The air became tense, almost electric. The sound of the broken television sounded out. Ashton stood in his living room, staring at the system messages that he had just received a few minutes prior. The floor was covered in broken plates, bowls, and glasses, and in his fit of anger, he had even torn out the cabinet doors. The things he usually did to vent his anger weren't particularly available to him right now, so this was the best replacement he could think of.

  Really, he was just waiting for the next part - for the actual quest that had just been announced to come through. And just as he was thinking that, the air grew tense and the system window appeared out of nowhere.

  [You have a New Quest! [Tutorial Quest - Survive]]

  [Tutorial Quest - Survive]

  [Congratulations! Your Civilization has earned the right to enter the Interdimensional Council! However, to prove that you are truly worthy of this honor, and to prepare you for the changes to your world to come, you need to reach the end of the Tutorial! Don't worry, the first step is simple - Survive!]

  [Goal - Survive for 12 Hours]

  [Reward - Survival Item Choice]

  [Failure - Death]

  Ashton read through the message. It wasn't exactly what he remembered.. The wording and vibe was slightly different. Of course, this one's in English, not like the last time he saw this specific window.

  However, there were a few things that were completely identical. The window, the slight, almost invisible lines on the background that reminded him of some kind of circuit board. And that slight, momentary numbness that happened when you pushed your fingers through the system window. It was the same. It was undeniably, unequivocally the same system. And if that was the case, Ashton knew what he was about to deal with.

  Frankly, he wasn’t actually all that worried about Sam. Boxing, Taekwondo, Judo, ever since he was a kid, he excelled at anything he tried to do. Even now, despite being extremely busy with work, he still ran marathons all the time. His only problem was that he was too kind for his own good, but when it came to protecting others, Sam stepped up and could become a man that could best these quests.

  But just as he told Sam on the phone just now, Ashton was going to need to get ready. He ran over to his closet and pulled out his broom. It was old and probably wouldn't hold out long, but it was better than nothing.

  He kicked down onto the broom head to detach the long wooden handle. It wasn't the size or weight he was used to, but again, better than nothing. But just in case, he also rushed into his bathroom and detached the bar holding up his shower curtain. It was a little heavier, but it was hollow and probably wouldn't last super long either.

  He placed both the broom handle and the hollow metal bar onto the ground in the hallway, and then rushed into his bedroom to grab a backpack. Hidden in the corner of his room was an old hiking backpack that had probably only been used once or twice in the past. And that backpack was filled with literally everything that he knew was going to come in useful for him.

  His fountain pen, an empty notebook, a half-full bottle of cologne on his desk, a phone charger and a power bank... some spare underwear, the most brightly coloured shirt he had as well as a pitch-black zip-up hoodie, and grabbed all the jewelry he had lying around. Then of course, he filled up some water bottles, stuffed some of the food that he hadn't finished yet into plastic bags, and grabbed a handful of candy bars and even a bag of sugar.

  "Urgh, fucking- Why is there so much random shit I need?" Ashton groaned loudly. He didn't like it, but he had to follow the things that he was inadvertently taught by that son of a bitch. Though he went through complete hell, he learned things that he couldn't just throw away now. He couldn't afford starting from zero.

  Ashton looked down at his phone. This thing was practically useless right now. As the system is initialized in a world, it will change that world in other ways to 'elevate' it to the levels of others. For one, if that world doesn't already have mana, it will introduce it. And mana tended to have pretty severe effects on untuned mundane signals, and very clearly even interrupted the flow of proper electricity. The lights were flickering pretty bad, though that part should settle down soon enough.

  But while this phone was useless right now, Ashton could already think of a use for it. He turned it off, just in case another emergency signal did somehow make its way through to him, and then stuffed it into the bottom of the backpack.

  The last few things that he grabbed for now was a first-aid kit he kept under the sink, and some kitchen knives that he wrapped in small towels. He wouldn't need these right away, but it wasn't a bad idea to keep them around just in case.

  The backpack was heavier than Ashton thought, or... maybe he was just weaker than he remembered. He sighed and approached his front door, quietly unlocking it.

  But... did he really have to leave? The quest just told him to survive, and the best way to survive was to stay locked up in here. The things that were going to show up probably couldn't get through the door for the time being. The issue was after that. This was just the first of many, many quests that he would have to deal with, and with each new quest, the world became more and more dangerous.

  Ashton couldn't risk becoming trapped in this building. He was on the third floor, so escaping through the windows when it came down to it wasn't an option either. Plus... he just had to get ahead of the quests. Those that adjusted the fastest, always survived the longest.

  Ashton quietly opened the door and peeked his head out, locking the door behind him again. He wouldn't make it easy for others to ransack his place, at the very least.

  The most important thing was to hurry up. After that earthquake and the effects on the building, a lot of people must have already gone outside just in case, especially after the emergency notifications. And the more people gathered in one place, the more likely it was that the monsters would spawn around there. The good part about the tutorial was that things ramped up over time. As far as he remembered, there was a slight grace period in the beginning. But once that grace period was over, there were places that were prioritised for those initial waves of monster spawns.

  Ashton had to avoid those places, at least for now.

  There was a door in the back of the building that was hard to get to because it was always blocked by boxes and garbage from the building owner. It was a huge fire safety risk, but people just ended up living with it and accepting it. And everyone in the building knew about it and wouldn't go there in an emergency like this, instead rushing to the building's main entrance.

  But Ashton quickly made his way to the exact opposite side. Right now, people would be trying to figure out what's going on, maybe attempting to call their family members or the police. But they wouldn't be able to. And it pained him - he was in absolute anguish as he made this decision, but right now he didn't have the power to save anyone yet.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Ashton rushed down the stairs and made his way to the back door. His sight lingered on the hallway into the other direction for a while. Maybe he should try to go over there after all, and try to save them. Maybe he should-

  "No... No, you can't," Ashton looked down at himself. His flubby arms and his even flubbier belly. He wasn't strong enough to best the monsters coming at him on his own, and he didn't have the people skills to get others to kill some goblins.

  And so, instead, Ashton headed for the back entrance after all. It was just as cluttered as normal, though the earthquake made some of the piles of trash fall over. He made his way out the emergency exit, finding himself in the back parking lot.

  There were some people gathered here, but it sounded like most of them were still out front.

  "So what do you think is happening right now? Some sort of hologram?"

  "How would that make sense? If it were holograms, we would see the windows in front of everyone else too."

  "Right, it's gotta be some kind of augmented reality shenanigans."

  A trio of guys in Ashton's building were standing around one of their cars, chatting and trying to figure out what was going on. They were totally wrong, of course, but Ashton didn't care enough to tell them what it was. If he remembered right, he went to university with them. They were sort of close before, to the point where they referred Ashton to their landlord when an apartment opened up.

  But now, the main thing that he remembered about them is that they were genuinely bad people. The sort of guys where almost everything they did had to benefit them in some way, and did everything to get ahead. By the time Ashton realised what was going on, they were already just using him however they wanted, ruining his life to the point where Sam was the only friend he had left.

  In the past, Ashton hated them for what they did. But now... He barely even remembered their names. There was no need to pay them any mind.

  Though, they seemed to be thinking differently.

  "Yo, Gatling Gun, how's it goin'?" one of them yelled out, grinning over at Ashton. He forgot about it until now, but he hated that nickname. In the first place, it was only a thing because this guy thought Ashton's last name was actually 'Gatling', not 'Garling'. If he remembered right, this guy's name was... Chris?

  The trio approached Ashton, looking him up and down, "What's up with you? No need to take the earthquake that seriously, it ain't the end of the world," one of the other three asked. He was a pretty short guy, not that Ashton cared. But he really liked to make others feel small so that he didn't feel quite so short. His name was... Mickey. Though that was also some kind of nickname. Mickey thought it was because he was 'born to be famous' like that mouse, but frankly, Chris was just making fun of his height. Calling him as tall as a mouse.

  "You're right, it's not the end of the world, at least not yet. If humanity survives the quests, the world keeps on going, but if we fail, the planet is going to be mined for its resources. So at that point, it would be the end of the world, actually," Ashton pointed out, and the trio looked at each other confused.

  In the end, the 'leader' of the three, Chris, let out a laugh, "Dude, are you high or something? What is it, acid, shrooms, speed?"

  But Ashton just stared back, unamused, "Could you not bother me? I'm trying to get out of here."

  Chris' eyes widened and he took a step forward, straightening his back and tilting his head back so that he was looking down on Ashton, "Don't fuck with me, Gatling. You-"

  "Garling."

  "Huh?"

  "My name is Garling. Ashton. Garling. Not that it matters, though. I doubt you three will survive all too long," Ashton pointed out as looked down at the watch on his wrist. He had already wasted almost thirty minutes since the tutorial quest started. They would start showing up soon, "I really need to get going, so excuse me, please."

  Ashton stepped past Chris, but the third of the trio grabbed his arm, not letting him go. His name was Bart. He was the strongest and tallest of the trio, and tended to be pushed to do random 'dirty work' by Chris. Ashton was beaten up by him before as well.

  "Get your hand off me," he clicked his tongue, staring up at Bart, "Stop acting like little kids. You're 23, not 13."

  Ashton pulled his arm away, and saw something behind the three of them. It was still a good bit away, but it was slowly but surely approaching. There was a small group of goblins, running through the streets and looking for prey. One of them was closer to the parking lot than the others, providing a good view to Ashton. They were just like the early goblins he remembered, barely tall enough to reach his stomach.

  It was holding a rusty old dagger in its hand, and was wearing a tattered shirt and a pair of equally torn pants. It looked almost identical to the goblins from the tutorial that Ashton remembered. Greenish, scar-covered skin, long pointed ears, practically glowing yellow eyes and teeth that seemed sharpened to a point. They were still disgusting.

  "Listen here, you little shit. We let you off lightly last time, out of the goodness of our hearts," Chris started speaking quite loudly, drawing the goblin's attention. It was cackling to itself and began to clumsily run at the four people it was seeing in this parking lot.

  Of course, Ashton was the only one that was seeing it as well, and the way it was running... it would attack one of these guys first. That could be a pretty decent opportunity to take it out and get his hands on a magic stone early.

  But the opportunity was ruined, as a scream came from the direction where the goblin was walking.

  There were other people around the corner, currently facing even more goblins or similar monsters. And the dickhead trio quickly turned around, seeing the goblin as well.

  "What the- Why's that kid look like that? Is he sick?" Mickey asked, confused, and Bart, who had been clutching his phone, quickly held it forward and snapped a picture.

  "Huh, weird."

  They were distracted right now. Maybe it would leave him vulnerable to the goblin, but taking out these guys first could save Ashton some headaches in the future. But... he wasn't that far gone yet. These guys were assholes, but that didn't mean they deserved to die.

  He watched as Chris approached the goblin, "Yo, where's your mom at? Scurry off and get home!"

  The moment he got too close, the goblin lunged forward. It stabbed its rusty dagger into Chris' shoulder, and pulled it back out almost as quickly. Chris' screams were loud enough that they would pull attention from other monsters pretty soon, whereas Mickey and Bart were completely stunned as they saw their friend get attacked like that, at least for the first moment or two.

  But soon, while Mickey stepped back to protect himself, Bart tried to jump forward to kick the goblin out of the way, though he was stopped as Ashton grabbed him by his collar. With a quick pull, while blocking his legs with his own foot, Bart fell down onto the ground.

  "What the-" he yelled, but Ashton didn't pay him any mind.

  He just approached the goblin and swung the metal bar he took from his bathroom right into the goblin's face. It was thrown backward, off of Chris, its dagger still stuck in his shoulder.

  The goblin with its face half caved-in looked up at Ashton and tried to jump back up to attack him, but Ashton was faster, quickly following up with another attack.

  In the end, he just stabbed the bar through the goblin's yellow eye and watched as it stopped squirming.

  [You have killed a [Goblin]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 10 Coins]

  Coins. A useful currency that would soon become the main way that the people on earth would trade. There were more functions where you could use this money through that would be unlocked in time, but that was another matter for another time. But the fact that he received coins at all gave him pause for a moment.

  Just when Chris, Mickey, and Bart stared at Ashton confused.

  "Wh-What the fuck is going on...? What was that thing?" Mickey asked, speaking for the rest of the trio in this moment, "And... man, what kind of psycho are you?!"

  Ashton shrugged, "That was a goblin. Don't worry, you'll see a lot of these if you survive long enough. And as for me..."

  He thought about it for a moment. He had instinctively decided to follow in the footsteps of the thing that had dragged him away from his home. There, he had to become their assistant, doing all the dirty work they couldn't be bothered to do on their own, so Ashton learned quite a bit he could do here. And then, when the tutorial started and the system became a thing in that world, long, long after Ashton was first dragged there, he had to go through many worse things than he ever could have thought, and had to learn to fight to survive, so that he could be useful to the thing that had Ashton call him his 'Lord'.

  But Ashton wouldn't survive just by fighting. No, he wasn't talented enough of a fighter for that. He had to become the same thing as that 'Lord'.

  He looked at the trio, swinging the metal bar to get rid of the bits of goblin blood and brain stuck on it, and simply declared:

  "I'm a Summoner."