Apocalypse, or a blessing in disguise.

For five years, the 20-year-old Rael was only in prison for a crime he swears he never committed.

But as society worked the way it did, no one believed him, and so the poor young man was wrongly sentenced to spend his entire life in prison.

Last year, Rael finally lost control and assaulted an inmate and a guard, resulting in their deaths.

Everything was done with a fork, and after this event, the maximum security prison's higher-ups decided to place him in solitary confinement for the rest of his life, or days...

"Inmate 666!" A rough, powerful voice was heard shouting in front of the solitary confinement room. It was Daniel, the guard who was assigned to 'take care' of Rael.

"Come and eat your food, you piece of shit!" Laughing as he said this, Daniel placed the plate of food that only held a single slice of bread under the steel door, before kicking it forward.

There was a small space from the steel door to the floor of about 7 centimeters.

Bang! With a loud sound, the kicked plate could be heard smashing against the wall inside the confinement room.

Inside, a disheveled young man with long, black hair could be seen doing push-ups.

He was completely unfazed by what the guard said or did and continued to refine his physique.

'One day, you clown, one day...'

Rael had his eyes closed while doing push-ups, as he liked to sense his own perspiration sliding on his body.

Maybe he wasn't even aware of it, but a dangerous grin adorned his face.

---

Unbeknownst to humanity, a spaceship big enough to contend with their own planet suddenly stopped moving forward when it was close to the Solar System.

"Captain Belerick, we're receiving some signals from the drones sent a few million years ago."

"There appear to be some unregistered lifeforms on a nearby planet, RF-B55677, that's part of the 55th System, in the 1777th Galaxy."

An octopus-like creature was narrating all this information to a wolf-like man who stood with his hands behind his back.

Captain Belerick turned to look at his subordinate before saying, "Gyno... In the name of my ancestors, who the heck do you think would remember all those names of the systems and galaxies? Be more specific!"

Gyno, the octopus, retreated two steps from his captain when he saw his pupils taking on a deep shade of gray.

"I'm sorry, Captain! I thought of saying the message as it was; I won't dare to change it!"

"The planet should be named Earth, and from the earlier transmission, we deduced that the lifeforms living there are intelligent beings capable of speaking! Should we initiate the Apocalypse or the Blessing on them?"

As Gyno asked this, Captain Belerick seemed to be lost in thought. This thinking session lasted for a few minutes.

"Initiate the Apocalypse on them. Also, report this to the Universal Institution. They're going to announce the other powers and see if they would be interested in gaining some manpower."

Not showing any of his true feelings when he said 'manpower,' both Gyno and Belerick knew that the poor planet they just discovered would go through hell from now on.

But what could they do? They were simply doing their job as the Reconnaissance Team of the Universal Institution, tasked with finding lifeforms all over the universe.

They had two choices to make while being members of both the Apocalyptic Faction and Blessed Faction.

Since they previously 'blessed' a planet and the ones living there, it was only normal to bring apocalypse to their new finding.

---

Right as Rael finished his training for the day, not only he, but every single human on Earth heard an announcement.

"Congratulations! Humans all over the world, planet RF-B55677, or Earth as you know it, was finally found and given access to the real universe!"

"Brace yourselves for the impact caused by the Apocalypse System infiltrating the atmosphere."

"In 3, 2, 1..."

As this voice suddenly stopped, every human, without question, passed out because of the sudden pressure that descended from the sky.

The entirety of Earth was coated in a thick veil of darkness, which, surprisingly enough, turned the sky blood red, not a deep black like it should've been.

"Captain Belerick! The Apocalypse System that infiltrated the planet is adapting itself to the people there! That's a rare occurrence!"

Captain Belerick didn't say anything; he simply watched the strange process that took place for a while, before turning around and muttering, "Or maybe it found a person fitting enough to become... No, that's impossible..."

"Captain? Did you say something?"

"No, go back to your position. Announce to the others that we are departing. Let's go and find some other planets."

While the spaceship departed just as quickly as it came, the phenomenon caused by the Apocalypse System didn't end yet.

It was only a few hours later that humans began to awaken from their deep sleep induced by the apparition of the Apocalypse System.

'Uhh... What the hell was that? Apocalypse?'

As Rael found himself in the same place, but with a headache, he was confused for a few moments.

Everything happened too suddenly, and he didn't have time to react accordingly, not like he could have reacted in any way...

Suddenly, some words and numbers flashed in his retina, completely taking Rael by surprise.

'Ding! Initializing System...'

'Loading user's interface...'

'Ding! System is ready.'

'Commencing...'

---

**System's Interface**

---

**Character Profile**

[Name]: Rael Hamartia

[Bloodline]: None

[Level]: 0

[Experience Points](XP): 0/100

**Attributes**

- Strength: 14

- Stamina: 12

- Intelligence: 12

- Agility: 12

- Perception: 16

- Attribute Points: 0

**Bloodline Abilities**

- None.

**Skills**

- None

**Inventory**

[Weapons]: None

[Equipment]: None

**Quest Log**

- Main Quest: None

- Objective:

- Side Quest: None

- Objective:

**Skills Upgrade Menu**

- None

The screen that appeared in front of Rael stunned him for a while; he didn't understand how something like this could happen.

'This... It's surprisingly familiar to those novels I used to read a few years ago...'

Suddenly, Rael grinned. It wasn't the kind of grin one would have when pulling a prank on someone else, but the type that emitted danger.

"Hah... Haha... HAHAHA!" Without warning, Rael started to laugh like a maniac. His voice even managed to wake up some people outside the solitary confinement room.

"Ugh, my head..."

"What was that..."

A few guards who were walking the corridors were slowly standing up as Rael's maniacal laugh woke them up.

"What is this?"

"Shit! Do you guys see this screen?"

They all gaped upon seeing the message that flashed before their eyes. Because most of them were quite old already, their knowledge about things like a 'system' was almost nonexistent.

Only those like Rael who had the opportunity to watch or read such fantastical stories at the time had some basic knowledge of it.

"My phone is not working. Daniel, do you have a signal on yours?"

One of the guards asked this to the one tasked with watching Rael's condition, Daniel.

"I don't have... What's this thing even? It's the first time in over 20 years that this area suddenly lost its signal. Let's go and check with the others what happened."

As Daniel said this, he dragged his other two colleagues, Barnes and Tommy, with him.

Walking for a few minutes, they were completely undisturbed by the prisoner's strange screams that came from behind the steel doors.

Some of them were almost resembling bird screeches, while others were... Scratching their doors?

"I swear, these parasites are becoming weirder and weirder with each passing day."

Said Barnes, who scoffed at the people he thought were no more than animals.

"Haha! That's right! We should be allowed to use our earbuds here, though. I'm sick of hearing them complaining every day."

Tommy also butted in.

"Daniel, what's wrong? Why did you stop?" Tommy asked when he saw Daniel stopping right before the door.

"Complaining? I didn't hear that; they're only making weird sounds now." Not thinking about it any longer, Daniel reached for the door, which led to another section of the maximum security prison.

Arrr...

A strange sound was heard from the hallway before them. When the three guards looked closer, another guard was seemingly slowly rising up from the ground.

It was hard for them to recognize him because when they woke up, they seemed to have missed a small detail.

The prison didn't have electricity anymore. So the emergency lights powered by the generators kicked in. Though, because it's been tens of years since they were changed, they wouldn't resist for more than a few hours...

Hearing the strange sound coming from the unknown guard, Tommy was the first to check on him since he was the youngest.

"Hey, are you alright?" As Tommy approached the unknown guard, the latter turned his head towards him; his red eyes were missing any signs of life, which scared the young man.

"Ahh!" Hearing Tommy scream like a little girl, Barnes and Daniel chuckled a bit.

"What's wrong? Have you seen a ghost, Tommy?" The two laughed for a few more seconds until they noticed something strange.

Tommy didn't move at all.

"Tommy?" As Barnes asked this, he got closer to Tommy, and when he was a few meters away from him, he saw the unknown guard hugging Tommy's body and... biting his neck.

"What the heck are you doing?! Let him go!" Rushing toward the two, Barnes tried to take out his gun, but it was too late.

Tommy's body dropped down on the floor with a thud. He didn't move; the reason was probably the loss of blood.

When the unknown guard faced Barnes, he knew he was in trouble. 'What's that?' These were his last thoughts as the 'inhuman' looking being in front of him was different from what he expected.

Opening his mouth, the being in front of Barnes howled, "AAARRRGGHH!" Then he stepped forward and caught Barnes. Not giving the man any chance, the monster also bit his neck, as he did with Tommy.

Meanwhile, Daniel was frozen in place, his legs trembling as he witnessed the events unfolding before his eyes.

The powerful growl of the monster was heard even behind the door, in the hallway, directly to Rael's confinement room.

'Hehe... It's starting.' Opening his eyes, Rael was full of expectations for the future that awaited him.

Apocalypse wasn't a curse for him but a blessing in disguise.