The morning sun reflected its rays of light in the windows of the cars stopped in traffic, people watched the view in front of them waiting for the moment that they could finally put their feet on the accelerator and leave that place, patience was the only thing that prevented most of these people from going crazy because of their daily routine, many there wished this torment to end once and for all, little did they know that they should be careful of what they wish...

Sitting on a bus was a young man with short brown hair, amber eyes, and an ordinary face, he is a Brazilian boy only 15 years old on his way to school, looking out the window, the boy sighed and put on his headset, he was already used to this routine, getting up, getting ready, eating, going to school, coming back, studying, dining, washing, and sleeping.

His whole life could be summed up in this uninteresting sequence of tasks, obviously, he was not the only one in this situation, but it cannot be denied that each person is unique and has his own vision of how to face life. For him, all of this was a waste of time.

Why would a person put so much effort into something that most likely would never bring a satisfactory return, he was not even a genius, so he would never be able to enter the biggest and best viewed educational institutions, he had no talent other than playing MMORPGs, but that didn't give him a satisfactory monetary return either.

"If all paths point in the same direction, what is the point of continuing to walk?" That was the question he asked himself every morning while going to school listening to his playlist. Looking at the cars through the window, he sighed despondently, at that moment, all he wanted, was a change... one that would make his life more interesting.

When he was about to close his eyes and get some rest, he felt someone touching his shoulder, turning to see who it was, his mind completely froze, 'Isn't that the exchange girl? The genius girl, daughter of a famous businessman? The most beautiful girl in school... '

His eyes swept the girl completely from top to bottom with a certain trace of lust, she had blond hair, green eyes and a face that seemed to have come out of some princess fairy tale, despite her age her body was already well developed and she could make any boy drool and fantasize about what it would be like to be her boyfriend.

She was not as innocent as many would imagine, being the daughter of a successful man, she learned very early to identify that kind of look, but it didn't matter much to her, after all, she was aware of her own appearance and knew that boys of his age would already have that kind of interest, even more so when they are introverted and lonely as the one in front of her.

"Hi, your name is Victor Almeida? I believe we are in the same class, my name is Elizabeth Smith, could you help me? I was unable to attend the class last week, I would like to know if you could pass on the contents of these days that I was not present."

Victor looked at her and opened his mouth, he wanted to answer, he really wanted to, but he was very distracted admiring her beauty.

She was about to get his attention, when suddenly, she looked straight ahead, gaping, her face pale and tears started to stream down her face.

Confused by this scene and the fact that his surroundings seemed to become increasingly bright, he turned and looking out the window, he saw a scene he would never forget. He asked for a change, of course, but he never asked for that change in his life to be literally the end of it.

The girl grabbed his arm and cried on his shoulders, she closed her eyes and waited for the end.

Everyone looked at the sky at that moment and the vast majority began to pray that they would be sent to paradise, in their eyes, the giant fireball that was approaching in the skies, was the sign of the end of the times.

When the sphere hit the ground, Victor closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable, when the wave of hot wind swept over the bus, he thought it would be his end, but after some time, despite feeling hot, nothing seemed to have happened, opening his eyes he gulped, the world around him seemed to have frozen in time.

Looking around, he waited to see if something would happen, but everything remained the same. Raising an eyebrow, he decided to look around and try to understand what was going on.

He walked for some time and crossed the streets, nothing seemed out of ordinary if you didn't consider the matter of time stopping. He was about to go back, but them something catch his eyes, behind him close to one of the stores a few meters away from him, he saw some sort of green floating ball of light.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He decided to get closer and see if something would happen, when he was a few meters away from it, the ball emitted some kind of light that swept him, if he had to guess, he would say that this thing was examining him.

'Maybe this is some sort of highly technological alien life form that was living inside the meteor...' Victor thought as scenes from movies like independence day played on his mind.

After some time, the ball stopped whatever it was doing and after emitting a weird sound, it sped towards him going right inside of his chest, making him fly backward for more than 10 meters.

Now lying on the ground, he was trying his best to breath, the impact was so powerful he thought he would die.

A few seconds later, a weird blue screen appeared in front of him with a message.

[New compatible operator found... Starting the adaptation process... Activating the System]

As soon as he finished reading, a bright light obfuscated his vision, soon after, he found himself seated inside the bus while looking outside.

'What just happened? Where is the meteor?'

He was almost panicking when he felt someone touching his shoulder, turning to see who it was, his mind completely froze, 'It's her! What the fuck is going on!? Did I go back in time?' He looked at her from top to bottom, trying to make sure he was looking at the same girl from before.

"Hi, your name is Victor Almeida? I believe we are in the same class, my name is Elizabeth Smith, could you help me? I was unable to attend the class last week, I would like to know if you could pass on the contents of these days that I was not present."

He looked at her and tried to answer, but he was still shocked by what happened before...

"Are you alright?"

"Uh... Yes, what did you said that you wanted?"

"I -" Before she could finish, someone in front Shouted, interrupting her.

"RUN! RUN!"

A lot of shouts resounded everywhere, the people in the front started to leave their vehicles and desperately run as if their lives depended on it.

"What's going on?" Someone who was seated behind them asked.

Before anyone could answer the sound of windows breaking resounded on their ears, in the front of the bus a weird animal broke inside of a car and attacked the person who was inside.

Seeing the blood dripping from the car, Victor stopped himself from vomiting, he couldn't believe what he was seeing, a strange animal that resembled a saber-toothed tiger just devoured a person who was literally a few meters from him.

Getting up, he ran to the front of the bus and pressed the button that opens the bus doors.

Turning, he shouted, "Get out!"

He was one of the first to leave, the other passengers followed and soon spread out trying to run for their lives.

As they ran to the end of the street, the roar of the strange animals resonated, making Victor's heartbeats skyrocket as if his heart was going to fly out of his chest.

Unfortunately, Victor was a procrastinator, he did not exercise and did not even bother to try to maintain a healthy diet, just a minute of running was enough to leave him breathless. As he slowed the roaring sound slowly approached, and with them, the feeling of death seemed to slowly overwhelm him.

When he was about to turn the corner, the sound of a scream alerted him, causing him to turn to see, Elizabeth had fallen on the ground and behind her, approaching slowly with fangs out, one of the tiger-like animals seemed to be preparing to attack.

With his chaotic thoughts at the speed of light, he didn't know what to do... If he was stupid enough to try to save her, not only could he end up getting screwed, but he could also end up meeting his own death.

At that moment she turned to him, her eyes filled with tears and screaming for help.

Gritting his teeth and with tears in his eyes, he decided to do something that he would surely regret later. Looking around for something he could use, he took the iron lid from a trash can and ran towards the tiger while screaming and hitting the iron lid to attract his attention!

As if irritated by the boy's actions, the tiger turned to him and roaring, ran towards him with its claws out, the moment the tiger jumped in Victor's direction, in a lucky moment of exhalation he used the trash can cover to deflect the tiger's trajectory with great difficulty making him hit the car that was beside him headfirst.

Although the tiger literally drilled a hole in the car's body, he was still awake, his luck was that he got stuck there.

Running up to the girl looking at him with her mouth open, he held out his hand and was about to help her get up when an absurd pain washed over his body making him want to scream, with tears and a pained expression on his face, he took off his jacket and looked at his arm, seeing the deep cut and the blood leaking continuously, he paled and regretted having done something, if this were a normal situation, he would probably be on the floor incapacitated, but with so much adrenaline running through his body and the threat of death hanging over his head, he somehow still managed to move.

Helping the girl to get up with the other hand, he ran with her into an establishment and closed the door behind him, seeing that he had entered a clothing store, he took the first piece of fragile clothing he saw and tore it off, and tried to use it to stop the blood while looking for a place to hide, luckily, there was a trapdoor that led to an attic, signaling to the girl, he waited for her to come down, before following behind her and making sure to lock it.