Chapter Note: 3rd person view or narrative.
***
As the players entered the new world, the people of Earth had begun watching the individuals who had left the world a year ago.
Every country watches its representative move within this alien world and hopes for the best of them; as their safety is theirs too.
To the players, they only spent over an hour inside the system space, but to the people back on Earth; they waited for a year, until they could watch them.
After the system brought time back, people returned to the activities they were doing during that time.
At that moment when time returns, casualties happen all over the world; as people who were distracted by the system forgot what they were doing at the moment.
Such as, people doing parkour in a dangerous area; when time returns, these people forget to control their bodies; leading to them being unbalanced in the dangerous area, falling to their deaths.
People driving or racing, who accelerate beyond the speed limit. Because they were paused by the system, their mind couldn't adapt back when time returned.
So when movement came back; they couldn't react to it, leading to crashing into what was in front of them.
Anyone who wasn't standing still, sitting, or in a place where anything dangerous was nowhere to be seen; died the moment time returned.
Some survive, but never live the life they had before. This wasn't the only thing that happened this year; when the players were gone.
The already existing danger the world was facing even before the system appeared; started getting worse beyond help.
The few-meter-sized sinkhole the country's been facing, suddenly widened to ten meters wide and went deeper than it ever had.
Each time people solved one of them, another one to five appeared, making it useless. At some point, these endless sinkholes were big enough to swallow an entire building.
The small earthquake became stronger than it ever had and destroyed entire cities, mountains, and even some famous landmarks on the planet.
People tried to protest against them, rebuilding what they had destroyed; but eventually gave up after they had been destroyed for the fifth time.
With earthquakes happening almost every week in a month; tsunami itself becomes as natural as rain in the tropical rainforest.
People created walls to protect themselves; but the earthquake just destroyed those walls; and the rains would submerge them in their own tears.
Snow falling in an area it should never have, volcanoes erupting without warning, animals both sea, land, and air dying as their natural habitats changed without proper explanation.
The world was truly ending, and people couldn't do anything to help with it. Some people hoard. Some people pray. Some people look for someone to blame.
But no matter what they did, be it fighting back against them, or accepting them; they never got better. And in the span of 1 year, over a billion have already died.
Now, seeing their country representative moved in this new world before them; they hope and pray they can live and fix what's happening to them.
And in that very moment too; families of the players have finally seen the missing family member of theirs; after a year of no confirmation of their situation.
Rey's second family watched him move in the barren land, carrying nothing but a spear he stole from the lizard and the shovel he chose from the system.
Many of his countrymen didn't understand why he would choose such a thing, when he was a mage; a staff would have been better than this.
But at the same time, they couldn't do anything about it, as they could only watch his actions behind the system panel before them.
"Rey....." A woman's voice sounded; watching her sister's child doing well after disappearing for a year.
Seeing him again after a long time, Maria looked outside her home; watching the snow falling once again.
Life has been harsh to them this year; back then there were a total of five in their home; herself, her mother, and her three children.
In the span of a month after the system came; two of her children died from the non-stop disaster; then later on her mother too.
Currently, Maria and her youngest child are the only ones left in their entire family; but seeing Rey alive now, she felt a sense of relief.
Closing the door of their home, making sure the cold air won't enter; she went to a room where her daughter was sleeping.
Waking her up, her child said: "Are we gonna eat?"
Maria only shook her head; instead, she summoned the system: where a globe appeared.
Pressing the country of theirs on that globe; a prompt appeared, this time having a rectangular shape, split into two.
On the left corner, which took over 80% of the screen, Rey was being broadcast on it; while the 20% remaining was his status window.
"Look, do you remember Big Brother Rey?" She asked her child.
Seeing a familiar face, Nene smiled and started pulling her mother's shirt: "Look! It's big brother!" She called out repeatedly, seeing her cousin.
Looking at her child acting like this and forgetting her hunger, Maria patted her head and said: "I'm going out for now, so stay here and watch your Big Brother."
Nene nodded, letting Maria leave their so-called home. Leaving the small room with a single bed, Maria closed the door and left the house.
She looked back at what they were currently staying at. A simple steel box, accommodating a bedroom and a bathroom, with most of its space a free area.
Having the country in the ring of fire and already known for having typhoons every year, most houses and buildings have already been damaged, in the entire world, their country got one of the worst parts of it.
Because of this the government sends this out to the remaining survivors of the country. With this, the people can live in this tiny 6x6 steel box, allowing them to survive the other disaster there is.
"I have to go now," Maria said, leaving the area of her home and her child to find food.
Back then, the village had thousands of people; currently, there are only around a hundred or so left alive, that's surviving all this time.
And because of the snow, a situation that the people of this country would never expect to happen; they couldn't adapt to the cold weather, and died from it.
Leaving far enough to not see their steel box home, Maria continued to move forward, hoping to find another supply box that the government sent this month.
After ten minutes of walking around the village, she found a group of people gathering around something; seeing this she pushed herself to move through the snow, without caring about getting frostbite from it.
"Maria!" An elderly couple said, seeing her outside without even a proper jacket on.
"What are you doing outside wearing nothing!" The grandma said, seeing her wear only a knee-length pair of pants, and a white shirt.
"Don't worry about me, I had to give it to Nene since we used up all our woods," Maria said, smiling at the elders.
"I see....." The grandpa expresses, annoyed not being able to do anything, and knowing her situation.
"Before that, take this and go home. Don't leave your home and wait for someone to go there. I'll call one of my children to gather firewood for you."
The grandma said, giving Maria two bags of supplies. One had canned foods, instant noodles, coffee powders, a few kilos of rice, spices, and other easy cooking materials.
While the other bag contains clothes perfect to fight back against the snow, they're facing. Seeing all of this and recalling how many people the elders had in their camp, she pushed it away.
"Please don't do this, I can just take what's left in the box." She said, recalling how they had 6-8 mouths to feed.
"Don't worry about that, most of us in the camp are old, we're only a problem. People like you, especially with a child, should have this more than us." The grandma said, forcing Maria to take the bags.
Seeing their consideration, Maria didn't fight back against them and took the bags.
"Thank you!" She said to them, turning around and going back home to Nene.
"God, this world is truly ending. And there's nothing else we elders can do, but watch." The grandpa said, annoyed seeing Maria force herself to move in this kind of weather.
"I know," his wife said. "But, doing something little like this is the best thing we can do."
"Right....." Seeing his wife try to ease him up, Gramps took her hand and called the other elders in the area.
"Alright, grab what's left in there and go back to the camp. After that, we gather wood and give it to the other houses."