HAPPY EVER AFTER

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July 20, 2020

Time: 10:00 pm

Location: Quirino Ave. Manila, Philippines

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"What? Is this it? Is this the end after two years of reading it?"

"You must be kidding me, Zash. You forced me to read this for two years only to have it end like this."

I took a deep breath and relaxed. The book Journey of End had finally reached its last  978th chapter.

For Heaven's sake. With all that transpired to the male lead...

*Sigh.*

After everything, he did end up sacrificing himself for his friends, leaving them devastated since they lost him.

Ironic.

Even though none of his comrades died on his journey, the fact that he perished did not diminish the reality that he died. 'Zash! Gosh! This is clearly not to your taste. Not really acceptable!'

I re-read the ending lines again.

||| "Is this finally your choice?"

"Yes, it is. With this, they will all live." Rey said as his soul came closer and closer to its horrible fate. He looked at his comrades who were crying, devastated to lose him after all this time.

"Then as per you said your next wish is, I'll make them forget all about you." The Genie then raised his hand towards Rey's comrades. Sadness and unwillingness etched their way onto their mourning faces.

Bright rays of light surged out from his hands. It crawled its way elegantly over to Rey's friends, touching them gently as it set them down on the ground, unconscious.

The light continued to travel from many other places.

"Now, as I promised, for my final wish," Rey said.

He looked at the genie with graciousness poling in his eyes. The Genie too stared at him. He waited for Rey's next words, though he could almost guess what they would be.

"I wish for your freedom, Genie." Rey finally said with a sincere smile.

A bright light encompassed Genie's whole being. The golden shackles that were binding his hands shattered into dust, one by one. The magic lamp which he had lived in for thousands of years turned into dust particles, leaving nothing behind as the wind blew the specks of dust far away.

Rey's soul finally became immersed in the darkest space in the universe. It will be forever unknown as to where he will be heading or if he was still alive.

The genie looked at the new dawn approaching from the horizon. "Rey, how foolish you are. There is one left who still remembers you." The Genie spoke through a sorrowful smile. -J.O.E |||

*sigh*

After all that time, I put into reading this.

"Hayss."

That's why I don't want to read this now, because of the feeling I had that I'm going to get pissed off in the ending you wrote Zash.

You see when you read a very long novel and the ending was a tragedy or something much worst. I hated the feeling it gave.

It gave you a long roller coaster ride only to make you leave feeling devastated and annoyed in the end.

"I will have trouble sleeping tonight, definitely."

And damn, the bus was still stuck due to heavy traffic. It's almost an hour now. I tried to sleep but whenever I close my eyes, the scenes at the ending of the novel kept repeating in my mind.

Ahhh. You foolish Rey! Please let me sleep. My phone was dead already and I'm still stuck here.

I just couldn't forget about the ending of the novel and it haunted me.

Sleep was the only way to pass my time now. But I can't sleep at all! Damn it!

*ahem* The elderly lady sitting next to me coughed a little and gave me a glare.

"Ah sorry." I apologized. 'Did I move too much? Hehehe I didn't notice at all.'

Then... Was it only me? Or everything around me was shaking suddenly? The one next to me, who was already sleeping, woke up and glared at me again.

"It's not me!" I raised my arms in defense.

"An earthquake!"

"There's an earthquake!"

"See. I told you it's not me." I said again. I knew that's not important right now but I dislike it when I'm accused of something I didn't do.

Anyone would feel the same way, right?

"Kids these days are too disrespectful." said the elder lady. She reverted her gaze to me and steadied herself.

I rolled my eyes when the lady turns her back. 'How is that being disrespectful?' I thought. The ground trembled stronger.

Everyone on the bus was panicking. Some tried to get out of the bus only to fell. Some tried to hold out to anything and steady their selves. I, too, held on to my seat.

After a lot of minutes, the tremor finally came to a stop. The people now started to rush and push each other to get out of the bus.

"Get out of the way!"

"Let's get out of here fast!"

"Hey! Don't push me!"

I rolled my eyes again at this scene. Where the heck would all those earthquake drills we always practiced go? These people were panicking so much!

Amidst the chaos and panic, someone shouted.

"Please calm down! I'm a cop." She held her Id out. Those near her looked to her Id at hand and seemed to nod their heads.

"Let's get out to this bus one by one. Let's be quick but no pushing!" So she was a lady cop. She wore simple pants and a white shirt inserted, partnered by a black leather jacket.

The passengers calmed down after hearing her words and listened to her. One by one, they got out of the bus. In the blink of an eye, the overloaded bus became empty.

"Wow!"

When I made my way out, my gaze was only tied to one spectacle, the same with others who were even taking photos. Everyone's eyes were currently fixated on one thing.

The sky was dyed in red as blood and the full white moon became completely black.

'Hmm...A lunar eclipse? But will it 'cause the sky to turn red?'

|||A tremor in every part of the world emerged. When it stopped, all were looking in one direction. The sky was dyed in red as blood and the moon that turned completely black. -J.O.E|||

The first lines from the Journey of End came to my mind.

|||Lots of what people thought are meteorites appeared in the red skies.

As it fell down, millions of people will lose their lives. Cause within these, are monsters that would soon devour and destroy everything on its path. -J.O.E|||

As soon as those following lines came to my mind. I saw shooting stars in the night sky. No more like meteorites?

"Oh shit. This can't be really happening right now." One of that said meteor is heading in this place. I needed to get away fast in this place, things will be extremely dangerous now.

*boogsh*

Something enormous dropped a few meters from where I was. However, unlike a typical meteor, it did not produce any damage or explosion. Because, in the first place, that was not a meteor. It merely created a tiny crater with smoke and dust particles.

Thankfully, no one was harmed as a result of it.

But when the smokes cleared, something terrifying was going to come out from there. Cause, you see as I said, those meteors weren't actually meteors but were huge eggs.

Inside it was just some monsters that were going to destroy things and slaughter anyone on its path. So well, that's it.

I'm so gonna run for my life now as a normal or sane person would do.

'Ah. Shit! I forgot no one could run from them since the whole city has some barrier covering it now.'

"Rawr!" The smoke cleared and a terrifying roar reverberated and echoed through the whole city. It sent shivers all over my body and the people around me.

That single roar was followed by other roars.

Voila! There it was! From the broken huge eggshell, was a huge dragon! It was as big as a thirty-story building with red scales and three horns.

[Ding! System Unlock!]

[Beginners First Mission will now commence!]

[Details for the Mission will now be shown.]

[Beginners First Mission: Defeat the incoming monsters.

Number of monsters defeated: 0/5

Quest Time: 01:00:00

Reward: 1 small silver coin for each monster

Failure: Death

Congratulations! You receive a starting 100 small silver coins. You can use it now to buy from the

◇FairyTale Shop◇]

[The Beginner's First Mission will now commence!]

Multiple holographic screen messages popped out in front of me.

"What's this?"

"Fairy Tale shop?"

"Mission?"

Many people around me whispered to each other or their selves. We were all seeing the same things, I guess.

[Quest Count Down: 1:00:00]

[Quest Count Down: 00:59:59]

"Grah! Grah! Grah!" Beneath the dragon, green creatures started to appear and head towards the people. They are...

'Goblins? a very typical starter monster for a beginner to used to level up in fantasy stories.

The people around were now panicking. Some even ran away though it's futile. Like I said this whole city had a barrier now.

And this place...

No, the whole city will be swarmed by these creatures all over the place soon.