It was the apocalypse.

The end of the world. The end times. Armageddon itself. There was no stopping it— it had been heralded since the beginning of civilization. The dawn of man itself had prefigured its conclusion. Every species that had ever walked the Earth had gone extinct and will go extinct. There was no escaping fate. It was destiny. An inevitable demise of humanity.

It was also a fucking pain in the arse

Trace Taylor marched down the streets of Liberapolis, recounting the events of the apocalypse. First, the end of the world was kickstarted when every single person on Earth had been abducted by a group of aliens that called themselves the ‘Esvol’. It was a surreal experience— the young redhead had thought she was going insane at first. But it was reality. And that point had been accentuated when she had been implanted with a femtochip that gave her access to a so-called ‘System’.

It sounded like it was straight out of a video game. In fact, it even functioned just like a video game with classes and levels and the like. There was even an artificial intelligence assistant designated XTR-4715 that was meant to guide her throughout this ordeal. Unfortunately, he was mostly unhelpful and offered her nothing but annoying quips in her head.

[Trace Taylor, you are aware I can hear your thoughts, right?] Ex said.

“Yes,” she snorted. “I wanted you to hear that.”

[Rude.]

After this forced abduction— what was now called the Neo Genesis— the Esvol returned humanity back to Earth with only a few minor changes like how over a billion people didn’t come back, and there were now giant monsters freely roaming the planet. There were also Dungeons and Gates and a myriad of other shit since everything was now integrated into the ‘multiverse’.

Trace had hoped that everything would return to normal after. But as it turned out, when the entire planet vanished all at once, even for only a few hours, it resulted in rather catastrophic— no, cataclysmic— results. Every plane that had been mid-flight crashed. Tens of millions of cars and trucks and trains around the world a got into driverless accidents. That was not to mention the fact that a billion people vanished forever.

Actually, Trace had already mentioned that before. She just felt the need to emphasize that point because a billion people never returned.

It was a cascading chain of events that followed. Entire electrical grids shut down, and supply chains were forever disrupted. There was a massive shortage of labour all around the globe, which was only exacerbated when workers started quitting en masse to pursue a new life in this apocalypse. After all, everyone was now empowered by the System.

They didn’t need jobs when they had a class that practically gave them superpowers. They didn’t need to waste their days going about the pointless motions of modern life when they had literal magic now. A few crazies and insane idiots decided to even delve into the Dungeons to discover what was within. And when there were ten billion— or, rather, nine billion— people in the planet, a few meant that was a lot.

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It seemed that Trace herself became one of the few crazies she loathed, considering she had combed through an entire F rank Dungeon. Well, it was only because she had been coerced by her best friend, Elizabeth Evergreen. And it was not like the redhead thought Liz was insane or anything. It was just an insane thing to do— to willingly throw oneself into harm’s way for nothing but a brief sense of thrill.

In any case, Trace had reached to the end of the Dire Pits with her best friend and three other idiots, only to be assaulted by an odd creature. A monster that wasn’t like any other. It wasn’t the Dungeon Boss, nor was it even a part of the System.

It was a Bne Worldeater.

It sounded terrifying— Ex had reacted in a panic when he saw it. But it had tried to communicate with her. Trace realised that it was actually harmless, but Liz and the others thought it was attacking her, so they tried to kill it. Unfortunately, that left the redhead with no choice but to fight with her friends. And, together, they killed the Bne Worldeater.

Trace had felt guilty about it. Even if it had been a terrifying monster that came straight from her worst nightmares, it had tried to befriend her. Well, befriend was a stretch. But it wasn’t actively trying to kill her. And it had even granted Ex with sapience— honestly, much to her chagrin.

Yet, she killed it.

She had kept this fact a secret to no one but herself and Ex throughout the next month. Even when a commune was formed in Liberapolis— after the electrical grid shut down and over half the populace left to either find shelter elsewhere for the coming winter or find adventure because they were empowered by the System— the redhead had kept quiet. Despite everything she went through, from wiping out those serpentfiends hounding the commune to dealing with the Onyx Lair Crew, she never muttered a word about the Bne Worldeater to anyone.

And, somehow, Noah Hawthorne had somehow known about it. He was the Supreme Leader of the Precursors of Peace. An organization that rapidly rose to power at the start of the Neo Genesis for having predicted the impending apocalypse. Trace thought of them as nothing but a cult of madmen and madwomen, but she had met a few folks from the group, and soon learned that they weren’t all that bad. In fact, she had befriended a few of them.

Samuel Diaz was one of them. A man who had asked her out, only to bring her to his Supreme Leader. That upsetted Trace more than a little bit because she had been under the impression this was going to be a genuine date, even if she wasn’t really sure if she was interested in him when she accepted.

[After Elizabeth Evergreen had to force you to accept,] Ex happily opined. [I am unsure why you are upset, Trace Taylor. It is not like you wanted to go in the first place.]

“I was trying to sort out my feelings, alright?” She shook her head. “After thinking about it, I was interested in getting to know him more before making a decision.”

[Which means you weren’t interested at all.]

“Shut it.”

The fact that it was just a ploy was upsetting, sure. But the fact that Noah Hawthorne was aware of not just the Bne Worldeater encounter, but also about Ex himself was rather worrying. And the conversation that ensued soon after only served to compound the redhead’s concerns.

She closed her eyes, remembering what the Supreme Leader of the Precursors of Peace had said. His explanation about the Bne Worldeater’s plight— it resounded in her head like an annoying incessant echo. And she came to a single conclusion.

Because she had killed the Bne Worldeater, there was going to be a war between worlds.

And trying to sort this mess out was going to be an incredible pain in the ass. Sometimes, Trace wished the apocalypse would just hurry up already. It was dragging on for too long.

[Now you are making it sound like you are suicidal.]

“Fuck off, Ex.”