Chapter 1: Pause

The first of December 2022 in New York City, United States. On the roof of a tall high-rise building, a young man could be seen.

As of 20:45, the sun had set and it was currently nighttime. To be in such a location at such a time was certainly unusual.

Standing at the edge, he gazed silently at the scene before him. It was a beautiful sight to see the colorful lights filling up the streets and roads from the brightly lit buildings.

It was, however, distasteful to him. In the end, he found the colors unrecognizable. It was as if everything was black and white.

From where he was standing, the cars that passed by looked like little toy cars. It brought back some memories. It reminded him of his childhood, when he had nothing to worry about and was enjoying life with his family.

He wasn't in the right frame of mind. He appeared to be unaffected by the cold as he was high up and outside in only a shirt. His eyes had dark circles under them.

He took two more steps, allowing half the sole of his shoes to hang over the edge as he gulped down the air stuck in his throat.

All it took was one more step.

He told himself, "Dying a virgin, huh..." as he leaned over the edge.

The thought of leaving the world without leaving behind anything was regrettable to him. He would leave behind no families, no children, not even a lover.

The ground beneath seemed so close yet so far away. Considering he was over 40 stories high, he didn't expect anything less. Just climbing the stairs and bursting into the rooftop took all his strength.

*Step*

One step later, he was gone.

While he fell head first towards the ground, it seemed as though the world was upside down. With every passing second, his speed increased.

He began to see his life flash by as he stared at the moon while falling towards his death

As he reached out for the moon, his gray hair swayed in slow motion as it was brushed against.

The bracelet on his right arm, with a glowing red ore at its center, shimmered in the light.

As he was just a few meters from the ground, he closed his eyes.

*Shatter*

The red ore broke.

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the system!]

[Congratulations! Skill: Pause has been unlocked!]

"..."

Did he hear that right? He wondered. He was sure he heard it, but forget that, why couldn't he feel himself falling anymore?

Fearful of opening his eyes, he kept them closed. People could be heard talking around him. The voices sounded confused or worried.

"Hey… How is that guy floating?"

"Is this some sort of prank?!"

"He's upside down… I don't see any wires."

As Gray slowly opened his eyes, he discovered that the world was upside down. Unsure of what had happened, he looked down and saw his legs stuck towards the sky.

It was impossible for him to move them, no matter how hard he tried. There were no sensations coming from his body.

Quite a few people were gathered in front of him. Many people were covering their mouths as they gasped, and others had taken out their smartphones to record what was happening.

[Effects of pause has ended]

*Crash!*

In a flash, Gray's head crashed against a table beneath him. His entire body followed.

'Effects of pause?' Gray wondered as he got up whilst brushing the back of his head.

Seeing the knife on the floor beside his feet, he knelt down to grab it before glaring at the people watching.

Because he didn't want his death to go viral, he preferred that they leave. Nonetheless, he wasn't concerned.

The knife was raised before suddenly being thrust towards his neck.

[Pause]

His eyes widen as he hears the voice once more; even more bizarre is that the knife is frozen in place right by his neck. It wouldn't budge.

"What the hell is happening…?"

All hell broke loose just as he had just finished questioning that.

On the road ahead of him, buildings were collapsing into a hole that had appeared on the ground out of nowhere.

The hole quickly grew, engulfing everything into its bottomless depths.

Blood-curdling screams could be heard as vehicles fell into the hole. People tried running away, but the hole was expanding much faster than they could see.

Gray let go of the knife and watched for a moment as it remained frozen still in the air.

The people who had watched him a moment ago had already begun to run in a desperate manner.

In contrast to them, Gray was walking towards it, bumping into several others in the process.

With the speed at which the hole was expanding, it didn't take long for it to reach him.

Beneath his feet, the ground crumbled before he was suddenly swallowed up by the hole.

As of 21:00, 1st of December, Year 2022.

It was the beginning of the end of the world. All over the world, large holes had begun to form, causing all the world's great cities to suffer irreparable damage.

Bystanders who didn't even know what had hit them lost their lives.

The Calamity was later referred to as this day.

-

-

-

Grey's eyes slowly opened, reflecting the bright light of the candle on the wall next to him. The blood stench permeated the room as he got up, covering his nose as he rose.

After a moment of confusion, he looked around and realized he was standing on a staircase. The people who had fallen left behind their remains, which were the remains of their bodies.

Once again. Why did he survive again?

On the fall, the valueless gem in his bracelet, which had been left to him by his parents, seemed to have broken.

In the absence of any other choice, he began his descent. While descending, he noticed the wall patterns.

He found them to be strange drawings, but whatever meaning they might have contained was too complicated for someone like him to decipher.

[Welcome to the Labyrinth!]

His head throbbed with pain as he nearly fell over. Yet again, he heard the strange voice.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Gray asked with lifeless eyes.

[Would you like to see your status? Y or N]

"Go away"

In an instant, a screen appeared in front of his eyes.

---------------

[Possessor: Gray Calibre

Race: Human

Level: 1

XP Required For Level Up: 0/100

HP: 10/10

Strength: 5

Agility: 5

Stamina: 5

Sense: 5

Points Available To Distribute: 0]

--------------

For a moment, his eyes seemed to light up as he stared at the screen before he snorted.

"A game? Really?"

At the top of the screen were other tabs. Gray could easily switch between them just by thinking.

--------------

[Skills]

Pause [Level 1]

Effect [Level1]: Pieces of the user's body or objects can be momentarily paused. Target's body can be paused. Limitations are based on the size of the object or body part.

Requirements: Contact with target's body, visual lock on object.

Users' stamina is depleted every second.

Time limit: five seconds

--------------

Skill Points Available: 0

---------------

Gray's eyes widened. An ability which allowed him to pause things? It had a level beside it, which meant that it would most likely evolve and have other effects.

As Gray considered all the ways he could use this skill, his eyes slowly began to light up. As soon as he recalled a memory, the light faded once more.

He instinctively shifted his focus to the quest tab as soon as his eyes fell upon it.

[Daily Quest:

Pause Training:

Pause 100 Objects: 0/100

100 Push ups: 0/100

100 Sit Ups: 0/100

100 Squats: 0/100

10 KM Run: 0/10

Reward: 2 Stat points.]

"Only two for all of that? What a scam." He complained as he continued to descend.

[You are approaching the first floor of the labyrinth.]

Gray suddenly felt a change in the air and temperature around him. It had grown darker and colder.

[New Quest Received]

A tab appeared in front of his eyes.

[Quest: Clear Labyrinth's First Floor

First Floor: Uncleared

Reward: 5 Stat points.

XP Reward: 100]

—

-

-

10:49 on December 2nd, 2022.

In a factory, a grown man can be seen working. The man was focusing on his tasks and had been working non-stop for the past hour.

Once he had screwed in the final piece, he decided to take a break. The other members of his team were probably also finished with their shift.

While sitting on a nearby chair, he got a beer from their refrigerator. His tank top was drenched with sweat from all the steam. The frozen cold beer was already warming up in his hand. As a result, he rushed to finish it.

He downed almost half of the beer in one go before taking a deep breath.

"That hits the spot." He muttered to himself.

During his break, he decided to practice. Taking a look at his palm, he slowly clenched and opened it before closing his eyes and focusing.

As a piece of dirt formed and hardened over his palm, a strange brown aura began to radiate from his body.

"I wonder if they'll even find this useful." He muttered to himself.

He had been practicing his earth manipulation ability since he had gotten it, which was yesterday night.

A piece of dirt that he had created was picked up and examined with great curiosity, still doubting that it was his creation. Then he heard a strange sound coming from near one of the steam engines.

Because there were many steam engines blocking his view, he wasn't sure what exactly it was, but he went over to see what it was.

"Something probably fell." He muttered after wiping off the beer remnants from his lips. "You guys okay?" He questioned as he got closer.

Once again, there was no reply. Just the sound of the engines.

Starting to get annoyed, he thought they were playing a joke on him.

As he approached the corner, however-

His eyes widened. All of the beer and food he had eaten earlier felt as if they were about to rise again. While staring at the scene, he could barely hold back his vomit as he gulped down.

There was a pool of blood on the floor. It came from the corpse of one of his team members.

A second member of his team was lying on top of the corpse. His skin was pale. Seeing only his back, he did not know what expression he was making. Still, he could clearly see what he was doing.

He was eating him.

'What...?'

As it bit into the corpse of his colleague, the ripping and crunching sounds of skin seemed to resound in his soul.

His heart sank. With widened eyes, he took a step back, his entire body shaking.

But in that instant.

The cannibal suddenly lunged at him. Biting into his arm as it did so.

"GARGH!!" He groaned out it pain.

The adrenaline-charged movement of his body caused a hook to land on the side of the cannibal's face, causing the latter to slide to the side, ripping off a chunk of flesh as it did so.

The man then ran as hard as he could out of the factory.

"What the hell was that!?" He questioned, his hand pressing down on the wound trying to stop it from bleeding.