Max and Kaity were trying to be good for their mum, especially after that little incident involving the local copper, a minor fender bender in town, and their ghillie suit shenanigans. The only reason they weren't in more serious trouble was probably because their dad was the mayor. Still, they knew they were skating on thin ice.

But with only four days to go until their sixteenth birthday party, the excitement was becoming unbearable. The entire town had been invited, and most people had already RSVP'd. Months of planning were finally coming together.

They'd spent every spare moment convincing old Mr. and Mrs. Langley next door to let them use fifteen hectares of their wooded property for the ultimate airsoft showdown. Once they got the green light, it had been go-time: clearing scrub, marking out boundaries with bright tape and signage, building rough-but-sturdy defensive structures from pallets, tarps, and old fencing. They even drew up a map and gave different zones dramatic names like Sniper's Alley, The Gauntlet, and Bunker Hill.

Local support had been overwhelming. The church had agreed to lend folding chairs, portable BBQs were being brought in, and even the bakery promised to donate a few trays of sausage rolls and lamingtons.

Now, with just days left and everything falling into place, the only real challenge was containing their sheer, unfiltered hype.

And maybe staying out of trouble until then.

Tarni couldn't help but think that his idea—everyone crashing for a solid 6–7 hours before trying to work anything else out—was the best idea anyone anywhere had ever had. As he stretched and stumbled his way toward the kitchen, still half-dreaming, he found Kai already up and coaxing the gas stove into life for a cuppa.

"It's still dark... What time is it, anyway?" Tarni yawned mid-sentence.

"My best guess? Around 4 a.m.," Kai replied, rubbing his eyes. "Feels like we got about six or seven hours in."

"You're probably right," said Lily as she stepped into the kitchen, looking way too chipper for this hour of the morning.

But even her energy had nothing on Zane and Bell, who wandered in a few minutes later, arm in arm, making lovey-dovey eyes at each other like a couple of teenagers in love.

Tarni took one look at them, groaned dramatically, and rolled his eyes so hard it was a miracle they didn't fall out of his head. "Oh gross, you two couldn't just sleep like normal people?"

Zane's cheeks turned crimson as the others burst into laughter. Bell just grinned smugly and shooed everyone away from the stove. It was clear she was taking charge of breakfast.

Kai offered to help, but Bell waved him off with a firm shake of her head. And with that, everyone found their place around the table, hands wrapped around steaming mugs, letting the warmth of tea and coffee wake them up while the smell of eggs, toast, and something sizzling filling the air.

The food was hot, plentiful, and very, very good.

Lily flipped open her notebook and clicked her pen. "Alright," she said, looking at each of them in turn, "What does everyone think about these system messages?"

Zane scratched his chin as he started. "Well, at first, the messages seemed normal. Pretty generic. My Title and everything felt... fine."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "What was it exactly?"

Zane, who had learned that using his finger helped him manipulate the system messages even though it did nothing unless he was spending XP points, tapped at his system interface for a moment before reading out loud:

Congratulations ZANE RIDER You are the first to kill a Dungeon Defender on planet EARTH. You will receive +1 XP (Experience Point) for all STATS at each level until level 10. Also, you have been granted a skill: Very Basic Appraisal The system will not properly initialise until all criteria have been met.

"Then later, when I hit Level One, it told me I had a Title—'First Blood.'"

Kai leaned forward. "So just basic messages? No weird wording or smartarse attitude?"

"Yeah," Zane nodded. "They seemed that way."

Lily finished jotting notes and turned to Tarni. "Alright, what about you? What were your messages like?"

Before Tarni could dig through his interface, Zane spoke up again. "Actually... I got a third message. It came in before Tarni even showed up at the house."

That got everyone's attention. "What did it say?" Lily asked, brows drawn.

Zane hesitated, eyes flicking over the interface. He read the message to himself, then frowned, clearly second-guessing whether to say it out loud.

He tried to pivot. "Eh, it's not that important—"

Bell gave him a look that cut right through that line of thinking.

With a sigh, Zane gave in and read it aloud:

Congratulations ZANE RIDER Your HP dropped to 1% due to blood loss, and you did not die! Reward! You have received a new Title: Who needs Blood? Not you! (+20% to Constitution when your HP is below 10% for more than 2 minutes)

Silence fell around the table.

Everyone stared, the weight of what it meant slowly sinking in.

"Holy mutton chops, mate..." Tarni finally said. "I knew you had that title, but I never stopped to think about how close to death you had to be to earn it."

Bell shot up from her seat and wrapped Zane in a fierce hug. Lily and Kai followed, all three clinging tightly to him. The thought that this entire journey might never have happened—that Tarni could've found Zane dead on that kitchen floor, that Bell would've died in the hospital—hung heavy in the air.

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Zane gave quiet reassurances, arms around Bell, grounding them all again.

Eventually, everyone returned to their seats.

It was Tarni who broke the silence. "Well... my first message was mostly normal, I'd say."

Lily raised a skeptical brow. "Mostly?"

Tarni grinned.

Congratulations TARNI WALKER New Title: Well, You Were Almost First You are the SECOND to kill a Dungeon Defender on planet EARTH. You will receive +1 XP for all STATS at each level until level 8.

Also: Preexisting SKILL found! Skill has been adapted to the System. New System Skill: Medium Poison Resistance

"So I got a preexisting skill and Zane didn't." Tarni shrugged. "And yeah, the title's a bit cheeky. But that's about it." His tone shifted, the cheeky grin fading into something quieter. "Except it's driving me crazy not being able to get drunk anymore. I might be overcompensating with bad jokes and wacky humour."

A tense silence settled over the table as everyone processed what he'd just said.

Zane leaned forward, voice low and sincere. "Tarn, I… I'm sorry, mate."

Bell lifted her hand to her mouth, eyes glistening as the realisation hit. I didn't even think about what Tarni was going through. He used to drink to deal with the pain—all the shit he's been through. And now he can't. The System might've wiped out the physical addiction—but what about the mental scars?

Kai looked around the table. His dad looked like someone had just kicked a puppy. His mum was on the verge of tears. Lily just looked confused. And then he realised—it was always Uncle Tarn who broke these kinds of silences. He was the one who joked, who lifted everyone up when things got too heavy.

Kai shot out of his seat, finger pointing like a courtroom lawyer mid-drama. "Wait—wait! Didn't you have a Wisdom of two?!"

The table erupted. Laughter, ribbing, and half-shouted jokes filled the kitchen as Tarni tried (and failed) to defend himself through a wide grin.

As things settled, Tarni leaned over and met Kai's eyes. "Thanks, mate," he whispered.

Kai was next.

"When I got my first message, I thought I'd be the last one to get a bonus—my title kind of implied it."

He brought up the screen and read it aloud:

Congratulations KAI RIDER You are the third to kill a Dungeon Defender on planet EARTH. Title Gained: You Just Made It You will receive +1 XP (Experience Point) for all STATS at each level until level 5. Also, you have been granted a skill: Very Basic Healing Touch

"Yeah, that part about 'you just made it' really makes it sound like you squeaked in at the last second," Lily replied, chewing on the end of her pen thoughtfully.

"Well, not much to debate with Kai," she continued. "So moving on—Mum, what was your message?"

Bell's expression shifted slightly as she recalled that first moment in the shed.

"That's right, you weren't there, Lily. I forgot you'd gone back to town with James."

"Yeah, it's been a minute," Lily nodded. "I hope he's doing okay. I should go into town and get some reception to call him."

Zane glanced her way. "Unfortunately, the System seems to be pushing us hard to get through as many dungeon floors as we can in five days. Hopefully after that, we'll have some breathing room and can make a town run."

Sensing the tension building again, Tarni jumped in to steer the topic back.

"So, you reckon Bell got that skill because she used a fishing spear to kill the goblin?"

Bell pulled up her message and read it:

Congratulations ISABELLE RIDER You are the fourth to kill a Dungeon Defender on planet EARTH. Title Gained: 2nd to Last… It's Better Than Last, Trust Me You will receive +1 XP (Experience Point) for all STATS at each level until level 5. Also, you have been granted a skill: Basic Powered Shot

They tossed the idea around for a few minutes—whether the spear gun had influenced the skill Bell received—but in the end, there just wasn't enough evidence.

hen they moved on to the real point of debate: her title.

"2nd to Last… It's Better Than Last, Trust Me." Lily read it again and snorted. "There's definitely some attitude in there. I think the System is starting to like us."

Bell smiled and looked to Kai and Zane. "Between Kai's healing and that health potion that day, I felt fantastic."

Zane thought so hard about all those events he almost looked constipated. "We were really lucky we got that health potion when we did. Like—we've killed heaps more mobs and hardly gotten any good drops. Do you think the System deliberately dropped one so we could save Bell?"

After a pause, Kai spoke. "Yeah… and then I got healing magic that also helped Mum. I don't think either one of those things would've been enough on their own. But together? She made a complete recovery."

Tarni stood up and assumed his best detective Holmes impression—one hand behind his back and a pretend pipe in the other. "It's one hell of a coincidence. Unless, like you said, the System's crushing on us and wanted the party to grow."

There was silence as everyone considered the possibility that the System wasn't just sentient—but that it wanted them to succeed.

Bell eventually broke their contemplation. "Yeah, well, I'm glad—and very thankful—if it did it on purpose. Because I felt great almost immediately after Kai's healing and that potion."

"Yeah, Mum, you looked great when I turned up with James that morning," beamed Lily.

Bell gave her daughter a warm look, then gestured toward her. "Alright, that just leaves you."

Lily flipped to a new page and read:

Welcome, LILY RIDER You have met the conditions for System Initialisation. Title Gained: You Took Your Time +1 XP to all stats per level until Level 5. Skill Gained: Rapid Appraisal

"So, yeah, some minor snark in my title," Lily said, as she continued to write, "but that's about it."

"Maybe some exasperation," Zane added, "with how long it took to form a full party of five."

"Yeah," Kai smirked, "I'd get the cranks too if I were the System, waiting for a group to show up while everyone kept stuffing around."

As Lily finished jotting down her message, she frowned and flipped through her notebook. "Actually… has anyone else noticed the messages are getting more streamlined? Or maybe just… grammatically correct?"

"Well, hairy dog balls," groaned Tarni, "I hope I'm not the only one it's learning from."

Laughter rippled around the table, and for the first time since breakfast, the tension truly lifted. Outside, the sky began to lighten—faint streaks of dawn slipping through the windows. The System talk naturally tapered off, giving way to something more pressing.

It was time to plan for the next dungeon floor.

Weapons, protective gear, water, and food. They went through their mental lists and began gathering gear into piles. Zane scribbled items on a scrap of paper, checking off essentials as they found them.

"At first light," he said, "we go in again. No way the next floor is going to be easier than the first."

Everyone nodded. The quiet energy in the room had shifted—this wasn't just excitement anymore. It was focused.

Initially, the plan was simple: pack everything into the bag of holding that they weren't wearing or actively using. But Bell, halfway through securing the strap of her reinforced leather armour, suddenly paused and raised a hand.

"Wait. What if we get split up?" she said. "All our backup gear, food, and water… it'll be on whoever has the bag."

The room went still. No one had considered that.

"Shit, yeah," Tarni muttered. "We could get separated by a collapsing floor, a trap, a teleport spell—or worse, taken out one at a time. Suddenly, only one person's got all the essentials."

Zane frowned and set down the canteen he was checking. "Good call, love. That could've been a disaster."

"So what do we do?" asked Kai. "I mean, it's still super useful, but…"

"We distribute essentials across everyone," Lily said, already flipping open her notebook again. "Everyone carries their own food, water, med supplies, and a backup weapon. The bag of holding can still carry shared stuff—extra gear, loot, spare ammo, maybe a second spear gun—but nothing vital."

"Agreed," Zane said. "Worst-case scenario, if one of us gets stuck or lost, we're not immediately screwed."

There were nods all around. It wasn't glamorous or heroic—but it was smart. And that kind of planning might be the difference between survival and a System Game Over.

Bell pulled a few backpacks from the storage cupboard and tossed them onto the table.

"Alright," she said. "Let's load up right."

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