*Breaking News: 117 people disappeared in the past month, leaving no trace, in Colorado alone. In the United States, 6,500 people have disappeared. There still remain no patterns, clues, or evidence of any kind. The only consistency is people only disappear while asleep. Still, the federal government continues to urge citizens not to avoid sleeping for 36 hours. Nobody knows why people have been disappearing, but as it shows no sign of stopping, we can only wait and hope. Our prayers here at ABC7 go out to the more than 500,000 missing people worldwide and we hope they can return home safely.*

. . .

'117 out of 300 million. I like those odds; I think it's around a thousandth of a percent.'

Sirus turned his TV off and stared at the ceiling. He had been sitting next to someone who vanished while on a flight. Authorities had a hard time believing the passengers at the time, but it's not like the man would have slipped out of the plane mid-flight.

'At some point, either I'm going to look real stupid, or real smart. Wearing tactical gear to sleep mainly because Alex Jones said so is just that kinda gamble. It makes some sense: people's clothes get transported with them, and why not have tactical gear? Even if it makes me look stupid, or doesn't work, it is kinda fun to just imagine being transported somewhere.'

Sirus' life wasn't boring but not exciting either. He spent all his money and free time on anything that would pump his adrenaline: skydiving, ice climbing, cliff jumping. Going out into the world, exploring, exercising and risking danger was his life. He had served in the Navy Seals since he was seventeen, dropping out when he was 25. Consequently, his threshold for "interesting" had risen to an absurd degree.

Bored, waiting for something interesting to happen, he went to sleep.

But nothing happened. No disappearance. Disappointed, he changed into his work uniform and left his house. He had become a firefighter thinking it would be exciting, but most often responded to calls about drug overdoses and stupid people being stupid.

'At a certain point, a fire has got to happen, right? I'm tired of cleaning the rigs to respond to jack shit. Denver's big, and a fire's gotta happen soon.'

"Dumbass! You paying attention over there?"

"Hmm?"

"Don't hmm me. Gimme your wallet!"

"Yeah, alright."

Sirus reached into his back pocket and grabbed his wallet, but instead of holding it out, he threw it at the mugger, and lunged at him.

The man's grip on the knife was loose, and he easily slapped it away, grabbed him, and shoved his knee into his stomach. The man stumbled and fell to the ground. But he got too caught up with the one guy and didn't notice the second man coming up behind him, shoving a knife into his back.

His eyes went wide as he fell to the ground and coughed up blood. He couldn't feel his legs anymore, or move much at all.

"Fuck, man! I think you killed him!"

"Don't try to get his wallet now, let's just go th…"

He could no longer distinguish their words; their figures blurred and faded quickly. He closed his eyes, barely able to form thoughts, simply lying in his own blood, unhappy.

"WOOOAAAHHH!!!"

Sirus jolted awake, a blinding pain still present in his neck.

"AUGHHH. Fuck! Shit, that hurts."

He reached back, yanking the knife out of his back, and the pain quickly disappeared. He rubbed his hand over the wound but couldn't feel anything, not even wet blood.

'I pulled a knife out for sure, is the afterlife just trying to gaslight me? Speaking of, where am I? Why are people passed out?'

He went and checked the pulse of the others, finding them uninjured, just sleeping.

'At least I know where I am now, at least somewhat. I'm where everyone else went. I thought vanishing would be more interesting, but this really ain't it.'

Even after a few hours of attempts at playing solitaire without cards and single-player tic tac toe, Sirus was no less bored but couldn't stop thinking about the knife.

'Looks like it was something made in China and ordered off Amazon.'

He cut himself across the forearm, expecting little, but his arm healed instantly, green particles lifting off his injured skin.

'Knew something was wrong. Still hurts initially, but all pain is gone now. Alright, I'm too bored to wait.'

Sirus walked over to the four sleepers, shaking them all awake.

"Hey! Who the hell are you? Where am I?"

"Where did you take us!"

"We're all in the same boat: we're in the place everyone vanished to. I woke up sooner than you."

"That seems disingenuous given the bloody knife."

"Fair…, but there's a good explanation."

Sirus held his arm to them, and cut down the length, showing them how it healed.

"Woah, what the fuck, dude."

"I would've believed you if you did it just once."

"Alright, that's all I know about this place. Curious, though, and no offense, but you two don't look American. I am. Are you from other countries?"

"I'm from Columbia."

"Canada."

"South Korea."

"California"

"You guys might speak English, but I'm not hearing any accent, so I assume our words are also being translated."

"I do speak English, but you're speaking Korean, not English."

"I hear English too?

"I hear Spanish."

"Then it's in the eye of the beholder. Cool. Now we all get to have fun, and by fun, I mean sit in an empty room."

[Quest: Survive the tutorial

Grade: Tutorial

Description: Welcome, Players! You are now candidates to become the best in the eyes of the Gods! Use your strength, wit, and will to kill and conquer!

Conditions:

Survive: Do not die for 24 hours

Extermination: Kill all enemies

Reward: Depends on the completion rate

Failure: Death]

A screen appeared before each person, each unable to see the others.

"Zombies? There's nothing but us."

[Warning: Safe zone will dissipate after 12 hours. Protection will not be given if maximum occupancy is exceeded. Maximum Occupancy: 4

Skill system locked.]

The white walls faded away, the environment turning into a grassy field, with small dilapidated structures appearing, then forests. They were in a totally new environment, an area that looked like 1850's settler camp in the middle of a field.

"This is the coolest shit ever."

Sirus walked around the town, not even considering staying in the safe zone. He went through each house, finding small provisions in the third house he went in.

[Item: Container of Beef Jerky]

[Item: Bottle of water]

[Store In inventory?]

He didn't know what that really entailed, but there was no button for yes, confusing him more. Regardless, the items disappeared into the ether.

'What the hell? Give those back!'

And with that, the items reappeared.

'Never mind, you hold them.'

The items disappeared again. He was bothered by the fact that his inner thoughts were so easily read, but ignored it since he was powerless to stop it. Sirus continued searching the other houses, finding a knife in one and a bat in another, both in poor condition.

[Weapons cannot be stored in the inventory.]

"Whatever. Let's see if the others even left the safe zone."

He returned, only to be disappointed that he was correct in his assumption. He put the knives in separate pockets but held the bat outright.

"Hey, where'd you get that bat?"

"Where do you think? The houses."

"Did you find anything else? Like food."

"Not a morsel."

Sirus walked off again to try and find something, but one of the others spoke up.

"Hey, you can't leave us here! What if the zombies come here and attack us? Leave the bat here with us so we can at least protect ourselves! You have a knife, so you'll be fine."

"If you want shit, go get it yourself."

They continued to protest, but he ignored it. There was no visible limit to this world, and he wanted to explore. Once he reached the edge of the town, he could see the first few zombies emerge from the trees.

'Slack jawed, deteriorating and slow, those are definitely zombies.'

He walked over to them, slamming his bat into the first one's head, denting it, and knocking it to the ground. He swung at the other 3 zombies, beating them to the ground. But by then, the first one had gotten up and was coming at Sirus again. He smashed its knee with the bat, then rushed over to stab it in the head, and it stopped moving.

'Damage vs. knockback. These things are immensely slow; dual knives will probably be better.'

And so Sirus continued killing the zombies, first that four, then a group of three, then five. He started walking around the circumference of the town to find more to fight. He believed the principal reason many people may falter in situations like this is simply waiting. Sirus attacked them while they remained in small groups, killing them easily. If he had sat in the safe zone with the others, the zombies would've grouped up and been much harder to fight.

Nothing special happened when he defeated the zombies, much to his chagrin. Still, he continued, reaching the point of around 30 kills before deciding to return to the center of town.

When he did, he saw a few zombie corpses and one of the people dead, with three people in the shelter. The remaining had blood-stained clothing and wielded broken boards like he did his bat.

"I was curious what would happen when I got the message about the maximum occupancy being three now. Looks like it was a sad loss."

"Shut up. What the hell have you done? All you did was run away."

"How terrible of me! Anyways, see ya."

The remaining didn't continue to protest, returning to their silence. Sirus wanted to rest, and the zombies stopped coming in, at least for the moment. He locked himself into one of the houses, but one with missing pieces from the roof in case he needed to climb out. He laid down, accidentally sleeping for a few hours longer than he wanted before he was woken by the sound of zombies at his door.

Looking through holes in the walls, there were around 14 of them, too many to barrel through. He had neglected to create fire, but had a different idea. He climbed to the roof, removed his shirt, and cut it into strips, which he used to tie a knife to the end of the bat, making it like a spear. The zombies were grouped around the house and, by that time, made it inside but couldn't climb up the walls, instead trying to break the house until the ceiling fell. Sirus took advantage of that, reaching down and swinging his bat like a pendulum, slicing the zombies' heads open.

After killing a few, the zombies grabbed the bat, pulling it and Sirus to the ground. He managed to scramble back and get ahold of his other knife but was surrounded on three sides. He stabbed away at the zombies while retreating, but there were too many. He backed himself into a wall, or more accurately, a well.

"Uuuugh! Shit!"

In his desperate struggle, he was finally bitten, and now most of the fingers on his left hand were missing.

[Status Effect: Death's Touch]

Sirus stumbled, firmly knocked off balance, and hit the low wall of the well and fell into it. He pressed his back against the wall to slow his fall, but that can only do so much. He slammed into the muddy floor, feeling his intestines bounce with the sudden stop. The zombies fell down the well behind him, but their landing left much to be desired. The first two landed head first, instantly dying, while the third broke its legs upon landing, and was promptly stabbed.

'I'm boned. I can't climb without fingers.'

'And If I can't go up, might as well go down. Maybe I can dig up enough dirt to climb on something.'

Sirus reached out, trying what he had tested before, and took the zombie corpses into his inventory so they wouldn't be in the way of digging.

. . .

Despite being more successful than he expected to be, he hadn't gained anything. The process was fast given the wet ground and his ability to put dirt in his inventory. But even after digging for multiple hours, he was only in a deeper hole, and hadn't dug anywhere. Tired and miserable, he laid his head against the wall and rested.

[Quest Complete!

Time: 24:00

Contribution: 78%

Completion Grade: A

Rewards: Full system access, city access, +1 Stats, 2,000 Golds]

"What the hell does any of that mean? Do I get teleported somewhere else?"

[Teleporting all to World#1000051, City Designation: UPR0882]

Sirus saw a wave of energy pass by and pass over him. It reached the bottom of the well but not the hole dug below it.

[Entered the viewer area.]

[Error: User is not a viewer.]

[Resolving: Issuing viewer privileges to users.]

! Error: Error not resolved.

! Resolving: Killing User.