This truly can’t be all there is to life, Xander thought. There has to be more than living to work.

  This wasn’t a new thought for him. It, or some variation of it, had surfaced in his mind for some time now, though it had certainly increased in frequency as of late. Thanks to toxic management, his career, once his passion, had slowly turned into just a job. But the real kick in the teeth had been the passing of his mother recently that had caused him to re-evaluate what his life was: ten-hour workdays followed by an hour in the gym and weekends of mental exhaustion.

  "Xander, did you hear what I said?" the voice on the other end of the phone chimed.

  "I’m sorry, Jo. I got lost in my head there for a moment," Xander replied.

  "I said, how close are you to getting to the house?" Jo repeated.

  "Just pulling into the truck stop in Pesotum. I should be at the house in about thirty to forty-five minutes, depending on how long it takes me to get gas."

  "I know it’s been a rough week, babe, but you’re almost home. You’re going to beat me home, but when I’m off work, you’re off for four days, and it’ll just be you and me, alone in the woods. Just the two of us and a tent. Whatever shall we do to pass the time?" Jo said. The tone in her voice was playful as she tried to lift Xander’s spirits.

  Xander came to a stop in front of the gas pump. Even during the early afternoon, the Starlight Oasis Truck Stop was always busy. It boasted having one hundred and twenty gas pumps. Two-thirds of the pumps served passenger vehicles, and the rest were for commercial trucking.

  As Xander exited his vehicle, static burst across the phone line. All the station’s electronics appeared to glitch. Lights flickered, and the overhead speaker system warbled as the broadcast music garbled momentarily.

  "That’s weird. Everything here just went wonky for a second."

  "The same thing happened at the office, too," Jo replied.

  Words appeared in front of Xander’s eyes, floating in midair. The same thing must have been happening to everyone, as several shouts of confusion and panic simultaneously rang out from the other patrons at the truck stop.

  "Xander. Xander! Everyone here is hallucinating," cried Jo.

  "Babe, it’s the same thing here."

  Greetings, players! We apologize for any difficulties you may have been experiencing with the Simulation. Several engines appear to have suffered a catastrophic failure and fallen offline. The Total Simulation failure time is 12,984 solar cycles.

  The Administrator has chosen to soft reboot the system, keeping all player and world data in its current state. The World Engine will restart the simulation to correct any system errors.

  "What the hell! Xander, did you read that? What does that mean?" Jo said. The terror in her voice bleed through the phone.

  "I don’t know! I think things are going to go to crap here in a minute. Jo! Jo, listen to me. I don’t know what will happen, but stick to our disaster plans. I know we don’t have a plan for exactly whatever this is, but shelter in place unless you feel you need to make it to the rally points we decided on. Shelter in place, campsite, or house. Get to one of those three places and I promise you I’m coming to get you. I promise!" Xander’s voice was a mixture of his panic and resolve.

  Greetings, players! Due to the Simulation error, the number of active players drastically exceeds the Simulation parameters. Level-zero filter subroutines will be engaged. The simulation will restrict player classes until level five. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience.

  Simulation reboot starting in 3… 2… 1…

  Once the countdown ended, the phone line and all other electronics went dead. A deafening sound of silence filled the air as everything stopped working at once. A couple of heartbeats later, the reality of the situation sank in as hysteria took hold.

  Fights broke out near the main building as people rushed to loot whatever their confused minds believed they would need in this situation.

  While as terrified as everyone else, Xander’s father had always teased him about being a mild prepper and thus over thinking every disaster situation to have a contingency plan for everything. That wasn’t completely true. The truth was that Xander had long lived by the rule of "be prepared." He certainly never imagined a situation like this. However, the essential advice of three applied to any disaster.

  His mind racing, Xander tried to set his worry about Jo aside and recited the rules of disaster survival in his head. Rule one, within the first three seconds, identify and prepare for any immediate threats. He would be useless to Jo long-term if he didn’t prepare for any direct threats. It wasn’t clear what a "level-zero filter" was, but it was obvious that whatever was running the show thought there were way too many players in the world, and it was also apparent it wasn’t talking about people who were loose with their dating criteria.

  Opening the tailgate of his Jeep, Xander began pulling out his disaster gear. Defense first, he thought as he chuckled at the spear his father had given him as a joke to continue the tradition of teasing Xander about being prepared. Never know when the zombie apocalypse is going to happen, son, his father had said when he handed over the spear with a big grin on his face like he had just told the best dad joke ever. Assembling the spear and strapping on the bushcraft belt he used for camping,

  Joke’s on you, Dad, Xander mused. This spear may keep me alive until I can find Jo.

  The spear would have to do, he thought. He never enjoyed carrying his pistol in his Jeep. That was just inviting trouble, in his opinion. You always hear about some armed helpful citizen stepping in and breaking up a robbery, but there were just as many times that some random idiot with a pistol actually escalated a situation. It also didn't help that Xander was a terrible shot. He couldn't hit the broadside of a barn and shooting himself in the foot wouldn’t be helpful.

  Pulled from his disaster planning, a commotion from a group of people off to his right caught his attention. A pair of large truckers who reminded Xander of the typical schoolyard bully had cornered someone trying to get something out of the trunk of their car.

  "Okay, sweetheart, hand over that backpack you got there," drawled a booming voice.

  The thug was a mountain of a man, probably about 6’ 6", with several non-politically correct tattoos and a confederate flag ball cap. His buddy was a more petite, scrawny, bald man about a foot shorter whose sole purpose seemed to be to agree with whatever the other had said.

  "Yeah, give us the bag and nobody gets hurt," parroted the sidekick.

  Xander quickly named them in his head as Spike and Chester from an old cartoon featuring a large dog and his yippy little sidekick.

  "Guys, the world appears to be going to shit, and you both think being a bunch of jackwagons is the way any of us are going to get through this?" inquired the slight woman of Hispanic descent. "I’m going to guarantee you this isn’t going to go as easy as you think it is."

  Never being one to back down from a bully, Xander added his two cents from his position behind his Jeep. "Hey, knock it off. Things are bad enough already without everyone instantly going feral on everyone else."

  "I don’t need your help. I’m not some damsel in distress that needs a white knight," the woman replied icily.

  "You heard the lady, mate. Don’t get involved, or you’re going to find yourself getting hurt, too. As a matter of fact, why don’t you hand over whatever you’ve got as well?" Spike added.

  What was coming next was obvious, but the situation never progressed to the next stage as another notification popped up.

  Greetings, players! The Simulation reboot is now complete. Character sheets, event logs, and help files are now restored and available. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience.

  World Engine status: restored

  Primary Engine status: online

  Quest Engine status: online

  Player Support Engine status: online

  Monster Engine status: online

  Dungeon Engine status: online

  Story Engine status: online

  Subsystem Engines status: online

  Level-zero filter protocol engaging in 3… 2… 1…

  Simultaneous events pulled Xander's attention in several directions. In the corner of his vision were several tiny icons, all aggressively flashing for his attention. Screams sounded from inside the truck stop’s main building, and perhaps most importantly, several creatures appeared around the corner, focused on whatever people were nearest them.

  It didn’t take a survivalist to figure out what the most important thing to focus on was, though, as the creatures, which Xander could only describe as some sort of humanoid rodent hybrid that was small in stature but still deadly, savagely slaughtered a young couple that had fallen in their haste to get away from the charging monsters.

  Xander didn’t want to put his back to Spike and Chester, but the ratlike creatures were the more significant threat. A singular rat monster charged at Xander with what looked to be some type of long dagger or short sword in one hand and a small shield in the other. Using his spear’s superior reach, Xander stopped the monster’s charge and pivoted its momentum into the side of a gas pump. It was a short-lived victory, though. The scattered people were quickly overwhelmed.

  "Stand together. Use whatever you have. We need to fight together, or they’ll pick us off one at a time," Xander bellowed.

  "Piss on you, little rat fuckers!" Spike raged as he pulled a pistol out of his waistband and pointed it at the nearest rat creature.

  Expecting there to be a loud bang followed by the sickening thud of a bullet tearing apart the attacker, Xander momentarily reconsidered his spear as the better weapon.

  But there was never a loud bang or thud. Xander glanced back at Spike, frantically pulling the trigger of his pistol, but absolutely nothing was happening.

  The sound of battle filled the air as people began to rally and fight back with whatever they could find: tire irons, baseball bats, or even weapons picked up from slain rat creatures.

  Tearing his attention away from the loudly cursing thug, Xander focused on his own situation as two more creatures attempted a coordinated attack. Thrusting his spear between the two creatures, Xander could hold their attention and keep them from reaching him, but he wasn’t scoring any hits of his own either. He needed help, and he needed it quickly because it was only a matter of time before the two broke through his meager defenses.

  Xander lunged, feinting left, but the moment he pivoted, the creature on the right was already moving, a blur of filthy fur and glinting steel. He barely registered its shriek before his spear drove through its throat. The impact jarred up his arms, bones rattling from the resistance of flesh and cartilage as the blade punched through. A wet, sucking noise, then a violent spasm. Its claws scrabbled at the shaft, eyes bulging, a strangled gurgle bubbling from its ruined windpipe.

  It collapsed, and Xander's grip slipped. His spear, still wedged deep in the creature’s neck, tore free from his hands as its body hit the ground with a grotesque final twitch. A wave of stink rolled over him. Hot, rotten breath mixed with the coppery tang of fresh blood and the acrid stench of unwashed fur.

  He had no time to recoil. The second creature was already on him.

  A streak of silver flashed in the creature's clawed hand, followed by pain exploded along Xander's outer thigh, white-hot and searing. He staggered, gasping as warmth spread down his leg, but the creature pressed in, rancid breath washing over his face. Claws scraped for a grip, pushing forward, snarling, its beady red eyes reflecting the flickering gas station lights. Xander caught its shield before it could drive him to the ground, his fingers locking onto the rough, splintered wood. With a desperate shove, he forced it back, sending it stumbling over its fallen kin.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  He turned, lunging for his spear, but his hands fumbled on the slick pavement. The asphalt was damp with something sticky. Blood pooling from a torn-open corpse nearby.

  A screeching snarl came behind him. The creature recovered faster. It charged.

  Xander barely twisted in time as it came, its blade arcing downward. He threw himself sideways, pain screaming up his leg, his shoulder slamming hard against the pavement. The impact knocked the breath from his lungs, but survival was all that mattered now. He rolled, his hands flailing, finding the steel shaft of his spear at last.

  The monster leaped. Xander barely getting the spear up in time. The beast's own momentum did the rest.

  The spear punched into its gut, the tip tearing through matted fur and sinking deep. A shrill, guttural shriek ripped from its throat as the force of the lunge impaled it further, its body jerking violently against the weapon. Xander gritted his teeth, hands locked around the shaft, feeling the tremors of its dying spasms. The weight of it bore down on him, its dying breath hot against his face, foul with the stench of raw meat and decay.

  Then, with a final shudder, it went still.

  Xander shoved the carcass off and rolled onto his knees, heart hammering, breath ragged. Around him, the truck stop was a slaughterhouse. Bodies strewn across the pavement, some twitching weakly, others motionless. Distant screams still echoed, but they were growing fewer. The rat creatures were winning.

  Standing, Xander wobbled for a moment, his thigh throbbing with every unsteady movement. The cut wasn't as bad as he had feared, but it still hurt. His more immediate issue was the fact he wasn't in proper shape for this kind of activity. Sure, he spent time in the gym, but this wasn't a workout, it was a fight for life or death. His breath came ragged, his limbs sluggish. His grip on the spear felt weak. He needed a moment to catch his breath and process that not only had just killed two monsters but also the fact there were bodies of people scattered around the parking lot. It was like a scene from a horror movie. One Xander's mind was struggling to process.

  Then, a motion caught his attention off to the side. A blur of fur and steel lunging at his exposed side. He's made a mistake and had forgotten about the first creature he had smashed into the gas pump. It wasn't dead, just stunned. It had recovered and had murder in its eyes.

  The creature was already mid-strike, its blade arcing downward, angled for his ribs. Xander twisted, but he was too slow, too drained, the surrounding horror dragging him down like dead weight.

  A flash of movement came from the side and a sudden jolt ran through the rat hybrid’s body. The creature jerked stiffly, its attack cut off mid-swing. For an instant, it seemed frozen, its weapon still raised. Then its limbs convulsed, its body slumping forward, collapsing in a heap at Xander’s feet.

  A sword jutted from its side, driven deep under the arm, buried to the hilt.

  Xander staggered back, barely processing what had just happened. He should be dead. The creature had him cold.

  The woman now standing next to him had a different plan. She hoped to use Xander’s distracting the creature as an opening to plunge the short sword pillaged from one of the rat creatures Xander had previously slain.

  "Thanks. I thought I’d bought the farm there for a minute."

  "Lucky for you, those two dumbasses ran once they figured out guns don’t work. That gave me a chance to find a weapon," she replied.

  An arrow whizzed past and buried itself in the car behind them with a metallic thunk. Xander barely had time to process it before the woman snapped her head toward the source.

  "They’ve got ranged weapons. We need to take one out fast, or we’re all boned!" she shouted, already scanning the battlefield.

  "There!" She pointed, then took off without hesitation.

  Xander blinked, stunned for half a second, then swore and sprinted after her, pain lancing through his leg with every step. "Wait! Damn it."

  The archer stood atop a dented sedan, its bow already nocked with another arrow. It loosed the shot the instant they closed in, and the woman barely jinked to the side in time. The arrow sliced across her arm, not deep, but enough to stagger her. Xander surged ahead, closing the distance before the creature could reload.

  Without slowing, he drove his spear into the creature’s gut and twisted hard, using the leverage to heave it backward off the car. The creature tumbled, landing in a heavy, bone-jarring crash, its bow clattering onto the pavement as its quiver spilled open.

  Xander barely had time to exhale before more of monsters reacted.

  A pair of rat hybrids broke into a sprint, heading straight for them. Not to help their fallen comrade, but to avenge it. Their snarls cut through the chaos of the battlefield, blades gleaming as they charged.

  "Try to keep their attention on you for a minute," the woman called as she slid to a stop beside the downed archer.

  Xander turned, his grip tightening on his spear. "Wait, what?"

  She was looting.

  "In the middle of a fight?!" he barked, barely dodging a wild swing from one of the incoming attackers. He swung his spear, jabbing the first creature back and using the butt of the weapon to knock the second one’s legs out from under it. Too many things were happening at once.

  "Trust me!"

  The bi-pedal rat person still standing went rigid, its snarl freezing mid-step as the feathered shaft of an arrow jutted from its eye socket. It crumpled, dead, before it hit the pavement.

  Xander blinking as the woman straightened, now holding the stolen bow. "Sorry, there wasn’t time to explain," she said casually, already scanning the battlefield. "I’m much better with a bow, though this one’s absolute garbage."

  Xander turned back to the remaining monster, still sprawled on the ground, struggling to rise. With one quick, efficient motion, he drove his spear into its chest, finishing it.

  For the first time since the chaos began, it didn’t feel like they were just reacting. They were on the offensive.

  The area was covered with slain creatures and people. Those left standing were in a bit of shell shock from what had just happened. Their minds were trying to process the death, destruction, and general confusion.

  "By the way, the name is Zoey, and thanks for the help. Both with whatever the hell these things are, along with those two dumbasses from earlier," Zoey said, speaking up after a couple of moments of silence had passed.

  "Yeah, sorry. I wasn’t trying to white knight you on that. Bullies are something I can't tolerate. The name is Xander. It’s nice to meet you, though I wish it were under better circumstances."

  "Likewise. I’ve got some stuff in my car that I need to unpack, but before I do that, I want to see if these little horrors have anything that might be helpful. How about we search the ones we took down and divide anything useful between us?" Zoey said.

  "Sounds like a plan. I need to get the rest of my gear out of my Jeep as well. So how about we clean up quick and gather up by the cars. Plus, I’ve got these little icons flashing in the corner of my vision. I’m going to need a minute to figure out what the hell that means."

  Without waiting for a reply, Xander let Zoey take the three closest creatures they’d slain while he headed back toward the other ones. Bending down, he got a better look at the creature now that it wasn’t trying to murder him. Staring intently at the creature, a notification popping up in his vision startled Xander.

  [Analyze] Rodentia Foot Soldier | Level: 1 | Status: Dead

  Okay, that was as helpful as it wasn’t, Xander thought.

  Rodentia was obviously the name of the creature, but was it a specific name or name of the type of creature? Looking over at the next fallen monster, Xander tried to mimic what he was doing the first time he got the notification by staring intently at the creature and contemplating what it was.

  [Analyze] Rodentia Foot Soldier | Level: 1 | Status: Dead

  A pit formed in Xander’s stomach. This was starting to feel like a live-action RPG, and the realization was terrifying. If the world was going to play by these rules, then he needed to do the same. Fighting blind would get him killed.

  The two glowing icons hovering in his vision hadn’t faded. Focusing on them brought up smaller notifications labeled Character Sheet, the other Event Log. His fingers didn’t move, but the menus responded to his intent, as intuitive as opening an inventory screen in any game he’d ever played.

  He pushed aside the Character Sheet for now. That could wait. The Event Log mattered more.

  The moment he focused on it, a scrolling list appeared, a coldly efficient record of everything that had happened since the Simulation rebooted. Damage dealt. Damage taken. Experience gained. The Simulation was tracking everything.

  Two notifications stood out.

  +1 Spear Combat | Congratulations! You have learned basic combat with a spear. While you won’t be slaying dragons anytime soon, you at least have a smaller chance of tripping over your spear during combat.

  +1 Analyze | Congratulations! You have learned how to gain basic information about items and creatures.

  The comment about dragons was a bit concerning, but since no dragons were currently trying to kill him, Xander filed that information away for later contemplation. The mention of gaining basic information regarding items and creatures was interesting, though. Looking closer at his spear, a notification appeared.

  Metal Spear

  Quality: Uncommon

  Enchantments: None

  Description: A finely made spear. Crafted pre-reboot, this spear's uncommon quality stems from its materials and construction.This object is mundane; it lacks any special features.

  For half a second, Xander hesitated, the word enchantment catching him off guard. Then the thought passed. Of course there’s magic. After everything he’d seen, the monsters, the messages, the Simulation itself, this was just another piece of the new reality. The rules had changed. He had to keep up.

  Shifting focus he, pushed aside the event log. The Character Sheet icon still hovered in his vision, waiting. He hadn’t opened it yet, but after seeing how the log worked, the process was obvious. He didn’t need to fumble around or second-guess it.

  Time to see what he was working with.

  Name: Xander Kell

  Class: Commoner

  Level: Zero

  Health: 35/40

  Mana: 60/60

  Stats

  Strength: 4

  Dexterity: 4

  Intelligence: 6

  Constitution: 4

  Charisma: 5

  Abilities

  None

  Skills

  Spear Combat: 1

  Analyze: 1

  *Due to a Simulation error, any skills acquired between the error and the reboot will be evaluated upon their first use after the reboot.*

  Xander flexed his leg as a spike of pain pulled him away from his contemplation of the character screen, testing the damage. It still ached, but the bleeding had stopped. He’d handled that part earlier, pressing whatever scraps of cloth he had on hand against the wound between fights. Now that the immediate chaos had settled, it was time to do the job properly.

  He made his way back to his Jeep, retrieving his med kit with the ease of someone who had done this before, just never under these circumstances. Identify immediate threats in the first three seconds. Address medical needs in the first three minutes. He wasn’t in danger of bleeding out, but the last thing he needed was an infection dragging him down.

  Lowering himself onto the bumper, he unwrapped the makeshift bandage, grimacing at the crusted blood underneath. The cut wasn’t pretty, but it wasn’t deep enough to cripple him or need stitches. Still, leaving it exposed wasn’t an option. He cleaned the area quickly, the antiseptic stinging more than he’d admit, then pulled out a proper dressing and secured it in place.

  Satisfied, he took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders, his thoughts shifting back to everything he’d just learned from the character sheet. While the screen had been intuitive enough, there was no real reference for whether his stats were good, bad, or completely average. Just numbers on a screen, floating in a vacuum.

  He exhaled, shaking out his leg. Guess he’d have to figure that part out the hard way.

  +1 First Aid | Congratulations! You successfully bandaged a minor wound. Due to the Simulation error, you’ve gained five additional skill points for knowledge gained before the reboot.

  At least something good had come from getting cut. A skill for bandaging wounds. It made him wonder what else the Simulation would recognize. How much of his existing knowledge would translate into something useful. He had no idea whether his stats were good, bad, or baseline, but at least now he had metric to track them.

  That was a problem for later. Right now, he had to think about the next priority: the third rule of three. Food, water, and shelter.

  Food and water wouldn’t be an issue for a while. He’d stocked his Jeep well enough to last a week, though it wouldn’t be anything close to a four-star meal. Shelter, however, was another problem entirely. He could make do with temporary cover as he moved toward Jo, but long-term planning would have to wait.

  Movement in his peripheral vision distracted him from completing his line of thinking.

  Xander’s grip on his spear tightened out of instinct before his mind registered Zoey stepping into view. She was making her way back from the opposite side of the lot, moving with purpose. She’d been busy.

  Her clothes were dirtied from the fight, and there was a new weight to the way she carried herself, but what caught his attention immediately was the bow in her hands. Not the crude, looted thing she had used before, but a compound bow, sleek and well-maintained. He didn’t know much about archery, but it was clearly a serious piece of equipment, nothing like the junk weapons the Rodentia had carried.

  "Hey, I didn’t find much. How about you?" Zoey called out as she walked up.

  "Odds and ends. They all had short swords that looked pretty crappy. I don’t need any of those since I have my bush knife and spear. A couple of them had coins on them. The total on my end is six gold coins, three crappy swords, and one small belt pouch. I don’t need the pouch; I have my backpack and a bushcraft belt. It has several pockets on it already," Xander said.

  "I found six coins, so we’re split on those. Also, I found another archer that nobody was claiming, so there were two hip quivers and twenty-four arrows. Plus their bows, but my bow with me is better."

  "You carry a bow in the trunk of your car?"

  "I could ask you the same question about your spear. If you must know, I’m on my way from Chicago to an archery competition. If you don’t mind, I’d like one of the hip quivers and the arrows. I use nothing like that for competition, and I’m going to guess that carrying around arrows in my hand is going to be a bad idea in the future. Also, did you figure out how to see your character sheet, event log, and help files?"

  "Everything but the help files. That notice at the start of all this mess said something about a help file, didn’t it? I did figure out that you can get information on items and creatures. This whole thing is acting like some type of video game. Our murderous friends there were called Rodentia, level one and zero. I’m betting things only get harder from here," Xander said.

  "What are your plans now? I overheard the manager of the truck stop saying something about being given the option of establishing a safe zone or something. Not sure what that means, but he was hoping everybody could make their way over to the front of the main building in a couple of minutes to compare notes," Zoey mentioned as she pointed over toward where a group of survivors had gathered.

  "I was on the phone with my wife when all this popped off, and I’m close to my house. It’s a stop there to pick up more gear, then I’ll try to make my way to where she is or to a place we’ve agreed to use as a rallying point in a disaster," Xander responded. "But first, let’s see the situation here before I head out."