It was a warm morning. The bakery had just opened, and the rich aroma of fresh bread and croissants drifted through the air.
Only a handful of people were awake this early, some hurrying to work, others lured in by the promise of warm donuts.
In the corner of the bakery, a youth with messy golden hair sat chomping on a slice of pineapple pizza.
"Did you hear? The gates are acting up again. Some of them are even opening inside the cities."
"Yeah, I heard. It's getting scary, man, if this keeps up, who knows what'll happen."
The youth's ears twitched at the sound of the two pedestrians passing by. With a deep voice, he muttered, "Gates, huh, I'd almost forgotten they even existed." He shook his head.
Back in 2019, the world was shaken by a disaster unlike any before.
Nearly two billion people vanished without a trace. And as if that weren't enough, dimensional rifts, later known as gates, began opening across the globe.
From these gates poured ferocious monsters, turning an already panicked world into a chaotic wasteland.
All weapons proved essentially useless against them. Machine guns, bazookas, nothing could even put a dent in the monsters.
In desperation, world leaders gathered and made a drastic decision: to unleash nuclear weapons.
At first, the strategy seemed effective. But then the gates expanded even further, and with them came monsters that could only be imagined in myths: Dragons, Sirens, Typhon, Fenrir, Jörmungandr, Leviathan and many more.
One by one, they appeared, each more terrifying than the last. Their might was so overwhelming that it made the world tremble beneath their feet.
Humanity fell into despair. Even from nuclear sites, mutated monsters began to surface. But then, something unexpected happened. The people who had vanished, presumed lost forever, returned.
They came armed with powerful weapons, capable of killing the monsters one by one, slaughtering them without mercy.
"Hmph. Those high-and-mighty Awakeners think they're so great for taking my Olympic career." The youth dunked the pizza box straight into the trash and stalked off.
He caught his reflection in a nearby car mirror.
Unkempt, long golden hair. Blue eyes. A thin beard tracing his chin. A lean frame with a slightly protruding stomach.
On paper he might have looked like the ideal handsome man, but his messy, homeless appearance told a different story.
"Calm down, Eryke. Calm, need to save up to buy a house," he muttered as he walked.
"If I could become an Awakener, everything would be solved. And that bastard Water Emperor, I'd show him…"
[Congratulations, you have been chosen as an Awakener! You have ten minutes before you will be teleported to another world. Best of luck!]
"Huh!?"
Eryke froze, staring in disbelief at the glowing blue panel hovering before his eyes.
His voice came out louder than intended, drawing curious glances from the passersby.
"Heh… haha." He forced an awkward smile, then quickly slipped away, weaving through the streets until he reached a run-down apartment block.
Without hesitation, he dug a set of rusty keys from his coat pocket, unlocked the ground-floor door, and slipped inside, greeted by the heavy silence of his room.
It took several long moments for his racing thoughts to settle. When they finally did, he headed straight into the kitchen.
At the counter, he grabbed a glass and drank deeply, gulping the water in desperate, uneven swallows.
Out of the two billion people who had disappeared, only a hundred thousand had survived, a mere 0.005% chance of survival.
For a tense five minutes, Eryke remained rooted in place, his eyes vacant as they stared blankly at the ceiling.
"Damn it, although I said I wanted to be an Awakener but my chance of survival is negligent…"
He took a deep, steadying breath, focusing. Then his gaze shifted forward, and in his mind, he called out. Instantly, the blue panel materialized before him.
[Name: Eryke
Title: None
Talent (SSS-class): Clone
Skill: Cloning allows the user to clone himself, they are regarded as a special entity of their own and can even allow you to enter gate to another world (use: 1)]
[Destiny Points: 0]
[Shop]
"Eh!?" His eyes widened in shock. He took another deep breath, trying to steady himself.
"I heard there are only two SSS-class Awakeners in America... and now I'm the…"
He clenched his fist, a simmering, unknown hatred burning in his eyes.
Quickly, Eryke tried to summon his clone, envisioning his own image in a semi-transparent form. His thoughts poured into it, delving deep into his consciousness as he willed the power to manifest.
Puff!
A strange sound echoed as a semi-transparent figure emerged from his body, materializing into a perfect replica of him, healthier and unbroken.
[Eryke(Clone)
Trait:
Skill:
"Hmm?"
Eryke stared at the panel. He could infer a lot from it, but his curiosity shifted elsewhere. An idea began to take shape in his mind.
With only five minutes left before the teleportation, he knew time was running out.
Lost in thought, he suddenly saw himself… no, his original self?
His knees buckled, and he collapsed to the floor, his body wracked with pain.
"This… this…"
The memories overwhelmed him.
The consciousness of two perspectives, two people, was jarring, sending his thoughts spiraling into chaos. He couldn't focus.
Both of them writhed on the floor, crying out as the mental strain became unbearable.
[4:00]
[1:00]
[0:03]
[0:02]
In the midst of the turmoil, Eryke(Clone) snapped his eyes open. His finger shot forward, accepting the teleportation just before he passed out, collapsing to the ground.
For a time, his world was blank, empty, dark, and disorienting. Then, a foul smell assaulted his nose, thick and unmistakable.
Groggy, Eryke's clone woke beneath a clear sky, the sharp scent of cow dung lingering nearby.
He blinked in confusion, taking in the unfamiliar landscape, a dense forest stretching out in every direction.
"Eh, did it really work?"
He tried to focus, gathering his fractured consciousness. Slowly, a mental image of his unconscious state formed in his mind, and his awareness gradually returned to the main Eryke.
In the next moment, his vision snapped back to his room, where he lay on the ground in a daze.
"This is too hard. Ahhhh—"
The overwhelming sensations surged through him again, veins bulging on his forehead as his body struggled to process everything. Instinctively, he parted his parched lips and gasped out:
"Cancel, cancel."
[Congratulations, you are the fastest Awakener to return from another world. You have gained the title:
[Your Destiny Points have increased by one million.]
[Hidden Quest completed! You have not earned a single Destiny Points in your traveled world. You have gained access to a gate back to the same world.]