Steven paused; something in the voice had changed. It had gained a gravity, a weight that would have pulled his attention even if it hadn’t been speaking right into his mind.

“Let’s start with introductions. I am the System, with a capital S. For all intents and purposes, I am your new god. I would prefer it if you didn’t call me that since it’s creepy, but I won’t stop you either.

I, in my vast and incalculable wisdom, have decided to come in here and change some shit around. And I do mean change. Like this is less coming home to find your furniture moved around and more like coming home to find your sofa on the neighbor's roof.”

Steven ate a fry.

“…Why am I doing this? What do I want? I’m not telling you.”

Just then, had the System paused? Was it reacting to Steven directly? It was certainly speaking to everyone in the room right now. They were all staring directly ahead like deer in the headlights.

Could it pay attention to all of them at once?

It had certainly spoken to him directly earlier. He ate another fry, partially because he wasn’t sure when he would be able to eat them again and partially to see if the System reacted.

“All of you have Character Sheets now, though not all of you have a Class. How do you get a Class? What do they do? Excellent questions. Go use some more of that curiosity to find the answers.”

“Now, as for some questions that I’m actually going to answer! Let’s start general. What are seed cites, and why should you feel conflicted about being in one? Well, little Timmy, a seed city is a microcosm of what will happen to the rest of the world. Things are gonna get weird. I’m going to break physics over my knee and steal its girl.”

What the hell was the System on about?

“The seed city is going to get access to things like Character Sheets and Classes before the rest of the world. That’s the good part. But they also get to deal with the monsters and other nonsense before the rest of the world. And you can’t leave the seed city while the dome is up.”

The System's voice dropped to a whisper.

“That’s the bad part, in case you were wondering. Oh, and speaking of monsters and other nonsense, bam!”

A timer appeared in Steven’s vision.

7 days: 0 hours: and 0 minutes until ?

“Nothing like a mysterious countdown to get the blood flowing, am I right?”

“There are a bunch of other small details about seed cities that you’ll probably want to know about, but you can find those out on your own. So to sum it up, in caveman speak, “Ugh, big domed cities get magic first, rest of world later, ugh.”

Steven stared at the words, something between annoyance and worry growing in his gut. This was the thing currently uprooting their lives?

“A similar rendition to that speech is what most places get. But for you people in Anchorage, we have a little more to discuss.”

Steven leaned forward in his seat, his grip tightening on his fork.

“You see, I pick the cities by cardinal points. Whatever’s the most northern state in your country, their most populated city gets a dome. Same for the westernmost and so on. Simple, easy. Except when it isn’t.

Due to some shenanigans with the meridian, Alaska is not only the United States' most northern state, but it’s also the most western, and since the Aleutian chain stretches past longitude 180° it’s technically the most eastern state as well.”

The System’s voice was equal parts amused and annoyed as it continued.

“What does that mean for all of you? Well, it means that you're getting just shy of 3 domes. I say just shy because I felt bad leaving Maine out of the running altogether, so I gave them a little dome. it’s not in their population center, but hey, it’s something.

The news anchor had mentioned Maine’s dome being smaller.

“I’m not going to actually layer the domes on top of one another because that’s stupid. Instead, it means that you all are going to have a very special time.

All of the challenges and the treasures, to be fair, that I would typically throw at one seed city, I’m going to throw at you times three.

Now, before you get to feeling the perfectly reasonable response of mortal terror, I have some good news!

Since I’m going to be throwing so much shit at you, I’ll be giving you a few passes as well—namely, food. When the timer runs out, along with whatever wonderful mystery I have planned, your grocery stores will be able to magically produce food and toiletries, so no one will starve on my account.

The consequences of having three domes worth of fun will become more apparent as time goes on, but for now, let’s simplify it by saying that you need to deal with more of everything.”

Steven balked under the wave of information. That was a lot to take in.

As he started to read over it again, he found himself actually using the stupid caveman description. ‘Ugh, big domed cities get magic first, rest of world later, ugh.’ It was stupid and childish, but it actually got the point across.

They were stuck in here, but they got magic…and monsters.

He needed to check on Margie before the shit really hit the fan.

Steven stood and headed for the door. Another System message stopped him in his tracks.

“To wrap everything up in a TLDR before I go; You’re in deep shit. …I never was very good at TLDRs. Well…have fun! System out.”

Steven stood in the doorway for several long seconds, just taking the words in. Then he sighed and headed for his car.