Five years ago, the world ended.
We all know the usual drill that happens in so many manhwas and web novels, a trope we all love, and even when overused, we never get tired of it. Yeah, I loved them too, but I never imagined it would become my reality.
It was all a joke at first, an asteroid heading toward Earth. Social media blew up with different theories about how the world would end, what would happen if aliens came, and everyone in the comment sections joked about how they would kick alien butt. Some even made AI videos of humans harassing aliens or capturing and breeding them.
Well, that was exactly what happened, at least the first part. Aliens appeared the moment the asteroid landed in different cities across the world, destroying lives and causing floods. Humanity wasn't even given the chance to recover from the asteroid's catastrophe before these monstrous creatures began attacking, killing humans, multiplying, and turning ordinary animals into monsters.
The internet, once humanity's haven, soon lost signal, and power grids shut down. Humanity was on the brink of destruction when the System appeared, a blue floating screen like in manhwas, a panel that gave humans the ability to fight back against these demons.
Although not everyone awakened, the few who did were enough to fight back against the monsters and create safe zones for humans, at least to protect themselves.
As for me… I had no one.
You could say I'm the unluckiest person in the world. My parents died when I was born, and fortunately for me, I was adopted by an amazing family, a couple who couldn't have children and adopted me and my four adopted siblings, giving us more love than we deserved.
On the fateful day the world ended, my mom and dad had traveled from Korea to Manchester for a meeting. My older sister went to meet her boyfriend in Incheon, my immediate older sister attended a fashion week in Paris, my younger brother went for a football tryout in Spain, and my youngest sister went on a school trip to Tsushima Island, leaving me all alone in our large apartment complex.
As if cursed by fate, all the tenants who rented the other apartments were also out. And at the time all this happened, I had my headphones on, gooning even though it was NNN. Because I was so caught up, I didn't notice when the entire world blazed red, or the screams from outside, or the countless people fleeing our district in Seoul.
After my two-hour session, when I stepped out onto the balcony, I was greeted by a ruined world. No one was around. Monsters that could only be seen in video games roamed the streets. Cars were overturned, buildings burned, and corpses littered the roads. Only our house stood unscathed amidst it all.
Soon, I learned about the end of the world and the beginning of the Awakened before the internet was completely shut down.
It's been five years since then. I still haven't awakened or seen another human being. My communication skills are now almost nonexistent. I'm going mad, and I've even forgotten what another human looks like.
My life is hell... yet one thing keeps me alive — the faint hope that my family might still be out there.