Stage 1

A man in his 20's, wearing a black suit was sitting on a bench near the river in the middle of the city, drinking a cold drink. He has a thin face and pale skin. His hair is the mixture of both thin and thick with black colour; he has black coloured eye pupils with long eyelashes. Even though he is an adult his physique is not so bulky; it is rather a bit slender.

He slowly takes a sip of the drink and the thought crashed in his mind.

"Man it...tastes like...sh*t!"

Even though he didn't like the drink he continued to drink it without any expression on his face.

Suddenly he felt a cold sensation on his cheeks. It was of a cold drink that was trending all over.

"Here take this. The one you are drinking now is not...so good right?"

It was an appearance of a woman, around her mid 20's, wearing a blue suit. A glamourous lady with black hair and red eyes.

"Oh! Hana."

She gave the cold drink to him sat beside him with her legs crossed.

"I saw your paintings online...they were mesmerizing I would say. But looks like..."

" Yeah! You know the online algorithm only works for other people and not for me. It's just that my luck in social media is not so good."

"I am sorry but your paintings should definitely receive recognition."

"Thanks for the compliment...but I hope it stays like this. I don't... know why but I don't like much attention regarding it."

She stared in his eyes for a moment but reverted as soon as he turned towards her.

"Is there... something on my face?"

"No I was just thinking about the night shift."

"...Yeah! Now that I think about it, today is your night shift! You have to stay pretty late till night. Be careful out there!" He then slowly took a sip of the sweet cold drink.

"Hey don't scare me like that!"

Seeing Hana make such a face he laughed out loud.

"... Really? Now don't laugh at my face!"

"Sorry I just couldn't help it."

When he laughed his eyes would almost disappear. Like they just smile along with the face, making a perfect beautiful harmony.

After some talk she went back to the firm and now he was again all alone. Sitting on the bench he contemplated , "Why can't I succeed..." . He covered his eyes and put his head down in frustration. Suddenly a loud explosion occurred not so far away.

"F*ck! What was that?"

As he turned his head back and saw people running towards away for shelter all over.

"What the hell is happening..."

He ran towards them and tried to help by showing the way towards a safe place on the other side of the area where the explosion was heard.

"Hey come here! What happened?" He asked an old man who was trying to save himself and his old wife.

"Run! Don't look back and just run! It is the end of the world..."

Without getting any answers he just decided to go to the firm where Hana was.

When he reached there, it was the same. All the employees came running through the front and shouted for help.

He grabbed the hands of one of his colleagues and asked her, "What happened? Where is Hana?"

There was a terror in her face. Without giving any answer she got her hands off of him and ran away.

"Tsk!"

He clicked his tongue and as he was about to enter through the front area he saw a dreadful monster.

It was a nightmare. Its head was of a fish with sharp teeth, eating the flesh of a person, the lower body was just like a human, but with a long salamander like tail.

His breathing got heavy and the heart was hurting like hell.

"Shit! I'm f*cked..."

With all his might he ran away from the building towards the bridge from where everyone was going to the other side of the city. As he ran his breathing became more short and short which made his vision blurry.

Suddenly just before his eyes a woman was eaten by the monster and the blood of the woman poured all over his body. Seeing such a scenery he couldn't even move one his muscles; all he could do was see her get eaten by the monster.

But luck was on his side. He grabbed a piece of metal pipe beside him that had fell from the crane in the construction site. His heart was beating fast, but with all his might he struck the metal piece on the head of the monster. It screamed in pain and in the meantime he was able to run away to the bridge. Amidst all the chaos he remembered about Hana and stopped for a bit. But seeing the monsters all over the place he gave up...

Crash!!

A pillar of the bridge broke in half. He somehow balanced himself and kept running, as he was about to reach the other side where everyone went he heard a faint voice.

"Adwin!"

He looked back and it was none other than Hana.

"Hana! Run! Come fast!"

Adwin ran towards her as fast as he could and grabbed her hand.

Crash!

The bridge started to fall from behind. With the last ounce of their energy they somehow managed to reach the other side.

The bridge fell and before them rose a huge monster with tentacles. It had the appearance of an octopus. There is no way that such a huge octopus could be alive even in the deepest parts of the ocean, but it was now seen in a river.

All of a sudden everything became quiet, even though the monsters on the other side were destroying everything, not a sound could be heard.

"Hana are you okay?"

"I-I am okay!"

Even though she said she was okay Adwin already saw her pressing her shoulder.

"Let me see it."

He took out his handkerchief and covered the wound to stop the blood from coming out.

They met up with other groups of people who were gathered in the middle of the city.

A somewhat girly voice continued.

"Woah many survived! Looks like I will get a lot of vews."

Scared from hearing such a voice all of a sudden some shouted. "W-Who are you? Show yourself!"

"Hey hey old man don't be so rude!"

Long pointy ears, green eyes and colorful mixture of blue and pink hair. A small pair of horns could b seen on her head. A pretty unusual green dress.

"M-Monster it's a monster!" A person shouted in fear and suddenly he was cut in half.

"Now now don't call me a monster you all. I have a name and it's Nora. Anyways I will now tell you about the situation you are in. So simply put you all are f*cked so just try to survive and help me get promotion. Now you all can see your status through a thing called 'system' or whatever I don't know since it is for you. There are going to be 100 stages and this one was the first stage. Upon completing each stage you will get reward according to your contribution. Now one of the most important thing is coins; with it's help you can buy different items from the store available in the system interface. You can also earn coins by killing monsters or from the gods and constellations who will reward you if they want. It is just like an RPG game so do your best, bye!"

Everyone were stunned and could not process what was happening. The information told by Nora was not enough.

"What was that about... system, status? What the...this interface."

"Adwin...this floating thing?"

"I also don't know maybe it is the 'system' she spoke of, try saying status or system in your mind."

"Woah!"

[Congratulations you received

100 coins]

[Name - Hana Lee

Age - 26

Title - N/A

Strength - 4

Agility - 6

Endurance - 5

Defense - 2

MP - 12

Skills - N/A ]

[Name - Adwin Ray

Age - 27

Title - N/A

Strength - 10

Agility - 11

Endurance - 8

Defense - 4

MP - 2

Skills - N/A ]

"... inventory...store...it really is like a game....if I go to store then."

[Store...

Coins - 500

• Steel Sword - 400

• Lowest Grade Healing Potion - 500

• Rugged Cloak - 200

... ]

***

[ STAGE 1

ENTER THE SAFE ZONE

DIFFICULTY - F

TIME LIMIT - N/A

REWARD - 500 COINS

PENALTY UPON FAILURE - DEATH ]