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These stories and more are featured in the third short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, continuing the saga of survival in a world transformed by the arrival of the System. Humanity has adapted to a new reality filled with Classes, magic and monsters, but the struggle for life, love and purpose never ends. This anthology brings together gripping tales from returning authors and two new short stories by Tao Wong.

STOP. You should not have touched this flyer with your bare hands. NO, don't put it down. It's too late. They're watching you. My name is David Wong. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change yours. You may not want to know about the things you'll read on these pages, about the sauce, about Korrok, about the invasion, and the future. But it's too late. You touched the book. You're in the game. You're under the eye. The only defense is knowledge. You need to read this book, to the end. Even the part with the bratwurst. Why?

If the broken neon signs, shuttered storefronts, and sub-standard housing didn’t tip you off, you’ve just wandered into the city of “Undisclosed”. You don’t want to be caught dead here, because odds are you just might find yourself rising from the grave. That hasn’t stopped tourists from visiting to check out the unusual phenomena that hangs around our town like radioactive fallout. Interdimensional parasites feeding on human hosts, paranormal cults worshipping demonic entities, vengeful teenage sorcerers, we’ve got it all.

Warning: You may have a huge, invisible spider living in your skull. This is not a metaphor. You will dismiss this as ridiculous fearmongering. Dismissing things as ridiculous fearmongering is, in fact, the first symptom of parasitic spider infection - the creature secretes a chemical into the brain to stimulate skepticism, in order to prevent you from seeking a cure. That’s just as well, since the “cure” involves learning what a chain saw tastes like. You can’t feel the spider, because it controls your nerve endings.

In the futuristic city of Tabula Ra$a, Zoey Ashe is like a fish so far out of water that it has achieved orbit. After inheriting a criminal empire, the 23-year-old finds herself under threat from all sides as a rogue's gallery of larger-than-life enemies think they smell weakness. On the eve of the world's most ridiculous Halloween celebration, a steamer trunk-sized box arrives at Zoey's door, and she is shocked to find that it contains a disemboweled corpse. She's even more shocked when that corpse, controlled by an unknown party, rises and goes on a rampage through the house.

In a prosperous yet gruesomely violent near future, superhero vigilantes battle thugs whose heads are full of supervillain fantasies. The peace is kept by a team of smooth, well-dressed negotiators called The Men in Fancy Suits. Meanwhile a young girl is caught in the middle and thinks the whole thing is ridiculous. Zoey, a recent college graduate with a worthless degree, makes a reluctant trip into the city after hearing that her estranged con artist father died in a mysterious yet spectacular way.

While investigating a fairly straightforward case of a shape-shifting interdimensional child predator, Dave, John, and Amy realized there might actually be something weird going on. Together, they navigate a diabolically convoluted maze of illusions, lies, and their own incompetence in an attempt to uncover a terrible truth they - like you - would be better off not knowing.

When we think of martial arts in “old China,” we get visions of violent convulsions of dynastic change, devastating rebellions, civil wars, and banditry. Throughout the centuries there was a need for masters who possessed highly effective martial skills for positions in the military, protection services, and law enforcement. Out of this historical reality emerged a national treasure we call taijiquan. Chen t’ai chi's mystique remains fundamentally a true fighting art, including bare-handed forms and applications, plus an arsenal of weapons that includes the spear, straight sword, ...

Fool's Play is the first book in a new series in the System Apocalypse universe. Written by David R. Packer in Tao Wong's bestselling post-apocalyptic LitRPG universe, System Apocalypse: Kismet follows a different path through a post-apocalyptic world, one of hope, redemption, and second chances.

Real-World Cryptography teaches practical techniques for day-to-day work as a developer, sysadmin, or security practitioner. There’s no complex math or jargon. You’ll learn building blocks like hash functions and signatures, and cryptographic protocols like HTTPS and secure messaging. This audiobook is a joy to listen to - and it might just save your bacon the next time you’re targeted by an adversary after your data.

For Fool and Jackal, the System Apocalypse was a chance to start again. A chance to rise, and be who they were meant to be. Now, they're trying to offer others the same opportunities as part of a secret organization helping humanity survive the System. Today's mission? Nothing big, just your typical save-the-princess quest. But when you're the Acolyte of a Trickster god, typical is the last thing you should expect. Just ask Fool's cat.

When the end comes for Fool and Jackal, they’re going out with style. Past plans set in motion ago are coming to a head faster than expected. The Foundation has sent Fool and Jackal to Vancouver on another easy, simple mission. It's anything but. A mystery. A new enemy, stronger than both of them combined. Little grey aliens. Secrets revealed. And at the center of it all?

With more than 10 stories from exciting new voices and a few veterans of the universe, the second anthology highlights the lives and struggles of humanity's best and worst years after system advent.

Fool and Jackal returned, triumphant from their latest mission. As a reward, they get to babysit a spoiled rich kid as he levels up and maybe becomes a valuable asset. An easy job, until the Armageddon cultists showed up.

Möglicherweise leben riesige, unsichtbare Spinnen in euren Schädeln. Und das ist nicht irgendwie metaphorisch gemeint... Ihr werdet das als alberne Angstmacherei abtun. Aber etwas als Angstmacherei abzutun ist eines der ersten Symptome der parasitären Spinneninfektion. Ihr könnt die Spinne nicht spüren, denn sie kontrolliert eure Nervenenden. Ihr könnt sie nicht sehen, denn sie entscheidet, was ihr wahrnehmt. Ihr werdet nicht mal merken, wenn sie Eier legt. Und sie wird Eier legen.

Step into the world of a brilliant grad student who creates a powerful new drug that pushes the imagination to its darkest edge. Shudder with a woman who becomes lost in the catacombs beneath an ancient church, only to discover she's not alone. Feel the back of your neck tingle when an orphan brings a dangerous secret into her loving new home. Cringe as a young boy is seduced by a sinister technology. Cry out with two lovers who encounter a bizarre creature at a secluded beach.

Reality slides into madness again in these eleven tales from some of New England's finest storytellers. Feel your heartbeat quicken as your senses drift to dark places: the howls of horror, terrifying visions, a hint of mystery in the air, and the bitter taste of death. You may never sleep with the lights off again.

Here you will find twisted psyches, peculiar people, and demons of the mind and spirit. If you like your stories dark and scary, come take a stroll through this asylum, hearing ominous whispers or the shrieks of the unhinged echoing in your ears. You'll find yourself glancing nervously over your shoulder, or wondering about that odd-looking person at the bus stop - or even in the mirror. Come in, enjoy the trip, but step carefully, and watch the shadows, for you may never be the same again.

Join David in exploring the intersection of science, technology, and society, examining how scientific advancements and technological innovations impact social dynamics, ethics, and policy. Each episode will tackle issues like the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, technology in healthcare, the role of technology in environmental conservation, biological gene editing, or how technology shapes cultural identity. A highschooler-run podcast, we will have a lot to talk about, and we hope you decide to tune in!

This series focuses on teaching you about cryptocurrencies from the very start! We'll start with databases, banks, distributed systems, and we will then go further with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Mina, and other cryptocurrencies that are making the world advance today. About: David Wong is an engineer at O(1) Labs working on the Mina cryptocurrency. Prior to that, he was the security lead for the Diem (also known as Libra) cryptocurrency at Novi, Facebook. And before that a security consultant at the Cryptography Services practice of NCC Group. David is also the author of Real-World Cryptography.