It took them about an hour to get back to Beggar's Town. This was the largest settlement in Meku City, with a population of about five hundred people. It was located on the outskirts of a large urban park, half of which had been tilled over and converted into farmland (potatoes seemed to be the most popular crop, but they grew carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, and other vegetables as well). Like Harbor and the Dealership -- and like every other village Stu had seen so far -- the entire settlement, including the farmland, was enclosed within makeshift walls, and there were guard towers and lookout spots all over. Also like the Dealership, most of the inhabitants lived in tents or rather crude shacks, but some people lived in larger homes, and the Pale Riders' headquarters was quite large -- they had taken over part of a ruined apartment building adjacent to the park. The rumbling of their motorcycle engines could be heard almost constantly.

  Stu was pretty sure most of those motorcycles ran on ordinary gasoline, and needed motor oil to operate. Where were they getting these things? No one seemed to know.

  The three of them -- Stu, Lucky, and Lucky's older sister Luna -- had taken up residence in an abandoned clapboard shack near the park; the old woman who had used to live here had recently died. It was only about eight feet by eight feet, but it was big enough for the three of them to sleep comfortably, at least. They had been staying here for over a week now.

  They arrived at the shack a little after noon. Luna was outside, of course, working on her glider; it was all she ever seemed to do. Although the engine ran fine, the chassis had been scuffed up and dented in numerous places during their battle with Madhouse and the Living Hell back at the Dealership, and Luna was obsessive about buffing these out. She took a great deal of pride in her glider, and Stu could understand why; it was a beautiful machine, sleek and glossy-black, and it was probably also the only glider left in Meku City with a functioning dynamo engine.

  She looked up when she saw them coming, wiping a bit of sweat from her brow. Although not exactly a knockout, Luna was a pretty girl, with dark hair and eyes, and she had a kind of rough swagger to her that Stu appreciated. She was nothing like Berly, his ex-girlfriend back home -- Berly was shy, sweet, sort of prettily elegant. Luna was a mechanic, and she talked like one.

  He frowned at himself. Why was he always comparing Luna to Berly? It was stupid.

  "Any luck?" she asked them.

  "Nope," Lucky said sadly, taking his railgun off his back and sitting down cross-legged on the grass. "Zombies got in, broke all the canisters."

  "Glowies?"

  "Maybe."

  She noticed the blood spatter on the collar of Stu's jacket. "Looks like you ran into trouble."

  "Just a couple zombies," Stu said, shrugging.

  "Speedy, too," Lucky added.

  She blinked. "A speedy? Really? What happened?"

  "Stu killed it."

  Luna turned to look at him, her eyes narrowing. "You killed it," she said tonelessly.

  "Yeah."

  "Speedies are some of the hardest zombies to kill."

  "Well, it wasn't easy."

  She scowled at him. She knew about his unusual strength and speed, having seen it for herself several times, but she hadn't believed his explanation of how he had acquired it. He had told her all about the ICON system and how it rewarded him with special skills for killing zombies -- in fact she was the only person who knew about it -- but she had dismissed that as a fantasy. She seemed to suspect, instead, that he was a new kind of irregular -- a brainy, perhaps, or a mutate. She was especially suspicious of his Regeneration skill, which allowed him to heal rapidly -- in her opinion it was far too similar to a zombie's ability to repair and regenerate its internal organs.

  Despite her suspicion of him, though, she had agreed to take him to Lon Halos in her glider. They just needed that damn dynamo fluid.

  "Anyway," Lucky broke in, "I'm out of ideas. Sike might have some dynamo fluid, but like I was telling Stu, I don't think we have anything he'd be willing to trade for, and I doubt he has enough on hand to get us to Lon Halos anyway."

  "I shouldn't have gone out joyriding so much," Luna muttered. "I've gone through almost two canisters over the last couple of years."

  "We could try asking Marshal Tempo," Stu suggested again. "He's been pretty good to us."

  "He's not going to give us any dynamo fluid," Luna said flatly.

  "It couldn't hurt to ask."

  "Well, you can go and ask him if you want. I'm not going to waste my time." She returned her attention to the glider. "Have you boys eaten yet? Valerie came by with some potato soup earlier. It's inside."

  "Potatoes," Stu sighed. He was getting very, very tired of potatoes, and of vegetables generally; he hadn't eaten any meat since he had arrived in this world, nor any snacks or sweets or salty foods. He would kill for a can of Mountain Dew or a bag of Doritos.

  He was pretty sure they didn't even have those brands here, though. He had explored an old grocery store with Lucky a few days ago, looking for some dynamo fluid, and he hadn't recognized any of the brands or labels he had seen on the shelves. Of course there hadn't been very much left on the shelves -- the store had been looted years ago -- but this version of Earth didn't even have a United States; it was ludicrous to think it might have Mountain Dew.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Or was it? The weirdness of this world was always surprising him. There were some things that were familiar to him and some things that were totally foreign. And some things didn't make any sense at all -- as far as he could tell England had never existed in this world, and yet, everyone here spoke English. It was very strange.

  "Potatoes," Lucky repeated, sighing as well. "Oh, well."

  Stu was hungry, though, and of course beggars couldn't be choosers, so he went inside, sat down at the table, and had a bowl of soup with Lucky. It actually wasn't bad, although it needed salt.

  When they were finished, Lucky went back outside to help Luna, while Stu found a shady spot and opened up the ICON system's main menu. He had gone up two levels after killing the speedy, and acquired two more skill points. He had six points now, which was enough to buy the "Zombie Radar" skill he had had his eye on -- this was a skill that would allow him to detect any zombies within a fifty-foot radius. Zombies, Stu noticed, had a tendency to jump out of nowhere and surprise him, which he hated; having this early-warning system in place would be incredibly useful.

  He had plenty of other skills to choose from, of course -- skills like Lie Detector, which would give him the ability to tell whether someone was lying, and Firewalker, which would make him immune to flames (although this skill seemed kind of redundant, now that he had Regeneration). Many of the skills were combat-related, like Boulder Smasher and Chainsaw Ballet, but they cost a lot, and it took such a long time to earn skill points that Stu wasn't sure these were worth it. He grew stronger and faster every time he leveled up, and the Strong Arm and Speed Freak skills he had acquired a while back had enhanced those stats even further. Were these special attack skills really necessary? He seemed to be doing pretty well with just Strong Arm and Speed Freak so far.

  As soon as he opened up the menu, however, a window screen he had never seen before appeared in his vision, popping up in front of everything like a tutorial message.

  Class system unlocked!

  Select new class?

  He suddenly remembered the "new classes available" notification he had received earlier, after killing the speedy; apparently this was some kind of new feature. But what did it mean?

  He tapped the "Yes" button beneath the message, which took him to a new screen. This screen showed the three "classes" that were available to him: Bulwark, Killer, and Scavenger. To his surprise, there was also a "More Info" button at the bottom of this screen, which was highly unusual; the ICON system almost never bothered to explain anything to him. He tapped the button, and was presented with another pop-up, tutorial-like message.

  Enhance your experience by selecting a class! Classes are offensive, defensive, and supportive -- selecting an offensive class will boost your strength and speed; selecting a defensive class will boost your defense; selecting a supportive class will boost your intelligence, agility, and other attributes. In addition, the cost of certain skills will be significantly reduced depending on which class you choose, and each class comes with a Bonus Skill unique to that class.

  Choose carefully! Once your decision is made, you cannot change to another class.

  It was the longest and most detailed explanation the ICON system had ever given him, and he read through it several times, trying to suss out some kind of deeper meaning in it. "Enhance your experience?" He had been kidnapped and brought to this nightmare-world against his will, and had spent the last three weeks desperately trying to survive, but the ICON system made it sound like it was all fun and games, an "experience" akin to visiting an amusement park. He didn't like that.

  As for the rest of it...well, he had played enough video games to understand how these sorts of job or class systems worked. According to the message, he would receive a stat boost and a free Bonus Skill depending on which class he chose, and some skills would be made cheaper. Curious, he opened the skills menu, and discovered that almost every skill had a new addendum listed underneath it, indicating how much cheaper it would be depending on the class he selected. Chainsaw Ballet normally cost thirty-eight points, but if he chose the offensive Killer class, it would only cost him eighteen. Turtle normally cost twenty-eight points, but if he chose the Bulwark class, it would drop to eight points, and the cost of support skills like Wild Kingdom, Captain Critical, Sniffer, and Shadow King would drop to almost nothing if he chose the Scavenger class.

  This was certainly an interesting twist. It took so long to acquire skill points, under normal circumstances, that he had doubted he would ever be able to afford the higher-levels skills like Chainsaw Ballet before he either died or made it to Lon Halos, but they were within reach now, with this new class system.

  He closed the tutorial screen and studied the three classes that were available to him. The Bonus Skill associated with each class was listed beneath them: if he chose the Killer class, he would gain a skill called "Eternal Night," which he assumed was some kind of special attack like Dead Aim. If he chose the Bulwark class, he would acquire the "Brick Wall" skill, and if he selected the Scavenger class, he would get something called "Finders Keepers."

  He found himself frowning at all this. If this were a real video game, he probably would have gone with the Killer class -- Stu was an impatient gamer; he liked being able to rip through enemies as fast as possible, and to hell with defense. Unfortunately this was real life, and this wasn't a decision to be made lightly. In a game, he could simply reset or go back to an earlier save if he didn't like his current build, but this wasn't possible here. As the ICON system had warned him, he couldn't change his decision once it was made.

  All of the classes had their advantages. He already had a pretty good offense -- ordinary zombies were not really a problem for him anymore, so long as they didn't surprise him, and he thought he could handle most kinds of low-level irregulars -- but the Killer class would make him even more formidable. What if they encountered more mutates on their way to Lon Halos? And in addition to that, most of the really high-level skills in the skills menu were offensive skills, and lowering their costs would be a nice perk.

  The Bulwark class was intriguing. Thanks to his Regeneration skill, Stu was already pretty hard to hurt; if he built on that, by choosing the Bulwark class and acquiring the Brick Wall and Turtle Skills, he might make himself practically invulnerable. In a world where zombies and gangsters and who knew what else were constantly trying to kill him, that was definitely an appealing prospect.

  The Scavenger class was a little less appealing -- did he really want his intelligence boosted? That might get weird. On the other hand, having access to a vast array of minor skills like Shadow King, Silence, and Lie Detector could come in handy.

  He hesitated, unsure of which one to choose. Examining the menu more closely, he realized that the screen scrolled down, revealing several more classes (all of them grayed-out and unavailable) branching off from these first three. If he chose the Killer class, he would eventually have the option of leveling up to the Assassin or Reaper classes; if he chose Bulwark, he would have to choose between the Indomitable and Paladin classes. The Scavenger class could be upgraded to either the Specialist class or the Technician class.

  He scrolled back up and frowned harder, trying to decide. Killer, Bulwark, Scavenger.

  Which one?