12 The city

The family is currently on its way to their aunt's house, which isn't that far from their own house. It would take just a few dozen minutes of driving to reach their aunt house.

But even with that short amount of travel time, the family still witnessed the changes of the city due to the Apocalypse.

Everywhere they look, people can be seen running everywhere while screaming in panic and begging for help from the people around them. Meanwhile, there are numerous amounts of enraged animals, or monsters, chasing humans as they growled and bared their fangs.

Cars driving recklessly on the road as the drivers tried to get away and escape as fast as they can which added more chaos to the surroundings. There were even some accidents of cars ramming accidentally with each other, resulting in a loud crash.

To sum it all up? It was bad. REALLY BAD.

The only good thing that came out of this situation is that no cars exploded yet, mainly because cars this days are more resilient so they won't explode that easily and the local police was able to deploy their forces around the city to kill the monsters despite the fact that communication was down in this moment.

Though that didn't do much help in reducing the chaos in the city. The once ordered and somewhat peaceful city, in the face of a variable called Apocalypse, have become a warzone. And this isn't the only city, or better yet, place that's currently in a chaotic state. Everywhere on Earth, this exact same thing is happening as well.

As the car of the family weaved it's way on the road of the city, they, especially the three women were shocked when they saw this scene.

The three girls' faces were currently pale and have sweat pouring down as they trembled in fear and what made their hearts sink even more is when they saw some people dying by the claws of the monsters.

Their reaction is normal since they haven't really seen this kind of bloody scene before, with blood and body parts littering everywhere.

Karl was looking at it indifferently since he is used to seeing this scene in his time in the military.

But if one will look closely, one could see his hand clenching the driving wheel tightly. He was trying really hard to stay calm while watching everything that is going on in front of him while thinking of ways to save some people.

That's when his mind wandered to his aunt.

Like a popped bubble, all of his thoughts about trying to save some people were gone and replaced by worry to his aunt who could be in danger.

He sarcastically thought in his mind, 'In the end, I'm selfish and will always put first everything that I loved over everything else.'

Karl shakes his head as a fierce glint flashed in his eyes, 'Not that I care. I'd rather be selfish and be hated by everyone but having a content life, than to be selfless and be liked by everyone but having a miserable life. In the end...'

'What matters to me more is me and my family.'

He looked at the rear view mirror and an even greater resolve appeared in his face when he saw his family's current state. At that moment, he made a promise to himself.

'It's either we all live together... or die together. That's why, I'll protect them all while trying to survive myself.'

A worried look soon appeared on his face as he hesitated on whether or not to comfort the girls or steel himself and make them understand that this kind of scenario will most likely happen in the future.

In the end, he decided to make them adapt to the situation because it will be better for them to grow even more since the girls, even though experienced a tragedy in the past, weren't used to seeing such a gory scene personally.

Karl said to get their attention, "Mom, sis, Jannah."

The three looked at him with their faces pale and trembling slightly while keeping silent.

Seeing that, Karl sighed and said trying to be gentle and serious at the same time. "Please calm down. I know that your afraid about what's happening, but you need to adapt as soon as possible because maybe... worse things might happen in the near future. That's why you need to calm down and accept the situation. Besides, we're right here together. We will survive this ok?"

His words helped them calm a little bit. But even though they have somewhat calmed down, Karl could still see them trembling from time to time.

So he did the most logical thing that he could think of and that is to provoke their pride by reminding them one important thing.

He grinned and while keeping his eyes on the road, he said in a teasing voice, "What happened towards the strong courageous womans that I know of? A woman who most of the time dealt with major people around the world? A woman who bears the burden of hundreds or even thousands of lives in her hands? A woman who would not give a fuck to people's opinions around her and will do anything that she wants? Got cold feet? Come on, you guys are better than that."

Sophie, Lucy and Jannah widened their eyes and then proceed to straighten their bodies, completely returning back to their normal self.

Sophie snorted, "Who says I'm scared huh? Are you treating me as a coward huh sweetie?"

Lucy and Jannah also retorted.

"Mom's right. I'm not known as the Genius doctor who saved many people for nothing."

"And I'm not some little kid that will be scared this easily big bro. I've read far worse things than what we are currently experiencing."

Karl smiled in return, "There's the women that I know and admire."

The three women smiled back and together said their gratitude.

"Thanks sweetie/Karl/big bro."

"Always happy to help." Karl smiled as he sighed in relief that his family is back on track.

Now he no longer need to worry about them because he knows that they can take care of themselves. Sometimes they just needed a little push to help them start and the rest is up to them.

As the family continued their way towards their aunt's place while talking with each other to somewhat relieve their minds from fear, Jannah suddenly remembered an important point.

Jannah looked at Karl, "Big bro, did you get some information from the system about the monsters?"

The other three looked confused for a second as Karl said, "Eh? What do you mean?"

She replied, "Didn't the system said earlier that in order to know more, we must explore and experience the Apocalypse. Since you killed those dog monsters earlier, the system might give you some info about monsters."

Their faces brightened in realisation as they remembered that important point.

Karl immediately said out loud, "System, please give us the info about monsters and allow my family to see."

A screen popped up in front of the family.

[Requirements confirmed]

[Monsters are living things that were once normal animals. However, when they were exposed to mana, they become more powerful and wilder. Their instincts became stronger as well and a great example of that is their instincts to kill.]

[With their strengthened instincts, they are more prone to hunt and kill any living in sight, particularly humans and with their powerful body, they are generally considered stronger than the average people in the same stage. That's why they usually target humans since in their mind, humans are weaker than them.]

[But not all monsters are stronger individually than humans. Some rely on packs or groups just like when they were once animals.]

[Some monsters might experience mutation as well. It could be anything, from growing another feet or beathing fire, something like that. Their reproductive ability is also improved by a bit and their offspring are also monsters. So expect some baby monsters really soon.]

[For more information, continue to experience new things.]

The family was silent for a few minutes as they heard all of the things the system said. Then all of them said at the exact same time.

"As expected I guess?"