Chapter 1: Doomsday is here?
Humans.
Your time of change is here.
You have been pulled into the doomsday advent.
There are no rules.
The only advice you will be given is to do whatever it takes to survive.
Your lives depend on it.
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With the last words spoken by the voice, Deryn could finally move. He took a step forward before stopping, eyes open in shock at the events taking place.
< DING >
< < < WORLD ANNOUNCEMENT: (The chat is now open.) > > >
A light blue chat box appeared in Deryn's vision. The chatbox itself took up 2/3rds of his vision whilst the last third had 3 bars to choose from. Region chat, world chat and private chat.
Confused at what he was seeing, Deryn looked intently at the world chat bar before seeing the rapidly changing messages flashing in his vision.
"YES I HAVE REINCARNATED"
"I'M WARNING YOU! I WORK FOR…"
"HELP I DON'T KNOW WHERE I AM CAN ANYO…"
Deryn sighed and muttered aloud "It's moving too damn fast I can barely see a thing".
With that in mind, he focused upon the region chat where the messages were moving much slower.
Lucy Holden " Does anyone know what's going on?"
Ralph Lancaster " What's happening where am I ?"
Deryn was going to ask the chat the same thing but after the thousands of comments over the last few minutes, he deemed it unnecessary.
With a thought, Deryn closed the chatbox and reopened it again before closing it once more. "It follows my thoughts, that's handy" Deryn muttered to himself.
Waking up from his musings he looked at where he was. A forested area in front of him filled with giant trees, some growing to 10s of metres in height; and behind him a hilly plain as far as he could see, seemingly with mountains in the distance.
As the sun shone down on him Deryn understood that this was real and a rush of panic threatened to overtake him. Stumbling forward he stepped on a stick which let out a crack. "It's not the time to panic, get it together and man up" he whispered before slapping himself hard on the cheek.
With that pain, he collected his shaky thoughts before taking a deep breath and released it in a guttural roar that burned his throat. Birds scattered from the tree canopies and took to the sky in shock as Deryn released his pent up emotions.
Bending down to pick up the stick he stepped on, a series of dings rang through his head.
< DING >
< YOU HAVE UNLOCKED THE HUMAN RACES DOOMSDAY ASSISTANT >
< DING >
< YOU HAVE UNLOCKED STORAGE, BLUEPRINTS AND MARKET >
< DING >
< TO OPEN ANY OF THE ABOVE THINK OF THE TABS NAME >
< DING >
< NOTIFICATION: Picked up material : 1 wood >
Deryn, albeit shocked, thought of < INVENTORY > which opened up a space in his mind filled with blocks, nine empty and one with a single piece of wood in it. Information began to appear in his mind.
< INVENTORY SIZE IS 10 BLOCKS (CAN INCREASE) >
< ONLY MATERIAL ITEMS CAN BE STORED IN INVENTORY >
< MATERIAL ITEMS PICKED UP AUTOMATICALLY ENTER INVENTORY>
< TO WITHDRAW ITEMS THINK WITHDRAW AND THE ITEM NAME >
Deryn nodded to himself as the shock lessened "So it's like an inventory in a video game with more rules" he thought. Focusing upon the woodblock in his mind a small box appears in his vision next to his < INVENTORY >.
————————————————————————————————————————————
MATERIAL: Wood
AMOUNT: 1
RARITY: White (Common)
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After seeing this he thought of the < BLUEPRINT > tab in excitement. This shrunk his inventory tab and placed a new window beside it with only three boxes under the title of the window.
< BLUEPRINT >
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< MAKESHIFT AXE >
DESCRIPTION: A poor excuse of an axe that can barely cut down trees. Be careful of splinters!
MATERIAL NEEDED: 1 wood/2 stone
RARITY: White (Common)
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< MAKESHIFT SHOVEL >
DESCRIPTION: A poor excuse of a shovel that can barely dig through the earth. Be careful of splinters!
MATERIAL NEEDED: 1 wood/3 stone
RARITY: White (Common)
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< DOOMSDAY SHELTER LVL 1 >
DESCRIPTION: Every shelter must start somewhere. This is the start of something great, but for now this 3m x 3m x 3m high wooden shed won't be able to keep things out. Can be placed above or below ground for differing doomsday shelter upgrade paths.
MATERIALS NEEDED : 50 wood/15 stone
TOOLS NEEDED : < MAKESHIFT SHOVEL > / < MAKESHIFT AXE >
RARITY : White (Common)
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< TO BEGIN CONSTRUCTION OF A BLUEPRINT THINK OF PLACING THE REQUIRED MATERIALS IN THE CHOSEN BLUEPRINT SLOT, ONCE PLACED MATERIALS CAN NOT BE RETRIEVED >
Deryn thought of placing the wood into the axe slot. The inventory box with the wood stored in it turned blank while the < BLUEPRINT > for the axe changed to the following:
————————————————————————————————————————————
< MAKESHIFT AXE >
DESCRIPTION: A poor excuse of an axe that can barely cut down trees. Be careful of splinters!
MATERIAL NEEDED: Wood sufficient/2 stone needed
RARITY: White (Common)
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Musing over this change Deryn closed the two open windows before looking at the < MARKET >, which was simply split into buy and sell along with a few lines of information.
< MARKET >
< FOR THE BUYING AND SELLING OF EVERYTHING >
< THIS IS A PLAYER TO PLAYER MARKET, WHERE BARTERING OF GOODS MUST BE CONSENSUAL BETWEEN TWO PARTIES >
< THE MARKET RULES ARE ABSOLUTE AND CAN NOT BE VIOLATED ONCE A TRADE HAS BEEN AGREED >
< THE MARKET WILL OPEN WHEN 50% OF HUMANS HAVE A SHELTER >
< BUY : EMPTY >
< SELL : EMPTY >
Deryn closed down the < MARKET > window before opening up the chat window to check the time. 12:25 pm was displayed in the top right of the chatbox, which like earlier, was still filled with useless clutter. 25 minutes had passed since all humans were teleported to the doomsday advent.
At this point, Deryn once again realised that this is his new life now, not that he was all attached to the last one. With no family nor real friends, only acquaintances from work, he had nothing weighing him down from before the teleport. Left at an orphanage at an early age and constantly reading and studying as soon as he was able was the only joy in his life, so a pretty dull life compared to the current status quo.
Breaking out of his reverie Deryn realised there was much to do:
1. Find water.
2. Find food.
3. Gather resources to build a shelter
A short but vital list Deryn concluded. With that, he started moving along the outskirts of the forest, walking along its treeline. Just close enough so he could still see the plains and far enough so that he could gather the resources that he requires.
< DING >
< NOTIFICATION: Picked up material : 1 wood >
< DING >
< NOTIFICATION: Picked up material : 1 stone >
< DING >
< NOTIFICATION: Picked up material : 3 wood >
After 5 minutes Deryn found an extra 4 wood and 1 stone, still a single stone of what's required for the stone axe.
*CRACK*
Deryn freezes before hiding behind the closest tree peering around from where he assumed the cracking sound came from. From the bushes slightly left of his guess jumped out a rabbit. Dirty brown fur and small stature, the little critter hopped forward again getting closer to the tree Deryn was behind.
Holding his breath Deryn understands this is the first opportunity so far to get food so takes out the stone he gathered earlier from his < INVENTORY >.
As the rabbit hopped closer Deryn could feel his heart pounding from adrenaline. The more the rabbit approached the louder his heart pounded. " Why am I so nervous?" he thought as his hands started to sweat.
Then it happened. He jumped out from behind the tree only to see the now startled rabbit frozen like a deer in headlights. Lifting up the rock Deryn prepared to cave in the critter's skull. He struck the rabbit straight between its eyes as its forehead and eyes sank inwards from the full-powered strike from him.
A heart-wrenching squeal left the rabbit's mouth as it tried to hop backwards before slumping to the ground. Deryn didn't give it another chance before hitting the head one more time with the rock.
*THWACK…SQUELCH*
He panted, feeling tired as the adrenaline started to leave him, the sight of what he just did nauseated him greatly, threatening to empty the contents of his breakfast before the teleport all over the ground. He grabbed his mouth and kept it shut, desperately breathing through his nose, eventually managing to resist the urge to vomit.
After a few more minutes he walked over to the rock in the rabbits head and sent it back his < INVENTORY > before touching the still slightly warm rabbit with his hand to pick it up.
< DING >
< NEW BLUEPRINT UNLOCKED >
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< MAKESHIFT SKINNING KNIFE >
DESCRIPTION: A poor excuse for a skinning knife. Be careful it breaks easily!
MATERIAL NEEDED : 1 wood / 1 stone
RARITY: White (Common)
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" I have enough materials for this so I will craft it now" he muttered. He moved the required stone and wood from his < INVENTORY > to the < BLUEPRINT: MAKESHIFT SKINNING KNIFE >.
< BLUEPRINT CREATION IN PROGRESS, 30 SECONDS REMAINING >
< 20 SECONDS REMAINING >
< 10 SECONDS REMAINING >
< BLUEPRINT: MAKESHIFT SKINNING KNIFE SUCCESSFULLY CRAFTED >
< EMERGENCY WARNING!! >
< FOREIGN ENERGY IN DOOMSDAY ASSISTANT DETECTED >
< ERROR! >
< ERROR!! >
< FOREIGN ENERGY IS MERGING WITH DOOMSDAY ASSISTANT >
< ERROR!!! >
< ERROR!!!! >
< DING! >
< ENERGY MERGE HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY INITIATED, ESTIMATED TIME OF FULL MERGE COMPLETION IS T MINUS 5 MINUTES >
Deryn is in utter shock, sputtering sounds leave his mouth as he cannot access anything, the < CHAT > is gone as are the < INVENTORY > and < BLUEPRINT > windows. In fact, besides hearing the countdown from 5 minutes he cannot access anything to do with the human doomsday assistant.
" I can't lose the doomsday system, how will I survive? " he wonders. He begins to pace around the corpse of the rabbit lost in thought seemingly ignorant of the countdown going on in his own head.
< 1 MINUTE REMAINING >
" OMG! I'm going to die out here aren't I " he thought.
< 30 SECONDS REMAINING >
" There's no hope for me to survive " he whimpered.
< 10 SECONDS REMAINING >
" NO! EVEN WITHOUT THE ASSISTANT SYSTEM I WILL BE FINE, IT'S JUST SURVIVING HOW HARD CAN IT BE" Deryn shouted.
< MERGING COMPLETE, ADVENT SURVIVAL SYSTEM IS ONLINE >
" Oh, thank god… wait ADVENT SURVIVAL SYSTEM, I HAVEN'T EVEN GOT USED TO THE OTHER ONE YET" Deryn cried.