"Get the fuck up."
Aren groaned, rolling onto his side, muscles screaming, lungs tasting iron, and muttered, "Yeah, yeah, give me a second."
"You've got two seconds," the voice snapped, flat, sharp, impatient in a way only someone who had seen a thousand failures could manage. "One more and I start dragging your ass myself."
Aren pushed himself upright, ignoring the dull ache threading through his back and legs. "Dragging me? Really? Fantastic. Just the welcome committee I needed today."
The officer didn't answer, just tapped at a device on his wrist, red lights blinking. "Name?"
"…Aren."
The device beeped, nothing registered. Figures. Aren flexed his fingers and muttered, "Of course. Why wouldn't this be fucked?"
A low rumble threaded through the walls, subtle but undeniable. The lights flickered, the floor trembled. The air thickened, almost alive, and Aren's chest tightened instinctively, not with fear, but with the sharp thrill that came when the world leaned in and actually noticed you.
"Emergency broadcast," the officer muttered, voice tight. "Global. Seismic anomalies, dimensional fractures, atmospheric distortions. Everywhere. Same message."
Aren exhaled, dry, humorless. "…Ragnarok?"
The officer's eyes didn't blink. "Ragnarok."
"Of course," Aren muttered. "Why the fuck would it be anything else?"
Another tremor, sharper this time, rolling through concrete, steel, and the dust on the ceiling. He leaned against the wall, letting his mind take in the impossible sight outside the window: the sky split with jagged veins of red light, pulsing slowly like a heartbeat, and silhouettes beyond comprehension moving beneath it. Shapes massive enough to make the horizon quake, deliberate, aware, indifferent.
"Shit," Aren muttered under his breath. "Yeah, this is new."
The officer swore, gripping his weapon, but Aren didn't wait. The world was already moving without permission, and waiting would only get him killed. Pain hit him next, sudden, sharp, ripping through his chest and shoulders like the world itself was punching him through space. His knees buckled, the air thickened, and vision blurred.
Then darkness.
Not unconsciousness. Not sleep. Darkness alive, layered, aware, threading into his thoughts before his body even realized he had one.
[Human designation confirmed.]
"…Fantastic. Totally hallucinating," he muttered.
[Error detected.]
[Ragnarok System initializing.]
Aren felt limits bending, thresholds rewriting, reality itself pulling apart at the edges and reforming around him. Pain sharpened into awareness, precision in every nerve, every cell, every atom humming with potential he couldn't fully comprehend yet.
A panel appeared, translucent, glowing faintly before his vision:
[System Panel – Ragnarok]
Name: Aren
Level: 1
Classification: Survivor
Health: 100/100
Mana: 50/50
Strength: 5
Agility: 6
Endurance: 5
Intelligence: 7
Abilities: None
Status Effects: None
"…Well, that's convenient," Aren muttered. His voice was flat, detached, but beneath it, a spark he hadn't felt in years. Something he could act on. Something that made the absurdity of this moment feel…manageable.
[Objective Added: Survive. Grow. Interfere with the gods' plans.]
The darkness peeled away, replaced by black stone beneath his feet. The sky burned in reds and oranges, ash thick, iron sharp in the air. Shapes moved in the distance, massive, deliberate, terrifying in scale, rolling tremors underfoot like living heartbeats.
Another panel flickered:
[Level Up Available – 1 Point]
Distribute Attribute Points.
Strength +0 | Agility +0 | Endurance +0 | Intelligence +1
Aren smirked. "…Of course intelligence gets the bonus first. Why wouldn't it?" He selected it, watching the numbers shift, feeling a subtle clarity sharpen his mind, a razor edge to his perception.
The air pulsed, heavy with awareness. The horizon moved as if breathing, responding to him, testing him, acknowledging that he existed now.
"Alright," he muttered. "Let's see how badly this world wants me dead."
[System Update – New Ability Unlocked]
Name: Survival Instinct
Type: Passive
Effect: Heightened awareness of threats, minor predictive insight, automatic minor reflexive boosts in combat.
Aren raised a hand, flexing, testing the effect. A faint shimmer pulsed across his skin. Nothing flashy, just…a subtle hum of presence. Enough to make him feel alive. Enough to make him think: if Ragnarok was going to destroy the world, he would at least survive long enough to make it pay.
The massive shapes on the horizon moved again. Step after step, slow, deliberate. Each one a challenge, a promise, a reminder that nothing was guaranteed. The system pinged quietly in his vision, listing possible objectives:
[Optional Quest – Recon the Horizon]
Objective: Identify major threats in visible range.
Reward: EXP +10, Unlock potential attribute.
"…Yeah, that's not creepy at all," Aren muttered. He adjusted, feeling his body respond to the ambient energy, instincts sharpening. If the world was going to throw apocalypse at him, he would catch it, twist it, and survive.
The first tremor hit again, stronger. Dust fell. Black stone cracked beneath his feet. He rolled forward, landing in a crouch, heart hammering. The panel pulsed, alerting him:
[Threat Detected – Massive Entity]
Classification: Godly Presence
Distance: Unknown
He grinned, bitter and dry. "…Of course. And they think I'm nothing."
He didn't wait. Movement was survival. Breath measured, eyes scanning, mind calculating. The first step in Ragnarok wasn't about heroics, it was about existing, about noticing, about reacting faster than the world expected.
And Aren moved.
The ground cracked beneath him as he sprinted toward cover, system humming in his vision, guiding, informing, awakening. He could feel growth already, tiny, almost imperceptible—but enough to make him aware that he was no longer the same Aren who had stumbled through a collapsing world minutes ago.
[Level Up – 1 Point Earned]
[Survival Instinct Improved]
The horizon shifted. Shadows moved faster, aware now, acknowledging his presence. He smirked, letting the wind whip his hair across his face. "…Alright. Bring it the fuck on."
Because from this moment, Aren wasn't just surviving. He was a problem.
***
The black stone beneath his boots cracked with every step, fissures like veins spreading toward the horizon. Heat radiated up from them, not enough to burn, but enough to remind him that nothing in this world played by normal rules. He squinted, letting his vision track the shadows that moved beyond the red-scorched skyline, shapes so massive they could swallow cities, yet deliberate, slow, methodical in a way that made the chaos around them feel almost polite.
[System Notification]
New Objective: Explore immediate area.
Reward: EXP +15, Unlock unknown attribute potential.
Aren exhaled, dry and sharp. "…Yeah, exploration. Nothing creepy about a battlefield for gods, right?" His feet shifted instinctively, muscles coiling, mind running calculations on the fly—speed, distance, risk factors. The system pulsed faintly in his vision, subtle but insistent, feeding him data, nudging him toward actions without demanding them.
Every instinct told him to run. Every logical part of his mind said to observe first. But instinct and logic were two different things in this world, Aren reminded himself. And if he survived Ragnarok this far, he needed both.
The panel flickered again, translucent and glowing like a ghost hovering at the edge of his sight:
[Attributes]
Strength: 5
Agility: 6
Endurance: 5
Intelligence: 8
Survival Instinct: Level 2
Health: 100/100
Mana: 50/50
Abilities: Survival Instinct (Passive, Active Use: Analyze Danger)
He flexed his fingers, feeling a subtle vibration of potential. Nothing flashy, no glowing aura, just awareness. Awareness enough to know that something was moving behind those crimson clouds, something that could end him in one sweep if he made a mistake.
"Alright, Aren," he muttered, voice tight, low, carrying that dry humor he kept for situations like this, "…time to see if the world regrets noticing me."
A faint hum echoed from the ground, a vibration not from his own heartbeat, but something…external. Massive. Alive. Calculated. And then, like a ripple through still water, the fissures in the black stone shifted, rolling outward in jagged waves toward him.
[Threat Detected – Entity Class: Lesser God]
[Estimated Power Level: ???]
He gritted his teeth, flexing his fists. The system pulsed again:
[Combat Option Unlocked – Quick Assessment]
Effect: Scan entity for weakness, estimate damage potential.
Aren smirked faintly. "…Guess it's showtime."
The first pulse of heat slammed into him like a punch to the chest. He dove to the side instinctively, not thinking, just reacting. The ground exploded where he had been standing, shards of black stone slicing the air, dust and sparks raining down. And through it all, the entity watched, patient, deliberate, almost curious.
[Survival Instinct Activated – Enhanced Reflexes Engaged]
Time slowed in his perception, not literally, but sharply, the system feeding him micro-predictions of falling debris, trajectories of attacks, even wind shifts. He rolled, punched off a jagged stone shard, and launched himself up onto a higher ledge, panting, heart hammering.
The panel flickered in his vision:
Level 1 -> Level 2
EXP Gained: 30
Attribute Points Earned: 2
Aren's lips curled into a dry grin. "…Level two. Not bad for my first five minutes in a world where everything wants to kill me." He selected the points immediately: Strength +1 | Agility +1, feeling his muscles tighten, reflexes sharpen, a subtle awareness that his body was no longer just reacting—it was anticipating.
Shadows moved again across the horizon. Faster this time. The fissures in the black stone widened. The air vibrated with some unseen pressure. And yet, he felt…not fear. Not in the usual sense. Excitement, yes. Awareness, yes. The thrill of survival when the world's odds were stacked against him, and every instinct, every calculation, every small advantage mattered.
"…Alright, you massive fucker," Aren muttered under his breath, fists clenched. "Show me what you've got."
The first strike landed, a wave of force that pulverized the stone near him. He jumped, rolled, landed, and felt the system humming, alive, feeding him suggestions, nudging his awareness, letting him feel small pulses of movement from the enemy before it happened.
[New Ability Available – Tactical Reflexes]
Effect: Allows minor prediction of attacks based on observed patterns.
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Aren smirked faintly again. "…Thank you, Ragnarok." He muttered, not joking. Every new layer, every new skill, every new insight was survival. It was power. It was a way forward. And if the gods thought they could sweep him aside, they had no idea he was already adapting.
The fissures widened again. The massive entity shifted, moving closer, deliberate, crushing distance between them in ways no mortal should survive. The panel flashed:
[Quest Update – Initial Encounter]
Objective: Survive first engagement with Godly Entity.
Reward: 50 EXP, Unlock first combat skill.
Aren took a deep breath, flexing, feeling the hum of Survival Instinct, feeling Tactical Reflexes already sharpening his movements. "…You want to fuck with me?" he said quietly. "…You've picked the wrong guy."
And then he moved, faster than the fissures could reach, faster than the entity expected, and for the first time in this war-torn world, he felt the thrill of not just surviving, but fighting back.
Because from here, there was no going back. Every step, every movement, every skill he unlocked, every point he earned, it all counted. He wasn't just a survivor anymore. He was a problem.
And Ragnarok had only just begun.
***
[End Of Chapter 1]
Thanks for reading!♥️