Before the light had cleared from Steven’s eyes, the System started speaking like it was narrating a nature documentary.

“Kincaid park, bounded on the south by the Turnagain Arm, on the west by the Knik Arm, and on the north by Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.”

“It is one of the most popular parks in Anchorage. With a size of approximately 1500 acres and a total length of trails extending more than 30 miles. The park was originally used as a Nike-Hercules missile storing site during the 1950s before the land was transferred to Anchorage in 1980. Today, you can still find concrete missile silos converted to storage.”

“It’s used for cross country skiing in the winter and biking in the summer months with plenty of hiking to be had.”

“It has hills, sand dunes, a lake, and goes right up to the coast, even a 16-hole frisbee golf course!”

“Are you narrating a Wikipedia article at me?”

"...You know, it's not always easy coming up with material."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Fuck you."

The System projected the sound of rustling papers into Steven's mind before continuing with a sullen tone.

"Here are some quick rules that I'll read off. Is that okay? Or are you too good to listen to my narration?"

It went on before Steven could comment.

"Stay in and around the main building for now, and...that's it. Was that really so hard to listen to? Asshole."

The light finally cleared, and Steven quickly glanced around.

They were, unsurprisingly, at Kincaid. The park was on the western edge of the city. He could remember the long drive up a winding road lined by thick trees on all sides, and once you reached the top of the hill, you passed by a sports field on your right and into the chalet parking lot.

The chalet itself was a sturdy thing made of concrete steel and was a popular place to hold parties and whatnot.

The System had dropped them in front of the chalet. He recognized it instantly. He used to go here all the time with-

Steven focused on the parking lot.

It was empty of cars, but over a hundred people were scattered around the building, all looking just as confused as he was.

Margie scratched her head. "I guess we go to the building? Man, I hate being shanghaied into things."

Micheal gave her a look. "Have you been shanghaied before?"

Margie shrugged. "I had an exciting 20s."

She kept a straight face as Micheal stared.

"Are you messing with me?"

She chuckled. "Yeah. I had you going for a second, though."

"Eyes up," Steven said. "The System just said we had to stay around the building." He scanned the people making their way towards the chalet.

"It never said anything about violence being against the rules."

They all moved closer together, and Steven got ready to call a shield at a moment's notice.

Buford still had Jugger-Hound up, but it couldn't have more than 10 minutes left. Of course, the random passersby didn't know that, and a giant, glowing malamute was an excellent deterrent.

Steven's heart clenched. He hated being suspicious of the other people here, especially before he'd even interacted with them. But a bit of initial caution wasn't going to hurt anyone. The same thing couldn't be said for walking in with their guards down.

A glowing green sign appeared over the front door.

COME RIGHT IN!

Micheal stared at it for a second. "You know, it says something about the last week that a sudden glowing sign doesn't seem that weird to me."

Noodle bumped into Michael's ankle.

Steven frowned. Had the dog understood him and attempted comfort, or was he just impatient to move on?

He'd been asking himself questions like that a lot over the week.

They headed inside, spacing themselves out so they weren't too close to another group. Luckily everyone else had the same idea, which made things easier.

The front door led to a large room lined with windows on three sides. Immediately to the left was a doorway with a floating arrow pointing at it.

Part of Steven wanted to ignore the arrow out of spite, but the System would just teleport him where it wanted him or slap him with a penalty. Hell, it might just annihilate him.

He doubted that one, but Steven couldn’t rule anything out, not when he didn’t know what the System wanted.

They followed the arrow through the door. There was a receptionist desk on the right, bathrooms on their left, and another exit about twenty feet further in.

The trail of arrows led them down and to the right. They entered a large, high-ceilinged room that had been converted into a mini-convention center. It had rows of booths set up-

Steven stopped. Those booths were manned by creatures. One table had a lobster and a king crab, both wearing bowler hats, waving their claws over their wares. Another was watched over by a giant, muscular devil man with glossy black horns, bright red skin, and glowing eyes.

“What the hell?” Micheal breathed.

The arrows started flashing at them, and the System spoke up.

“Don’t hold up the line!” The group in front of theirs had also frozen at the sight, but Steven didn’t bother pointing that out.

The arrows led them to a booth made up of three small tables. And standing behind the tables, his black beard stretched into a wide grin, was a…pirate?

Margie looked at the man and raised a grew brow. “Umm…why?”

“Why what?” The man asked, sounding like he’d stepped out of Pirates Of The Caribbean.

He was stocky, with a wide face and a tattered white shirt under a stained brown vest. He shifted, the twin flintlock pistols hanging from his hips swaying with the motion.

He raised his own bushy eyebrows and flashed a grin full of crooked teeth.

“Why pirate? Because the old god of the sea rolled the dice, and yours landed on pirate.”

“That’s it? Cause the System was bored and rolled dice?” Margie asked.

“Aye.”

Micheal’s attention had been on their surroundings, but he slowly turned to the pirate. “Okay…so what’s all this then? The booths, us being summoned? Are you a person? Are you an illusion?”

“Good questions, lad! We be System constructs, roles played by the System itself, not thinking individuals. As for our purpose? We are here to sell you wares.”

Steven eyed the tables. Each one glowed with different colored light: one blue, one green, and one red.

He obviously focused on the green table.

Three green orbs sat on the table, and as he focused, words appeared.

Augment

Compass Push

Rare

Effect: Push a shield 5 feet up, down, or in one of the four cardinal directions.

Range: 15 feet

Energy cost: none

Cooldown: 5 seconds per shield

Despite the situation, Steven felt a grin force its way onto his face. A shield push! That was amazing. Combing that with Shield Pull would make him a genuine threat at mid-range. It massively expanded his options.

His eyes trailed down to the Augment, and he paused. A black 4 hung above the orb like a neon sign.

“What’s up with the number?”

The pirate grinned. “The price. Things don’t come free, lad. 4 points if you want this here treasure!”

“Skill Points or Trait Points?”

The man waved a leathery hand as if brushing away Steven’s words. “Point points! As for how you get them? We’ll get to that in a minute.”

Steven grumbled but turned his gaze to the other two orbs.

A Lot Goes A Long Way

Augment

Rare

Effect: Push shield directly away from self. Shield shrinks as it moves—speed increases as it shrinks up to a cap. The shield will shrink until it vanishes.

Energy cost: none

Cooldown: 3 seconds per shield

I’M TAKING MY SHIELD AND GOING HOME!

Augment

Rare

Effect: while touching shields, you can psychically move them. Losing contact makes the shield immobile again.

The shield's weight depends on size and strength.

Energy cost: variable

Cooldown: none

Both of those were strong, very strong, but Steven’s eyes kept drifting back to Compass Push. He desperately wanted the ranged flexibility that Augment would give him.

Steven glanced at Margie and Micheal. "Anything good?"

Margie nodded, her eyes focused on the table. "Yes. But we shouldn't discuss any specifics here. No telling who's listening."

That was paranoid thinking, but Steven agreed. They were in a room full of strangers when the city was in a state of polite anarchy.

“Send?” He whispered.

Micheal pointed at him, and without even needing to speak, a prompt filled his vision.

Oh, Thank You, Hero: Let Me Tend To Your Wounds!

Augment

Rare

Effect: Heroes injured in the act of rescuing the Damsel are bestowed with a moderate heal upon receiving the buff.

Energy cost: none

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Margie glanced at Steven, and a prompt followed.

Momentum Trick

Augment

Rare

Effect: weakens Jugger-Rush’s effects and removes the added knock-up resistance.

The gained momentum can be directed and expelled with a range equal to Jugger-Hounds shroud.

Energy cost: none

Cooldown: none

Steven sent them his own prompts as he chewed over the Augments.

Steven was suddenly a lot less hesitant about whatever this bullshit was. Those Augments were potent. Especially Micheal’s. A group heal was something they were sorely missing.

Steven was about to ask about their other Augments when the pirate knocked on the table. "Five more minutes."

Micheal eyed him. "Until what?"

The pirate grinned.

Micheal sighed and turned away from the man. "What do we do? Stay here or try a bit of socializing?"

Margie scratched her chin. "Never hurts to make friends, and no one has gotten stabbed yet. So as long as we watch our backs, we should be fine."

Steven was about to agree when someone called his name from the crowd.

"Steven!"

He looked around to see James, the man he had helped up from the ice at campus, waving at him.

"James! You're alright!" He closed the distance and clapped the man on the shoulder. He'd only known the man for the better part of ten minutes, but he'd made a very good impression in that time.

"What happened? Where did everyone go?"

James blinked at him. "You didn't get moved too?"

Steven shook his head. "No. I woke up, and almost everyone was gone, and the meat heads were getting attacked by a moose."

"Oh! I woke up near Girdwood, and a Scenario started almost immediately."

Steven frowned. "Our Scenario didn't start until the next day."

“Really? We’ve talked to several people who were in Scenarios almost immediately.”

James trailed off as he noticed Micheal and Margie. "Oh! Hello, I'm James." He extended a hand, and Margie shook.

"Margie."

"Micheal."

They didn’t ask who he was, Steven hadn’t gone into detail, but he’d told them the cliff notes of what happened that night.

James gestured behind him, and a woman Steven hadn't noticed stepped forward.

She was short and lean, with soft features, pale blond hair, and cold blue eyes.

Oddly, she wasn't wearing a coat, just a thin long-sleeved shirt with a cartoon cat on the front.

Maybe the System had grabbed her from indoors?

"This is Alissa. I met her in my Scenario. She saved my ass."

The woman nodded but didn't say anything.

Okay...

"The rest of our group is off 'making friends,' as Tyler puts it." James smiled. "I'm glad to see you're okay, but how did you get out? You said a moose was attacking?"

Steven opened his mouth to answer, only for the System's voice to drown everything else out.

"ENOUGH CHITCHAT! IT'S TIME FOR BLOOD! Well, sorta. You can't die in this event. But you can certainly bleed! If any of you ever wanted to be streamers, then your wish is about to be granted because the whole city will get a live feed to watch you!”

Steven clenched his fists.

“The rules are simple…there are no rules! Only objectives! And what are those objectives, I hear you ask?”

“I didn’t ask,” Steven thought at the System.

“Shut the fuck up and let me do my thing.”

Steven was already certain that the System was giving a different version of this speech to each person. The System spoke to Margie and Micheal differently than Steven—they had all discussed its various personalities. But it was still unsettling to see people react to the System’s words at seemingly random points in its speech.

“Ahem, AS I WAS SAYING, the objective is to accrue points! These points will be scattered across all of Kincaid, and you can get them by defeating special monsters, finding hidden caches, and so on. Also, you can’t leave the park bounds.”

“‘What do I do with the points?’ Simple. You buy the lovely Augments I have provided for you.”

“Being able to pick an Augment directly is a rare opportunity. Do not waste it.”

“There will be two rounds. The first round starts with your group being teleported to a random point in the park and will end after one hour. The second round is a mystery. The group with the most points at the end of both rounds gets a bonus reward, along with the groups that finish second and third.”

“And last but not least…you can’t die! If you take fatal damage, you will be revived in the chalet--is that what this building is called?--healed and whole. However, the person who eliminated you will get half of your points.”

The System gave a dark chuckle. “Good luck.”

Green and blue light enveloped the room with a thump.