'Current Status - Dormant (Activation in 01:03:32)'

The information was clear right in front of Silas's eyes; most people had retreated back to their houses as the rainfall of comets and meteorites had already stopped long ago.

Now it was just him standing over the roof, watching as many people were breaking down in fear and uncertainty; humans are always afraid of the unknown and even more so when that unknown brings harm.

They are frightened by things whose cause-and-effect relationships they cannot understand. And at that moment, the whole world was in chaos...

[In a joint effort to neutralise incoming meteors, the USA, China, Russia, and India successfully launched nuclear weapons aimed at the space threats. However, a baffling phenomenon occurred—the meteors appeared to pass through the warheads as if they were mere air. This unprecedented event has left researchers puzzled, as the composition and nature of these meteors remain unknown. Efforts to understand the anomaly are ongoing, with experts emphasising the urgent need for further investigation.]

"Passed right through them like air, huh..." Silas frowned reading the articles, "It's really beyond human control," he muttered with a sigh as he stood up.

'The internet and communications have long stopped; it's common sense that those meteorites might have also clashed with satellites in the skies, ground-based cell towers, and fibre optic lines.

But one thing is clear: the night marks the beginning of a new world. Most governments must have already deployed military declaring martial law in their nations; I can already see military helicopters moving everywhere; it seems like our situation is the same.

Most people must be thinking it's the beginning of the apocalypse; the religious ones must be thinking it's 'judgement day,' and the public must just be terrified and try to acquire as much ration and medical goods as they can right now, to the point of causing a stampede and looting.

The world has just started to burn, and the panic in people already turned it into hell. This night will be costing a lot of life; we will be having a lot more issues with air pollution, water contamination, and lack of food resources for the next few months, but these are just side effects of the rain of meteorites.

Silas groaned as he stood up from the roof, and his eyes roamed towards the sight around him, burning woods, flames everywhere with helicopters running around the whole sky.

'The real trouble has yet to start... Mutation in living organisms, I don't know how fast that would take place, but if it's really hell that awaits us, then we really are doomed; current humanity will be having a hard time surviving in the world.' Silas sighed yet again, endlessly...

And picking up binoculars, his gaze once again moved over towards the meteorite in the distance.

'Current Status - Dormant (Activation in 00:57:24)'

There was barely an hour left before everything truly started, the global awakening, which seemed like the beginning of doom in Silas's eyes, but something changed...

'Name - Genesis Catalyst

Type: Cosmic Relic (Meteorite)

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Composition: Unknown Crystalline Ore (79%), Residual Cosmic Energy (21%)

Purpose: Planetary Infusion

Effect: Releases latent 'Primal Essence' into the environment, triggering genetic evolution across all organic life.

Current Status - Dormant (Activation in 00:57:32)

Note: 'Ase Rain' will fall all across the globe with the moment of awakening; the absorption of 'Ase' can increase human potential.'

A little new detail in the data about Genesis Catalyst—that's what shook Silas yet again. "What is... 'Ase'?" Silas muttered in confusion.

"Is there something like that?" Silas immediately took out his phone to search it up, but with no internet, there were no answers.

"Dictionary?! Dictionary right!" Silas exclaimed with new hope and rushed back down to his home. His room had lights on because of the electricity battery in his house. Searching through his shelves, he grabbed both the dictionaries in his book, but despite searching through both of them, he couldn't find any word called 'Ase.'

"This makes no sense... What the hell?" Silas's hopes were washed away like a drop in a storm; deeply mentally exhausted, he collapsed into the bed, muttering to himself with closed eyes.

"Just what the hell is 'Ase'?"

There was a moment of deep and constant silence across the room. Silas was dead tired, and the lack of sleep was starting to take a toll on him, yet the next instant his eyes jolted away right next instant as a chain of data just emerged right inside his mind.

'Ase is an essence of life, a form of energy unknown to humanity, lying dormant in realms that awaken after the phenomenon of awakening triggered by the Genesis Catalyst.

Ase is a form of energy that can be absorbed directly by living organisms through any means, like breathing, absorption through skin, eating, or drinking. The more Ase a being possesses, the more energy reserves they have. It helps with beast taming, skill strengthening, and evolution.'

"Evolution..." Silas muttered, gritting his teeth, and he stood up again. "That word again..."

There seemed to be a lot of complicated motions going through his mind: desperation, rage, shock, and mockery at his situation. Silas rubbed his forehead and stepped out of the room, making his way upstairs to the roof once again.

'Humanity isn't ready for any evolution; this is plain extinction for us. The balance that has allowed us to roam as the greatest species on earth will shatter into pieces the moment the other species on earth start to evolve; this is extinction, not evolution...' The complicated line of thought was filling his mind, but just then he tripped over a stair. Thankfully, because of the railing, he didn't fall down, but a thought snapped him out of his serious train of thought.

"What the fuck am I doing?" He muttered, seemingly shocked, as an awkward giggle filled his mind. '... I'm just a steamer, blessed with good parents and good wealth; since when did the burden of humanity's existence fall over me? It's not my responsibility...'

"It's fucking not... I'm not a government that receives damn taxes to protect the public or some organisation like NASA and whatnot..." Silas muttered dryly, but even as he was trying to fill a sense of relief with those empty words, a sense of discomfort was always overwhelming him in the back of his mind.

"It's not my responsibility, but these are my people..." he said with a hurt look in his eyes, and arriving upstairs once again, he fell back on the chair there, watching the same sight of the meteorite crash in the distance and dozens of firefighters trying to extinguish the forest fire in the woods.

'... But either way, what the fuck was that?' Silas frowned, 'How come the knowledge of that 'Ase' just popped up into my mind? I never saw 'Ase'... Does this ability work in other ways I'm not aware of?'

Silas's feet started tapping underneath as he thought, and moving around his gaze, he confirmed his previous theory of the information about things and creatures popping up over the back of his mind. The thing seemed to be working fine, but then he thought of something else.

'What is a sense of despair?' He thought of something he couldn't see, something he couldn't physically feel, something intangible and invisible to the eyes, and what he seemed to be feeling for the first time in his life.

'Despair is a state of hopelessness and helplessness, characterised by feelings of sadness, loss, and frustration, often accompanied by a sense of being overwhelmed and unable to cope.'

And as to confirm his already thought-out theory, he received the answer directly into his mind.

"Huh?" Silas stood up with a look of scoff on his face as he glanced over his own arms in surprise. "I'm like an ocean of knowledge?"

'I can gain information about things I can see with my eyes and gain information about things I can't see, with just a thought in my mind. Is this how this ability works?' He was mesmerised; the rushing, chaotic emotions seemed suddenly at rest, replaced by a bright shock and amusement.

"Is this how omniscience works?" Silas chuckled, and shaking his head, he walked up to the edge of the roof with binoculars in his hands.

'Current Status - Dormant (Activation in 00:02:32)'

Silas sighed, the momentary smile on his face turning cold and dry, and his gaze roamed around his neighbourhood, watching the faces of all the people gathered over the roofs and his parents standing behind him, talking to neighbours standing on the roof right beside theirs.

"... It's all so chaotic! Can you believe it? What the hell has the government been doing?! What the hell are all nuclear weapons for??" the neighbour frantically commented

Silas's parents seemed to be sharing the same chaos in their minds, but they didn't burst out with emotions. "What can we do about what already happened? Let's just hope we can recover safely." Silas's father commented while helping his neighbour calm down.

Silas just watched silently from over and corner and once again glanced around all the people there, the sadness grew more and more the more he watched their faces unaware of chaos ahead

"The chaos is just beginning..." Silas muttered, and finally the time arrived.

'Current Status - Dormant (Activation in 00:00:02)

Genesis Catalyst ------> Ase'