Chapter 1_A Beginning and its End

Air, land, sea. Humans no longer own any part of the world. Nowhere is safe. That is what they saw. 70 years ago, thousands of politicians, occupying the highest seats of governments across the world, all had the same nightmare on the same night. They saw a world of monsters.

They knew what needed to be done. They had seen it in their dream. They saw what they needed to do and what would happen if they failed.

A wall, around the largest source of monsters, to block the ferocious beasts from the humans and their prosperity. Three hundred meters tall, an encirclement with a diameter of approximately 5,500 kilometers at its widest.

This source of monsters was by far the largest, it would have set loose into the world trillions of deadly creatures, of all shapes and sizes. No other source would bring forth so many, so those politicians put a plan into action. To create the wall at any cost.

In fact, as a result of how quickly the wall had to be implemented, things such as safety during the construction of the wall was always overlooked. All in order to have the wall ready as soon as possible. Many died, and many more were injured during its construction.

But this was necessary. It was completed exactly ten years later, to the day. People celebrated that it was done, even more so since the Sources had not yet appeared. Everybody celebrated because they could feel what was coming, even if they did not have the nightmare. The skeptics were overruled by the majority, and so the world celebrated the wall’s completion.

The celebrations didn’t last long as it wasn’t even 24 hours before the Sources around the world exploded. What timing.

It wasn’t able to be planned against, no matter how much time there was. Even if the military was set on high alert ever since the beginning of the Wall Project, they were simply overrun. All facilities destroyed, civilians and soldiers alike were killed. The only thing humans could do was run. And they could only survive if they were lucky.

It wasn’t long before the Safe Zones were established. They were only safe because they were far away from the most dangerous Sources that spewed the strongest monsters. These zones were located in places with creatures that could be defended against by a small group of people armed with a few guns and plenty of ammo.

In some fictional stories, technology doesn’t work any longer. Guns don’t fire, phones and other satellite communication fail inexplicably. That wasn’t the case here. Resistance could be offered. Humans could band together, all across the burning globe.

In fact, that was what happened. People came together, forming larger settlements, safe from the monsters, and in these places, people continued living as they once did. That was, until the world changed drastically yet again. This time, though, it wasn’t in a way that harmed humanity.

It was something that would assist humans in the fight to recapture their lost world.

It was the start of the System.

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Have you ever thought about exactly how much pain a human can endure without dying? Have you ever thought about what lay beyond the pain that one cannot feel without feeling it any more? Do you think the pain just goes beyond what you can feel and you can actually feel it again? Or perhaps you can’t. The human mind protects itself against such pain. That amount of pain kills simply because of how much there is.

Do you wonder why I am thinking about pain?

It’s simple. I am in pain.

Excruciating, mind-bending, white-hot pain.

I’m just thinking about how much pain it would take for me to die. Not that I want to, of course, I do want to live. I am simply curious.

I am also curious about how I came to be in such pain. I don’t remember. I only know my entire body hurts. Of course, some places more than others.

Such as my left shoulder.

I think this place hurts the most. Everywhere else just doesn’t hurt as much. Except for my head.

It has gradually started pounding in rhythm to my heartbeat. Bum-bum, Bum-bum, Bum-bum.

Ow. Just ow.

It is at this point that my curiosity beats my overwhelming pain and I open my eyes.

Settling dust. Charred ground all around me. I am wearing scratchy clothes. It seems I am in a crater. What happened? I wish I could remember. But the more I try to remember, the more my head aches.

I look to my left side.

Oh.

Well, now I know why my shoulder hurts. My arm is gone. I look and I see nothing except a pool of blood where my arm should be. Actually, that’s a lot of blood. Maybe I should stop that.

I push myself onto my right side and crawl up into a kneeling position. How should I stop the bleeding?

[ALERT: Heavy blood loss. Recommended: Activate Skill-Regeneration Lv. 3.]

Hmm? Okay. I’ll do that then.