"Cak..Cakk Cakk!"
This cough, this familiar sensation… There is no time to even hesitate. I shot up straight, this scenery, not a single tree in sight. Human burritos. Including me.
NOOOOO!!! I screamed internally. Was everything in the past 18 years just a dream? I am quite positive that I was killed. Multiple shots, on me. Did… did a saint exist in this horrible time to save us? Did it turn the ammo rounds inside me into blood?
Wait no. My points! I rushed to the area. 15,342 points. Ample points to eat, drink and breathe for half a year. Seems like I wasn't robbed either. Calm down, me. Let's review.
I coughed just now.
I COUGHED JUST NOW.
I'd better be careful. Someone might be tailing me.
Compared to the springy fishballs and chewable noodle, this packet of jelly is significantly unappetising.
Now where should I hide now? I'd better not go back. Guess I'd randomly dig a hole and cover it up.
Buildings exist though, but openly staying in a building is stupid. When someone scans an area, they see building, they search. Because there is a target to start.
Underground? Unlimited possibility. If you found me? I ran out of luck.
Equipment check.
1 Glock
2 Fully loaded mags
2 bottled water
1 bottle "fishball noodles"
1 fully charged robot phone
Hm? Robot phone? It only existed on the era of peace, the past 18 years I lived, the very one I used to tap on card reader. This is not a thing that should exist in this era.
Ehe. Ehhheeeehhe.
———
Phone
Something that I had not even seen during my 30+ years of hell here. Not even a fragment of it.
Servers
The only known server ever existed is to record everyone's GP, unlike my peace filled experience, it is everywhere.
Knowledge
Destroyed somewhere around WW4-5, that was some hearsay by era survivors.
Friends
Yes we do have friends, we are not idoits that believe living alone increases survival rate, but we are just wary and prepared of betrayals.
———
Back to this toy named phone.
It contained my credit card information
It is currently fully charged.
The apps installed are the same as ever…
Page 1…2…3…4....????????
I never ever recall myself ever installing this app named "Path". I wanted to give it a long press and delete it, it could be something harmful… BUT WAIT. I am missing something, how did this phone end up here? With the heart of gambler, I mustered some courage. Nervously, I touched.
App in cooldown
22:34:53
That didn't explain much.
….
Signal strength: 5/5
Provider: Moonzone
Network: 5G
Guess I am going to give mum a phone call, since I am not sure how long later I am going back, or can I even go back? 30+ years experience felt more real than 18.
I informed mum of myself being late, possibly be out a few nights. And is unable to help her buy takeaways.
I am connected to that healthy world. My words went through.
How about the world famous free online encyclopaedia?
WW5 yields no result
For WW4
Eastern Power discovered a new element, they named it as Ep.
Instead of being simply more conductive than copper, it generates electrons as if it were free.
They implemented the use before fully understanding it, like aeroplanes, it seems too beneficial.
In two years, civilization soared.
Cities lit 24/7 without bulbs.
Appliances drew energy wirelessly from Ep reactors in orbit. But planes couldn't fly across due to too much interference.(Nobody cared)
Then came the cataclysm.
The Ep reactors, both on land and in orbit, went berserk.
The skies with beautiful stars, vanished. Space trash, once an issue, was settled once and for all.
The entire land of Eastern Power, vanished.
Soil and everything melted into liquid.
Every and anything, gone.
To what extent?
If not for living witnesses, one could argue the Eastern Power had never existed at all.
Charged oceans sparked.
Global chain explosions followed.
Industrial waste flooded the seas.
Marine life fried like tempura in crude oil.
Air, water, food, oil, metals, you name it, GONE.
That year, Mother Earth danced
She shook herself with Tsunamis and Tremors.
Volcanoes erupted like fireworks, as if it is actually celebrating. To humans, it looked like a retaliation against everything we had done.
So many lands had gone. Nobody expected a Tsunami tall like a skyscraper. Anything that touches the water gets electrocuted. Disaster relief efforts are futile. Roads were inaccessible, Helicopters cannot take off, ships were sunk.
The only entities survived are those in the middle of a very very huge landmass conducting activities above ground level.
After this whole dance party. Humans decided to unite as one, gathered as much resource as possible, and launched the one and only satellite with server, purely ran on solar power.
The thing it handles? Everyone's GP.