[I am sorry, Rex. It's hard for me to speak so I can't call you. However, I can still send you a message. It's boring laying alone on sick bed so please talk with me every now and then. This artifact is so useful. I hope everyone here have one. Love you.][Hello… um, mom. I hope you get better. I will visit you soon but in order to let me go alone, dad gave me a weird power. Could you talk to him about it?][What power is that?][Step of Apocalypse]

I couldn't step all night, struggling between curiosity and wariness. Although the power's name sounds cool, it also implies something disastrous. In the end, morning come and I couldn't sleep at all.

Just as I leave my bed, my phone receives a text. It comes from her. Although she might be my mom, I still feel a bit awkward calling her so. Currently her name in my contact list is a single letter 'M'. We exchanged a few texts, and after sending my new power's name to her, she suddenly goes quiet. I could imagine she fainted after knowing it or she is yelling at dad through messengers. I hope it's the latter one.

After a few minutes, I receive another text from her, telling me it's safe to use but it might have a negative effect on my emotion.

"Ah, here go nothing. Step of Apocalypse!" Although dad says I only need to imagine stepping and the power's name in my mind, I still say it in a low voice and step one step forward.

As my foot hits the ground, a visible shock wave occurs with my landing spot as a center. It cover my entire field of vision in a split second, hitting the walls and shred it to pieces. The roof is blown away, the furnitures are shattered. Everything around me collapses into rubble except for the floor I am standing.

I am frozen in place. It's not the power's effect that froze me. This is the 'negative emotion' she was talking about. The feeling of literally wipe out everything with one step is too much for my teenage's mentality.

Without the roof, I could see the blood-red sky. It looks like the sky of Mars I've seen in pictures on the internet. However, instead of a sun-set like sky, it gives off an eerie feeling.

Quietness. The bustling sound of the street in the morning was gone. I slowly turn to look through where a wooden wall was. The ground are orange, maybe because it's reflecting the red light from the sky. The building around are all in a broken state like a tornado just swept pass.

There is no one. However, littered the floor are countless piles of clothes and equipment. I remember the power to turn things to dust with a touch. Did I just turn everyone to dust with a step? How is this even 'safe'?

Unconsciously, I step a step back in horror. With a woosh sound, everything reconstructs themselves like time was rewinded. Before I know it, I has returned to my room again. The bustling sounds of the street could be heard through the closed windows.

I carefully land my foot on the ground. Nothing happen. The nausea I have been trying to keep is swelling up inside me. I frantically run into the bathroom and let everything out. But there is nothing. My last meal was the dinner I had last night, and I haven't had breakfast.

As I kneel beside the water basin, I could hear my phone ringing. Someone just sent me a text. I don't care about it. I just want to forget the horrible sight of 'Apocalypse', but the event keeps replaying itself in my mind.

Finally I could pull myself together and leave the bathroom. Looking at the phone on the table, I could see the text was sent half an hour ago. It took me that long to recover after one use, then how could I use this power like a cheat?

The text came from dad. I tiredly open it and sit down on my bed to read.

[This is an auto-message.

Hello Rex, your dad here. Well, it's silly to say so because you could see it's me on your phone. Anyway, this message is set to automatically send itself the first time you use your new power. Just in case you use it without me around, you know.

Was that horrible? You should get used to it. There are worse powers sleeping within you, and you must not let them consume you, physically nor mentally. You have to learn to control them eventually, so I awakened your weakest power.

Step of Apocalypse. You could call it an illusion but everything is as real as it could be. However, it's the weakest power because it is reversible by simply stepping backward. I hope you find a good use for it. Hint hint.]

"It's useless." Zwei throws her phone on the lavish wooden table. "I can't contact anyone."

"At least we could still receive information from the internet." Ein says with a sigh.

"And I could still receive text." Drei says with a wry smile.

"Who texted you?" Zwei lifts an eyebrow.

"It's my daily horoscope…"

"Hmph. You are always superstitious." Zwei says with a snort but Drei doesn't seem to mind.

Suddenly, Zwei's phone on the table rings. She immediately reaches over to check. It's Ein. She turns to look at Ein with a frowns.

"And we could call each other. This is some of our advantages in this world." Ein says while nodding. He disconnects the call and tries to call Drei with the same succeed. After that, they try texting and calling each other. It seems they could only contact each other. The most assuring thing is their phone balance (prepaid phone) doesn't budge a single cent.

As they were experimenting with their phone, a knock come from the door. Ein walks over to open the door only to be blinded by the morning light. They had been staying up all night.

"Good morning Sir Ein." The maid on the other side of the door bows, carrying a tray of food. Behind her are three more maid, each of them carrying a basin of water. Steam is the proof that the water is at least warm. "This is your breakfast and water that you requested."

Zwei takes a glance at the food and sneers. "This is how the Royal Castle treat their honorable guests? The food back in my house are way better than this."

"Zwei, don't be rude to our host." Drei helplessly says.

Ein simply lets out a sigh then signals the maid to bring everything in. "We should get used to this lifestyle soon." He mumbles.

I prepare myself for the morning then leaves my room. Coming in front of the door to dad's room, I raise my hand to knock but I smell something coming from the kitchen. Leaving the door alone, I walk into the kitchen. On the small dining table is a bowl of something, covered by a dish. This reminds me of the day we live in our old house. Dad would wake up early, prepare breakfast for me then open the shop. Is he going to do the same thing here, in a Fantasy world?

I sit down and remove the dish. Fried eggs and sausages in a wooden bowl. I unconsciously reach my hand behind only to find an empty space. Ah right, no fridge. Dad had always set my breakfast next to the fridge, and I would open it to get some milk or fruit juice.

The life in this Fantasy world started worse than I expected. I want to yell at whoever depicting a beautiful and comfortable life in their Fantasy novels. It's not.

I try to finish my breakfast. It tastes.. different than what I eat on Earth. Dad didn't bring any food from there so this is probably what he could find in this world. He is such a dork. We came to a Fantasy world, why couldn't he give me a Fantasy breakfast?

After eating my fill, I come down stair. The hall is much less empty now. I could see racks arranged around and shelves next to the walls. Most of the displays are empty. The shelf next to the stair is filled with bottles though. They are ovary bottles containing liquid of different colors. I could understand Red means Health Potion and Blue means Mana Potion. However, there are more than just these two colors. Green, Orange, Yellow, White.

I pick up the Orange Potion. Opening it's rubber lit, I try to smell the contents. It's… orange. I thought this is a Fantasy-like shop that sells potions, but it seems that dad is really going to open a grocery store. The red 'potions' are probably Strawberry juice, green is apple and so on. If this is really a grocery store, the 'White Potion' is probably milk.

"Welcome. What do you want to buy?" Suddenly I hear an unfamiliar voice from behind me. Turning back, I could see a strange man giving me a business smile. Where did he come from?

"Where is my dad?" I ask him without answering his question.

The man sizes me up with a look, glancing at me from my head to my toes. I also look at myself. Although my modern clothes are a bit out of place, dad said that it's not a problem with all different kinds of armors people wearing.

"Ah, you are Master's son, Rex." He says and claps his hands. I give him a nod. Although he, a human, calling my dad as 'Master' feels a bit wrong, I guess that is this world's custom. "Nice to see you. I am Tez, the shopkeeper."

"Shopkeeper? Then what is my dad?"

"Master is the shop owner."

"Make sense… Anyway, where is he?"

"He came to the Adventure Guild to register for you."

Ah, Adventure Guild. How cliché.