~~~~~
"Urgh!"
Thump!
A frail body fell headfirst on the glistening white snowy surface of the Earth with clear sounds of agitation coming out of its mouth, followed by a thump. The smooth swishing sound of the chamber from which he fell echoed and finally closed and all that was left in the cold, dreadful silence of the night was the feeble body laying on the snow.
Smoke rose from its surface as the faint sounds of its breathing echoed in the dreadful stillness of the cold night. Slowly, it started twitching its fingers as its body started heating up, despite the snow infiltrating its skin.
Suddenly, the body jerked itself, turning its entire frail excuse of a being, off the chilling snow, trying its best at laying comfortably on it. And from the little patch of beard on its face; the body was that of a human male.No doubt about it.
But what was concerning was the thin piece of cloth akin to a patient gown doing a very bad job in protecting his skin from its assault.
The male human had a very pale, sickly white skin complexion and along with his debilitated and malnourished musculature, hollow cheeks and lanky arms and feet, he looked extremely vulnerable to death.
"Cough! Cough!"
Suddenly, the male human coughed, as the chilled air fully assaulted his nostrils, burning his throat up to his shrivelled lungs. His eyes jerked open wide as he looked straight up into the glistening night sky, taking in the beautiful scenery.
And coincidentally his eyes were bright and not shrivelled or scrunched like the normal reaction a seemingly normal human would have on being suddenly exposed to bright light. The dimmed atmosphere of the night sky helped him perhaps.
"Huff ....Huff.."
The man panted while his back faced the frontal assault of the bone-chilling snow. But regardless, he continued laying down on the snow.
Stabilizing his breathing, the man gently tried moving his lanky arm and brought it towards his face, albeit with great difficulty. Feeling the warm touch of his skin, his eyes and crusty lips and the warm drops of sweat trailing down his skin, the man finally sighed as a meek voice came out of his mouth.
"I'm alive..."
~~~~~
It has been two hours since the man had opened his eyes, but all he did after gaining his consciousness was just lay down motionlessly and stare at the night sky. He didn't move even an inch all this while.
However, a blinding light entered his eyes as the rays of the bright sun basked over him. Slowly and gracefully, the sun rays illuminated the dark sky as a new day arrived in this fresh new world.
His eyelids fluttered for the very first time as he finally tried looking toward the illumination. Turning his frail head to look at the bright sun rising on the horizon, lighting up his face.
"I am alive, huh..." He contemplated.
Slowly rising from the snow, he sat up to look at his surroundings properly, albeit with great difficulty.
"Weak....too weak..." He muttered.
Squinting his eyes at the large pillar in front of him, from which he was ejected merely 2 hours ago, his eyes widened as the realisation dawned upon him.
"The project was a success!", he exclaimed.
That's right! He remembered now!
He was one of the last survivors of humanity and one of the pioneers to undergo the so-called [Cryopreservation]! He was one of the junior Scientists working on this exact project too!
It was the last chance humanity gained after investing millions of digital dollars to survive the 'Grand Cataclysm' of 2099.
That's right! A literal Apocalypse struck humanity on the 25th of December,2098 on Christmas day. A large 260 Foot Asteroid had hit the Surface of the Earth on this day. And humans...
Couldn't do anything...Not even NASA.
Every single human being was oblivious to it completely.No news stations covered it. Not even the internet had any clue, despite the year being 2099.
It was the peak era of humanity's development in technology and AI in the year 2098. Flying Cars flew all around the cities. Poverty was partially extinguished. Cell Phones and TVs had holograms instead of LED screens.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Life was extremely easy as most of the manual work was done by AI and Robots. But unfortunately, the Earth wasn't being ruled by S*YNET and was still under the control of humanity.
Robots drove your public buses and taxis. Currency was purely digital. You had your personalized AI for your house which did all chores of a housemaid as well as protecting your house from intruders. Prosthetics made significant advancements in this Era and were replaced by Bionic Technology. Being limbless or paralysed was no longer a problem.
Every disease had a cure. Wars were less frequent and with the Emergence of the highly anticipated VRMMORPG genre of Gaming, most political wars and conflict was resolved in a virtual world rather than the real one.
In short, it was peaceful.
Cancer finally had a cure. Blindness was no longer a problem. Due to the development in the medical sectors as well as due to genetic modifications, the average life span of a mere 80 years was increased to whopping 200 years. Even Baby Designing was a trend during those days. It was clear that peace was prevalent all around the world.
And finally ...
The Anime ONE P*ECE had finally ended.
However, one must remember that...
When everything goes right and it seems too good to be true, destruction always lurks around the corner, smiling gleefully, coming for you.
And this happened in form of the Asteroid.
NASA even invented Plasma ray guns and large artillery satellites which were stationed as the first line of defence against it for the sole purpose of complete annihilation of the Asteroid, But surprisingly, it failed.
NASA gave up completely after seeing that and decided to place its faith in the last entity it had to turn to and that is, God. And just like that, on December 25th, 2098, a 260-foot blob of cosmic rocks, struck the surface of the earth, right in the Sahara Desert, Africa.
Several teams of Meteorologists and Scientists were dispatched to the Excavation site to analyse it, secretly praying for the 260 Foot blob of cosmic rock to be a Meteor and not an Asteroid. A Meteor was absolutely fine if it were to strike the surface of the Earth. There were no consequences for it, other than the Crater it would form and the minor loss of habitat it would cause. But an Asteroid.Hell no!
If an asteroid hit the surface of the Earth; dust and smoke rising in the atmosphere from it prevents sunlight from reaching our world and causes the total temperature to drop, plunging the world into the dreadful age of Ice. This event can lead to the death of many living things. If an asteroid the size of an apartment hits Earth, this blow could destroy a small city!
Which meant the destruction of humanity!
We would be entering Ice Age 2 then!
And when was the last Asteroid that struck the Earth?
66 Million years ago during the Era of Dinosaurs! They went completely extinct after that!
But contrary to what the Scientists were speculating, the blob of rock came out to be a Meteor rather than an Asteroid.
However, they noticed a certain peculiar thing. As the days went by, the blob continuously evaporated and started decreasing in size, giving off white smoke from its surface which slowly spread all over the world. The Scientists noticed such a phenomenon but as the release of fumes was somewhat normal from a meteor, they didn't mind it.
However, exactly one month after it struck the surface of the Earth, strange mutations started occurring all around the world.
The plants, along with the animals started fiercely mutating. Some Humans grew goat horns on their forehead while some grew long pointed fangs on their teeth. Humans, both male and female, started growing increasingly beautiful albeit with characteristic long ears and a pale complexion. And others grew increasingly pudgy and ugly.
Lions and tigers grew big like their Ancestors, that is the Sabertooth while Komodo Dragons started growing wings akin to fledgeling Dragons. Elephants grew back to their ancestral form of a Behemoth and birds reverted to their Ancestral Archeopteryx form.
All in all, everyone underwent mutations to some degree. Some grew beautiful while some got ugly. Some became more powerful while some became increasingly crafty. Only the Scientists were somewhat safe from mutations due to their extremely modernized Hazmat Suits. But this was not a concern.
The main point of concern was that of the forthcoming Age of Ice.
This particular event was the cause of mass hysteria, both amongst the common populace as well as the Scientists. They finally concluded that the next Ice age was near and was finally forced to release the news to the common masses that by the next Christmas Day of the year 2099, the world will enter its 2nd Ice age and humanity shall perish.
And that was the day when the whole world realised that their end was near.
Increased bank robberies.Mass genocide and murder. All-out political wars and protests plagued the entire Earth during such dread full times! The protests for LGBTQ rights and gender equality which were long since abandoned in the past also came out in form of protests and fights. And the fights were not just physical brawls. There was something called magic involved in them!
People were fighting with each other by invoking water or fire and even lightning out of thin air and hurling them at their enemies. They possessed extraordinary physical capabilities even capable of stopping bullets and plasma rifles!
And it was not just mutated humans fighting humans. It was mutated humans vs mutated beasts as well.
It was akin to an MMORPG in real life! Humanity had finally achieved the so-called Superhuman Era of its own!
And such things were not overlooked by the Scientists as well. They even found out that the distinct smoke from the Asteroid was the reason for the mass mutation in humans and the strange uproar in human behaviours.
They theorized that the smoke from the Meteor was a certain type of Cosmic energy, termed "Mana" from Fantasy literature, which contaminated the entire Earth, pushing its limits and plunging it into a new Era after the Ice age. And the mutations caused by it affected the reasoning capabilities of humans and animals alike and slowly morphed them into something akin to ferocious beasts.
In short, Earth was undergoing its Second evolution after 66 Million years!
The Scientists were extremely agitated on discerning such news!
But a mad Scientist who had seen such h phenomenon happening in front of him couldn't just let go of such an opportunity. If there was the slightest hope of survival. If humanity would just be able to survive the Ice Age and would be capable of learning about the mysterious fumes called 'MANA ', a new Era of technology and development of Science could be established after the Second Evolution!
And just like that, the Scientists who gave up on saving the Earth started working on a project dubbed the [CRYENGINE 0.1] to save humanity, albeit with increased vigour coupled with anxiety.
And that is where the still daydreaming lanky male comes into play.
~~~~~