UCLA Library.
"I have an eight a.m. class."
"I wish the apocalypse would just hurry up so I don't have to write this cursed paper."
Rubbing his temples, Ray Spencer muttered the joke under his breath. Before he finished the sentence, the sky seemed to hear his blasphemy and let out a buckling groan.
Boom.
Beyond the library's floor-to-ceiling windows, night shattered like brittle glass under an invisible hammer. Jagged veins of violet-black split the heavens, their edges crackling with bad-omen lightning. Within those rifts churned a thick, blood-dark red, as if the gates of hell had opened above Los Angeles.
Sirens and screams fused into a single shriek. The floor lurched. Shelves toppled. Papers and books came down in a storm.
"Earthquake? No."
Ray's pupils tightened. Through the broken panes he saw something he would never forget.
Campus had become a purgatory.
Twisted human shapes zombies were pouring out of the sky-cracks in a frenzy. Their skin was ashy gray. Eyes bulged, shot through with veins. Torn mouths dripped with meat as they loosed inhuman hisses and fell upon the fleeing students to rip and gnaw.
The reek of blood and rot rolled in like a wave, ramming up his nose and into his brain until his stomach heaved.
"Urgh…"
Ray clamped a hand over his mouth, forced the bile down, and pinched his thigh hard. The pain was sharp and real. This wasn't a dream.
"I was just running my mouth."
The end had come. No warning. No reason.
Damn it.
He was an orphan who had clawed his way into UCLA. Graduation was finally in sight. His life was finally about to be his. And now the world ended?
Bang.
He didn't even have time to be angry. A knot of zombies slammed through the library's glass doors, shards skittering. They staggered in with hungry roars, homing straight toward the stunned survivors inside.
"Ahh, monsters!"
"Help!"
"Don't come any closer. Stay back!"
Squelch.
After a heartbeat of dead silence, hysteria detonated. Students scattered, screaming. Tables and chairs crashed. Books carpeted the floor.
Blood soaked the carpet in moments.
A blonde girl who couldn't run fast enough was dragged down. Her shriek cut off. Only the wet crunch of chewing remained.
Chaos. Slaughter. The end of the world.
Ray's heart hammered. Adrenaline surged. A cold chill shot from his spine to his skull.
He forced himself to breathe.
Panic was the real killer.
Years of scraping by on his own had tempered him. The closer to the edge you stand, the clearer your head has to be.
He fixed his eyes on the shambling bodies tearing into the living. They weren't fast, but they were strong and felt no fear.
[Ding!]
[Detected severe spacetime fluctuation. Activation criteria met…]
[Synthesis System activated successfully.]
[Scanning host information…]
The clipped voice of a machine chimed through Ray's mind.
A pale blue interface only he could see flickered into place.
[Host: Ray Spencer]
[Level: 0 (0/10)]
[HP: 90/90]
[Strength: 8 (adult male average 10)]
[Constitution: 9]
[Agility: 10]
[Mind: 15]
[Unassigned Points: 0]
[Talents: None]
[Skills: None]
[Inventory: Empty]
[System Functions: Synthesis, Scan, Recipes, Inventory]
A quantified body.
A synthesis system.
A cheat.
Ray froze, then elation hit like a flood. The apocalypse was terrifying, but with a system came a way to live, even thrive.
He was no longer just an international student sweating over deadlines.
"Raaah!"
One zombie lurched at him, close enough to smell. It wore a hoodie. Half its cheek had rotted away, white bone gleaming beneath.
[Corrupted One (Common Zombie)]
[Level: 1]
[HP: 80/80]
[Strength: 12]
[Constitution: 15]
[Agility: 5]
[Mind: 1]
[Skills: Bite, Claw]
[Weak point: Head]
[Threat: Low]
A health bar and data hovered above its skull.
Ray's eyes narrowed.
So the world had gone full RPG.
His body trembled, not with fear but with a fierce thrill. If an enemy shows a health bar, he could kill it, even if it calls itself a god.
Crisis bearing down, he dodged the zombie's grab and snapped his focus to Synthesis.
[Synthesis: Combine items in your inventory or in a designated radius. Costs materials. Results are affected by material compatibility, integrity, and rarity.]
[Scan: Read target info or analyze a material's composition, structure, and synthesizability.]
[Recipes: Stores discovered formulas.]
No time to hesitate.
Ray triggered Scan on the clutter around him.
[Scanning…]
[Materials detected:]
[1. Solid wood table leg (Common): sturdy. Suitable as a weapon core.]
[2. Mop handle (Common): light with average flex. Suitable as a shaft.]
[3. Shattered glass shard (Common): sharp edge. Suitable as a spear tip.]
[4. Metal bookend (Common): high hardness. Suitable for reinforcement or counterweight.]
[…]
Information scrolled past.
He locked onto a flipped solid-wood table and a fallen mop a few feet away.
Got it.
"Synthesize."
He selected the table leg and mop handle with a thought.
[Choose a known recipe or proceed with free synthesis.]
[Free Synthesis: Table leg x1 + Mop handle x1]
[Compatibility: 45% (Low)]
[Projected results: Crude Staff (Power: Poor), Long-handled Mallet (Power: Common), Shoddy Spear (Power: Common)… Success Rate: 60%]
[Proceed?]
Too low. Weak outcomes.
Ray frowned, snatched up a jagged shard from the shattered window.
"Add the glass shard."
[Free Synthesis: Table leg x1 + Mop handle x1 + Glass shard x1]
[Compatibility: 68% (Medium)]
[Projected results: Shoddy Spear (Power: Common), Glass-spiked Club (Power: Common)… Success Rate: 85%]
[Proceed?]
Better, but not ideal.
His gaze fell on a metal bookend he'd been using to prop a stack of textbooks.
"Add the bookend for mounting and reinforcement."
[Free Synthesis: Table leg (Core) x1 + Mop handle (Shaft) x1 + Glass shard (Tip) x1 + Metal bookend (Fastener) x1]
[Compatibility: 82% (Good)]
[Optimized combination detected… Generating recommended recipe…]
[Recommended Recipe: Improvised Spear]
[Materials: Sturdy wood core x1, Long shaft x1, Sharp tip x1, Fastener x1]
[Current material fit: Good]
[Expected Result: Improvised Spear (Power: Fine)]
[Success Rate: 95%]
[Proceed?]
"Proceed."
A thin white glow snapped through the air.
The table leg, mop handle, glass shard, and bookend disassembled into floating points of light, then reassembled in Ray's hands.
A spear appeared, rough around the edges but perfectly usable. The shaft was a splice of table leg and mop handle, the joint fused tight with molten bookend metal. The tip was a honed triangle of glass that caught the light with a cold gleam.
[Synthesis successful.]
[Obtained: Improvised Spear x1]
[Improvised Spear]
[Quality: Fine]
[Attack: 15–20]
[Durability: 50/50]
[Effects: None]
[Notes: Emergency spear crafted from on-hand materials. Glass tip is brittle. Use with care.]
[Recipe unlocked: Improvised Spear]