The transition back to reality was a car crash.
There was no gentle waking. Sebastian was slammed back into his physical body with the force of a physical blow. He convulsed on the concrete floor of Warehouse 4. His back arching as his nervous system screamed in protest. The cold, damp air of the industrial district tasted like poison compared to the mana-rich atmosphere of Arcanum.
"Haa... Haa..."
He rolled onto his side. Dry heaving. His body felt like it was burning from the inside out. His skin was hot to the touch. Feverish with the rapid biological restructuring that 20% synchronization entailed. He grabbed a water bottle from his stash. Crushing the plastic in his grip. And downed the contents in one swallow.
"Zero! Sebastian!"
Valerie's voice cut through the ringing in his ears. She wasn't lying down. She was standing by the reinforced metal door of the warehouse. Her back pressed against it. She held her pistol with both hands. Aiming it at the ceiling.
"They're here!" she screamed. "The spiders! They're inside the walls!"
SCREEE-CH. SCRITCH. SCRITCH.
The sound was everywhere. It was the sound of a thousand needles scratching against a chalkboard. The metal roof of the warehouse groaned. The reinforced walls vibrated. The Phase Spiders—the scouts he had sensed earlier—had brought the pack.
Sebastian forced himself to stand. His legs didn't shake. The weakness was gone. Replaced by a terrifying, coiled power. He looked at his hand. He didn't see the pale, gamer hand of yesterday. He saw a weapon. The veins in his forearm were thick. Dark cords pulsing with blue light.
He looked up.
Through the gaps in the steel beams of the roof he could see distortions. Shimmers. They were phasing through the physical matter. Testing the integrity of the structure. A drop of violet acid dripped from the ceiling. Sizzling as it hit the concrete floor just inches from his boot.
"Get back," Sebastian commanded. His voice was deeper. Resonating in his chest.
"We can't fight them!" Valerie cried. Backing away from the door. "There are dozens of them! My gun... it's useless! They phase right through the bullets!"
"We don't need bullets," Sebastian said. He walked to the center of the warehouse. "We need architecture."
He closed his eyes. He reached into the inventory of his mind. It wasn't a game menu anymore. It was a mental vault that he could physically feel. He focused on the burning, golden shape of the [City Core].
"Manifest."
The air in the warehouse instantly dropped to freezing. Frost crystallized on the concrete. A low, thrumming hum began to vibrate through the floor. Shaking the dust from the rafters.
In Sebastian's hand a light appeared. It wasn't a flashlight or a flare. It was a miniature star. The City Core materialized in the real world. A dodecahedron of spinning crystal and gold that defied gravity. Hovering inches above his palm.
The Phase Spiders on the roof stopped scratching. They hissed. Sensing the sudden, massive spike in mana density. They knew what it was. It was a threat. It was a predator.
SCREEEEE!
The roof exploded inward. Three Phase Spiders dropped from the ceiling. Their mandibles clicking. Their translucent bodies shifting into solidity as they prepared to strike. They were the size of tigers. Horrific blends of arachnid biology and void geometry.
Valerie screamed and fired. Bang. Bang. The bullets passed harmlessly through the leading spider's thorax as it phased out of reality.
It landed five meters from Sebastian and lunged.
Sebastian didn't look at it. He slammed the City Core into the concrete floor.
"Install."
BOOM.
It wasn't an explosion of fire. It was an explosion of law.
A shockwave of golden light erupted from the Core. Expanding outward in a perfect sphere. It hit the lunging Phase Spider in mid-air. The creature didn't die. It was rejected. The reality around the Core was being overwritten. And creatures of the Void were incompatible with the new physics. The spider shrieked as its phase-shift was forcibly canceled. It slammed into the ground. Fully material. Its exoskeleton cracking under the sudden imposition of gravity.
The light continued to expand. It hit the walls. It hit the roof. It hit the very atoms of the building.
GROOOOAAAAN.
The warehouse screamed as it died and was reborn. The corrugated metal walls dissolved. Replaced instantly by blocks of black, mana-infused obsidian. The concrete floor liquified and reformed into seamless, rune-carved stone. The roof, which had been peeling and rusted, knitted itself together into a vaulted dome of indestructible alloy.
The expansion didn't stop at the walls. The sphere of influence pushed outside.
The parking lot. The fence. The street beyond.
The Phase Spiders clinging to the exterior of the building didn't stand a chance. As the [Sanctuary] zone expanded the holy light of the Core burned them. It wasn't heat. It was purification. Their void-flesh boiled away. Leaving behind nothing but ash and echoes.
Inside, Sebastian stood with his hand on the Core. Which was now sinking into the floor. Becoming the heart of the fortress. He looked up at the transformed ceiling. The holes were gone. The rust was gone.
The warehouse was gone.
In its place stood the Keep of the Obsidian Fortress.
Valerie lowered her gun. She looked around. Her mouth agape. The dank, smelly industrial space had become a throne room. Torches burning with blue flame lined the walls. The air smelled clean. Sharp. And charged with power.
"Welcome to Sanctuary," Sebastian said. Pulling his hand back. The Core was now fully embedded. Glowing beneath a sheet of transparent, unbreakable glass in the floor.
He looked at the dead Phase Spider near his feet. He walked over to it and crushed its head with a single stomp of his boot.
CRUNCH.
"The tutorial is officially over," he said. Wiping violet ichor from his sole. "Now we play for keeps."
------
The sun rose over a city that had gone to hell.
Smoke columns choked the skyline of the metropolis. Turning the dawn into a bruised, bloody smear of light. The sounds of the city were no longer the hum of traffic or the murmur of commerce. They were the sounds of screams. Gunfire. And the wet, tearing noises of things feeding.
But in the Industrial District there was silence.
A perimeter of absolute stillness existed around what used to be Warehouse 4. The rusted fences and cracked asphalt were gone. In their place sat a fortress. It was a brutalist nightmare of black stone and steel. Occupying a five-kilometer radius. High walls topped with jagged battlements and gargoyles that looked suspiciously alive circled the main keep.
A pillar of pure, golden light shot from the central tower. Piercing the smog and touching the low-hanging clouds. It was a beacon. A challenge.
Sebastian stood on the ramparts. Looking down. The wind whipped his hair but he didn't feel the cold. He was shirtless. His torso covered in sweat and grime. Revealing the intricate, glowing blue runes that were now permanently etched into his skin. His muscles were dense. Corded steel. Buzzing with the energy of a 20% synchronization.
Below, the first wave of the "First Day" mob was testing the perimeter.
It wasn't just Phase Spiders anymore. The local population—the workers, the homeless, the night-shift security guards—had turned. Thousands of Infected. Their bodies twisted by mana corruption. Surged against the invisible barrier that extended ten meters out from the physical walls.
They threw themselves at the blue light.
FZZZT.
It sounded like bacon hitting a hot skillet.
The moment an Infected touched the barrier the holy energy of the [Sanctuary] rejected their corrupted biology. Their skin blistered and blackened. Their eyes boiled in their sockets. They fell back screeching. Trampled by the ones behind them who were driven by a mindless hunger.
"It works," Valerie said. Walking up beside him. She had abandoned the leather jacket for a set of tactical gear she had found in Sebastian's supply crates. She looked exhausted. Dark circles under her eyes. But she was holding it together. She looked down at the burning ring of corpses surrounding their home. "It actually works."
"It's a Tier 1 barrier," Sebastian critiqued. Leaning on the stone parapet. "It holds against the mindless ones. But once the government realizes what this is... or once the Tier 2 monsters spawn... we'll need more than a forcefield."
"The government?" Valerie pointed to the south. "Look."
Three black helicopters were approaching. Flying low and fast. They bore no markings. Just the sleek, predatory profile of military gunships. The Vanguard.
"They're coming to investigate the anomaly," Sebastian said calmly. "The massive pillar of light probably gave us away."
"They'll attack us," Valerie said. Gripping the parapet. "They'll think we're the source of the infection. Or terrorists."
"Let them come," Sebastian said. He turned and walked toward a heavy, canvas-covered object mounted on a rotating platform in the center of the rampart. It wasn't there ten minutes ago. He had spent the last of his mana and materials "manifesting" it from the game data stored in the Core.
He pulled the canvas off.
It was a twin-barrel Mana Turret. It looked like a medieval ballista mated with a futuristic gatling gun. Runes glowed along the barrels.
"Is that..." Valerie started.
"Standard anti-air defense," Sebastian said. Patting the cold metal. "It runs off the Core's ambient mana. Infinite ammo."
The helicopters closed in. A loudspeaker boomed over the roar of the rotors.
"UNIDENTIFIED STRUCTURE. YOU ARE IN VIOLATION OF MARSHALL LAW. LOWER YOUR DEFENSES AND SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE."
Sebastian looked at the lead chopper. He didn't pick up a radio. He simply projected his voice using mana. A skill that required immense control in the real world but was now second nature to him.
"This is sovereign territory," his voice boomed. Drowning out the rotors. It echoed off the surrounding buildings. Shattering windows for blocks. "Enter for trade or die for trespassing."
The lead helicopter didn't hesitate. A missile detached from its wing. Trailing a plume of white smoke.
"Incoming!" Valerie screamed. Ducking behind the wall.
Sebastian didn't duck. He placed his hand on the turret control. The interface linked directly to his mind.
"Target lock."
The turret spun with a whine of servos.
THOOM-THOOM.
Two bolts of condensed blue energy shot from the barrels. They moved faster than bullets. The first bolt intercepted the missile mid-air. Detonating it three hundred meters away in a harmless fireball. The second bolt grazed the tail rotor of the lead helicopter.
It wasn't a kinetic hit. It was a mana disruption. The rotor simply stopped spinning.
The helicopter entered a violent spin. Dropping out of the sky. It crashed into the parking lot of an abandoned factory outside the barrier. Exploding in a ball of fuel and fire.
The other two helicopters immediately banked hard. Retreating at full speed.
Silence returned to the ramparts. Broken only by the crackle of the burning wreck.
"They'll be back," Valerie whispered. Standing up slowly. "With tanks. With jets."
"Good," Sebastian said. Turning away from the destruction. "Let them bring the tanks. We need the steel."
He walked toward the stairs leading down into the keep. His hunger was back. A gnawing void in his gut.
"Get the logistics running, Valerie. Sort the food. Assign rooms. We're going to have refugees soon. People will see the light. They'll come running."
"And what do we do with them?"
Sebastian stopped at the door. He looked back at her. His eyes cold. Pragmatic. And devoid of the softness of the old world.
"If they have skills we feed them. If they can fight we arm them. If they are useless..." He shrugged. "We charge them rent."
The world had ended. The game had begun. And Sebastian was playing to win.