In a small room in what was once a tiny village, two people were sitting and discussing things. They looked different on the outside, but inside they felt the same. Both were stunned by the sudden appearance of text before their faces.
"What the hell is this?" — Both said in unison, as if following a movie script.
Before Asan's face were transparent tablets, each displaying text of different content. One tablet told about his achievement in killing a Ronnie, or at least someone who looked like him. The second tablet spoke of another achievement, that the guy had improved by leveling up, though it meant nothing to him at the moment, but reminded him of what he had seen during his gaming sessions at the internet cafe. The last one, however, was completely incomprehensible.
"Global task…" — Muttered Asan aloud, and on cue, the signs in front of him changed.
[Global Task: Any human must reach level 20.]
[Description: For billions of years, it has been developing, witnessing the birth and fall of countless things. No one really knows what it is, but everyone knows that with its arrival, the life of every being changes. Now, the planet known as "Earth" must face its test. In order to earn the right to live and prove the dominance of their race, humans need to show what they are capable of.]
The thoughts were varied. Who was referred to by "It"? System? If so, why does It need anything proven? Could it be that System is actually responsible for what's happening around us right now?
"Asan, what are you reading over there? Do you also have text about some level increase?" — Asked Laszlo, noticing how the guy's eyes quickly scanned the transparent sign.
First of all, it became clear that the sign could not be seen by another person.
"No... Try saying global task. Another sign just popped up for me."
Without further questions, Laszlo repeated the phrase and started reading the content of the task himself. Both were silent for several minutes, pondering what it all meant. There were many questions, but answers also lay within the description itself. At least judging by the description, this calamity affected not only their settlement but the entire earth. Second, it was also obvious that the chaos around them was caused by System herself. But what was unclear... What did the system need all this for? And who was she?
"So? Any thoughts?" Asan suddenly broke the silence, looking at Laszlo in the face.
He was still catching his breath after the battle, drops of blood-mixed sweat mercilessly running down his body, but he didn't seem too injured.
"What's there to think about? The Masons."
Asan was quite taken aback by this answer. Masons? Yeah, conspiracy theories come in all shapes and sizes, but Asan seriously doubted that they could be behind it. And there's no proof either.
"Come on, man isn't capable of such nonsense, especially not in '42. Well... I guess. If this is biological warfare, how do you explain those flying signs in front of our faces?"
"Something like a virus?" Laszlo responded with a smirk, somewhat easing the tense atmosphere. Though his smile didn't last long.
Laszlo remained himself even in such a situation. He always had been. But even if the situation was total shit – with his awful sense of humor, he could cheer people up, at least convince them that if he's joking, then life is worth living. But questions still lingered.
"Maybe if we say the content of the other signs, they'll change too?" Laszlo suggested an interesting idea.
It's amazing that he figured this out.
Both again said "Level" in sync. Naturally, this was the most interesting thing for them in the current situation. The word spoke for itself, especially when it had increased.
In front of Asan, the plaque didn't change but rather a new one popped up with a ton of different information, half of which he almost immediately understood, while the other half not so much.
[Class – Star Eater].
[Mark – inactive].
[Level - 1].
[Level-up window – 1 skill point available].
[Points available for distribution – 5 ]
[1st rank stage].
The name of the class – "Star Eater" – immediately caught his eye. Asan couldn't recall ever eating something so far removed from him before. Although there hadn't been any of them in the sky recently, maybe he suddenly became a nightwalker and ate them then?
"This is certainly cool being the Master of Thunder, but I haven't gotten to shoot lightning bolts from my hands yet. Do you have some kind of Asan?" said Laszlo, who had also just read his class name for the first time.
"Yeah, nothing much, I'm just eating stars while I sleep. I'm a Star Eater," replied the guy.
Unfortunately, there were now more questions than before. What did his class mean? And what was that mark about? The level was clear enough. Next up was the skill tree window. Asan tried thinking about how he referred to it, and lo and behold, the screen changed, displaying new text.
[Choose Path: Magic, Aura, Martial Arts, Craftsmanship, Divinity (Unavailable without active mark)].
Four of them glowed on the small monitor, indicating they were available for selection. But one was bright red, with a message next to it explaining why it couldn't be chosen.
Magic…
"Really?" — Surprised, the guy even said aloud what had most impressed him.
Magic has always been popular in human folklore throughout history. Witches who, during the Middle Ages, lured people with their dark magic, various mythical gods capable of raising oceans into the sky with a wave of their hand. Not to mention movies, TV shows, books, and games. Magic—though it didn't exist until now—everyone knew about it.
Laszlo, however, looked at his friend in confusion, already standing on his feet. He decided not to distract Asan from examining the signs and instead deal with the urgent matter of the wounds. There was no talk of bandages or peroxide to disinfect them, but there was his torn T-shirt hanging off him like a rag. It would have to do as a makeshift bandage.
After taking it off, he tore it into pieces and first of all bandaged his hands, occasionally glancing at Asan, who was still looking at the tablets.
But the mention of magic also surprised him. If they had something so powerful, then such monsters as Ronnie would be nothing to them. Although he had no idea what kind of magic they would have.
Meanwhile, Asan was already thoroughly studying the branch of magic. When he opened it, all the tablets in front of him disappeared, or rather completely changed. As he understood it, each one corresponded to a different type of magic, even the text hinted at this.
[Darkness] [Gravity] [Time] [Space].
Finally, something made sense. Obviously, Darkness is darkness, Gravity is gravity, and so on. But the question was which one to choose.
He saw that when he hovered his finger over each cell, a -1 hung above it, indicating the loss of his single ability point. He wanted to know what he would get for his investment, but just like in real life – any investment carries the risk of not paying off.
Deciding to leave such a cool thing as "Magic" for later, he mentally returned to his previous choice and now looked at the aura. Here, he was completely clueless about what it was and what it was for. What could Aura possibly mean? Something that surrounds a person?
Finally, he tore his gaze away from the labels to ask his friend if he knew anything. His friend had noticed something unusual on his back. While he stood there bandaging wounds sustained in battle, unlike Asan who had only gotten a few bruises that would fade with time, there was a fully black tattoo running along his spine.
"Didn't know you were a convict, Las," said Asan, which caught his friend's attention.
The other looked at him in confusion, as if he had lost his mind, and asked a reasonable question.
"What? What are you talking about?"
Laszlo asked him with a touch of skepticism.
"There's a tattoo along your spine. Thought I wouldn't notice?"
Laszlo's face showed only surprise. Now Asan was surprised too, since he hadn't expected this kind of reaction from his friend.
"Are you out of your mind? Did you hit your head really hard when Ronnie was beating you up?"
Laszlo asked without any sarcasm, genuinely concerned about his friend's state of mind, now that he was seeing tattoos where there shouldn't be any.
Not finding a better answer, Asan picked up a nearby glass shard from the floor and told Laszlo to turn around so he could see his back in the reflection.
Though the glass wasn't suited for being a mirror since it wasn't meant for that purpose, Laszlo still managed to see his back.
"This... What the hell is this? What's on my back?!" Laszlo, greatly surprised, eyes wide, commented on what he saw in the reflection.
A mark... That word immediately came to mind.
"Hey, did your tablets mention anything about you having a mark?" Asan asked an anxious question.
"Yeah, they did mention it. So what? Where the fuck did this damn tattoo come from?!" Laszlo, visibly shaken, replied.
Nodding to himself, Asan seemed to understand something. He looked at his own body where a torn shirt hung off like a rag. Without much thought, he took it off. Unlike Laszlo, whose "mark" was on his spine, Asan saw a tattoo in the shape of a stain on his right shoulder.
Laszlo, seeing this, turned slightly pale.
"Is it the same thing with you too? What is it?" his friend asked in a frightened voice.
"The hell if I know, let me think about it…" The guy brought a finger to his chin and started rubbing it.
He opened the tree of abilities and saw the divinity branch that required an activated mark. This immediately answered the pressing Laszlo question.
"It's related to our leveling up. It says that as long as the mark isn't active, the divinity branch is blocked. Don't even ask, I have no idea how to activate it," Asan replied, noticing that his friend was about to ask him another question.
Laszlo could only sigh and shrug, returning to bandaging his wounds.
"By the way, take a look out the window. I'm sure after this, your question about what we should do will disappear," Laszlo suddenly said in a nervous voice.
Asan, raising an eyebrow, looked at his friend but didn't resist and did as he was asked. Quite rightly so.
Beyond the broken window lay the once familiar green forest, which now barely resembled itself, as all the trees were charred. Due to the lack of leaves, he saw something that filled him with horror. On the ground, near their anthill, in the forest, everywhere.
There were corpses. Corpses of people who had lived with them in the anthills, in other blocks. But the worst thing was that next to each corpse stood a small crowd of creatures resembling Ronnie.
The answer on what exactly needed to be done came to him quickly. They needed to leave the settlement as fast as possible.