Chapter 11: The Changing Universe

Five days later

The world had transformed into a chaotic and unpredictable place in the past four days. And it continued to change as every moment passed. Not only physically, but mentally, spiritually and in every other sense. Society itself was adapting to the new way of life. Then again, they didn't have any other choice but to do so. 

In these early days, countless individuals had vanished without a trace. Entire buildings, neighborhoods, and even some cities had disappeared, replaced by structures and surroundings from other realities. It was as if someone were messing up the jigsaw puzzle that represented their reality, mix-matching random pieces everywhere. People, objects, and landscapes simply blinked out of existence. And this was now considered the new normal.

For those who remained, which was still the majority of them, changes were becoming increasingly evident. Many individuals had developed strange mutations and abilities. People with once ordinary appearances now sported unusual features. Eyes of vibrant colors, skin that shimmered like precious gems, and hair that flowed like liquid metal had become common sights. Even those who hadn't physically changed felt the effects of the merger in various ways. Memories of alternate selves surfaced, as did new skills and knowledge. Some found themselves experiencing vivid dreams of other lives they had never lived. 

The first day after the merger saw the collapse of established order. Panic spread like wildfire as people grappled with the inexplicable events. Rumors and misinformation ran rampant, leading to further chaos. The lack of understanding about the GUIDE, the personal merger, and the nature of the merger itself only exacerbated the confusion. 

By the second day, some semblance of order was restored as information about the GUIDE began to circulate. People discovered how to connect with it and gain insights into the situation. Understanding slowly started to replace fear and confusion. Now it was very common to see a floating figure on people's shoulder. In fact, this might be the new trend. The GUIDE could take on any form, and the Residents used it as they pleased.

The information about personal merger, stages and scenarios and the plague of temporal anomalies also made rounds as people finally became aware of the dangers and opportunities that now existed in their reality.

On the third day, all humans who had connected with their GUIDE heard a worldwide broadcast. It was an invitation to join the network. Established to ease communication in this merger, as no one knew when communication satellites or towers would disappear. This was very easy to accomplish, since the GUIDE was omnipresent. But whoever had proposed this idea should have been someone special, as the GUIDE would never carry out favors like this for anyone. It was very partial, as we already knew.

Since the network for communication was born, it enabled everyone to connect with one another. You could access the network through your GUIDE or even your normal mobile phone. Someone had launched an app that could connect with your GUIDE, giving your mobile access to the network. Since then, app developer who could create apps that supported the GUIDE network were being sought out by many organizations. A new profession had been invented.

Strangely, there had been no news about the creation of Guilds or Sects or similar organizations. There was no clamor for adventurers or mercenaries. But such an outcome was expected, once people understood there was no need for that. There were no rampaging monsters or beasts roaming around. No zombie hordes made news.

The only time temporal anomalies such as Echoes or Phantoms made any mess, it was temporary, like a passing breeze. Just as GUIDE had said, the death tolls were very low. In fact, the confirmed death count till now was even lower than normally what was seen annually. Crimes had seen a sharp decline in the past four days. Of course, people were expecting the outlaws to go back to their ways anytime soon.

Since the population was almost the same, and the only change was random building or localities disappearing and appearing, life had to go on for everyone. Just because some merger was happening didn't mean that they would stop eating and wait around for it to be done. 

Many livelihoods and occupations were declared redundant surely, but more would rise to replace those jobs. But for now, all the major governments around the world had declared the month to be a holiday. Until the personal merger was over, everything that could be stopped will be. And so schools and institutes all closed down. Government faculties were all shut down, other than the established food centers that were distributing rations for people who needed. This was another decision much appreciated by everyone.

Transport and travel were prohibited. Once everyone had enough resources to last a month, they were told to stay put in their houses. If by chance your home or building or locality happened to disappear, you will have to take residence in the structure that replaced your place. Or you would have to find a home somewhere else. Staying on the streets was also allowed. Many rules had been made lax. But then again, during the personal merger, who would probably have the mind to enforce rules or laws when they had to first ensure they would get to live? Authority and power only meant something if you were alive to enjoy them.

The fourth day marked a historic moment as governments around the world set aside their differences to form a unified world government. They launched a portal on the network and urged their citizens to register as "Earthians" on there. This move aimed to establish a degree of global governance and facilitate cooperation among the people. This was accepted by every government readily around the world. 

Such a move made it easier to keep everyone around the globe on the same page. Many of the citizens might still have not registered on the portal, but it was no doubt that the majority were in favor. As shown by the increasing number of members that was displayed on the portal.

But something major happened on Day five after the merger begin that shook the citizens of planet Earth.

Author's Note:

I decided to add this here, for this one time, because I realised that app readers never really read the author's note. They choose not to. How do I know? Because I don't either. And I read here too.

So anyway, now that I have your attention I would like to share some thoughts and also get some feedback from ya'll. First of all about the story so far. We can all agree that its all been very not so apocalypse kinda going. Well my reasoning and thought process for that was, how do introverts respond to apocalypse abridged version. So the group of friends have all acted in ways that are in line with, let the world burn, im fine as long as it doesn't affect me. And thats not what protagonists do.

So here is the thing, when I started the story, I did not have in mind a Main character. No, what I was thinking of writing was how I would be in the apocalypse. At least how i would want myself to be in said hypothetical situation with my friends. And this is what I got so far. A bunch of nerds messing around with no clues actually. This story isn't going to be about wish-fulfillment zero-to-hero MC and his friends. Well it won't be plain boring either, but not just him steamrolling and fighting enemies all the time. While keeping it fantasy and adventure, I wanna try exploring others ways of narration and plot progressions, so if the first ten chapters seemed intriguing, I would definitely ask you stick around for longer. For those that felt this wasn't their kinda thing, I'd ask you to stick around too( no one would shoo away readers XD ). Try out for a bit longer and see if you are interested with further developments and then decide maybe.

Cheers and have a great read!.