Late M - Early Summer : Rid, Virginia | East Coast Uates
-----
- Professor Ja ~
"Good m, css. Did you all have a good weekend?"
"""Yes!""" The young students all responded in unison.
"Haha, that's good to hear. Do you all remember what I said on Friday? We will be doing your maivity tests today! You all should be excited!"
I couldn't help but smile seeing the group of children, ranging from 9 to 12, excited to take their first steps into the world of magic.
-They are all quite talehis year as well...- "Alright, everyone, please gather your things and follow me! We will be moving to the testing facility in the building over."
Quickly pig up all their belongings, they formed a line and followed me into the hallway. -I wonder if any will unlock their system today...-
The year was 2579. Just over 554 years after the event that flipped the course of humanity on its head.
Starting in 2020, tless anomalies seemed to appear out of nowhere, ranging from fires and natural disasters to pgues, mass disappearances, and even stars in the night sky suddenly disappearing.
Many people even said it was a sign of the end, but no one listened.
However, just a few days after celebrating the New Year in 2025, the sky over the Atntic O split apart, and the body of a snake, almost a hundred meters in diameter, slipped out of it.
It was a creature far te for sce to expin how it could live, let alone move, and while the Uates gover attempted to hide its existehe following months and years would e to alert everyone oh that something was wrong.
All around the world, monsters never seen oh were simply appearing out of nowhere, without any reason or care for locatioire poputions of people were wiped out when some of the rger monsters happeo drop through a crato the ter of a city.-
It was nothing short of an apocalypse for nearly 30 years. While modern munitions could still kill them, there was a limit to everything. Just as a 9mm pistol would struggle to kill a bear, a 50 cal would struggle to kill a creature bigger than a building with hide tougher than Kevr.
The first 10 years of that hell were called the Rapture at the time but were ter referred to as The Great Split.
Humanity's popution dropped to 25% of its peak, and people had no choice but to walk on eggshells no matter what they did or where they were. After all, if they were unlucky, a mohe size of the Statue of Liberty could just fall onto their head.
But as humans do, they prevailed.
Around 10 years after the first Crack, a young, pointy-eared man was found fighting monsters several times his size with a simple sword.
It was the first appearance of a System Merary oh. A group of se beings said to travel between worlds to kill monsters aronger.
At the time, no one knew how that came a or what their real purpose was, but over the following years, people among those who disappeared just before The Great Split started to return as System Meraries themselves, and along with them came the rebound of humanity, with the main tributor being the discovery of a new energy.
Mana.
It was an energy The Split brought with it, but it wasn't until the lucky few to beeraries returhat it was even discovered.
It was an energy you could not feel without having experie, but heless, it made humans look like cavemen who hadn't discovered fire. -It makes me wonder how humanity even survived as long as it did...-
*Click* Opening the door to the testing facility, we quickly winded our way through the halls aually made it te room with dozens of seats and a row of 6 tubes at the front.
"Everyone, have a seat. We will be testing in order by name, so numbers 1 through 6, please e up to the front."
At the front of the white tile room were two armored men and a young woman in a medical gown.
The young woman was quick to get started. "As I'm sure you all have heard, you will begin your maivity test today. Before you step into the testing tubes, you will be provided a mask and headphones; ohey are securely on, we will close up the tube and force mana to flow through your body. When you feel it, give us a thumbs up, and we will slow the flow to give you a ce to trol it." She paused as she looked over the students with a smile. "While I don't think we will have any issues, the test doesn't end until there is resistan the flow, so while lying will do you no good, be proactive when you feel it, okay?"
The students immediately nodded, half excited and half starting to get nervous.
But, of course, there was nothing to worry about.
The testi extremely smoothly, with a majority of students having above-average sensitivity and one half-elf who was especially sensitive, going as far as setting a new record for this facility and awakening her system.
-But we only have a few left... It's a shame that only one of them unlocked their systems, but they are all quite talented, so I have no reason to worry.- I wore a smile looking over the students happily talking about what it felt like in the mana chamber.
But my expression quickly shifted when I noticed the half-elf girl, Siv, wearing a look of worry. -Hm?-
I quickly set down my things and walked over to talk to her to avoid drawing attention.
"T-teacher?" She sounded extremely on edge.
-It doesn't seem like she's having any aftereffects from the mana...- I quickly kneeled o her. "What is it, Siv? Are you alright?"
She nervously go the side. "I-is the system supposed to be like this?"
-Huh?- I wasn't following. "What do you mean?"
"It's.. super distorted.. with a big red word in the middle."
-A big red word?- Wanting to see if I could figure out what was happening, I also opened up my system. -System Open.-
But I was immediately presented with aremely distorted and glitg system window, with a new panel in its ter.
W?????4???????????R??????????N????????????1????????N?????????6??????????!????-Huh?- A knot of ay formed in my chest the moment I saw it. After all, the system we believed to be perfect was glitg in su extreme fashion while dispying a barely readable warning.
Simply calling it a bad omen didn't do it justice.
"Siv, please close your system for now, okay? Just wave your hand through the panel." Seeing her nod and wave her hand, I hopped up and darted into the trol room. "Turn off the testing maes!"
The group of stists in the room all gave me weird looks. "Professor, everything looks fine on our-"
"I will take responsibility for everything. JUST TURN IT OFF! NOW!"
But I was too te.
*VWOOOOOM* Before we could do anything, a mana wave se it made me lose my senses bsted through us, instantly ripping every ounana out of our bodies and sending everyoo the ground in pain.
"AGH! Huek!" The hing I knew, I was throwing up blood with vision so blurred I could only see a flickering red from the fshing lights refleg off the blood-cround. -Shit... I need.. to che.. the students...-
In a panic, I tried to crawl back to the door of the room.
But there was only so much that pure adrenaline and willpower could do. *thump*
*Beep* "U???s?????3???r??? ????h?????4?????s???? ????f???4????l????1???e???n??? ???u?????n????c????0????n?????s?????c????i????o????u???s????.?????"
-----
- Evren (Evreir) ~
Telep . . .
Returning to World #0 | 'Earth'
-W..what?- My mind ut into a fog the moment the System teleported me, but they slowly started to heighten as time passed.
Typically, I was elep for more than a fra of a sed, but this o like ay. -Just how far was I from Earth...-
*Ding* *Ding* The pinging of panels steadily became more frequent the longer I was being teleported, but I couldn't read any of them.
After a moment, I thought about muting it, but I quickly ged my mind after sidering the situation.
-I should probably listen to them in case something happened...- "S-ystem Read Panels..." My voice was a tad strained because my body felt like it was being held in pce by an unfathomable force, but regardless, the System updated.
*Beep-Beep* "Setting ged. Attempting e to Server 141-A81-B5, 'Earth'..."
-Earth? Did Earth bee a server world?- Servers worlds were things I actually knew about, although my memory was a bit distant since I hadn't seen one since my 1,000th world when all my missions switched from tial to pary scale.
Typically being ps with advanced intelligent life, server worlds were hubs for the System. They were worlds where all se life had access to a system simir to mine, except sometimes using levels instead of upgrades.
However, trary to what most would think, even with the System, those societies were in shambles, bathing in the glory of what they used to be.
Entire kingdoms and cities that stretched to the horizon were all abandoned ao rot. Long-since decayed skeletons of families, royalty and peasants alike, filled the streets; the onality between all of them?
They were ripped apart by monsters.
-If Earth followed a simir fate.. then the ability to return is just t back the torment... It would mean this truly is.. hell...-
But as my mind slowly started to numb itself once again, the voice of the System met my ears.
*Beep* "epossible. System Versions Inpatible"
*Beep* "Attempting e to Main Server..."
*Beep* "Ping out of reach. Attempting e Via Rey... ected"
*Beep* "Attempting Synization."
The sequence of pings only brought fusion. -W..what? What is it doing?-
*BEEP* A deafening beep cut my thoughts short. "Outdated System detected. Beginning system Update and Verification..."
*BEEP* "SYSTEM CORRUPTIOED! Update Impossible. Attempting to REPAIR."
I could hardly follow what was happening, but I was made acutely aware just a moment ter.
*BEEP-BEEP* "CRITICAL ERROR OCCURRED. Attempting System Wipe..."
-S-SYSTEM WIPE?!- "S-SHIT! SYSTEM CEL!" In a flurry of panic, I tried to get the System to stop.
But it didn't care. "Attempting to Force Wipe Iear, and Upgrades... Reallog System Resources. Halting Unnecessary Systems."
After 500 years of destroying everything from mohe size of cities to entire civilizations and ps, I had bee nothing short of a monster.
But having beeached from any source of humanity for so long, it had bee a source of pride. "I DESTROYED WORLDS FOR THAT SHIT! LIKE HELL, I WILL LET YOU TAKE IT AWAY!"
I immediately tried to force my way out of the impossibly heavy space I was in, but I hardly mao do anything before the System spoke again.
*Beep* "49,729,125,437 items removed from Gear and Iory... Proceeding to Upgrades. . ."
Hearing that it was already happening, my mi bnk.
I was forced to bend to the will of the System. Even if I broke out of the teleportation, the ce that I could do anything to stop the System was essentially 0.
At least, that was the case back then.
*Beep* "Releasing User's Mana reserved frades... Restris Undone."
*VWOOOOOOM* An unfathomable amount of energy exploded out from my body instantaneously, causing an unbelievably detailed image to appear in my mind. O only of myself but also of the inside of the sphere I was trapped in and everything in the air around me, down to the microscopic microbes.
*BEEP* "CRITICAL WARNING."
Critical Warning
Teleportation Gate Unstable
Attempting to Find Non-Obstructed Space to Release User
-
Location Found.
Releasing User. . .
*CRACK-VWOOOOM* A deafening crack met my ears as the bck sphere arouarted to break apart, and a thin but fresh air caressed my face.
The feeling of the cool, humid breeze was a sensation I had long since fotten about, and when bined with a view from the top of a mountain ridge, looking over an endless green forest, I was quickly distracted from what the System was saying.
The immense energy tinuing to pour out of my body caused my seo heighten to an insane degree, letting me t the feathers on a bird several kilometers away, hear every hin hundreds of meters, ahe tremors of a squirrel burying an a a dozeers behind me.
Had I not experienced susanely sensitive senses when activating specific upgrades in the past, I most certainly would have lost my mind.
But my mind was calm as a m ke, even while processing and filtering through the tremendous amount of information.
Before I k, I was on the verge of tears.
Memories of a time I believed I had fotten came flooding back.
Memories of standing on a mountain ridge just like this, looking out toward the horizon while holding my father's hand.
-I'm really.. home...-
