A bus was cramped full of passengers, while a man in his 30s was playing on his phone with a grin on his face; he was playing a martial arts game.
When suddenly an earthquake happens, the driver of the bus is startled by the sudden violent shaking. Suddenly a car appears in front of the bus. The bus driver forcefully presses the brake of the bus, trying to dodge the collision, and the bus suddenly flips due to the sudden impact by pressing the brake forcefully while turning left.
Many passengers were injured; some lost their lives.
A rescue team was able to arrive in time to help; the guy who was playing his phone was also injured. He had some bruises and cuts on his face, and it seems like one of his legs was sprained. Fortunately, he was in the middle of the bus when the accident happened.
When suddenly a loud scream from a woman echoed.
While other people outside of the bus ran away from their location.
The man gets up, dragging his sprained leg, to check what it is.
A large portal-like opening appears in the sky, thousands of kilometers in size, and countless creatures pour out.
When suddenly a huge dragon-like creature appeared, its head was so massive, like bigger than a 50-story building, towering over a mountain, and the wingspan was like hundreds of kilometers.
The dragon-like creature dropped from the sky with a huge turn, followed by a violent gust of wind.
When suddenly a giant bird almost the size of a truck descends from the sky with a long beak and menacing aura, the bird is clearly bloodthirsty; it has a long neck and small frame but a very big wingspan, a species he has never seen before.
When it descends, a powerful gust of wind follows. This bird's target is the injured woman who's screaming in the stretcher.
The rescue team who's helping them ran away a few minutes ago, leaving the woman on the ground strapped in a stretcher. It opened its massive mouth, and it swallowed the woman.
The guy realized that he's fucked up. He tried to run outside from the broken window; he climbed over it silently while dragging his right leg that doesn't work.
When suddenly another woman who's also injured is screaming for help.
"Please don't leave me. Help, sir, please help."
The man looked back, and he saw the giant bird walk towards him, and its eyes were bloody red with smoke coming out from its nose.
The monster bird noticed the woman who's lying on the back of the bus.
Using its beak, it smashes the head of the woman to silence her.
And then swallow the woman in one bite.
The guy was clearly terrified.
The bird suddenly moves faster while he's running, dragging his broken leg.
The bird was easily able to catch up, and using its sword-like beak, it punctured and made a hole in his stomach, while blood poured out from his mouth.
The blood dripped from the man's body, and the man lost consciousness.
When suddenly he woke up gasping for air, terrified from his experience.
"I'm alive. Did I just get eaten by that bird? How come I'm still breathing?"
He looks at his hand. "Huh, why am I so skinny? It looks like I'm in the body of a teenager."
Scanning through the place where he's at, he was lying on the wooden board with some hay, and the floor is made of unfinished dirt; the ceiling seems like dirt as well. He notices what he's wearing—it's clothes made of tree bark?
He furrowed his brows. "What's happening here? Why am I wearing clothes straight from the Stone Age?"
He noticed that the place was so dark, only illuminated by a faint light that came from a small stone hanging in the middle of the place where he was at.
Suddenly, memories came flooding in.
The man experienced an intense headache.
I remember it now. My name is Arlo Henry, child of Annette Henry and Ted Henry.
This is serious;it seems I was reincarnated in a terrible world.
This place is called the Kalzak tribe, living inside a man-made cave with a population of almost 360 . In this world people were living in seclusion, hiding from the outside world. The outside world is roaming with monsters, mutated beasts, and demons.
Based on my memories, just a day ago a single hobgoblin was able to sneak in and find our place, and more than a hundred lives perished. The goblin massacred the survivors in this cave, and the 13 awakened warriors of the cave fought the hobgoblin, and 12 of them died. Only 1 warrior survived with terrible injuries; the one who survived was Ted Henry, my father.
This is a very messed-up place. Why did I have to be born in this godforsaken world? Isn't a goblin a weak monster? In games goblins can even be killed by ordinary humans. How come a single goblin cannot be stopped by 300+ people?
He walked outside of the burrow; outside was worse. A trace of an intense fight was still visible, and some injured people were being treated, and the corpses were being piled up.
People's faces are full of terror.
Most of them have trauma from what just happened.
Someone spoke up, "That's Ars, son of Annette and Ted. How come you were able to walk?"
Another woman spoke up, "I see that you were directly hit by the goblin. It's a miracle that you survived, thanks to God."
A man who's around in his 50s walks towards Ars. "Ars, now that your father is severely injured, you will be the temporary leader of our tribe. No one else should claim it; you are the rightful heir unless you refuse this."
Ars looks at the pitiful state of the people of their tribe, people who have no house, are clearly malnourished, and whose eyes lose all the hope they have.
"Uncle Dan, bring me to my father." The man nods and walks towards the end of the cave. There's another hole there. There's a small entrance.
The old man named Dan escorts Ars into the end of the tunnel, where there's a burrow where a man in his mid-30s, blonde with blue eyes, who looks European, was lying on wood. His body was full of cuts and bruises; one of this man's arms was even amputated.
The man slowly tilted his head and looked towards Ars. "Son, come here," he said with a weak, shaking voice.
While raising his hand slowly, holding an iron knife and a sparkling green crystal, he reached out to give it to Ars.
"Take this iron knife and the magic stone, the loot from the goblin. Absorb this stone and become awakened. Lead our tribesmen and go outside to forage some food. I'm giving you all the authority as a leader from now on. Command our people and lead them to safety. Take care of your mom while I'm focused on healing myself."
Things happened so fast, leaving no time for Ars to digest all the things that were happening, clearly showing on his face his confusion as to how he became a chieftain.
Ars thinks it through as a human who lives on Earth, and he was also a civil engineer. He knows that his skills that he honed on Earth will definitely be helpful, and if he abandons these people, they will surely not be able to survive now that there are no awakened warriors who will support them.
"Father, rest assured I will do my best to protect the tribe."
Many onlookers listen to it; they all know Ars isn't fit to be a leader—he's just a kid who's not even awakened, and even if he gets awakened after using the goblin stones, a 16-year-old kid is still not experienced enough to go outside and forage for food.
But after all the previous chieftain said it, and all of them who are not awakened are not even fit to speak with the awakened; they are all just burdens to awakened people getting fed for free from the hard work of Gatherers.