A young man in his early twenties with bruises on his face and dirty clothes was sitting in the playground with a tired expression on his face.
While the children played and couples held hands looking at their loved ones, Lorien found himself staring at the screen in front of him.
[IMMINENT EVENT - REVELATION 3:23]
Lorien transmigrated to this body approximately 5 minutes ago; the surprise wasn't much, she has read enough stories to adapt.
'But seriously, why an apocalyptic world?' Lorien wondered.
It hasn't received any system yet, so this park is the least crowded place in the city.
As for going to lock himself in his house, the truth is that the previous Lorien was a gambling addict; he was literally broke and in debt to a nearby casino.
When Lorien transmigrated to this body, it was covered in bruises in the back of the nearby casino; seeing the fragmented memories, he was able to understand the situation.
The foolish gambling addict went to gamble despite having no money by asking for a loan, but he was met with a beating and a warning before being thrown out like the trash he was.
Lorien took out her phone and saw several contacts on it: dad, mom, and little sister.
But he didn't think about going to see his current family; Lorien was actually kicked out of his house because of gambling debts he incurred on his parents.
He even sold his little sister's laptop so he could gamble; he was a real good-for-nothing. But even so, his parents still pay his rent.
'You have very good parents,' Lorien thought to himself.
So I had nowhere to go, with only a few minutes until the apocalypse starts, the best thing to do is to get together with people.
A couple of minutes passed until a screen appeared again in front of Lorien.
[Ding*]
[The global awakening has begun]
[Apocalypse in progress]
'Worldwide awakening?' Before Lorien could ask anything, the sky began to change.
Everyone stopped what they were doing as the red light covered the world.
Adults and children looked at the sky that turned blood red with strangeness and fear reflected in their eyes.
"What's going on?" asked the girl who was holding her partner's hand.
"I don't know," the bewildered boyfriend replied.
Lorien looked at the sky just as bewildered before a screen appeared in front of him.
[Ding*]
[Activating system…]
Information he hadn't had before appeared in his head with a slight pain in his temple.
Lorien looked ahead with a small smile on her face.
'System' Lorien used her thoughts to summon the system.
*********[EXCHANGE SYSTEM]*********
[Host]: [Lorien Fortune]
[Level]: [0/10]
[Power]: [0.7] – (Common Human= 1)
[Skills]: [Record ◊ ] - [True Vision ◊ ] - [Enhancement ◊ ]
[Store]: [0/10]
****************************************
Lorien understood the system quickly, as if he had been using it for a while.
He focused primarily on the skills that the system offered.
The ability of [True Sight] allowed Lorien to see the state of people and objects.
The [Record] ability is related to the system's shop, which currently has 10 slots. Lorien can use the [Record] ability to save the composition of an item and have it reflected in the shop.
On the other hand, the [Enhance] skill is the only skill that consumes natural energy stored in the system's store. It is used to enhance any target by 100%; the amount of vitality spent depends on the target and any accumulated enhancements.
The information about the skills was etched in Lorien's mind; Lorien focused on the shop, her most important resource.
Using intention in her thinking, Lorien opened the store.
****[EXCHANGE SHOP]****
[X]: []
[X]: []
[X]: []
.
.
…
…..
**********[NATURAL ENERGY: 0]*********
The system's store used a special energy called Natural Energy, but Lorien didn't yet know how to acquire it.
With nothing else to see, Lorien shut down the system and realized that everyone around her was staring at their phones with a frown.
Some had their phones to their ears, their faces showing marked impatience.
"Why is there no signal, damn it!" growled a man not far from Lorien.
Lorien took out her phone and, looking at the signal bars, realized that her signal bars were empty, which meant that everyone was out of touch.
Lorien put away her phone and went for a brisk walk into the streets.
He realized there was panic; the cars were driving fast and silent.
The shops with televisions in their windows were open, but no one was laughing or chatting. The televisions had no signal.
'At least the electricity still works,' Lorien thought.
'However, I still don't know what kind of apocalypse I'm in; for now, the priority is finding a place with food,' Lorien reflected.
As Lorien walked, she noticed that everyone had almost transparent white spots in the center of their foreheads.
Lorien looked at a girl who was leaning on her boyfriend's arms as she walked, gazing at the red sky above them all.
When Lorien focused on the spot on her forehead, a panel quickly extended.
****************
[Name]: [Amelia Ferreil]
[State]: [Fear]- [Healthy]
[Talent]: [Not Awake]
[Power]: [0.6]
[Skills]: [X]
****************
Even after the girl passed by, Lorien could still see the girl's condition.
He knew that the status would not disappear from his view until he closed the system panel.
'So that's how it is,' Lorien looked at the statistics, paying special attention to the talent statistic.
'Not everyone has it,' Lorien reflected after seeing the status of more than 20 people.
Lorien has only seen one person with the talent statistic, the girl named Amelia.
After walking for several minutes, Lorien arrived at her destination, a supermarket. Upon entering, Lorien saw that the supermarket was already crowded.
But there was still room to walk between the corridors.
"Sir, we only accept cash, there's a problem with the signs," the cashier said.
"Damn it! I'll leave you my bank card and I'll pay again, I promise, girl," said an old man.
"I'm sorry sir, I can only accept cash," the cashier replied in a friendly tone, but her eyes showed annoyance.
The old man wanted to complain more, but the people behind him began to get impatient.
"Dude, if you're not going to buy anything, step aside, I have cash," said a blond-haired boy.
"Hey old man, move aside," said a girl behind the boy.
"I'm sorry sir, but if you don't have cash I'll have to move on to the next person," said the cashier.
The man cursed and then put the shopping cart aside, choosing to leave while grumbling.
Lorien witnessed the entire drama before denying it and walking down the halls.
All the objects Lorien saw had a semi-transparent orange dot on them.
'It's time to use the [Record] ability,' thought Lorien Minetas as he wandered through the corridors.
People looked at him suspiciously, but no one stayed to stare; everyone was focused on their own business.
Lorien noticed the stares, but there was nothing he could do about it; the bruises, the unkempt beard, and the vagrant's clothes would set off alarm bells for anyone.
In the camping section, Lorien found several items: a fireman's axe, a bag of thick paper charcoal, and a thermal and waterproof tarpaulin.
On a nearby shelf were other products that caught Lorien's attention.
Portable water filter purifier , 550 Paracord rope (50 meters), Heavy-duty duct tape , Ferrocerium flint.
Lorien first touched the fireman's axe while concentrating on the orange dot on the axe and a window appeared in front of him.
[Do you want to register an item?] [Yes/No]
'Register,' Lorien said to herself.
[Name the Registered Object _________]
Lorien thought for a moment and gave the answer.
'Common Fireman's Axe'
[Registered Common Firefighter's Axe]
Lorien held the axe after completing the search, holding it from the top so as not to attract attention, and continued walking in search of more items to search.
'If I hold the axe wrong, people won't look at me with so much suspicion,' Lorien thought as she walked with the axe in her hand, holding it wrong on purpose.
Although Lorien couldn't afford the axe, it still gave him a certain sense of security, knowing that he was already in an apocalypse, but without knowing what kind.
As she walked, Lorien checked the state of the store and noticed that it had a new item.
****[EXCHANGE SHOP]****
[Common Fireman's Axe]: [10]
[]: []
[]: []
[]: []
[]: []
[]: []
**********[NATURAL ENERGY: 0]*********
He still had 9 spaces left.
Lorien then went to the bag of charcoal and searched it. Then she searched the rest of the items she considered essential until she only had 3 search slots left.
She went to the pharmacy and personal care section.
Upon arriving, he saw a lot of products, but he concentrated on finding the ones he recognized as vital.
On a shelf was the medicine she was looking for: a box of 500mg Amoxicillin . A vital medicine for preventing infections in common wounds.
After registering the medicine, Lorien went to the food section. While searching, Lorien also scanned everyone she saw, but she couldn't find another unawakened talent; no one else had the talent stats.
'Talents must be really rare,' Lorien thought.
Upon entering the food section, Lorien found what she was looking for: canned beef stew. A very rich and nutritious food.
Afterwards, Lorien went to the drinks section and found a 5L water bottle which she registered.
With that, Lorien had already filled all the slots in the store.
With the command 'System, open the exchange shop,' Lorien managed to open the shop directly.
'This is getting easier,' Lorien thought as she looked at the interchangeable items.
**** [EXCHANGE SHOP] ****
[Common Fireman's Axe]: [10]
[Charcoal (4-Kg)]: [6]
[Waterproof thermal tarpaulin]: [12]
[Portable Water Filter Purifier]: [15]
[550 Paracord Rope (50 meters)]: [5]
[High Strength Duct Tape]: [8]
[Ferrocerium Flint]: [9]
[Amoxicillin (500mg)]: [15]
[Canned Beef Stew (24 oz)]: [7]
[Mineral Water (5Lt)]: [5]
********** [NATURAL ENERGY: 0] *********
'Good, that makes me feel safer.' As Lorien thought that, shouts were heard from the entrance of the supermarket.
Lorien put the system aside and quickly went to see what was happening.
She hurried from the food aisle; the atmosphere of the supermarket had changed drastically from one moment to the next.
The murmur of nervous shopping had transformed into a chorus of high-pitched screams and disordered footsteps that echoed against the granite floor.
When Lorien arrived at the checkout area, the crowd had retreated into a human semicircle, leaving an empty space in the center.
People were recording with their phones, backing away and tripping over shopping carts, or simply staring with a mixture of bewilderment and morbid horror.
Everyone watched the fight downtown as an entertaining drama inside a supermarket.
"What's going on?" Lorien asked, still unable to enter and see what was happening beyond the circle of people.
A black-haired teenager looked at Lorien with a smile spreading across his face, as if he couldn't contain his good humor. "An old man is getting into a fight with an arrogant guy."
Lorien nodded and pushed her way through the crowd, straining her eyes.
In the middle of the circle, a somewhat comical scene was unfolding under the flickering white light of the ceiling.
The blond boy who, just minutes before, had complained arrogantly in the cash line was now lying on his back on the ground. The old man was pinning him down, pinning him to the ground.
" Let me go, old man, help me! " cried the young man with a bewildered and frightened face.
No one knew why a young man would be so afraid of an old man and how the old man had the strength to keep the young man immobilized.
The old man was covered in clothes; Lorien noticed that his heel was exposed, his pants were torn in that area, and his skin was pale and full of black veins.
The murmurs in the surrounding area were illogical; some were laughing, others were taking pictures, one was even inciting the old man to hit the blond young man.
Within 5 seconds of Lorien's arrival, the old man's skin had turned a sickly ashen gray, streaked with black veins that branched out down his neck.
His eyes, unseen by the public, were completely bloodshot, devoid of any trace of humanity.
He made a dry clicking sound with his jaw, a sound very similar to that of a hungry animal, while ignoring the desperate blows that the blond man was delivering to his chest.
People began to notice the old man's abnormal condition, lowering their phones now focused on the branching veins they could see in the old man's pale skin.
" Get him off me! Get this crazy old man off me, Ayame!" the blond man managed to shout, his voice breaking with panic, seeking his girlfriend's help.
The girl, paralyzed a few meters away, regained her composure upon hearing her boyfriend's voice; without hesitation, the girl ran and tried to give the old man a Spartan kick to get him away from her boyfriend.
However, before the kick could reach the old man, he raised his hand holding the girl's shoe without moving from the impact.
The girl didn't have time to do much; the old man pulled her foot, causing her to fall.
The old man quickly looked at the boy beneath him, opening his mouth so wide that he tore the corner of his lips in the process, and then he fell down violently.
A wet, heart-rending sound rippled through the supermarket, silencing it in the process.
The old man's teeth sank straight into the side of the blond boy's neck. The young man's scream was instantly drowned out by a gurgle of blood.
Lorien watched with trembling hands as the attacker pulled back forcefully, tearing off a thick piece of flesh and skin.