The Hyron Nucleus—a potentially world-ending blight on human civilization—was in a park. Fucking cognitive dissonance.

  The park had a fairly expansive lawn, numerous trees, a pond, and a play structure. Everything except the play structure and the surface of the pond was covered in moss.

  I could see dozens of voles scurrying to and fro.

   Samantha said, after a few seconds of observation.

  Are you sure? None of the voles are wet, and they aren’t going near the pond.

   Samantha responded.

  Okay. What’s the plan?

  

  ‘With my approval?’ You’ve come a long way, Samantha, I snickered. No more than 10 HP, then.

  The familiar outline appeared in front of me, and I focused fully on following it.

  The first thing the outline did was take off the robes, helmet, and boots, and then put my backpack into the pouch.

  It made sense, I guess. I didn’t want to scare the nucleus away immediately, and my equipment could be pretty intimidating.

  All the voles I’d seen so far were level 5-10. Meanwhile, I was level 18, and with a D-rank class, I gained even more stat points than they would per level. This should be a piece of cake.

  I rushed towards a nearby vole.

  The moment I stepped on the moss, I felt a mild nausea.

   Samantha said.

  I’m not a fucking actor, I shot back. Be more specific.

  I saw the outline sway a bit, unsteadily, followed by a few staggers.

  A dozen voles were slowly approaching me. They weren’t rushing me—presumably waiting for the moss's poison to sink in.

  My zig-zagging staggers brought me closer to the pond.

  I stumbled for a full thirty seconds, following Samantha’s combat shadow before the voles realized that I wasn’t just going to collapse.

  Six voles charged at me simultaneously. They were about a foot tall, and two feet long. Several jumped up towards me, and the others bit at my feet.

  I staggered drunkenly again, coincidentally dodging most of the vole’s teeth, except for one that lodged its teeth into my right hamstring.

  It was a level 10 vole, and its teeth took 2 HP from me.

  I let the vole stay, and continued my drunken stagger towards the pond.

  More voles charged, and I “coincidentally” dodged most of them, letting another one lodge into my left hamstring.

  “Oh, shit! Look at that guy. Is he fucking crazy?” It wasn’t shouted, but I could hear the voice clearly thanks to my Perception.

  I turned my head slightly.

  Behind me, I could see a team of two people.

  “We should do something, right?” The same voice asked. I was confident the two of them had participated in the tutorial. They had armor, weapons, and were seriously contemplating ‘saving’ me.

  From my quick glance, I could already tell that one was a swordsman, and the other was an archer.

  “Something’s not right,” the archer said.

  I ignored them, continuing my gradual approach towards the pond, letting a third vole bite me.

  I was only ten feet away from the water, now. A giant vole surfaced from the pond in front of me. It was basically the size of a bear, and a quick Identify showed that it was level 20.

  “Shit,” the swordsman let out a slow breath. “What level is that thing?

  It was strange, and slightly confusing, hearing his voice with such clarity—it almost tricked my brain into thinking the swordsman was near me, but no—he hadn’t even entered the park.

  “Just wait,” the archer said, putting a hand on the swordsman’s arm. “Trust me.”

  I poured my mana into Strength. I punched the stomachs of the voles that were biting me, forcing their jaws apart, and then I flung the voles towards the various small voles that were still trying to pounce on me.

  Then, with a single strike of my sword, I beheaded the giant vole in front of me.

  I sheathed my sword and dove into the water immediately, just barely catching a single word from the swordsman behind me.

  “Damn.”

  The water was a murky green color. I could tell that the water was cold, but it didn’t bother me—likely due to my increased Physical Defense.

  

  What, do you think I'm going to suddenly get thirsty? I saw that the water was green too. You don't need to baby me.

  There were about twelve voles underwater, swimming towards me. I had never seen any surface for air, so I guess they could breathe underwater?

   Samantha said. Even with my heightened perception, the water was so cloudy that I couldn’t see very far.

  I did, and I quickly noticed some highly concentrated mana towards the bottom of the pond.

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  I swam deeper, fending off the voles with my knife.

  Samantha said.

  Ahead of me, I saw two more giant voles. One was waiting for me, and the other was rushing away.

  I poured more mana into Agility for speed.

  I ignored the smaller monsters. If they bit me, I struck them and pushed them away for more momentum.

  I swam directly towards the giant vole. At the last minute, when it lunged towards me with mouth wide and claws ready, I poured mana into Agility, ducked under its attacks, and slit its throat.

  Blood ballooned out into the water, but I ignored it, rushing towards the fleeing vole.

  The monster reached the edge of the pond, rising out of the water.

  I broke the surface just a few second later.

  The first thing I noticed when I came to land was the blood on the ground. The vole was running, but it was pierced in a hind leg by an arrow.

  The archer?

  It didn’t matter. I could tell the vole was slightly slower now, and that was all I needed.

  Burning through the last of my mana, I rushed forward, drew my sword, and killed the bear-like monster with a single blow.

  I immediately glanced around to see if the archer was going to shoot me.

  He released an arrow, and it sunk into the back of a vole that was rushing towards me.

  I glanced down and flipped the giant vole’s body over.

  Clutched to its chest was the Hyron Nucleus.

  It was underwhelming, considering it had the potential to consume the world.

  It was just a little ball of glowing, dark green moss. The only sign that it was still alive was that it was expanding and contracting lightly. It didn’t seem dangerous at all, and it felt rather fragile.

  I’d been worried that it would be more poisonous than the moss around it, but I felt fine.

  To my surprise, the other voles were keeping a distance, now that I held on to the Hyron Nucleus.

  Since the nucleus was alive, I wasn’t able to put it into my Interdimensional Pouch. Instead, I took out my hiking backpack from my Interdimensional Pouch and put the nucleus inside that. So much for keeping my Interdimensional Pouch a secret. I'm not sure why I even bother.

  Then, I approached the duo that had been watching me this whole time.

  The short, stout man with an F-ranked sword spoke first. “Damn,” he said, sheathing his sword and extending his hand. “My name’s Theo. The archer there is Clark.”

  I shook Theo’s hand, then turned to Clark. “Jarek. Thanks for the help.”

  Clark studied me carefully. “Not a problem,” he said. “I’m very impressed. We were just heading back to Reed Town. Our mayor sent us out to scout and look for anyone who wanted to fight the wolves. Are you interested?”

  I shrugged, trying to hide my excitement. “Sounds like a plan.” I was acutely aware of the stench of the nucleus in my backpack, but neither of them commented on it as we walked.

  “How’d you get an E-rank sword?” Theo asked, the moment we started walking down the road together. “I’d pay an arm and a leg for one of those.” Theo walked with a long stride that belied his short frame. It spoke of a false bravado, which I couldn’t really fault him for. Everybody copes with the apocalypse differently.

   Samantha said, before I could respond to Theo.

  I clenched my fist at Samantha’s statement, and realized that Theo was still waiting for a response.

  “I completed the Hard Mode Tutorial,” I said.

  Theo looked at me in awe. “Ryker said he had to fight an orc—did you, too? How’d you get past so many goblins?”

  “It took a lot of luck,” I said, vaguely. “So Ryker passed the Hard Mode Tutorial too? Is he the mayor of your town?”

  “Yeah, Ryker bought a Town Token at the auction. Is that where you got the sword? Did you get the sword at the auction?”

  I shrugged and looked away. There was something about Clark’s enthusiasm that rubbed me the wrong way. He had this innocent eagerness, this awe of everything around him—an awe that was oblivious to the pain and suffering that came along with the Atropos Schema.

  Fortunately, Clark took the hint, and spoke up. “No need to grill him, Theo.” Then he turned to me. “Ryker used the Town Token, but he didn’t realize it was essentially a trap. We have the bare bones of a town, but all the monsters in the area seem to sense exactly where it is. They’ve been attacking nonstop ever since it was built, and morale is starting to fall. We were sent here looking for help. Another Hard Mode challenger would be welcome.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” I said. “You said wolves?”

  Theo cut in again. “Yeah, thousands of them. Most of them are level 5-10—it’d be a cake walk for ya, I’m sure. Then there are the direwolves, but we haven’t seen much of them. Judging by how you crushed those giant rats, I don’t think you’d have a trouble with the direwolves either.”

  I hummed ambiguously at that. “And any news of other towns?”

  “There’s an army town,” Theo said.

  Clark cut in bitterly. “They got the Town Token by clearing a den of giant snakes. It looks like that’s the way you’re supposed to go about it. They set up their town and it’s been smooth sailing for them ever since. They sent out some scouts on bikes to spread the word. Half of Reed Town has already deserted for the Air Force Town.”

  “Air Force Town?” I couldn’t help but cringe at the name. “Do they even have planes?”

  “Nah,” Theo said. “But there’s an air force base, and they really pride themselves about it, I guess. They’ve got lots of strong people.”

  “That doesn’t sound that bad, then,” I said, slowly. “At least if people are leaving, then they’re safe.”

  Clark scowled. “It’s frustrating, though. The Air Force sends scouts and evacuation teams, but they won’t send any help against the wolves. They are treating us like a lost cause.”

  We walked in silence after that through the deserted streets.

  After a bit of a walk, Samantha broke my mental silence.

  I did, and I immediately noticed a thin film of mana in front of me. It was like a translucent white wall that stretched up into the sky.

  I flinched, and Clark and Theo glanced at me strangely.

   Samantha said.

  Not long after we crossed into the new District, I started seeing wolves traveling in groups of 2-4.

  Clark made quick work of them with his bow, and Theo killed any that would rush towards us. I didn’t intervene. From what Samantha had told me, you received less and less experience the more your level exceeded a monster’s level.

  Each time we saw people, Clark or Theo would call out to let them know about the town we were heading towards.

  I stayed silent for the most part, feeling a strange sense of dissonance with reality, as Clark and Theo invited people to Reed Town.

  It reminded me of any one of a hundred computer games, when the NPCs lead you to the nearest town, and then you have to complete a mission.

  And Clark and Theo did their job well, gathering quite the crowd around us and chatting it up with them. “Good choice, wearing running shoes,” “Why the hell do you have body armor in your apartment?” “Jesus, that is a nasty scar,” "Sorry about the smell--I had canned beans this morning."

  Of course, there were other reticent members in our group as well. People with haunted eyes, distant looks, and trembling hands.

  I hated it all. I hated how Theo could be so casual about the end of the world, and I hated how the distant gazes of my silent companions reminded me of the nightmare that was my Hard Mode Tutorial.

  By the time we neared Reed Town, we had about two dozen people or so in tow.

  We stopped inside a bodega, and I was mildly surprised to see that the shelves and walls were completely stripped of everything of value. It hasn’t even been 48 hours since the Schema appeared, and law and order is already shit.

  “The town is in the park,” Theo said, pointing towards what was probably a nature reserve ahead of us.

  “Oh, hell no,” One older woman in our group said, seeing the hundreds of wolves that were roaming the park. “Why’d you bring us here?”

  I couldn’t help but wonder the same thing. I whispered to Clark. “I can’t keep all these people safe like this.” So far, the wolves didn’t seem to care that we were packed like in the corner store. I could probably fight them one at a time, but if they broke the glass windows…

  “No worries, Jarek. Ryker’ll take over from here.” Clark opened the door, stepped outside into the street, took out a coach’s whistle and blew it three times, shrilly. “Sit back and watch the show.”

  A few minutes after the whistle blew, the wolves started howling and retreating.

  I could gradually make out the outline of a giant of a man. At first glance, he reminded me of the orc that I had fought. Over seven feet tall, a pure wall of muscle. He looked like he’d been a boxer, or a heavy weight lifter, before the Atropos Schema. He had shoulder length, brown hair, tied in a loose bun.

  And of course, he wore the orc armor—helmet, breastplate, and boots.

  He killed any wolves that could reach him with a giant battle axe, but actually, most of the wolves fled when he appeared.

  Ryker’s exhausted eyes glanced briefly over everyone else before landing on me. “Good job, boys,” he said, his deep voice carrying easily across the street into the bodega. The bodega was so silent I could tell half of the group was holding their breath slightly.

  As Ryker planted his feet firmly on the cracked pavement below him, I couldn’t help but envy his casual confidence, and the implied acceptance of his stance—This is who I am now. This is how things are.

  “Whenever you’re ready,” Ryker said, with a good-natured laugh. Nobody had moved from inside the bodega yet. “Let’s talk when we get to the town.”