City in turmoil

Adam was currently busy fighting for his life and had no clue that the situation around the world was just as chaotic as in the school.

MONSTER SLAYER GAINED ((PASSIVE)) (1)

Gives you a buff against monsters/mutants/abominations

KNIFE/DAGGER EXPERT GAINED ((PASSIVE))

Makes you more skilled in combat with a knife swinging slashing and throwing included.

VETERAN GAINED ((PASSIVE))

You recover faster, It's harder to knock you out, and you feel less pain in combat.

Adam was currently slowly making his way through the school, avoiding as many of the 'dogs' as he possibly could, which was quite tricky considering their sense of smell was still that of a dog.

'I killed 3...' Adam thought to himself 'How many are there in the school !?'

At this point, Adam was really tired and couldn't keep going for a lot longer, he only made a dagger and launched those small spikes, even though he only did that it was enough to almost completely drain him of his energy and make him pass out.

Making things out of thin air isn't easy.

'I don't think I can do much... I already smeared myself in blood so they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between me and a corpse.'

Adam was tired, way too tired to think of something good to do in the current situation.

The last bits of adrenaline were disappearing, and with it went his last bits of energy.

Although he exercised and did his best, it would only take him so far.

At this point, he was sneaking around for 2 hours, constantly under stress and pressure.

That along with the weird feeling he was getting from the RIFT, he was nearing his breaking point mentally.

His body was feeling a bit better but was still bruised all over from dodging attacks, luckily he never got cut, otherwise, he would have been swarmed.

His goal right now was to find other people who were strong enough to survive and to find Amanda.

'It smells so bad...' Adam struggled not to gag and attract attention.

He hasn't found the bodies of anyone he knew so far, and he was hoping he never would.

Right now, Adam was hiding behind a flipped-over desk, catching a quick but much-needed break.

'If one of those things runs into me right now I probably won't make it.'

"Probably" was just Adam trying to be positive about the current situation, if a "dog" ran into him right now he was royally screwed.

'There have been no screams for a while now, either no one was left or they are hiding somewhere.'

'Let's hope it's the second option...'

Just as Adam thought of this,* krkrkrkrkkr* was heard in the distance.

From observation, Adam concluded that the creatures make this noise only when they see prey or they are about to fight something.

He has already seen the things fight and it was quite disturbing.

'Should I investigate...' Adam could just use this as the perfect moment to change locations, but if this person was able to survive until now that means they were just smart enough to resist the RIFT's maddening effects and were strong enough to survive.

'Let's look from a distance.' Adam was going to help if he could, but he won't throw his life away for someone else he doesn't know.

Unfortunately or fortunately, he knew this person, Dave was a close friend of Adams, he helped Adam back in kindergarten when he used to get bullied quite often, Adam and Dave have been quite close since that day.

Dave was currently fighting for his life while trying to be as quiet as possible so he wouldn't attract any more attention.

Adam got as close as possible to the beast from behind, Dave seeing his friend approaching the beast with a dagger realized what he planned to do and made sure it didn't notice.

*rkrkkkkrrkr* luckily the beasts were unable to make loud noises thanks to this strange gurgling noise they made.

*Rip* Adam stabbed the beast straight through the heart killing it instantly.

"Holy shit Adam you are still alive?!" Dave said happily.

"Yes I am now shut, we need to leave, I don't know who or what else the noise attracted."

"Right follow me, we have some more people hiding." Dave said.

Adam nodded, then stopped "You said people? how many are there?"

"There are 6, now 7 of us with you, 4 men and 2 women, there are probably more people hiding around the school but we haven't met any yet."Dave answered.

"What were you doing outside?" Adam wondered

"I wanted to look for survivors, some food and water also but the beasts ate and drank all of it."

"I see..." Adam was quiet through the rest of the journey, and Dave followed suit, they didn't want any unwanted attention.

After 30 minutes of slowly sneaking around, they finally came across a teacher's closet that was out of the way.

"Here." Dave whispered.

he slipped a piece of paper under the door and it slowly opened in response.

"Come in quick!" A man's voice came out.

After entering Adam saw 5 people, 3 men with makeshift weapons like chair legs and other things made from the things around.

and 2 women sitting in the corner.

all of them seemed equally terrified, but the men were filled with testosterone and were ready to fight for their lives or at least run for them.

they immediately relaxed when they saw Dave.

"Is everyone still alive?" Dave asked

"Yeah, nothing happened while you were away, are you still in one piece?" a man asked

"Yeah and I even brought back someone else with me," Dave said pointing at Adam

Adam was as mentioned earlier, covered in blood, so right now he didn't look his best.

"Glad to see you are all alive," Adam said

"Yeah with you here things should be a bit easier for all of us." one of the guys said.

"Does anyone know if Amanda is ok?" Adam was hoping they would know something but to his disappointment they didn't.

"Sorry man no one here knows, but I think she's alive, her classroom is at the back so she had more time." Dave tried to console his friend.

"Ok, thanks I guess."

"No problem, talk to me if you need anything."

"I will just lay down and sleep, I am too tired to do anything else."

So Adam did as he said and laid down, falling asleep almost instantly.

...

4 hours later.

YOU HAVE BEEN INFECTED BY THE RIFT

RIFT RESISTANCE GAINED ((PASSIVE)) (1)

RIFT RESISTANCE LVL UP ((PASSIVE))(2)

RIFT RESISTANCE LVL UP ((PASSIVE)) (3)

RIFT RESISTANCE LVL UP ((PASSIVE)) (4)

RIFT RESISTANCE LVL UP ((PASSIVE)) (5)

Adam woke up, he didn't sleep well and was plagued with nightmares, that only made sense.

If he didn't have PTSD after this then he would be a socio-psychopath mix, which doesn't sound fun.

*Cough*

He heard a cough next to him and saw one of the girls was covered with black spots, the rest weren't doing any better.

He looked at the system notification and was promptly scared to death.

'What the hell is the RIFT SICKNESS??'

RIFT SICKNESS IS A PHENOMENON THAT OCCURS WHEN LIVING BEINGS ARE TOO CLOSE TO THE RIFT, AFTER 5 HOURS THE RIFT BEGINS RELEASING SPORES TO KILL ANY REMAINING CREATURES IN THE AREA, AND AFTER 10 HOURS YOUR STRENGTH WILL BE HALFED, AFTER 20 YOU WILL BECOME A MINDLESS PUPPET OF THE RIFT.

THE SYSTEM URGES THE HOST TO LEAVE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, WITH YOUR RIFT RESISTANCE YOUR BODY CAN STILL CURE ITSELF.

'What about the others?'

...THEY ARE UNLIKELY TO MAKE IT BUT IF THEY MOVE NOW THERE IS A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF SURVIVAL.

THE SPORES ALSO MAKE THE MUTANTS IN THE AREA STRONGER.

'Well ain't this just great...!'

"Dave we have to leave now." Adam said with seriousness in his voice.

"I know, but the mutants have gotten a lot more active while you were asleep, we would move but to do so is suicide!" Dave explained to Adam.

"Well staying won't really help now, will it? We either die here or out there, choose the second option, that at least gives you a chance." Adam said

"Do you have a plan?" Dave asked

"Have there been any screams?" Adam responded

"Yes, quite a few..." Dave said with a sad tone

"Then we leave in the opposite direction of them, the mutants went that way." Adam thought this was the best plan for now. They had to move n o w .

Slowly opening the door Adam looked around and saw no dangers around.

"Clear."

They moved slowly and steadily but such a large group of people moving would be spotted eventually, no matter how much they tried.

*krkrkkrrkkk* the dreaded noise came but Adam quickly silenced the thing.

Of course, he threw his knife straight into its head, piercing its head and killing it.

The others were stunned to see such a display.

"Move" Adam ordered.

Like that, they moved through the school Adam dispatching any mutant that saw them.

Until another scream was heard in the school... and this one made Adam freeze.

"You go ahead I'll meet you outside!"

Luckily the scream was close so Adam made it in a few minutes of running, and since most of the mutants were on the other side of the school and he killed most on this side the path was clear.

Adam came across the biggest classroom in the school, it was made to fit 1000 people at once and was used only to make announcements to teachers and students.

'The scream came from here.' Adam resolutely pushed the door open, ready to face anything.

...except this.

The monstrosity in front of him had a humanoid appearance with sickly yellow skin, its flesh looked like it was barely held together, slipping and flowing like water, only held together by a sticky glue-like thing, it was 5 meters tall with legs that buckled with every step under its own weight.

It was on one end of the classroom and Amanda was on the other.

Amanda was looking sick but less than the others, it appears the rift is higher up.

"Adam!" Amanda looked full of hope at Adam but that look quickly changed to worry.

"Run quick-"

*YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

A high pitch screaming came from the abomination, rendering Adam deaf for a while.

It charged at him while he was dazed, grabbing him and throwing him at the wall knocking the wind out of him.

Adam just barely dodged out of the way of the next attack.

Making some steel spikes and launching them at the abomination, Adam counterattacked.

it put its hands up stopping them, the flowing structure of its body making it difficult to pierce.

"Let's do this then!" Adam said as the temperature around him began to drop at a startling rate, freezing the glue holding the monstrosity together and making it stiffer.

"Now again!" Adam launched more spikes, now the abomination was unable to defend itself since it was too slow.

The spike shattered a part of the glue holding its arm together, making a finger fall off.

"YES!" Adam cheered, he found a way to hurt the thing!

*AAAAAAAAAAAAA*

It didn't seem as happy as Adam and screamed again, this time however Adam was expecting it and he blocked his ears.

he launched more spikes in retaliation, reducing both arms to ruble.

with a last desperate charge, the beast ran at Adam, who hit it straight through the head. killing it instantly.

DREAMER LVL UP (2) ((PASSIVE))

you want, you desire and unlike most, you are willing to do whatever it takes to get what you want

REALITY BENDER LVL UP (15)

the world itself must acknowledge your will.

(you can change reality in a 1,5 m radius around you for 1,5 seconds (will increase by 0.1 at every level))

Heavily breathing and struggling to do so, Adam won if just barely, he had 20 minutes to leave before he lost half of his strength, and considering his current state, passing out would be the last thing he would do.

Amanda, who watched the whole thing, was completely and utterly shocked at the display of reality-bending powers she had just seen.

Adam tried to walk to her and ask if she was alright but he tripped on the way, Amanda barely catching him in time.

"Are you ok...?" Adam asked his voice distant and sleepy

"I'm alright... come on we need to get out of here."

Amanda helped Adam to get up and the two walked out of the school.

Where they saw something they will never forget.

A city painted with blood, Monsters the size of buildings walking in the distance.

Tanks and helicopters fired everything they had at them but only scratched them.

thousands, tens of thousands all dead no matter the age, color, or gender.

their hearts ripped out, brains spilling onto the floor black sports covering some of them.

all of this was too much for Adam to take, after that struggle, he is supposed to deal with this?

He could see Dave and the others staring into the city, utterly speechless, some of them in shock.

It seems a new age had come upon mankind slaughtering all of the cattle, leaving only the lucky and skillful left alive.