the rise

- One minute before the Apocalypse -

In the northern part of Serranis the capital of the Nexus empire.

A homeless man could be seen leaning against a tree trunk in a public park.

If one looked carefully at his face he would see that the man was young, in his early twenties at most but he was aged beyond his years, with hollow cheeks and tired eyes that held a mixture of despair and hopelessness.

A long, menacing scar had further marred his appearance, beginning at his forehead and stretching across his left eye, and ending at his right jaw.

His tattered and dirt-smeared clothes hardly offered any defense against the worsening weather. Over his head, storm clouds gathered covering the sky. Accompanied by distant rumbles of thunder and gusts of wind—ominous signs of a fierce hurricane coming.

Passersby hurried past him, most of them ignoring his presence after giving him a mocking look some even stopped to mock him.

Lost in the bustling rhythm of the city. The young homeless man had an indifferent expression on his face in the face of the ridicule he received as he clinged to a worn backpack

The bag contained his few possessions and perhaps a glimmer of his past.

He took out a picture and the look on his face softened. In the picture was three peoples. two men and a woman. One of the two men had a similar appearance to him.

After a few seconds of looking, he returned the picture to his backpack. and a look of malice and hatred appeared on his face.

" I will kill them all. If only I had the ability, I would annihilate them all. I'll make them regret the day they were born. I'll make them wish they never existed so they never met me ."

The man's inner thoughts were interrupted by a gnawing hunger that seized his frame, making him curl into a fetal position. He felt like his stomach turned into a black hole and it was about to suck him. A few more seconds passed, as he began to feel weak and his sight became blurry.

" Fuck this world! why am I the one who is dying under a fucking tree in the middle of nowhere? He should be the one who is dying not me! "

The man's sight became blurryier and he could feel death's invisible hands crawling around him, announcing his approaching end.

But just as he began to feel his consciousness slipping away into eternal rest, a woman's piercing shriek echoed in the air. Moreover crashing and collapsing sounds came from all the directions around him, bringing him back to reality and saving him from his inevitable and miserable fate.

And then, his eyes fluttered open, senses snapping back into place. the first thing he sensed was the earth under him shaking violently as if it was about to shatter.

He raised his head and was about to look around to see what was happening but suddenly he felt like he was punched in his liver, a feeling he was used to.

Everything became blurry and he felt that he wasn't able to control his own body. But this time it felt different compared to the other times when he was punched in his liver. He felt like being separated from reality it was a painful yet surreal and strange feeling.

A few seconds passed and the weird sensation disappeared and he regained control over his body. After that, he opened his eyes again and the first thing he saw was panels in front of his face that looked like they came out of the video games he used to play

[The cosmic system arrived on your planet. The veil that separates the Earth from the rest of the universe will disappear soon.

After its disappearance, the towers will descend and the disasters will start. The planet will face many challenges and tests and it needs to overcome them in order to survive. To know more, head to the closest tower that will descend soon and much more information will be offered.

Many benefits will be guaranteed. One of them is the ability to see your status window whenever you want by thinking about it.

The other benefits of the cosmic system should be discovered on your own. ]

The blurriness in the man's vision disappeared as clarity replaced the haze, he started looking at the panel with a confused and astonished look on his face.

After a few more seconds he felt some kind of energy running through his body and the pain and hunger he felt before decreased a lot.

As he was going to open the status window that the panel spoke about, another cry echoed from the same direction as the previous one.

He turned his head and he saw a woman who had previously passed by him and insulted him and called him a cheater on her knees crying and screaming. She was holding her bloodied shoulder. Her arm was ripped from her shoulder completely.

A creature that looked like a chihuahua but was much bigger reaching a height of a meter and its body was much more muscular. with red glowing eyes and taller, sharper, and scarier teeth was eating it.

The young man thought of intervening and saving the woman, but the idea disappeared as quickly as it appeared. He lost trust and hope in humans a long time ago already. The best thing to do now was to observe the situation and try to save himself from this mess.

" status window "

_____________

Ashen Evilian

level : 0

Race : Human

title : none

class : none

subclass : none

__________

Stats :

Strength : 1 [18]

Agility : 1 [22]

Dexterity : 3 [30]

Health : 3 [ 34 ]

Mana : 36

Stamina : 2 [ 20 ]

_________

Active skills : none

Passive skills : none

Unique talent : none

_____________

" Interesting !This is really like the novels that I sometimes read in my free time but I have no idea about the System's mechanisms. I guess I will head to the so-called tower to get more information about it. but the most important thing is to find a way to escape I need to have some food or else I will really die starving. Even though I feel better considering my low health points I should quickly take action before something unexpected happens "Ashen decided

After he finished thinking, he got up while leaning against the tree and chose a direction to go but before he took his first step he heard the woman screaming.

As he turned his head back he was met with a terrifying scene. The woman was lying down, her left leg was cut off and the dog was now baiting her right thigh.

Her clothes were torn and covered in blood and dirt, she was crying and screaming. Her tears and blood mingled with the makeup on her face, and with the look of fear on her face, to create a frightening face.

When she noticed Ashen looking at her, she opened her mouth and started begging for help. her previously filled with desperation eyes, now flicked with a glimpse of hope.

" Sir, please help me! I didn't mean the words that I said earlier, If you save me I will go out and announce that you are innocent. I will help you get your reputation back. I know the owner of a big social media page. I can clear your name. Please help me ! "

Ashen stood there without saying anything, just looking into the woman's eyes while she was begging for help .

After she finished her words he opened his mouth to only say one thing

" No, die. That's what you deserve. "

A chilling coldness could be sensed in his words. The woman's face darkened after hearing his words.

The hopeful look in her eyes changed into an even more desperate one, she was shocked by Ashen's cold response to the point where she stopped screaming for a part of a second.

But the shock effect disappeared quickly, and she began screaming again but this time the look on her face was as if the gates of hell opened in her face.

" You can't abandon me, you can't! you should help me or else you will be blamed by public opinion. Don't you want to gain your reputation back? If you do this you will close any way for you to clear your name forever. Help me, help meee! "

Ashen had an indifferent expression on his face as ignored the woman's beggings and turned around and started running with his backpack on and with the help of a stick, he found near him. He didn't even bother to think about the women as he was focusing only on surviving.

With each step he took, the women's screams became weaker and weaker to the point where it was like whispers.

As he ran through the trees he looked at the sky above his head, stars filled it. They were very clear to the point you can even count them. But the important thing was that cracks that covered it as well, it looked like it would collapse at any moment.

From time to time, a huge dome will appear and it seems it was covering the entire earth as Ashen could only see a part of it. The dome had many cracks on it and after observing it for some time it seemed that they were getting bigger and bigger. Moreover, it was also covered in many complicated and glowing patterns. But they became less and less glow with each passing second.

After looking at the sky for a bit Ashen thought

" Is this what the system meant by the veil that separates Earth from the universe ? It seems that it won't take a long time before the so-called descend happens I should find a good place to hide in it. Who knows what kind of things will happen? "

As Ashen kept walking thinking of his future path his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of something running in his direction from where he left

"Don't tell me "

Soon his suspicions were confirmed as the chihuahua followed him and it was looking at him with its red-glowing eyes. its body was covered in blood and it had a predatory look in her eye as it approached Ashen slowly.