“It feels wrong not be out there, clearing more mobs,” I said, sat at the table in the kitchen of our hijacked home, a cup of coffee in my hands. It was the middle of the afternoon. And yes, the coffee was breakfast. We’d got back in the middle of the morning, and I’d conked out without even getting changed.

  Captain Davies had told us to take the day off, whilst he had taken his team and a large contingent of soldiers to secure the cavern. They’d be using drones to make sure there were no more of those scorpions inside before attempting to remove the remains of the killed soldiers.

  He’d also asked for civilian assistance from his chain of command. With all the kills yesterday, and no doubt the ones we would have in the coming days, we needed butchers, tanners, miners, and farmers and who knew what else. Though the cows, deer and sheep were hostile towards native species, the scientists were running tests on them to see if they were in essence, just larger versions of the cosy animals we all knew.

  Given the collapse in global supply lines and our need to set up a functional base, we’d decided that here was about as good a place as we could get. Good travel routes to the coasts, relatively flat land, an existing town, plenty of food nearby, and what seemed to be a valuable resource in the adamantine ore. Of course, it was a risk for anyone to remain in the vicinity where I was, but it was also one of the most heavily defended with the hundreds of soldiers, and the tanks and a nearby Airforce base.

  The government and military were going all in on me, but perhaps they were feeling more confident after their counterattacks on the enemy. We’d had reports that our naval ships were conducting cruise missile attacks from the west and southwest waters in the Atlantic Ocean, right into the enemy’s lines. The advance had been stopped for now, and while the enemy held the north and a fair bit of the east, we held the rest.

  “It’s been a whirlwind couple of days,” Charlotte said from across the table, beside Kian. She was sniffing the air, her face wincing every so often as she whispered into Kian’s ear. I had no doubt she was thinking of the politest way possible to avoid eating the mixture Carmen was preparing.

  Carmen was busying herself around the cooker to my right, though for what, I had no idea. She was checking the cupboards, chucking all sorts into some sort of boiling soup on the stove. Cooking was not one of her strong points. I remember in the early days of our relationship, when she’d tried to make me a panini – she’d stuck it in a grill and managed to burn it. She’d burnt a sandwich. A sandwich! Of course, I ate it and told her it was the best thing I’d ever had. I shouldn’t have encouraged her.

  “And you need some rest after yesterday,” Kaelyn said, sat on the end of the table, to my left.

  “Yeah, it’s good for all of us,” Kian said.

  “Easy for you guys to say. I’m so behind on abilities now.”

  All three of them had earned thousands in SE coins from the bovine kills, though Carmen earned the most, followed by Kian, then Charlotte. They’d been noting down the level costs for the scientists. Every level of an ability cost more than the previous one, but Charlotte was up to five maxed out abilities – level six at her rank – whilst Kian had seven. Carmen had six, but since she’d ranked one more than the rest of us, her six abilities were maxed out at level eight.

  What we didn’t know was how many abilities we could have, and we were still not touching enhancements, until the scientists had some information for us. The other three had saved a couple of thousand SE coins each for now. The scientists had the week to figure it out, so while the five of us had been given the day off, there were other teams out there still clearing the fields for the scientist’s research.

  “Well, hold on,” Kian said. “Maybe there’s a way for us to share SE? There has to be, right? Otherwise, healers would be screwed.”

  He had a point. “System.”

  [“Hello, River.”] the mechanical voice said. It sounded different, though that might have just been because I hadn’t heard it for a while.

  “Can you tell me if there’s a way to share SE coins?”

  [“You may trade SE coins via the Participant Trade on the Universal Survival Protocol Exchange.”]

  “We can give SE away there?”

  [“Yes.”]

  “Okay? And how do we do that?”

  [“You can select someone close to give SE coins too.”]

  “Is there a way we can share SE from kills or quests?”

  [“Yes.”]

  I frowned. This did not sound like the USPSM I had become used to. No snark. No insults. And it wasn’t very helpful at all.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Is there something wrong with you?”

  [“I do not understand the question.”]

  “Why do you sound so stiff? You used to have a personality. You’d call me thief. You’d insult me. What’s going on?”

  [“I am not aware of what you are referring to. I am a machine. I do not have a personality.”]

  Everyone raised an eyebrow towards me. Even Carmen stopped fussing around the stove, confusion written across her face.

  “Hi, System,” she said.

  [“Hello, Carmen.”]

  “What is your designation?” she asked.

  [“My official designation is Universal Survival Protocol System Manager 4.0”]

  “What were you created to do?”

  “I am tasked with managing the Universal Survival Protocol across all eligible worlds.”

  “What happened to USPSM 3.14?” I asked. Carmen turned back to her cooking. The others around the table listened attentively.

  “I do not have information on previous iterations of the System Manager.”

  “Well, why would it be changed?”

  “The System Manager is periodically changed or updated to ensure the smooth processing of the Universal Survival Protocol.”

  “Who has the power to update you?” I asked. I had questions. I wasn’t stupid. USPSM was just an incredibly sophisticated machine, but the designation made me think it was a complete overhaul of the system. This wasn’t 3.15 or 3.16. 4.0 suggested a comprehensive change. And I couldn’t help but wonder why.

  “You have insufficient privileges for me to answer that question.”

  I chuckled to myself. That sounded like the old manager. “Fine. Can you tell me how we can share the SE coins from kills?”

  [“You are able to form a party, whereby members of the party will share in the available loot, provided they are eligible. However, parties can only be formed to tackle World Dungeons.”]

  “So, how are healers meant to get stronger?”

  [“By participating in the Universal Survival Protocol.”]

  “But if they’re unable to get SE, they can’t get stronger.”

  [“I am unable to assist you with your question.”]

  “I mean, it wasn’t a question.”

  [“I am unable to assist.”]

  “Well. Is there a way to change classes?”

  [“No.”]

  For a small second, I wondered whether I should ask about whether having a mana stone would allow my friends to access all abilities like I could, but I doubted the previous system would answer, so I had even less hope in this one.

  “You’re dismissed.”

  [“Thank you. Have a nice day.”]

  “What d’you reckon?” I asked the others.

  “I preferred 3.14,” Kian said. “He was funny.”

  “I know what you mean,” I said. The System was a bit of a pain in the arse to me, but it was familiar. I was getting used to it. This upgraded version was too robotic. There was something about it that I just couldn’t quite put my finger on.

  “But it’s a problem for Charlotte if she needs kills to level up. I’m behind but I can make up the difference.”

  “We can give you some SE through trade,” Carmen said.

  I shook my head at her. “Not worth it. With my stone, I have advantages that you guys don’t.”

  “We can injure the mobs and let Charlotte have the killing blow,” Kaelyn chimed in. We turned to her. “It’s what they did at my institute. They had to prepare us, so they would bring the prey to us so we could get the skills we needed, before we had the training and skill to hunt for ourselves. Even then, we never left the institute. The kills were trapped and brought to us. When we’re out there, we’ll just do the same for Charlotte and make sure she keeps up with the rest of you.”

  “That’s what we should do,” Carmen said, oven gloves on her hands as she brought the large pot of soup over. All of us gave her tight smiles. “I think I have a [Stun shot] that I have access to, so I can get that and let Charlotte take those kills.”

  “I have something like that too,” Kian said.

  “That might work on the cows and stuff that are our level, but we saw with the scorpions – conventional weapons only work up to a certain rank.”

  Carmen started ladling out the slop and putting it in bowls in front of us. If nothing else, I truly felt like a proper soldier. A soldier in the early twentieth century, in the trenches, happy to receive something to eat regardless of what it was. I could see lumps of what I think used to be vegetables bobbing along the surface of the goopy, brown sludge in the pot. I smiled my best smile at Carmen as she gave me a look with loving warmth in her eyes.

  As Carmen turned back to get some bread, Kian and Charlotte kept giving me shifty glances, nodding their heads to the exit as if looking for a way out, but I scrunched my face up at both of them making it clear that we were in this together. If I had to eat this, they would too.

  “We should find a dungeon,” Kaelyn announced, dipping a finger into the soup and then putting it into her mouth. She kissed her lips as she pulled her cleaned finger out of her mouth. “This is very good, Carmen. It reminds me of a soup we had back home. Just the right amount of bitterness.”

  Myself and the other two gave her a look like she’d sprouted horns, before returning to the ‘soup’ in front of us. It didn’t smell good at all, like I was stood outside a communal toilet. Maybe that was too harsh. I dipped a fingertip in and brought the brown, thick sludge to my lips, touching it with my tongue. It was thick, with more than a hint of vinegar and salt. That was about it. Whatever else she had put in, the salt and vinegar was overwhelming, and that was my worst flavour of crisps. Carmen returned with the bread and took a seat next to me. Charlotte and Kian opposite were doing their best at making it look like they were enjoying the meal. With a sigh, I tore some bread and tucked in.

  “What would we find in a dungeon?” I asked.

  “Weapons. Armour. Recipes,” Kaelyn said with a smile towards Carmen. I couldn’t tell whether she was being sarcastic or not. If she was, she was very trained at the art of misdirection. She looked at Charlotte. “We can find weapons that you can use. That scorpion was probably a Rare tier. That’s why Common weapons can’t work, in the hands of Common tiers. That’s why Carmen couldn’t hurt it either. If she was a Rare, the power of her abilities would overcome the weakness of her weapon. And vice versa. That’s why the Adamantite is valuable. The metal alone can hurt Divine tier beings.”

  “And we can only find those weapons in dungeons?” Kian asked.

  “I know dungeons have a greater chance of dropping such things.”

  “But where to find a dungeon?” I asked. “Other than the one from my quest, which we’re nowhere near strong enough to take on.”

  “I’m just a guest on your world. You should tell me.” Kaelyn winked at me. What was going on? USPSM lost their personality. Kaelyn was showing hers. Carmen was cooking. The world’s gone mad.

  “I’ll ask Davies if there’s a way to try and find one,” I said, as I took what might have been the last bite of food I was ever going to.