My Solo System

The only mistake Aroon and his brother made was to say no. They got an offer to submit and they refused.  Aroon didn't know all this would happen next. He and his two brothers only thought the most they would lose is some privilege... not losing their lives.

"Damn it!"

Aroon scrambled on the floor, curling into himself, as he used a metallic round table to shield himself.  His eyes were locked on with a deadly focus on the wooden door that was barricaded with his bed.  While he sat there, on the outside one would describe him as looking like the definition of calmness, Aroon could feel fear swimming through his blood while under the surface there were hints of anger.

"I should have killed him before," he mumbled, holding his automatic gun that looked slightly like a small cannon. It had a long cold cylindrical end that he was sure to turn hot pretty soon.

Aroon was eighteen years old. He was one of a triplet. In addition to that, he had two little sisters who were twins. He came to this life in a family that used to deliver twins.

He wasn't that short or slim, having the Asian typical features except for his rounded wide eyes that he got from his British mother.

Under other circumstances, you wouldn't put him, his brothers, or even any of his family in any regard at all. He was raised knowing how hard it was to survive in this world, especially with such a big family with no father to shoulder many responsibilities for them.

However, fate had another call to his and his brother's destiny.

It happened five years ago when all of a sudden the world they lived and knew of changed in one night. Terrifying monsters appeared from out of nowhere and started killing every unfortunate soul that they came across.

Armies across the globe were dispatched to go fight the terrifying, unbeatable, heartless monsters but like everyone else, they were killed. All hope was lost. Humans accepted their fate. This was the end ...….. until a miracle happened.

Extraordinary people rose with special powers. They were called Systems and they were only granted powers if they were a twin. It was something all the world marvelled at in mysterious ways, not knowing how it did appear or why twins were chosen.

In one night the hype for getting twins rose from every corner of the world, ending Aroon and his poor family up into a much better place, a brighter future.

Or that's what they thought back then. He first trusted the government, but now he totally despised and hated it!

"I shouldn't have come to America… I shouldn't have trusted those snakes called government officials!" Aroon kept blaming himself for supporting such an idea back then.

He wasn't the only one voting for that. Anyone with some sanity in his head wouldn't refuse such an offer, instant wealth, or granted fame and glory.

"Boom!"

Suddenly a muffled explosive sound came from far away. He turned his head towards the shining world outside his window.

It was such a nice sunny typical day that it turned into a nightmare in one moment.

"I knew these bastards would come," he turned his head fast towards the door, "others are fighting out there, but me… hahaha, I'm the fallen loser. I'm the only one with no ability after the system got stripped off me."

In this world, systems were granting special superhuman abilities to any twins, on the condition they all stay alive. If one or few were killed, then the system would be demoted but still working.

At such scenario, those survivors were be called Fallens.

  The system would vanish, leaving behind only its farewell gift in the form of superhuman ability.

  The fallen, that was what the world decided to call people like Aroon.

"What a nice nickname to have," he sarcastically said while checking the ammo of his useless weapon.

After losing his two brothers one year ago he was left with nothing. Everything was stripped off him, money, power, and fame.

Even his system was so cold-hearted and denied him of any ability like other fallen. And so he was called an even worse nickname; the loser fallen.

"Boom!"

The entire building he was in trembled violently. Panic screams echoed from the lower levels.

"They are here," he held his weapon tight, closed his eyes while taking deep breaths to calm his racing heart.

The entire building started to shake faintly, giving him the feeling it was planning to crush down at any minute.

  Thin trails of dust falling from the ceiling kept this idea fresh in his mind.

"It seems I'll be able to meet you soon," he touched a small hand bracelet that was made of cold iron. It was fitting his right wrist, with nothing else to serve but a place to save things inside.

"Click!"

He touched the side button of it and the lid cover slipped off revealing what was inside. He took out an old picture that was folded many times to fit that small space.

"I've missed you all," he gazed at the old picture of him and his big family with tearing eyes. "It sounds like… this was taken just yesterday," he bitterly muttered while touching the outer surface of the picture, and feeling the rough edges of it.

He knew the date this picture was taken, the moment he and his family moved to the US. They had big dreams, wide smiles, and nothing else but hope for a bigger and brighter future.

Even his little twin sisters had such a bright smile that they never showed before coming here.

"Sniff!"

He wiped out his tears and put the picture back inside the bracelet. "Oh, I believe I should have burnt you the moment I got you," he said with some anger while taking out another piece of much better-looking paper.

He glanced at the yellow thick small piece of paper that he got a month ago.

"An invitation to join our prideful military academy," he sneered while reading the headline of that letter. He knew what it had, lies and sweet promises that no sane would believe.

He hesitated before putting this paperback inside the bracelet before closing it again. This invitation letter came not only to him but to all the fallen living here in this town as well.

And none considered that offer, all except one.

"You can do this," he lied to himself while taking deep breaths and trying to clear up his mind.

He knew he had nothing to do in front of these monsters, especially with that pathetic piece of metal in his hand.

Humanity tried it all, even nuking some massive dungeons with no one living around.

All failed! Firepower meant nothing in front of this alien invasion.

"Ah!"

Another scream echoed and this time the sound seemed so close. He felt his heartbeat rising to the roof, and his body was now drenched in sweat.

His blue eyes that always brimmed with life dimmed at this moment. He knew deep down his soul he was doomed. And yet he refused to fall without a fight.

"I won't give those bastards the satisfaction of eating me alive," he muttered while touching a hand grenade hanging with a small chain to his waist belt.

Monsters used to eat people, especially their brains. It was such a painful process if you were alive. Awake or not didn't matter, as everyone knew all would scream out in deep agony and excruciating pain.

"Boom!"

Another explosion rang and this time it was so near that even a cloud of dust came from the window, covering all the light coming from the outside.

"They are having fun down there," he was tempted to just jump off this window and join the fight ongoing down below.

However, he knew the great difference between dreams and reality. Joining others would endanger them. Besides, facing one monster at a time was the best option he currently had.

"Come," he could hear the heavy footsteps of those big monsters drawing closer to his door, "there is a twin still breathing here."

He would have laughed at his comment in any other situation, however, he didn't.

Despite his desire to shout with all his might, he didn't. Those monsters were mainly driven by loud noises and big moves.

And he didn't want to attract more than he could chew. Even dealing with a single monster seemed suicidal to him.

Not for one moment he seriously considered killing himself and be relieved of this torture. But he thought of it a couple of times.

He wasn't that type of sore loser, those who believed to be cowards to kill themselves.

He preferred to fall, the same way his other two brothers did while fighting.

"This is the fall of the brave," he tried to encourage himself to embrace the incoming intense moments while the shade of a monster came from the tiny gaps around his closed door.

"Boom!"

The door was hit and all the barricades he prepared from his simple room ended up doing nothing.

He watched the bed he used to sleep on for the past year fly fast, luckily bypassing him and slamming heavily on the rear window before taking the whole trip down to the bottom.

"Roar!"

Aroon moved a little to spot his incoming monster. "A cleaver of all… Damn my bad luck!" he couldn't help but lament his bitter luck.

The monster that kicked on his door was a very famous one. It was roughly three meters tall, barely able to walk through the human buildings without getting hit with the roof.

It had two thick legs, a huge rounded belly, and strongly triangular shoulders that resembled little pyramids.

It looked at Aroon with its group of small elliptical red eyes that were around a dozen on each side of its shark-like head.

"Roar!"

It opened its mouth and roared when noticed Aroon, exposing its three lines of sharp teeth and that hideous inner mouth that could stretch out like a frog tongue.

"Damn! He saw me!" Aroon didn't stand at his place for one second while rolling on the ground fast, leaving the seemingly safe metallic table behind.

"Swoosh!"

The next moment two tentacles moved fast from the back of the monster and slammed heavily over the table. Aroon saw it bouncing heavily towards the wall, deeply inserted in it out of the absurd strength of the tentacles.

"Die!" he didn't even wait to stand upright before opening fire with his weapon. The bullets rained down the thick dark green skin of the monster, causing fire sparks all around like it was fireworks.

"Die you bastard!" Aroon suddenly got a strange gush of adrenaline. He forgot anything about his safety at this moment and tried to aim towards the monster's eyes.

He knew one of the poorly defended places of any monster would be the eyes and luckily some bullets got through.

"Roar!"

"Swoosh!"

"Bang!"

It happened so fast that he didn't even see it coming. The moment the monster got hurt in some of its eyes it roared in anger.

It slammed Aroon with a couple of highly agile tentacles and caused him to hit the wall before falling over the ground motionless.

"Screw you!" Aroon tried to stand but he felt all of his bones being crushed. He couldn't even shake off his body as he gave up using his machine gun at this point.

"It's time for us to go down together… I hope," he reached out to his belt and looked for the grenade.

"Roar!"

"Where did it go?" Just as his hands touched nothing but emptiness, he searched all around until he found it.

"So close," he bitterly muttered when he spotted the grenade lying only one meter to his left. "Yet I bet you won't let me reach it, right?"

He laughed, bitterly laughing at the twist of fate. Even having a less painful death was something he wouldn't be granted.

"What did I do to deserve this?" he couldn't help but say while watching the monster touching his injured eyes with both tentacles before turning to glance at him.

It opened its big jaws slowly while a very bad smelling sticky saliva rolled out of its opened mouth.

"That's it," he succumbed to his fate while watching the smallmouth slowly moving inside the opened mouth while the monster walked step by step, causing faint trembles over the entire room.

He could even hear the sound of air entering and exiting from his lungs. It seemed like the entire world froze at this moment, leaving only him and that slowly approaching monster.

"Roar!" the monster roared again and Aroon saw the two tentacles slowly… Rising from the back of that monster.

He could see the sharp end of these tentacles, very sharp that could penetrate through anything man-made like it was tofu.

"I'm finally about to see you, my dear brothers and sisters," he closed his eyes and prepared to fall.

<Ding! Soul binding is completed>

<Ding! Congratulations! You got yourself a system>

<Ding! You got yourself a solo system>

<Ding! The system is in the trial stage. Please fulfil mission one to fully activate>

<Ding! First mission: Survive!>

<Reward: Fully activating the system>

<Punishment: Instant death>

Aroon's eyes popped up when he heard that strange voice ringing in his ears. He glanced all around and before he knew it, a small screen appeared in the usual black background and silver writing.

<Ding! You got temporarily Strength enhancement.>

<Ding! You got temporarily Defense enhancement.>

<Ding! You got temporarily Speed enhancement.>

<Ding! You got temporarily Stamina enhancement.>

<Ding! You got temporarily Intelligence enhancement.>

<Ding! Congratulations, you are now equal to class F-V system holder.>

<Ding! Stand up solo system owner, you have to survive this.>

The next thing that happened was Aroon feeling a sudden gush of power inside his body. His previously smashed body seemed to get instant recovery as he felt nothing but power.

"You and I will have a word after this," he clenched his two fists, slowly standing up while that monster didn't look any more frightening to him. "You have many things to explain to me."