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Alex desperately tried to gather his thoughts or wring back any semblance of coherent thought from the twisting vortex of shapes and colors around him.

The ground hit him first.

It arrived in a flash, ripping the momentum from his body. Alex couldn\'t hear the snap of his bones, but he could certainly feel it. His arm, which had still been wrapped around his head, shattered in several places. A rib crunched as something heavy drove into his chest. The air was driven from his lungs in a wet wheeze.

An immense wave of dizziness and disorientation slammed into him and, for an instant, Alex\'s consciousness flickered and threatened to go dark. Pain tore through his body and his head slammed in conjunction with his heart. The only things that kept him aware were the magic filling his being and the adrenaline pumping in his veins.

The loud ringing in his ears was split by the thunderous crash of debris raining down all around him. Tremors shook the ground and sent arcs of pain flooding through him with every involuntary movement he was forced to make.

Alex\'s body begged him to collapse into the darkness. He fought back against the sensation with all his might. Passing out here could mean getting buried — or getting hit by something even bigger.

He had to move.

His hands trembled. He clenched his teeth, grinding them in agony as blood trickled down the sides of his face and ran from lacerations covering his body. The world felt like it was a thousand miles away and growing farther with every second.

Come on!

Alex\'s limbs stubbornly refused him. He could feel some of the damage trying to fix itself, but it was too difficult to move yet. His body simply didn\'t have the energy to spare. He couldn\'t move from where he laid on the cold pavement.

A shadow passed over Alex. He caught a glimpse of a huge piece of masonry plummeting toward him from a half-shut, dust filled eye. His finger twitched. That was the full extent of the movement he could muster.

Princess! Help me!

The massive chunk of wall crashed down. It smashed against the stone next to him, the enormous explosion that marked its arrival barely audible to his damaged hearing. Tiny pieces of debris sprayed Alex, but it wasn\'t over. The shadow of the wall hurtled toward his face as the rest of the stone fell toward his body.

Darkness exploded around him.

A chest-sized chunk of stone landed inches away from his face. Other pieces of debris crashed down around him. None of them found their mark on him. A new shadow rose over Alex. Sludge dripped from it, splattering against the ground.

Alex managed to roll himself over with a groan. Pain shot through his body, but it was momentarily forgotten as he found himself staring up at Princess. She tossed a huge chunk of the wall away from her like it weighed nothing more than a paper plate.

Surprise roiled in Alex, mixing with and briefly muting his agony. He\'d managed to not only summon Princess without a word but had also managed to make her act in accordance with his will without saying a single thing.

Does that mean…

Princess reached down toward him. Her enormous hand dug through the ground beneath Alex and lifted it — and him — gingerly into the air. The scent of dust and blood soaked into the dirt and his clothes, thickening the air around him.

His ears popped, a portion more of his hearing returning to him. Bones twisted and jerked in his chest as they slowly, ponderously, worked back toward their proper positions. Alex tried twitching his fingers. The attempt sent another flair of pain arcing through his body.

Fuck me. What the hell just happened?

Alex blinked furiously, one of the few things he could still do without making the pain worse and tried to get a better look around himself. Princess lifted him higher into the air. Roiling clouds of dust obscured the sky and drifted across the ruined street around him.

He\'d landed somewhere in the city, but he wasn\'t even sure if Towntown could be called that anymore. The buildings had all been reduced to rubble. Pieces of steel and stone littered the ground and jutted up at odd angles, breaking through the dust like earthen fangs.

Princess turned Alex in a circle at his mental request, then jerked to a halt as he spotted something at the edge of the hills beside the remains of the town.

Wreathed in smoldering flame was the enormous meteor that had crashed down from the heavens. It was buried deep into the ground within a massive crater. Everything in the immediate area around it had been completely obliterated. Grass had burned away and the hill itself had been demolished and charred.

Good god. What the fuck just happened? Is that huge thing one of the Region Bosses?

A bone in Alex\'s arm popped. He fought through a grimace, fighting to keep his thoughts focused. All the adrenaline in the world couldn\'t have completely overruled the disbelief pounding in his skull, but there would be time to stand around looking confused later.

Princess lumbered off at a thought, bearing Alex along with her.

He needed to find Claire. He was hopeful that she\'d had enough blood to survive the blast, but there was a good chance she\'d need more. Alex just wasn\'t sure if he had enough extra to go around right now.

Every second that passed felt like an eternity. His eyes scoured through the rubble covering the ground as Princess crunched through it, each lumbering step grinding against wood, steel, and stone fragments.

Alex would have called Claire\'s name if he could breathe properly, but every single movement he drew in sent more pain spiking through his lungs and chest. It would be at least a few minutes before any part of him was properly back under commission.

Fortunately, Alex\'s body didn\'t need to work.

If he could control his monsters with just thought alone…

Glass shattered and lightning crackled. Spark and Glint emerged beside Princess, then instantly set off digging through the rubble in search of Claire.

Neither of the monsters was exactly built for a search and recover mission, but the extra bodies still helped. Glint and Spark set off in opposite directions in search of Claire.

Alex\'s body slowly repaired itself while they searched. Bones ground back together and flesh knit shut. It was slow and painful, but it was better than dying. He barely even noticed any of it. His attention was too focused on trying to find any traces of Claire.

An uneasy sickness built in his stomach as his search turned up other people buried within the ruins.

Not one of them was alive. It was a small mercy that he didn\'t recognize any of them, but it didn\'t bode well for the rest of the town\'s survival rates.

A shimmer of light caught the corner of Alex\'s eyes, grabbing his attention. Princess turned him toward it.

The white "star" that had fallen during the 2nd Initialization Event burned with moonlight like a miniature spotlight. It beamed into the air and vanished into the night sky far above, coils of misty silver power crawling out from it.

And, standing at the base of the star, was a tall man with golden eyes. He had tanned skin and slick black hair that framed sharp features. Thin, metallic tattoos that matched his eye color ran down from his temple and along his cheeks before disappearing at the base of his neck. Sleek black armor covered his body and a curved sword hung from each of his hips.

The man\'s eyes lingered on Princess for several long moments. His posture tensed and unease warped his features as he muttered under his breath. "What wretched place in the Infinium did this horrid thing come—"

His eyes lifted to find Alex in the monster\'s hand. He blinked in surprise.

"Another Outworlder? You went down that easily?" the man asked, a worried frown furrowing his brow. He put his hands on the hilts of his blades. "Actually, no matter. How is it that you managed to arrive before me?"

Who is this? Is he related to the Region Boss? Did he summon it? Hell, is he the boss himself? Shit. This is really bad.

"Arrive?" Alex croaked, dust and blood gumming up his words. The longer he kept the man talking, the more time his body would have to heal. "What are you talking about?"

Princess readied herself. Alex still couldn\'t move properly, but he had his Qi and his magic. No matter who the man was, he didn\'t plan on going down without a fight. He prepared to call his monsters back to his side.

"What do you mean, what am I…" the man trailed off. His eyes widened in shock. "You can\'t be serious. You\'re a Native?"

"Do I look native to you?" Alex asked through a grimace. His skin was the same tint as a sheet of paper and he had about as much culture in his family tree as an unused petri dish.

"A Native," the man repeated in delight, staring at Alex like he were a choice cut of meat in a butcher\'s shop. He adjusted his sleek armor, then cleared his throat and held a hand out. "Forgive me. I did not realize who you were. A valued one such as yourself can count themselves among friends in my presence. I mean you no harm."

"What?"

"My name is Finley," the man said, inclining his head and upper body in a slight bow. "I am a merchant from the Starlight Family. I did not expect to run into any Natives out in the boonies so soon. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

He extended a hand.

Alex stared at it. He still couldn\'t properly move the majority of his body. Finley cleared his throat and crossed his arms behind his back.

"Right. Mercy. I did not consider your, ah, state. Perhaps you would be interested in purchasing a healing tincture?"

So… he\'s not going to try to kill me?

"Who are you?" Alex asked. "And what the hell is going on? I\'d prefer answers to a healing potion."

Finley pursed his lips. "I prefer not to give anything away for free, but I suppose I was rather rude, and its family tradition to make sure our first customer is a longtime one. I\'ll give you three questions for free. As to the ones you just asked… my name is Finley Starlight, from the Starlight Family of Planet 002-10. I am a merchant."

Alex opened his mouth but caught himself before he could say anything. If he only had one question left, he couldn\'t waste it on something useless by accident. Finley definitely seemed like the type of person to count asking the weather as one of his three questions.

The merchant raised his eyes to the meteor rising in the distance. His face went pale and he pulled at his hair. "Oh, no."

Alex arched an eyebrow. If he didn\'t say anything, he couldn\'t mistakenly ask a question.

"I am cursed," Finley proclaimed, his shoulders slumping. "To answer your second question, from the looks of things, it seems I\'ve gotten unlucky. Again. I chose the cheapest option onto your planet, and it appears that landed me in the wake of a Region Boss. Damn it all."

There were so many questions that Alex wanted to ask, but he held them back. It didn\'t look like Finley was about to attack him, which meant his priority was still finding Claire. He sent Spark off to search for her with a thought. The Echo Wraith left a floating shadow in its wake before darting away.

"I see," Alex said. He couldn\'t really think all that straight yet and didn\'t want to accidentally waste his last question, so he settled for the only thing that came to mind. "That sucks."

"Sucks?" Finley exclaimed, tugging at his hair "The understatement of this apocalypse, I\'d say. This is terrible. My profits are ruined. Do you have any idea how much money I just — fuck. Forget it. Tell me, were you the weakest of this location? Perhaps the others all hid? Are there other Outworlders here?"

"I don\'t answer questions for free."

Finley blinked. Then his eyes narrowed. "Fair play. I will give you an extra question if you answer mine."

"Hardly seems fair. One question for infinite?"

"Come, now. My knowledge is far more valuable than yours. Your apocalypse started… what, a day or two ago? The only reason your information holds value is because nobody else is here right now. You\'ve got expiring goods. I don\'t."

Alex\'s legs shifted. His control was coming back — and Finley actually had a point. There was no way he was the only survivor of the explosion. If he waited until other people showed up, any leverage he had evaporated.

Princess lowered him to the ground. He swayed, tingling pain twisting up his legs, but he could stand again.

"I was one of the strongest people in this area according to the leaderboards," Alex said. "And you\'re the first person I\'ve ever met that\'s called themselves an Outworlder."

Finley winced and let out a groan. "Shit. If you got this injured by the Region Boss\'s arrival, you can\'t be higher than Adept tier. Shit. It\'ll be weeks before you\'re strong enough to take on the monster. By then, it\'ll have ruined everything. Nobody will ever come to this shithole town. I knew I should have spent more money on a better transfer."

Half the words Finley said felt like gibberish, but Alex committed them to memory as best he could anyway. His thoughts were finally starting to gather. Concern for Claire still tightened his stomach, but his monsters were actively looking for her and he wasn\'t going to make much of a difference as he was right now.

His thoughts briefly focused on Finley.

The System message said something about merchants and Outworlders showing up.

Alex swallowed, the taste of blood souring his mouth, and finally regained enough of his strength to wipe the dust and blood from his face. His hair rose to stand on end as realization prickled against his insides.

This guy… he\'s from another planet? One that\'s had a System for longer than this one?

Holy shit.

This might be a huge opportunity.