The System Apocalypse Short Story Anthology Volume 1: A LitRPG post-apocalyptic fantasy and science fiction anthology

by Tao Wong

  After reading through the text, the box disappeared, and a floating icon of a blinking question mark replaced it in the top right of his field of vision. After studying it for a second, it disappeared, and another box appeared in the center of his eyesight.

  Quests

  Save Your Mother -

  Save Monica and Jason -

  Escape to Lower Level Zone –

  “What in the world?” Danny's stomach dropped at the first quest and he eyeballed it to get more information.

  Quest: Save your mother from certain death. Taken right in front of you, your mother was brought back to the lair of a carnivorous plant. Time is running out.

  Danny jumped up out of the dirt. He didn’t know what was happening, but he knew he wasn’t on his Scout trip anymore. Something... different was going on. He didn't know where these boxes came from or what they meant, but if this one about his mother was true, he knew he couldn't waste time. He spun around, eyes darting about for any sign of whatever creature had his mom.

  Danny’s eyes popped open when he found what he was looking for. This thing wouldn't be too hard to track. There was an indent cleared in the dirt, about two feet in width, running past the bushes and through the trees. It seemed to move on a single, large foot, like a snail. What shocked him was the strange glowing yellow haze above the creature’s trail. When Danny tried to touch the haze he realized it reacted the same way all the other elements of the System did. He guessed this must be the way this ‘System’ showed his tracking Skill working. With a smirk Danny set out to follow the obvious trail, when a voice in his head stopped him.

  < “Daniel, I see you have accepted my class selection. Things should be a little easier now. You must go quickly; the world becomes more dangerous with each passing moment.”>

  “Who are you? What is going on?” Danny asked. He thought he should be more freaked out by all these strange occurrences, but he was calm as if he’d experienced this before.

  < “Ah, yes. I remember now how weak the mental stability is in a new Phoenix. In time that will change. Communicating like this is very taxing for me, and we do not have long. This too will change, as you grow stronger. You have Skills that will aid you in this, although the System will always anchor itself first in your memories, it is nothing if not self-preserving. Meanwhile, I must show you something, a way to protect yourself.”>

  Danny stood at the edge of the road, while visions filled his mind. He watched as strange birdlike creatures flew through the endless skies of a world filled with heat and light. The creatures spread their wings, absorbing the energy from the brilliant suns in the sky. They used this energy to create updrafts of heat to glide on, they converted it into sustenance, and breathed great gouts of flame from their mouths. Danny could feel the connection the birds had and felt something within him stir. As the images faded, he lifted his hand and staring intently, beyond the skin of his palm, he willed a ball of flame into existence.

  < “Good, you have seen how your Affinity can be used. Practice with it, master it. Your Solar Affinity will be a great tool for your survival. Now, I must rest. Please, escape to a safer zone.”>

  Danny beamed. He could feel his connection to the very heat and light of the sun itself. Like heartburn within his chest, but not painful and filling his whole body. If he had more time, he would explore this further, but he dismissed the ball of flame and set on the path to save his mother.

  “Thank you for showing me this. I will use it well,” he sent back. “I have to save my mother before I can escape.”

  Danny could feel a spike of worry and fear emanating from the dwindling presence within his mind. He started off then, following the path the creature had left for him, hoping that if this was a dream, it wasn’t about to turn into a nightmare. Whatever the creature was it did not move with any kind of regard for covering its tracks, so Danny assumed it must be of low intelligence. Or perhaps it was so powerful it had no need for protection. He shivered and hoped for the former.

  He recognized many of the typical trees and shrubs, but this didn’t feel like the forests he had grown up around. Now and then a plant would catch his attention, unlike any he had ever seen. A plant made of interlocking vines that moved like it was blowing in the wind, shrubs with thorny branches and strange multicolored berries, even a sad looking tree with dimly glowing leaves. Several times plants would have a light aura of green or red or blue, when he looked closer at a plant with a green aura a box titled ‘Wilderness Survival’ popped up stating the plant was edible.

  The fauna was no exception to change either. He passed a handful of squirrels and birds, a couple butterflies. But oddities still made their presence known. He gave a wide birth to a spider as big as his hand that was draining the fluids out of something dark in its web. None of these had any auras, and Danny wondered if it was because they were creatures or if maybe his Skill wasn’t high enough to get any good information.

  Danny hurried, realizing that the warnings the Phoenix had given him must be true. The hair on the back of his neck stuck up and his adrenaline perked, on even higher alert than he was before. After what seemed like ages, he stopped in his tracks. Ahead of him stood a massive green plant covered in a soft fuzz, much like a Venus flytrap. Surrounding the plant were half a dozen smaller versions of itself, each with a tendril wrapping around the larger plant, entering a slimy orifice. The huge plant’s mouth-like structure was closed with a human sized lump within it.

  Chapter 5

  “What. The. Hell?” Danny whispered out loud. All the botany and plant-based merit badges he had earned had not prepared him for giant man-eating plants. He wished he had his machete with him so he could wade in there and hack away but he didn’t have any tools. After a quick scan, he saw a long, broken branch from a nearby tree. It was about as straight as a dog’s leg, but it was better than nothing.

  He shrieked when a tendril wrapped around his ankle and yanked him to the ground. He dropped his makeshift weapon as he was dragged towards one of the smaller plants. Prying at the restraint around his ankle, he did his best to dig his heels in. Wildly grabbing at anything within reach, he found no help as the giant tendril continued to pull him, unaffected by his escape attempts. Danny eyed the plant in his path, its gaping mouth-leaves open. This one, like the others surrounding the huge plant, was about the size of a large dog, so he knew it wouldn't be able to eat him on its own. That wasn’t very comforting, however, as the rest of the plants detached their tendrils from the huge plant and made their way over to him in a slow and silent death march.

  The silence of the scene added a level of dread Danny had never experienced. Movies always had monsters making terrible noises as they attacked their prey. It made sense, plants didn't have vocal cords, but it was eerie in the extreme. Danny yanked on his leg to free himself, but the tendril was stronger than he was and didn’t budge. He scrambled in the dirt as he neared his slow demise. He flung a handful of dirt and rocks at the open mouth-thing just as it pulled his leg up and closed around his foot.

  The dirt and rocks had about as much effect as mean words and Danny’s heart sank while the rest of the plants spat their tendrils at him, catching any part they could and pulling his body taut as if he was being drawn and quartered. Beyond having parts of him engulfed by plants, the tingling in his foot warned him that something bad was happening, then those areas started to go numb. At least if he was going to die it wouldn't be in agony.

  Danny thrashed and kicked as much as his body would allow, when one of the smaller plants wrapped its tendril around his neck and started squeezing. With his head pulled back taught, Danny got to watch as the plant that was choking him made its way closer, its mouth open wide towards his face. He fought for all he was worth, wrenching on the tendrils wrapped around his body, but there were too many, and they were too strong. The mouth-petals closed over his face and he screamed in terror while the toxins entered his skin and began to do their numbing work.

  “NO!” Dan
ny screamed, his voice muffled against the slimy interior of the plant, as the fear threatened to make him lose his mind. He shut his eyes and concentrated, remembering the vision the Phoenix had shown him, of other Phoenix's harnessing the solar power of the sun. He pictured his vascular system, the winding maze of arteries and veins and focused intently on filling them with the energy of the sun. The numbness started to melt out of his body, and he could feel his temperature rise, leaving the pain of plant digestive enzymes behind it. Danny screamed and tensed his muscles as the numbness burned out of his body.

  Toxins dripped into his mouth from the petals enveloping his head and he could feel the bile in his throat burning its way up as he gagged on his own mortality. With a heave he let the burning bile out, a sliver of hope that maybe if he threw-up in this plant’s mouth it would dislodge him. Instead, burning hot flames shot out of his mouth like a flame thrower, searing a hole through the meat of the leaf and bringing fresh, sweet air into his lungs. The plant around his head shuddered, losing its ability to grip him and fell away, leaving only the tendril tightly wrapped around his throat, squeezing the life out of him.

  Danny was not about to go down now though: not now that he knew he could breathe fire. He attempted to reproduce the flame shooting out of him, aiming his mouth at the next plant wrapped around his hand. The pain coursing through his body was tremendous as the numbing agent burned away. Danny fought through the pain, refusing to pass out though his head pounded, and eyes begged to close. He focused intently and finally shot another gout of flame from his mouth and burned away the plant attached to his hand.

  Holding his hand and wiggling his fingers directly in front of his face, he marveled that it had come through the conflagration unscathed. He grasped the tendril around his neck, pulling on it to free himself as the black spots of suffocation began to seep into his vision. The heat in his body got more intense and what he had mistaken as burning from the acidic enzymes escaped through his pores and enveloped his whole self. A pleasant warmth suffused his entire body as heat waves emanated from him. Soon his skin started to glow as he called upon his Solar affinity and raised his temperature hotter and hotter. His veins danced and his skin tingled with the sensation, like the time he’d snuck into the liquor cabinet and took a swallow of his dad’s dark golden whiskey.

  He opened his eyes and light burst forth from them, his entire body now lit up like a lantern filament. The plants wrapped around him exploded into bursts of sap as their cuticles melted and ruptured. Danny fell to the ground panting, surrounded by the charred husks of the smaller carnivorous creatures.

  Immature Mutated Caryophyllales (Level 3) Slain *5

  +1500 XP

  He lay on the forest floor catching his breath, dumfounded by everything that had just happened. He sat up, brushed himself off, and noticed a flashing notification in the corner of his vision. Beneath that, he saw three bars of varied colors, red, blue and yellow. The bars were all well below half full and judging by his current state of battered tiredness, he assumed they were a representation of his state of being. He stood up on shaky legs and warily looked around for any more of the smaller plants. Seeing none, he focused his attention on the largest of them. “Okay, you big bastard. It's your turn now.”

  A tendril from its base unfurled and cracked against him like a whip, tearing open the skin on his arm and sending him crashing back down to the ground. Danny learned that the red bar in his eyesight must represent health, as it dropped drastically low.

  Nothing in him wanted to get up again, but he knew lying there was going to get him killed, and he rolled to the side as fast as his body would allow. Willing himself to ignore the pain, Danny attempted to summon the heat energy like before. Another whipping made him lose focus as his health bar dropped to 20%. Desperate, he lunged towards the base of a nearby tree to for cover. Rolling behind the trunk he sucked in ragged gasps of air and tried to calm himself. Slowing his breathing, Danny focused and tried summoning the burning energy again.

  His skin began to heat up and an orange glow radiated from his body. Danny stepped from behind the tree, and true to form the plant whipped its tendril at him. This time, however, Danny leaned into it, raising his arm to block, and gasping as another 5% of his health disappeared. But now he had the upper hand. The tendril had wrapped around his arm, and Danny grabbed it with his free hand forcing contact and mentally pushed the burning sensation from his arms and hands onto the plant.

  The plant yanked, pulling Danny off his feet and dragging him towards its base where a host of shorter tendrils covered in dripping thorns awaited. Danny had only seconds and shoved with all his mental might, his hand and arms erupting in brilliant white light. The tendril around his arm ignited as the blue bar in Danny's vision plummeted. He realized that must represent how much he could use his Solar power and that he didn't have much of that energy left. The plant’s tendril waved in the air, trying to cool down.

  With a roar, Danny summoned the energy again, forcing it out of his mouth in a torrent of heat and hate. The inferno of flame landed at the base of the plant igniting the writhing, thorny tendrils and causing the plant to stiffen in pain. He watched as his blue bar drained completely and the jet of flame sputtered out, leaving him breathing hard. The plant rocked a final time and its huge leafy mouth fell to the ground, opening up and spilling out a body.

  Elder Mutated Caryophyllales (Level 5) Slain

  +650 XP

  Danny rushed over to the figure, thankful that his flames had not reached her. It was a woman, her skin melted in places and charred in others, patches of her clothes melted away. It was a woman, but it was not his mother. His mother was only in her late thirties and this woman, while familiar, looked much older. She lay there, unmoving. “What?” Danny asked, to no one but himself. “Who is this?”

  Chapter 6

  Danny rolled the older woman onto her back. He tilted her head and opened her mouth, peering inside to ensure there was no plant material blocking her airway. Satisfied, he moved two fingers to her neck. He blew out a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding when he felt a strong, albeit slow, rhythmic beating. She showed little sign of the trauma, a decent abrasion on her right calf and hefty bruise around the left ankle along with some of the burned spots he had noticed earlier. Her white hair was speckled with bits of forest and her clothes had certainly seen better days. Large holes spotted the floral fabric, barely hanging onto her small frame. She laid there completely still, her chest rising and falling.

  He needed to get her out of there. Who knew if there were more carnivorous plants lurking in the trees? With a puff of breath, he acknowledged the flashing exclamation mark in his field of vision.

  Quest Complete: Rescue your mother.

  Reward: 3,000 XP

  Level Up!

  You have reached Level 2 as a Phoenix. Stat points automatically distributed. Class point automatically distributed as designated by symbiont (Phoenix). You have 4 free Attribute points.

  Level Up!

  You have reached level 2 as a Wilderness Scout. No attribute points gained for Subclasses. You have 2 free Class points to distribute. These Class point may only be spent on Subclass Skills.

  Danny inhaled as he felt the energy coursing through his body. He couldn’t describe what was different, but he felt… better… than just a few moments before. The flashing exclamation point faded. A glowing ‘+’ sign appeared, but he ignored it and focused on the completed quest- his mother?

  “What is going on? Is this some kind of time warp?” He had saved the lady and the System checked off the quest as if it was his mom. Could it really be her? He shook his head to clear his thoughts and with a sigh squatted down to pick up the strangely familiar woman. He began the trek back to the highway carrying her in a fireman's lift. He paused about a third of the way back when the yellow bar in his vision depleted to nothing and he somehow knew he couldn't go on. Blowing his breath out he swung the woman off his shoulders and laid her down,
then plopped onto the ground next to her.

  Looking at the woman again, it was uncanny how familiar she seemed. Her features were his mom’s, only older. His eyes widened and jaw dropped as he noticed her wounds. Most of the burned flesh had the soft pink hue of new skin, the cuts and bruises were simply gone. He marveled at this and wondered how much it had to do with the strange boxes and this ‘System’.

  The day was strange, but perhaps the strangest thing was his overwhelming feeling of déjà vu: like he had experienced this before. A glance at his yellow bar showed it was half full. With a sigh he looked at the glowing ‘+’ sign and thought at it, opening it up. Another box bloomed in front of him, labeled ‘Status Screen’. He thought watching a person’s wounds close before his eyes was amazing enough, but the sheer amount of data on this screen made him forget to breathe for a moment.

  Status Screen

  Name

  Daniel Burns

  Class

  Phoenix

  Race

  Human (Symbiont)

  (Male)

  Level

  2

  Titles

  None

  Health

  100

  Stamina

  100

  Mana

  100

  Status

  Alzheimer's (a -10% Intelligence, Variable, Periodic)

  Dementia (-10% Charisma -10% Intelligence, Variable, Periodic)

  Attributes

  Strength