I stare in awe at the destruction happening outside. The sky was a strange shade of crimson and looked like glass with cracks appearing all over its surface. Some sort of dark liquid was seeping through the gaps. I watched as the substance dripped down and transformed into various monsters and behemoths. Abruptly, the sky shattered and the whole world went dark. Before my startled emotion could fully manifest itself, the world went back to “normal”. The sky resumed its previous shade of red but the liquid and the cracks mysteriously vanished. I puzzled over this for a second but ultimately decided to exit the school.

  I hummed a little tune as I skipped past wrecked buildings and crazed riots. My school is right next to a freeway with shops and the such dotting the sides. Looks like with the sudden apocalypse and the breakdown of order, people are degrading to their primal instincts. I shake my head. Crazy people. I started whistling as I observed the scenery. Even as they’re getting hunted by the monsters, they still find time to loot a shop. These idiots. In this new world, what value would such items hold?

  A jewelry store passed my eye. I stopped, went in, and took a few of their wares. If the old world was gone, then it would be very important to preserve our cultural heritage, no? I walked down the freeway, absentmindedly ripping apart the level five wolves that keep throwing themselves at me. It was then that I noticed a new species of monsters. Zombies. I thought it was strange back then when I saw a dude bend down and rip open a screaming guy’s chest. I had passed it off as depravity in its most extreme cases. I stared for a sec at all the zombies walking around. Then I started laughing. Couldn’t help it. I realized that they were all overweight. Made sense I guess...in a mortifying way. I stayed on the freeway wiping out the zombies which strayed a little too close when I suddenly noticed a small, suspicious hill in the middle of the road. I stared at it for a second and then silently skirted around. Once I put some distance between us, I started sprinting across the freeway. Too late. I glanced behind me as a powerful roar shook the skies. A dragon extracted itself from the hill and stretched its wings. The thing was brown in color and its wings spanned the length of several buses. I squinted my eyes and a small indicator flashed. “Lesser Earth Drake Lvl ???”

  I went back to running. While being buffeted by the gales from its wings, I noticed a few idiots up ahead cornering a girl on the highway. They were currently in a state of shock as they stare at the thing chasing me. Without pausing, I threw the dudes at the dragon, watching it tear them to pieces. I turned around intending to throw the girl too but she was already gone. Sighing, I continued running, taking a ramp onto the highway. Amongst the scattered, abandoned cars, I saw an oil tanker. An evil smile crept onto my face and I hid behind a dark green SUV some distance away. The drake lept onto the highway and barreled through the cars as well as the oil tanker. But the expected outcome didn’t happen. Other than snarling at the foul liquid sullying its scales, the dragon largely ignored the tanker and continued its search. I frowned. Did the movies lie to me? Wait a sec. Engine. Fire. Fire! I facepalmed myself. Then as quietly as possible searched for a car with a lighter or box of matches. Finding a BIC lighter in an abandoned Ford, I quickly smashed my hand through the passenger window, grabbed it, and threw it at the oil spill. S**t! I forgot that I had to light the damn thing. Before I could lament on my idiocy, the drake turned around to face me, its tail coincidentally smashing the tanker’s engine. I barely had time to put my hands up before an inferno swallowed up the dragon midst its angry roars. A huge heat wave then swept over me. I quickly crawled behind a car and waited out the fire.

  After a while, I cautiously glanced over the hood of the car. The blackened asphalt had a crater in it and the surrounding cars were reduced to scrap metal and ash. In the middle of the crater, the drake was laying on its side, still breathing but barely. The indicator had its health at 1%. Just enough for the finishing blow. The drake looked at me, a low growl in its throat. I took out my weapon- the scissors that had slayed four minotaurs and about to end the life of a dragon- and shoved it into the thing’s eye. It let out a weak whimper of pain, but I persisted. Again and again and again. Finally, the beast died and a few items flashed into existence amidst the dings signifying another rise in my power.

  Well, sweet! Looks like I get a nice powerup with no effort at all. Haha, who was it that said “no pain, no gain”? Just look at me! These idiots always believe in the “equivalent exchange” system and “karma”. Well, I can say for a fact that that crap doesn’t exist. I watched excitedly as the countdown approached zero. 3...2...1...0

  Then I screamed as I felt my body tear itself apart. It felt like my nerves were on fire. A split second of this, and I blacked out from the pain. My last thought was karma’s a b*tch.

  *Ding*

  The sounds of the system chimes woke me up. As soon as it did though, I wish it didn’t. I felt like sh*t. My whole body felt extremely sore like I had gone through a meat grinder and patched back up by a group of grade-schoolers. Grade-schoolers with very rudimentary knowledge of the human anatomy. Groaning, I attempted to use the side of a car to pick myself up. My eyes widened as my hand crumpled the metal like it was paper and passed through the car with no resistance. Unfortunately, as my weight was relying on the hand, my head followed through shortly after and slammed through the floor of the car into the cement. Before I blacked out- again- I heard the sound of the road cracking.

  I didn’t know how long I was out this time, but the sky was dark by the time I woke up. I was about to use the same car to support myself again before I remembered what had happened the last time I tried. Groggily, I got up by myself and groaned as my bones cracked as if it was my first time using them. I quickly checked my messages:

  I stared. What the h*ll did they mean by “somehow”? After thinking for a little bit, I brushed it off and brought up the stat screen.

  I started grinning. Then I leapt up and laughed with joy...which quickly became a scream of terror as I found myself almost 30 feet in the air. I screamed the whole way down until I went through the ground leaving a human shaped hole on the cement. Groaning, I slowly pulled myself out of my hole. At least, digging graves would become much easier. I started laughing again at the morbid thought as I pictured myself jumping to make a grave. It was then that I realized my health percentage didn’t even go down a fraction of a point. Holy sh*t. I quickly splurged all 300 unused stat points into the combined stats.

  Glancing back at where the dragon disappeared, I noticed a few items. Sweet, drops. A weird-looking sword, a black book, and a shiny, obsidian ring.

  I was shocked. Suddenly, I felt something ominous- something powerful- descending towards this planet- to my location. Quickly I shoved the ring onto my finger as an archaic voice echoed out to all four corners of the Earth, GIVE IT TO ME! The earth trembled. I KNOW YOU ARE HERE! Suddenly, a being of pure light descended from the sky. The world dimmed in front of its radiance. I felt the thing scan through this entire area before roaring and turning around, flying into the distance. I smirked. Suck it. It’s mine now. I looked at the ring on my finger. How the hell did this shit drop from a lesser mob like this? Why am I so lucky? Whatever.

  Standing up, I wondered what I should do. The most emotionally appealing option according to normal people right now would be to reunite with my parents. However, my father is some bigshot in the military and my mother is head of forensics. They’re definitely in control of some base somewhere and sending out patrols to look for me. Hm, that won’t do. I’m not going to give up my newfound freedom.

  I started walking on the freeway again when I quickly noticed something wrong. The game’s sensitivity is too dang high. My body felt too fast for my brain to process. Like, I expect my foot to move to one spot and as soon as the thought was thought, my foot was already there. It’s very disorienting. Could intellect and dexterity affect my reaction speed? That would suck. I’m stuck in an overpowered body that I can’t even fully utilize because I think too slowly. I need to hunt down some speed type monsters and [Devourer] their stats. With this goal in mind, I continued on my merry journey in an apocalyptic world.