Survival Interval: 448

Michael and Kyrie meandered through the other stalls. Most were not too far off from what Michael expected, but there was one additional metric that they learned about, professions. Each contender could have only one and they included things such as weapon forger to chemist. At some point in the game the standard inventory provided by the system could be supplemented by chemists making the same shots and pills. Then in turn with the money they made they could buy upgrades or other things to increase their strength.

It was not Michael’s plan to get stronger, but to each their own. Besides there was a chance that weapons or concoctions made by other contenders would one day eclipse those provided by the interface. Being good friends with people with the right profession might come in handy, but for now they all cost 500 crowns to get a profession so the stall was empty.

In less than an hour the two had added several hundred other contenders to their contacts and walked through most of the market.

“Well if it isn’t Kye,” a feminine voice called from behind. Michael and Kyrie turned to find a tall redhead wearing a black long sleeve and combat fatigues. A pair of knives were fastened to either side of her hip. She was young, but likely a decade or two older than Michael or Kyrie.

“Sasha,” Kyrie said, acknowledging the slightly taller woman. Michael remembered that it was Sasha that had told Kyrie about the downtown outpost.

“I ran into you in one of the business districts right?” Sasha said, looking over the two of them. “I see you have made a friend, and that you are both doing extremely well.” Sasha's eyes lingered on Michael for a few moments. It was not like she was checking him out. No, it was more like she was studying him. Did her eyes flash blue?

“Both of you have unlocked a secondary attribute, impressive,” Sasha concluded. Michael’s eyes widened. “What, how did I know?” Sasha laughed. “It's a skill. Not exactly what I had been hoping for, but it does have some uses… Anyway’s Kye we are putting together a faction. The two of you seem promising. If you are interested, Sarge intends to have a meeting, post announcement.”

“Post announcement?” Kyrie questioned.

“Yes, just like at the end of the first day. The one tonight will close out the first week,” Sasha smiled.

“What do you mean by factions?” Michael asked.

“Simple really. You can form them on your contender page. Really, just an easier way to keep things sorted. No real requirements, but we have reserved one of the message boards. Anything posted there will replicate through the other outposts in the region. Sarge intends to organize the contenders in our area, so that things don’t fall into chaos. There are just a handful of us now, but the intent is to bind together all of the contenders in Vargas city.”

“Then who is this Sarge? Is he the leader?” Kyrie asked.

“Yeah, remember the police officer I told you about. The guy who hit tier 1 on day 1. I would not be surprised if he is on the ranking list whenever it posts.”

Michael thought about it. A former police officer running things did not sound great to him, but he was used to the police officers in the bottom half of Steeple city. They were widely known for being fairly corrupt. Most were assumed to be in the local landlord’s back pocket. Although from shows and books he had read he knew there were many places that had a different opinion on them.

Regardless, if the guy could coordinate all of the contenders in the area, Vargas city could become a bastion where all threats were dealt with. Sure if it got like that Michael would have to eventually leave to continue to build strength. A tame environment probably would not be conducive for his personal growth, but it would be good if there was a well coordinated area for contenders to go for them to make their final stand in the last couple of months.

“Well if you're interested, we will be meeting over in that gathering area. I’m going to go see if I can’t locate any more promising individuals,” Sasha said drifting away. “See you there,” she added from over her shoulder.

“What do you think?” Michael asked to look at Kyrie.

“Well it sounds like this Sarge guy is going to be at the front of the pack. At least locally, as long as there are no stipulations, I don’t see a problem with it,” Kyrie responded.

“It is almost 1800 now. That is when the last battle announcement was made, so if there is going to be one, it will likely be at the same time. Might as well hear them out,” Michael agreed. They did not have to wait long.

[Congratulations to the 2,691, 637 surviving contenders on making it to the end of week 1. Over 300 contenders have managed to locate and obtain a blue drop. Drop rates will increase, with green drops now occurring organically. Red drops will now appear on the map. Enemy spawn rates will now increase, along with enemy evolution rates. Ranking will now be posted.]

[Regional quests will now be issued. Participation is not mandatory, neither is there a requirement for quest completion. Although survival in an area where quests were not completed will become more difficult. You are currently located in the Vargas City region. If you move to another region, then you will receive the quests for that area.]

[Commander (Vargas city regional quest): Six commander type enemies have appeared in the Vargas city region. Commander types can control and coordinate enemies weaker than themselves. Find and slay the six commanders before they get too strong. Time till commanders reach tier 3 20 days 20 hours. (6 of 6 remaining)]

Michael ran his fingers through his black hair. There was a lot to unpack there. First of all, there had been blue drops out there… Three hundred people were potentially well ahead of him now, and now there would even be red drops out there. He would be lying if he said that he was not itching to get back out there. Then there was the quest. Tier 3? What happened to tier 2? Maybe that was the point of the quest. If one of these commanders made it to tier 3, then they were utterly screwed.

“Looks like Sasha and friends were a little ahead of the game, when they proposed this meeting. Sounds like we really will need to coordinate ourselves,” Kyrie remarked aimlessly. It was clear that she was also thinking through things.

“Let's go hear it out then,” Michael said heading to the area where Sasha indicated.

The gathering place was a pavilion tent. A good forty people were already gathered in a semicircle around the meeting leader. Who stood in front of a pinboard. The ‘Sarge’ was a muscular man with dirty blond hair in military crew cut. He wore boots and blank pants. His tanned white skinned shoulders and arms were on full display out from his blank tank top. He waited patiently in the front with both hands behind his back as he waited as people trickled in. Sasha stood at the front of the crowd. It was clear that she was his ardent supporter.

Michael almost thought it was funny that there could be such a bond already. It had only been a week, but then he remembered that he and Kyrie had only known each other for something like 36 hours. He guessed that things could happen quite quickly in such a stressful environment.

“Well it seems that is just about everyone,” The leader stepped forward to the center of the semicircle. His arms came from behind his back.

“My name is Earl Whittaker, but everyone just calls me Sarge, including my ex wife. It's not just some moniker. I have been a sergeant for the Springside police for the last 36 years. So trust me when I say we will all do better… If we all work together. The short term games you can get from killing and stealing will not be able to compare to what I plan for this faction to accomplish.”

“All things I planned to say before the quest announcement… No, I did not know it was coming, but it does kind of make my point doesn't it. We will get to that,” Sarge said, eyeing them.

“First, I will start with saying you should join the Vargas city guard faction and not make your own faction or go at it alone. My vision is to see the survival of as many contenders as possible. There is no set strength contenders must reach, or things we must accomplish. If we eliminate all threats and fortify an area, then there is no reason why we cannot hold the area till the end.”

“Ha, with that philosophy. You will get a bunch of weaklings hiding behind, while you do all the work,” a male voice snickered off to Michael’s left.

“Not true. Just like the zombies and other enemies, there will be normal fighters and champions. Just like old time armies. Champions will fight champions while the normal fighters deal with the rest of the army,” the Sarge defended.

“Well good luck with that. Can’t believe I wasted my time,” the crowd parted to let two men exit. Michael finally got a good look at the speaker. An older man with gray streaks in his black hair. Michael analyzed him. Apparently, Michael had added him to his contact list at some point over the last hour.

[Brian Shultz, tier 1]

“Anyone else,” Sarge chuckled. He paused to see if anyone else would make a move. No one did. “As I was saying through mutual support in completing the quest and sharing information. We will all get further.”

“Perhaps, it will help if I go first. I am currently 259 on the rankings lists,” Sarge declared proudly.

Michael almost slapped himself. He had forgotten about the rankings with the other news. He quickly checked his rank as Sarge continued.

[Michael Nacht: Current rank: 6,048.]

Not quite where he had hoped to be. He was not among the top 1,000 names that all the contenders could scroll through, but at least he was in the top Ten thousand. He would look through the other names later.

“Sure some of you have heard. It is true that I hit tier 1 on the first day. Tell one person and everyone finds out,” Sarge sighed. “That being said, I did it by throwing every point I could spare into endurance, so I could keep myself hunting while drops were easy to come by. It worked. I got a five star rating and got Ki unlocked later that evening relatively easily.”

“I’m sure many of you are wondering, what good does that do us now? Well I will get to the point. I’m sure all of you know that 25 attribute points was the threshold for tier 1. Well how many of you know the threshold for tier 2?” Sarge said, raising his arm. No one else did.

“That’s right, I already hit it, and I’m going to tell you because if you know then you can make better plans for your progression. That is what our faction should be about. There is only one enemy, all those creatures out there. If we all work together to get as strong as possible, then we can all stand together. I don’t know about all of you. Even if there was not that 10 billion credit pot to be split among the finalists, I can be content with the 10 million that I get for just me surviving, and I want all of you to get your 10 million so we can all live better lives.”

“So what is the next threshold,” a female voice asked from the crowd.

“Oh yeah right. Sorry about that. This is not a gimmick. I’m not going to force you to stay to the end just to hear. The answer is 75. You get 75 attribute points before you hit the next threshold. At that point you will need a method to move up to tier 2, but don’t take that trash basic method you could buy from the upgrade shop. Bonus attribute points don’t count toward the threshold, but 20 is not enough to go to tier 2 compared to the other benefits.”

“How do I know? Call it instinct, although I’m at the point where I could move up. I am holding out to try and get something better,” Sarge chuckled.

The meeting continued on for another 10 minutes, but Michael mainly got stuck in his own head. If they really did only get 75 attribute points before the next threshold. Mark checked through his logs. He had gotten 13 points since tiering up. That put him what a sixth of the way there. That gave him a lot of room to improve, but it also was a daunting amount, now that drops were occurring less frequently. Even more alarming was that Sarge had already collected that many, and he was not even in the top 100 contenders. What kind of monsters were there out there?

Still in some ways it made him feel a bit better. Some of the boss tier 1s he had encountered had seemed far stronger than him. If the next threshold had been only 25 or 50, he would have had to wonder how they could ever keep up. That being said. It was also likely that the top tier 1’s he had run into were mid tier 1’s at best, so even they had room to improve before they hit tier 2.

Michael’s thoughts came full circle back to the quest. In less than 21 days 6 enemies would evolve into tier 3’s. A frightening thought, since even a tier 2 would probably crush him easily at the moment.

“Okay, I guess I have grandstanded, a touch too long. For our first order of business, we have two goals. First, grow our numbers, so that we have more people working together. Second, we need to find and slay these six commanders. Obviously, the earlier we find them the weaker they will likely be, so time is a factor. Once we're done here, you can all officially join the faction.”

Michael looked at Kyrie as the meeting ended. “What do you think?”

“I would like to join. I did not talk to her for long, but I like Sasha. As far as the ‘Sarge,’ he seems like a good person, a bit overbearing…and intense,” Kyrie shrugged. “And you?”

“I think it is as good a faction as any. It sounds like they got their priorities straight at the very least,” Michael nodded.

None of the contenders other than the two had left the gathering. All the rest intended to join. Michael and Kyrie only had to wait five minutes before they got the chance to meet with one of the faction leaders. It was Sasha that approached.

“Glad you made it,” Sasha said, clapping Kyrie on the arm. “Since you are still here, I will take it that you are interested in joining.”

“How does it work?” Kyrie queried.

“It's simple enough. You will get a prompt and you just agree,” Sasha stated. “Michael and Kyrie both got a prompt and quickly agreed. “Good, open up your contender page and you will see who is in the faction.”

Michael and Kyrie both did so. Their names were among about ten other small groups from 1 to 3. Sarge, Sasha, and another guy named Ethan were at the top as the group leaders. “As you can see, since the two of you are partied, you are thrown into a group together. Since I have met Kye a couple of times, I am going to give both of you admin access. If you meet people you think are worthy to join up, then you do a quick sales pitch and then add them. Simple as that, any questions?”

“Not really,” Kyrie stated. “ Of course we will contribute knowledge or help where we can, but I think for the most part we both just want to do our own thing. Get stronger…”

“That’s perfectly fine… However, we are looking to spread the faction throughout the region, so that the whole region is working together. Would you be able to head toward one of the other six outposts in the area? Recruit a handful of people when you get there or along the way…?”

Kyrie looked at Michael. “I figured we would want to be outside the downtown area anyways,” Michael remarked.

“Good, we have two outposts left. Ethan is going to hit the two outposts outside of the city. I’m going to hit up one of the others, and a couple others are headed to these two.” Sasha shared her tactical screen zoomed in on the region. There were only two that were not spoken for on opposite ends of the city.

“Wow,” Kyrie remarked, stepping forward to study the map. It was true, it looked like Sasha had every district in the city marked.

Sasha smiled. “Unless we missed some, we are at 73 districts, of course half the region is outside the city. As far as we know it is not delineated by districts… You should be able to see this map. It is one of the share files for the faction. When you hit the outpost again it will update with anything added by others, or you can add stuff as well. Just like Sarge said "don't fill it up with inconsequential clutter.”

“Michael you good with heading to the southeastern outpost,” Kyrie said pointing at the outpost that had been south of his initial starting location.

“Sure, We can cross the river and go a direction neither of us have been before,” Michael said, tracing a path with his finger.

“I guess we will go with that one,” Kyrie said, giving Sasha a reassuring smile.

“Excellent, good luck, and I hope I see you again Kye… You to Michael,” the red head departed to talk to another group.

“So what now?” Kyrie looked at him.

“Well we could sleep here with about 900 some odd people, or we get a head start tonight, so we don’t leave the outpost the same time as everybody else,” Michael emphasized the last part.

“I knew we worked well together.” Kyrie flashed him a smile. “Besides If I was a betting woman. I think more drop sites will spawn tomorrow on our map. I barely made the top 10,000.”

“The same. Let's go see if we can’t grab another point or two tonight.”