System Down: A Reverse System Apocalypse Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Epilogue

  SYSTEM DOWN

  Systempocalypse: Book 1

  by Andrew Karevik

  System Down (Book 1)

  Copyright © 2022 LitRPG Freaks

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.

  Chapter 1

  I remember when the Brilliant City crashed into the Hiyorn Kingdom. Never before had something like this occurred on such a large scale. The Brilliant City hung over the world, perpetually floating thanks to the use of magic, and as it floated it grew and grew and grew. You could see the city from just about anywhere in Hiyorn; travelers used the city instead of the North Star to navigate our world.

  The city had been a fixture, full of magical heroes and chosen adventurers who were all given incredible abilities by the Systemous Conduit, usually referred to as the System. Oh how our eyes fell towards the skies as it shifted and tilted as if nothing could support it any longer. The sky fell on Hiyorn and with it came a wave of horrors and terrors that none had been prepared for: magic was gone.

  When I say magic, I don’t mean simply spells. I mean the magic of the System itself. Levels no longer affected a person’s skills or abilities. Armor wearers, who relied on strength talents to wear the heaviest of plate, were crushed by their own gear. Worse yet, rulers found themselves to be just normal people, unable to see the entire world from great maps and without the ability to place buildings and monitor the needs of the people.

  The Erasure, as I’ve taken to calling it, led to one of the darkest ages in the world. For everything had been brimming with magic, but now? Now there is only rubble, decay and survivors all trying to understand this strange apocalypse, though for some this was a newfound era of freedom.

  Henchmen were no longer bound by the magic of the System and were able to murder their employers with ease. Those who were physically fit dominated in the field of combats and the wise were able to take control of a community that fell to the chaos of unfit rulers and godkings. Violence reigned supreme and it still does to this day.

  I had no need to visit the ruins of Hiyorn castle, nor travel across the now dust-covered plains that had once been sources of perfect farming. For when all of magic faded, I felt nothing. Because I was considered to be a Non—a person who lacked natural connection to the System.

  Nons were few and far in between. We had no skill bars, no level up systems or even a name bar to tell the world that I was Miles. And trust me, Nons were not treated well in society. Why would anyone hire someone without access to thousands of special skills and abilities to choose from? Heroes were high level with good classes; I didn’t even have a class to call myself.

  The forest was far better to me than any of those elitist city dwellers. Hunting, fishing, all things that anyone could learn with a few skill points, were things I learned by puzzling them out and crafting actual techniques. In fact, everything about me, from the leather armor I wore to the bow that I built with my own two hands, came from reality. From being earned.

  This isn’t to say I felt glee as the Glimmering City smashed into the earth. The forest, too, was in the blast radius and I have found it to be rather unsafe as of late. Monsters of all kinds, freed from labyrinths and laboratories of the mages above, poured out by the dozens and wandered about killing everyone they saw, sometimes even each other.

  These monsters I hunted, not for sport or food but to simply clear up the forest. The kobolds have a camp in here, well more like a village but either way I saw it as my duty to keep an eye over them. They never allowed me in their village, the kobolds, but they didn’t attack me on sight and were fairly open about showing me how to butcher captured game the right way.

  I learned from these little creatures and felt enough fondness towards them to ensure they were safe from the occasional monster that would wander up from an underground dungeon or cave. Now, they had a lot more to worry about and dispatched their hunting forces to comb the trees as well.

  It was one morning that I heard a cry from the woods, one that is rare to hear—a human crying out for help.

  I was quick to investigate this sound, as humans were rather rare in these woods, especially since the Erasure.

  Moving across the trees was like second nature to a ranger such as myself. Ranger. So many people expected me to magically guide them through the woods at a lightning speed, only to discover that my abilities were based on the laws of physics and not the laws of magic.

  There! I landed atop a tree branch and crouched down, spotting my quarry instantly. She was a girl, maybe fourteen or so, armed with a spear that had been professionally crafted. Three kobolds surrounded her with their own stone spears.

  Why the hell this girl was here I had no idea, but I couldn’t let her be slain at the hands of these kobolds.

  Quickly, I drew my hand to my mouth and performed a short whistle. The kobolds all looked up at me, curiosity on their faces. Two went to make a javelin throw position, just in case. And I had my bow nocked, just in case.

  “Ekerg klee!” one of them shouted at me.

  No matter how much they tried to talk, I could never pick up the language. Kobold tongue was too different from the human languages. But there were a few ones I knew by heart. “T’nock Uk!” I shouted back. This translated to ‘stay away.’

  The kobolds all looked at each other and then shrugged, dropping their offensive stance. In the distance, some hideous monster roared and they raised their weapons dutifully. Cries from kobolds followed after the monstrous roar, prompting these lizard-kin to leave the area as quickly as possible.

  Whew, that was close. I did not need a war with the kobolds to break out while this monster surge was going on.

  “Who are you?” the young girl asked as I landed beside her, barely making a sound thanks to my moccasins. She spun around quickly and stumbled back. Two chains clattered as she fell—her wrists had been shackled but somehow the chains had been broken from whatever had been holding her.


  “I’m Miles… Treeman,” I said, quickly making up a last name. Treeman? It made sense, right?

  “How did you make those goblins flee? They were about to kill me and eat me!” the poor girl squeaked. She was shaking still, holding up her spear and pointing it towards me. “Do you have magic?”

  “Nope,” I replied, slinging my bow over my shoulder and reaching down to help her up. She was reluctant at first, but when I started to pull my hand away she seized hold of it so I could get her on her feet.

  More rattling. Her legs were shackled as well, though they too were free of anything holding her back.

  “Then how did you…those monsters…” she stammered.

  I sighed heavily. “Look, I don’t feel like answering a bunch of questions to a kid. Take your spear and leave these woods immediately. Whatever safety you’re looking for is not here. If anything, these woods get worse by the day.”

  The girl nodded enthusiastically. “I know what you mean. I’ve fled from all manner of horrors in the few hours I’ve been here. Mr. Woodsman, would you take me back to my village? They would pay you a bounty for re-capturing me.”

  “You were a prisoner? Or a slave?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Slave. But now I want to go back because it was much safer there. Can you take me?”

  Why the hell anyone wanted to become a slave again was beyond me, but she was most likely just reacting to the adrenaline of her near-death experience with the kobolds. “Look, Miss…”

  “Silvia!” she piped up. “I’m from the village of Planth.”

  “Never heard of it,” I said. “Look I’ll take you to the forest’s edge, but I would seriously reconsider becoming a slave again. You fled for a reason.”

  “Planth has walls. Wooden walls, sure, but walls all the same. No one else does. At least no town that I’ve found.”

  I gestured for her to follow after me as I began to guide her through the woods. “Walls? I’m sure there are plenty of abandoned castles to occupy,” I said. “I doubt a single king in Hiyorn remained alive and in charge. Whoever runs those castles are probably the servants who lived in there. Go find a castle.”

  “You have knowledge skills too? Hunter, knowledge…sir, you must be unaffected by the System Collapse,” the former slave said. She hurried up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder so she could better keep up with me.

  “Look, Silvia, I have a bit of knowledge because sometimes people move through here and I can trade tales with them while guiding them the hell out of my property. There is no magic involved in who I am.”

  “But…you have a bow and can use it! I’ve seen archers lose the ability to even draw their bowstrings due to how physically hard it was.”

  “Yeah, that’s because I’m a Non. Can’t lose what you don’t have. I lived out in these woods to avoid being treated as a third-class citizen by most people. Everything you see me do has been learned through years of hard training and dedicated discipline.”

  “Oh…” came the reply. Silvia’s hope had been smashed into oblivion upon hearing this and her words grew cold. “So I suppose you won’t want to stay with us in Planth.”

  “I’d prefer to avoid seeing them, if possible,” I replied, taking a hard left. While the trail might seem to be just a simple walk in the woods, I put markers and flags to determine which areas were safe and which ones were not. A particularly fierce ogre lived in a cave around these parts, so we were going around.

  “They aren’t bad people, just desperate,” Silvia said. “Maybe you can teach them how to learn your skills!”

  This girl seemed to be oblivious to my growing hostility towards civilization, but I held my tongue. There was no reason to do anything other than just getting her to the edge of the forest. From there, she could go through the Plains of the Ruined Kingdom or around the forest to see what’s on the other side.

  More questions were followed by gruff answers and then eventually silence. Silvia didn’t seem to mind my silence, however, chatting a great deal about how the world was before the Great City in the Sky fell. Some of her village-kin had even seen the event with their eyes, somehow surviving the massive shockwaves that rippled out from the spiraling city.

  Those survivors were the rough and rowdy bandits who had once patrolled the plains of Hiyorn in search of coin. While many were stripped of their own power, most of the bandits had been too low level to ever pose a threat. But now, a simple knife injury could kill a man, giving those with loose ethical boundaries the power to terrorize and control a population.

  The Bandit Barracks was the new name of the village. Once it had been a proud military fort, designed to last any number of sieges should conflict arise. The soldiers had no reason to stay, however, once the magical coins stopped appearing in their pockets each passing day. Some had stayed behind while others went out to search for survivors. Those were the ones who returned with slaves.

  Chapter 2

  “There’s the border,” I said, pointing to a grass patch a little bit outside of the treeline. “Everything after that is someone else’s domain. You came into my little world and called for help, so I came to help you. I would highly recommend you find some other village.”

  Silvia looked at me and shook her head. “No! You have to come with me. They’ll be afraid of your bow and that means we can take power again. There’s only a few of them who are actual bandits, the rest are just slaves or desperate people afraid of the monsters that roam these lands now.”

  I sighed at that. “Listen, I tried to help the Bandit Barracks when everything went to hell. People were scrambling and food became scarce, so I figured I could do my part and hunt some game for them. I brought two deer to them and they attacked me. Not slaves, not bandits, just people trying to survive at the time.”

  “That’s horrible,” Silvia said, putting a hand to her mouth. “But I suppose it is to be expected. Everyone was so desperate for food, clothing and shelter…so many animals turned on one another.”

  “Exactly, I visit with a gift and leave with them swearing that they will kill me if I ever return to their new territory.”

  Silvia reached over and tugged the elbow area of my tunic. “Come on then, you have a reason to come back now! You’ll be our savior! Everyone will fear you for you are the master of the bow.”

  “Yeah and what happens when word gets out? All manner of rabble’s going to be bothering me for secrets,” I paused and decided to just be blunt with her. “Silvia, I am a Non. People born without connections to the System are rare but it happens. Everyone hated me from the start. Now that the apocalypse is here, I feel little urge to help anyone out.”

  “I understand that,” she said. “I really do. But at the same time, you could quite literally own an entire village. You have what no one else does: actual skills. You can drive the bad bandits away and give the good ones a work release program. Then we can fortify and begin farming and such!”

  “Farming?” I asked, glancing around us. The entire region was covered with a thick layer of dust. “I don’t have those skills, so you better hope to the gods to have one. Assuming there are still gods, that is.”

  Silvia decided to take a chance by outright grabbing my arm and storming forward. The move was so brazen that it took me aback and I found myself laughing as the gangly teenage girl ‘pulled’ me to our destination. “You don’t have a choice!” she said. “Planth needs you. No more Bandit Barracks.”

  “Is that so?” I asked, humoring her as she pulled me into the grasslands. Most of the grass was dead, brown and lifeless save for a few weeds that grew up and looked to be thriving in this desolate environment. The ground beneath us crunched as we walked, though I could slow down my steps enough to move silently on this grass.

  “Yes! And so I’m going to make you come help. Otherwise, I’ll just follow you around until you relent!” Silvia said, storming with a great intensity towards a particularly steep hill. She pointed upwards.
“This is where we are. They don’t have guards posted or anything like that, but someone is always around the gates.”

  At this point I stopped letting her pull. “Hang on, they’re at the top of the hill? I recall seeing them on flatlands.”

  “The land has absorbed all the excess magic here,” Silvia explained. “When that big city came to earth it was carrying a tremendous amount of magical power. It reshaped the land over the last few months, changing the very world around us. One day we woke up and the village was now atop a hill.”

  I hoped that my forest wouldn’t be forced into any kind of new change. I had the lay of the land memorized and having to relearn everything…that would be exhausting. “So magic still exists,” I said, rubbing my chin.

  “Yes! Monsters still have magic of some kind and I’ve even heard rumors of a wizard in the north who can still cast spells.”

  A wizard? That might be an interesting thing to see, actually. Perhaps I could trade some rabbits in exchange for a blessing on my bow, or perhaps he could teach me the Kobold tongue so that I may make true peace with them.

  “Alright, fine,” I said, pulling out my bow. “Look, I’m not a manhunter but if these bandits try to hurt me, I will kill them. So don’t try to convince me to spare the ‘good ones’. Anyone trying to kill me gets paid back in full.”

  “Oh…er…” Silvia stammered. It was clear she didn’t really consider the impact of this decision. “Just stop if they surrender.”

  “Very well. Go up to the top and taunt the men, then allow them to chase you down here,” I instructed. I didn’t have my ghillie suit with me, which was a shame for the dead grass over here would make for perfect hiding and sniping.

  “Y-you got it!” the teenager said, taking a deep breath before trotting up the hill, fast as she could. I took a few steps back, tossed my quiver to the side for easy access and waited.

  The world around me was dead silent. No bugs, no birds, not even wind to rustle the grass. This entire plain was dead as a doorknob. Would that death spread to my forest? For even though beasts and monsters reigned supreme there, the eco-system was still functioning.