I Tatsuki Wakamatsu am an eighteen year old high-school graduate, I played and excelled at sports throughout high-school and had a far above average education earning me a scholarship to a university in Beijing in 2 years. I had been offered the leading role of a student at the graduation but declined due to my reserved personality which had lead to me making no friends thoroughout all of high-school.
Sure, I had hung out with people but there habits and differing interest lead us astray after time.
The air cooled as the sun slipped below the clouds on my walk home after the tediously long ceremony.
I sighed looking down at the parchment in my hand, which summed up the past 14 years of my life. Was this all I am? I thought to myself as I looked up at the vast starry sky which was plainly visible at this time of night, as I breathed out my breath steamed in the cold night air. I clicked my tongue before continuing home.
I took my shoes off as entered I was greeted by my parents as well as my little brother who rushed toward me with a huge smile.
I smiled back and patted him on the head
"Congratulations big bro! Mom and dad made a huge meal so please come and enjoy!"
I nodded and let him pull me by my sleeve to the table where several servings of rice, noodles and meat were spread out.
Upon eating my parents congratulated me.
"Our son, a genius in both academics and athletics how could we not be proud."
I looked down and thought to myself 'a genius huh..."
The truth was at a young age I discovered and became obsessed with the adaptability of humankind.
Whether it be getting stronger by forming micro tears on muscle, or getting smarter through trial and error or even people who poison or nearly drown themselves to intensify their resistance to these phenomena.
This I had studied and trained relentlessly and optimally, I could not deny that I was talented but years of structuring workouts and thousands of hours of studying were the main reasons behind this.
Laziness simply disgusted me, if I could not do something because of an injury I would study day and night without rest until I fell asleep at my desk, knowing the capabilities of my body how could I not?
My train of thought was disrupted by something my parents had said
"Tatsuki? Did you hear? I know you deserve time off but we are buying you a trip to Beijing to explore the area before you go to university there."
I was surprised "do we truly have money for something like that?"
My parents laughed "we've been saving since you were born and I'm sure one day you will be able to repay us."
I nodded in response, "thank you Father, mother I will surely repay you some day."
With that the three of them chattered to each other for a while before we all realized how late it was and we headed to bed
And finally about a week later, the day arrived
"Tatsuki! Are you awake?! It's time to get going!"
I looked at my mother dumbfounded and knocked on the door behind her as I was already outside waiting for her.
She turned and smiled "oh haha, sorry about that I should have known."
Once inside the car my mother started the conversation "so sorry about your father... You know how busy he is though..."
I nodded, my father was out on business and my brother was at school hence why my mother drove me to the airport alone.
We arrived at the airport after about an hour my mom handed me some luggage and gave me a hug before I left
" Be careful, love you honey.'
I smiled " love you too mom."
Aboard the airplane I sat beside a girl slightly older then me who simply gave me a nod of greeting.
For the entire flight we did not interact. Suddenly at the very end she turned rapidly toward the window surprisingly me.
"What the..!" She glanced toward me did you see that?"
"What are you talking about?"
The girl turned back and gestured Outside frantically "Outside the window, something was, glowing?"
Thinking back I had been absorbed in my own thoughts so I did not remember any such thing.
The intercom crackled to life " hello passengers, be advised there is some mildly heavy winds outside the landing will be a little rocky."
It was indeed, the plane jolted nearly shaking me out of my seat however after about a minute we were safely on the ground.
After the process of getting off of the plane I at last stepped out into the city of Beijing, it's buildings towering towards the clouds with bright lights all around it was truly a stunning masterpiece.
I decided to find my way to my housing as it was only about 3 kilometers away from the airport.
Taking in the streets I was surprised just how different this was to my hometown.
I was jetlagged enough where I had no desire to explore further however and so just decided to settle down in my housing.
It was a not so spacious apartment with a bedroom and a bathroom. The "kitchen' consisted of a microwave and a mini fridge.
I scratched my head and shrugged plopping my self down on the bed which was at the very least, comfortable.
Looking up at the ceiling I I thought of home and that it was nice to be somewhere with opportunities and freedom even if my living space was akin to a cage.
Eventually I drifted off to sleep.
I awoke with a start
A cold feeling gripped me and I shuttered, I turned and opened my shutters to see the flashing light of an armored police truck heading down the street.
"Oh? I wonder whats-"
I was cut off as several more cars flowed down the street one of them had a loudspeaker on top of it.
I understood many languages so I could understand this easily "attention, there is military attacking this city, repeat military is attacking. flee heavily populated areas at once."
I shuttered again " on the first day? Really?"
I looked outside my door and saw neighbors evacuating the building and I decided to follow.
"Hey, what's going on? Where are we going?"
The person in front of me turned and replied "I don't know but we go to one of the shelters in times like these."
I wondered if this happened often but doubted it.
We arrived on the lower level, the people all ran in the same direction, I looked around and didn't see anything particularly amiss.
BOOM
Suddenly, a huge explosion rocked the ground and shattered glass from nearby buildings began falling. I shielded my eyes but the glass still cut several areas of my body such as my neck and shoulders.
I ran after the people, a bolt of fire shot down from the sky and raked across a nearby building, a part of it collapsed and slid into the street with a massive cracking sound.
I looked up and saw a man, burning on fire flying through the sky screaming wildly.
" ARGH! SOMEONE! HELP!"
I was astounded by this sight and followed with my whole attention.
He flailed his arms and more fire shot out melting even stone and metal of the nearby buildings.
I heard a growl and some creature whose form I couldn't make out in the darkness lunged off a building it snatched the man out of the air and bit into him.
"AHHHHHHHGHAAAAGH" the man screamed and grew even brighter liquid fire shot out from him and burned the ground. With one final scream he erupted into a massive gout of fire.
I stared in horror and the creatures silhouette became visible as it left the fire, it's skin was singed off and it steamed like a cooked meat however it's jaws and eyes were focused on only me. Gunfire sounded off from several directions around me but some nearby officers were shooting at the creature.
One of them wielded a recoilless rifle and fired it into the beasts torso. I did not stop to check if it survived and ran in the same direction as the people before me.
Screams sounded out behind me and I gritted my teeth, running even faster.
I heard a massive creak and looked to a nearby sky scraper.
My eyes widened, a beast the size of the building looked back at me it's massive eyes probing, as it moved the building groaned and screamed until if finally snapped.
Once again I turned and ran.
I heard the crash of the falling building behind me. In front of me a squadron of tanks rolled out they fired a salvo at the beast causing it to stumble back and fall, destroying another building.
Several of the smaller monsters appeared and the tanks fired destroying them but quickly they were overwhelmed by the hoard.
I kept running, the tanks were being ripped apart like tin cans.
I pleaded that this wasn't happening back home as well.
My eyes widened further as I saw an even stranger sight.
A regular man, locked in combat with a monster somehow holding it back, he swung it into a nearby building and it smashed through it.
"What on earth.." I heard another shout
A man with a staff, dressed in the garb of an ancient warrior collided with a monster, he crackled with lighting and cut the monster cleanly in two with a single strike.
As I ran I saw more of this.
'are people... Getting stronger because of this weird event?" I looked up and saw a massive rip in the sky, it wasn't glowing but simply resembled a crack on a clear piece of glass.
Countless numbers of different creatures streamed from it, it was hard to make out individual appearances but varying colours and shapes could be seen.
I ran and saw my shelter. Likely not the intended shelter, however it would do nicely.
I walked inside of the underground carpark, it went down several floors so surely-
I heard a faint growl behind me, I slowly turned and was faced with one of the beasts from earlier, they all had different shapes but all appeared reptilian and had two arms and legs. The ones before stood on hind legs and were like a 10 foot tall gorilla in shape.
This one was shaped like a cheetah and was about 7 feet long.
It blitzed forward I fell down and it flew over my head crashing into a car. It flew straight through the windshield and screamed loudly, I scrambled back to my feet however the creature smashed and ripped it's way out of the car.
It skittered towards me at ridiculous speed, however something behind me made a Zipping noise and the creature was cut in half mere moments before reaching me.
A man stepped into view, "gain power by killing huh?"
"Wha- what?" I asked
He turned to me and looked back at the air in front of him.
" Special condition... Innocence. Geez what a heartless system this is.."
I stuttered " sir do you know what's going on?'
He looked back to me " yeah, things and people from other worlds are being funneled in though that crack in the sky you saw, this seems to not be the only place it's happening but it's by far the largest. Some people from our world have awakened odd powers like me, I got this snazzy system Window."
He then smiled eerily wide " also I'm sorry for what I'm about to do, I wouldn't normally but the government has issued a command for this whole place to be nuked so I gotta get strong enough to escape anyway."
I backed up a step " what do you-" before I could even think of reacting I was killed.
A jolt of lighting instantly stopped my heart.
I collapsed to the ground, the man scratched his head for a moment and then disappeared.
A blackness consumed my vision and I was no longer Tatsuki Wakamatsu, just a lifeless corpse.