*While Yeon just entered the third level of hell, about a month has passed on Earth since the day he died. The world has changed a lot. The day Yeon died, the era of despair started for the people on earth. Monsters never seen before wreaked havoc; nearly 5 billion people lost their lives. Space Gates were found all over the Earth. It was speculated that monsters came from these gates, but nothing has been confirmed yet. To counter this emergency situation, all 26 countries deployed their armies and technology against the monsters. But it wasn’t very useful. These monsters were not something that could be handled by mankind. Special organizations were formed in each country to gather information about the Space Gates and monsters. At an underground place situated is the headquarters of ACZ (Apocalypse Counter Zekron), a newly formed branch of the NSS (National Security Service) of Zekron (Home country of Yeon). A man is handing the report of two days after the Apocalypse to the chairman of ACZ.*
“Sir, this is the report you asked about the Apocalypse so far”, the man handed the report to the chairman and continued, “Almost 67% of the population is gone in 2 days. This disaster is very grave. We were not prepared for such a disaster. The army and weapons are only able to hold off the monsters for some time, while common people are being rescued. The government is considering using nuclear weapons against the monsters”. “They will not use them since we can’t risk losing more population,” chairman replied to his assistant. “Enough about this, have you found any information on the so-called Heroes”. “Sir, about that there are a lot of witnesses who claim that they have seen some humans fighting against monsters. According to them, those Heroes used supernatural abilities like controlling fire, ice etc. to defeat the monsters. But we aren’t able to trace these Heroes yet. Though there is a woman we are trying to reach who is suspected to be one of the Heroes. According to our intelligence, she uses Lightning Ability”.
“I never thought we would see a day when humans would have such strong abilities. But it would be a relief if they could help us in this dire situation. Try your best to get her into our organization. By the way, is it just me, or are you also hearing a weird sound?”
* A loud sound was being broadcast around the world. And everyone could see a system prompt in front of them.*
[This is an important announcement. I repeat, this is an important announcement.]
[Please focus]
[I am Gaya, the planet you live on and call ‘Earth’.]
[We are under attack from an unidentified force, and I do not have the means to defeat it myself.]
[Therefore, I will be awakening every person here so that you can survive the impending disaster.]
[Some of you might have already awakened since I wanted to see if this will work or not. I will be using mana I have accumulated since the beginning to awaken you all.]
[After this everyone will have the ability to fight against the disaster. But the powers given to you will be random. I do not have the ability to control this. So, you all need to make sure you use this to survive.]
[I have shared some information about the extent of my abilities in the system available to you all. You can access it any time you want though it’s not much.]
[The information will be updated in your system automatically with time as you explore more.]
[I wish you luck. Please don’t let my sacrifice be in vain.]
* The sound couldn’t be heard anymore. Everyone was confused. But soon the confusion was lifted as they could see their own stats on a window in front of them. This was the start of the era of The Awakened Ones. Every person was awakened, but not everyone had a high rank or strong ability. Further, it was impossible for someone to increase their rank. Within two weeks, every country organized its power around the Awakeners. But not everyone wanted to work with the government; some of the Awakeners made their own organizations known as Guilds for their own personal benefit. Soon, people came to know that the Gates were indeed the source of monsters, and it was possible to go inside the gates and defeat the monsters before they came out. This information was shared in the Apocalypse Manual shared by Gaya to everyone. As Gaya said, the information was very brief, and it only contained information on the monsters that have been discovered so far on Earth; it did not contain any information on any other monster. Although it contained some information on items and resources from the gates, which were very valuable.
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The system provided by Gaya was also capable of determining the difficulty level of every gate. The gates had their difficulties ranked similar to the rank of Awakeners, i.e., F --> E --> D --> C --> B --> A --> S. No rank above S was discovered (neither for awakener nor for any gate). Every country had its own Apocalypse counter forces which were led by an A or S-rank Awakener. There were a total of 31 S-ranks in the world known to the public. Zekron and five other countries had 2 S-ranks while rest of them had only one.
With power comes greed. There were also terrorist organizations that had awakened their powers, and it was getting hard for each country to control them. There were rumors that the Cult of Thiren (a terrorist organization in the country of Thiren) had two S-ranks, but nothing has been confirmed yet. Thiren was already having a hard time before the apocalypse due to these terrorists, but after everyone awakened, CoT (the Cult of Thiren) took control over that country. The country was closed to outsiders after this, and no one dared approach it since everyone had their own problems to deal with.
In these 2 weeks, two major guilds were formed in Zekron, which were known as Abyss, led by Kristina, and Rockstar’s Guild, led by Joren. Kristina had an A rank, while Joren had an S rank. The other S rank was an anonymous man whose identity was not confirmed yet. People called him the Deathbringer because he had killed nearly three-fourths of the monsters roaming in Zekron by himself after awakening. It was rumored that the man lost his family in the apocalypse and became a psycho who loves killing. Some people saw him killing humans; therefore, he wasn’t liked by the public. Everyone feared him, and no one dared to approach him. The chairman of ACZ had an A rank. Under his leadership, ACZ became a strong counter against the Apocalypse, and he was well liked by the public of Zekron and other rankers. ACZ had declared that Deathbringer is an ally of humanity and that he doesn’t want attention, so his identity wasn’t declared to the public. It was also announced that he wasn’t associated with any of the guilds or ACZ. ACZ said, “He is too powerful for us to even negotiate with him, so we agreed to his condition of being anonymous while he agreed to help us when we or our country needs him.”*
***
[Apocalypse Manual (by Gaya):
Apocalypse is an unprecedented disaster whose cause is not known yet. The only information I could get is that Space Gates have been found on the planet, and these gates are the source of these monsters.
Space Gates: In general, a space gate is a link to connect two places, and it is formed with mana. Space gates can only be created by a higher being. Even I am not capable of creating these many gates. Therefore, right now, all I can say is that this is the work of a very powerful being who wants to destroy this planet. Although I don’t know why they (the higher being) chose this method. Every space gate on earth connects to a different dimension where a different race (monsters in simple terms) resides. Although some of them contain the same race as well. After a certain amount of time, depending on the gate level, the gate breaks, and it is possible for monsters to come out. To avoid a breakout, awakeners should go inside the gate and kill the monsters if they are hostile. In these dimensions, you can also get items and resources that aren’t available on earth.
Goblins: They are typically small, grotesque human-like beings with a penchant for mischief and mayhem. Their appearance can vary, but common characteristics include green skin, sharp teeth, and pointy ears. Goblins are known for their cunning nature, often using trickery and deception to achieve their goals. But their intelligence is nothing in comparison to that of humans. Normal goblins aren’t much of a threat to even a F rank awakener, but goblins can be of various types.
Spearmen: They are humanoid hyenas, combining traits of both humans and hyenas in their appearance and behavior. They have fur covering their bodies, with the coloration and features resembling those of hyenas, including a canine-like head with sharp teeth and yellow eyes. They are cunning hunters and scavengers who form packs or tribes led by powerful leaders or chieftains. They use a spear as their weapon and are very proficient in using it.
So far, I have only this much information available. This information will be updated with your findings, and you can share it with others to tackle the apocalypse. Good Luck.]