A red, cloudless sky. A sky as red as blood. There was no sun. There was no moon. There were no stars. Only the sky. Only red. As red as blood. As if every cloud had bled and left behind nothing but its blood.
Alex stood silently. She cared for nothing but the sky above. She cared for nothing but the way that red filled her everything. She cared not for the blood leaking from her lips. Nor did she care for the left arm she now didn’t have. Nor did she care for the hole punctured straight through her stomach.
She didn’t feel for the burning city around her. She didn’t hear the cries of terror that rang all around her. She didn’t see the way monsters beyond imagination tore the people she once knew to shreds.
She didn’t care even as a massive, grizzle hand grabbed her. She didn’t care as monsters jumped onto her. She didn’t care even as they tore away her limbs as if they were nothing but leaves on a branch. She didn’t care as the massive monster that’d grabbed her slowly opened its jaws.
She didn’t hear the cries of terror behind her back.
She saw the red skies above, and a small, bitter smile lifted her lips as the monster bit down.
Dull pain throbbed through her chest as she fell onto the pavement. She wasn’t able to move. The monster had eaten the bottom half of her torso. She didn’t really care.
They’d failed.
Ah. What a fitting ending. A small laugh bubbled past the blood in her throat. A slow death, accompanied by nothing but this dull pain and the bleak red above. The monster that had eaten her lower half had left, bored of her and searching for more prey to feast on. She was nothing but a stain on the cracked roads.
Another laugh. Louder.
She wasn’t surprised. This was a suicide mission. A last chance for a prophecy, however dim it may’ve been. And they’d failed.
She wasn’t sad. Not really. She didn’t have much to be sad about. Nor did she deserve to. This world had stripped away everything, and it would continue to take until not even a speck existed. That was just how it was, even before the end of the world. That was just reality.
Would her brother notice? Would he grieve? Would he not? Would he even care?
Hmm. It didn’t matter anymore. It never did. They were related by nothing but blood. They lived in two different worlds, no matter what.
Ah. She could see the edges of her sight turning black. This was it. The ending. It wasn’t the ending she’d wanted, but that was fine. An ending was an ending, and she’d been waiting for it. It was only a matter of when.
Perhaps-, perhaps if she’d been different, things wouldn’t have gone this way. Perhaps if she wasn’t who she had been, she would’ve seen a different ending. Perhaps she shouldn’t have left that day. Perhaps she shouldn’t have followed her brother then. Perhaps she shouldn’t have been then. Perhaps.
Perhaps.
It didn’t matter.
One last laugh bubbled past her clogged throat.
It didn’t matter.
A bitter smile, and she let her eyes close.
Perhaps.
----------------------------------------
It was 8 in the morning. She was late for her first course.
It was fine. Alex didn’t feel like going today.
She’d woken up a couple hours before. She’d been incredibly confused. Had it all been a dream? She could vividly remember getting her bottom half eaten by a monster, and she could remember dying under that blood red sky. But her body was fully intact. There was not a single sign of damage. Had it been nothing but a dream?
But the bed she woke in wasn’t the one she normally slept on. Nor did this room look like hers. It was too clean, too polished. It looked like a room that belonged to the world before the end.
Something cold had settled in her gut when she thought so.
Status, she called out. But nothing appeared. Status! She thought again. Again, nothing came. The floating box that would normally phase into her sight didn’t come to her.
She shifted, and her hand bumped against something. She turned down to see a phone she once owned eight years ago. There was no way. She’d lost her phone five years ago. Why was it here? How was it here?
Slowly, with shaking fingers, she picked it up and opened it.
08:12, 12th October 2022
Alex couldn’t breathe.
12th October 2022. 12th October 2022. That couldn’t be right. It was supposed to be 2030. Why was it saying 2022? That was eight years ago. Was her phone broken? No, before that, she hadn’t even held her phone for the past five years. How the hell was she holding it now? Why was it saying that it was eight years ago?
The time was wrong. It was wrong.
The time was wrong.
The time.
She’d gone back in time.
A nervous giggle bubbled past her lips, before it grew into laughter. It was a harsh sound. Because what the hell? What kind of sick joke was this? All those eight years, all her actions, all she gained, all she lost, and for what? Everything was rewound back. Nothing she did mattered. It was gone now.
Gone. Gone. Gone.
Her laughter stopped then.
Because, was it really? Were all her actions for naught? Were they truly? If things were to follow how they went in that previous future, today would be the day the end began. When noon came, the world would crack, and the end would come. This world would become the game for beings from the beyond to play. She would become nothing but a piece in a game.
She took a breath, then two.
Nay. The things she knew weren’t gone. They just hadn’t come.
Her eyes drifted back to her phone. When noon came, all mobile communications would be cut off. This phone of hers would become useless. Nothing but a clock. That hadn’t happened yet. She could still use it.
She could still use it to call her brother.
…She didn’t.
She sighed.
If things were to follow how they went before, she had just about three hours before the end would come. She had three hours to get herself ready.
That was enough.
She quickly changed into one of the more practical outfits she had. A plain shirt and a pair of jeans. She glanced at the many skirts she had before she shook her head. She preferred the freedom they offered, but the practicality of the jeans won out. It was fine. She could always get one later.
She folded what few shirts and shorts she had and placed them into her backpack.
Next, a weapon. Or something sharp.
Not easy. It wasn’t as if she could go to a local hardware store and ask if they had any sharp pieces of metal. In the end, she bought a couple lengths of rebar. Not ideal, but she sharpened the two as best as she could on a slab of concrete behind her apartment. It wouldn’t last, but they should be good enough to stab through things when she needed to.
After that, food and water.
Much easier. She dropped by the nearest supermarket with her largest backpack, bought as much food and water she needed for the next week and did her best to stuff them into her bag. She got some odd stares as she carted around with enough food to feed two families, but that was fine.
Finally, location.
By the time she finished her purchases, it was just shy of eleven. She had an hour before everything began. An hour to search for a suitable location.
Thankfully, she didn’t need to.
With her backpack slung on her back and her two sharpened bars of rebar, she left her apartment. She made her way into a nearby alleyway and her eyes turned up to the clipped ladder hanging above her. If she could reach it she could climb all the way to the roof of the building, and she’d gain some much needed time as the apocalypse began.
It took some time, and a couple attempts, but she managed to leap off the wall and grab onto the ladder. It screeched loudly as it slammed onto the ground, and Alex quickly climbed onto the roof before anyone could see her.
There were thirty minutes left when she sat down on the roof.
Thirty minutes before it would all begin again.
Her eyes turned up to the blue sky above. It was a clear day today, with sparse clouds painted across the blue. There wasn’t much wind today. The air was pleasantly cool. Her left shoulder throbbed slightly from her first failed attempt at reaching the ladder, but she didn’t really care.
She saw the blue skies above, and a small, weary smile lifted her lips.
How familiar.
…
The clock turned to noon, and the world was split in half.
Or not really. A pillar of light shone down from the sky into the distance, and cries of confusion rang out around her as people panicked over what they’d just seen. Then a tremor shook the earth, and then another, and then it came over and over. People began running out into the streets, fearing the incoming earthquake.
Alex didn’t move. She remained on the roof, eyes dispassionately watching the panicked masses crowding the streets.
She took a breath.
They didn’t know. There was no earthquake. That light they’d seen wasn’t fake. The buildings around them wouldn’t come toppling down. At least, not yet.
Going onto the streets would only kill them.
Then someone below screamed, and people watched in terror as the air below seemed to crack. It grew and grew, and then it shattered. It looked as if someone had torn open a hole in reality. It fluctuated wildly, as if fighting against the air itself.
A rift had formed.
And from it came something. It looked like a large rat, with two pairs of beady eyes on its enlarged head. The claws on its feet glinted under the sunlight. It looked upon the people and screeched, its black fur rising as it bared its sharp teeth.
Then another came from the rift. Then another. And then more and more and more.
The people began to flee, and the rats were happy to give chase. The monsters were faster, and many died as their sharp claws cut straight through them. Cries of terror rang below her, slowly growing softer as more bodies fell onto the streets, bleeding and lifeless.
Alex watched silently.
And then the streets fell silent, and she sighed.
She wondered how many died in this first minute.
You have survived.
Granting Reward. Activation of Unit in progress...
A sharp pain split her head for a moment. She saw before her eyes a world of stars, a collage of black and white. She saw before her the swirling of a galaxy. She saw before her eyes the birth of a star, the birth of the earth, the people, the world, the passing of time. She saw before her death, the breaking of stone, the end. She saw before her eyes as the last star dimmed.
The moment passed, and a sharp breath left her lips as she slumped onto the roof.
Unit activated.
Unit: Alexa Hugo Francis Lv 1 Exp: 0/5 Health: 5/5 Mana: - Strength: 1 Endurance: 1 Spirit: 0 Resistance: 0 Dexterity: 2 Charm: 1
She smiled wanly. There it was. Her Status. It looked just as she remembered it when she first received it. It stung to see her attributes brought down so low, but there was little she could do about it.
She was at least alive.
Right. Attributes.
Level. A general description of a Unit’s capabilities. It didn’t mean that being higher levelled made a Unit stronger, but levelling up gave a Unit an increase in attributes depending on the actions they took. More levels meant higher attributes.
Experience. A description of how much a Unit needed to grow before levelling up. Experience was gained mainly through slaying monsters, but routine training and special artifacts also worked.
Health. A general description of a Unit’s health. The lower it was, the more likely the Unit was to die. If it hit zero, a Unit was dead. Being ill and getting a permanent injury could lower the Unit’s health.
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Mana. A general description of a Unit’s remaining magical energy. The lower it was, the more tired the Unit would become. If it dropped to 0, the Unit would begin experiencing a number of debilitating effects.
Strength. A description of a Unit’s physical strength. An average person would start out at 2 or 3. She started at 1, which made sense. The her of before had never been that strong.
Endurance. A description of a Unit’s defense against physical attacks. Increasing it would also increase the Unit’s health. An average person would start out at 1 or 2.
Spirit. A description of a Unit’s magical capabilities. Higher Spirit meant more powerful magical attacks. Most started at 0. Only those especially attuned with the spiritual would begin with 1.
Resistance. A description of a Unit’s resistance against magical attacks. Everyone started out at 0.
Dexterity. A description of a Unit’s flexibility and speed. An average person would start out at 2 or 3.
Charm. A description of a Unit’s presence. A Unit’s starting Charm would vary wildly depending on their life. Higher Charm made a Unit more popular with others and allowed a Unit to better command others, but more than that, higher Charm attracted the attention of others, including those from the beyond.
She took a breath. It wasn’t over yet.
Initiating protocol finished. Beginning first Scenario...
Hunting Units Threat: F-
Requirements: Slay 100 Monsters
Success: Unit's Survival, Access to the Monolith
Failure: Unit's Deactivation
Time Limit: One Week
Right. Okay. Everything was happening as she remembered. That was good. Really good.
She sighed. Many died in the first few minutes of the end, but this was where humans began to die. Intentional or not, people looked at the level of threat and assumed that it’d be easy. There were those that even saw this as nothing but a game. After all, a threat of F- shouldn’t be too bad, right?
But that was the thing. It would be F- for those who created the Units. But for someone like Alex? For someone who’d just awoken? Killing 100 monsters was no easy feat, especially for people unused to the savagery those from beyond demanded from the Units.
She tightly held onto the sharpened rebar in her hands, and her spare rebar weighed like lead on her hip.
It was time to hunt.
She slung her backpack from her back and placed it down. There was no point in carrying her supplies for the moment. This roof would be her temporary base, and it’d stay hers until airborne monsters began to appear.
But they wouldn’t. Not until the third day.
She had to hurry.
She climbed down the ladder and stalked around the alleyway. Those rat monsters were still crawling around, and attacking them would only do her harm. She wasn’t fit to slay groups of monsters. Not yet.
She needed to find a monster that had wandered off on its own.
Then she saw one out of the corner of her sight. It was on its own, pilfering through a pile of trash. She crept up behind it, her sharpened rebar held over her head. The moment she came close it turned around, and Alex quickly slammed the sharpened edge down onto the rat’s head.
A moment passed before a surge of power passed through her. It felt like lightning had snapped through her chest, and she grit her teeth as she wobbled in place.
Slain: Svel Lv - 1 Gained 5 Exp
The Unit has levelled up
Unit: Alexa Hugo Francis Lv 2 Exp: 0/15 Health: 5/5 Mana: - Strength: 2 (+1) Endurance: 1 Spirit: 0 Resistance: 0 Dexterity: 3 (+1) Charm: 2 (+1)
Alex blinked. She’d expected her Strength and Dexterity to increase, but Charm? What had she done to increase that? All she did was kill a monster.
She shrugged. It didn’t matter. Killing monsters took priority,
One down. Ninety nine to go.
She continued to stalk around the neighborhood, her steps silent as she passed by packs of Svels. Her Strength and Dexterity may have increased, but it still wasn’t enough. She would be nothing but prey against a pack. Solitary Svels were the ones she could take down at her current level.
Thankfully they were hardly sentient, pulled along by nothing but the desire to eat. If a Svel found even the slightest trace of a meal, it would break away and feast.
It didn’t take long to find more Svels for her to kill. They all turned around when she came too close, but none were fast enough to avoid a rebar straight through their heads.
She killed another three in several minutes.
Slain: Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1 Gained 15 Exp
The Unit has levelled up
Unit: Alexa Hugo Francis Lv 3 Exp: 0/45 Health: 5/5 Mana: - Strength: 3 (+1) Endurance: 1 Spirit: 0 Resistance: 0 Dexterity: 4 (+1) Charm: 3 (+1)
She frowned. Again. Her Charm had increased again. Why?
She shook her head. Not the time.
At this point, she had enough Strength to snap a Svel’s neck with a couple swings of her rebar, and she had enough Dexterity to run away and scale a building if she needed to. A couple level ups had brought her to the level of athletes.
But it wasn’t enough to deal with a pack of Svels. Not yet. She wouldn’t be confident enough until both her Strength and Dexterity rose above 5. It’d be nice to have her Endurance increase as well, but with how she was hunting, she doubted it’d come. She’d need to endure some form of exhaustion or damage for that to occur.
That was fine. Speed had always been her style.
She needed nine more Svels before another level up. Certainly doable. It’d just take longer. Solitary Svels weren’t the easiest thing to find. She snuck around the many alleyways in the neighborhood. She leapt from shadows to shadows, her steps light and silent as her eyes turned left and right.
It was a familiar life, and if she ignored the ringing ache in her chest, it was as if she was on another hunting mission, as if she’ never rang back in time.
It took her nearly half an hour to slay nine more Svels.
Slain: Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1 Gained 45 Exp
This Unit has levelled up
Unit: Alexa Hugo Francis Lv 4 Exp: 0/135 Health: 5/5 Mana: - Strength: 4 (+1) Endurance: 1 Spirit: 0 Resistance: 0 Dexterity: 5 (+1) Charm: 4 (+1)
Thirteen monsters hunted. Eighty seven left.
She took a breath. At this rate, she’d need twenty seven Svels before she could level up, and she didn’t feel confident enough to begin tackling packs of them. More than that, she was tired. This body of hers was weak. This body was not one that fought. This body belonged to an out-of-shape student, not one of a hunter’s.
That was fine. She wasn’t expecting it to.
With a sigh, she returned to her temporary camp. She skulked through the alleyways, keeping an eye on the paths the Svels were taking. She made it back to the ladder, gave it a good, hard stare before she decided to leap from wall to wall until she made it to the roof.
She did so in seconds, and without a single slip up. As expected.
She walked over to her backpack and nabbed a meal and a bottle of water for herself. All that killing had gotten her hungry.
Mm. Watching large rats scour the city as she ate pre-prepared meals. What a life.
That wasn’t sarcasm. This was the most relaxed she would probably be in quite a while.
She spent an hour resting, idly watching as the clouds above flew by. The blue of the sky was still strikingly bright. It wouldn’t last. The seventh scenario would wipe away that calming blue palette. But that wouldn’t come in a while, and she was grateful. Blue skies were infinitely better than the drab red it’d become.
A small smile graced her lips.
She hopped down from the roof an hour later. Her foot landed onto the pavement with a dull thud. She glanced back at the roof she’d jumped from. It wasn’t a height someone like should’ve been able to leap from, but her increase in Strength and Dexterity had helped.
She continued her prowling. She’d sneak behind any solitary Svels she encountered. They’d quickly turn around when she came too close, but they were never fast enough to avoid her rebar. She’d quickly run back to the shadows of the alleyways before any other Svels could find her.
The burning in her shoulders came less and less with every kill she made. Her arms were getting used to the weight of the rebar, and her attacks became faster.
It took a couple hours for her to bring down twenty seven Svels.
Slain: Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, 18 more... Gained 135 Exp
This Unit has levelled up
Unit: Alexa Hugo Francis Lv 5 Exp: 0/405 Health: 10/10 Mana: - Strength: 5 (+1) Endurance: 2 (+1) Spirit: 0 Resistance: 0 Dexterity: 6 (+1) Charm: 5 (+1)
Ah. Her Endurance finally increased. It was most likely because she’d tired herself out on her first hunting trip.
And again, Charm increased. Why?
No point in wondering.
Forty monsters slain. Sixty remain.
Mm. Sixty monsters was a lot. It was afternoon now, and she wanted to finish this first scenario on the first day. There was no way she was going to make it if she kept searching for solitary Svels. She didn’t have a lot of time to waste.
Hunting packs would be better.
So she did.
With hardly any effort, she came upon a pack of ten or so Svels. She stood before them, and the two Svels at the front screeched and barred their teeth as they charged at her. Their clawed feet dug into the concrete as they ran, and dust shot out as they leapt towards her, teeth barred and aimed for her chest.
She impaled the one closest to her through its head. She pulled her other sharpened rebar from her hip and stabbed another through its eye. She pulled out her weapons with a wet squelch, and the Svels that remained backed away slightly as she approached.
Though limited in their consciousness, they could recognize a threat when they saw one. And this human before them wasn’t like the ones that ran away. This one was a threat. A predator.
They tucked their tails and ran away.
Alex didn’t let them.
With her enhanced speed she chased after them, stabbing her rebar through their heads when she came close. Some attempted to slow her down, but she simply slammed them into the concrete when they leapt at her. They crashed into the ground with a painful crack, and they let out a weak squeak as they died.
The pack died in minutes.
Slain: Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, 3 more... Gained 60 Exp
Fifty two monsters slain. Forty eight remain.
She found another pack in minutes. This one was bigger. There were maybe twenty or so. But none approached her. When she came, they stepped back as one, bodies quivering and teeth chattering. Alex had stared, confused, but she didn’t let it stop her from charging forward.
The Svels screeched and turned to run.
Because the Svels were monsters of instinct, and they knew this human before them was no prey. The strange twisting claws it carried, the blood of their kin sticking to its body, the sharp glint in its eyes as it hunted them down. That was not the look of a helpless animal. It was the look of a beast.
And so she killed. Svels fell by the roadside, their skulls punctured through the top as blood trailed the streets. Panicked screeches grew weaker as more Svels fell by the wayside. The burning in her arms grew with every swing, and her shoes were sticky with globs of blood. She didn’t let herself slow down.
Slain: Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, 12 more... Gained 105 Exp
Seventy three monsters slain. Twenty seven remain.
She glanced at the skies. It was slowly turning orange. She gave a quick glance at her phone. 17:38 it said. She’d maybe have an hour before everything turned dark. Hunting in the dark would be bad. Extremely so. Especially for someone without any form of [Night Vision].
She needed to find a couple more packs to slay.
She came across one fairly easily, and they all fell to her rebar just as easily. Their blood soaked every inch of clothing she wore, but there was little she could do about that.
Slain: Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, 4 more... Gained 65 Exp
Eighty six monsters slain. Fourteen remain.
Finding the last fourteen wasn’t as easy. The sky was barely lit by that point. She had maybe a few minutes before night came. And much like animals, the Svels would find a place to call their home and rest for the night. Which meant that she needed to find a camp instead of a wandering pack.
She did eventually find one. It was a group of twenty or so, sleeping around a pile of trash bags. They didn’t react even as she approached.
They all died silently.
Slain: Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, Svel Lv - 1, 14 more... Gained 135 Exp
More than a hundred monsters slain. None remain.
A slue of messages appeared by the edge of her sight, but Alex dismissed them. She’d read them when she made it back to her roof. She quickly ran through the streets, using her phone as a flashlight to show the way. There were no Svels in her way, but that could change at any moment.
Thankfully, none appeared, and she safely hopped back onto her roof.
She dropped her sharpened rebars, stripped off her bloody clothes, did her best to wipe away all the blood on her body; it didn’t go very well, and changed into another plain shirt and a pair of shorts.
And as she settled in with another pre-prepared meal on her lap, she finally brought up the messages she’d dismissed earlier.
Unit Alexa Hugo Francis has finished the first Scenario, Hunting Units. Access to the Monolith has been opened.
Unit Alexa Hugo Francis is the first to complete the Scenario. Additional Rewards added.
Gained 5000 Coins
Alex blinked, and blinked again. There was a reward for being the first? She didn’t know that. And an additional reward of 5000 Coins? For a Unit that just began, that was an incredible prize.
“Monolith.”
Verbalize Unit's Personal Monolith Unlock Code
She smiled. Maybe her luck hadn’t run out all those years ago.
“Authority.”
Code accepted. Opening...