Indescribable Visions - Alternate Golden Timeline - Return of Subsystems

Where am I?

~~~

Date: ??/??/???? | Time: 10:12 am

"Hng?!"

Philip abruptly opened his eyes after he twitched from dozing off. He already ate the hashbrown and drank half of the coke float. He waited to eat the cheeseburger for later, but he dozed off

He looked at the time and quite of a time passed by

'At least one of them should have arrived by now...'

He then gazed outside of the window where he could see a line of jeepneys and taxis waiting for passengers. Surprisingly, the traffic is also heavy that it reached to a stop

'That's strange...'

Usually at this time of day, it's not rush hour in Cubao yet. In addition to that, vehicles should have been less because of the pandemic, yet there's heavy traffic that it almost looked like a traffic jam

'Did an accident happen?'

That could've been the only reason why there's heavy traffic. Usually in Manila, accidents happens quite frequently and it causes traffic jams. If it wasn't an accident, it could've been idiotic drivers that caused a traffic jam due to beating the red light on stop lights

"Haaah..."

Philip let out a deep sigh as he slowly drank his coke float and looked at thw group chat

"What's happening? It's so traffic!"

"We're already near and this happened"

"Should we get out and walk there?"

"That would be smart, rather than waiting for several minutes compared to a few minutes of walking distance"

"Take your time guys, we still have to wait for several people"

Philip assured everyone and patiently waited as he leaned on the glass panel of the restaurant

Several seconds later, he suddenly saw several groups of people running outside. Them running on the sidewalk is a given and doesn't seem out of the ordinary, but it was strange that a lot of them were running in the middle of the boulevard, in between cars and jeepneys

People inside the cars came out after a few of the runners urged them to go out. They then also ran away after hearing what the runner said to them

There was almost a stampede. The once peaceful and bustling area became chaotic as the roads suddenly became jam-packed of running people. They all seem to run away from one direction

At this point, Philip felt a pit in his stomach after seeing the unusual event and situation that rarely happen ever. He also felt butterflies in his stomach as he was having mixed feelings of excitement, dread, fear, restlessness, happiness, and bravery

This is the moment that he's been waiting for ever since he learned the reality of the universe

He immediately opened his group chat once more and sent a message

"GO INTO GATEWAY NOW!!! DO NOT FOLLOW ANYONE AND GO TOWARDS THE TOP FLOOR AT THE CINEPLEX! DO NOT TRUST ANYONE UNLESS YOU KNOW THEM!"

"Huh? Why? What's happening?"

"It's rare for Philip to be alarmed... Sometimes he meant it as joke but this feels cryptic... Maybe just follow his instructions for now"

"But we're still far away..."

"I'm almost near"

"What's happening Philip?"

"Did something happen?"

"Hm, he's not seeing our messages anymore... Maybe there's an emergency?"

"Nonetheless, just follow Philip for now... He'll message us later if anything happens"

"Okay!"

He instantly sipped the coke float empty and pocketed the cheeseburger in his backpack. He stood up as he wore his backpack and firmly held the wooden katana on the sheath. He also unplugged his right earbud out of his ear so that he could hear clearly while listening to music on his left ear

The people inside McDonalds has their attention towards the outside, even the cashier went out of their stations and inspected the event outside. The security guard has his radio on hand as he talks to other security guards in the mall

Philip ignored everyone and immediately went behind the counter of McDonalds. He went straight to the kitchen and looked for tools

"Hey! What are you doing here?!"

Three chefs noticed his presence but he still ignored them

"GUARD!!"

One of the chefs shouted as he called the attention of the guard, but he was too distracted by the radio comms

At this point, Philip found what he wa searching for. He immediately swiped his backpack in front of him and grabbed all the knives that he could get and shoved it inside his backpack

Surprisingly, three chef's knives, a butcher knife, a bread knife, and two carving knives fit inside his small backpack. Though, the handle of the bread knifes was sticking out of his backpack, but it's fine since it could be secured by the zippers

"THIEF!!!"

The chef shouted at the top of his lungs and the security guard was finally alerted. He pulled out his baton and went towards the kitchen. There, he met Philip as he was about to leave

"Guard! He stole several knives!"

The guard became angry but still wary of Philip

Philip stole knives so he poses a threat to the guard. He also has a sheathed katana to which the guard is the most wary of, since he doesn't know if it's real or fake

"I wouldn't be focusing on myself if I were you..."

Philip spoke

"Why did you steal knives?!"

"See for yourself..."

Philip pointed outside of the restaurant and gutteral screams could be heard from the outside. Suddenly, explosion were heard that rocked the buildings and the surroundings. The cars wete moved backwards as if it was a result of a domino effect when a big vehicle suddenly crashed

The guard walked towards the glass panel and watched what was happening outsife with a dumbfounded expression. He felt fear and his mouth started to quiver

"Mr. Guard..."

Philip called out to the guard

"If you want to live and survive, go to the top most floor... If you have conscience, lead this people and have them gather supplies as much as they can and go to the top floor"

Philip then dashed out of the exit that leads into the Gateway mall. The guard didn't follow him as the chefs, waiters, and cashier were dumbfounded and confused

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Suddenly, one of the female customers screamed as she stumbled backwards. A strange creature suddenly slammed into the glass panel from the outside and tried to break the glass by biting it

Everyone inside McDonalds had their eyes widened as they watched the scenario outside

Creature were jumping and running towards people and bit them. They tore off their skin, bit their arm, and scratched them like some feral animal

After they have done damage to a person, that person becomes one of them and started attacking other people too. The creature began to multiply and bite more people

At that point, everyone knew what was happening. An event that shouldn't have been possible and only exist in fantasy movies and stories. The end of the world and the start of a new era

The Zombie Apocalypse

~~~

'...'

Philip witnessed everything that happened starting from the moment when Philip woke up from dozing off

He watched everything unfold until he quickly climbed up the escalators while snatching important tools from stalls and stores

His vision turned black and another scenery showed in his vision. This kept repeating as he witnessed several visions

~~~

Date: ??/??/???? | Time: ??:?? ??

He saw that Philip is standing on the rooftop of the Araneta Coliseum, the second largest indoor arena in the Philippines. Three girls arrived behind him as he was watching the state of Araneta City, formery known as Araneta Center

The Araneta City has become a compound but it's still ravaged by zombies as waves upon waves of hordes of zombies constantly enter

~~~

Date: ??/??/???? | Time: ??:?? ??

Philip was driving a modified van as he bobbed and weaved across a highway filled with abandoned cars and broken cars from several accidents. A hundred hordes of zombie runners follow behind him with several jumpers and three humongous zombified creatures

~~~

Date: ??/??/???? | Time: ??:?? ??

Philip was in front of a grim and gloomy castle in the night time. The moon was red and no signs of life could be seen around the kingdom

~~~

Date: ??/??/???? | Time: ??:?? ??

Philip was inside of a passenger plane that carried a lot of survivors when siddenly, the rear of the plane exploded and they began to crash towards an uninhabited island, south of the Pacific Ocean

~~~

Date: ??/??/???? | Time: ??:?? ??

Philip was roaming through a thick forest while being lost. He then found himself in the middle of what seemed like a sanctuary. There was a crystal clear lake and lush shrubberies. He saw a woman bathing in the middle of the lake

The woman had green hair and fair skin. Her body seemed to be glowing and plants danced around her

~~~

Date: ??/??/???? | Time: ??:?? ??

He encountered a ruined village, destroyed by what seemed like a meteor or a missile strike. He didn't find anything except for a girl whose body is glowing with pale blue light

~~~

Date: ??/??/???? | Time: ??:?? ??

Philip was riding a spaceship as he watched several moving colossal mountains and islands wreak havoc across the world as they destroyed the remaining settlements and survivors

~~~

Date: ??/??/???? | Time: ??:?? ??

The moon was struck by a high velocity meteorite and destroyed it into pieces. The debris of the moon fell on Earth and caused the world to fall into chaos

~~~

Date: ??/??/???? | Time: ??:?? ??

A bright flash of light devoured the whole universe and before the light reached Philip, a silhouette of a hand slowly approached his eyes and covered it

~~~

Philip reopened his eyes and he found himself in the middle of nothingness. He inspected his body and he could see his arms, even if there was no light

"The World of Absolute Nothingness..."

He already knew where he was

「 Are you back? 」

"Yes... I think so? What was that?"

「 An unexpected situation... Not an exception though! 」

"Those visions... It felt real..."

「 Because it's real 」

"Huh?"

『 You have bear witnessed the Alternate Golden Timeline 』

『 You have discovered the Alternate Timeline of the Zombie Apocalypse 』

"What...?"

Philip furrowed his eyebrows in extreme confusion

『 Extreme special condition requirements has been met! 』

『 Would you like to leave a mark on the alternate timeline? The alternate timeline will be permanently locked once you leave 』

『 Yes/No 』

"..."

Philip paused and pondered for a while. He processed the information for a few minutes until he made a decision

Knowing Philip, if a zombie apocalypse would happen, he would try to fight and survive even if he wanted to die. He wished for this to happen, so he will make the most out of it in his life

To fulfill that, Philip needed a higher intervention to be granted to survive the apocalypse and the wooden katana is a great candidate

"Yes, I would like to..."

『 Begin leaving your mark 』

"Sword Concept: Sword Resonance: Sword Awakening"

*Ting*

At this moment, the wooden katana on Philip's hand in the alternate timeline began to shake. Little did he know, the sword started to glow inside the sheath

『 Mark has been placed! 』

『 Permanently locking the Alternate Golden Timeline 』

『 ... 』

"..."

『 ... 』

"..."

「 ... 」

There was an awkward pause between Philip and the system

『 Calculating conditions unlocks... 』

『 You have unlocked several conditions! 』

『 You have found the location of Gaia's Sacred Lake 』

『 You have witnessed Dwarven Technology 』

『 You have found the location of the Vampire Kingdom 』

『 You have found the location of Tenshi's Lost Birthplace 』

『 You have learned the upcoming event of the Convergence 』

『 You have learned something you shouldn't have learned... Locking information away immediately 』

『 Attention! 』

『 Return of the subsystems has been approved two times 』

『 Progress... 50.314159265358979% 』

『 Consequential Choices System has been restored! 』

『 Gacha System has been restored! 』

『 Information System has been obtained! 』

「 The information system is a system that gives you the full information of a concept without my or the system's help in telling you. Information may be prone to falsification or tampering, depending on the level of your skill or way of information gathering 」

"What is this?! Why give the subsystems back when I intentionally removed it back then?"

「 The system deemed it necessary when the sixth unexpected exception occured. Subsystems that affects causality and reality were required. In addition to that, the subsystem of Information System is a must because of certain concepts that needed to be learned. You can't always rely on me or the system and sometimes, you lose connection to us due to some unexpected exceptions and with this subsystem, you eill be able to analyze and learn certain concepts 」

"I see... That would certainly be helpful. I'm guessing that system will involve the Scan, Observe, and Eye of Sai abilities?"

「 Yes, because of that, it's now possible for those abilities to level up! Now, I ask you this... Do you want for the abilities to level up randomly based on how you use it or do you want for something like a choice on which branch the ability would evolve? 」

"If I chose the latter... The Skill Tree System would be restored, wouldn't it?"

「 Most likely... 」

"Hm... At best, I would like to choose how my abilities go, but for now, I'll let the system choose where the evolution branch would go"

「 Alright then... 」

"The Consequential Choices System defies causality and the Gacha System defies reality... Why these subsystems?"

「 Certain events and scenarios requires choices that drastically affects the outcome of the future. Even if we're in the Golden Timeline, the timelines that could have been created by the choices that you didn't choose will be immediately erased so that it won't affect the timeline that we're moving forward with. The choices will range from a yes or no question, multiple choice, or drastic choices 」

"..."

「 You have no control over when the choices will appear and you have to answer. Some questions will freeze or stop time and let you decide your answer while some questions, even if time stopped, will have a timer. This is because there are higher powers out there that could possibly affect the space-time continuum. In addition to that, you won't be able deny the subsystem like what you did on the choices for Amare's fate. The Consequential Choices System has been tempered and empowered 」

"..."

「 On the other hand, the Gacha System has been optimized! The previous Loot Bags and Loot Boxes that you earned has been confiscated and consolidated into one Gacha Box to compensate for the change on the subsystem. From here on out, the Gacha System will only apply its influence on concepts that has probability. It won't be able to give gacha items unless the Quest System and the Task System has been restored and the Mission System has been obtained 」

"If the Quest System and Task System has been restored, is the Gacha System's influence on external probabilities going to be removed?"

「 Yes. Do you want to restore the Quest System and Task System? You will also obtain the Mission System 」

"Hmmm... Sounds complicated... It's getting too complicated once again... I don't want anything that will dictate where I go. The reality is full of uncertainty and we won't know if I would be able to complete the quests or tasks, so no... Don't restore those systems yet"

「 Affirmative... 」

"I will deal whatever happens whenever I deal something with a sliver of probability and the Gacha System acts up"

「 Well, it's not like the Gacha System will give you something bad to mess with you 」

"You don't know gacha then... The next thing you know is that you'll get something bad in a crucial moment. Good thing I have luck"

「 That's also true. Your luck can't be quantified but so far, you have incredible good luck 」

"Speaking of the systems... The Omega System says that the progress for restoring subsystems are at 50% plus π%... I expect that there's going to be more"

「 Exactly, but even I won't be able to know it 」

"I know... The system said that it received an approval two times. So, from where is the system getting the approval?"

「 ... 」

"You don't need to answer... I know that you won't know, so let's retuen to the main topic at hand... The alternate timeline"

「 Yes... 」