I was at work when the apocalypse came. A rectangle appeared in front of everyone's faces.

System has been initiated.

If it wouldn’t be for a fact that everyone in my close vicinity saw their own rectangles I would be worried for my mental health.

“Should we go home or what?” One of my co-workers asked. What was a person supposed to do when an apocalypse came, yet there was no fire raining from the skies?

There were no screams outside, no weird monster spawning set on destroying humanity. Nothing really changed other than people having access to a few panels.

[Status]

Class: None

Health: 80 Health Regeneration: 8/hour

Stamina: 80 Stamina Regeneration: 8/hour

Mana: 100 Mana Regeneration: 2/hour

Attribute Points:

Strength: 10 (8)

Endurance: 10 (8)

Dexterity: 10 (8)

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Passive Skills: [Overweight lvl 2 - Physical stats efficiency reduced by 20%]

Active Skills: None

Closed Paths:

Open Paths: [Path of Strength 0/25] [Path of Endurance 0/25] [Path of Dexterity 0/25] [Path of Intelligence 0/25] [Path of Wisdom 0/25] [Path of Commerce 0/25]

I should have not eaten so much sweets, but I like the taste of chocolate too much.

“We should ask the manager.” I told him, even though only a few minutes passed I could already see more people coming out of their houses with bags for shopping. No doubt to make food supplies before everything is sold out. Good thing that I worked at a bookstore, every customer left in a few more minutes.

“We are closing the shop for today. you guys can go home.” The manager said after we asked him.

Once I was outside the shop and said farewell to my co-worker. I decided to test something. Instead of going home by a bus I decided to run, it was a bit over 1 kilometer away. There were many people on the streets of my home city, though most were just standing and talking in groups. The traffic was so big that I was glad I hadn't chosen the bus.

You gained [Running] skill level 1. You have gained 1 Path point. [Path of Running] opened.

[Running] skill is now level 1. Passively Increases running speed by 1% and decreases stamina used while running by 1%.

Stamina 48/80

It took me 6 minutes to get to my home, having to stop at the lights. It looked like the system somewhat worked. I was never into running before and I was dead tired after running a few hundred meters before. I didn’t feel tired after running 1 kilometer now, which was weird. I decided to run around my block as long as my stamina allowed.

[Running] skill is now level 2. You have gained 1 Path point. Passively Increases running speed by 2% and decreases stamina used while running by 2%.

Stamina 7/80

Without stopping at the lights it took only four minutes for me to get tired. Once I hit 40 stamina, which was 50% of my max stamina I started to feel strain on my body, I slowed down noticeably but I could still continue on. At 7 stamina I stopped running and sat on the ground. Once my stamina got below 10% I felt very tired and I could feel pain in my muscles. I decided not to check what would happen once I hit 0 stamina.

After resting for an hour I walked back to my home and checked the news.

“Unknown creatures started appearing in low populated areas. Animals similar to rats and hares in looks if not by acts roam the fields destroying crops and attacking humans. Military was mobilised to answer the threat. Scientists believe that System is responsible for creating them.”

News, forums, blogs and every other way of mass communication was speaking only about the system, there were sightings of large creatures, easily the size of a small house in the deserts and very low populated areas. Videos were taken by planes and drones, since they were away from humans.

Panic descended upon the world, but I myself felt calm. I could say that I was even hopeful about the future, I have read so many stories about such a thing happening.

After an hour a popular video sharing site was already full of short quickly made videos talking about the system. There were tutorials on how to unlock skills like [Meditation] which increased mana regeneration rate, [Melee Weapon Mastery] that increased handling of all melee weapons and similarly [Ranged Weapon Mastery] that did the same, just for ranged. There was also one video which had over one hundred million views despite being added barely an hour ago, ‘How to unlock [Mana Bolt]’. If it wasn’t for the fact that I had no way of using it in a tightly packed city and my apartment, I would already be shooting Mana Bolts left and right. At least I would do so five times, before having to wait for 50 hours for my mana to restore. [Mana Bolt] cost 20 mana per 1 shot, and it didn’t get lower when it leveled up.

After a few more hours of watching the news I picked my shopping bags and headed for stores to make some basic supplies. I have decided against taking a bus, and so I ran towards the nearby large shop. It was getting darker, since it was already 9 pm.

[Running] skill is now level 3. You have gained 1 Path point. Passively Increases running speed by 3% and decreases stamina used while running by 3%.

Stamina 24/80

The shop even from outside looked like a tornado went through it, people no doubt panicked once the System appeared. Four policemen were at the entrance to the shop, one of them nodded at me which slightly startled me by the unexpected movement.

There were up to a hundred people at the mall, with five workers putting new products on the shelves and four more at the cash registers. Workers no doubt were offered high incentives not to go home.

Some shelves were empty, the shop running out of stock on things like flour, bottled water, jams, pasta and almost everything else that had a long shelf time. Toilet paper was out of stock as well. I bought two dozen kilograms of vegetables that I knew could lie around for a few months if not exposed to elements and three kilograms of meat hoping that the electricity wont go bust in the near future. I paid and walked back home with the groceries.

Once I got back home I put all my path points into [Path of Running]. Nothing happened, so I took a quick nap hoping to restore my stamina.

-

Sleeping didn’t help in restoring stamina, only regeneration shown in Status applied. There was a video on the Internet showing the effects of a [Sleep Deprivation] debuff made by a person that hasn’t slept in the past 24 hours, it was late evening at said person's place when System came and he stayed long enough on PC that he got the debuff, or so he claimed. He also gained [Sleep Resistance] skill which decreased his need for sleep.

I ran some more before it became too dark, I went back to my apartment to sleep. I didn’t level up [Running].

-

When I woke up it was the news saying about the state of emergency with the army calling in its reserves. The manager sent a message saying that the shop was closed at least for the next week, it was the board's decision.

First thing I did after I ate was to use up all of my stamina.

[Running] skill is now level 5. You have gained 1 Path point. Passively Increases running speed by 5% and decreases stamina used while running by 5%.

Stamina 17/80

I got the 4th lvl almost immediately once I started running, 5th level followed ten minutes later. Once I put two newly gained path points into [Path of Running] I got a notification.

Like a child learning to walk. Endurance increased by 1.

[Overweight] skill is now level 1. Physical stats reduced by 10%

My stamina regeneration jumped by 25%, now it was 10 points per hour. It seemed that resource management was the most important aspect right now. Endurance which improved stamina regeneration was the attribute that I decided to focus on. Would it be better to complete [Path of Endurance] first? I need more information.

I found a forum where people talked about different paths. The five paths which were tied in name to attribute points gave at the fifth path point one attribute point, at the tenth path point it gave another point to the given attribute. [Path of Running] with ten points invested gave one point of dexterity, so I decided to finish [Path of Endurance] first for more stamina and hopefully better regeneration.

There was no more information about further levels in the paths, though I found that some well trained people had a skill [Peak Condition], it increased physical stats by 10%. There were also people with [Genius] skill that granted improved mental stats by 10%, though I doubted it was possible to gain it through hard work.

Since resource management is important and I am already using my stamina resource, I should do something with my magic points. I spent two more hours looking through forums and videos until I found something for me, which I started training immediately.

[Leg Muscle Enhancement] is now level 1. You have gained 1 Path point. [Path of Basic Magic Enhancement] opened. Actively increases Running Speed by 20%. Uses 2 mana points per second.

It took only fifty seconds to push all of my mana into my legs, before that it took two hours for me to learn how to ‘move’ mana at all. With mana to regenerate I started learning [Meditation] from the video that I found yesterday. All the mana skills that I found were very costly to use.

[Meditation] is now level 1. You have gained 1 Path point. [Path of Meditation] opened. Increases mana regeneration by 1% while the skill is active.

[Meditation] is now level 2. You have gained 1 Path point. Increases mana regeneration by 2% while the skill is active.

I stopped once my stamina was close to being maxed out, I went outside to quickly use it up by running.

[Running] skill is now level 6. You have gained 1 Path point. Passively Increases running speed by 6% and decreases stamina used while running by 6%.

Stamina 13/100

Mana 0/100

It was a grind of using my mana and stamina making sure that none were ever maxed out, with [Meditation] being used to gain more path points to invest in [Path of Endurance]. I used [Leg Muscle Enhancement] every time I went to run, even if I had only 4 mana.

[Meditation] is now level 3. You have gained 1 Path point. Increases mana regeneration by 3% while the skill is active.

It was the fifth point that I gained and I quickly invested all of them into [Path of Endurance]

The first step for a road of a thousand miles. Endurance increased by 1.

My family called me later that day while I meditated.

“Are you sure you are alright? We are worried about you living all alone” My sister’s voice spoke through my phone.

“Yes, yes. You do not need to worry about me. I am safe deep in the city.” I responded. We weren’t on the greatest terms, as could be easily seen with her calling me over a day later since the System came. We didn’t speak for long, it was more of a nuisance for me that took my mind away from grinding skills.

I had hopes for the future. Could I become immortal thanks to this system? What was its limit?