Francis, his best friend, was still alive.

Even Joseph, the one always insulting Mr. Michelis to his back, was still there. And for some reason, it mattered.

And most importantly, Helena.

She was still alive.

Next to Helena sat a tall and handsome teen who occasionally stole a glimpse of her.

Frederick.

This guy was not fazed by the car alarm going off; instead, he used the distraction to take in the beauty of his classmate. After a second, he turned toward Jacob, feeling that he would catch our guy staring at Helena.

Frederick’s eyes became fierce and malicious.

Jacob naturally recognized Frederick. The kid was the most popular guy in his high school and the most athletic one. He had already won some international skiing competitions, and more than one professional had described him as the talent of the Century. Soon, everyone expected Frederick to bag all Olympics medals from the winter games.

But he was just one of two golden children in St. Peter.

However, the other titleholder sitting next to him, Helena, was not interested in partaking in his glory in any form. In fact, in his past life, Frederick had tried to woo Helena to no avail. Everyone thought that they would have been the perfect couple: if St. Peter had not been destroyed, they would have most likely ended up together one way or another. They were just too perfect for each other, even if Helena didn’t fancy him at the moment.

But Fate was a cruel mistress.

Frederick ended up running for his life when the true monsters of the new world came knocking. Sure, he would become one of the powerhouses of humanity. In fact, even though he was a coward, his talent had been unrivaled. But it had not been enough to keep him from abandoning St. Peter in its most crucial battle, the same battle that killed Helena.

Sadly, Jacob had been too weak when Frederick had cowardly fled and left St. Peter’s walls. Despite being so weak, in the end, Jacob had ended up surviving the onslaught. And not just that, he had outlived all the mighty and powerful masters that had risen after the Change.

Our guy had crawled his way through the corpses of his loved ones like the most pathetic of worms. Nay, not a worm. Like a cockroach, he made his way through beasts and monsters until one day fate finally bestowed one chance upon him.

After getting his hands on the ultimate relic, the Plate, almost by mistake, he had turned his life around. But, sadly, by then, everyone he had ever loved was dead.

Helena stopped looking outside the window. Instead, she turned her eyes in the same direction Frederick was looking. A frown appeared on her face as Jacob winked at her.

On the one hand, Jacob couldn’t help but laugh at the furious look on the teenagers' faces. But, on the other hand, he could already feel a huge headache brewing in his head.

I can finally see you once again. I really have to thank the Plate, Helena, Jacob thought to himself.

Helena was not only a top student but also a top beauty! Apart from being wickedly smart, she could have given Victoria’s Secret models a run for their money. It was not surprising that all the girls were jealous of her beauty, and all the men dreamt of getting a shot at her.

Sadly, the siren alarm of the car still kept ringing, bringing Jacob back to reality.

The first beasts have arrived. But, if I remember well, it will still take thirty minutes before there is any casualty in St. Peter.

Rome will fall in a matter of minutes under the assault of Dragons.

Milan is going to be razed to the ground by demonic magic.

Venice will be overthrown by Hydras.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The higher the density of people, the higher the density of monsters and their levels. The most populated and famous places on Earth would soon turn into death zones to be avoided at all costs.

Dragons could erase a city in minutes since they came already close to the highest Realms in existence. Hydras were the same, but they preferred water to their winged cousins.

Humanity would be almost wiped out during the first twenty-four hours. After that, only remote places would ever stand a chance against the feral tide of demonic beasts. And it would take humanity years to pin down how this new reality worked.

Unless someone just came back in his younger body with all the necessary memories to prevent the complete extinction of mankind.

Unfortunately for that someone, talent in combat and magic went hand-in-hand with physical talent and intelligence. Jacob had not only been frail, but he had never been the most brilliant person around; so, it was not going to be a piece of cake.

Clenching his fists, he thought of how hard he had had it in his past life.

His magic talent had been pitiful; his combat talent had been negligible. He could not even steal candy from a baby in his current condition.

However, he had still become one of the most powerful existences in the world. Even though he had to start from zero again, he was confident he would succeed again.

To understand his current situation better, we would need to understand how different levels of powers worked.

Humanity rated talent on a simple scale of one to ten. Someone had created a fun rendition with beast names, though. The top talent was the Dragon Talent. The winged scaled creatures were the overlord of the skies and the land, unbeatable tyrants of all existence.

The lowest grade had been called the Cockroach Talent: Jacob had always found it funny how humanity despised the poor bug that could survive in any environment, even in a nuclear winter.

Now, he only had the knowledge of his past life and – guess what – his Cockroach talent to work with. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, unfortunately. But it would be enough. He didn’t 0really need the Plate in this life since he already had the expertise to rise to the top and save humanity. And now it was time to start putting it into use.

Demonic Beasts will start attacking in half an hour, he thought to himself. And I can’t trust just anyone with what I’m going to do. But I know I can definitely trust Francis. I will need to lay low before making any big move.

“Frank, I need a hand. Can you come with me to the bathroom?”

“Jeez, Jackie. Have you shat yourself again?” his friend groaned.

The other students heard Francis and burst out laughing.

Jacob caught one student trying to make an Instagram video of the scene: sadly, mainstream telecoms were already down the second the change started. Soon, they would get the first notices from radios, with hosts screaming while being torn alive by demonic beasts. And that was before all the rest of telecommunications started going down.

“Frank, hurry up,” Jacob told his friend.

Francis stood up and briefly informed Mr. Michelis that they needed to use the bathroom. And even though Francis made fun of Jacob from time to time, he always protected him from being bullied and abused. Whenever he was present, at least.

We need to do something, Jacob thought. Very soon, people will start noticing they can use magic and break desks with a fist. Chaos will be upon us quickly.

I have to kill the Demonic Beasts as quickly as possible. If I remember well, there should be only three Demonic Wolves around here. Other monsters will follow in a day or two, but we will need to sort out the problems among the humans before dealing with more hellish monsters.

As soon as they got out of the classroom, Jacob dragged Frank to the emergency exit. It was supposed to ring when the door opened, but it had stopped functioning eons ago. Nowadays, students only used it to catch a smoke in the small forest close by.

“Jake, man, what the hell? The bathroom is in the other wing of the school. Jake—”

I have no idea how I’m going to explain any of this.

“Frank, listen. Something is happening. Something really, really bad. I know I must sound nuts, but please give me the benefit of the doubt for ten minutes.”

Francis had always been both smart and athletic, above average in almost everything. He had not been exceptional, just above average enough to be remarkable.

“Oh man, at least Mr. Michelis won’t notice, I guess. But I swear, Jake, if I have to clean any shit—”

Francis heaved and almost threw up.

Jacob heard similar sounds from the rest of the classrooms, coupled with multiple screams.

People were going to find out about their new abilities very soon.

Jacob barely felt anything. He wasn’t sure if his slightly upset stomach was because of the change or because his aunt did not have any low-fat milk left.

Now that I think about it, I may have actually shat myself during the Change. I just hope it was fear, and not the milk. I’m not in the mood to re-‘arse’ that experience.

Anyway, the prickling above his abdomen soon stopped, and he was left feeling nothing.

His pathways had just opened. But he hadn’t even crossed the threshold to the Cockroach realm, the beginning of the path for every cultivator.

So, Jacob started dragging Francis toward the forest even though his friend was still reeling from all that had just transpired.

“Frank, I really need your help. People will start dying very soon here if we don’t do something. What you just experienced was the universe growing you Meridians for Qi and Mana. I know I sound like I just went crazy on you, but just trust me, just this once.”

Francis decided that questions might be in order. But maybe it was better if he kept them for later.

“Sure, man,” he said, trying not to trip over his own vomit.

Jacob nodded, grateful that his friend had stopped complaining for the moment.

“Great, because we have some Demonic Beasts to hunt.”