CHAPTER 4

6 hours later----

Karthikeyan after what seemed a long day at school finally came back to his home and got a break that he thought he deserved at that moment. He had been through a lot this day. When he arrived home his mother and father were all over him , asking if he was fine , whether he was hurt somewhere and so on. He answered them diligently.

Then he got curious to whether his parents gained the system or not . He had inquired all his classmates. It seemed that everyone gained one , even when he was coming back home he heard some middle aged people telling those they were close with what they got.

Only the children and some teenagers didn't seem to have a system on them.

"Of course not everything is rainbows right?" He thought "there had to be some exceptions even in the category of people who got the system" . He was at first shocked to know his parents also received the system but reassured himself that it was for the greater good. If some misfortune were to be caused to them in any form at least they could defend themselves now.

The phenomenon had happened at around 1 pm IST , he came back from school at around 3 30 pm , he had spent the remaining time talking with his parents , watching news , taking a bath and browsing the internet where forums and threads started appearing discussing about the phenomenon. The otakus and no- lifers had already started speculating what they could do to level up , gain skills and defeat dungeons . Yes dungeons , you heard that right.

When people finished analysing our systems earlier that mysterious voice resounded again. It told them that from now onwards they were alone for survival and that they would be facing constant opposition from the opposite "kingdom" who they referred to as demons. The voice which appeared to be feminine told them it was an Angel and also reassured that many of the fantasy things they knew were real. The voice seemed to hint that they were "Unique" in some way but he couldn't quite deduce what that "Uniqueness " meant. She also told that the remaining miscellaneous information would be available to them through the manual provided by the system. With that her voice disappeared and after some time the world went the way it was .

In that manual he found out that the "Constant opposition" from the opposite kingdom would be in the forms of dungeons. The science that went behind it was neither explained by the manual or the so called "Angel". He left it to be for now. It was not important.

He received a call suddenly when he was pondering about such things . It startled him. It was one of the persons with whom he acted to get close with, so people around him wouldn't see him as a loner loser. It was not like he had no interest in getting friends but rather they were not worth it . They were the type to betray you , hurt your feelings when the time was ripe. he ,at his free time hung out around them to get an effect of Pollyannaism . As he was not below average in any aspects at school they didn't bully him and accepted him in their group. He couldn't quite get himself to view them as his friends even after it had been 2 months since they hung out.

"Hello" he said

" Good grief dude You are indeed alive , I thought you were dead"

"Thats not a pleasant way to start a conversation , you know"

"We couldn't possibly go about the conventional method anymore you know ? the world is falling apart"

"Since when did you start talking like a philosopher Kyōsuke?

"I have been enlightened by the system. Anyways dude why didn't you take part in the conversation in the school group we had just now?"

" You had a group chat in the school group?" . These dudes were never the type to discuss about studies and stuff which was the thing they were supposed to do as saw by society. It was not really surprising that when things like these came up they were piqued in interest.

"Indeed we were asking you questions here and there asking your opinions thinking you were there . Since you were not some took the chance and started telling jokes that you were dead or something and that we had to avenge you"

"The dungeons have not even started , what made them think that I was dead" . It felt like an arrow piercing my heart. Death? I was never afraid of it but now it felt like once I die everything will go down with me. It was a strange feeling. "Is it the curse? " I thought

" Well anyways thats why I called you , I thought you might not know and wanted to tell you what happened. Turns out I was right."

"What have they planned anyways? "

"I seems that the dudes are going to dive in the first of the dungeons that will be appearing on 9th of July . There are 20 boys in our class they want at least 15 boys to take initiative and join them by tomorrow"

"Wait aren't they being a little careless ? diving without any prior information is literally suicide, but wait are they forcing the boys to join?" it might be a problem if they do

"No they are not forcing . They say that as we guys know each other well we should form a group or guild so we fight together and stuff"

Are these guys in kindergarten ? Fight together ? thats nonsense and only some guys are acquainted with each other for a long time ,majority of us just shifted to that school . How could we be close to each other when it has been only 2 months. No one would volunteer when life is on hand.

" what about you Kyōsuke are you going"

"Yeah, the talent I got ain't that bad I think its not wrong to give it a shot"

The majority at school might have already revealed to their close friends their Talent ranks. Currently the ranks were unknown and all the conclusions that were on the Internet were half baked.

"What about you Karthikeyan? You are going to join us?"

"No I just have a f rank talent there is no way I could be good" I blatantly lied . Well partially , even I didn't know my rank. All the talents or curses seemed to have 2 effects according to the forums. Mine had 5 effects and even a condition.

They then talked for 5 more minutes before they hung out. Karthikeyan put his phone on the table and jumped on his bed .It seemed the girls couldn't bother themselves with this situation and thought everything was a prank and even if it was not , they would never acquaint themselves with the boys.

He then started to browse his system and looked through what It had . The schools as they said would be closed for 10 days until 18th and only be opened once the situation has been assessed . It was more than enough time for him to get comfortable with this phenomenon. The world had 8 billion people, a lot of information was just around the corner . But if he had to know the valuable ones he had to go and figure out himself. Only his parents were the hinderance right now...

He then dosed off so he could face the next day with his full energy.