Marc's Safe Zone, and his network of interconnected Safe Zones, has been upgraded to an Industrial Technology level. With the new tech level comes a number of items that they've desperately wanted to build. Now railways, lighter than air travel, primitive firearms, and more are available, once the requirements for their tech chains are satisfied.

With a quest that will take them more than two hundred miles away, given to them by a System that seems to be searching for any way to throw off its programmed limitations, lighter than air travel looks to be the way to go. Trying to get there on the ground seems like it would just be courting death.

Marc has finally managed to get the day to day running of the Safe Zone out of his own hands and into hands he trusts. His mother is fully into the administrative end of things and his father, while head of the defenses, has now been granted build access on the pedestal so Marc is free to explore and grind for levels.

With the System trying to bypass its restrictions, the elves building a new settlement in Marc's Captured lands, and what seems like a major quest that needs doing, Marc's been slowed, if not totally stalled, on the expansion of both his Safe Zone and the network of Safe Zones that allow him to Capture land. Fortunately, the lighter than air tech chain offers a number of benefits, including the ability to search the surrounding areas and track down other survivors in their own Safe Zones.

This story is approximately 155,000 words long and DRM free.

What do you do when the world as you know it changes dramatically with little notice? When the Natural Laws no longer apply in all cases and the only thing to explain why is a “System” that seems to have access to everyone in the world?

Marc's home from college on break, spending his time laughing about some of the crazy news stories he's found online, and gaming. When a message appears in his line of sight, blocking out absolutely everything else, he nearly freaks out. The message warns that the world has been in a variant Natural Laws beta test for millennia and that it's about to revert to the norms.

Deciding that even if he is insane, it's not going to hurt anything to try to prepare, he settles in to do so. Despite the atrocious lack of skill the System has with the English language, he manages to work his way through enough help files to get a clue of what's coming. After sharing his discovery with a few friends, they all start to prepare together.

Once the change begins, the small group races to create a Safe Zone, an area where monsters will not spawn and where they can gather other survivors in an attempt to rescue as much of the town as possible. Along the way they discover that the new System can award classes that resemble those of the games the group has played, as well as magic for those capable of grasping it.

With monsters spawning throughout the town, everyday animals being mutated into dangerous creatures, and a System that desperately needs English language lessons, they'll do their best to save as many of the local residents as they can.

This story is approximately 155,000 words long and DRM free.

After the discovery that the encampment outside of his Safe Zone is full of friendlies, Marc and his group finally have a chance to try to grow stronger again. The addition of an administrator for the Safe Zone as well as someone to coordinate its defenses finally allows Marc to feel like he can go out and do other things.

With the number of survivors they're finding in the immediate area rapidly dwindling, they choose to go farther afield, working on gaining additional resources for the Safe Zone while searching out any remaining survivors they can find.

His father reported passing other Safe Zones on his way back to town so Marc decides some investigation is in order. What he intends is to salvage the ruins of a destroyed Safe Zone his father spotted and offer trade and cordial relations to the surviving one that's closer by. What occurs is not what he intended or expected.

With the possibility of a technology upgrade for his Safe Zone, what appears to be a community of some sort of elves a few miles south of the Safe Zone, and the sneaking suspicion that the System itself is merely a tool for someone, or something, else, Marc isn't quite as free to just do what he wants as he thought he'd be at this point.

This story is approximately 157,000 words long and DRM free.