Just a normal day is what it should have been. Get up at 6 am dress myself, brush my teeth, eat breakfast, take the bus to school, endure it and then go home.
Right, that should have been it. A day everyone has had too many times to count. A day that so many would have had experienced in the future so often that they would get a headache just from thinking about it.
And yet, it was the day the world plunged into chaos while establishing a new natural order.
The first half of the day, of the 9th January 2018, was still as it should have been. I woke up while trying to piece together the still blurry images my eyes gave me. I looked around my room. There wasn't anything special about it, just a normal room. A bed, an old desk with my pc and a chair in front of it, and my wardrobe. The desk was as always a pure mess, my school folders and books and also some notes were scattered over it all over the place, while all my computer games collected dusk on the left corner of it.
"Haaaa" I got up. Usually, it takes me way longer to find the motivation to get up until it's nearly too late to get everything done just in time but today I just wasn't as groggy as I was supposed to be. Must be because of the little nap I took yesterday afternoon. I often do that. It happens quite often that I fall asleep on my bed while playing with my smartphone. If it happens I usually wake up at 6 pm or 7 pm. Because of that I often can't sleep until late night. Not that I plan to do so even if I could. The earlier I go to bed the sooner I have to go to school again, at least that's what it feels like.
I go into the bathroom to wash my face quickly and then brush my teeth. The house is mostly silent, aside from our dog. My mother is in Stuttgart, she has been working there for a month already. My father has to go to work right before I wake up so he also isn't home while my big sister is still sleeping. It's only been a day since she had her wisdom teeth removed so she doesn't have to go to school. While I do have an older brother, that useless idiot only has to wake up somewhere in the early noon as his shift only begins somewhere around mid-noon. So at the moment, I am the only one awake.
As I finish brushing my teeth and thinking about such useless stuff, I go back to my room to get dressed. A plain black T-shirt, normal blue jeans and a black jacket as it is cold outside. I grab my bag and go downstairs, eat my cereals, grab my breakfast that my father left for me on the table and take my other thicker jacket and go outside to the bus stop. It's 6.47 and my bus only arrives at 6.56 so I still have to wait here for nearly 10 minutes in the freezing cold.
I don't want to play with my phone as my hands would freeze if I take them outside my pockets, so I can only wait. I don't have any friends among the other teenagers here, only some acquaintances. But I don't know them enough to call them friends and just have some small talk with them.
A while later the bus finally arrives. Halfway through, my pockets weren't enough to stop the freezing -4°C anymore so I wanted to get on that bus really quick. I walk in, show my bus card and try to look for a seat to sit down. As usually there is no open seat anymore. The buses this early are always full as the company behind them simply refuses to send a 2nd one. Sometimes in summer, there are even times where the bus is so full that some people have to either wait for the next one or just go home and grab their bikes.
"Hey fattie, why so gloomy? You look like you ate shit for breakfast! Don't tell me you really do?"
Sigh, the usual assholes are finally back. Woohoo... I could have easily gotten through the day without them.
I don't bother to answer them. It would only give him and his friends more reason to annoy me. The one who spoke was Brian. When we were still in elementary school he was in class b while I was in class a. He still went through all the effort to daily insult and annoy me. I don't even know why. Apparently, it's my face that annoys him so much but he never talked about it while I was around so I don't really know. I can only guess and my guess is that he is bitter at me for beating him up in the first grade when he found it was a good idea to claim the whole sandbox as his and drive out all the other children. Back then I still had a very short temper and even minor stuff was enough to foul my mood. Till this day he apparently hasn't forgiven me for beating him up and embarrassing him. Even though it's been so long. Seriously it's been like 9 years since then. That was the 1st grade and he still didn't better himself and still has a mountain-sized ego.
I just endure all the noise of all the other teenagers around me as I wait for the bus to arrive at school. As usual, while listening to some of the conversations around me, I didn't hear anything important. Just some simple small-talk without any worry about their future. Even though the future for our generation looks quite bleak, most approach it with "I'll deal with it when I get there".
As the bus finally arrives I hurry and get out as fast as possible. Though that doesn't work as good as in theory as there are just too many crowding the exit. So it turns into some kind of shoving competition. When I finally get out I just ignore all the other ones around me and hurry to my classroom.
The classroom is still mostly empty. The other buses from the other villages are going to arrive later and some of the ones who already arrived did a nice turn walked away and took out their cigarettes and lighters. I put my jacket on the coat hook and go to my seat. On the way, I greet Maurice, who is basically my only good friend in school. I still have some other ones who I get along with quite well but it isn't really the same.
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"Hi man"(Me)
"Hello"(Maurice)
"Do you have the homework for German?"(Maurice)
"Oh wait I have to take out my stuff first, give me a sec."(Me)
Well, I do have it but it is barely readable. My writing sucks hard and he knows it but he still somehow always manages to decipher it.
Slowly the remaining few and our smokers arrive and then lastly our German teacher Mr Grammar as we call him as he doesn't allow any kind of mistake in your grammar. Well, his real name is Frank von Zwielicht.
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As the 4th lesson finishes, all the students no longer keep shut, and the room gets noisy instantly.
"Have you seen the Bachelor yesterday I can't believe he threw her out!"
"Yeah right, even though the black haired one behaved like a real bitch"
"Did you already reach the 6th level in...?"
"I was in Magdeburg yesterday and there was ...!"
*rumble rumble
Suddenly the room quakes like in an earthquake which is nearly impossible in Germany as there are no tectonic plates that could rub against each other here and also no volcanoes. So there shouldn't be an earthquake in Germany that is this strong.
"Woaaah!"
"Get under the tables!"
"Keep distance from the windows"
Well even though there have been no earthquakes in Germany we still have learned what do to in case we ever have our holidays somewhere where it could happen. So relatively quickly we were all under the tables.
*sfx for glass breaking
Some of the windows did break and the shards scattered all over the floor nearby.
*crash
Even some of the pieces of the ceiling fell down. The buildings in Germany aren't built to withstand an earthquake after all so it was obvious that there would be some damage to the buildings. It was pretty good that we got under the tables quickly as the pieces of the ceiling could have inflicted some serious head injuries.
However, instead of slowly subsiding, the earthquake continued for quite a while. Just as I got worried that the building may even collapse as more and more cracks started to form on the walls and ceiling and even some of my classmates looked like they would have a panic attack anytime soon, it just went dark all of a sudden.
The light just seemed to have disappeared and I was in total darkness.
I looked around while being quite confused about this as the sky was mostly clear of clouds and if a cloud would block the sun it wouldn' be this dark. No way it would be. However, I also noticed that the quaking stopped and I couldn't even hear my classmates whimpering in fear or anything else. It was as if my senses and body just stopped working as I also couldn't speak or move.
After a while, I was slowly getting more and more anxious as I thought that the only possibility would be that some debris fell on my head and I fell unconscious. However, that shouldn't be possible as I was under a table and the tables were quite sturdy.
So maybe the building did collapse in the end? But that wouldn't kill me immediately. I would at least see how the walls fall together and the ceiling comes down on us. Even if just for a few seconds. So what happened?
*Ding
WELCOME TO THE "ROOM OF REMODELING."
...
...
...
The. Fuck. Is. This???
This reminds me of some notification that one would see in some games. You know the obnoxious kind that just suddenly appears and block a large part of the screen.
Well, it looks like I can only wait and see what this pop-up-like window wants from me as it is the only thing here and I still can't move!
IN THE "ROOM OF REMODELING", YOU CAN CHANGE YOURSELF IN NEARLY ANY WAY YOU WANT. WHATEVER YOU SEE AS A FLAW IN YOUR CURRENT APPEARANCE, YOU CAN CHANGE IT OR SIMPLY COMPLETELY CHANGE THE WAY YOU LOOK. YOU CAN ALSO ENHANCE YOUR STRENGTH, INTELLECT, AGILITY, DEXTERITY, VITALITY, STAMINA, MANA AND EVERYTHING ELSE. THE ROOM IS PROVIDED BY THE GODS, TO GIVE THE HUMANS THE CHANCE TO CHANGE THEMSELVES TO A FORM THAT IS BETTER SUITED FOR THE TIMES THAT ARE COMING.
Ok... now, this is interesting. Though I guess I should also be worried as it could mean that I have just gone nuts and am now hallucinating. But I guess I'll see if I have gone nuts after exiting this space somehow.
I AM THE SYSTEM AND WILL GUIDE YOU THROUGH YOUR REMODELLING, NUMBER #987265
Number #987265?
Does that mean that there are just that many people in similar situations as I am?
TO BE PRECISE THE ENTIRETY OF HUMANITY IS IN THIS SITUATION.
The entirety of humanity??? That's impossible. There is next to nothing that has a decent chance of actually happening that could affect the entirety of humanity. Especially not an earthquake.
YOU ARE RIGHT THERE ARE VERY FEW THINGS THAT COULD HAPPEN SO SUDDENLY WITHOUT HUMANS EVEN NOTICING, THAT COULD AFFECT THE ENTIRETY OF HUMANITY AND WITH THAT ALSO THE ENTIRE PLANET EARTH.
Wait I just noticed but this... system is responding to my thoughts. I never heard anything about something like this. In the first place, what is going on here???