Ed was in deep shit and he knew it.

His back touched the cold brick wall of a dead end alley as he faced down a trio of small red demons. Goblins, the humans had taken to calling them.

They looked similar enough to the goblins from human fantasies, but had leathery red skin instead of the mucus green that the creatures were mostly portrayed with.

The world had ended a month ago and he had been scavenging a local convenience store for some food when they had found him.

Swearing, he’d dropped the box of candy bars he'd been rejoicing over and had almost reflexively bashed in the head of the one that'd found him. But by then there were three more goblins who'd poked their heads around the aisle and cackled gleefully as he'd made a run for it. He'd dropped the club in the ensuing rush over giant piles of rubble and rusted dumpsters.

Now, Ed was weaponless, panting for breath, and cornered.

Ed tried to maintain his calm. One of his father’s favorite Korean idioms to quote had been.

‘Even in the maws of the tiger, keep your wits about you and you will find a way.’

His father had then proceeded to beat the snot out of him under the pretext of it being ‘training’ him in whatever martial arts he’d been going through a phase with.

Still. Thanks to his 'training' and previous encounters with small groups of goblins such as these in the past month, Ed knew he could take the goblins if he could catch them off guard. He shrunk into the corner, making himself smaller and pretending to shake while catching his breath. A picture of the perfect prey.

The first goblin, it's angry red face twisted in to a terrifying visage, leaped forward and stabbed towards Ed with a dagger made from some glinting red crystal and a golden pommel. It was the nicest weapon he’d seen any goblin carry.

Ed leaped forward, surprising the goblin into a flinch and letting the dagger pass harmlessly through a sliver of space between his arm and torso. He got the move just right and must have tweaked the goblin's elbow, because it dropped the dagger in pain.

Still clinching the goblin's arm, Ed grabbed the back of it’s neck with his free hand and brought his knee smashing into the goblin's face, snapping back it’s head with the force of his kick. The first goblin fell backwards, blood flying in the air, as the other two leaped in from both sides.

He ran at the one on his left, snatching up the crystal dagger from the ground and crashing shoulder first into the smaller creature. The goblins were strong, but they were smaller and lighter than humans. Ed used this to his full advantage and ran about ten steps while half holding the goblin, grabbed it’s neck and smashed it against the end of the alley. A quick stab to it’s neck and chest stopped the goblin’s struggling. Shit, maybe he would live yet.

Ed whirled around, ready to find the third goblin just behind him, only to find that it was lying on the ground, twitching slowly as grey matter leaked from the remnants of it’s head. A severely smashed in head.

“Not bad.”

A tall girl with sharp eyes and jet black hair in a ponytail stood over the goblin, a stone axe hoisted over her shoulder. She wore tattered clothes that definitely looked like they'd been worn for years. She had likely jumped down from the wall of the alley and smashed it’s head in on her way down.

Ed caught his breathe, eyeing the girl warily. She was young, but he had seen humans of all ages and color kill each other over nothing in the past month.

“Thanks for the help,” he said, after a moment of hesitation.

“Nah, I think you had it,” she responded, small smile playing upon her lips.

“Name’s Noel.”

“Ed.”

Noel grunted in acknowledgement.

Not much of a talker. Which was fine. Ed hadn't talked to a lot of people in the past month himself either, and his voice was rusty.

“So… Why did you ‘help’ me then?”

“More and more demons are roaming around. Even lone dogs like us are gonna need someone else to watch our backs,” she said, eyeing Ed.

"And you seemed like you could handle yourself."

Ed considered what Noel was saying. She seemed fairly capable of handling herself too, though he suspected most of the people who couldn't had all gotten themselves killed and eaten in the aftermath of the rifts.

She was still looking at him, waiting for his response when Ed’s arm suddenly whipped out and threw out a flash of red.

She started at the sudden movement, and had brought her axe up in a defensive posture when she heard a thud behind her.

The first goblin Ed had kneed in the face, now with missing teeth and a dagger in it’s throat, lay on the ground and with blood gurgling out of it’s mouth.

“Kind of like that, huh?”

Ed smarted with a vicious grin. He'd been trained mostly in unarmed combat, but he was athletic enough to pull off simple tricks like the one he just had. Most of the time.

Noel let out a small chortle and then gulped.

“Uh, yeah. Kind of like that,” she said.

“All right. We should get out of here and talk a bit more about it though. Other demons might have heard the squabble,” Ed said, walking over and wrenching out the blood red dagger. He had lost his club, but had gained a beautiful new piece of weaponry.

Noel was right, Ed thought, as he led her to the apartment building he’d been hiding out in. He had noticed more and more groups of goblins in the past week or two ever since he’d made his way to this part of town in search of food and shelter.

He wasn’t entirely sure whether rifts were still opening up, but they had still been opening periodically the last time he had still had a TV. The last time anybody on Earth had had a TV.

The first rifts had been small, small enough that nothing much larger than a human could get through. It had been humanoids, little red-skinned horrors that looked similar enough to goblins and the more muscular hulking beasts that looked like orcs that people had taken to calling them just that. Goblins and orcs weren’t impossibly difficult to kill with modern weaponry, and so humanity had managed to quarantine the rifts as they began to appear all around the world for the first few days.

Then the rifts that had been appearing all over the world had gotten bigger, and with them came not only beasts who shrugged off bullets and regenerated limbs in minutes, but an influx of heavy miasma that rusted most man-made metals.

The miasma, even more than the demons, had spelled the end of humanity. It degraded almost all products of technology, along with most foodstuffs, taking away all of humanity’s advantages and any hope of defending themselves over the demons.

A month after the first rift, demons lurked the ruined skeletons of cities all over the world while humanity’s remnants scraped by in the shadows. A few sky-scrapers remained visible in the skyline, but with their metal skeletons weakened by the miasma, it was only a matter of time before they crumbled under their own weight or got in the way of another territorial squabble between some of the larger demons. Rubble and carnage littered the streets.

Ed supposed he should have been thankful. He’d heard that the more sparsely populated suburbs and rural countryside were now a no-man’s land where demons and miasma mutated wildlife roamed freely. Here in the city at least, they could hide amongst the rubble and scrap a living in the shadows.

It had been a hard month, and Ed had had to things he wasn’t too proud of. Steal, of course. He had seen people getting mauled by demons, or even other humans, but had slunk away in the shadows instead of helping them. There weren't any large demons in the city, or even especially dangerous mutated animals, but he wasn’t delusional enough to think that he could continue to survive by himself for much longer.

He’d had to walk away from some repugnant situations, refusing to put himself in danger for others. He had been a lot more impulsive and a happy-go lucky kind of guy before the rift happened, but had since learned that his practical joker attitude would need to be dialed back a bit before it got him killed.

In his opinion, the degradation of foodstuffs was worse than losing guns and electronics, as it pitted humans against each other in fights to the death over food. Some of them had taken to eating demons, but Ed had not wanted to risk that. He'd been right. The people who ate demonflesh seemed to die shortly after or turn into crazed beasts, driven by bloodlust.

Luckily, Ed had struck gold in one of the local convenience stores, which had been apparantly untouched by humans and stocked with foods that seemed particularly immune to becoming degraded by the miasma. Like Twinkies.

Anything that seemed organic, like plants or animal products, seemed to degrade really quickly. But the heavily processed shit-foods like Twinkies were somehow more resistant to the miasma.

So, he’d had nothing but Twinkies for the past two weeks and would have to move on soon in search of more food. Which was one of the most important reasons he’d decided to team up with Noel. It'd mean one more mouth to feed, but it'd also mean someone to be the lookout while he searched for food.

Ed brushed the crumbs off his shirt, though itwas dirty enough that it probably wouldn’t make a difference, and grabbed the dagger he had swiped from a goblin. Noel was apparantly wanderer, scavenging for food while avoiding larger demons. She also apparently liked to ambush straggler goblins and once, even an orc. Something about training.

“So, I’ve been thinking of hitting a few more of the local convenience stores,” he started.

Noel was on her fifth Twinky bar.

“Uh huh,” she answered through a mouthful of cream.

Ed opened his mouth to comment on her appetite when a blue screen flickered to life in front of his face.

Congratulations on having survived a month after the Incursion!

Due to build-up of sufficiently dense energy, the Spirit Realm is able to make a one-time intervention in the defense of their homeland. All humans have Awakened and may cultivate themselves through a Spirit Realm implemented System.

As a survivor who has demonstrated potential by slaying at least ten demons, you have gained the attention of two beings.

Choose one of their blessings below.

Blessing of the Monkey King

You have demonstrated a keen and observant eye, seeking your own path. As a being who has carved his own path from unyielding stone, the Monkey King offers you a glimpse into one of his powers.

Dao of True Sight (Seed)

Beginnings of insight into the Dao of True Sight. This blessing will be integrated into System interface and display until you outgrow the need.

Blessing of the Jester

The legendary trickster appreciates your loose morals and expert usage of a dagger. He offers a gift that will help you not only survive, but thrive in the shadows.

Dagger of Shadowfire (Item)

Increases holder’s affinity for stealth in the shadows. Inflicts wounds that burn both physically and spiritually.

Ed stared, jaws slackening with surprise and disbelief.

“Noel, are you seeing blue screens in front of you right now?”