Aiden was sitting on the roof of his University which was located in the town of Greensboro in Vermont, enjoying the view and eating his lunch. It was a nice day out, perfect for relaxing outside. He had a great view of the surrounding area from where he was.

When he was younger, his father took him on many camping trips and he loved the time he spent there just being one with nature. That all changed In the last decade or so. The world's population skyrocketed, going from around 16 billion to nearly 25. As a result of this more cities were needed, more power plants, more vehicles, etc until places like this or the forest he and his dad used to frequent were quite scarce.

Sighing Aiden finished his sandwich and took a look at his watch. ‘12:54 April 24th 2054’ He stood up from the ledge of the roof and was about to head back inside for his next class when suddenly the world around him froze momentarely, then the entire horizon seemed to ripple. The ripple caused a wave of energy to spread out in all directions that seemed to move almost faster then the eye could see. When this energy flew through him he heard a voice in his head.

“Scanning planetary body, designation Terra; Warning! Toxicity levels critical. Mana awakening initiated. Emergency Purge Protocol Initiated. Warning! Sentient life forms detected! Unlocking System for all sentient life forms with Mana affinity... Status unlocked... System Shop unlocked... Establishing protected areas... Phase one starting. Estimated time till completion 01:59:56”

When the voice finished speaking Aiden only had enough time to say “What the fuck” before unimaginable pain gripped him and he fell on his back unconscious.

“Ughh...” Waking up with a splitting headache and feeling dizzy, Aiden tried to remember what happened. Sifting through his foggy thoughts he suddenly stiffened and sat up with his eyes opening widely. The first thing he saw was a blue translucent screen floating in front of him. Blinking owlishly he waved his hand though it, resulting in a slight tingling sensation and causing a few motes of blue light to flow out and dissipate in the air. Looking closer at the screen he saw that it held a message.

“Congratulations Mana chosen! You are one of the 2.9 billion sentient life forms with enough Mana affinity to connect to the System. To start the the brief System tutorial simply think or speak “System tutorial”.

The message then faded away, before Aiden could respond to this in anyway he was startled when he realized the ground was shaking. He quickly stood up and looked around. “What the absolute fuck am I looking at right now!” Aiden screamed with incredulity.

Everywhere he looked the earth was shifting, roiling like waves on the ocean. What was even more incredible was that wherever he looked vegetation seemed to be sprouting and growing at an astounding rate. What's more, the trees were twice as tall as any he’d ever seen and were still growing! Off in the distance mountains were rising from the ground.

What horrified Aiden however was that all these changes were swallowing most of the buildings and cars he could see, along with their residents and owners, who were unable to flee in time! He even saw a plane falling from the sky in the distance. Aiden watched in horrified fascination as all the changes were taking place right before his eyes.

What he didn’t know however was that this has been slowly happening for almost two hours while he lay unconscious, and now the changes were picking up the pace and reaching their climax. Around the world the landmasses churned, twisted and separated, creating a whole new geography.

Inconcievable changes were happening everywhere. Chunks of continents were disconnecting and merging into new ones. Billions died in these cataclysmic events as the world changed around them. Entire cities were consumed by the earth or were washed away by the oceans. The planet itself had expanded to almost double its previous size. When these changes would finally come to an end, the world would be unrecognizable.

After taking in the sights all around him Aiden noticed the area he was in wasn’t being affected as much as most of the places he could see that were further out. Heart hammering in his chest he closed his eye’s, calmed his breathing, and took another less panicked look around.

What he noticed this time, that he missed previously, was the hazy outline of a dome of some kind of energy surrounding the area he was in. It cover maybe half a mile in each direction from the campus. He looked around more and found three other similar domes of energy a couple of miles away in different locations.

Aiden numbly sat down and continued to watch as if in a trance. He shook his head in disbelief. He thought about his studio apartment which was probably gone by now. Looking over towards the parking area of the campus he noticed his motorcycle was still there. Although with the terrain as it looked right now it probably wouldn’t get him far.

He didn’t have any family left and no friends either really, he was a bit of a recluse so he wasn’t in a rush to go check on anyone, not that he could at the moment. He was a also a rather adaptable person, and what was happening, while entirely crazy, didn't affect him as it would undoubtedly affect others. Aiden was brought out of his musings by the voice from before.

“Phase one complete. Toxicity within acceptable levels. Purge complete. Warning! sentient life form casualties at 76%. Calculating remaining life form population; 6,131,029,742. Calculating life forms remaining connected to System; 1,548,166,212. Expected further casualties of 42% for Phase two. Allocating Global Quest. Phase 2 starting in 00:59:52”

Aiden swallowed heavily. “Fuck” If all that is true then almost the entire population has been killed, but what and why is this even happening? what was that voice? and what is this system? and Mana? Isn’t that something straight out of a fantasy novel? Suddenly remembering the blue box from before and its message. Aiden said “System tutorial” after which another blue screen appeared in front of him.

“To access the System simply think or speak the words “System Menu” and the Interface will appear, from there focus on any menu to open it. In future any menu can be accessed quickly by simply thinking or speaking its name. Focusing on any menu or term unknown to you will provide a brief description of its meaning and function. Think or say System menu to proceed” Aiden did so, revealing a small streamlined menu in front of him.

System Menu:

Status

Skills

Abilities

Equipment

Party

Quests (1 pending)

Shop

Map

Settings

Help

Planetary System Time : 6:04 pm

Shrugging he focused on Status. ‘Might as well start at the top and work my way down.’

Status:

Aiden Winters: Age 22

Race Human: Rank(f)

Level 0

Mana essence: 0/100

Class 1: None (Locked lvl 10)

Class 2: None (locked Class 1 lvl 25)

Health: 60/60

Stamina: 70/70

Mana: 60/60

Defense: 13

Mana Defense: 6

Vitality - 6

Endurance - 7

Strength - 6

Agility - 8

Dexterity - 7

Skill - 7

Intelligence - 6

Wisdom - 6

Aiden studied the screen in front of him and noticed right away it resembled that which he knew from role playing games, with some differences. One stood out among others, he focused on the Rank(f) Human part.

“Species Ranking designation refers to their evolutionary progress from strongest to weakest, the designations are as follows. SSS,SS,S,A,B,C,D,E,F,G. The higher your species ranking the more powerful and long lived you are. Other factors come into play depending on your race, level, and a beings innate talent. Monsters are classified in the same way, however for them it isn’t a matter of evolution but a ranking more representing the inherent danger they pose. Evolution is possible by absorbing large amounts of Mana essence. System assisted evolution can be initiated every 100 combined class levels for the ‘Human Race’." Aiden read out loud to himself.

‘Interesting, That answers some questions I didn’t even think of, for example, apparently there are other races out there... and monsters’ Aiden continued to learn what he could. He found out that Mana essence is essentially what experience points would be in video games and can be obtained by killing things which contain Mana essence or eating certain rare fruits and animal/monster parts.

Another thing he learned was that new classes can be unlocked by performing certain tasks or having certain prior knowledge. You can unlock as many classes as you want but once you select both you can no longer change them, though they can evolve with time and certain conditions. Aiden then moved on to stat discriptions.

Vitality - Determines how much health you have and health recovery. (Health recovers at 0.1 point’s per minute for every point in Vitality) and how resistant you are to poison’s, and various diseases, also helps with general health and longevity.

Endurance - Determines how much Stamina you have and your tolerance to pain, it also adds to your overall defense from physical attacks. (1 point in Endurance adds 1 defense)

Strength - Determines how strong you are, how hard you can hit how much you can lift and carry etc. Strength is the stat necessary for all physical combat, be it melee or ranged. (1 point of strength adds 1 point of damage to an attack).

Agility - Determines how fast and nimble you are.

Dexterity - Determines how good your reflexes are, how deft you are with your hands and feet, helps with balance, coordination, acrobatics, and flexibility it also determines how stealthy you can be.

Skill - Determines how skillful you are, as well as the chance of a successful critical hit. The higher the stat the easier it is to perform and learn tasks or new skills. It also increases the speed and ease in which you can carry out a task such as reloading a crossbow.

Intelligence - Determines how powerful your magic is and how easily you can wield it. (Every point In Intelligence adds 1 point to magical damage and strength of healing.)

Wisdom - Determines how much Mana you have and the rate at which it restores (0.1 per minute for every point in Wisdom, twice that when sleeping or meditating). Also adds defense to attacks of a magical nature. (1 point in Willpower adds 1 point to Mana Defense).

Aiden learned that the average stats for a lvl 0 rank f human is 5 so he knew he was somewhat above average having all stats above at least 6 with his highest being 8 in agility. 'Guess it pays off being athletic, thanks dad.' He didn’t have any skills yet, apparently, and the only way to learn any was from his classes or from buying them, so he moved onto equipment.

The quick tutorial let him know that equipment infused with Mana can increase your stats. The available equipment slots were head, chest, hands, arms, legs, feet, and four accessories (2 rings, one necklace or amulet, and an earring.) Some places on the body could also be equipped with multiple pieces of gear, for example on the legs you could have pants and also greaves or on your torso you cold wear a set of armor, a cloak, and a belt. The most important part of equipment however was that they added to defense.

Defense mitigates damage received. For every point of defense you have you take 1 point less damage. After learning this a new quick tutorial appeared teaching him that he could focus on a piece of equipment or monster (He didn’t dwell on what the message meant by monster not wanting to go down that rabbit hole yet.) to get some information about it.

If your level is within ten levels of the target you are inspecting you can get information on its level, resource pools and stats, otherwise the information you receive will be incomplete and not as helpful or it wont work at all if your target’s level is too far above your own.

After Aiden learn this he checked out everything he was currently wearing. What he found was that his boots, motorcycle jacket, and riding gloves added some defense, and the hunting knife in his right boot also had stats. Everything else just came back as clothes. That’s also when he noticed that both his watch and phone didn’t work. They were both electrical so he figured that that pulse wave from before must have short circuited them.

Leather Boots - (Common) / Quality (Average) / +2 defense

Leather Jacket - (Common) / Quality (Average) / +3 defense

Leather gloves - (Common) / Quality (Poor) / +1 defense

Hunting Knife - (Common) / Quality (Good) / Damage Physical: 15-20

The System tutorial also mentioned an Inventory feature which enabled a person to store items in a pocket dimension within themselves with the aid of the System. Aiden tried it out with his water bottle willing it into and out of his inventory a few times. He didn’t notice it effecting him in anyway other then costing him 5 point's of mana everytime he did it. Although it was disconcerting watching something being sucked into your body and coming out again.

The Inventory had 25 different slots, each slot having a maximum stack of 50 of the same item. Each slot also had a weight limit of 100 pounds. Not really a lot but definitely better then nothing. He tried testing if he could cheat a bit by putting in his back pack with all his books as well as two bottles of water. The Inventory showed one slot being taken up, hence he could stock his pack full of goodies and have it still count as only one slot in his inventory, ‘that will definitely help’ he thought.

When he was done messing around with inspect and the inventory feature he moved on to the Map tab. It showed him a three dimensional map of the roof he was on as well as a hundred meters in all directions, everything visible from his position was marked on the map, everything else had a fog over it. He tried zooming out and a global map appeared. Aiden froze in shock. The World map was also foggy but there was enough detail to see the continents general shape and location. What he saw did not mach what he knew.

First he noticed that north and south America were no longer connected and a portion of north eastern America and Canada had split off to create a new continent along with a portion of what used to be Greenland and various islands. This new Continent which apparently he was currently on 'and ain't that some shit' was larger then Australia. Swallowing down his fear he continued to look at the map.

What remained of Greenland and a few of the islands around Canada merged with the Arctic. South America had broken off and traveled all the way down to the Antarctic, it rotated seventy degrees to the right and connected to the Antarctic landmass. Europe and Asia split in two right down the middle, around the western tip of the Kazakhstan border, Europe taking a part of Russia along for the ride.

Africa as well split from the main continent and was now positioned more southward then before, and to the right of it was Australia, which looked to have picked up a few islands that were now attached to it. West of Africa east from where South America ended up and south of the continent Aiden was currently on was a new landmass all together. It was in the shape of a U and was almost half the size of Africa. Other new landmasses he didnt recognize were also dotted around the map.

‘What the hell!... did this happen because of the Purge that voice was talking about? How many people had to die because of this. 20 billion people dead!. Why?' Aiden though back to everything he remember the voice saying before trying to find an answer to all this. 'Wait.. It said something about toxicity being critical... is that why? Was the Planet about to die? And someone or something stepped in to save it? But the cost of lives was too high... and the message said that further casualties will be coming in phase two whatever that even is. Will there even be anyone left when this is all over? Can I even survive this? That bubble protected this area last time, but its gone now.’ Aiden sighed and shook his head trying to clear it.

He grit his teeth and focused on the time left until phase 2, he still had about 20 minutes so he continued to go through the tutorial. 'Party' was pretty self explanatory, it allowed you to invite members into a group and to view their status. Mana essence distribution was set to always be equal between party members. Seeing as he had a quest apparently, he left that for last and moved on to settings.

He fiddled with them until he was satisfied. He now had a transparent health stamina and Mana bar at the top left of his vision where it wouldn’t get in the way. He also turned off automated battle messages except for status changes like poison or bleed effect notifications, he figured those would be important.

The shop was rather interesting if somewhat unbelievable, you could purchase just about anything you could think of, except for any kind of technology. There were weapons, armor, accessories, tools, materials, various meals and drinks, animals?, 'Yep, I read that right' plants, potions, poisons, skill scrolls, spell scrolls, and much much more. The cost of these things were System credits which could be obtained by selling Mana stones which were dropped by monsters. ‘How is something like this even possible’ he thought.

Aiden shook his head and chuckled 'I see where this is going. Whatever new economy emerges after this is going to be dependent on these Mana stones, and since the only way so far to get them apparently, is killing monsters, everyone is going to have to do that to survive. Damn it! I really wish I had more answers. What monsters? Where will they be? How many? How strong? I could always keep a cool head, with all the shit I’ve been through its kind of a necessity, but this is ridiculous. If I’m about to have a mental breakdown, then I wonder how others could possible be dealing with this shit.' Aiden growled in frustration and checked the system clock. 'Nine minutes left.'