Near the End of Summer

For a young man in his early twenties standing against a metal fence, this is just a "free" day like any other: wake up, rot away while waiting for the time to meet up with friends, do some stupid stuff together, go back home, sleep, and rot the next day.

The young man pops an energy drink, drinking its contents while scrolling on his phone. His eyes looked at the screen with a numb stare. His clothes are as casual as possible, a red t-shirt, black hood with white fur undercoat, black sweatpants with two red stripes and black running shoes. The look of a thousand average young men.

The young man let out a sigh of fatigue while scrolling his feed. "What a waste of my time." Another day wasting away, another lost day of his youth. Truth be told, there isn't much to do while waiting for his friends to come. Against the fence of a stair to the lower point of the town. Heat spreads through his body, his clothes making it almost unbearable. With a slight frown, the young man stares at the silhouette of the sun behind him. "Today is going to have a heat wave."

Another morning he awaits for his friends to come. As he scrolled his feed, a strange notification appeared on it. A "kawaii" cat face emoji notification. A strange sight— his phone doesn't have any app with this type of notification. "Is it a virus?"

Clicking on the notification opens a screen like the summoning of a gacha game. [Hey, Hey. It is time to see what you got, baby!]

An animation starts, like a machine trying to produce something. Many bars appear on the screen.

[SYNTHESIZING 1%... {ANALYZING 50%}... JAWS OF DARKNESS! FLAME OVERDRIVE! 110% {SHUNNING THE LIGHT! 90%}... CHANNELING INNER BEAST 90%... SEEKER OF THE SUN 40% {CROWN OF THE BEAST 50%}. IDEA CRYSTALLIZED. GREAT WOLF. SYNTHESIS 100%]

Flames enveloped the screen as a crystal formed on it, having the shape of a wolf head crest.

[DOOM & MYTH & SELF: 6 STARS! SKOLL THE SUN CHASER!]

"Cool, but I don't remember installing this gacha." The young man closes the app, going back to scroll his feed. Suddenly, his feed starts to be flooded by "Strange gacha summoning?" "What is happening? I didn't install this app!" much like the one from moments ago.

A new set of notifications of the strange app appears. [Apocalypse is near! Dig in and prepare yourself for the incoming danger!]

"This is a gacha alright." Shaking his head, he puts the phone in his pocket. There isn't anything interesting to see. Taking a few minutes to finish the contents of the energy drink, the young man sighs. Nothing good on the feed and no drink to kill time. Just perfect.

For his luck, the wait is short-lived. "What's up K.J?!" someone calls for him, looking forward, another young man, with short light-brown hair, waves his hand at him, a big and dumb smile on his face.

"Hi, Tyler." He waves back, walking toward his friends. They are a strange bunch, but who is he to say anything about that?

Tyler, the "leader" of the group. Your typical jock young adult. Wearing a white and orange jacket, jeans, and sports shoes, roughly standing at the same height as him, 5 '7 ft. He never saw him sad, being the type to always look up ahead, the type of person always up to help and lighten the mood.

Right behind him, the second "leader" figure of the group. Walking behind Tyler, a guy who can be described as a metalhead, his face always on the edge of a frown. He is relatively tall, at his 6 '2 ft height, wearing a metalhead outlook. Black trench coat, probably melting due to the heat, red t-shirt, black pants with a belt with "S.M" carved on it, and gray shoes.

Spencer. Or going with his social media nickname, S.M.

With a faint smile, K.J walks towards Spencer. They hadn't seen or talked with each other the longest, almost two months. Even with social media, their lives had been "busy". Seeing him walk, Spencer gets closer as well.

"Spencer, how have you been? Thought the church was keeping you hostage." In a neutral voice, although his expression did not betray any feeling, his body language did the opposite, relaxing and opening his guard. Spencer raises his hand.

"Yo. Things have been hard lately, for us all, I think." As they get close enough, they do a high five.

"Such is life, then… Hey S.M, did you receive strange notifications of a gacha?" Picking up his attention, the tall man looks up at him, confusion in his eyes. Tyler makes an expression of confusion, jumping between them, with his arms around their shoulders, his face with a fake strained smile. "Did you guys install new gachas? Without talking to the poor 'lil me?"

A fake tone of anger spreads in his voice as if he is outraged that they went to play a new game without him. "... Of course. If we told you, you would steal all of our luck. You lucky thief! Lucky vampire!" Answering with a playful tone, K.J pushes Tyler slightly. He staggers back, holding his chest while his face fills up with disbelief.

"Betrayed! By my own friends! How could this be?!" Falling to his knees, Tyler looks up to the morning sun. "I guess this is my end… Anyway, I thought both of you were burned out of this genre." As soon as his knees touched the ground, the blonde got up immediately.

This made both K.J and "S.M" roll their eyes. "Tyler, I only play two gachas because my accounts are four years old each." "One can't just abandon accounts with more than a year in age." If they could, abandoning gachas would be an easy task.

"I only play Awesome Samurai Women.'' With a sigh, the metalhead picks up his phone, unlocks it, and shows the notification. "And yes, K.J, I got a notification but haven't checked yet. Maybe it is a virus?" A hint of worry pierces through his neutral expression, well, the notifications could be a bigger problem.

Holding his chin, K.J tries to think of a reason why people are getting those notifications. "If it is, it only sends these notifications, yet. Maybe it is spyware? Even if it was, everyone on my feed also got it." Thinking it was made to spy on him and his group, a bunch of young adults and late teenagers, is too far-fetched.

Besides, even the people he is subscribed to also got it. Taking his phone to check on a streaming platform, many live streams are talking about these notifications, not even one of these related to him, or his friends.

"This shit has to be a joke. Like, everyone is getting these notifications."

Amusing as it is, the fact that everyone is getting those notifications is creepy. Too creepy. Shaking his head, Spencer clicks on the notification. "It says here I got Susanoo, six stars. If it is a gacha, this is the most elaborated marketing campaign of all time."

A big smile appears on his friend's face, satisfied because he got a six star. "So, you got the same rarity as mine, huh? Got Skoll." Despite not knowing who or what Skoll is supposed to be, at least he should be good, seeing who else is in the six-star category.

"Who the hell is Skoll, anyway? Why would it be in the same category as Susanoo?" A mumble of outrage escapes Spencer's mouth. How is a nobody in the same category as the god of storms?

"It indeed is strange for him to be a six-star like Susanoo. Who knows, he may be important in the game or some mythology?" While both Spencer and K.J mumble about who or what Skoll may be, besides some sort of wolf, Tyler interjects after clicking on the notification.

"Hey, guys. I opened the notification too. Got seven stars, Leviathan. Pretty cool, huh?" Air escapes from the lungs of both, exasperated at their friend's luck. Pure outrage threatens to erupt on K.J's face.

"Lucky fucker!"

Holding back the bluntness of his outrage, K.J glares daggers at Tyler, while Spencer tries to set their blonde friend on fire with his stare. With determination, the metalhead manages to say something through his teeth. "Lucky, ain't cha?" Suppressing a snort, Tyler just shrugs his shoulders.

"Why asking? Got a low star character?" K.J clenches his teeth.

"Luck bastards should go to hell." Giving a wink to his gloomy friend, Tyler says full of himself: "Spencer, I'm too handsome to go to hell." As he says, more people from their group start to appear.

With a Cheshire grin on his face, Tyler waves at them. "Well, let's talk to them, and see if they also got the notifications." Without warning, Tyler sprints forward, almost leaping, to meet the rest of their friends to brag about his luck, leaving a cloud of dust behind.

Shaking his head, Spencer smiles fondly. "This guy… well. Let's go meet them and ask what they got." Going after their leader, he leaves K.J "alone". Like Spencer, a small and happy smile forms between his lips.

Picking up his phone for a last look at the notifications, new ones are there, talking about the "Apocalypse". Like a flood, more and more emails and SMS goes into his box.

"The notifications are coming nonstop. Ha, I'm just overthinking, it's probably nothing." Putting the phone back in the pocket, he joins the group. "Yo, K.J, Long time no see. Three weeks, right?" calling from inside the group, a pale hand waves at him, before stepping out. Shoulder-length white hair, a jeans jacket, and shorts, one of his best friends, Lawrence.

A headache starts to bloom. "Don't say it, Lawrence. My head is already starting to hurt." The sheer fact of being unemployed is more than enough to put a sour taste in his mouth, this is disregarding other factors too.

"Shitty days then. Worry not, those things are temporary." Lawrence, L.L for short, answers with his best attempt at a "warm smile".

"Thanks. Well, let's leave this talk for later. Any interesting things happening lately?"

Why ask this? From any recent news, there is only one topic worth talking about right now. "There is one, but I think you already know it, right?" Just a glance at each other's faces is enough to answer the question.

The strange gacha is the hottest new thing right now. "Yeah, pretty much. What did you get anyway? I've got a six-star, Skoll or something like that. It is a wolf."

Taking a moment to think, L.L recalls an old lore from an internet forum of mythology he read years ago. "I think it is from Norse mythology. Something about him eating the moon."

With a spark of understanding, K.J gives a soft nod. "Cool. Well, why would it be a six-star anyway? I never heard of the guy until now." Arching an eyebrow, the white-haired young man interjects: "Why should I know? Gachas don't respect any lore or reason when putting their waifu or husbando baits all over the place.

"Damn good point." K.J thinks to himself, with this out of the way, there is only one question left. "So, what you got in your gacha?"

"Four star, Wendigo." If anything, the calm and serene tone of his voice is commendable. K.J wouldn't endure the fact of getting a meager four-star as well as L.L.

"Sorry for your loss, Champion." With a smirk, a brutal and fast response comes like a punch to the face.

"I lack the gacha brain rot you guys have. I don't care about getting a character with one or seven stars. I won't play it anyway." An honest, but true response. For one who does not play gachas, the difference would be meaningless. "Aren't you too witty for your own sake?"

Cutting their vibe short, someone rudely calls for them. "Hey, will you guys stop dating each other and come talk to us?" The barely-held laughter was the most annoying point of the calling.

"Go fuck yourself."

"I'm going to break your spine."

In tandem, both go back to the main group. "See? Just a fun picking and they are around." The owner of the voice, Elliot, steps out, walking towards K.J with a big smile on his face, extending his hand.

"Tough luck. How is life, bastard?" He extended his hand in return as both meet each other to form a handshake. "Better than most— wouldn't say no for more girls in it, though." As soon as their hands meet, both apply all of their strength, squishing their hands as veins pop up due to the strain. "So, it must be old news for you, but what did you get from the gacha?"

With exasperation in his voice, K.J tries his best to not lose, as Elliot forces his mouth in a frown. "A four-star like L.L. A creation of Many." At the very least, the name of the character is cool. With a strained smirk, K.J asked his friend:

"So, what have you been doing?"

"You know, the basics. Engineering university, going out with some girls. The good stuff." The pressure on both their hands grows, forcing them to the limits." Hm… Okay. Elliot, you won." Backing off, the young man waves his hand a little, trying to wane the pain of his hand.

With a smile, Tyler takes a long breath. "So people! Let's kick off the day!"

(...)

While people would think of going to arcades, bars, or other such places to start their friend group activity, they have other plans to start their day with. S.M, Tyler, and Henderson go inside a convenience store to buy a bunch of energy drinks for their group of 8 people.

Everyone gave in their score of money, after all, pinning up the price on one or two of them would be unfair.

Sparing a glance at the skies, an impossible beast flies unhindered, its great shadow cast on the city below. Its majestic form was reflected on the eyes of the dumbfounded people on the streets, the youths included. Without warning, a ball of hellfire is expelled from its mouth, down on a building. With an explosion of great potential, the ground shakes as the deafening sound of concrete melting and being blown away resonates through the streets.

On the morning of August 5th of 2032, the life of eleven youths, and the entire world, changed irreversibly.