In the remains of a partially destroyed building, an emaciated boy took shelter from the unforgiving glow of the crimson Sun. The boy was dressed in dirty, worn-out clothes, as the bags under his eyes gave his face a dull look.
He sat in what should have been a study, although time and natural disasters made it unrecognisable. A part of the wall was broken, revealing a desertified wasteland filled with crumbled buildings.
The boy's eyes were closed as his body melted into a shredded couch. His mouth, slightly agape, was curved into a wide smile while his mind drifted into dreamland—a luxury that was scarcely available for a scavenger like him.
The heat was brutal, but in this dead world, that was the least of his worries; he had learned to turn off his brain and relax even in these extreme conditions.
Squeak Squeak
Jerking in fright, his eyelids broke apart and he searched for the source of the noise.
He soon located it: a small hairless rat nibbling on the side of the sofa. He calmed down, thanking the heavens it wasn't a grotesque monster that had infiltrated this temporary abode. The small creature hadn't seemed to notice him as it kept chewing on the sofa.
A chair and a meal. I guess the heavens haven't forsaken me after all.
He gave a look of appreciation to the sky.
His gaze sharpened as he locked on the rat. Or maybe it was a mouse, Kody couldn't tell, all he knew was that it looked edible—and that was all that mattered.
He quietly shifted on the sofa and prepared to lunge, when the rat froze. It had noticed the disturbance and was now staring Kody in the eye.
A minute passed, and no one made a move. Man and rat, their gazes locked together.
Their stalemate went on for a while before a flash of lightning interrupted them. The rat looked away and Kody seized his opportunity. He immediately lunged at the rat. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't fast enough; the rodent managed to shift slightly.
That slight movement caused him to miss his prey. But Kody wasn't one to give up, especially not when it came to food.
Without even getting up, he shifted his momentum and continued the chase. Any onlooker would've been shocked that such a scrawny frame was capable of such agile movement. Alas, there was hardly a living soul within a hundred miles.
The rat, however, wouldn't let itself be eaten without a fight, even though Kody was versed in the art of hunting small critters—that was his major food source— catching this rodent still proved to be a challenge.
He bumped into several objects unwilling to let this one go, and just when he felt it was within his grasp, the mouse turned, heading towards the broken wall and out of the building.
Kody loved food, but he loved his life more. He didn't risk it; he just stood and watched the rat enter the crimson world. As if possessed, its movements stopped as the red light reflected off it. And a scene Kody had seen one too many times replayed before his eyes.
The rat bloated like a balloon inflated to its limit, before bursting. Kody closed his eyes as some of the red goo splattered onto his face.
There goes my meal.
Before he could mourn his food, a transparent blue screen appeared in front of him. It read:
___
Soul energy of an infected furless mouse detected.
Do you want to absorb this soul energy
Yes. No.
___
So it was actually a mouse.
His gaze lingered on the yes, and in a moment, he felt a warm energy flowing into him. The screen changed again.
___
Host is now 29.9% from gene/soul evolution.
The system is unavailable until evolution.
___
Kody grimaced. After a full year of scavenging, he still hadn't gotten to a hundred percent. This last 30% were going to be a hassle as critters were growing increasingly scarce these days.
His memory wafted back to when he was still in the underground facility. Back then he had food, not too much, but enough to survive and definitely much more than he had now. If only he had been satisfied.
The tales of the heroism of evolved humans had gotten into his head and he had foolishly joined the expedition group to go into this wasteland.
He was now all alone and starving after running away from the group because of an incident that almost turned him into their dinner.
Right now, he no longer wanted to become a hero; he just wanted to find the nearest tower and leave this Godforsaken realm.
The interface changed into the default screen he was familiar with.
___
WARNING!!
Your realm has been infected by the Anarchy. Find the closest Tower and evacuate the realm.
___
Beneath it was a radar-like map that showed the nearest tower. It was a measly kilometer away, and if not for the sun that had been up for way too long, he would have reached it by now. That was perhaps the only good thing about his situation.
He had previously promised the few friends he had left at the underground facility that when he became powerful enough he would help them leave the realm. But right now, he couldn't care less. He was hardly able to care for himself; worrying about others would do him no good.
Looking at the sanguine sky that had refused to make way for the night, he sighed.
I'm going to die of starvation if this goes on much longer.
He fell back into the sofa trying to put the piercing hunger at the back of his mind. Hopefully, the sandman would show up and make his worries go away.
The frequent flashes of lightning, however, didn't let that happen. He opened his eyes about to start grumbling, but the words were caught in his throat.
Far into the horizon, a pitch-black storm as vast as the world itself was heading towards him.
"Oh fuck."
*
The Anarchy had descended on the world a few decades ago with the red sun heralding its arrival. Every living thing touched by its glow died almost instantly.
The world that had previously been experiencing an advent of technology went into chaos the next day.
But unknown to them the Anarchy wasn't done yet.
It started creating natural disasters that completed the red sun's job.
The creation of Hurricane Rapture had sealed the deal. And on the day Rapture swept the planet, Earth officially ended.
The few humans who luckily survived had moved underground.
The system appeared shortly after that, guiding what was left of humanity to towers that served as passages to other realms. A few brave souls venture away from the confines of the underground facilities in search of these towers.
Kody was one of such people. And after a year of walking, he could finally see the shadow of one of these towers.
*
"Rapture," Kody muttered. The storm moved towards him at an incredible speed. And to his dismay, the Crimson ball was still in the air.
The storm was still a distance away, but if the sun didn't set, that distance soon wouldn't matter.
Kody, who knew nothing about religion, found himself praying to anything that would listen, to help him out. He couldn't die now. Not when he was a few steps away from his goal.
Kody didn't know if it was a god or a devil that answered, but he knew his prayers were answered when the sanguine glow slowly started vanishing.
Even at that, the wait was excruciating. He paced around waiting for the night to come truly. It only took a few minutes but the speed of Rapture made it feel like a lifetime.
At a point, he looked at the sofa contemplating if it would be better to sleep and wait for death.
Not yet, I can't die until I taste real meat.
He steeled his resolve, whether it was for the meat or the chocolate. Death would have to wait for him to experience these extinct cuisines.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, night came and the outside world was finally safe once more.
Kody didn't waste a second, he ran with everything in him. The sand was still hot and he was running barefoot, but that didn't bother him. Not when Rapture was almost upon him.
His stomach growled a few times causing him to stumble, but all he would do was silently bear the pain while grinding his teeth.
"Map," Kody called out causing the transparent screen to appear. Looking at the radar-like map, he had just a little over 800meters to cover.
He dismissed the screen, his feet never slowing for a moment. He could already see the tower.
It pierced into the clouds and was obscured by a veil of thick gray fog. Just as he was about to celebrate he heard a buzzing sound behind him. He looked back, and what he saw sent shivers down his spine.
The hurricane… was no hurricane. It was a massive cluster of giant black insect-like creatures that were snapping their razor-sharp teeth at him.
Their large eyes stared at him. They were flying towards him at incredible speeds.
His already pale face became paler. But he forced himself to keep running. If he stopped he was going to die.
Goddamn, running didn't seem to be improving his chances either.
The forerunner of the group was only a kilometer or so away.
He kept running, but when he reached the hundred-meter mark he heard the buzzing sound directly behind him.
Shit
It was upon him the next second. Its watermelon-sized frame clung to his hand. Before Kody could shake it off, its razor-sharp teeth sank into his skin. In that moment Kody let out such a guttural scream that even he was surprised.
The pain had sunk into his mind, making his thoughts unusually clear.
His hand was barely clinging to his shoulder. The weight of the creature chewing on his bones was also weighing him down.
In that moment, Kody's eyes were bulging from pain, and he made a split-second decision. His feet didn't stop as he used his other hand to dislodge his mangled hand from his shoulder. He kept on screaming as blood gushed out from the open wound. But he never stopped running.
The creature was too busy munching on his hand to continue chasing him. And before the next creature clung to him he threw himself into the fog.
A second later he noticed he wasn't being chewed on and immediately lost consciousness.
The last thing he heard was a robotic voice.
"Starting healing process for human Participant.
Healing completed.
Transferring Human to a functional realm.
Random functional realm located.
Transfer began."
[Author's note: This is the start of a legendary story.]