty, only containing text naming the monsters, but it looked like there was enough room for more information to be fit into the blue box.

On the left side of the gym, hoards of mice that seemed to be on fire, chased unlucky students, leaving fires in their wake. The mice were appropriately named by the system as Fire Mice. At least he knew how the fires started now. Intermixed with the fire mice, were Living Scarecrows.

Aaron ignored all the chaos in the room as he scanned the gym for his family. In the right corner of the gym, his mother and sister were hiding behind a wooden table. Acting before his nerves could paralyze him, he ripped a fire extinguisher off of the wall and rushed over to his family.

“Mom, are you okay?” Aaron said, concern bleeding into his voice.

“Yes, but I lost my glasses,” she said.

Aaron searched the area for his mom's glasses. He found them lying on the ground ten feet away. The only problem was that they were smashed to pieces. “Dammit,” Aaron mumbled to himself. “Vanessa grab her and follow me, don’t stop running no matter what.” He took one last look behind him to make sure that his sister was ready, then started running to the door he entered from.

Responding to his sudden movement, a pack of Fire Mice started following Aaron and his family. Due to their small size, they weren’t fast, at full speed they were barely faster than the running speed of a child. However, due to his Mother being functionally blind without her glasses they were not able to move very fast. Adrenaline surged in Aaron’s veins, as they slowly moved down the hallways, the bumbling pack of Fire Mice inching closer with every passing second.

Aaron fumbled with the fire extinguisher he was carrying, trying to get it to work. How the hell do you even use a fire extinguisher? Aaron attempted to read the instruction on the side of the bottle while running, but due to the pressure of the situation, he was unable to fully grasp how it was supposed to work. Aaron offered a prayer to whatever god was willing to listen, ripped the pin out of the fire extinguisher, aimed at the pack of fire mice, and pulled the trigger.

Despite his prayer, nothing happened. “Cheap ass school, the fire extinguisher doesn't even work,” Aaron said, wildly pumping his arms to put some distance between him and the Fire Mice.

Just as they were about to reach the exit a Living Scarecrow jumped out of a classroom and blocked their path.

“What do we do?” Aaron's little sister said with tears in her eyes. The Scarecrow moved forward with jerky movements. Each unnatural step sounded like a bundle of twigs being snapped.

“I’ll take care of this pile of sticks, you and mom run once it's distracted.”

Aaron threw the fire extinguisher at the Scarecrow as hard as he could. The red can impacted the scarecrow in the middle of its forehead, cracking its wooden skeleton and causing it to reel back in pain. Aaron let out a scream and charged the Scarecrow. Using his superior weight, he tackled the Living Scarecrow to the ground. “Go,” he screamed at his sister.

The scarecrow struggled, digging its wooden claws into Aaron’s arm, leaving shallow trails of blood behind. Aaron glanced behind him and saw the Fire Mice quickly approaching, they would be on him in under ten seconds, he had to act quickly.

Taking inspiration from his caveman ancestors, Aaron raised the fire extinguisher above his head. He repeatedly slammed it into the scarecrow's face, each hit making a satisfying crunching sound. He didn’t stop beating the scarecrow till its face was nothing but a pile of kindling and wheat.

In the time it had taken for him to beat the scarecrow the Fire Mice were able to close the gap and were now only a few feet away from him. Having no desire to be lit on fire, Aaron rolled off of the scarecrow's corpse and pointed the nozzle of the fire extinguisher at them. This time the fire extinguisher worked, and let out a blast of white foam. Aaron ignored the mice’s squeals of pain and kept shooting them till they stopped moving.

Aaron laid on the ground panting, beads of sweat pooling beneath him. “I guess everything can be fixed by hitting it really hard,” Aaron said while a sound resembling chimes played in his head.

You have defeated:

x1 Lvl 2 Living Scarecrow

x13 Lvl 1 Fire Mice

156 Experience Gained

Level Up

Aaron forced himself to his feet and looked at the corpse of the Living Scarecrow with disdain. He kicked it a few times to make sure it was dead and then hurried out the door to rejoin his family.