"Day 10 since what I call Frenzy Invasion. I've finally figured out what's going on. This whole incident is related to a game that was released three years ago. The game is Invader's Paradise. An immersive reality game that boasted graphics high enough to rival reality. It's won game of the year and recently had over twenty million downloads despite the cost of it.
"The game itself required a unique immersive reality headset. I only got it a little over a year ago and I've been playing it consistently. The reason why the game is loved is because it allowed one to achieve victory whether it's through brute force or perfect strategy.
"The setting of the game is that the players are invaders from a different galaxy. The aim was to either conquer or annihilate five planets. The planets had their own themes. The first was Nova, a futuristic planet with multiple moons. The main theme there was sci-fi. The second was Jianghu, a planet straight out of a cultivation novel. Most players just called it Murim planet.
"The third was Avaleria, as the name suggests, a planet of magic and fantasy. The fourth was Lost Earth, a post apocalyptic planet where humans are trying to rebuild what they lost. The last was Eden, a planet uninhabited by humans. This place had every mythic, horrific monster imaginable. The developers put in actual monsters of folklore.
"Sorry I got distracted. I'll get back to the present. The game crashed two weeks ago and the only thing we saw was a black screen saying Invasion Failed. Ten days ago, I heard a voice in my head saying login successful. A few minutes later, gates opened in my world and the invasion began. We finally experienced how it felt to be on the receiving end.
"I managed to survive the first day. Most didn't make it. I have also noticed a few things. I've taken the appearance of my character from the game. I've also gained the skills I had from the game. I forgot to mention but every player got three skills. The Soul skill, the body skill and the world skill.
"The selection was vast but I picked very simple ones that had great potential. My soul skill is called Domain. It's got a lot of branching paths during growth with most being dead ends but I made it work. My body skill was Humanoid Adaptation. It's a passive skill that allows me to adapt into a humanoid form that best suits my environment.
"My world skill was Inventory. I could store any inanimate object inside. I later evolved it to allow duplication of simple items but that's for the future. The world has gone to shit and I'm just doing my best to survive. Currently I'm on top of a giant wolf tamed by one of the survivors I met. We are leaving the city before the nuke drops."
"Why do you keep narrating?" Kyle asked Silva.
"Just ignore him Kyle." Rose said as she continued to control the monstrous wolf.
"I'm trying to but he's narrating right by my ear."
"Get down, monsters ahead. Hold your breath." The instant she said that, a thick smog wafted out of the wolf's mouth and clung to its fur. The wolf ran past a group of monsters that were busy feeding on some unlucky souls.
The group rode the wolf for a few more minutes before they stopped at a hotel and let the beast run off. After scouting out the second floor, the group found a room to stay before finally resting. They were a trio brought together by the situation.
Kyle was a police officer who was on duty when the gates opened. He has never played Invader's Paradise which explained why he still looked the same. He was the last to join the trio and was the one who found out about the government's plan to nuke the areas most affected by the gates.
Rose was a veterinarian who also happened to be a gamer. And a very dedicated one at that. She had the beast taming world skill and the healing body skill. She refused to talk about her soul skill.
Silvanus was in his second year of college. The gates found him at the pool. He was on a pool break with his family when the monsters came. He should have died but somehow survived. His head was terribly injured which caused the narrating and uncontrollable drooling.
Rose had tried to heal him but she failed. Silva's body was stuck in the middle of adapting which made healing impossible. The trio settled for the night with Kyle taking the first watch. Silva slept through the night since nobody trusted him to keep watch.
The world looked pure white. Every breath was heavy and laboured. Silva could feel his body rapidly changing. He couldn't move no matter how hard he tried. Silva kept struggling till his adaptation completed and with it came an overwhelming sense of calm.
Activating his soul skill, domain, Silva finally got a sense of his surroundings and his situation. He was inside a cocoon and the room had been turned into a giant web. His domain had a ten meter range but he still couldn't find the creature that had laid the web.
Silva used his inventory to store the cocoon which led to him being released. He was free but didn't move a muscle. His body was adapting again and his brain, now fully healed, was churning. The web he had sensed was too large to have been set overnight. Plus his brain injury was fully healed, meaning that quite some time had passed.
He hadn't sensed the presence of his comrades with his domain. This meant that they had abandoned him. Silva wanted to be angry, he wanted to feel betrayed but he couldn't. He knew the reason for this but it was hard to accept. His adaptation had the side effect of numbing emotions other than fear and lust.
The web vibrated. The vibration so gentle that most wouldn't even feel it. But Silva felt it. His body had adapted to this new environment. He was at home on this web. There were more vibrations which allowed him to sense the web's owner.
The spider, if one could even call it that was huge. Silva wondered how it could crawl on the web without ripping it apart. Silva crawled on the web, using it to silently leave the area. The web itself covered a few buildings and had dozens of human sized cocoons and a few much larger ones.
Leaving the range of the monstrous spider, Silva climbed to the roof of one of the tallest buildings in the city. From there he could see the city's layout and how the invaders had divided it. After memorizing the entirety of the cityscape, Silva laid on the roof and planned his next moves.
'I came up with a lot of methods on how to survive when I was injured but my thought process was, well, all process and no thought. I need to think things through. From what I see, we've been invaded by Avaleria. More precisely, the magical monsters of Avaleria. Based on the position of the sun, the closest exit is to the east. Which is the direction that those two took when they left me.
'There's a wide river covering the east which didn't exist before so I have to assume that there's an aquatic monster there. If this is like the game, then killing creatures should be the fastest way to get stronger but I can't be sure about it. What I need to do now is secure food and water. Then I'll get more information on how much the world has changed. Then maybe I can find a better way to survive.
'So like dad always said, settle your emotions then settle your business.' After saying that, Silva finally broke down into tears. Memories of his family flashing through his mind. He wept for hours. His tears had run dry but his brain wanted to cry more.
Night, that's when Silva had enough mental clarity to move. His body was weak and exhausted from the crying. He wanted to keep laying there but he had to move on. He had to survive. Silva scavenged for a while before he found some biscuits and bottled water.
The biscuits were tasteless to him but he needed sustenance. Finally satiated, Silva curled up on a couch and once again cried himself to sleep. But even as he fell into a dreamless slumber his thoughts were focused on how to survive the coming days.