"We are moving on to the main news of this week. The Western part of the European Commonwealth has been without electricity for three days now. The unrest on the streets has become more widespread, including cases of civilian fatalities."
The voice of the radio announcer echoed from a small radio in a tiny room. It sounded distorted and was not particularly pleasant to listen to, but despite that, the news were still terrifying. The radio was the only thing that could somewhat brighten up the gray days of Asan and his friend Laszlo.
In the light of a small kerosene lamp, Asan examined himself in the mirror, like a girl who had just bought a new dress and was already preparing to show it off to all her friends. In a way, it was true.
A scrawny guy was intently assessing how his newly acquired shirt fit him; he had saved up for it for a couple of months, and with a knowing look, he adjusted the collar.
"What if they think I'm not serious and I end up looking like a fool?" Ashan muttered anxiously, still nervously tugging at the collar of his shirt.
This was his eighteenth birthday, but more importantly, his first job interview. In 2042, it was tough for orphans to find any decent work, no matter how hard they tried. Usually, everyone ended up either in the army or as street sweepers. But he had a chance! A chance to get out of that damned village where he had lived his whole life without seeing the outside world.
The careful examination of his shirt was interrupted by the familiar, nauseating smell of tobacco that filled the entire room.
His face slightly twisted, and panic immediately began to brew in his heart.
"Laszlo, motherfucker! I told you not to smoke in here anymore! Especially today!" Asan barked, turning his gaze to the fair-haired kid sitting on the shabby couch.
"Oh, come on, you won't smell it. The stink won't have time to soak into your treasure," Laszlo replied with a smirk, emphasizing how much Asan cherished his shirt.
Laszlo was a rather large-looking guy at nineteen years old. Despite his terrible smoking habit, he worked out, claiming that this balanced out his health issues. He had light hair and a slightly broken nose. Due to his smoking, his voice was so deep it could be mistaken for a midnight thunderclap.
Many girls called his voice "velvety," though Asan didn't quite understand the meaning of this word.
"Throw away your damned cigarette right now! Ugh! Disgusting! How... How can you smoke this crap? Did you pick it up off the trash?" Asan continued, quickly covering his nose with his fingers.
Laszlo, in turn, merely shrugged, deciding not to react to this. No, even more so! With a proud expression on his face, he brought the cigarette to his lips and inhaled the toxin. He did this deliberately, enjoying the slight irritation it caused his friend, as they would be able to laugh about it together in the future.
Suddenly, Laszlo's face took on a very sad look, and the cigarette no longer seemed like something pleasant for relaxation.
"Better tell me, have you heard the news?" Laszlo said rather quietly, as if forcing himself to speak.
Asan looked at Laszlo in confusion, not understanding what he was talking about.
Noticing his gaze, Laszlo just sighed heavily, like a horse that had been running across the plain all day.
"They say war is getting closer. Our side doesn't want to sign a non-aggression pact with America at all. And now Russia and China are starting to fight each other too. I'm telling you, war is coming any minute now!"
Asan merely snorted and looked down on his friend disdainfully.
"What's it got to do with you? So what if war comes? You'd better start looking for work, you're already 19, and by 20 they'll kick you out of here. Think about where you'll find a place to live and food to eat, not whether there will be a war. Big guys have always loved fighting each other, playing with the lives of ordinary people like pawns on a chessboard. Nothing new or surprising you said." Asan sat down on the couch next to his friend.
He of course understood that these words wouldn't cool Laszlo's enthusiasm, but still, for orphans like them, these were too serious problems that they had no power to solve.
On Laszlo's face could be read cold fury. He was a big fan of talking about politics and arguing over it, so he always responded to such statements with aggression.
"You an idiot or what?! Do you think who exactly will be the pawns in the front lines? Us! Us, Asan! You and me, as well as many other orphans will become the first bargaining chips in the games of these freaks! Do you think they pity us with you? Not a chance! The news will say we're just volunteers bravely going to defend our homeland!"
Laszlo barely held back from shouting.
All Asan could do was nod at his friend. Joining the army would be his fate too.
Draft age starts at twenty-one, and Asan had a full three years in reserve to find himself a great job and settle into some company so they wouldn't send him off to war. At least that was his plan. He also understood why Laszlo was so nervous and irritable. It wasn't like he hadn't tried to get a job, it's just... Orphans aren't exactly welcomed anywhere unless it's shady work, or worse.
"Listen, Las. Let's not talk about this today, okay? It's my birthday, plus an interview closer to two o'clock. I really don't want to go there in a bad mood. So it's clear that all of this is complete shit we'll have to wriggle out of. But... somehow we'll manage, right?"
Laszlo clearly snorted disapprovingly, folding his arms into a steeple.
His leg was twitching nervously, indicating that he was about to explode with frustration. But after just a minute, he calmed down and continued smoking his cigarette butt.
"You're right... As you know, besides all this, the 'Weather' is terrible. I feel like it's weighing on everyone. Ronald is a clear example..." — He said the last part almost in a whisper, with sadness in his voice.
The mood was still slightly ruined. Mentioning one of their friends who had recently committed suicide wasn't the best idea.
Asan needed fresh air, not only to calm down but also to ventilate the room from the smell of tobacco. He was still worried that the smoke would soak into his shirt, which could cause him to be rejected at the interview. Approaching the small window, he first looked up at the sky.
"It's the same today..." — He said sadly.
Instead of the usual blue sky, he saw dark clouds, like tar, enveloping the entire planet for a month now. It was precisely because of them that all these problems started. A whole month had passed since the earth had been plunged into darkness, rendering the solar panels that supplied most of the European Union with electricity useless. Food shortages also began. Deprived almost entirely of sunlight, plants quickly withered.
"I haven't seen the sun in a month... When will it finally appear?" muttered Asan to himself, looking at the bare trees around their orphanage complex.
Once, the village of Jänschwalde-Ost was an unremarkable little settlement. But in 2026, it was bought out by a charitable company that built ant-like complexes housing orphans like Asan and Laszlo.
At first, it seemed that the project was genuinely charitable, but after a change in leadership, this settlement turned into something like a prison for those living inside.
At least, this is how the settlement was perceived by Asan himself. He believed that life outside, in big cities, was much better and more vibrant than this place with its corrupt leadership. And today he had a chance to escape from the hell he had been living in for many years, to see the world he had dreamed of for so many nights.
With a bitter taste in his mouth, he flung open the small window. Cold air rushed into the room, filling it with freshness and quickly dispelling the sour smell of tobacco. For the last time, he looked up at the dark sky.
Just as he was about to turn away from the window, he... saw something. Something in the sky, strange, as if a bolt of lightning had flashed.
The monotonous voice of the girl on the radio, which had been broadcasting propaganda until then, suddenly became very noisy.
"Hey, what the hell is going on?" Laszlo exclaimed, picking up the small radio and hitting it with his palm.
A worrying feeling arose in Asan's heart. Perhaps due to the cold air, or something else, but his body was covered in goosebumps that rippled through his arms.
"Asan, looks like the radio's dead. I guess I already know where you're gonna spend your first paycheck, heh-heh! Asan?"
His friend spoke with a light chuckle, looking at the motionless figure of the boy in the shirt.
"What... What the fuck is this?" Asan muttered to himself, watching as a whirlwind resembling a hurricane descended from the sky to the ground.
The wind howling in the room grew much stronger. The sight of the descending whirlwind made Asan's heart beat faster and faster. A cold bead of sweat appeared on his forehead.
Fear paralyzed his movements, causing him to watch the slowly descending whirlwind with worried eyes.
"Close..."
The whirlwind seemed to grow bigger and bigger in his eyes.
"Close that damned window, Asan!" Laszlo shouted, snapping the boy out of it.
As soon as the boy turned his gaze to the anxious Laszlo and stopped looking at the whirlwind, his composure returned. But when he tried to close the small window, he noticed that little... lines? were starting to fly out of the whirlwind.
In the next moment, two such lines flew into the window and pierced through both boys.
There was no pain, but there was something else.
[Choose a class within 10 seconds, or else punishment will follow]
[Star Eat…]
Completely stunned, Asan saw a transparent board with strange symbols unlike any alphabet he knew. Yet somehow, he understood everything written on it.
The timer started its countdown, and for some reason, Asan's inner voice was screaming at him to choose this "Class" faster, or else it would be bad.
"What is this shi...?" Laszlo began to say.
"Choose! Faster! Anything!" Asan shouted at him and pointed to the first sign he could reach.
In a second, all the signs disappeared... and hell began.