Chapter 1: Prologue.

Sun, clear blue sky, hot weather and clear blue beaches, this was the Bahamas, paradise on earth whether it was for taxes or to relax for a week.

Not exactly the cheapest place or the place with the most spots to sightsee but none of these mattered to Kennen when the tickets and the hotel rooms were free since all were paid by his buddy Frank's dad who generously offered to send them to Bahamas for a three days stay before going back to for Christmas.

Frank's family was rich with his dad owning a company worth tens of millions so this little three days trip for five people was nothing to him, especially when he was trying to hire them after graduating since we were all business majors.

The five of them, Frank, Enzo, Evan, Rafael and Kennen, all met at their dorm in their first year in university and quickly became friends due to their shared love for video games but especially for eastern novels.

"I never thought that coming over here and lazing around the beach would be so relaxing." Enzo sighed in satisfaction as they all laid in those bed benches at the beach with those umbrellas to provide cover from the sun.

Enzo was of Italian descent with brown hair and eyes, a bit skinny and average height, average looking too, but in all honesty, all of them in the group were average looking.

"Fresh air and great weather, a perfect place to reread the adventure of the lampooning fool." Frank agreed wholeheartedly and his eyes never left his phone.

Frank was on the smaller side in height and had a runner build with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes.

"You should rest your eyes a bit Frank, this is the perfect place for it." Kennen said while laid on the bed bench with his eyes closed.

Kennen was a Chinese student who went to the US to study. He was actually born in the US and lived there for five years before going back to China with his parents and finally came back to the US for his university life.

Kennen didn't have any crazy childhood or anything crazy happened to his life. He was a bit nerdy and an introvert but still had friends and a good social life.

He was just a normal guy who was a fan of eastern novels.

"Ah! You're the one to talk! You constantly keep us late at night because you don't want to end the night with a loss!" Enzo grabbed some sand and threw it in his direction.

"Aiyo!" Kennen yelped and brushed away the little sands that actually made it onto him, "That's why I'm getting some shut eyes so I can be in optimal form and go to bed at the appropriate time!"

"We would all be sleeping at the right time if you can just take the L and move on, ya filthy single dog." Enzo declared.

"We are all single dogs here." Kennen chuckled.

"Kennen is right, we should take in the views, especially the ladies." Evan said as he looked around the beach with his hands resting behind his head.

Evan was the tallest among them and also slightly more attractive than the average joe so he was getting more actions than the rest of them but it was mainly due to his confidence and motto of 'You miss all the shots you don't take'.

"What sight? All I'm seeing is water and middle-aged women." Rafael said as he inspected his surroundings.

Rafael looked like the average Brazilian while being on the thin side with his curly black hair.

"That's because you're not looking right." Evan took out his binoculars.

"Ah… The predator is on the hunt." Rafael exclaimed.

The Shooter was a nickname given to Evan due to him always shooting his shots whenever he saw someone he wanted to court and never feeling down every time he got rejected but Rafael would change it to the predator everytime he wanted to annoy him or when Evan got creepy.

"Cut it out bruv or I won't help you out with the girls next time you go on a rant while trying to make conversation and end up looking weird." Evan replied as he scouted the beach with his binocular.

"I don't need no help. The only thing you get more than me is being rejected." Rafael bantered back.

"That's not what yo mum said, ya virgin." Evan flipped the bird at him.

"And yo mama said you better start hitting those shots before you miss them like Alec Baldwin did and end up with a Caitlyn Jenner in your bed!" Rafael flipped the bird right back.

Not that Evan could see it since his eyes were still on the binoculars, he didn't seem to have found what he wanted since his head was still scouting all around.

"You…" Evan was about to retort back but his focus shifted to somewhere else, somewhere on his left, "Hey guys, did you see that purple light?"

He was pointing to somewhere on their left.

They all looked toward that direction but nothing was there, at least nothing weird.

"The only thing in purple I can see here is bikinis." Enzo said after a few seconds of looking in that direction.

"Maybe my eyes were faulty for a sec…" Evan said with hesitation after everyone confirmed there was nothing.

"Or Maybe you're just hungry, I know I am."

Frank suggested we go back to the hotel to eat lunch for the hotel buffet.

We all agreed and slowly made our way to the hotel.

There was a big screen in the hotel's buffet hall where the tables and that TV generally showed the island's weather and temperature but it was showing the news right now with red titles showing the urgency of the news being reported.

None of them paid any attention to it and generally, Kennen wouldn't either but the increasing number of people watching the TV and standing in front of it attracted his attention so he read the words on the banner.

'Sighting of aggressive and dangerous creatures in the US.'

'The hell? Is this a gag?'

Kennen thought but then he saw the images of a monster made of fleshes with four long limbs with sharp claws and a small head but without eyes and a big gaping mouth that showed rows of sharp teeth shown on the TV and a following video of that creature on the street chasing at the people running from it.

Kennen still didn't believe that it was real and thought it was just a trailer for a new movie.

"Hey guys, look at the news." Kennen called to the rest.

They all looked at the TV for a few minutes before Frank spoke up.

"This has to be a joke."

"A promotion tactic for a new movie?"

"Has to be an intern who trolled."

Every single one of them also didn't believe in it but they took out their phones to check on the internet.

Kennen was about to hop on the internet but he received a voice message on WeChat from his mom.

"Kennen, are you fine? There are all sorts of videos on the news showing monsters doing all sorts of things and your brother also showed me videos on the internet of people getting killed! How's it on your side?"

He couldn't believe it. It was impossible for this publicity stunt to also happen in China as there was no way the news there would go along with that.

"Hey, shit's real." Enzo said with a slight tremor in his voice and showed us a video coming from Twitter, "Look."

The video was filmed from someone hiding behind a wall and it showed a spider looking monster made of pinkish flesh with abnormal long limbs crawling to the streets and grabbing someone that was trying to run away from it before throwing the man to its huge mouth at the center of the body.

Kennen had to turn my eyes away after seeing the blood gushing when the monster bit the top half of the body with the bloody lower half falling to the ground. He wasn't into gory sight.

"What the f*ck is that!?" Evan yelled.

"I just talked with my dad and there are monsters popping out from some sort of portals everywhere in New York." Frank said solemnly.

"What is f*ucking going on!?" Evan yelled again.

"This is the end of the world…" Rafael was in a state of shock.

Kennen was silent, he didn't know what to say and was also in shock. Many thoughts were going through his mind and he still couldn't process this was actually happening.

He could hear gasp, shouting, sobbing and other shocking sounds in the buffet hall. Some people were quickly running out of the room as panic set in.

"I thought the end of the world was in 2012… or even 2022, this is a bit too early." Enzo chuckled but fear and uncertainty was plastered all over his face.

There was a period of silence between them as people all around were on their phone calling other people.

Kennen looked at his phone and realized that he should probably reply to his mother.

"I'm fine, mom. Just stay at home and stay safe."

The others also came out from their slumps and also started to call or leave messages to their relatives to ensure they were safe.

"What now?" Kennen asked after they were done with their calls and knew their relatives were safe.

"My dad told us to come back to New York." Frank said.

"Is it even safe to go back?"

"Yeah, a bunch of monsters are coming from those purple portals." Enzo showed us pictures of portals and videos of monsters coming out of it, "Those are everywhere across America."

"The US is the land of guns. I'm sure things are better there with people having a better way to defend themselves before the military comes up to clean it up." Frank tried to reassure them.

"Haha, are dungeons coming out? Is it my time to shine and become a hunter? Where's my power?" Enzo jokingly said while doing the charging pose of the saiyan.

He was promptly ignored as Rafael said, "Can we even buy any tickets now? Wouldn't it be safer to stay here since there's no monster here?"

"Can we ensure this will stay like that? It's better if we go back home to a first world country as well as the country with the best army. It would be safer in the long run so we should pack our stuff and go see if we can get a flight home in the airport."

Frank reasoned and Kennen as well as the rest felt it was the sensible decision but Kennen saw a little red light slowly coming out of the ground.

It was a red crystal coming out of the ground as it was intangible and completely defied gravity as it floated in the air.

"Guys…" Kennen called out his friends.

Their gazes were all on that crystal and many people in the room also saw it. The crystal had a strange attractive feeling to it but everyone was still wary of the current situation so nobody dared to approach it, some even left the room.

While everyone was hesitating about what to do, Frank stepped forward and went toward the red crystal.

"Careful mate." Evan warned.

Frank nodded, he hesitantly approached but the crystal suddenly decided that gravity mattered as it dropped to the ground. Frank crouched and touched the crystal briefly but the moment he made contact, the crystal turned to crystalline dust and flew into Frank's body. It looked like his body was syphoning the dust into him.

"Ah!"

"Frank!"

Kennen, Enzo, Evan and Rafael all rushed to Frank's side in panic and in worry.

"You alright?"

"Yeah...It wasn't painful but strangely comfortable. I feel better, somewhat more energetic." Frank muttered in puzzlement as he checked his body.

"There is a blue screen!" Frank exclaimed in shock.

"What does it say?!"

"There's a gaming status now!?!"

"Shit, do we have to go through scenarios with constellations sponsoring us now?!"

Frank didn't see any stats, just two blue panel saying,

[You awakened your power, Super Human.]

[Super Human: Increase power, speed, resilience, stamina, reaction and regeneration.]

"I have super power now."

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