In downtown, the rush of traffic was not as loud as expected in the morning. Announcement of lockdown must've thrown people in quite the turmoil. Many must have left the city in a rush. Well, that's how it usually worked.

It was ten in the morning. I stood by sidewalk, rushing cars went past me, creating gusts of wind, making dead leaves by treepit of the dogwoods, go wild along the wind. Towering buildings covered the alleyways, where winds shrouded, rushed and resonated in a cold shrill around me, causing my raven black hairs to flail. There was a chill in the air today. Some people stood by the crossroads, perhaps out here to purchase some necessities before the lockdown, not everyone was able to leave the city. Benjo whimpered in his carry bag as the cold gust carcassed his soft fur. It was indeed cold today.

Hmm, Olympic Blvd road, by the Yard House Takeway...

It was the address of a restaurant in the downtown that Jason gave me before setting off to finish his own assignments submissions. I never liked crowded places, the city must've been especially tight packed today. Another car went past, creating another chilly gust, I patted Benjo and crossed the road. The sun was hiding beneath dark clouds, even though the weather predictions ascertained less than ten percent chance of precipitation today, the sky told otherwise. Even the scarlet tower was shrouded due to the abundance of dark sky woollen.

As Jason predicted, the restaurant was quite sparse of people. By the road, over the parking lot, there were only two cars. I recognised one of them. The clowns were already here.

I opened the glass door and entered the spacious frontal chamber. Polished wooden tables and chairs, diagonally aligned with each other along the counter. Overhead, six metallic decorative pipes shot up from behind the glass door, glowing with pairs of green and orange LEDs, reaching the back of the food counter. Despite being sparse of the customers, the restaurant had very cozy feel to it. To the right table of the entrance sat an tenuous old lady, sitting by, what I assumed, her grandson.

As Benjo let out a sudden whine, I heard a familiar voice from the far left table.

"...try. Tattoos are hot.", a male voice said.

"And what if mine is the Princess Leia in the slave bikini, straddling a twenty faced die?'', a feminine voice replied.

I recognised them. The founding members of our clown squad, Keith and Natasha. Although I called them clowns, they were not actually clowns.

Perhaps.

I reached the last table, carrying a whimpering Benjo in my arms. It was Keith who noticed me first.

"Oh hey! Look who's finally here.", Keith drawled, raising his hands.

"Well, sounds like someone forgot to inform me about the exact time.", I said looking at the man on the back of the table, right next to Keith, who was desperately trying to look away.

"Oh, hey Ju..", Natasha said as she looked up with her blue irises, "And, Hellooo Benjo!''

Benjo let out an happy whine as Natasha rubbed his fluffy head.

"Wait!", Keith looked at the square jawed Tyler, trying to steal his eyes. "You didn't even tell her about the meet up time."

Tyler always had this shy personality and never talked much. I doubt that he even had my number when I literally recieved the location of meetup by my brother. He must've contacted him instead.

Keith kept asking Tyler as I sat on the last remaining chair. The frame was polished and the soft leather armoured cushion felt comfy.

"She's here now guys, drop it! We. need. to. finish. it. today.", Natasha said as she raised her voice.

"I've already decided!", Keith perked up.

"What?", Tyler said joining the conversation.

"What? Destroying solar system by shooting sun with a water droplet weighing billions times the approximate mass of earth without turning it into a black hole?", Natasha ridiculed.

"Oh come on! It was just a sandbox experiment with some numerical analysis. And I have everything ready, every. single. numerical. stat. From simple temperature upon collision to the speed of planets launching themselves out of their rings of revolution upon devastation of solar mass.", Keith defended.

"We are... medical students, Keith.", Natasha calmly reminded, as she kept browsing through her smartphone.

"So what?", Tyler joined in, while not even raising his eyes over his laptop, "That old fart never gave us a topic."

"See... Even this mute asshole agrees.", Keith marvelled.

"Hey!"

I was too, looking outside the window, nothing good would ever come if I jumped in this ridiculous conversation. They went on and on... while, I just stared outside the window, waiting for them to reach a conclusion. The weather outside was darkening every second. A strange feeling had been clutching my heart since this morning.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

What was it?

Like an invisible concrete wall, it smashed me on and on. A pressure. I couldn't think of any words to describe it. Like I'm being thrown into the depths of dark oceans, like a desperate creature, I want to throw it all away but the depths never ceased to exist. The pressure went on and over, crushing me beneath. I could tell that Jason was feeling the same.

Some time passed, as the gusts of winds carrying grains of dust and remnants of dead leaves, spiralled outside the glass window, cars rushing left and right over the road, and sky, getting even darker.

I was suddenly distracted as a whining Benjo pulled the sleeve of my white top. I looked at him and patted his fluffy fur. He whimpered in happiness, relieving me off some of this invisible pressure.

I looked around. Natasha has been awfully quite for a minute now, while Tyler and Keith went on about the effects that difference in atmospheric mass can muster. A quiet Tyler was understandable, but her? Not a chance.

"Guys...", Natasha said, her wide eyes glued to her smartphone, her bob cut hairs, fell like straight strands of blonde waterfall as she stuck her nose inside her smartphone.

"I can totally imagine him preaching like a saint to seeth thy curio-", Tyler stopped midway, as his eyes widened. "What the hell?"

There was no response from Natasha either.

"What?", Keith bent, overlooking from Tyler's laptop.

What was happening? Why was she acting weird?

I too, bent in to check, and my eyes widened.

On the smartphone, ran a video. The live written over red with white font ascertained the validity of the ongoing event. An high frequency earthquake's aftermath. Tokyo in Japan appeared to be the center of the natural disaster. What left, was scattered buildings, torn up skyscrapers, as if reaped off their rights of sky.

The wildly running seismic waves, bought yet another great disaster, but...

What the hell is going on?

The landscape appeared to be frozen by the aftermath. As if wheel of time itself had refused to spin anymore. The large chunks of broken buildings, suspended freely in the space. No movement, neither in the debris fallen off the cracked bent skyscrapers, nor in any vehicle. Ground ruptured beneath, yet the no piece of movement from a slashed flesh of earth was confirmed. But, for people, there was no hinder in their own movements. The recorder was constantly rumbling something in Japanese, pointing his fingers in front of face, though I had no idea what he said.

But the scene itself was as bizzare as it gets. People wandering out in the open, marvelling at the wondrous sight of a frozen dimension. It felt like every non living thing froze in it's place. Before the video could have continued, it was corrupted.

Even Tyler's, where someone else was explaining the aftermath stopped in middle.

Silence descended, Natasha, while still being in the awe of what she saw, shook her head, "Impossible."

"What the hell was tha-", before Keith could even finish the sentence, the table shook slightly. Before continuous short trembles manifested in an instant, the ground too, started shaking.

Our eyes widened. Screams of the waiters and workers engulfed the shaking surroundings. The dust rose and the ceiling shook. Damn it!

"GET UNDER THE TABLES!", Tyler shouted.

Wait.

The tables were fragile, they wouldn't have hold it off if something heavy fell over them. I needed to look for an alternative. Casting my gaze around me, I found it. The food counter, although wide but, it was sturdier than most of the polished serving tables. I yelled at my friends to rush to the counters instead, and I myself moved out of way, towards the old lady I saw when I entered the restaurant.

She was there, scrunched up under the fragile shelter of a table, holding her grandson . The frequency of tectonic waves was intensifying every second, I had no time to think. If the frequency reached close to the one that caused destruction in Japan, there was no way that this building would hold on for much longer. And there was nothing that ascertained the similar collapse of time dimension would happen here too.

I ran, as increasing intensity caused the roof to dust off more and more, through the gaps between the incandescent lights, which were quickly widening. Reaching the table, I pulled the kid from under the table with one hand, while holding a scared Benjo in another.

Would had I been alone, I would have probably left the shivering old lady behind. But, right now, that was not the case. Just in the moment as I pulled the kid, Tyler's huge frame rushed past me and kicked the square table with all the force his legs could've mustered. The table slid past the smooth floor, revealing the shivering figure of an old women, as I myself ran towards the concrete servery counter. Upon reaching the counter, along with the crying kid and a very scared potato, I jumped, sliding over the smooth surface, and reaching the other end. Without wasting a single moment, I pushed myself under the counter. Tyler followed soon after. From under the counter, I saw as the leather boots tapped over the marble surface, along with the flying debris. A unusual sigh left my lips as I finally saw Tyler along with the old lady, getting under the wide counter.

But, soon after, as the intensity kept increasing, the lights fell, along with the momentary white tiles of the restaurant roof, before the whole roof collapsed over.

Clutter of mind piercing cries escaped the mouth of workers and customers, alike.

The ground was shaking too wildly. Like an ancient underground beast finally awoke from a long slumber, passing it's long awaited judgement on the surface dwellers. Over the time, it even surpassed the known natural intensity. Fallen roof adorned the destruction. But only after a few minutes, what actually felt like years, the intense shaking came to an abrupt stop. The falling dust froze in space. The constant sounds of roofs and walls breaking down, was consumed by an oceanic silence.

The frozen dimension of time. Yet again, freezing the non sentient forms of earthen flesh. Before, I could've even left the counter. The crimson irises of mine, widened. The very same disembodied blue screen appeared across my vision.

Pl.48972 has acquired the required amount of mana for integration...

Now...

Commencing integration...

Contacting System...

Code added [23451]

Pl.48972 will now be known as [Earth] across the multiverse...

Attributing the highest order species...

Intelligence detected...

Confirmed species: Human

Status (Species: Human): To Be Preserved

Attributing The Target... Pre Awakened Species Detected...

Tutorial Zone For Highest Order Species: [Acquired]

It started with a sudden notification, but just in a moment, the screen expanded further downwards. Before I even could've read the content, my vision plunged into abyssal darkness.

[Tutorial Shall Now Commence]