Santa Cruz, California

Four hours.

That was the time it took for the world to be thrown completely into chaos. That was all the time that was needed to completely alter Alex’s everyday life. That was all the time it took for everything to completely descend to hell.

Only four hours.

It was supposed to be your normal Monday morning. Alex was sitting at his desk listening to the teacher drone on about some new school policy on bullying. Basically, something that Alex could not give two shits about.

All those safe spaces and political correctness only breeds sheep. Sheeps that society is going to wring the most out of before it slaughters them and throw them aside. In the end, 99% of the populace would become like those discarded sheep.

Alex do not want to ever become something like that. He wants to be the wolf, the 1% standing above the masses. He wants to be the wolf preying and wringing out the 99% sheeps who are too weak to defend themselves.

That was why when it came to bullying prevention, Alex tend to lean on fighting it out.

He had once been bullied before back when he was in elementary school, but that didn’t even lasted for a day. Unlike the other sheeps that just accepts the unjust treatment, Alex did not hesitate to fight back. He always believed in destroying the problem at the root.

Alex stabbed one his bully’s eye with a safety scissor and permanently blinded one of that kid’s eye.

Needless to say, he was expelled immediately after that incident. Not only did he permanently cripple one of his classmates, he also did it with freaking safety scissors. Those things weren’t designed to actually be able to cut flesh, but Alex still somehow managed to cripple a kid with it when he was only eight years old.

Anyway, Alex was bored out of his mind listening to the teacher. He didn’t really stayed up late last night, but Alex was never a morning person. Even when the bullying announcement was out of the way and the lesson started, Alex’s head was already bobbing up and down ready to sleep through the whole class.

That was when it all happened.

Gigantic roars woke Alex up as they reverberated all over the school. Alex wasn’t sure what they sounded like. It sounded like a mix between a lion’s roar, a dog’s bark, a pig’s squeal and various other animals. It sounded like a zoo suddenly came to school.

Then the screams followed.

Two giant wild dogs along with what looked like a turkey as tall as an SUV barged into Alex’s class and started attacking people left and right. Their strength was insane as no one in the room could even put up any resistance at all. Tables were smashed and high schooler corpses were thrown about the room as the giant animals rampaged to their heart’s content.

During all this, Alex played smart. Since his seat was the furthest away from the classroom entrance, he simply ducked down and hid underneath his desk. Coupled with the fact that the animals seemed to be focused mostly on the other students that were screaming as they fled or standing dumb in fear, the dogs and the turkeys didn’t notice Alex under his desk at all.

It only took about two minutes for the two dogs and the turkey to kill everyone in the classroom. With the room filled with the smell of blood and human corpses stacked everywhere, the three monsters nodded their heads and left the classroom. Only then did Alex felt it was safe enough to pop his head out of his desk.

Suddenly, a voice spoke loudly in his head.

“Rejoice, humans! Bathe in the fire of chaos and embrace your destiny! Power is the only key! Reject power, and perish like the rest. Embrace power, and you will rise above the gods!”

“First Tribulation: Survive for more than one week, three days and thirteen hours.”

“Considering your predicted fighting tendency, claw gauntlets have been assigned as your starting weapon.”

Alex’s forearms glowed before a set of thick gauntlets covered both of his hands. It seemed to be padded with some sort of strange leather as steel lined the outside of the forearm area along with the top of the five fingers. Although it felt comfortable, Alex felt like it was somehow old, worn and somewhat dull looking.

A transparent floating screen popped up when Alex examined the gauntlets further.

Dull Claws

Attack: 0-4

Durability: 150/150

The voice suddenly spoke in Alex’s head again

“Player stats have been calculated. It can be accessed at any time.”

“Stats?” Alex thought.

The things that have been happening around him seemed similar to an old RPG that Alex have played before. The strange screen depicting the claws’ attack stats and durability seem no different from a game. Perhaps what had been happening around him was all a game?

“Status screen, show yourself,” Alex said out loud as he felt like an idiot.

Name: N/A

Race: Human (Basic)

Level: 0

Class: N/A

Strength: 9

Agility: 13

Vitality: 8

Spirit: 12

Surprisingly, a status screen filled with Alex’s stats actually did appear. Other than the fact that the screen didn’t have his name on it, it looked similar to most other status screens in your typical role playing game. Alex was intrigued for a while before he decided to close the screen.

‘Hmm, let’s try it I guess?’ Alex thought to himself as he looked at the dull claws on his two hands.

Slash!

Alex suddenly thrusted his arm and clawed at the head of one of the corpses of his classmates. It instantly penetrated through the flesh and ripped a whole chunk out of the dead girl’s face. Alex felt like he had just skinned the girl as the meat that he had just ripped off exposed the girl’s white skull.

‘This is 4 in attack? I can probably crush her skull easily if my gauntlet has 10 attack maximum,’ Alex thought as he stared at his claws that were filled with blood.

If there was one thing that Alex knew about role playing games is the fact that levels are pretty much everything. After all, it represents how powerful you are compared to everything else. A high level player can easily toy a low level player to death with almost no effort.

From this, Alex realized that he had to level up and grow quickly. Just from the fact that those giant monsters managed to charge into his classroom and kill everyone was already a sign that things would get to be even more chaotic in the future. Also, he was sure that the notion of order that people had before would surely crumble in the future.

When he looked out the window, he could see saber-toothed dogs, flaming tigers, giant horned boars and various other monsters that biologically should not even exist. They were all killing left and right as they overturned cars and smashed buildings into pieces. Even as many people tried to run away, they were all bitten, crushed, mangled, and torn apart as their bloody guts and limbs painted the pavement red.

With this level of chaos, Alex was sure that there would be no way for the police or the military to contain the situation anymore. He just saw a freaking tiger spit out an exploding fireball for God’s sake! Unless the military sent in real heavy artillery in the next few hours, the whole population of Santa Cruz would all be killed.

Instead of going out there and getting himself killed, Alex would much rather stay inside his ruined classroom. None of the monsters ever came close to it, so Alex was relatively safe. Rather than charging to that flaming tiger in the hopes of killing it and levelling up, he was much better off just hiding and assessing the situation. Who knows, he might just see a smaller monster that he could kill with his claws.

In the end, Alex waited in the classroom for about an hour and a half. It was then that the the giant monsters outside started leaving. He waited for another 15 minutes till all of the monsters disappeared before he finally decided to come out of the ruined classroom.

With the monsters gone, the whole city suddenly turned quiet. It wasn’t surprising as most people were already dead while the ones that were still alive were too afraid to make any noise. Who can say if the monsters would come back again?

Alex’s school, Santa Cruz High, have already turned into a pile of broken bricks and concrete. It was no wonder why no monsters came to the school anymore. From the outside, it looked like anyone who still stayed inside were all buried alive under tons of rubble.

Although there was still one monster hanging around out there, Alex still decided to come out. The monster was as big as a car, but Alex wasn’t afraid at all. He had already observed the beast and he was sure that he could kill it.

The monster was a giant tortoise.

Although it was slow, Alex had seen it shoot out a gigantic laser beam from its mouth that turned a relatively large building straight to dust. The tortoise can shoot out a beam every five minutes, and every time it discharged, a large tract of land was directly pulverized. That tortoise is part of the reason why the city grounds was filled to the brim with giant holes.

Alex sneaked stealthily towards the giant tortoise. Since it was slow, Alex was not worried about having to eat a laser beam to the face as long as he can get behind the tortoise. Coupled with the fact that it acted even dumber than a regular tortoise, Alex was confident in his success.

Alex made his way behind the monster while the tortoise itself seemed to be stuck inside a building as it slowly tried to move its big body out. Its laser beam was still on cooldown, so it had no way of destroying the rubble that was blocking its way out. It was the perfect opportunity for Alex to strike.

Alex immediately jumped up and latched onto the big tortoise’s shell. It was at that moment that he was glad he had the claw gauntlets. Its sharp tips made it easy for him to grab onto the shell.

Alex began to climb up. It wasn’t that hard, since he was only a few feet high above the ground. After thirty seconds, he was already on top of the tortoise’s shell.

Alex did not hesitate at all as he plunged his claw gauntlets down onto the tortoise’s large head. He specifically targeted its eyes to make sure that his claws can get in deep. He was aiming to skewer the tortoise’s brain through the eyes.

Sure enough, Alex’s decision was right. Despite pushing with all his strength, the only place that he could injure with his claws were only the tortoise’s eyes. Everything else like the skin around its eyes and the head were all too tough like trying to pierce through thick elastic rubber.

Roar!

A huge sound that did not sound like what a tortoise would make came out of the tortoise’s mouth. It was so loud that it made Alex’s ears ring in pain. In fact, Alex was sure that this sound was louder than the sound this tortoise’s beam created when it pulverized half of Santa Cruz.

Of course, no matter how much it screamed, Alex would never let go. He had already plunged his fingers deep inside the turtle’s eyes, and it felt like he was piercing deeper and deeper. Getting into the thing’s brain was only a matter of time.

It shook its head hard as it tried to throw Alex off, but Alex had already anticipated that. That was why he had already coiled his legs around the beast’s neck. Even though it was risky and the only thing keeping him from being thrown off and breaking his rib was only his hip strength, Alex still gambled on it.

Despite being close to death, Alex smiled brightly. His face that was usually monotone and expressionless for most of the time had been filled with pure joy as he battled to the death with the giant tortoise. The screams of pain that were unbearable before suddenly made Alex want to laugh out loud.

This is what have been missing from his life. The feeling of living on the edge of death. The feeling of having to keep beating down his opposition as he strives to become on top. The feeling of having someone’s well being in your hands as you hear their screams for mercy.

The tortoise didn’t scream for mercy as much as it was screaming in pain and anger, but Alex have already gone into his own world. Regardless of what the tortoise is doing, he would always interpret it as a weakling struggling free as it begged to be released from the pain. It strangely made the killing process more pleasant to Alex.

Just like that time his bully pleaded for mercy as Alex plunged that safety scissors into one of that kid’s eye socket.

Alex kept on plunging his hand deeper and deeper into the tortoise until the tortoise’s scream died down and it dropped down dead on the ground.

“Level up!”

“Level up!”

“Level up!”

“Level up!”

“Level up!”

“You are the first person to have killed a Special monster by only relying on your starter equipment. Gained bonus 10 stat points and a free skill book.”

The strange voice spoke in his head again, so Alex decided to not bother with it and bring up his status menu.

Name: N/A

Race: Human (Basic)

Level: 5

Class: N/A

Strength: 9

Agility: 13

Vitality: 8

Spirit: 12

Unassigned Stat Points: 20

‘One kill and I gained five levels? And a skill book?’ Alex became surprised as he saw his harvest.

Well, if you counter in the tortoise’s laser beam and impenetrable hard shell, the tortoise does seem like a really tough boss monster to fight. The only reason as to why Alex was able to kill it was only because the beast was stuck in a building and couldn’t roll its body around. If they were fighting in the open, the beast could just roll around and Alex would’ve been completely squashed under its shell if he tried to pull off that shell riding stunt.

‘So this is a skill book?’ Alex thought to himself as he picked up a wet bloody book from underneath the tortoise’s head that was still bleeding profusely.

Life Energy Beam

You can shoot a beam of life energy that can decimate anything in your path. Keeping it activated consumes 10 health and stamina per second.

“IT’S THE FUCKING LASER BEAM!” Alex shouted excitedly.

Alex never thought that he would get the tortoise’s most powerful and devastating attack right off the bat. He thought he would get some crap defensive skill when he heard he got some sort of skill book. Alex was glad that he was wrong.

Just as Alex was about to open up the bloody book and learn the skill, a burning sensation suddenly assaulted his neck.

When he looked down, he saw blood clearly dripping out of the area where his neck meets his chest. There was a small hole there as blood kept pouring out of it like a faucet. Alex could only fall down limply as he tried to cover the bleeding with his hands.

Off to the side, a small bloody squirrel that was moving so fast that it left behind after images made eye contact with Alex. On its sharp fangs, pieces of what looked like Alex’s flesh was left behind as it chewed on it like a predator. When Alex saw the little animal, Alex shivered.

“I underestimated the monsters of this world...FUCK! I UNDERESTIMATED THE MONSTERS!” Alex screamed as he felt his life draining away from the hole on top of his chest.