1 The World Sleeps & Changes

One day, the whole world suddenly fell asleep. Every human, every animals, even insects are included to those who fell unconscious.

It is unknown how it happens. Everyone just fell unconscious.

A long time passes, and the few people who wakes up only to find that everything changes. The modern world is no more, and it is once again the age where they have to roam everywhere and make everything by hand.

As time passed, more people are waking up and finding themselves alone and sometimes unfortunate enough to meet with the changes.

There are a lot of things that changes. For one, a lot of mysterious creatures roam the world. The landmass of the world seems to be more larger than the original Earth.

And one of the things they discovered is that they have powers within them.

These powers varies from each person. Though it is usually something about pyrokinesis, cryokinesis, telekinesis, just being accurate, being lucky, clairvoyance, etc.

They are not the only ones who acquired powers. Everyone that fell asleep acquires it too.

Animals became monstrous beasts who can turn a human into a pulp, cause earthquakes, or are even more intelligent than a person. Insects are like that too.

The state of the world is chaotic. Only a few people made communities, and most of these communities are tyrannical. Others are good but small while the big communities likes to bully others.

Some years later, a person named Neil Howard wakes up. He looks around blearily, his eyes unfocused, as he tries to process what is happening.

He is just a normal highschool student on New York. Living along with his family. His mind is still stuck on that time, as the last thing he remembers is sleeping after taking care of his homework.

"Huh?"

So imagine his surprise when instead of his room, he finds himself in a dilapidated room full of tree roots and vines sticking to the walls. The concrete floor, ceilings, and walls are cracked with faded colors, and it carries a hint of deterioration.

"Where am I!?"

Surprised, he stood up with a start and tries to look at the windowless opening. There, he can only see trees as far as the eye can see, and some destroyed structures on the distance being crowded by some birds and plantation.

While trying to process what is just happening, he suddenly felt something within him. Like some sort of empowering feeling that he can't really explain well.

[Upgrade +10]

Then he sees that prompt, forcing him out of his contemplation. He widens his eyes at this mysterious panel. Confusion evident in her expression.

"What is this?"

He can't understand. There are no explanations whatsoever.

'No! Forget about it! Where is my family?'

His thoughts turned to his family and he frantically looks around. Not finding any of them, he decided to leave this room.

The door out of this room is already rotten and leaning loosely on the side, so he passes through it. Each of his steps causes some uncomfortable noises.

"Cold! I don't have any footwear!" He just realizes it as he took some steps out of the room.

He was still in his white T-shirt and black stylish shorts. He remembers that this is what he wears before sleeping.

Surprisingly, it still looks the same. Like no time has passed at all.

'Ugh! Stop thinking about this! I have to look for paps and moms!' He shook his head before moving forward.

He goes around the building, and realizes that he was on the second floor after roaming for awhile. He didn't recognize this building at all.

As far as he remembers, his house is just a two story house for middle class people. It's not a building that seems to be four or five stories in his estimate.

He arrives at a staircase and is just going down when he noticed that the stairs are broken. Almost everything other than the two stops above the stairs are gone.

"I can't go down with this.... hm?" He notices something on the dark below. In curiosity, he tries to peer through it.

"Ooooooooooooooooooooo"

"Aaaaaaaaaa!?" He stumbled on his butt as the eerie noise below sounded.

He is shocked when he recalls what he sees. It is a rotting flesh of man moving around with his brains out, and his eyeball poking out. His slack jaws and eyes seems to be glinting maliciously as it points at her.

"What is that!?" He questions, fear and confusion overtaking him.

He looks at the stairs again, trying to process about it before taking a sigh.

'I don't know what it is, but the stairs are destroyed so I think I will be safe for now.....' He trailed off in his thoughts, his mind going around in circles. 'Wait!' Realizing something, he panics and almost stumbles out again as he runs around the second floor.

He roams the whole floor, looking for any stairs that might be connected to this floor. He find a stair going to the third floor, and in caution, he decided to go upstairs. He only finds that everything in there are just rubble and debris. Nothing is special in there other than that.

After making sure that everything is fine and there are no stairs leading to the second floor, he took a sigh of relief.

"Phew! That was a scare!"

"Good thing there are no more areas to get to this floor!"

Just after he says that, his stomach growls in hunger. His eyes widened in realization after this happens.

"Fuck! Where do I get food!?"

He looks around, entering all the rooms on this floor. Unfortunately, the only thing he saw other than the destroyed walls and debris is just a rotten metal pipe and an old broken lantern.

He have found a sink on two rooms, but there are no faucets in there. Even if there is one, he is sure that no water will appear in there.

No food, no water, and he is stuck on this floor. If he ever tries to go down, he can't go up because the stairs leading to this floor is already destroyed. There is also some sort of zombie below.

"What should I do!?"

"I want to find my family. Before that, I must make sure that I am safe!"

He tries to rack his brains for ideas. Looking for any options available. He thought of something and decides to do that.

Though, when he goes to the place where a window is supposed to be place and look below, he is unsure of his plan anymore.

There are a lot of plants below, though there are some evil looking rabbits hopping around and seems to be glancing at him once in awhile. As he squinted on the birds on the distance, he notices something weird and dangerous on them.

Which makes him more alarmed and scared.

"I have to find a safe place before something bad happens!"

Despite saying that, he knows he is stuck. He can only stay in this floor and hope for the best that those birds doesn't enter the windowless opening and do something to him.

"Wait..."

He tries to focus within himself, remembering about the mysterious panel in him.

He recalls about his favorite pastime, which is reading some webnovels. There are these niche little things known as Systems that is a pretty popular genre on those. He thinks that mysterious panel might be his System.

[Status]

Neil Howard (Human/Male)

Upgrades : 10

He can't understand what it's all about. There are no explanations with his powers. Still, he thinks this one might be able to help him.

"I have to test it out!" He clenched his fist with his eyes full of determination.

avataravatar
Next chapter