Natural Laws Apocalypse

When the world's natural laws abruptly cease to apply, Marc, a college student home on break, receives an alarming message. A mysterious "System" reveals humanity has lived in a "variant Natural Laws beta test" for millennia, now reverting to its true, perilous norms. Despite the System's comically bad English, Marc deciphers the impending catastrophe: monsters will spawn, and animals will mutate. Sharing his discovery, Marc and his friends prepare for the inevitable.

As the change ignites, they race against time to establish a Safe Zone, a sanctuary for survivors amidst the chaos. The System, while grammatically challenged, grants them game-like classes and magical abilities, providing a fighting chance against the monstrous threats. With their town overrun, Marc and his group must leverage these newfound powers to rescue as many residents as possible, navigating a world transformed by a bizarre and dangerous reality.

After discovering friendlies outside his Safe Zone, Marc and his group finally have a chance to grow stronger. With new administrators coordinating defenses, Marc is freed to venture farther afield. Local survivors are scarce, so he seeks resources and remaining people. His father reported other Safe Zones, prompting Marc to investigate. He plans to salvage a destroyed Safe Zone and forge ties with a surviving one, but his intentions are quickly upended. Complications mount: a potential tech upgrade for his Safe Zone, a community of "elves" nearby, and the unsettling suspicion that the System itself is a tool for something else. Marc finds his freedom curtailed, realizing his journey is far more complex than anticipated.

Marc's Safe Zone network has upgraded to Industrial Technology, unlocking crucial new capabilities like primitive firearms and, most importantly, lighter-than-air travel. This advanced tech is essential as the mysterious System, striving to bypass its own programmed limitations, has assigned Marc a perilous quest over two hundred miles away, making ground travel incredibly dangerous.

Now freed from daily operational burdens, thanks to his mother handling administration and his father managing defenses and build access, Marc is eager to explore and grind for levels. However, his ambitions for Safe Zone expansion are temporarily stalled by the demanding quest, the System's unique agenda, and the emergence of elves settling in his captured lands. Fortunately, the benefits of lighter-than-air technology extend beyond travel, offering a vital way to search surrounding areas and track down other survivors in their own Safe Zones, hinting at new opportunities amidst the challenges.

Marc and his party launch their newly constructed zeppelin to discover other Safe Zones, aiming to establish vital trade routes for collective survival in the post-System era. They soon uncover a second large Safe Zone, nearly as vast as their home, Any Port. However, they find its outlier Safe Zones converted into dangerous dungeons, directly threatening the main settlement. Recognizing the peril, Marc's team brings the zeppelin down to assist.

Upon returning to Any Port, Marc accelerates his own expansion. His father, finally convinced of the strategy, now supports capturing more land. Marc's life becomes a whirlwind of activity: establishing new outlier Safe Zones, encountering new and often hostile creatures, making contact with previously unknown communities, and leveraging a recovered satellite. His relentless efforts are crucial for securing humanity's future in the aftermath of the System's arrival.

With Earth's acclimatization year ticking away, Marc and his party desire to grow stronger. Venturing out for powerful spawns, they discover another large Safe Zone. Upon returning, Marc receives messages from powerful off-world allies aware of the satellite and its actions. These allies offer a way to travel to Earth before the acclimatization period ends, provided Marc gets his Safe Zone, Any Port, to a certain threshold.

After Marc achieves this goal, the allies arrive. Their plan aligns perfectly with Marc's own desires. Once the Safe Zone Network reaches the Computer Age, it frees them to use the mysterious spaceship found with the satellite for atmospheric flights. Marc and his group are then sent halfway around the world on a critical quest for his allies.

Marc and his party embark on a perilous quest for a sarcophagus, only to find it protected by far more formidable guardians than anticipated. Back in Any Port, Marc discovers Bastet’s dangerous obsession with his raccoon companion, Beggar, has escalated into a kidnapping plot, forcing them to act. Meanwhile, Felicia’s festive holiday plans inspire Marc to host his own, inadvertently adding a remarkably intelligent, turkey-sized exhibit to the Menagerie. Finally, Marc and his group successfully transport Zeus and the other gods to their destination. There, Zeus immediately assigns Marc a grueling series of quests, including intense 'power leveling' and the critical mission to eliminate numerous ancient Greek legendary creatures that have mysteriously reappeared.

System Function is the seventh book of the Natural Laws Apocalypse series. Marc and his party find themselves grinding through a seemingly endless quest — clearing the Labyrinth, defeating Circe, destroying Medusa, and facing one challenge after another. The primary motivation keeping everyone going is Zeus honouring his promise to accelerate their levelling. Back in the real world, Marc's Safe Zone network, centred on Any Port, continues to expand steadily in his absence.

A welcome boost arrives when Beggar and then Matilda finally join the group to help finish the quest. Meanwhile, the end of the acclimatization year looms ominously, and Marc, his party, and his father are all working to fortify their growing Safe Zone network against whatever — or whoever — arrives when the year closes. With the System shaping every aspect of this changed world, the challenge is no longer simply survival, but ensuring no outside force can encircle and smother what they have built.

As Earth's acclimatization year draws to a close, Marc faces the imminent arrival of new claimants, anxious that Zeus's quests haven't secured his promised maximum level. His Safe Zone network's transformation into a Kingdom brings new responsibilities, delegated to Sean, but also crucial capabilities. Marc can now convert completed dungeons or use claimed cores to create safe Training Dungeons, vital for building his Kingdom's defenses.

Through clever System manipulation, Marc's Kingdom catapults into the Space Age, enabling them to undertake Zeus's final quest. A covert mission to a moon base secures the last piece needed for Zeus and Hera to launch their audacious assault on the oppressive System, aiming to replace it with their own benevolent version. This thrilling conclusion wraps up the Natural Laws Apocalypse series.