TJ could tell that it wasn't long before he woke. The Frostbite paired with however many other afflictions he'd experienced had caused him to black out. Looking around, he was back in his human body, covered with mud and aching everywhere. Angelo was pulling him up and out of the slurry he'd lost consciousness in. TJ wiped the filth from his eyes and looked around.
"How many?" He croaked, his throat rasping and aching from the blasts of frigid air that had frozen him.
"How many what?" Angelo asked, confused. Stanton, however, understood.
"None." The veteran assured TJ as he wiped some of the mud from the younger man's face. "It was close there for a couple of us, but Laura saved Zig when she took that spear. She was the closest."
"Oh." TJ sighed. "Thank heavens. I don't… I don't know if I would have been able…"
"Yeah." Stanton agreed. As soon as he had, though, he sprinted away, moving so quickly he looked like a blur before he disappeared in the darkness. TJ looked around and saw 34 other people still living, even if most weren't still walking or on their feet. Then, the gravity of the situation settled over him and he stood tall as he pulled up the System notifications. He disregarded several level notifications, but was glad to see that he'd recovered all his resources with the levels gained. Instead, he focused on a single notification, the most pressing one.
You have completed the final stage of Tutorial 107.48.891, the Boss fight. You have completed Tutorial 107.48.891. All Participants will be removed from the Tutorial with whatever they are holding in 10:00. Congratulations on your survival. Prepare yourselves to integrate with the Integrated world. You will be returned to the location where you were at the time of Integration.
Time remaining: 8:59
"Even now we can't rest?" TJ complained. Many of the other people nearby chuckled as they realized what he was saying.
"Alright, everyone, get what you want. If there's any disagreement, then we'll talk it out." TJ looked back and forth, and many of the other Participants shrugged helplessly. When TJ looked at Angelo, the younger man sighed.
"Most of this stuff isn't worth anything to me. I can't make anything with it, my Occupation isn't good with it unless it's medicinal. So… most of us don't have any use for the stuff."
"Huh." TJ mused before turning to jog away. "I'll be right back, and I'll have something for each of you."
Sarah groaned and trotted alongside him as he made a beeline for the general store. "I figure you'll need a strong arm helping you out to get all this back."
"Thanks, Sarah." TJ nodded. "How're you holding up?"
"I'm ok." She shrugged. "I wish I'd been Copper earlier, but getting it in wave two of the siege wasn't enough. Maybe when we run into each other again outside of all this, we'll be able to work together better."
"I'd probably like that." TJ sighed. "I'm learning more and more how stupid I was about being alone and so on."
"None of us knew anything about anything," Sarah disagreed, "so there's no reason to be mad at yourself for being as ignorant as the rest of us."
"Sure." TJ allowed. As soon as they laid eyes on the mountain lion's corpse, TJ sighed. "It's a damn big monster, isn't it."
"Respectfully," Sarah chuckled, "you're a damn big monster. I wonder how the rest of us will deal with whatever else we have to fight once we get out of here."
TJ raised both hands in surrender before hoisting up its front. He grunted and didn't strain too hard, Sarah doing the same behind him.
"Where are you based?" Sarah asked as they drew close to the assembled Participants.
"In Tempe." TJ offered
"I'm in Phoenix, so I bet we'll find each other before too long. Anyways, you said you had something for all of us?" A couple of other people perked up at Sarah's subject change, though nobody was anything short of totally exhausted.
"I'll cut something from one of the two Copper tier monsters for each of you. Be quick, because we have… six minutes left." TJ said, checking the timer. Sarah was already there.
She was the first to request one of the mountain lion's fangs, and those went quickly, as did the wendigo's claws. Then, one of the wendigo's horns, the bones of its arms and legs, and the mountain lion's claws followed. In the end, TJ was left with one of the wendigo's horns and the mountain lion's body without its fangs or claws. Fortunately, TJ could activate Divine Transformation and cut through each thing with ease. In the end, he remained in his coatl form, the horn and giant mountain lion corpse in his mouth as the timer ticked to 00:00. TJ was whisked away, holding all his grisly trophies.
[Stanton POV]
He was just able to safely remove all the Lifeblooms and Myconic Nursery in time. The damned System didn't care that they were delicate lives and needed to be extracted safely. He found himself sitting in his old Lay-Z-Boy, the plants by his side and his favorite blanket on his lap. There wasn't any way he could trust this, was there? For the first time in what was sure to be a series of looking for the clever kid, Stanton wanted TJ somewhere to just take the heat for a second. Then, the System spoke to him.
"Hello Stanton. Welcome to your promised Systemic Audience. You must have many questions for me."
[Sarah POV]
Holding the fang in her hand, Sarah watched as TJ struggled to lift everything he was trying to take home. She thought about offering to help, but there was no need. The man refused to accept any meaningful help most of the time, though his promise to maybe work together brought her some comfort. After all, she couldn't imagine anyone being scarier than he was after the Tutorial. Being at his side would help her survive longer. Maybe that'd be her first goal after she evolved to Copper.
She laughed to herself as she found herself back in her apartment, familiar decorations and photos everywhere. As soon as she opened her eyes, the System gave her a prompt:
Copper (I) tiered evolutionary requirements complete: 3/3. Would you like to evolve to the Copper (I) tier of Divinity?
[Molly POV]
"We'll have to find each other." Molly said to Tessie. "We can keep each other and our parents safe after all this, right?"
"Maybe." Tessie shrugged. She'd been different since Granny Penny died. Not that Molly blamed her, it was super traumatizing! But Molly wanted to protect her friend and her family. And they were super strong now!
"I'll help you. We're both in Mesa, so we'll find each other, ok!" Molly said, but there was nothing else she could do, because that was when the System took her away. She was then standing in front of her house, wendigo claw in her hands. She let it fall from her hands as she called out, "Mom? Daddy?" and ran inside.
[Farid POV]
There was so much to do. Farid wanted to take everything valuable home to see if it could help his parents, but, deep in his heart, he suspected that his parents were dead. His mother was too ill and his father too stubborn to survive things half as terrible as he had faced.
"There is always hope." Farid muttered to himself as he walked out of the office. "Of all the days to go to work early, huh?" There were five miles between him and his parents' house, but it wouldn't take long for him to get there to check if his worries were true.
[Rebekkah POV]
She took a claw from the mountain lion as a souvenir more than anything. Her boys would enjoy that, though she probably wouldn't tell them the whole story leading up to that. But they would have been through something just like her, wouldn't they? Rebekkah nearly cried thinking of her Robbie and Markus. They were the only ones that were old enough to go through this hell, and she prayed that God had sheltered them. Maybe someone like TJ could have taken them under their wing to keep them from suffering too much. Was it too much to ask God for to have them and Joseph in the same Tutorial? Her husband would protect them.
With a quick prayer, Rebekkah called for her family to come home, and with faith fueling her every motion, she began to prepare a meal for them all to reunite over.
[Sven POV]
"If you wish to live, you will come to the ASU campus and continue to follow me. The only person excused from arriving before me in the next week is Krista, you will be in charge of spreading my influence through the northern cities in Arizona. Am I clear?"
Fucking Bryan raised his timid fucking hand. Sven almost beat him to death right then, but instead, he sighed. "Yes, the Tempe campus, not the polytechnic one. That answer your stupid question?"
Bryan's hand fell. Good. Sven could be merciful, but all these morons needed someone to lead and protect them, and it wouldn't be another one of the sheep, but a wolf to protect and lead. As the System welcomed him to his audience with it, Sven thought about how he'd leverage his strength on campus. Since they would all be college kids, he'd need to do something more than flex how much stronger than them he was, though. But he'd figure something out. The more people submitted to him, the more he'd be able to protect.
After all, what else was a Tyrant supposed to do?
[TJ POV]
He found himself not in a featureless white room like he had at the time of Integration. No, instead TJ was teleported to a room resembling Junior's. In fact, if not for how clean the walls were, TJ would have said that it was Junior's room. Divine Transformation had been stopped by something, not himself, and TJ went on edge. What was happening?
Then, he looked down and saw that he was clean and wearing the same clothes that he had been when the Integration occurred. Where was he? Where were all the scars and remnants of the Tutorial? What had just happened?
"System, what the fuck is this?" He demanded at the heavens… or ceiling, as the case may be.
"Daddy!" Junior's voice pulled him from his confusion, and TJ didn't care to think about anything else. He knelt down as his little boy sprinted into the room, nearly running into the walls as he followed TJ's voice. TJ took his child into his arms and wept. With tears streaming down his face, he pulled back and looked into Junior's eyes.
"Daddy." He said in a very serious tone. "You said no no word."
For a moment, TJ was speechless, then he closed his mouth and nodded while he chuckled. "You're right, bud. My bad. I won't do it again. Promise you won't copy me?"
Junior nodded, and when a shadow fell over them, TJ turned his back to the threat, terror filling him. He wouldn't let anything harm his boy. Nothing.
"What're you doing, TJ?" An achingly familiar voice asked. Unbelieving, TJ turned and stood, locking eyes with her.
"Mari?"