2024!
It was a sunny evening. People walked around the streets, cars honked through the bustling roads, and the loud voices of street vendors filled the air.
But, amidst this lively city, tucked away in a corner, stood a rough, old apartment.
Inside the dilapidated ground floor, bottles of energy drinks and scattered garbage littered the space. In the center, a youth lay staring up at the greasy, aged ceiling.
"Sigh... I need to fix this," Eryke mumbled, dark circles shadowing his eyes. He reached for a slice of pizza and took a bite.
"Pineapple on pizza... I've committed treason against my ancestors," he muttered, shaking his head with a mix of exhaustion and resignation.
The foul stench was overpowering, but Eryke remained unmoved, his gaze fixed on the flickering television screen. A stern-faced news anchor spoke with grave urgency.
"Following the frequent appearance of unidentified gates throughout the city in recent days, and the response of S-class Awakeners—"
Eryke switched off the TV with a slow click and let out a long sigh.
"Just let me die in peace… but I'm too lazy to die. Hmm, So what do I even do now?"
Back in 2019, the world was shaken by a disaster unlike any before.
Nearly two billion people vanished without a trace. And as if that weren't enough, dimensional rifts, later known as gates, began opening across the globe.
From these gates poured ferocious monsters, turning an already panicked world into a chaotic wasteland.
All weapons proved essentially useless against them. Machine guns, bazookas, nothing could even put a dent in the monsters.
In desperation, world leaders gathered and made a drastic decision: to unleash nuclear weapons.
At first, the strategy seemed effective. But then the gates expanded even further, and with them came monsters that could only be imagined in myths: Dragons, Sirens, Typhon, Fenrir, Jörmungandr, Leviathan and many more.
One by one, they appeared, each more terrifying than the last. Their might was so overwhelming that it made the world tremble beneath their feet.
Humanity fell into despair. Even from nuclear sites, mutated monsters began to surface. But then, something unexpected happened. The people who had vanished, presumed lost forever, returned.
They came armed with powerful weapons, capable of killing the monsters one by one, slaughtering them without mercy.
"Yada, yada," Eryke muttered, shaking his head as the loud announcement echoed from the streets outside.
He glanced at himself in the mirror which was at the side…
Unkempt, long golden hair.
Blue eyes.
A beard thinly growing along his chin.
A lean body with a slightly protruding stomach.
"Awakeners have to go to another world where they can grow, just like in a fantasy…"
He gritted his teeth, hatred simmering in his eyes as he stood from the couch.
With a grimace, he forced himself upright again, his limp steadying. Ignoring the garbage littering the floor, he was about to walk away, mumbling:
"I don't wanna be an Awakener. What can I even do with this weak body? I'd be dead in a minute—"
[Congratulations, you have been chosen as an Awakener! You have ten minutes before you will be teleported to another world. Best of luck!]
"Huh!?"
Eryke stared at the glowing blue panel before him, his mind reeling. Dizzy and disoriented, he collapsed to the floor.
"What the hell? Why?" he thrashed in place, sweat dripping from his forehead as panic took hold, not from the fall, but the crushing mental pressure.
"Even if I want to fight, I am just an ordinary man! How the hell am I supposed to fight?"
It took several long moments to calm his racing thoughts. When he finally stood, he limped toward the kitchen, struggling to steady his breath.
At the counter, he grabbed a glass and drank deeply, gulping the water in desperate, uneven swallows.
Out of the two billion people who had disappeared, only a hundred thousand had survived, a mere 0.005% chance of survival.
For a tense five minutes, Eryke remained rooted in place, his eyes vacant as they stared blankly at the ceiling.
"I don't want to die. So I have to do this and stay strong."
He took a deep, steadying breath, focusing. Then his gaze shifted forward, and in his mind, he called out. Instantly, the blue panel materialized before him.
---
[Name: Eryke
Title: None
Talent (SSS-class): Clone [Level 1]
Skill: Cloning allows the user to clone himself (use: 1)]
[Destiny Points: 0]
[Shop]
---
"Eh!?" His eyes widened in shock. He took another deep breath, trying to steady himself.
"I heard there are only two SSS-class Awakeners in America... and now I'm the…"
He clenched his fist, a simmering, unknown hatred burning in his eyes.
Quickly, Eryke tried to summon his clone, envisioning his own image in a semi-transparent form. His thoughts poured into it, delving deep into his consciousness as he willed the power to manifest.
Puff!
A strange sound echoed as a semi-transparent figure emerged from his body, materializing into a perfect replica of him, healthier and unbroken.
---
[Eryke(Clone)
Trait:
Skill:
---
"Hmm?"
Eryke stared at the panel. He could infer a lot from it, but his curiosity shifted elsewhere. An idea began to take shape in his mind.
With only five minutes left before the teleportation, he knew time was running out.
Lost in thought, he suddenly saw himself, no, his original self?
His knees buckled, and he collapsed to the floor, his body wracked with pain.
"This… this…"
The memories overwhelmed him.
The consciousness of two perspectives, two people, was jarring, sending his thoughts spiraling into chaos. He couldn't focus.
Both of them writhed on the floor, crying out as the mental strain became unbearable.
[4:00]
[1:00]
[0:03]
[0:02]
In the midst of the turmoil, Eryke(Clone) snapped his eyes open. His finger shot forward, accepting the teleportation just before he passed out, collapsing to the ground.
For a time, his world was blank, empty, dark, and disorienting. Then, a foul smell assaulted his nose, thick and unmistakable.
Groggy, Eryke's clone woke beneath a clear sky, the sharp scent of cow dung lingering nearby. He blinked, disoriented, taking in the unfamiliar landscape, a dense forest stretching out in every direction.
"Eh, did it really work?"
He tried to focus, gathering his fractured consciousness. Slowly, a mental image of his unconscious state formed in his mind, and his awareness gradually returned to the main Eryke.
In the next moment, his vision snapped back to his room, where he lay on the ground in a daze.
"This is too hard. Ahhhh—"
The overwhelming sensations surged through him again, veins bulging on his forehead as his body struggled to process everything. Instinctively, he parted his parched lips and gasped out:
"Cancel, cancel."
[Congratulations, you are the fastest Awakener to return from another world. You have gained the title:
[Your Destiny Points have increased by one million.]
[Hidden Quest completed! You have not earned a single Destiny Points in your traveled world. You have gained access to a gate back to the same world.]