A grunt broke through the silence of the living room. Cheddar watched with interest as Zane subjected himself to the torturous task of morning weightlifting. His muscles strained as he lifted his weights into the air. The equipment dropped with a bang onto the floor, and he huffed, shifting off his back and into a sitting position.
"Is this what normal people feel like?" He mused. “It's like I'm floating on air.”
Something strange was happening to his energy levels. It wasn't the mana that flowed through his body. He'd already grown used to that.
It was a sense of alertness he'd never felt before.
He knew exactly what the cause was. For the first time in ten years, he had gotten a full week of peaceful sleep. Not a single dream haunted him or drained away his mental strength. He wasn't thrilled with the reason for his lack of dreams.
The final dream ended with his apocalypse counterpart being cornered in his childhood room. Meditation had allowed him to clear his mind and remember parts of the dreams he'd forgotten.
He shook his head. He didn't want to think about that. There were two more days until the apocalypse, and everything was coming together.
He’d dropped off supplies at different areas of the town and his friends would soon be on their way here. His confirmation that the system was real and not just in his head had also given him a major boost in confidence.
This wasn't like his dreams, where he was scrounging for supplies.
Nobody wanted animal bones. Whether it was the local farmers selling them or the supermarket, bones were available everywhere.
He needed a lot of them. A quick glance at his status window showed him that he could power his abilities up just like in a game.
[Bone Manipulation: Level 1.]
[Weapon Creation (bone): Level 1.]
He brushed off the sweat from his brow and prepared to go shopping. He wanted enough bones to level up his skills rapidly, and he had one other major purchase on his list.
A living creature.
Zane wasn’t sure whether his [bone manipulation] skill worked on living creatures, but he intended to find out.
The thought of killing something weighed on his mind, but then he remembered the creature that had attacked him in the Observatory and dismissed his small doubts. Survival was his priority.
He had bigger problems than a guilty conscience.
There was a faint pitter patter against his ear as he brought Cheddar up to his shoulder.
He wasn't going to trial his [skills] on the mouse. He'd grown too close to his travel companion over the past week to do that to her.
It wasn't only gratitude because the mouse had saved his life. Cheddar was the only person he could talk to about the upcoming issues without seeming crazy.
Well, not the only one, he had spoken to a man about the apocalypse in the supermarket. It had happened in a moment of weakness, and he still wasn't sure how he felt about it.
Zane knew that the man would be at the store again today, watching out for him.
“Hey Zane!” A voice called out.
He was hollered the moment he left his car. At the front of the supermarket was a middle-aged man in overalls wearing a bright blue cap.
“Bob,” Zane waved at the man.
It was the same man that had given him the tip to buy a water filter instead of just water bottles. They’d run into each other again the next day and Bob had taken an interest in his purchases. Buying so many bones wasn’t common. Zane had been happy to talk after being approached first, and then he heard an interesting piece of information from the man.
Bob was also preparing for an apocalypse. Specifically, a zombie one. The man was convinced that the world would end under the walking dead and Zane had been happy to humor the man, speaking about the upcoming system apocalypse in turn.
It felt good to talk to somebody that took him seriously, even if that somebody was a crazy man preparing for the end of the world.
The only problem Zane had was with Bob’s plan to deal with the apocalypse.
"I thought about what you said, and I don't think I can go through with it,” Bob walked beside Zane and they entered the store together. “I mean, I have the house and the supplies, but I just don't have the will.”
"I'm not going to try and convince you that throwing yourself into a zombie horde is a bad idea, but I'm still going to tell you that it's a bad idea,” A flicker of annoyance rose in Zane’s heart.
The reason that Zane was annoyed by the man wasn’t that he was preparing for the wrong apocalypse.
It was the fact that he wanted to give up.
"Think about it,” Bob’s voice rose. “What’s the use of staying alive when society breaks down? I don't want to crap in the woods. And I definitely don't need the constant fear and the nightmares. Jumping into the zombies before shit hits the fan is the only option that makes sense.”
Zane raked his fingers through his hair and sighed in exasperation. Bob had taken it as a personal insult when he said that he was trying to survive the apocalypse. He didn't know why the man was so insistent that his point of view was the right one. Especially when Bob had researched enough about survival to come up with a better plan than dying immediately.
He had to admit the man’s words were a little tempting. He knew better than most people what the apocalypse would entail, even if his memories of it were hazy. Starvation, fear, and constant running for his life. It wasn't a pleasant ten years by any stretch of the word.
But that didn't mean he would give up and actively seek out death.
"Bones again?" Bob gazed at his purchases curiously.
“Bones again,” Zane pursed his lips. "Let’s say the apocalypse comes a few days from now. You'll still have your friends, and your family. You'll just throw that all away?”
"I'd like to think I'd make the right choice,” Bob replied. “And the right choice is the one that causes the least stress.”
Zane shook his head. He couldn't understand that mentality even if he tried. It wasn’t because of a lack of fear. He was afraid, even if he didn't like to say it out loud, but he was also excited.
If the apocalypse was going to happen, then he was going to give it the best fight he could.
'Maybe there is something wrong with me,’ he thought.
His other scruple was a minor one. He couldn’t understand why Bob was convinced the apocalypse would come in the form of zombies. Clearly the man had some kind of trauma from playing zombie-themed video games or watching horror movies and Zane didn't want to get into it.
“What if it isn't zombies?” Zane probed further.
Bob tilted his head and rubbed his chin pensively.
“Something intelligent like aliens? Or a disease?” He sounded genuinely surprised. "I suppose that's different. Zombies are mindless and they'll just keep going after anything that moves. With a disease it's tough because there’ll likely be a cure eventually, and with aliens I'd feel like fighting.”
"Your priorities are strange Bob,” Zane didn't sugarcoat his words.
Bob laughed beside him as Zane loaded stock bones into his cart.
"You have a mouse on your shoulder and you're nowhere near subtle enough to hide the fact that you think the apocalypse is coming in two days. Yeah, I've caught onto you,” he teased. “I don't think I'm the one with the strange priorities. I'm sure you'll be prepared with your house full of bones.”
Zane rolled his eyes. The man was right. From an outside perspective he looked like a crazy person, though most people didn't know his purchases like Bob did. The man came into the store every day and Zane wasn't sure if that was a habit Bob had always had or if he was being followed.
What he did know was that Bob wasn't taking all of his actions and dismissing them. The man was loading his own car with supplies. Mostly energy bars and the odd bottle of water.
"Don't give me that look," his lips tugged into a smile. “You've just rattled these old bones a little with your confidence.”
"If you're hitting fifty anytime soon, I'll eat my shoe,” Zane waved away his words. “Humor me here, do you think your house is a better place to hide out during an apocalypse than any other?”
Bob’s zombie obsession had influenced more than just his supermarket purchases. His house was apparently isolated at the edge of town, not quite a farmhouse but barely in the suburbs. He'd also made sure to purchase the surrounding fields and get rid of any trees.
It was the perfect way to make sure zombies didn't sneak up on him. There were no obstacles around the house that could hide them.
"I reinforced the glass a while ago and everything is self-sufficient,” Bob smacked his chest proudly. “Did all the work myself. I don't want people running to me when society collapses because I accidentally let slip my plans.”
Zane knew that the man wasn't just talking about zombies when he referred to society collapsing. Bob had complained about everything from Kpop idols to NFT’s causing the end of civilization.
"So, yes, your house is better," he turns towards Bob. "I'll keep that in mind."
Bob chuckled at his words, but Zane wasn't smiling. If the man wasn't going to be alive during the apocalypse, then he had no right to complain about who used his house.
It was also one of the only places that Zane knew had supplies. He'd seen Bob purchasing them himself. The supermarkets would quickly be swarmed, but that didn't mean individual houses would be looted immediately. Especially not when he was guarding the property.
The trip to the car was uneventful, but to his surprise Bob was still following him. Zane brought his hand down to his pocket where he kept a Swiss army knife. He was a big guy, but he didn't know how stable Bob was.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Nothing like that,” Bob saw the caution in his eyes. “I just wanted to confirm something. Hypothetically, if the world ends in two days, what should I be looking out for? It's not zombies, is it?”
"I don't know,” Zane admitted.
It was the truth. In all his time spent dreaming he’d never written down what he was fighting against, and if he'd encountered them directly then he'd forgotten about it. Maybe it was too traumatic to remember.
“Okay then, what time?” Bob leaned back against Zane’s car. “Like, exactly at twelve A.M? Or is it following another Timezone?”
"That's… a good question,” he raised an eyebrow at the man.
He thought back to his first diary entry, but by the time his younger self had fallen asleep the clouds were already on the news. The person on the television didn't say when they'd appeared, only where.
“For all you know you don’t really have two days, only one and a bit. Here,” Bob held out his hand, a card held out toward Zane. “My number.”
Zane took it and his eyebrows furrowed. It was a business card.
“You're a financial planner?” He hadn't pegged that man for that kind of job. “I don't think I'll be needing financial advice during the end of the world.”
"If the world doesn't end and your biggest investment is bones then yes, you will,” Bob raised his hand placatingly. “Also, it's more about the number. Just in case you need someone to talk to.”
Zane stared at him.
'Maybe I was wrong about him being crazy,’ the thought crossed his mind.
Bob might have been accompanying him because the man was worried, not because he believed the apocalypse was coming.
Zane nodded his head and smiled at the man. He wasn't going to dismiss kindness out of hand. He pocketed the card and a few minutes later his car was blazing through the streets, the plastic sealed bones banging together in the back.
Bob’s questions had started turning the gears in his mind. He knew the red clouds weren't poisonous, but he also didn't know why they led to people dying.
Maybe the pale things he'd seen in the Observatory would invade Earth. In that case he would need to spend his stat points on strength and dexterity. He was sure he could defeat those things easily if he grew in strength.
The one he’d fought had been deadly, but not durable.
"Televisions and phones were down after a while, but that could've been because the companies stopped their coverage,” he mused to Cheddar. "Or they were dead.”
She was stuck in her cage watching the dashboard in boredom.
He stopped the car at a farmhouse that had definitely seen better days. A nearby cow gazed at him with curiosity and he waved at the large creature, a smile crossing his lips.
Halfway through the driveway the door to the house swung open and a gruff man in a pristine shirt gave his body a once-over.
“You're here about the chicken?” He asked sharply.
Zane nodded, not sure what the policy was for chicken purchases.
“Good, I sent my daughter out for a hen, and she came back with a rooster. I don't have a big enough farm for that, and the damned things have been going at each other for days. I can't get a wink of sleep,” the man breathed a sigh of relief. “Wait here I'll get it for you.”
Zane ended up spending the next ten minutes haggling the price. He wasn't sure why, when all cash would become useless soon, but he decided it was the principle of the matter.
Half an hour later he was in his living room with a pile of bones, a mouse, and a rooster in a cage.
“You can look away for this,” he said to Cheddar.
He didn't want her becoming traumatised by his actions. The mouse shook her head, her eyes glued to the rooster.
They were sparkling.
"Up to you,” Zane took a deep breath. “Status screen.”
After his breakthrough yesterday he felt his connection to the mana strengthening and becoming second-nature. He was sure it wasn't just a natural progression of his abilities. The [skills] that he had gained were influencing what he could do. Things that were impossible a day earlier could now be completed with ease.
Name: Zane
Class: Unassigned
Level: 2
Stats:
Free stats: 2
Mana: 5
Vitality: 13
Strength: 14
Dexterity: 12
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Skills:
Bone Manipulation: Level 1.
Weapon Creation (bone): Level 1.
Awards (unchosen):
You are the first of your race to unlock the system. As a forerunner of your kind please select one of the following options: +2 Strength, +2 Vitality, +2 Dexterity.
You are the first of your world to slay an invader. Choose an option; +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity or +2 Intelligence.
You are the first person in your world to create a weapon with the aid of the system. Please choose one of the following options: +2 Strength when wielding a weapon, +2 Dexterity when wielding a weapon, +1 Strength, or +1 Dexterity.
Zane wrote down his full status screen onto a piece of paper, including his options for power ups. The base stat for an average person was 10 and he could power himself up immensely by focusing on a single stat with these rewards.
He could increase his strength by five, or his dexterity. He could also increase his intelligence and vitality if he wanted to.
On the paper he'd compiled a small list of questions that needed answering.
* Does intelligence increase mana or just how smart I am? Video games suggest they should be correlated.
* Does increasing my strength make me more durable or will my fist explode the moment I punch something?
* If I increase my dexterity enough, can I climb walls or put together tools faster?
* Can my abilities impact living beings or only the bones of dead creatures?
The questions that he was asking himself were growing in number without answers being given. He wasn't willing to experiment with his stats and distribute them without careful thought. That would be dangerous.
However, this was the problem with not being able to question anyone. His diary had some of the answers, but most of them were insinuated and not openly stated.
One page in particular had caught his attention.
[Day 40. Geez these dreams just keep happening. My mum wants me to go see someone about them and I think she might be right.
Anyway, this one I remember clearly. Some nut job came out of a bathroom in a building I'd thought was empty. He stabbed me right through the hand, but the knife bounced off. It was like I was superman. I… don't really want to talk about what dream me did to the man after that.]
His words suggested that as his stats grew so would his durability. However, that could be due to any other stats such as vitality or even unknown ones he hadn’t unlocked yet.
"Test one, living beings,” he clapped his hands together, getting Cheddar’s attention.
His mana was fully charged, and he didn't want to delay. He ran his fingers over the rooster's head to calm it and himself down.
[Bone manipulation].
He activated the skill by thinking about it mentally, no speaking required. The mana within his body reacted instantly, exiting his body, and covering the chicken in a small wave of white light. The farm animal looked down at its feathers curiously and pecked at the lights.
Nothing happened.
No matter how hard he tried, the mana wouldn't go inside the chicken. It hovered against its feathers until he ran out and then it dissipated harmlessly into the air.
"Okay, so exploding things by touching them is out of the picture," Zane frowned.
It would've been a lot easier for him if he could simply touch something and kill it. A disturbing thought in normal times, but crucial in the apocalypse.
Fifty minutes later his mana was fully recharged again. He'd spent the time on the forums searching for information or other people like himself.
"Sorry little guy,” he sighed and brought out a knife.
The rooster didn't know what the knife was for until Zane made a tiny prick with the tip in its side, and it screamed bloody murder. He didn't feel good about hurting a defenceless animal, but he also didn't want to find out how his skills worked by live testing them as he fought for his life.
Zane put his hand over the cut and this time the mana flowed through freely into the chicken. It was still difficult, and he had a feeling that the chicken was blocking his powers somehow. Maybe all living things did.
Then there was a bright flash of light as he activated [bone manipulation] again and felt several bones shift under his control. It was only for a second as his mana spread across them and then they quickly shifted back.
He had only reached a few of the smallest bones.
It was so quick and slight that the chicken didn't feel a thing, but it had fully drained his mana in an instant. He felt like he'd run a marathon on a hot summer's day. He sat back and sweat poured down his neck and forehead.
"Okay, so I can affect living things if they’re injured. Maybe even if I'm touching their bones directly,” he scribbled down the results immediately. “But I need more mana or skill levels to do anything drastic.”
One thing that he noted was that the disintegration hadn't occurred even though he had been trying to blow up the chicken. The bones of the dead animals had exploded easily, but if living beings had natural immunity then he could only move their bones.
It would still kill them if he moved the bones enough, or at least cause immeasurable pain.
Zane stared at the still living animal, clucking up a storm in his living room.
"Does this mean I have a chicken now?” He frowned.
**
[System integration for your world will begin in 1 day.]
Zane sat back as he finished the last of his stock of bones. Unlike when he'd first unlocked the weapon creation skill, the only items that he could make were daggers.
Anything else he tried to make ended up failing.
Five different bone daggers were spread out in front of him, each one taking all of his mana to create. The bone sword lay beside them, a behemoth in comparison. He'd spent quite a few hours on the process, and that was on top of training his bone manipulation yesterday.
[Bone manipulation has reached level 2.]
[Bone manipulation has reached level 3.]
[Weapon Creation (bone) has reached level 2.]
Having access to as many bones as he could purchase was proving to be a huge benefit. People didn't want them, and supermarkets had large stocks of them.
Well, they didn't anymore.
After eight days he'd exhausted them. On his latest visit a staff member had approached him apologetically to let him know the news.
"I still have twenty-one days left until the clouds hit us,” he mused to Cheddar. “I'll head to Brookshire today.”
Brookshire was the closest town to Bilbrook, and a lot bigger as well. The person that had named the two towns clearly had a theme in mind when they’d done so.
It was only a thirty-minute drive, but tomorrow public panic would begin, and the supermarkets would be swamped by buyers. He couldn't risk missing out on even a single bone if someone else decided to purchase them.
He decided to hire a van. It was an easier process than he'd thought and soon he was speeding off towards Brookshire.
With the added space he intended to purchase as many bones as he could to fill it to the brim. The drive itself was peaceful, and halfway through to the other town his phone began to vibrate.
“Hello?” Zane’s heartbeat quickened.
"Hey! Zane! Thank god you answered. Are you okay?” His sister's voice blasted through his ear, and he winced.
"If you're asking if I had another mental breakdown, then the answer is no,” he remembered the messages he'd left on her phone. “Not that you'd believe me with the messages I've been sending you.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone, and he knew he'd hit the nail on the head. His sister sighed deeply.
"After those pictures you sent I don't know what to think,” she broke the silence. “That’s some pretty damning evidence.”
Zane paused as he tried to remember the pictures she was talking about. Then he remembered. When he’d first started messaging her but gotten no replies he'd decided to send photos of his diary entries.
Specifically, the ones talking about the anniversary and how his family was in Paris at the time.
"I was worried you’d think they were fake,” he admitted.
"Oh yeah, I did,” she replied without hesitation. “But dad confirmed they were real. He read your diary after you left. Apparently, he went through it a lot.”
Zane grew quiet. He didn't know that or expect it. As far as his dad had always been concerned, his apocalyptic delusions had caused more problems than he was worth.
"Anyway," his sister continued, “We’ve already booked a flight back, and we’ll be in the air in a few hours. But it'll probably be a couple or more days until we get to you. Just— stay safe, and if you feel really bad remember Doctor Harken is right around the corner.”
"Sure, will do,” Zane nodded even though he knew she couldn't see him. “You stay safe too.”
The moment the call was over it felt like a weight had lifted off his chest. He was happy to hear that his family was on their way, and that they didn't think he was completely crazy. He could tell that his sister still had her doubts.
He put the phone down next to Cheddar’s cage and the moment it touched the seat it started vibrating again.
“She still has the memory of a goldfish,” Zane rolled his eyes as he answered the phone. “What did you forget this time?”
“Excuse me?” His query went unanswered as a stranger responded to him.
The voice was distinctly male.
"Oh,” Zane frowned. “Who is this?”
“Are you SystemApocalypse2001?” The man ignored his question.
Zane paused. That name belonged to one of the online accounts he used while searching through the apocalypse forums.
He hadn't used his real name while he was searching through the internet and leaving posts about the upcoming apocalypse. Instead, he'd used a random one.
SystemApocalyse2001.
The name was pretty self-explanatory, but he definitely hadn't left his phone number on any of the message boards and forums.
"How did you get my number?” Zane’s tone was sharp.
“Oh, so it is you, good, when someone else got into the Observatory first I was worried I'd miss the initial System descent,” There was a smile in the man’s voice. “I didn't even know what continent you were on. It was quite worrying.”
"Who is this?" A steely glint entered Zane’s voice.
Whoever was on the line didn't respond. After a few moments of silence, he wondered if the person had left the call.
“Are you still here?” Zane questioned again.
The man ignored him.
“Let’s see… North America. Bilbrook. Wonderful. See you soon.”
Then the phone hung up.
Zane stared at it in his hand until he reached the Brookshire supermarket. A hundred questions tumbled through his mind, but the man had shaken him. They knew about the Observatory, and the system’s descent. The strangest part was their attitude.
They’d sounded almost giddy to be participating in the apocalypse.