Town Under (System Apocalypse: Australia #1)

=Chapter One: Timer=

10:45 p.m.—15 Minutes Prior to System Onset

Usually, the stars gleamed through Toohey Forest at night, twinkling through the glass to remind me why I loved my work. Tonight though, the glare of the non-fluorescent lights reflected off the window and back to me, like it was trying to blind me. I hurried through my tasks as fast as I could trying to get the sample kits prepared before everyone got to the labs bright and early the next morning.
“Mum. Are you done yet?” Jackson’s bored voice broke through my contemplation as I juggled several ecological sample kits. He was lucky I didn’t drop them.
“You didn’t have to come. I told you you could babysit.” I kept my voice as soft as possible, knowing that Wisp was asleep over on my office chair. Jackson rolled his eyes at me but went back to whatever he was tinkering with on his laptop. It was true, though; he’d just turned thirteen. I figured he could babysit for a few hours, but he surprised me by insisting they come with.
Almost eleven at night. Just over another hour and it would literally be tomorrow. I would have been so much faster if I hadn’t brought them with me, but sometimes I think they just liked to be near me. Not that they’d tell me that, of course. That wouldn’t be on the cool scale at all. I stifled a chuckle knowing my newly minted teenager would assume I was laughing at him. I wasn’t even close to in the mood for teenagerisms.
“Not too long. Just keep an eye on your sister while I check the progress on a few of these experiments and we’ll head home. Just got to make sure the grafts are taking.”
Jackson didn’t answer but shifted in his seat with a wry grin. He always said I treated plants like they were kids too.
Glancing at the array of kits I still needed to check over, I couldn’t blame him. After all, it wasn’t difficult to get lost in my work. Ecosystems were an amazing thing, and helping them thrive when they’d almost been wiped out gave me tingles up and down my spine. With the amount of drought Australia went through on a regular basis, finding rare plants and trying to rejuvenate their habitats was everything I’d ever wanted to do. There I went again . . .
One more quick scan over the gear I’d gathered together so the field trip could leave in the morning and help gather the next round of samples we needed. Done, which meant I could check on the few running grafts I had percolating. I managed to suppress the sheer joy I felt at grabbing my clipboard so I could jot down my observations. There was this one fascinating plant graft that I’d had to use very specific soil mixture for, not to mention lugging back its native water source for testing—
The lights flickered, and I frowned.
That was odd. I was sure there hadn’t been any storm warnings, not even an electrical storm. I’d have known, and I definitely wouldn’t be in here for one of those. A few seconds passed. The entire university campus had back-up generators just in case. Turning around to comment to Jackson, the lights flickered again, and while I only had a brief moment to adjust as darkness engulfed us, I clearly saw a wave of bioluminescent air hit me in the chest.
My entire body tingled, and the power remained off.
“Mum. What the . . .” But Jackson didn’t get any further, and my brain didn’t have an answer for him anyway.
Blue flashed across my vision again, but this time eerily like the blue screen of death I’d grown up fearing as a child.

Greetings, citizen. As a peaceful and organized immersion into the Galactic Council has been declined (extensively and painfully, we might add), your world has been declared a Dungeon World. Thank you. We were getting bored with the twelve we had previously.
Please note that the process of developing a Dungeon World can be difficult for current inhabitants. We recommend leaving the planet till the process is completed in 373 days, 2 hours, 14 minutes, and 12 seconds.
For those of you unable or unwilling to leave, do note that new Dungeons and wandering monsters will spawn intermittently throughout the integration process. All new Dungeons and zones will receive recommended minimum Levels. However, during the transition period, expect there to be significant volatility in the Levels and types of monsters in each Dungeon and zone.
As a new Dungeon World, your planet has been designated a free-immigration location. Undeveloped worlds in the Galactic Council may take advantage of this new immigration policy. Please try not to greet all new visitors the same way as you did our Emissary; you humans could do with some friends.
As part of the transition, all sentient subjects will have access to new Classes and Skills as well as the traditional user interface adopted by the Galactic Council in 119 GC. Thank you for your cooperation, and good luck! We look forward to meeting you soon.
Time to System Initiation: 59 minutes, 23 seconds.

“Mum?”
This time, Jackson sounded scared, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about my two-week-strong teenager, admitting he was scared was no longer a thing. So much for vaguely hoping he’d played a practical joke. With his programming knowledge and penchant for fiddling with electronics, I was fairly certain a part of his brain was already trying to figure this shit out.
“It’s okay. Probably just a gimmick of some sort.” Even I didn’t believe that lie, but he had the good grace not to harp on it. “Check on your sister for me.”
I tried to keep my voice steady, not to give away that I might be freaking the hell out. That blue wave of whatever hit my chest had left a glowing residue behind in the project I’d been checking on. My fingers even felt like they’d been saturated, like they were swelling. The soft blue glow was our only light, because as I glanced at my phone, it was nothing but a glass and metal brick. Nothing I tried to do switched it on.
Breathe. I had to breathe. Maybe. What if the air was suddenly toxic?

Release Date: November 1, 2022

Pages: 487

Genre: LitRPG Sci-Fi

eBook ISBN: 9781990491450

Language: English

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