When Kaan woke up, the first thing he felt was a stinging pain in his head and when tried to get up he felt like he got hit by a car. His body felt so exhausted, and he felt the sweat on his back.
'Damn it, so it could even affect my body from the dream?’
He didn’t think the effects were going to follow him to reality, so this was very unwelcome, but there was nothing to do. Actually, it was good, very good. It indicated that he was not going crazy, this was real, it must be.
When he got up from the bed, the first thing he did was stretch his body, trying to gather himself and then he sat down on his bed again. Everything that happened in his dream was still vivid in his mind, and if it was real, it meant something was coming and he had to be quick.
He took a deep breath and got up to head towards the restroom but in the midst of his second step, he felt the time suddenly began to slow down until it stopped its flow. Even though his body was unable to move he could still think very clearly.
"The creations of the Old One, heed my words. The world that you know will now come to an end. The order that stretches all over the universe now reached your world and now you are also a part of the System Of The Aeons. Fight and get strong, that's the only way you can survive till the end and reach to see what lies beyond. Now, get ready."
Class [Medium] has been obtained!
Skill [Pick A Card] has been obtained!
Skill [I See The Worst] has been obtained!
Skill [Laughing In The Face Of Gods] has been assigned!
The emotionless voice which felt like coming from every direction echoed in his mind for a while as the notifications of the system infiltrate his mind. Without anymore more explanation, the frozen time returned to its normal state. With the massage and Kaan felt information appearing in his mind, the system had overridden the earth. It was real, everything was, and the change had come for them now.
He once again took a deep breath as he tried to ease the anxiety in his mind. He thought it would be more hard-hitting information but this one month really showed him things he shouldn’t have touched but he did, and it felt like they ‘prepared’ his mind for this moment even though the experiences which came with the visions were mostly not pleasant. He felt very relaxed as if he was waiting for this change.
Without wasting any more time, he examined what the system gave to him. It was rather a strange feeling, he could ‘see’ the information in his mind as if there was an information tab in front of him, but it was created in his mind. He quickly checked the information.
Level: 1
Class: Medium
Conditions: Unstable Mind
Skills:
[Pick A Card]
[Laughing In The Face Of Gods]
[I See The Worst]
Main Quest:
Survive for one day. Rewards: ???
Personal Quest:
Save ten people. 10/0 Rewards: Draw a card +1
'So this our system, huh? Is this what they were talking about in my visions?'
He thought as he inspected the system tab that appeared in front of him and upon seeing the ‘Conditions’ tab and what it contained he laughed lightly.
‘Well, it’s not far from the truth I guess.’
Though it was his first time experiencing the system for himself, for his luck, it was not the first time he saw or heard about the system. Though the idea of the system was mostly established with games on earth, in his visions he saw that the system was there from the beginning in most, so he wasn’t sure why the system was coming to his world now. He had a few ideas where he might find answers to his questions, he already had a base knowledge from the visions about some things, but it was too early, first, he needed to see what this change had brought.
And though he had some information they were not lifesaving, in the long run, they would probably help but first, he needed to survive, as the system said the monsters were coming. Without wasting time, he touched the only skill he had and suddenly the tab closed itself.
Like how it was while the emotionless voice of the system echoed in his mind, activating the skill stopped the flow of time. Kaan felt like his connection with reality was broken as his vision got blurred and twisted. Now, there was only him and the cards which appeared from thin air.
‘It feels like how it is in my dreams.’
He thought as he looked at three cards floating in front of him. When he reached his hand towards them his body didn’t move yet he felt his hand, it was like he had a phantom body which he couldn’t see but feel, the same feeling wandering in the darkness of the dream. He examined the cards in front of him. They looked as if they were handmade, the engravings looked incredibly detailed and eye-catching.
All three had the same cover, a closed eye that cries blood from both sides. Over the eye, there were two golden stripes in an X shape that looked like they were delving into its flesh and confining what it was hiding, and from the quality of texture, it felt very real. There was nothing else to see, no indication about what cards might contain so he decided to go with the middle one.
When he grabbed it the other two turned black and then into white ashes which blended into the thin air and in the one which he chose, the golden stripes began shimmering. The stripes sucked into the closed eye and then it suddenly opened and rich light engulfed Kaan. When he opened his eyes, Kaan was in a large room. There were two elderly men in white robes made with quality fabric and a young man standing in the middle of the room which was made of marble with walls bent like a claw to the inside with an open roof.
The young man had very plain clothes on him and a black cloak on his shoulders. He didn’t have an eye-catching feature from what Kaan could see but had a confident look on his face. He began to perform what he came here for. He opened his arms to the sides and fire appeared from his hands and then swirled to his shoulder. Then he got his hands closer to each other and the flames on both arms began to fuse with each other.
Kaan saw that for a moment the young man seemed to have a problem, but he didn’t lose his focus by giving in to the little mistake he made and the hardship only caused excitement in his eyes to increase. The fire got fiercer, stronger with every passing second as if it felt its owner's burning spirit and then there was a bolt made of fire floating in his right hand. Kaan saw the approving look in the elders' eyes as the young man raised the fire bolt to the sky with satisfaction and shot it into the air.
When the vision came to an end, Kaan saw the young man shooting the fire bolt, which was glowing greatly, to the air with a smile on his face engraved to the back of the card. After that, the card turned into white ashes and then got sucked into Kaan's phantom body. Kaan could feel that the power of the card belonged to him now, appearing under the skills tab, [Firebolt].
After the effect of skill passed the flow of the time returned to normal. Now that he got something that he can use, Kaan was in high spirits. He knew how dangerous and deadly monsters can be, he experienced it from the first seat and one thing was common in every vision he had if there was a system there were monsters or something they called ‘monster’, something evil, so he appreciated everything he could use.
He didn't know how to use the [Firebolt] skill for now, yes he felt that he could simply use it but was not sure how it would come to existence. Though it might be a wise choice to use it now to see how it would, he didn't, he was probably going to find out soon.
He closed the system tab for now and quickly locked his room's door. He was staying in a dorm room as an exchange student and sharing it with two people. He was not very close with the two, his relationship with them was not further than a simple welcome when they see each other and a small talk or doing some events together occasionally, Kaan liked it this way. Now it was the weekend the two were out in the city, leaving the room alone for him.
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He thought about the personal quest for a while, considering this was an apocalypse he didn’t think it was hard to accomplish if the right situations presented themselves but what was the reason for him to receive such a quest? Though he had some ideas they were not very grounded, so he didn’t linger on them much.
What he thought was if he had something like this it wouldn’t be surprising if someone got a quest on killing other people and this complicated the situation which was already chaotic enough. In the midst of his thought, he could hear the outside getting into motion, he could hear the distant gun shouts and screams, the ‘apocalypse’ had started.
‘Okay, enough of thoughts let’s get ready to leave this building quickly.’
He didn’t like being in the building, maybe if he were not alone it could be thought of as a fortress, but he simply felt the long and tight corridors with not-so-large dorm rooms were disadvantageous, not very suitable for fighting. He quickly reached for his bag and emptied what it contained. There was not much in the room but enough materials for a start.
Firstly, he began to look for clothes, having a few spares would be always nice considering things were going to get messy. After that, he looked for food and water and checked if they had any medical items in the room. As he gathered items, he heard screams coming from the outside, from the street next to the building and it was getting louder every passing second, indicating that things are getting worse and worse every second.
'Yeah, I need to be faster.'
He didn't let go of his calm and began to move faster in the room to find the items he was looking for. He wanted to be quickly prepared and have a look outside to see what exactly the situation was.
What he found was not more than a few painkillers, four bottles of water and a few canned foods along with some biscuits, he also looked for a few containers that he could fill with water but there was only one he could use. He put them, in some kind of order, on his backpack and put the bag on his bed. It was good, he could probably manage for one week with just these without a problem if he couldn’t find anything but he would probably acquire more on his way.
The only thing left was finding a weapon. Luckily one of his roommates was interested in baseball. Kaan also tried to play it but even though it was fun it didn’t appeal to him too much, so he just watched his roommate on his matches a few times. He grabbed the baseball bat standing next to his friend’s bed and give it a feel, it was light and sturdy, he hoped it would last long. After that, he also found a pocketknife in one of the drawers and placed it in his pocket and finally headed to the window to take a look at the situation outside.
The outside… was a mess. He saw the black smoke rising from the city centre, from what he could see it looked worse in there. People were trying to head to the outer parts by foot or by vehicle and it wasn’t going well. He could see the cars crashed into each other, some even blocking the entrances to the side streets.
Dead bodies scattered on the street, not that much but still enough the give the feel, give the massage of the downfall of the society that they know of, now it was a fight to survive but not everyone could see it yet. Kaan saw the fear, scattered minds, and faces still trying to put meaning to all the things happening. But some, some had the look of the ones who would survive, strangely he could feel it, he could feel that they were already adapting to this system.
Then it was the monsters he had seen, with their rotting flesh and soulless eyes, wandering with the only purpose of finding prey, undead, to be more clearly zombies. Some were already in a state that you couldn’t even tell it was once a human, but some were fresh, you might even confuse them for a human until they turned around and showed their head which had a fracture on the forehead where blood and flesh oozed out. Some were feeding off of the dead on the street and some were looking for fresh prey.
With the sound of a man shouting in anger, Kaan’s focus was diverted to the right under him. He saw a man on his knees right next to the dormitory building, trying to reach for a few people as zombies slowly circle around him.
"Don't look at me like that, Help me!"
Kaan saw a man crawling on the ground, trying to escape from creatures following him from behind. He was trying to reach the group of three people not that away from him and shouting at them, in a commanding tone. Kaan saw that one of his legs was torn apart from his body, he was already in a bad state, and it would be hard for him to live even if he could escape from the situation he was in, yet he tried to go on rather than succumb to his fate.
'They look similar to the ones in my visions.'
Kaan thought as he examined the zombies following the man on the ground. From their appearance and their movements, he came to this conclusion, but he had to be sure, so he continued watching outside.
The crawling man shouted towards the group again and all three people looked at him with different expressions on their faces but then one of them turned around and then the others followed her, and they began to move away quickly.
"You bitch, I should've left you to die there! Come back here! FUCK!"
He shouted to them but none turned back and looked at him, it was not a very good choice of words. After a while, the angry shouts turned into pleas but it was too late for him. The creatures coughed up and seized his body, he tried to fight them off but it was futile as they began tearing his body by biting him or delving into his flesh with their bare hands. Kaan watched this without, trying to see how strong they were from the damage they could inflict on man’s body.
While watching the man mauled by the zombies he thought that seeing people die from being eaten alive… actually had lost its novelty to him after the seventh vision with the parasite. The seventh vision was... something different, something he wished he could close his eyes for eternity and be deaf to the voices.
It was about a farmer, he watched her with her two kids for half an hour and nothing happened but then everything began to go worse with her coughing black blood. She looked very surprised when she saw the blood but then she also lost her balance and was nearly falling to the ground, something was wrong. She slowly walked towards her kids and saw them playing with the toys with happy smiles on their faces.
“Kids, quickly… quickly go to the mayor and say that your mommy doesn’t feel good, okay? Tell him it’s very bad and he needs to bring the watch with him.”
She was able to say meekly with a hardly-put smile on her face. She looked like she wanted to touch her children before they left but hold herself back in fear that something bad could happen to them. The kids looked at their mother with confusion but then nodded and rushed out of the home. With them gone, she rushed towards the kitchen and grab a knife in her hand. Kaan saw her hands shake as she groaned in pain and swore again and again.
He saw rapidly changing emotions on her face as she directed the sharp knife to her chest, her hands were shaking crazily now and her eyes were scared but then with determination she tried to stab the knife into her own chest but she couldn’t. Her body was not listening to her commands. She tried a few more times but simply she couldn’t do it and then she let go of the knife in her hands with a look of despair.
At that moment Kaan saw her accepting her fate. She quickly reached the door and then left her home to run towards the forest. In the hallway, she was shouting with the pain caused by the damned creature inside her body and when she got ten minutes away from her home and the town she couldn’t run anymore and fell to the ground.
After that was just agony and torture for her as the creature ate her inside out. Death didn’t come easily to her, for ten long minutes she cried, cried for help and then cried for this to end and nothing answered her pleas. At least she was saved by death when that sinister, vicious creature emerged by splitting her body in half. That was how the vision had ended.
Kaan didn’t know why this significant vision took a more key place in his mind than some others. He saw scenes with more excessive violence and brutality. Maybe it was her being a farmer, being an insignificant person in a world made from levels and magic or maybe it was seeing that madness of the system didn’t separate if you looked for adventure or tried to live a quiet life. When it came for you, found you and if you were not ready, it was only your demise that you’d face.
After that vision he was more resilient towards the madness of the visions, it really affected his view of the events, like many other visions. Yet even though it made him more resilient toward the gruesome scenes and bone-chilling screams accompanying them, they could be still very disturbing.
After getting the desired information Kaan diverted his eyes from the zombies eating the man’s corpse and gave a look at the others on the street. He thought about what exactly happened between the three and the man who was eaten alive but quickly dismiss it, whatever it was, it was not needed information.
There were three types of people on the street now. Some of them were fighting, killing zombies with brute force, he saw some of the people were faster or their arms bulged with muscle, and one had a whip made out of water in her hand, probably it was their skills coming from their classes. Some of them were simply running away or following the groups, taking shelter in the power of numbers, and the others were hiding in the buildings, waiting for this madness to end.
When Kaan closed the window, he was satisfied with the results of his observations. The zombies looked like the lesser version of the zombies he came across in the vision, well, they were created by a necromancer but still, they couldn’t pierce into your flesh with their bare hands and mostly used their mouths for that purpose so as long as he wasn’t circled there was not much of a threat that would come from them.
If they also followed the logic of zombies from his visions there was no risk of infection, the undead were born from the aura of death where many souls had met with demise or with the power of necromancer or a power similar to necromancer, yet he needed an example to see if it was like that.
Now was time to move out of the room and left this building. Kaan took a deep breath and then put on his backpack, he held the baseball bat tightly and headed towards to door of his dorm room. He felt a strange emptiness inside of his chest, he was not sure if he could call it excitement, he felt excited when he used his skill [Pick A Card] by the magic of it but it was not that, he experienced fear in the visions and the situation he was in was not that scary even though now it was reality. This feeling was none of them, it was like what you felt when you walk into a new beginning, something he couldn’t tell with a few words, but it was there.
He took a deep breath to ease this feeling of emptiness in his chest and collected all of his focus as he stopped in front of the dorm door. He wanted answers, wanted to know why he got to watch people without him being able to do anything other than watch, wanted to see what this system really was and why now it came to the earth, he wanted to know what was the deal of this entity that called itself a ‘God’ and, of course, wanted to survive as now he had a purpose.
Now was the time to see what this ‘new’ world had gotten for him.