Natural Laws Apocalypse

When a message appears in Marc's line of sight warning that Earth has been in a "variant Natural Laws beta test" for millennia and is about to revert to the norms, he decides — sane or not — to prepare. Once the change begins, monsters spawn across his town, everyday animals mutate into dangerous creatures, and Marc's group races to create a Safe Zone and gather survivors. The system offers classes and magic to those capable of grasping them — if they can survive long enough to use them.

With a Safe Zone administrator and defense coordinator finally in place, Marc is free to explore and grow stronger. His father reported passing other Safe Zones on his way home, so Marc sets out to investigate — intending to salvage a destroyed Safe Zone and open trade with a surviving one nearby. What occurs is not what he intended. And the sneaking suspicion that the system itself is merely a tool for something or someone else begins to take hold.

Marc's Safe Zone network has been upgraded to Industrial Technology, unlocking railways, lighter-than-air travel, primitive firearms, and more — once the tech-chain requirements are met. A quest more than two hundred miles away, given by a system that seems to be searching for any way to break its own programmed limitations, makes lighter-than-air travel essential. Marc has finally delegated enough that he can focus on exploring and leveling — but the universe has other plans.

Marc and his party complete their zeppelin and set out to discover other Safe Zones, hoping to establish trade routes between communities. Their second discovery is nearly as large as their own — but several of its outlier Safe Zones have been converted into dungeons, threatening its survival. Back home, Marc accelerates his own expansion, and with a recovered satellite added to the mix, he keeps himself busy in the aftermath of the system's arrival.

With Earth's acclimatization year ticking away, Marc and his party seek out spawns powerful enough to yield good experience — and discover another large Safe Zone with hundreds of survivors along the way. Back home, Marc receives messages from powerful off-world allies who are aware of the satellite and claim they have a way to reach Earth before the acclimatization period ends. All Marc has to do is get his Safe Zone to a certain threshold — and then the real work begins.

Marc and his party seek the sarcophagus they were sent to find, only to discover it is protected by far more than the single Guardian they were told to expect. Back at Any Port, Bastet's obsession with Marc's raccoon companion Beggar reaches new heights, forcing Marc and Beggar to take action. A series of holiday celebrations, a near-intelligent oversized turkey, and the long-awaited departure of the Greek gods from the Safe Zone round out a busy period — before Zeus delivers a series of quests designed to power-level Marc, even if it kills him.

The current quest grinds on — clearing the Labyrinth, defeating Circe, destroying Medusa, and more — sustained only by Zeus keeping his promise to accelerate their leveling. Back home, the Safe Zone network continues expanding. With the Egyptians finally removed from Olympus, Marc is overjoyed that Beggar and Matilda will be joining them for the final stretch of the quest. As the end of the acclimatization year approaches, Marc and his father take steps to ensure their growing Safe Zone network cannot be easily smothered.

The end of the acclimatization year is drawing close, and Marc knows others will soon be allowed onto Earth to start claiming territory. Zeus has promised his quest series will bring Marc to the maximum reachable level — but Marc is nervous it won't happen in time. With his Safe Zone network transformed into a Kingdom, Marc gains new options — including converting dungeons into Training Dungeons — and, with a little creative use of the system's rules, the Kingdom reaches the Space Age. Zeus delivers his final quest: a visit to a secret base on the moon, and the launch of a plan to replace the system itself.