It took a minute for the mysterious darkness that had plunged the world into shadow to disappear, allowing the sun to resume its position in the sky.
Its golden light spread across the chaos that now bathed the world below.
Once peaceful streets were now filled with people running and screaming as different kinds of monsters chased them.
Unstoppable traffic jams choked every road, causing countless accidents, fires, and deaths.
The internet and electricity went offline, plunging the world into even deeper chaos as no one could communicate.
Some of them would have called on the government and security agencies at the very beginning of it all.
But the government and the military were useless.
Only someone like Desmond, who had experienced the entire apocalypse, knew that not even the government nor the military with their advanced weapons could end the chaos.
Their weapons would only be useful in the first few chapters of the apocalypse. Afterward, even nuclear weapons would be useless.
===
Currently, the students in the classroom struggled against their adversaries.
None of them had even had the opportunity to use their awakened fate yet.
Or rather, none of them had accepted the reality of their situation.
It was difficult.
Of course, who would be able to believe in such a short amount of time that they could now use supernatural powers to combat horrors they had only seen in video games and movies? It was simply unimaginable.
Only one of them had managed to activate his, and that had been by accident.
At the moment, he stared at his handiwork and at the string of texts that appeared in front of him, panicking.
[You've slayed X1 zombie. You've gained 10 EXP]
"W-what just happened?" his voice trembled as he asked. "I-I did that?"
"The card you picked," Desmond answered blankly. Though he would have liked to give a long reply, at this moment, something else was more important.
"I need your help," he said, placing his hand on Rowan's shoulder. "We have to lock the door and prevent more monsters from entering the classroom for at least a minute."
Rowan took about three seconds to process what he said.
Although he was pretty confused and disturbed, especially by how calm Desmond was, he still went with him.
The two of them quickly made their way to the entrance of the classroom.
Desmond shut the door, and Rowan pushed some nearby desks and chairs to blockade it, making it difficult for anyone else to get in.
After the door was properly shut, both of them observed the classroom for a moment.
"Stay here. Make sure no one enters," Desmond warned.
Then he jogged toward the goblin feasting on the flesh of a student it had slain. The goblin was the one that had transformed from Mr. Maxwell.
"Blood Fist," he activated his skill.
A layer of misty blood-red glow quickly enveloped his fist, taking on the appearance of a gauntlet. He felt a rush of energy surge through his arm.
This should work, he thought.
He arrived in front of the goblin, whose entire focus was on its meal, neglecting its surroundings.
He delivered a swift punch directly at its neck.
The goblin let out a low cry as it reached its hands to the wounded area.
But Desmond hadn't completed his ordeal. He delivered a clean kick to its leg, causing it to kneel, and followed up with another on its back, forcing it to fall to the ground. The goblin's head hit a nearby desk as it went down.
It was helpless.
It could not see its assaulter, nor could it fight back with its claws and fangs pressed to the ground.
Pressing it down, Desmond delivered four quick punches, and on the fifth, he triggered the critical effect.
His fist glowed even brighter for a short second as a stronger energy enveloped it, and without mercy, he dealt the final punch.
The destructive power of the blow made the goblin's head splatter into a puddle of bones and flesh. It died immediately.
[You've slayed X1 goblin. You've gained 15 EXP]
Desmond stared at the misty red gauntlet on his fist and grinned.
With this skill alone, I am several times better than I was at this point in my last life, he thought.
Unfortunately, he had insufficient time to build on those memories.
He still had some monsters to take care of.
He did a quick headcount of monsters; there were five zombies remaining.
Though the other students were fighting them with all their might, without their skills and the right kind of attack, they were useless.
So he acted. He pulled out the arm of the goblin he had just slain and latched onto his next target, which was only a desk away from him.
Using the goblin's arm, he smashed its skull, killing it and gaining ten experience points.
Then he moved on to two zombies who, luckily, were in the same spot, assaulting three frightened boys who fought back with their textbooks.
Brilliantly utilizing knowledge from his past life, Blood Fist, and the arm of a goblin, he took care of all the horrors.
The class was silent after the last zombie fell to the ground.
The students that survived stared at the slain monsters with traumatized gazes.
They held their breaths.
None of them had ever seen this much blood, and even those who had could not fathom the sight of dead monsters, especially knowing they were once friends they had interacted with.
At the front of the classroom, Desmond stood and observed their expressions with a cold look on his face while his thoughts raced.
If he hadn't acted and things had gone the way they should have, only five students would have remained in this classroom, including himself and Rowan.
However, this time around, he could not let such a thing repeat itself.
With my knowledge, I can ensure their survival and most important of all, their growth and loyalty. With more loyal and powerful allies by my side, the third chapter of the apocalypse would not be as deadly to survive.
He replayed the severity of the third chapter of the apocalypse in his last life in his mind.
The faces of the people he had lost.
The wound that made him weak during the entirety of the fourth chapter and almost ended his life.
He could not allow those things to repeat themselves.