"Reporting: three of the black colossal towers have appeared in each of the major sectors close to the Line District," a young man with blonde hair said, his voice smooth, practiced. He wore a sharp black suit that made him look older than he was.
A flick of his wrist — the screen changed.
"Each of these tower-like structures is of different size and width." Another shift. "This one's just outside Dialing Square." A few heads nodded, eyes narrowing. Another flick — a new image. "This was the first to appear. It's the one closest to the City Hospital."
He concluded with a small bow of his head before stepping back, hands behind his back like he hadn't just dropped a bomb.
A middle-aged black man stood next. Already balding, his suit was less pressed, but the authority in his presence needed no tailoring. He moved towards the massive screen, slow and deliberate, and with a swipe of his finger, the image changed.
"This one..." He paused — just for a second. "This one led to the death of thirty-four people this morning. It landed like a missile — hit a car."
A breath.
"In that car was a family of four. And a baby."
Silence.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
He continued.
"I don't know what these things are. I don't know where they came from. But the effects are already sending ripples across the world."
He walked back to the table, picked up a document, flipped it open, and began reading aloud.
"New Bane. Blue Star. Red Heart. All struck by tower-like structures. Every one of them hit a major district. The government is scrambling to contain the panic."
He dropped the document on the table with a dull thud.
"The nation is on full alert. Until we can study these things — until we confirm that this isn't an invasion, possibly extraterrestrial — no unauthorized person is to be allowed anywhere near the towers."
Murmured agreement. Quiet nods. The room felt colder now.
Then the mayor spoke — soft, but with steel behind her words.
"But what about the screen?" Her gaze narrowed. "What about that message? That voice?"
She stood up slowly, her presence sharpening like a blade.
"The message we all saw. The voice we all heard. If this isn't a threat... then what is it? Things we thought impossible just became real. And we have no clue what's coming next."
She turned, eyes scanning the room.
"Issue a citywide command. Tell everyone to stay safe. There will be a nine-hour curfew starting at 7 p.m."
And just like that — the meeting ended.
…..
Back in the hospital room, Lucan eyes peered downwards like a bird, as scanned down below. Countless police officers sweat and fear dripping like water out of their head stood each one holding weapons in their hands, guns pointed readily at the colossal tower, ready to be fired at any moment.
The air was still and some could swear they could feel the air shake.
Some individuals each one dressed in white quaratined clothing had arrived and they seemed rather eager to inspect the structure. Lucan could see them touching the tower with their gloved hands, as they felt and rubbed it, feeling it's surface.
He stayed there for sometime but after some moments he left.
Lucan removed his gaze from it and sat down on his soft and decent looking bed, but pressing down.
He touched the bandage on his cheek feeling a slight sting of pain before whether due tohis curiousity decided to open his phone to check how the internet. As soon as he opened the app his feed was flooded with posts like: "Mysterious structure suddenly appears 😱" … like WHAT???#breakingnews #mystery #structure #wtf #34dead 💀 #apocalypsevibes #endoftheworld? #run #aliens? 👽 #masspanic #wearetoast #isthisreallife #someonecallNASA #doomscrolling #whatisthatthing #unexplained #newworldorder #sos #prayforme 🙏 #weareNOTokay #maincharacterenergy
Countless reaction like:
@Sonnylover: Is this the end of the world?
@Bigcheeks: Damn, I gooned to this🥀🥀
Filled his phone, as every slide down of his fingers sent him further down and down.
After some time of reading and checking comments, he threw his phone back on his bed as it landed safely on it.
His parents hadn't called him nor his siblings. They were probably busy, uh. But he doubted it. They were probably having their own meetings.
Soon enough, he laid down back on his bed, eyes ready and expecting his life points.
It had already been 30 minutes since the world changed, and so now he was expecting his reward.
As if reading his thoughts, the system responded with a soft chime.
{ Ding! }
{ 1 life point has been granted to the Host. Host can now edit his life book }
As it said that, a section previously not there in the system slowly shimmered into view as a open book like symbol appeared on the system interface.
Finally! A smile crept on Lucan face as he attempted to move his fingers towards the symbol when suddenly he heard a sound.
{ Ching! }
{ Dungeon tier rated FF to F tier currently available }
Then like a ghost which comes and goes, the voice disappeared.
Lucan instinctively rose up from his bed, as he instantly said out the word "status"
A shimmer and then a bask of blue light across the walls appeared as seconds later a floating panel materialised into view.
---------
Name: Lucan Farel
Level: 1 / Exp: 0/300
Sex: Male
----------Status--------
Physical: Strength [10], Speed [9], Endurance [14], Constitution [7]
Mental: Intelligence [13], luck [6]
----------------------------
Soul line: N/A
The info was the same, nothing new but now…
Under it was the word [Dungeon]
Lucan seeing this didn't hesitate and he lunged his finger aggressively at the interface, tapping the word as a new section of the system blossomed into view.
Soon enough, he was met with variety of options
Insane! Lucan muttered. What he was seeing was insane.
At his front, countless images were displayed to him, greatly peeking his interest. It was insane what he was seeing, as it felt like parts of a world he never knew of was suddenly presented unto him as if he were a god. His eyes pressed down on one, like a scientist on his experiment, as he read its details.
{Dungeon Rachi cove}
{Difficulty: FF tier}
{ Description: A cave like place, filled with countless rats. Each rat was a member of the airachoes second cove, but after the disbandment and death of most, they were sent parking. Now they reside here feeding and living off of the cave resources. }
Reading the words, Lucan could not help but get curious as to what he was seeing. Rats? Rats? Seriously rats? But then again, this was an FF tier dungeon only. It wasn't something too shocking, at least to his knowledge And who knew how strong these rats could be. Just because they were rats, didnt mean they were weak.
With a loss of curiousity for it, his eyes soon began scanning at the other dungeons present and after a few moments of time he was done.
13 dungeons. That's all!?
In all honesty, Lucan was quite disappointed. That was very small.
Through out reading it, he had seen various scenes and read various descriptions on it and each and everyone of them had number differences and limit.
The rachi cove dungeon, was an FF tier dungeon that had a number limit of 50 people. Another like so was the Furious den that had a limit of 20 people. Each one of them had different limits of people it could contain and the higher the tier, the higher the number of people who could enter it. For example the F tier dungeon named Goblin code had a number limit of 150 people which was the highest he had seen and that was not all, they also had anti-people benefit. Meaning, the less number of people present, the more the gain.
Lucan had read through each and every one of them, furiously jotting them down in his thoughts. At this point in time when the world was at a confused state, being careful was the safest ploy.