9 Running away

▪︎ Whenever a first object exerts a force on a second object, the first object experiences a force equal in magnitude but opposite in direction to the force that it exerts ▪︎

'Traitor?' Devlin heard, he wanted to ask, but Felix was still here, so he just swallowed his words.

"Done, try using it." Felix said as the piece of the wall went back to its original position.

Devlin opened up his system, which was a simplified version that served like a phone. Those with more advanced versions of a system would be able to check their stats.

'Ah.. I need to fill in all those..' He felt like sighing from seeing all those blanks. He looked at Felix and asked, "I can connect to the Web?"

Felix nodded, "Yep, what are you going to do now?"

Devlin shrugged, "I will figure it out," He slowly walked out and waved, "Take care of Zita, thanks."

"Hey, wait, what? You said you will be out of here by tomorrow!" Felix called out, but Devlin didn't reply and left the room, "The heck.."

Felix opened up his system camera, and his brows frowned deeply. He quickly ran out but couldn't catch a glimpse of Devlin.

Devlin, who was climbing up the stairs, stared at the new function he had never seen before.

[ Invisibility | (On)/ Off ]

"Invisible to any high tech," Devlin mumbled before looking at the figure following him, "Who are you?"

[ Who am I… ]

It spoke, climbing past Devlin.

[ You ain't strong enough to ask that … ]

Energy spread over his palm, "I can break metal with this."

[ Ha . Ha. Ha. Ha… ]

The laughter felt chilling.

[ How laughable…. ]

"Tch." He continued climbing, having his next destination in mind.

When Devlin reached the top, he saw smoke rising from many houses.

'I don't know what happened after this point on..' He thought as he stepped out of the store.

He took out the small notebook from his pocket and opened it to the blueprint page.

'Maybe I can learn to build this.' Thinking of that, he felt the path ahead of him slightly brighter.

[ You?.. making this?.. What a suicidal dream! ]

He stared at the demon standing not far from him, "You can read my thoughts?"

[ You're such a simple-minded person.. Of course I can!! ]

He gritted his teeth and tried searching through the system.

[ Trying to find the off switch for me?.. ]

"Not sh*t." He answered but bit his lips after searching for a while.

[ What makes you think… I'm part of the system?... I'm merely using it.. to comment with you.. ] It turned to face him, mocking him with its smirk.

"Bastard." Devlin stopped searching and instead just went online to check for news.

He continued walking as he checked the news but had to soon stop when he heard a few roars nearby.

'I don't remember it being this bad..' He thought, as he quickly climbed up a short building and scouted ahead.

Reaching the top, he saw a few strange beasts roaming around. Dead bodies littered around and broken buildings ahead.

He looked at the time, "It's a new day.."

{ 3.03 am }

He stared at the rift that stood there, with occasional monsters roaming out.

In the past, he wasn't here to witness the fall and only saw the aftermath.

Now witnessing it, he understood why it was known as, "The fall of humanity.." He muttered, unconsciously taking in a deep breath as he processed what he saw.

[ Have you ever wondered if there's another land besides the wasteland?.. ] The demon stood near the edge, watching the same view.

Devlin didn't reply and hoped that the demon would explain.

The demon turned back and chuckled through the system, [ The gap of your memories is related to that… the land of the forgotten… ]

It turned back and stared at the rift. For a moment, it looked like it was longing for something. But Devlin brushed it off as him being just tired.

Devlin turned and leapt towards the nearest building that was still intact.

[ You're being watched.. ]

Devlin turned and saw the demon in a direction, following it's gaze he saw a monster staring at him.

[ Can you stop calling me a demon? It is disrespectful to me!]

'Eh..' Devlin thought, 'Let's reach Cerevauz first than I shall think of a name for you..'

[ I know you won't.. ]

He shrugged and continued his journey, this time faster due to the number of monsters increasing.

The air is stale with no wind blowing with a silent night.

Devlin had to slowly come to terms with the fact that the future he was familiar with had changed.

The people he knew, his friends, his enemies.

'Everything is different now.' His lips trembled, his eyes burned as he tried keeping his tears at bay. But failed as a few slipped out and fell as he jumped.

"Run, and never look back." He said with gritted teeth, he said what he had been told countless times, 'Why? Why am I the one always running away?'

The red-eyed demon who was following him heard his thoughts and wished to answer but stopped itself, 'Because they all cared for you.. grow stronger to face the past..'

"Hey," Devlin called out while running. He faced the demon and said, "Why don't I call you Elvie?"

[ That's much better than calling me demon… ] It closed its eyes and nodded, taking a peek to see Devlin turned back, focusing on the jump. The end of its eyes went down, 'How unfortunate that you ain't the key for peace. It doesn't matter.. I've made my pledge and won't break it.'

After a while of travelling and taking breaks, Cerevauz's walls were finally in sight.

[ How long more? It's getting boring.. ] Elvie sounded like it was rumbling, even though its voice is still a cold robotic voice, [ Install still some other voice variety.. this is so boring ]

"Why are you even following me then?!" Devlin felt like slamming his head from its constant questions

[ Why not? ] It shrugged.

"Agh.." Devlin felt like crying.

[ If you stay any longer.. a missile will hit you ]

"Wait what?-." Before Devlin could finish his words, he saw something flying towards him, "Holy sh-."