"RUMMMMBBBELLLLLLLLLL"
The tremor hit without warning, the building started to shake, dust trickled from the ceiling, lights flickered and for a moment everyone fell into a lull, paralyzed, as if still comprehending what just happened.
Then screams erupted.
Orion snapped out of his thoughts and gripped his table struggling to stay upright. Due to his huge body, agility and balance had never been his strong suit, and the worst thing he could do in an emergency was to fall down.
Then, just as quickly as it began, the quake passed. As everything settled down and Orion dared to breathe again.
There came light.
A blinding unnatural light filled the world entering the room through the windows.
Orion flinched, closing his eyes, that breath caught in his throat, but it was useless. The light was brighter than staring directly into the sun, it pierced through his eyelids boring into his mind crawling deeper and deeper seemingly with a will of its own.
Shatter!
With a shattering sound in his head, a barrier seemed to be broken by the light.
A pricing headache assaulted Orion... Pain rippled through his skull like knives of molten metal. But he wasn't alone.
Every soul in the hospital and every living and nonliving thing on the planet was experiencing the same agonizing moment, being bathed by the blinding white light.
But Orion or anyone else had no mind to pay heed to things around them at this moment, as they were busy screaming their minds off at the time.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH"
The most primal of screams escaped from Orion's mouth. He felt his eyes bubbling, boiling and his skin searing. His bones vibrated, his muscles twisted as the light seemed to be drilling deeper into his body bringing with it excruciating pain. For a few minutes, the whole of the earth was united again at this moment the first time after the war screaming and writhing in pain at the same time.
After what seemed like an eternity Orion came to his senses breathing heavily, his back drenched in sweat, blood trickling from his eyes, clawing for his water bottle and drinking from it like a man dying from thirst.
After gathering his bearings somewhat, he looked around, his vision a slight red due to the blood. The classroom, a mess. Desks overturned. Bodies sprawled seemingly unconscious.
"What... huff...was that... huff"
He croaked with horror dripping from his face.
"Wait...Is that... blood"
Orion thought, finding some of his unconscious classmates with blood seeping from their eyes, noses, and ears.
"It seems the light affected some people more than others"
guessed Orion amidst his horror thanking his lucky stars he was amongst the lucky few, and to all his years of struggle which made him stronger mentally giving him at least some control over himself during the light incident.
"They aren't... dead, are they? ..." His voice shook as he questioned seemingly no one, averting his gaze still not wanting to accept the reality in front of him.
BOOOOOOM.
BOOOOM.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM.
A couple of blast sounds snapped Orion out of his reverie attracting his focus back to the window. "What the hell... Did the war start over or is the world truly ending" Orion muttered in a grave voice looking at the fires and the blasts in the distance, airplanes crashing down, smoke rising in thick black plumes.
[Bzz....bzztt]
In that moment Orion felt as if he heard something.
A sound not in his ears. in his mind.
[Connecting.... Connection successful]
" What the hell? Am I hallucinating, or is it the lasting effect of the light? "
Orion spun around, looking for the source.
[The system has arrived on planet Earth]
A monotonous robotic voice neither male nor female echoed through the minds of all living beings on the planet.
[Planet Earth has officially entered its path to evolution, scanning ambient energy.... Scan complete. The energy detected on planet Earth is recorded as "MANA".]
[Congratulations residents of Earth. You have successfully taken the first step towards evolution. The system is a record of existence and is there to facilitate your evolution]
[The final planetary transformation commences in ten minutes]
[Due to sudden Mana infusion, abilities have been awakened in qualifying individuals, and all the residents of planet Earth have been granted a starter item, reflecting the records of their lives.]
[You can now view your status window]
Orion blinked.
"...The system?... Mana? "
"Is it like the one from games?" He thought confused and overwhelmed, questioning everything.
It wasn't just him now that some time had passed; the other students were coming to their senses equally confused about the strange entity that just talked to them, finding it difficult to accept the reality.
People fear what they can't understand.
"Aaahhhhhhhh!"
A scream ripped through the room jolting people awake. Looking over they saw a boy backing away from the body of another student while crying and screaming.
"He's... he's dead! He's dead!!" He shouted.
Realizing what the boy had said everyone panicked looking towards the other bodies lying motionless.
"Ahhhhhhh- nononono wake up... AMY… Wake up"
"Noooooo"
"Ahhh WHAT IS HAPPENING"
"HELP... PLEASE SOMEONE HELP"
"Someone call the doctors we can still save them HURRY!"
In just a moment Chaos spread everywhere, everyone panicking and screaming at the same time and not just here screams could be heard from other parts of the hospital too. Orion's mind spun but one thought broke through the noise.
Mom.
Orion as soon as he came to his senses ignoring everything else picked up his phone and dialed his mother's number
"Please, please… Pick up mom"
"Beeeeeeeep"
But all he could hear was a static beep sound indicating the signal was down.
" Damn it" Orion gravely muttered through gritted teeth wanting to slam his phone on the table but reason held him back, during an emergency breaking your phone due to an impulse of emotions would be stupid.
If he wants to find and save his mom, he would need to be smart about it.
" Hang in there Mom I'm coming for you"
He whispered with determination, ignoring the very real possibility of his mom already being dead.
"huuuuuu"
Taking several deep breaths Orion forced himself to calm down and think back on the entity's words. "Yes, it said something about viewing the status window... Huh… " As soon as he uttered those words a light blue screen opened in front of him.
{Orion Blake
Race: Human
Level: 0
Title: None
Class: None
HP: 110
MP: 20
Strength: 12 / Agility: 4 / Endurance: 11 / Stamina: 10 / Mana: 2 / Spirit: 10/
Ability: Gluttony (SSS)
Skills: None}