Hundreds of miles away, in one of the only forests in the world that had not become incredibly dangerous, a small cabin sat quietly as much a resident as the trees that neighbored and protected it.
This cabin, like many similar cabins around the world, was the residence of a high ranking member of the Bureau, situated in a safe place and supported with all the necessities one in that position would need. The fastest internet, a self-contained biosphere capable of providing food and water for upwards of a hundred years, and more all sat at its owner's fingertips.
Or it would, if she were currently awake.
Unknowingly deposited within her home away from home, Amy breathed deep as she slipped between dreams of black spheres and dismemberment.
Within her slumber, a sense of anticipation and anxiety grew to a peak that woke her up, shaking and covered in sweat despite the chill in the air.
Multiple notifications flashed in the corner of her vision as a pulse of energy radiated from some distant place, almost…a call?
No.
It was a message to be prepared for something, though Amy hadn't the slightest clue of what that could be.
Shaking the thoughts from her head, she looked around, got her bearings, and upon realizing she was home decided to actually spend some time there.
It'd been almost a year since she'd been in her little cabin last, and it wasn't entirely clear when the next time she'd be back. There was, not surprisingly, very little for her to do in the way of chores or cleaning since the place was serviced by the same group that cleaned all the other executive homes.
Amy's cabin was likely their favorite location since it was only a two room cabin with limited external facilities compared to the sprawling mansions the rest of her peers maintained.
Tapping a few buttons, she connected to her home's System interface and swiped past the building upgrades she had yet to use and landed on the defense structures.
Yet another aspect of life that had been radically altered and accepted was the simple fact that the System had a hand in everyone's life, in myriad different ways. Home management, many professions, and in countless other ways, the System had interjected itself into human life and changed everything.
It was likely impossible anyone would ever get a proper accounting of what had changed or stayed the same, but ultimately it didn't matter.
So far from its introduction, more people had been born into the System's tenure than people left alive from before.
Tapping through the list of available options, she selected non-lethal deterrents and left it to the system to use its best judgement.
Amy knew, unlike most, that the True Gates opening would mean visitors, immigrants, and invaders, and she couldn't be bothered to try and finagle her defenses to be precise. The System would knock anything that came too close out and send them away, hopefully somewhere equally non-lethal, but once it was out of range, it wasn't her problem anymore.
With a flick of her wrist, she triggered the lights and a gentle orange light illuminated the space, unveiling the upgrades to her room in their full splendor.
Believe it or not, she'd lived here full time for quite a while and the furniture had begun to go threadbare before she'd taken up part time residence in the Bureau's Outreach Department. Unsure when she'd make her way back, she'd put in requests for a full suite of upgrades and they had arrived, been installed, and, of course, maintained in the following year.
As that thought crossed her mind, she flicked through the Cabin's system and checked her financial situation, only to be pleasantly surprised.
Apparently several of her more reckless investments had paid off and she'd amassed a small fortune, which was good since she was considering taking time off for the first time in a long time.
Seeing Terrowin and visiting the prison would normally be enough to warrant some time off, but with the black out, she knew it was definitely time to step away.
Her TV flickered to life as she moved to her living room, simple even after her upgrading spree, and sat down on the plush couch. It automatically reclined and a drink it had synthesized lifted out of the box on the side of the arm rest to just the perfect height that she could easily take it.
Ok, maybe her home wasn't as simple as it used to be.
Several hours of mindless television later, she'd rested and recovered enough to actually start planning her vacation. It had been a long time since she'd been out of the country, so maybe that was a good place to start?
Ocean travel was essentially impossible, since monsters and Gates often went extensive periods of time without being found, let alone culled or closed; plus for whatever reason, ocean bound monsters didn't seem to have any kind of limit to their power.
Air travel wasn't entirely off the table, but that came with its own complications and risks, the least of which being the obscene cost.
Despite the ways of the past slowly dying, capitalism was a thriving enterprise and, if anything, had become even more vicious. In the course of her work, Amy had seen countless people die because they didn't have the credits to afford the cost of medical care.
Some things never change, and even though the System had brought radical change, including potions, elixirs, and improved health and longevity, those things were either rewards from Gates, achieved through leveling, or created by a Crafter class. Of course, nobody wanted to work for free, so the alchemists and brewers worked for a premium, often snatched up and contracted to whatever Guild happened to find and fund their endeavors at the time.
Amy hated that greed dominated so much of society, but it was the problem with leveling that, as a member of the Bureau, upset her the most.
Leveling up was, though dangerous depending on your method, ridiculously easy to do. Fighting, crafting, hell there were even some management classes that rewarded enough exp to reach a high enough level that the body began changing in accordance to one's stats.
With such a broad range of possibilities to gain exp, one had to wonder how people didn't stumble into level ups by mistake.
The answer, once again, seemed to lie in alchemy.
After thorough investigation, and not a few bodies, the Bureau had discovered that someone in the remaining government had created an Exp-0 tonic; completely undetectable, the cursed mixture stopped the absorption of experience points through any method other than combat. This mixture had been integrated into almost every aspect of the public food industry, and the cost of untainted food was astronomical.
Even if you knew about the taint, you had to be extremely successful or have a connection with a wealthy enough Guild to avoid it, and that was rarely the case.
The tv began playing an emergency broadcast as announcements about disappearing people began playing in rapid succession.
All around the world, people had simply blinked out of existence, and with numbers rapidly approaching the billions it became clear that the System had finally taken action in its efforts to empower humanity.
After a few minutes of reporting, the anchor followed suit, his clothes simply falling to the ground.
Amy wondered how the System would account for children, but had no doubt they would be held to the same standards as everyone else, particularly since they had been objectively the most affected demographic since the System appeared.
Reports of newly designated orphans, kidnappings, and worse had suffused all the data the Bureau had access to, and there simply weren't enough people who cared.
Amy had worked hand in hand with the leaders of the Survival Project to establish orphanages around the world, which was how they'd come across the 0 exp anomaly in the first place.
Children, post-System, were born stronger and developed significantly faster, presumably to account for the heightened risk, but had little protection beyond that. It was up to their parents, who were also weakened by the tonic, to protect and strengthen them, which was difficult when life and death were so cheap in the modern day.
Amy sighed and turned the television off, unsure of where to start on her vacation. She knew she didn't want to pay for airfare, and the recent increase in teleportation based travel wasn't exactly sustainable either.
Going through the Bureau's Hub was an option, but she felt bad about using that resource like that.
Her thoughts turned to her basement, a secret facility she'd had built for research, recreation, and personal development, and considered the idea of just retreating into herself for a while.
It wasn't quite 'getting away', but decompressing by working on her own projects with no deadlines or consequences seemed pretty feasible as well.
What had she been working on before she left anyway?
Thinking back, she seemed to recall something involved with a skull she'd found, formed entirely of metal.
Her memory cleared as she thought about it, remembering that it had pulsed with signals indicating it was alive somehow, and got excited at the idea of returning to something so fascinating. She was sure the people over in Research could have made more headway, but Amy took a special pleasure in discovering things as well. There had been relatively little progress made, but little steps got you to your destination eventually.
Standing up and making her way to the wall opposite the TV, her hands flickered in a rapid series of arcane gestures, opening a portal that led to her personal paradise.
A message to Marcus went out as she entered and began humming to herself.
It was going to be an excellent couple of months.