A week had passed.

The alarm clock assaulted Jason’s ears as his body moved around under the blanket. He got up with his half-open eyes while scratching the itch on his back. His empty stomach prompted him to go downstairs. Passing by the living room, he didn’t see his parents who were watching the flat-screen television.

Jason opened up the fridge and took out his morning staple, cereal, and milk. He took a seat at the dining table and ate calmly with his eyes barely open. After two to three spoons of cereal, he heard his mother called his name.

“Jason,” she called.

He remained silent yet he stood up with the cereal bowl in his hand. Walking into the living room, he saw why his mother called him. Like he had expected, monsters were pouring out from those cracks, as they invaded the land below. Jason glanced away as he already knew the outcome of it. It was just like back in New York, after a week all hell broke loose. He returned back to his own room and sat at the study table.

“Status,” he said.

Jason Park

Job : None

Level 19

EP : 127/127(+10)

E.Guard : 470/470(+30)

Strength : 46

Agility : 71

Dexterity : 15

Stamina : 19

Energy : 39(+2)

E.Resist : 11

Points : 0

Unique Trait : Rapid Growth

Skills : Intermediate Swordsmanship Lv.4, Minor Heal+ Lv.5, Energy Guard Lv.2, Wind Cutter Lv.7, Shadow Hide Lv.9, Basic Archery Lv.9, Parry Lv.1, Scan Lv.3

While munching down the cereals, his gaze went up and down over his status. The result of one week of grinding brought a light smile on his face. Shadow Hide and Basic Archery reached a plateau and remained stagnant for a while as the situation seemed similar to his previous stagnant Basic Swordsmanship. Wind Cutter had improved considerably but due to the constraint of his limited EP, that was as far as he could reach for one whole week. On the other hand, Identify leaped beyond level ten and turned into a new skill called Scan. By far, Scan was the easiest to level up. He just spammed it throughout the whole day using it to whatever he saw.

But he was still wasn’t satisfied. This much wasn’t enough to strengthen himself as he needed to level up. Jason changed his clothes to a pair of sweatshirts and sweatpants and went downstairs.

“Mom, I’ll be going for a jog,” he said as he left through the door.

Both of his parents grew accustomed to Jason's sudden change. At first, they were worried since Jason wasn’t the active type but as he kept on doing it regularly every day, they got used to it and saw it as an improvement. Jason being healthy was better than just sitting around in front of a computer.

He lightly jogged around the neighborhood as he saw the same thing as yesterday. After he had enough of warming up, Jason sprinted down the side of the street as his speed turned up a notch. He was fast but he kept his speed at a normal pace of a human, if he had really given his all then the world record of everything that involves running would be broken by him.

Soon, he reached a park that was ten kilometers away from his home. His breathing was still mild despite the speed he ran to the park. The extra five points he allocated to stamina was definitely showing some wonders. It was late in the morning and a few early morning people just finished their run in the park. It was a good time for Jason as he has more than just running to do in this park. He ran for a while until he reached deep in the park where no one was around.

After making sure the coast was clear, his hand glowed in green and as he swung it, projectiles appeared slashing through the ground. He did it a couple of times until the glow disappeared from his hand. With Wind Cutter reaching level seven, he now has six projectiles to shoot for just one usage of EP. In a way, it only got more tedious to level the skill. Jason kept hurling those green projectiles on the ground and made no attempt of hitting the trees around him. He made a big error on his first day of coming here, he threw Wind Cutter at a tree and it resulted in a few trees toppling down. A single Wind Cutter could do such damage and if he kept on grinding at the trees, he had no doubt there would be no more trees in this park.

He wanted to become stronger and not be a culprit for deforestation. After spending half of his EP digging the ground using Wind Cutter he returned back to the entrance of the park. His whole body was drenched in sweat as he kept on swinging his arm without taking a break. Lucky for him, he did gain a bountiful result.

Wind Cutter leveled up to level 8

He smiled but it only lasted for a second. A frown etched on his face as his current level wasn’t enough for him.

Should I?

A dangerous idea came into mind. It had been lingering in his head for two days now and his rational mind was leaning towards that idea. He opened up his status once more and saw his level being stagnant at level nineteen. Over the week, he was grateful for feeling safe in the enclosure of his own home but the looming threat that wasn’t far kept poking at his conscious. He knew sooner or later, those things would come knocking on the door.

I better prepare myself.

The idea he has was in need of preparation. He also needed a proper excuse for both his parents. While he was deep in thought, a horn kept on blaring in front of the park. At first, Jason just ignored it since it was probably someone lacking common sense and ethic but the moment he heard his name being called, he turned around and saw who it was.

A head popped out from the side window of the car that kept on making noises with its annoying horn. He recognized who it was.

“Esther?” he said.

“Get in the car,” Esther said.

It was his sister who was supposed to be in Kingston. His mother complained that Esther didn’t want to go back home since her finals were just around the corner. His mother was dead worried about this sister of his since Ottawa, one of the monster-infested cities in Canada was close to Kingston. His mother begged for her to come back but like always that stubborn sister of his was adamant in her own way. Jason took a seat at the passenger seat while glancing at this sister of his.

“Let me guess, the exams were canceled?” he asked.

She leered at him as he got it right.

“You’re really weird, to think you’re more afraid of an exam rather than man-eating monsters,” he said.

“Say the one who came back home as a failure,” she shot back at him and she wasn’t wrong. He indeed didn’t manage to get a job at Wall Street thus a failure. It stabbed him through the heart. Her words reminded him about the things that he hated about this sister of his, a sharp tongue and one that didn’t hold back.

Jason took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

“Fuh, I’m not going to argue. So, how did you know where I am?” he asked.

Esther was surprised as she didn’t think Jason would just stop at that. Usually, both of them would argue for a long time before neither one of them stopped speaking. A surprise that she didn’t expect.

“Mom told me,” she said.

She drove the car back to the main road heading to their home. Esther stole a few glances at her brother. Just before she went out to picked him up, their mother told her about her brother’s circumstances. She knew Jason had gone through a lot since the incident in New York City. She had to admit, she too worried about this brother of hers after hearing New York has been invaded.

“I heard about it. You okay?” she asked out of the blues.

Jason glanced at her with both eyebrows raised. He couldn’t believe it, his sister was worried about him and it was a first for him.

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine,” he turned to the side, glancing at the scenery outside of the window. Then he remembered his other sibling, Ted.

“You heard anything about Ted?” he asked.

“Probably practicing in Hamilton, he won’t bother going back home,” she said.

True to her words, his younger brother, Ted was similar to Esther. He preferred to cooped in his own house practicing for the upcoming concert. It really blew his mind of how people really didn’t get how scary it was for these cracks to appear throughout the whole world. Peace has made the people of this world way too weak. They didn’t even realize they’re in danger unless danger itself was right in front of their very eyes.

Soon, they returned home and once again Jason had a feast. The occasion was none other to celebrate the return of his sister. After family time had finished, he entered his room and sat at the study table. The computer was turned on, a gaming rig he made when he was still absorbed in playing games. Now, it was just used to search through the internet.

Jotting down a few pieces of information, he got a destination in mind.

Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park, one of the new cracks in Canada.

The crack at this destination was found a bit late since it was in the middle of a forest. One of the park rangers saw the crack in the sky. Two days ago, Jason saw the news about it and with the swift action of the Canadian Armed Force, the residential area that was close to the park had already been evacuated. From what he had found on the internet, the roads that surrounded the whole park have been blocked by the military. But for Jason, Shadow Hide was enough to slip through the security around the park.

How am I going to tell my parents about this?

He thought about making an alibi but that wasn’t possible considering he lost contact with most of his friends. He has a few friends around the neighborhood but he didn’t bother announcing his arrival since he was too preoccupied with grinding his skills. But then, one person came into mind a friend that he had been ignoring for the last week.

I got his number here. Then I guess he won’t mind if I ask for a favor.

Jason found the paper with Hakeem’s number. He used the old E-phone 11 courtesy of his gadget mania father, he dialed the number and wait for the call to go through.

“Hello?” Hakeem said.

“Hi, this is Jason. You want to hang out tonight?” he said.

--

In McRonald, a man sat opposite of Jason. It was Hakeem and from his eyes darting around the place, he didn’t expect Jason wanted to hang out here. Jason even finished a set meal while waiting for Hakeem.

“I’ll cut to the chase, I’ll be out of town for a couple of days and I need you as an alibi,” he said.

Jason went full-frontal, telling Hakeem in honesty as he didn’t have time to play games.

“Wait, what?” Hakeem was confused. Jason’s words threw him off. He thought Jason had forgotten about him but he never expected the situation to turn out like this.

“As I said, I need you as an alibi. I’ve already told my mom that I’ll be staying out with a friend so if she ever contact you I need you to cover for me,” he said.

Hakeem looked at Jason in a daze as he still couldn’t comprehend what was going on.

“Wait, why can’t you just tell your mom?” Hakeem asked.

“A secret, I can’t let anyone know,” he said.

Hakeem was left speechless by the weird behavior of this friend of his. Although both of them grew apart during high school, he still didn’t forget how Jason used to be. But this Jason in front of him, who has a confident pair of eyes and aloof air around him felt different to him.

“Can’t you at least tell me?” Hakeem asked.

“It’s best if no one knows,” he said.

Jason’s answer only made this thing more difficult for Hakeem. But before he could process everything that was happening, Jason stood up. Hakeem glanced at him.

“Where're you going?” Hakeem asked.

“It’s late, I need to hit the road,” he said.

In Jason’s mind right now, all he could ever think of was about increasing his level. Throughout the whole week, nothing else crossed his mind except for becoming stronger. Little things like hanging out with his friends were at the bottom of his to-do list. Jason tapped Hakeem’s shoulder.

“I’m going. So, help me out,” he said.

Jason left the franchise restaurant and drove into the main road. Hakeem was speechless throughout the whole thing as he just stood there and watched.

“Why is he acting like this?” Hakeem asked himself. Everything about Jason was strange and for some reason, it made Hakeem curious. He had never seen Jason acting like this, from his point of view Jason wasn’t the mysterious rebellious type of person. Hakeem was having mixed feelings about this, his friend was acting too strange. Although he has work tomorrow, this feeling he has was pushing him into a certain direction. Then, he had decided.

“I’m going after him.”