Got to Survive

The bike came to a stop in front of a low-rise apartment complex, and Larcen hopped off. It was a bit more peaceful here compared to the area near the Tower of Destruction, but he had a feeling that the peace wouldn't last long.

The biker removed his helmet and introduced himself, "My name is Alan."

"Um... you can call me Jack," he replied before shifting his attention to the people who had just walked out of the apartment gate.

"Oh, hey, Alan. I thought you'd come back late like always," said one of the guys, while a girl beside him curiously eyed the two newcomers.

"I suggest you go back inside. There's this weird meteor thing that fell in the fifteenth residential area, and it's spawning these weird little monsters, like in the games you play so often," Alan warned.

Before the guy could respond, Larcen chimed in, "A lot of people fainted too... although I don't really know why."

"You guys inhaled power or something? That's not possible... things in games should stay in games. Anyway, I have a movie to watch with my sister and my friend, so I'll see you later, Alan."

Alan simply shrugged when he noticed Larcen giving him a strange look. "I told them, and they didn't listen. I have no obligation to waste my time when I'm already running out of it. Anyways, I don't really consider him a friend."

As they walked, Alan continued, "That's Benjamin... people simply call him Ben in my university. All he does is play games and try his best to be in Emily's good books, not even realizing that he's being used by her to pass the time. The other one is his sister... she's smart, but after their parents passed away, she began clinging to Ben."

They stopped in front of a door and Alan unlocked the door before walking in and picking up a bag. He said nothing while he walked to other rooms and searched for something.

Meanwhile, Larcen simply closed his eyes and tried to access some of the memories as he had nothing else to do and knew that they would be helpful. A few minutes passed and Alan came back with a few bags and tossed them onto the ground.

"Pick two of them. Your bag is too small to be useful. I'll go find something we can use as weapons..."

Using the alone time as an advantage, he took out a knife from his inventory and put it in his pocket with its sheath. That was the only thing he had to which he could make up an excuse that was viable. 

He would've used the things in his manufacturer tab if only he had system points since replicating those things cost points and he had none at the moment.

There indeed was a shop function in his system but he also saw it on Alan's screen which meant that most people had it. There was still one thing that was bothering him and that was the fact that Benjamin ignored the system he had. 

It was the same with the two girls. 

'It probably has prerequisites to be visible, or there's something else at play here... Wait... does Alan know about the system?'

Frowning, he joined Alan in the living room, where he was emptying cardboard boxes onto the floor. Alan briefly looked up at him before returning to his task, only to be interrupted again.

"Hey, Alan, can you see a screen? It's like the system thing that's famous in manhwas..."

Confused, Alan shook his head, waiting for more information.

"Try saying something like 'system' or 'status' or something... it just popped up in front of my eyes, so I didn't have to do much. But since you don't seem to know about it, why not give it a shot?"

Alan nodded and began, "Stat-"

He paused midway and opened his eyes wide, staring at the air in front of him for a few seconds before turning to Larcen.

"Thank you, Jack. This is really cool... but it also means that this was probably given to us by some kind of higher beings. Maybe they know that we won't be able to survive this crisis, so they gave us these systems?"

Larcen remained silent for a few moments before voicing his thoughts, "I don't know what's going on, but you didn't know you had a system until I told you about it and showed you how to access it. I feel like it's the same for everyone else. Otherwise, Benjamin would've listened to you instead of shrugging it off like you were crazy."

Alan's smile and excitement had vanished, replaced by a frown as he stared at the pile of items on the floor. After a brief pause, he gave Larcen a grim nod.

"Let's just hope for the best... It says that I can earn system points by killing locally mutated beings and the ones that spawned from the Tower of Death... that must be the tower we saw in the fifteenth residential area. Do you think there are more of them?"

"The possibility isn't low," said Larcen before adding, "I suddenly feel sleepy... can I use your bedroom?"

Alan nodded, and Larcen promptly entered the bedroom, closing the door behind him. He wasn't planning to sleep but wanted to thoroughly check his system and shop. However, before he could delve into it, loud knocks echoed from the entrance.

He quickly left the bedroom and joined Alan, both of them walking towards the door. Alan peered through the peephole to see who was outside.

Alan only looked through it for a second before jumping backward and the moment he did so, the door broke. Larcen instinctively activated his Flow State which gave him a similar effect of time being slowed down.

He couldn't think as a large, skinless arm punched through the wooden door, breaking the door off its hinges and causing splinters to fly into the room. 

Larcen quickly took a few steps backwards before picking up two of the larger bags that were on the floor.

'I have to stay alive somehow....'