Systems of the Apocalypse

Jeb Trapper tried to kill himself. The gun jammed. Two months later, the veteran is participating in underground trials of ecstasy to treat his PTSD. Everything seemed to be going great—until the System was installed. Now he has to choose the difficulty of his tutorial. Just one problem: he's high as a kite, and nothing seems impossible.

After completing the Impossible Tutorial by cheating, Jeb has been in something of a slump—his PTSD guiding him down a path of self-harm. Crippled, stripped of his power, and homeless, he has no reason to keep breathing. Until a little girl is in trouble.

Jeb is settling into his role as head of the biggest orphanage in the alien city of Solmnath, taking in hundreds of human children orphaned by the harsh tutorial. It wasn't meant to last. A group of human extremists are scavenging nuclear bombs from the corpse of Las Vegas, and they intend to use them to wipe Solmnath off the map. And behind them lurks something stranger still.

Jebediah Trapper is a ticking time bomb—literally. After sort-of saving the day, he has a nuclear bomb attached to him in the Fate dimension, where magic and potential collide. He just wants to defuse himself before he collapses into green goo or ignites in a city-destroying blast. But the world doesn't slow down for a nuclear hangnail. Mab, Queen of the Fae, wants him for sinister reasons, a mysterious entity is making him an offer he can't refuse, and the undead are getting organized.