“It’s almost complete. I just need to kill you, and I’ll finally be done,” a young man muttered to himself. His brow was already covered in sweat as he tightened his grip around his implement. For now, there was only one more threat that remained. His foe was a foul thing, Convolvulus arvensis. Otherwise known as field bindweed, it was a truly pesky weed. One that had dominated the local area’s vegetation. Its vines would prove a threat to his endeavors if not thoroughly dealt with.

Jaco wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was time to get to work to kill it once and for all. He swung down his tool, starting by hacking off its outermost bits first. He’d slowly make his way to the center while ripping the entire thing apart. His goal today was to give it no chance to ever return.

“There, that should do it.” Jaco sat back to take a sip from his water bottle. With the last weed now dead, his garden would be safe. But he’d need to be ever vigilant, for they could just as easily return at any time. With a satisfied sigh, he took a moment to take it all in.

Since Jaco had moved here not long ago, he’d kept himself busy. It was hard work to start a garden right after moving into a new home, but it was worth it. With his house next to a small forest at the edge of the neighborhood, he had his fair share of privacy. It meant that Jaco still hadn’t really gotten to know his neighbors, but there was a small lake nearby.

If his memory served him correctly, one could catch fish at it. Perhaps if he decided to take up fishing, he could get to know whoever was also there. It’d be easy enough for him to go to and from the lake. After all, it was only a few minutes’ walk away from him. But all in all, Jaco felt that this neighborhood would be the perfect place for a fresh start. Here, he could be at peace and just enjoy a quiet, content life-.

To all of humanity, the time of cataclysm has come.

The Gates of Hell have been broken down.

For your own survival, seek shelter immediately.

“What the fuck?!” Jaco exclaimed.

He stared at the golden screen that had just appeared in front of him. Mere moments after reading its ominous message, the earth started to shake. It was a minor tremor at first, but it quickly gained strength. Jaco let go of his water bottle as he dropped to the ground. He heard something fall and shatter from inside his home, but he barely even registered it. But then just as quickly as the shaking had arrived, it was suddenly gone.

Slowly, Jaco wearily stood back up. He looked up from the ground and at the horizon. From the hill his home was on, he had a good view of the city. It was thanks to this vantage point that he’d be lucky enough to see what was coming next. From seemingly nowhere, a fireball exploded out from the city’s center.

The blast quickly expanded in all directions, engulfing everything in its path. Buildings, cars, and people were equally consumed by the flames as they only continued to spread. But Jaco had no time to consider the fate of the countless people who were caught in it. Because at this point, he had already begun to run.

He had no idea just how large the explosion’s fireball would end up being. Jaco ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Too panicked to think of anything else, his only idea was to reach the lake. To get to the sweet idea of its water protecting him from the heat and flames.

A few seconds after starting his sprint, he heard the explosion. Or rather, he felt its boom. The windows of his home shattered from the thundering roar. A shrill ring filled Jaco’s ears as the pressure wave knocked him to the ground.

His body skidded against the street. The fall tore up parts of his shirt and jeans. Blood had already begun to ooze from his worst scrapes. But he didn’t register it or feel any pain. All his adrenaline-filled mind focused on was still the lake. He had to get up and keep running. Staying down for even a second too long could mean the difference between life and death. Jaco stumbled back up to his feet and renewed his mad dash.

At no point did he ever dare to turn around and look back. Yet he could hear the sound of heavy breathing and frantic steps against the pavement. It seemed like someone else was running behind him. They were still a good distance behind him, but Jaco didn’t have the capacity to think about it further. He just ran and ran for what seemed like both an instant and an eternity. But finally, the life-giving body of water was within sight.

Jaco made a running jump straight into the lake. As soon as he was deep enough, he dived under its surface. But he did so too quickly and hadn’t even thought about taking a big enough breath. So mere seconds later, he was forced to resurface for air.

It was then that he finally got a good look at the one who’d been running behind him. It was one of his neighbors, an older man whose name he couldn’t remember. When Jaco first moved here, the man had done a few annoying things like park on the wrong side of the street or blast loud music in the middle of the night. But such past grievances already seemed childish in the face of the current disaster.

He watched as the man was still at the lake’s edge. But instead of running straight in like him, he was still busy taking off his clothes. Jaco yelled for him to hurry up and get in the water. He didn’t know if his scream was actually said aloud or just in his head. But either way, it didn’t matter. For the fireball still hungered for even more to consume, and it had just reached them. Seeing the inferno, he quickly swam even further into the lake. The only place he could feel remotely safe would be at its centermost point.

Even with just his head out of the water, Jaco still felt the wave of blistering heat. But as he fled even further in, the young man looked back.

As the flames reached his neighbor, the man flailed as he only then dropped into the lake. But it was far too shallow by the shore to offer any real protection. In a display Jaco couldn’t make himself look away from, he watched as water steamed off the man’s body. His neighbor screamed as his hair was then set aflame. He tried to roll around in the water to put it out, but to no avail. As a wave of fire surged around the man, he became no more than a writhing outline in the blaze.

But the explosive inferno didn’t stop at the lake’s edge. Even over the water, it continued to surge. Before the air could become too hot to breathe, Jaco inhaled as much air as he could and dived back down. When he was deep enough to touch the lakebed, he looked up.

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The water above him was lit up by red and orange light. Perhaps it was simply his paranoid mind imagining things, but it was starting to feel warmer. As the flames roared overhead, he could swear the water’s temperature was slowly climbing up.

He could only pray that it wouldn’t get too hot. Between burning and boiling alive, he didn’t want to know which would be worse. The young man hoped that he’d experience neither today. He continued to hold his breath and wait for the blaze to finally be over.

After a few minutes passed, the flames finally disappeared from sight. But even then Jaco didn’t dare chance it. So he continued to persevere and pushed his body to its very limit. It was only when the world started to become dark that he finally swam up.

Jaco gasped for air the moment his head reached the surface. His panting was shallow and rapid. Even now, it still seemed like he could potentially pass out at any second. But by some miracle he remained conscious. After some time, he was eventually able to normalize his breathing. Now that his mind was calm, Jaco simply treaded water as he registered everything that had just happened.

I… I don’t even know what to think. Where did that explosion even come from, a nuke? No wait, that's right! There was the golden screen that popped out of nowhere. Just a few seconds ahead of time, it warned me about the blast.

Jaco thought about the exact wording of that mysterious message. How it claimed that the Gates of Hell had broken down. But that couldn’t be the reality behind what just happened, could it? But frankly, Jaco currently didn’t know what to believe anymore.

Unfortunately, something he did know was that he couldn’t stay in the lake forever. Who knew what kind of state the rest of the city was currently in. There had to be survivors. He had to see if there was someone, anyone that he could help. People might be trapped under a pile of rubble, or could be injured and need first aid.

Jaco began to swim back to the shore. As he did so, the rush of adrenaline was already dying down. He winced as pain shot out across his body. When he reached land, he took a moment to give himself a once-over for any injuries. It was then that Jaco realized the water had indeed become dangerously hot.

Across his hands and arms were various patches of red, blistered skin. Most of it looked like they were only first-degree burns. However, some spots definitely looked worse off and were probably in the second degree. The burns probably weren’t just limited to his arms, since he could feel the pain setting in all around. But even if it hurt, he could still consider himself lucky to get away with just this much.

Jaco glanced over to the side. Still curled up in a ball was the charred corpse of what used to be his neighbor. Jaco felt his stomach twisting into a knot. He forced himself to look away from the body before he became sick. The young man instead turned to survey the city. Even from where he stood, he was still able to see most of the explosion’s immediate aftermath.

For the city itself, to say it was a mess would be a massive understatement. The fireball had seemingly lost some power the farther out it expanded. He noted that it was a relatively small area that had been reduced to just a crater. But that was a small comfort when the rest of the city was a collection of flaming ruins. He could hardly believe it had been so full of life just several minutes ago. Now there were just ongoing fires and smoke everywhere.

Fully engrossed in the horror in the distance, Jaco almost didn’t hear something begin to move near him. He quickly turned to the source of the noise, and his eyes widened. For the burnt husk of his former neighbor should have just been a dead, lifeless body. And yet, right before him, it was standing back up.

Completely dumbfounded by this impossible sight, Jaco was momentarily frozen in place. But the moving corpse didn’t just stop at standing, as it then lunged directly for him.

“What the fuck?!” Jaco cried.

Fear snapped him back to his senses. He turned to flee from the body as it raised its arms up and swung at him. He only made it a few paces away, however. As when he tried to run, pain suddenly flared from his left ankle. Shocked by the unexpected agony, Jaco tripped over himself. As he fell to the ground, the dead body’s hands raked across his back. Both his shirt and the skin underneath were torn from being clawed at.

The young man gritted his teeth as he tried to kick the corpse away from him. It was a terrifying sight. A burnt husk of a body, seemingly so frail, and yet with overwhelming strength. It pinned him down as he screamed in horror, flailing with his legs.

His own hands were busy trying to grab anything to use as a weapon. Searing pain shot out from his thigh as his neighbor struck it, clutching onto his torso. He bit back the pain, driven only by adrenaline. When he felt a large rock, Jaco didn’t hesitate to take it and throw the stone directly at his assailant’s head. The force of the blow was enough to stagger the thing, loosening its grip over him.

He scrambled back to his feet and rushed to grab the rock again, propelled by instinct alone. He couldn’t stop to think— he had to act. He swung it directly at the corpse’s torso. He felt its chest buckle and partially collapse underneath the hit. But even as it fell, he didn’t stop swinging. Jaco dropped to his knees over its crushed chest. He smashed the stone directly into the front of its skull. Again, again, and again he struck it. He didn’t stop until its head was reduced to nothing but a pile of ash.

Sweat dripping off his chin and blood pouring out his wounds, Jaco’s grip loosened. He absently dropped the stone and stood up. He no longer wanted to scream. He could barely even think. He was only able to take a couple of steps away before the wooziness forced him to sit back down. Jaco heaved as he stared up at the smoke-filled sky. Then directly above him, a golden screen once again popped into existence.

He stared at the words hovering before him. And out of sheer exhaustion, he could only repeat himself again for the third time today, “What the fuck?!”

EXP Earned!

The slaying of an undead humanoid has granted you Experience Points, or EXP for short.

Level Up!

Level 1 to Level 2

Gaining enough EXP has granted an increase to your Level. Increasing one’s Level gives various boosts to enhance their chances of survival, such as an improvement to Stats.

Greetings and welcome to the Apocalypse. What you are seeing now is a System tasked with aiding humanity.

Your current main objective: Survive

General Info:

Species: Human

Level: 2

Class: N/A

Stats:

Strength: 11

Agility: 8

Endurance: 12

Will: 10

Spell Power: 0

Unspent Points: 5

Class Abilities:

N/A

> Note from the author:

>

> Hello everyone, just to give a further idea of what to expect from this story.

> Me and Melas already have plenty of content written ahead of time, so no need to worry about chapters suddenly running out or a hiatus. But as for the story itself, it's a weak to strong progression fantasy with the MC gaining an interesting skillset and powers that'll grow as he climbs up the Apocalypse's food chain.

> So look forward to following Jaco in his rise to get powerful enough to push back against anything the forces of Hell might throw at him!