David approached the group and cleared his throat awkwardly. The conversation stopped as five faces turned toward him with varying degrees of curiosity.

  His first reaction was to figure out group dynamics. The cute Latina Camila was restless, clearly pushing for something before being interrupted. She was probably annoyed by that but hiding it.

  Katie and Mark stayed close enough to suggest they were a unit and oriented towards Camila, the runners teaming up.

  Carl looked annoyed, probably the one Camila was trying to convince.

  Charlie practically vibrated with excitement about something, but also oddly looked like a whipped puppy.

  No clear consensus reached then.

  "Hi guys. I wanted to ask a few questions before I finish sorting out what I do next."

  Charlie bounced forward like an overenthusiastic golden retriever. "Hey man, that was super fast! I was the quickest of us to finish and it took me at least half an hour. You were done in what, five minutes?"

  David blinked. Had it really been that quick? The tutorial had seemed straightforward enough. Basic system overview, resource allocation, attribute selection. Standard character creation sequence.

  "Uh, yeah. I did the tutorial and it was really quick. I already knew what I wanted from gaming and picked Magic pretty fast, followed by Willpower to complement it."

  Katie's jaw dropped. "You mean you were just able to do the stuff the system asked? That took me like an hour to figure out."

  Interesting. David filed that information away for later analysis. Either he'd gotten lucky getting the interface, his gaming background provided advantages the others lacked or there was something different about him...

  "Look, I don't know if it matters why I got through quickly. Luck, I guess?"

  He didn’t want to speculate, at least not now. Especially when he wasn't ready to share the bloodline revelation yet. More questions than answers there and he needed to process. He had the nagging feeling that being a necromancer when zombies were walking around would be a bad look. Plus, he didn’t actually know what it meant and felt the Herald, which apparently learned English over the last two days, wasn’t necessarily getting cultural context.

  "It seemed pretty basic to me. I wanted to talk to all of you because help is available but it costs mana, and I figured you were here first so you'd have more figured out. Also, what are you guys planning to do? I want to understand before I decide what quests to accept."

  The group deferred to Charlie immediately. David noted the pattern. Camila pushed for social decisions, but Charlie had claimed expertise territory around system mechanics.

  "Look, we've tinkered around with the system a bit," Charlie began. "You mentioned having a resource and a stat already, which puts you about as far as any of us."

  Charlie launched into an explanation that David's analytical mind organized automatically. Benefits of the safe zone: no dangers, passive experience gain. Resource choices: most picked Stamina except Billy who chose Psi and Charlie who like him had Magic. Quest options: bring people versus practice skills.

  The cost-benefit analysis was obvious. Practicing skills was low risk, guaranteed progression. Bringing people was higher risk but exponentially better rewards. Not clear yet which would actually be faster to grant a skill though…

  "We also asked for some help," Charlie continued. "First, there aren't many skills we can learn without patronage, at least that use magic or stamina. The Herald doesn't have accumulated resources yet, so I got a quest just for asking."

  David filed that away. The Herald had limitations. Interesting.

  "Second, we learned that our System Initiate title can be leveled indefinitely, but levels will slow dramatically. The benefits evolve and gain prerequisites. Having a plan for building our systems is really important. The system volunteered that Patrons can help with this, and the greatest benefits come from having a setup similar to your patron."

  That felt very human. Match your build to your mentor's expertise for maximum efficiency gains. Almost like apprenticing.

  "Finally, with my current magic, I run out before I can ask too many questions."

  Mark's surprisingly deep voice chimed in: "We also found out you can ask questions with stamina. We only asked two because it's more expensive. Stamina is optimized for internal use and system help is external."

  David's mind raced through the implications. Resource specialization affected help costs. Magic was optimized for external manipulation, stamina for internal enhancement. That suggested Psi might be optimized for something else entirely.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "We're also pretty sure Billy has asked questions, but he won't talk about it," Charlie added, indicating the homeless man still focused on his motionless dog. "He's pretty focused on Bessie."

  "It all feels very gamey, in fact very Freemium gamey. Easy to get the first bits but harder and more complex to keep you coming back once you’re hooked."

  David paused. That was actually a really good point. He nodded in respect to the kid. Then stopped himself. He just acknowledged a good point, he needed to stop thinking of him as a kid. Charlie's voice pulled him back to the present.

  "So what are you going to do? Have you reviewed the possible spells?"

  "What, we can pick spells?!?"

  Excitement shot through David's chest like a caffeine rush. He'd picked Magic and Willpower for optimization reasons. Somehow, he hadn't connected that actual spells would be available right now… Then he kicked himself; if they weren’t how could you train?

  "Well, that's what I call them," Charlie grinned. "Technically they're skills, at least that's how they're listed. I had a few choices because I picked Arcane as my stat, so you might get different stuff with Willpower?"

  Charlie's enthusiasm was infectious. "I'm going to be a fire mage! At least the spell I'm getting first is fire-based. Or elemental, but I used all my mana to find out elemental could be fire. I just need to practice about 900 more times..."

  The looks from the others suggested choosing practice over helping people wasn't the popular option.

  David wanted to rush back to the obelisk immediately and start researching spell options. He was dreaming of magic systems and spell synergies.

  Camila caught his eye before he could disappear into research mode.

  "To bring you up to speed, the rest of us took longer to come around. Katie and Carl only finished the tutorial just before you arrived."

  She paused to smile at Billy, raising her voice slightly. "Billy shared his food before he started focusing on Bessie, which was much appreciated."

  Billy ignored her completely, continuing to stroke his dog's motionless fur.

  "We're planning how to leave the park, both for the quest and because we know technology works. We want to charge our phones and get help from the authorities."

  She looked directly at David. "You mentioned having a working car? Carl tried his when he woke up and it was dead, which is why we believed Charlie when he said 'mana apocalypses always blow up all the tech.'"

  David caught the air quotes in her tone and noted Charlie's flush. Poor kid doesn’t have all the answers but no need to beat him up too badly for it.

  "We also urgently need food. We're all getting hungry, and we want to go home and figure out what to do next, especially about helping people. Given what you said about it not being safe out there, we figure driving is best and we should stick together."

  Camila's style was direct and practical, let’s do something. David appreciated that.

  "So how big is your car and are you willing to help us get out of here?"

  David paused awkwardly. Time for another cost-benefit analysis on information sharing.

  "Look, the car isn't actually mine. I found it abandoned on the street with the key fob sitting on the passenger seat with the owner's bag."

  He watched their faces carefully. No judgment yet, just attention.

  "I needed a way to get into the city and the owner wasn't around. Had clearly abandoned it."

  David let his voice drop slightly. "Or worse. It looked like something transformed in that seat, lots of dried bits of chrysalis and stains. There are claw marks on the inside of the car. No blood, just claw marks and a cut safety belt. Like something woke up behind the wheel, had never seen a car before, but was smart enough to claw its way out."

  The implication hung in the air. Previous owner transformed. Vehicle abandoned by something that used to be human.

  "Anyway, I'm willing to help with the car, but we need protection if we're going out there again. I have a pocketknife I mostly use for opening beer bottles. Not exactly monster-fighting equipment."

  Relief spread across Camila and Katie's faces. Carl and Mark looked thoughtful.

  "Look man, I know some martial arts," Mark offered. "I even have weapons at my place, so we'd be armed once we got there."

  The debate got going pretty much immediately. Coming into it for the first time David watched the group and built out what the debate was about with professional interest.

  Everyone wanted help, most were willing to help others up to a point.

  Billy and Charlie both wanted to stay here and make progress before venturing out. Camila and Katie wanted to check on their roommate at their place. Mark initially wanted to go to his place but admitted his keys were at Katie's with his regular clothes. Carl argued for his place to get jump leads for his car, arguing that he had “lots of useful stuff there” and more vehicles were good.

  The arguments followed predictable patterns. Emotional investment versus practical benefits. Immediate safety versus long-term resources.

  Katie deployed the decisive argument: "We have lots of food, and even if the power's out, our roommate Sarah has a camping stove. I can cook a meal for everyone."

  Charlie added the strategic consideration: "People will congregate here because they can see the beacon. Someone should stay to talk with new arrivals. We should make this our base of operations because the Herald promised it's safe."

  David couldn’t really fault any of them. Even though his analytical mind approved he could see where this was going and he wasn’t sure it was a good idea.

  The group got there and decided before he could assemble a strong argument. The others, having not encountered actual dangers, were taking his word for the risks involved but didn’t hesitate like he did.

  “It’s simple, we have one car. That can hold what five people? We have to split up. Charlie wants to stay here, Billy as well I presume. So the five of us go to our place. Katie cooks a meal and we bring Sarah and the supplies back here. Then on to Mark and Carl’s places.”

  Seeing the others agreed and not having a better plan David nodded.

  "All right, let's go check on your roommate and get some real food."

  The group headed toward the light barrier, leaving Charlie and Billy behind with the obelisk. David noted that Billy hadn't participated in any of the decision-making, entirely focused on his unmoving companion.

  Potential problem for later. Groups needed all members contributing to survival efforts.

  As they approached his stolen car, David's mind was already working through the next set of challenges. As they left the barrier of light his vigilance increased as the buzz of sound faded.

  He consciously dragged his thought away from transportation logistics, resource allocation, System mechanics and long term plans to focus on threat assessment for the journey ahead.

  At least now he had allies and a plan. In his experience, most problems became manageable once several people started working on them at once. You just had to get started.

  Time to see if that held true in the apocalypse.