By 9:10am - 10 minutes into Mr. Benson's lesson, Valen had attained drooping eyelids, gained literally zero comprehension from the lecture and was already regretting his life choices for attending school today.
Although graduation was tomorrow and he didn't have to attend these auxiliary subjects about basic survival, a weird and strange impulse made him come today.
Perhaps it was to reminisce or experience "learning" one last time before officially leaving the circle of education. After all, he had no money to pursue a higher education.
Ever since he was 16, it had been him and his younger sister living alone as his parents had died during a plane crash incident. Fortunately, they had enough wealth to make the siblings live a happy life - if only his uncles and aunt hadn't taken a massive portion of it.
Now, all they had left could barely make them scrape a living and Valen could only rely on a scholarship program to waltz through high school. As for the thought of a higher education, he didn't entertain it.
So, fortunately or unfortunately, here he was, experiencing "learning" one more time. Regardless, it wasn't only him who had come.
About 92% of his classmates were all in class and similarly, they wore bored expressions on their faces while they secretly whispered to each other about some football games to pass time. Valen could only hear snippets of their conversations.
However, Mr. Benson didn't seem to care about the utterly disinterested look in his students' eyes as he kept on ranting about how to survive in wildernesses, Icelands and even when one was stranded in a desert - like they were going to need it anyway.
Rolling his eyes internally, Valen took out an old, thick book from his bag. The cover read: "Apocalypse of the Crimson Forces".
This book was gotten from an old man he had helped cross the road on his way to school this morning.
Valen still remembered his slight incredulity at that time as he had asked the man: "I only helped you cross the road. What do I need such an ancient book for? Even if you wanted to thank me, I don't need this, okay? I'm already literate enough."
Of course the last sentence hadn't been said aloud but the preceeding statement had done its job by portraying his absolute disinterest in this book.
Even so, the old man merely smiled and responded; "I dug up this book in my farm. It seems like some rare treasure, but sadly, I can't read it. If I hadn't seen you, I would've anyways sent this to the antique shop next street."
Valen remembered having stood still in dumbfounded amazement as the old man had just used him get rid of a useless book. It wasn't like he could get much money from selling this old thing anyways, so it was useless.
Valen shook his head as he came back to his senses, staring at the thick book before him. He hadn't planned on reading this, but anything would be better than these boring survival courses, right?
Opening the book and unleashing into the air a small cloud of dust, Valen tilted his head slightly while letting out a low-sounding cough.
The contents of the first page immediately came to sight after he waved off the dust. It was written in some kind of font which exuded an ancient feeling.
Although Valen could be considered an avid reader of Webnovels and fictional tales, this was actually his first time experiencing such a set of clear and rich understanding of words and this shocked him a bit.
'Just what kind of book is this?'
With his interest piqued, all background noise in the surroundings gradually faded as he focused on the rows of tiny words engraved on on the aged page.
"I still remember that day. It all started with the flash of an incredibly bright white light for the tale of desolation to begin…"
"Ouch!" Valen clutched his head in pain as he tore his attention aware from the book. He immediately glanced to the side where a lean youth dressed in a white T-shirt and blue jeans was seated.
Seeing the complacent smirk on the youth's face, Valen immediately knew the pain earlier had a relation to him.
"Pay attention in the classroom, dimwit. Can't you realise that the Tutor is talking to you?" The youth in the white T-shirt spoke out in a tone dripping with apparent disdain.
Valen frowned. He knew this youth as Philix, the most annoying and infuriating student in Year 13B(B here stands for Boys. Year 13 is divided into two with Boys and Girls separated into different classes).
Even so, Valen didn't respond to him and instead turned to Mr. Benson.
Mr. Benson glared back with a smile that was not a smile plastered on his face. Valen let out an internal sigh as he knew that he was in for it.
Others in the classroom stared at Valen with pitying gazes as they knew that, although Mr. Benson wouldn't mind students being distracted in his lesson, he very much disliked them being unable to answer his question. Such questions, however, were mostly thrown at those who were distracted.
So in a way, it was a trap and Valen fell right into it.
Valen waited wore a bittersweet smile as he watched Mr. Benson inhale. He knew that a never-ending tirade usually lasting ten minutes or more was about to be unleashed.
Just as everyone was silently anticipating Valen's misery with Mr. Benson's mouth already half open, time seemed to slow down so much that the whizzing fly had paused mid-air, the jotting pen had stopped in its track, the Air Conditioning in the room slowed down its release of cold air and the laughing people had paused.
Everything seemed as though someone had pressed the "pause button". At this particular moment in time, a scene in which, forgetting all of humanity, those within this room would never forget slowly unravelled itself in all its appalling, murderous glory.
An extremely thick, white beam of light shot past the sky and following that was an incredible "bang".
The brain was sent into shutdown mode, tables were lifted into the air and smashed back down, screams were silenced out even when everyone could make out you were shouting.
Following that loud bang was an eerie silence when no one could speak at all and then there was the slight twisting of air, gradually forming into a massive spinning black vortex.
At this moment, everyone regained control over their body, time began to flow once more and the screams were heard.
"RUN!"
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
"DOOMSDAY! DOOMSDAY HAS ARRIVED!!!"
"MUM! DAD! SAVE ME~"
"AAHHHHHHH~"
…
All sorts of cries were heard as everyone made an effort to dash for the exit of the classroom. However, they realised, to their horror and amazement, that they weren't moving forward but backward.
Chairs, chalkboard and even the roof of the school was ripped off by the overwhelming suction force and flew into went into the vortex.
Valen hurriedly grabbed onto the "Apocalypse of the Crimson Forces" just as the school building and everyone within was sucked into the spinning vortex.
As he felt the powerful force on his body, Valen's mind buzzed with endless possibilities, but one thought dominated his mind.
'My sister… she's at home all… alone. Who'd take care of her… now that I'm… gone?"
Valen could barely cling to his consciousness as he entered the vortex. A feeling of weightlessness overwhelmed him and just as he was about to collapse, blue rows of words appeared before his eyes, seeming to glow in and out of existence, directly striking at his mind.
Barely making out a few words, Valen finally collapsed.
[Prerequisite has been met.]
[Initialing System…]