Chapter 26

Logan was shooting pool in a bar just off the freeway. One of those hideaway joints, whose only clientele consisted of truck drivers, bikers, and soon-to-be-divorced dads.

He was just playing on his own. Shooting around. Minding nobody’s business. Sipping on his eighth—maybe ninth beer? Who was counting anyway? Certainly not his old gang, not since they’d kicked him out.

I thought being in a biker gang was all about freedom and chaos and not giving a damn, he grumbled to himself.

The world spun around him, his vision blurry. He was happily content in his numbness.

Then, out of nowhere he felt a blow to his shoulder.

Some punk was looking to stir trouble.

Logan was happy to oblige.

He grabbed his pool cue and brought it down on the man’s bald head. The wood cracked on impact, splintering in Logan’s hands. The punk’s face flushed a furious red—scalp included—before he lunged at Logan.

They fell to the ground.

The man slammed a fist into his face.

Logan could barely feel it. He was so drunk. The world was spinning.

It was at that moment that a message appeared in his eyes. It didn’t go away, no matter how many punches he took to the face.

* * *

Logan woke up in an all-white room. He felt like throwing up—and he didn’t think it was the interdimensional teleportation causing the stomach pains.

He looked up to see a strange dude dressed as a Victorian butler standing across from him.

“Who are you? What the heck is happening?”

“Your universe has begun its Integration into the Grand Authority System. You are now required to choose a class before entering the Tutorial”

“Huh?”

The butler repeated the exact same words, but Logan found himself fixated on one exact word.

Required.

Screw that.

He wasn’t required to do anything.

“Nah, I’m not buying it,” said Logan. “This is BS. Send me back to Earth. I’ve never wanted to be part of the system. As soon as I could leave home, I did. Screw the system!”

“It is my recommendation that you choose a class before the Tutorial begins.”

“How about you don’t tell me what to do you weird butler freak,” Logan shouted, running to hit the man.

The Administrator sighed. “So be it–”

* * *

“And, a second later, I woke up just around here,” said Logan. “I had a Profile and under class, it just said “classless”. I didn’t realize how much I screwed up. I don’t have the Identify skill, I don’t have any class Skills. I can see from the Tutorial Panel that people are dropping like flies–what chance do I have with no class, when even people with a class are dying left and right.”

Rob listened to the story closely.

His main takeaway was that The Administrator definitely had a vindictive streak. The guy wasn’t some objective third party. He sent Logan into the Tutorial to basically get slaughtered. It made Rob wonder if it was no coincidence that he woke up on a beach with no one else and in in deeply close proximity to a Great Monster.

“Honestly, I probably would have been dead if it hadn’t been for Sally and Carl,” said Logan, looking at the girl across from him and smiling. “Man—back on Earth, I thought I was such a great fighter, a badass. I was in a fucking gang. They kicked me out, but that’s kinda more badass, no? Yet, here on this island with no class, I’m barely scraping by.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“You’ve been dealt a bad hand, that’s for sure,” said Rob. “Some of it sounds a bit like it was your own fault. The Administrator is a jerk, sure, but you also attacked a powerful entity after it teleported a huge chunk of Earth’s to an interdimensional space. That takes a high level of idiocy. And balls—I’ll give you that.”

“Heh,” Logan grinned.

Rob leaned forward and pulled out some Jungle Lizard meat from his backpack.

He threw one slab over to Logan and then another to Sally.

“Here you go,” he said. “You’ve had a long day, here’s something to cook and eat.”

Rob then stood up.

“Don’t you want some?” asked Sally.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed since you’ve been leveling up, but the need for food strictly for survival purposes seems to lessen,” said Rob. “I still eat for the comfort and the buffs—but my sense of appetite has completely changed.

Rob began to walk away from the fire.

“Where are you going?” asked Logan.

“I want to clean up from the battle,” said Rob. “You guys can rest when you’re done eating. I can stay on guard tonight. We have work to do tomorrow morning.”

* * *

With the conversation finally settled with Logan and Sally, Rob wanted to go over all of his system notifications and other things.

He took in the prompts he’d received after the battle.