I heard a chime, which sounded similar to a video game. Loud and ever-present, it rang too close to my ears. It couldn't have been my phone; I disabled the notifications, and every night before I go to sleep, I tuck it under my pillow.
So what was that noise?
I feel myself escaping from my dreams; there's a blue glow reaching my eyes, even though they're closed. It's like shutting them against the light of a brightly lit room – it leaks past and still reaches your retinas.
In my groggy state of mind, I thought, (This doesn't make sense.)
Was the sun rising already?
(I love that morning blue twilight,) I thought randomly.
My consciousness rose to the surface, and my eyes began to unseal like artifacts exposed to the sun. Since I sleep on my side, the first thing I see is the corner of my bedroom walls, bathed in a pale mixture of azure-white luminescence.
(There's no way that kinda illumination can come from the morning light.)
Like that scene from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, where a sleeping Ben Solo turns to see Luke Skywalker towering over him, I craned my neck to see what was happening.
What I saw took my breath away.
(A scenario window?)
It was a giant holographic screen. I shot up to bring myself closer to it. I sat there in my dark room, looking at the only source of light that was bearing down on me. It glowed blue, brighter than the display of any phone.
(Phone…)
Unknowingly, as I sat up, my fingers dug into the bed sheets, grabbing my smartphone device – an instinctual movement. I check the time; it says 3 AM. The Witching Hour.
I was itching to open my webnovel app. I needed to compare what I was seeing to what I've read so many times before. It was a scenario window, a system notification, from the Star Stream. The grand system that connects the universe, and perpetuates the near-endless tragedy for Yu Junghyeok and Anna Croft.
I couldn't help but smile at the window.
[Main Scenario 1 - Proof of Value]
[Time limit: 30 min]
[Reward: 300 coins]
[Clear Conditions: Kill one or more living organisms]
[Difficulty: F]
[Reward: 300 coins]
[Failure: Death]
***
I stepped out of my bed, and the window followed my eyesight.
(This… this can't be happening.)
Star Stream scenario? Did I really get a notification from the Star Stream? No, it can't be, it's a book, a webnovel, it's-
(Fiction.)
It's not real. This can't be real.
(So why does this feel real?)
I was mesmerized. This wasn't a dream. I had all my senses. With my own two eyes, I was witnessing something impossible in this reality, unless it was a prank. But if it wasn't, then the world is about to change, and the potential it'll bring alongside it-
THUD!
"!!!"
My mother. I could hear her indistinct shouting. I could hear stumbling in the other room across from mine. I could hear her shout my name in her shrill voice. I ignored her.
(Of course.)
She had to interrupt my moment. The magic I was weaving in my mind was gone now. Now I was in the cool head-space of reality, already crafting plans and mental preparations.
So, TWSA and ACSS came to life? No problem. I've been prepared for a very long time.
(I want to read it.)
I flick on my phone, opening my webnovel app. Now that I'm more awake and put together, all the cylinders in my head are firing. If my greatest fantasy has become reality, then I need to know as much as possible and-
(Where is it?)
My heart skips a beat. My fingers freeze as my hands grow clammy.
I open my webnovel app, but it's not there in my library. The app is in offline mode because the internet cut out; another sign of the end times via the Star Stream system.
Now that the Dome is enabled, they cut off any connections with the outside world. But it shouldn't change the fact that I've been saving each chapter of TWSA and ACCs with the app's download feature. It should've been available in offline mode.
(So where is it?)
A pang of fear rang in my chest. Was it somehow deleted? That doesn't make sense, if it existed locally in my storage, and if the internet cut out, how did someone remote access my device and delete it off my phone?
(Unless it was a power greater than any hacker.)
I thought about it for a moment. Would it make sense for a reader to become part of a story and still have access to it? If someone else were to see it, it would break the narrative. It would be too aware, it'd break…
(The 4th Wall.)
Have I become a character? Is this a really complicated dream? What if-?
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
My mother was banging on the bedroom door, asking if I was alright. I gave a throwaway answer.
(We're not in a position to ponder.)
What I see is what is real, and I see a Main Scenario window.
(Proof of Value.)
One of the hardest and cruelest scenarios due to its nature: it was the very first, so the shock of everything would daze anyone's reasoning. The circumstances of it are hard as well – kill a living organism. Some people will kill their loved ones, their pets, or any random person they can find.
(But me?)
I have one privilege: a shitty, old house. Little bugs from mites to spiders are my tiny roommates, and if I'm lucky, I might find the occasional slow mosquito or gnat fly.
(I need to know the borders of the scenario to know how much free range I have.)
If I was completely trapped in my house, unable to open the doors to the outside, then I was screwed. But if I could step onto my front or back porch, then I was golden.
I get my socks on, ready to go downstairs, but just as I'm about to open the door, a dark thought flashes across my mind.
(I need to grab my knife…)
A small, black pocket knife. I've mainly used it for woodworking and some martial arts practice; never against a person.
(But now I might have to use it against someone…)
...Like my mom. What if she was waiting out there for me, ready to strike me down? Asking if I was alright could've been a way to disarm me. She must've seen the scenario window too. She's said that she loves me plenty of times, but if our past is anything to go by, when she reaches her breaking point, she becomes another person entirely...
(I need to be ready. For anything.)
I grab the black knife from the makeshift table it was resting on. I eject the blade. Placing my phone in my pocket to free up my left hand, I grab the doorknob and pull, jumping out, holding my little knife in the right.
"Aaghh!!"
My mother screams. She turns to look at me, and I see what's in her hands: her phone. Before I opened the door, for a split second, I saw her trying to get a signal.
I feel a sense of relief flooding through me. She was trying to contact the few people she knew.
My mother says my name and asks, "Why are you holding that?"
I look to my right hand and see the ominous-looking knife that I'm clutching.
(No time to explain.)
I walk towards her. She backs up a little bit, flinching, and a look of fear flashes across her eyes and-
"Mom, find a bug and kill it to pass the scenario."
-I move past her, telling her what to do as I walk down the stairwell she was blocking. Before I descend the steps, I turn to look at her for a moment. She looks relieved… like she just avoided death.
(Can't even trust your own son?)
This is why our relationship was rocky since I was a child. We were always paranoid about one thing or another, and it seeped into our relationship as mother and son. My aggression issues frightened her, and the way she treated me before has haunted me ever since. We didn't trust each other, simple as that.
I shake my head and walk down the stairs, focusing on the scenario at hand. I unlock the door, stepping onto my cement porch.
I feel the night's cold air pressing on me. Stay out here long enough, and the wind will steal your warmth. It's a beautiful feeling, one that'll make you feel alive. Knife in hand, I trace the walkway of my house, stepping out from the awning, gazing at the sky.
I can see it, just barely. The pulsing blue electricity of the scenario's dome. Beyond that… the stars. An entire night sky filled with little bright lights, like a dark canvas stabbed with white dots.
(I-incredible.)
My heart grew light and fleeting. An unknowable sensation was floating in my mind. I looked away from the night sky, paying attention to my surroundings.
(The city's light pollution…) I thought. (It's fading away.)
I turned to look at the city skyline, and it's toxic, leaking glow was dying out. The city's infrastructure must've been attacked and shut down, so now there will be no more electricity, and soon enough, no more running water.
(I need to kill something and get back inside.)
I didn't need to kill anyone. I already had everything I needed. It only took a few tries to find some bugs. My mother was calling for me from inside the house, but I already told her what to do. She found an insect herself and cleared the scenario, but not before me.
[Congratulations! You have achieved the first kill of your scenario!]
Out of curiosity, I walked to the edge of my residency's small yard and stabbed at "nothing." My knife ended up hitting something, even though I didn't see anything.
WHOOM!
An electric pulse appeared out of thin air, and I saw it: the wards that cordoned my neighborhood and the rising chaos that emerged.
Just as quickly as it became dark, the sky grew bright again.
Boom!
I could hear far-off explosions in the distance, and I turned to look at the city skyline for a second time. For some reason, night was turning into day, even though the moon was being blocked off by flying creatures and crashing airliners. The source of all that ethereal brightness was-
(The city… it's on fire.)
Flames coiled around buildings, resembling blackened, grasping hands - each structure was a charred finger curled in anguish. It looked like the flames were trying to grab fistfuls of the sky, as if bringing down the heavens would grant salvation.
Honks, screaming engines, and car crashes could be heard reverberating through the suburbia; somehow this horrifying ambiance was being carried over here from miles away.
Undercutting it all… were screams of agony. They rose like a demented chorus, singing pain and pleas. Humans, my fellow humans were out there, suffering. My heart started to jackknife. Unaware little bugs were moving on my front porch.
"I'm sorry," I said while looking down at them.
I began to kill more bugs and earned coins while doing so.
[You have earned 100 coins!]
[You have earned 100 coins!]
[You have earned 100 coins!]
That little notification bar continued to cascade as I continued my minute slaughter.
[You have achieved the Decimator achievement!]
I didn't want to kill the bugs, but in this world, coins are power.
(I can't believe it...)
It really has begun. My thoughts were a collision of eagerness, bitterness and regret. At the core of those thoughts were my raw emotions: joy and fear.
I spoke aloud to no one – my words would be lost amongst the havoc, but like a magic invocation, this simple sentence felt like a spell turning fantasy into reality.
"It has begun," I mutter out. "The Apocalypse."