Free Web NovelChapter 23: Zones, Humans and New Quests
Damn, Uhtred let out a low whistle under his breath. This permanently overlays the world with a game-like interface for me. He stood up, testing his newly altered eyes on the surrounding environment. He scanned the dense flora, actively isolating individual plants that he would have otherwise completely ignored.
Instantly, information about them began to hover above where they were. He noted several low-tier medicinal herbs of minor utility, followed by a cluster of vibrant, predatory flora that possessed a passive, hostile affinity.
They didn’t register as threats to his current Level 10 status though. Rather, they were predators only to the small, low-level insects nesting in the undergrowth.
Satisfied with his new optical capacity, Uhtred reached into the crate and pulled out his custom clothing. And the moment he did, the delivery box silently dematerialized, vanishing into thin air.
He stripped away the shredded, blood-soaked rags that were barely concealing his goods and slipped into the sleek black attire. The material felt incredibly soft against his skin, tailored perfectly to his exact physical dimensions.
Despite its high-tech custom parameters, the visual aesthetic was entirely casual, ensuring he wouldn’t draw unneeded attention from afar.
To test the vendor’s claims, Uhtred strode straight into the river, wading waist-deep into the rushing current. The fabric performed flawlessly. Despite the heavy volume of water rushing past him, the material repelled the liquid completely.
He could feel the physical pressure of the river rushing against his body, but not a single drop of moisture penetrated the inner lining of the fabric.
He stepped back onto the river shore, thoroughly impressed. If the waterproofing was this absolute, he had no doubt the fireproofing and scratch-resistance would also hold up under combat conditions.
"I guess that leaves this sweet baby for me to test," he moved towards his new obsidian battle-axe and hoisted it up, admiring the absolute balance of the star metal in his palm.
However, right as his fingers grasped it, before he could test anything, the familiar notice of the System came again, this time bringing a quest with it.
[New Quest Triggered!]
[Mandatory Quest: Your Law, Your Order]
[Description: The general surviving population of planet {Earth} has been heavily concentrated within the designated safe region known as Zone 0]
[Due to the sudden collapse of infrastructure and the harsh realities of the integrated system, all pre-existing legal hierarchies, governmental structures, and societal rules of planet Earth have been rendered completely null and void]
[A new era of dominance has begun. Early Pioneers and high-level survivors have already started asserting local control, enforcing their own personal brands of law and order across the safe zones]
[As a Pathfinder, you cannot afford to lag behind the collective curve. You are to find your way to Zone 0 immediately. The System Map function has been unlocked to assist your journey, charting the most optimal secure route available from your current position] freewebnσvel.cѳm
[Quest Type: Mandatory]
[Failure Penalty: Severe environmental disadvantage applied directly to your next mandatory trial]
[Time Limit: 6 days : 23 hours : 59 minutes]
Oh? A new quest...
The idea of another mandatory quest didn’t bother Uhtred much anymore. Having just survived a direct, meat-grinder confrontation against creatures far above his rank, a directive telling him to travel to the safe zones felt mild by comparison.
This "Zone 0" place was undoubtedly the towering sanctuary of blue light he had seen from the sky during his initial freefall. Even without the System’s prompt, he had already intended to investigate it.
During his descent, he had already marked this river that cut directly through the forest toward that blue horizon. Even without the map the System just spoke of, he would have found his way there on his own.
But now that the System had actually spoken of a map, he was very intrigued and immediately pulled it up, mentally willing it into existence.
Immediately, a fresh translucent window materialized in his field of view. At first glance, the graphic was sparse, displaying only a tiny, pulsating green marker representing his location and the winding outline of the riverbank he stood upon. Then Uhtred focused his mind more, manually dragging his perspective backward to pan out.
As the scale adjusted, his suspicions were confirmed: the massive blue boundary marked as his destination was indeed the sanctuary he had seen from the clouds.
He continued to pan backward, expanding the map’s radius further and further, attempting to capture a complete macro-view of the entire integrated planet Earth... And when he finally did, the geographical layout that unfolded before his eyes caused his brows to furrow.
The map looked absolutely nothing like the Earth he knew.
The continents had been shattered, dismantled, and rearranged into completely foreign configurations of vast oceanic basins and massive, unmapped mountain chains.
But the most jarring detail was Zone 0 itself. It wasn’t a localized pocket or a solitary safe haven as Uhtred had initially assumed. Instead, this massive blue sanctuary stretched uniformly across the entire planet, wrapping completely around the equator of the globe like a colossal ring.
As his gaze drifted away from the equator, he noticed the System had divided the global topography into progressive, concentric bands moving toward both the North and South poles.
According to the coordinate indicators, he was currently standing right on the threshold dividing Zone 0 and Zone 1, though more into Zone 1 than 0.
If I’m having this much trouble right on the border... Uhtred thought, a cold sensation settling into his chest as he processed the planetary layout. If a pack of Level 10 and 11 predators are roaming this close to the safe zone, what the hell is waiting in the sectors further out?
He tried to pan deeper toward the poles to scan Zone 2 and beyond, but his interface hit an abrupt limitation.
The map blurred into a dense, opaque fog. But judging by the large physical distance between the equator and the poles, there had to be several more numbered bands dividing the globe, but the System had completely restricted his access to the data, rendering it entirely beyond his current reach.
Uhtred stared at the blurred polar caps. If the difficulty of each zone spiked the further one traveled from the equatorial safe ring, then the kinds of beasts roaming directly at the poles had to be absolutely cataclysmic.
An intense curiosity burned in Uhtred’s chest for a long moment at what lay there, before he deliberately shook the thought away, centering his focus back onto the immediate objective:
He needed to get moving.
The System had assigned a time limit of exactly seven days to complete the quest. Given his enhanced agility and the clear pathway provided by the river, he calculated he could physically reach the perimeter of Zone 0 within a single day.
So why give me a full week? Uhtred mused, analyzing the syntax of the system message.
The description hadn’t just told him to arrive, it specifically highlighted the collapse of Earth’s old hierarchies and noted that early levelers were already actively establishing dominance.
The seven-day window wasn’t a generous travel allowance. The System was giving him a week to establish his presence, secure a foothold, and effectively assert his own law and order within the congested population of Zone 0 before the next mandatory trial arrived to penalize him.
Uhtred let out a slow, deliberate breath. He hoisted the heavy, obsidian star-metal battle-axe onto his shoulder, the sleek weapon balancing perfectly against his stride.
Turning his back on the blood-stained sand of the riverbank and the gray ash of the slaughtered wolves, Uhtred began marching downstream, following the rapid current toward the blue light pulsing on the horizon.
He didn’t know what kind of chaos was unfolding among the remnants of humanity within that ring, but he was going to find out soon...
