My name is Riven Altarai. I am 19 years old and a high school student. I am 185 cm tall, and my long wavy hair shifts between brown and black. I have black eyes and thick eyebrows. No matter how well my face is described, I wouldn't be considered handsome. I am an ordinary person; my life revolves around school, sports, and home. It may be a monotonous life, but this routine is a source of peace for me. I like calmness, away from the chaos of crowds. But there was always a bitterness, a trouble inside me. This trouble was like an old burden left from the past; it was as if nothing remained of my old life.
Lately, exam stress had worn me out. What would my future be? This question kept spinning in my mind constantly. I lived in a place that could be called rural. My family's situation was not good. I felt very sorry for my mother and father; my father had been injured while coming back from work, and while my mother was applying ointment to him, the lines on her face deepened. After the accident my father experienced, strange rumors started circulating in the neighborhood. "That accident was not an ordinary accident," they said. I didn't know the truth, but I felt that something was missing inside me. I never asked "Why aren't we rich?" I didn't even question it. Although my family told me "don't stress too much," there was always a worry inside me, gnawing at me silently and washing me away. I wished all these troubles would end soon, but at the same time, I didn't want them to. I didn't even understand myself anymore. Maybe I hid these fears from my family so as not to be a burden. I didn't know what I wanted; I was just dragged along the same cycle every day.
Like a programmed robot, in my eyes, my life consisted of the triangle of school, sports, and home. Without sports, I think I would have broken down. When I went to the gym, at least for a few hours, my soul felt a bit relieved. Every moment my muscles tired, the troubles in my mind eased a little.
That night, as I was leaving the gym and heading home, I looked up at the sky and saw the reddish glow of the blood moon. How beautiful it looked! I wished I could watch it fully. While walking without taking my eyes off the moon, the rhythm of the song playing in my headphones was in my ears. At that moment, it felt as if a force was rising from underground and the ground started shaking.
Suddenly, a glowing text appeared before me:
"Seal of the Night has been activated in the world!
Welcome to Seal of the Night, Riven."
I couldn't believe my eyes. The surroundings quieted, and the world took on a different atmosphere than normal. Inside me, a power and a call I had never felt before was rising. At that moment, I understood that the days when my life was ordinary and monotonous were over.
I couldn't make sense of the texts appearing before me. It was as if I had been transported from reality to another world. For a moment, I thought I might have fainted; otherwise, why would such strange things appear before me? I blinked my eyes, but the texts wouldn't go away. Moreover, they had started increasing; countless texts suddenly filled my view. Reading them took a very long time. But the one that stuck most in my mind and appeared most often was this text:
"1 hour left until the monster wave begins.
Please check your stat screen."
At first, I didn't know what to do. It was impossible to understand that text. Even the fact that such a thing was happening was strange. Normally, the streets would be lively, people would make noise, and vehicles would come and go. But at that moment, the streets were eerily silent. Only one street lamp was on; its yellow light lightly illuminated the surroundings. I looked up at the sky; there was the blood moon, red and terrifying. The cold night air filled my lungs, and a dark feeling overwhelmed me. Was the end of the world coming? Was the apocalypse starting?
On one hand, there was a strange happiness inside me and also a deep sorrow. It was as if something big I had been waiting for all my life and had unknowingly prepared for was beginning. At that moment, while I was wondering "did the apocalypse really come? Is this a joke?" it couldn't be normal for it to feel so real; I thought, did it really come?
But something saved me from these thoughts: my stat screen.
I looked at the screen. There, like in games I had played before, numbers, names, and information were listed.
Name: Riven Altarai
Age: 19
Height/Weight: 185 cm / 75 kg
Title: — (none yet)
Skill: Composure
Fatigue: 45%
Strength: 12 — Determines the damage you deal in close combat attacks like punches and swords. Also affects your capacity to lift heavy objects.
Speed: 11 — Determines how fast you run, your ability to dodge attacks, and your attack speed.
Endurance: 11 — Determines how much damage you can take, how long you get tired, and your overall stamina.
Magic: 0 — Your ability to use magic, magic damage, and interaction with spells.
Intelligence: 9 — Affects strategic thinking, information comprehension, and mental skills compatible with some magic.
Luck: 7 — Affects the chance of critical hits, finding rare items, and randomly escaping dangers.
Lumen: 0
It looked very much like the stat screens in RPG games I used to play. I didn't fully understand what Lumen was, but it seemed to know every detail about me completely. My stats didn't look bad.
For a moment, my family came to mind. I touched the backpack on my back; I didn't know how much time had passed since the end of my workout at the gym. I immediately decided to run home.
There were a few vehicles on the streets, but some had broken windows and were covered with moss. The buildings were covered with ivy, as if they were being reclaimed by nature. This state of the city was very different from the place I knew. "This used to be the place where my childhood memories took place. But now, this scene where nature seemed to be taking back the place of humans frightened me. Was this the trace of a disaster that happened years ago? Or was it a sign of something else?" But without paying attention, I ran thinking only of my family.
"45 minutes left until the monster wave!"
"25 minutes left until the monster wave!"
"10 minutes left until the monster wave!"
The timer was decreasing rapidly, but I wasn't getting tired. Actually, I was tired, but it felt like my fatigue didn't mean anything. I had to keep running; I had to see my family. They were the reason I continued living.
What was the monster wave? If they were really monsters, I had to stop them. But I felt like I was about to faint from exhaustion. My older brother was in Moscow, serving as a soldier there. I hoped he was alright and could help me. "Last week, strange reports had come from where my brother was serving. Abnormal activities around the forest, attacks by unexplained creatures… When I heard these, a fear arose inside me, but now were they all becoming real?"
While running, I suddenly fell to the ground. Exhaustion had overcome me, but I didn't give up. When I came to myself, I felt a strange power in my body. Suddenly, a new text appeared on the screen:
"Your endurance has increased.
You kept running despite your fatigue.
You gained the Determination skill."
I felt renewed and more determined. Was this normal? Suddenly my endurance had increased:
Endurance: 12
Skills: Composed, Determined
This change I felt inside was astonishing. Even my emotions were different; I was more resilient, more energetic, and more focused. Was this a dream? Or had I really stepped into such a world?
Was this real? Or a game?
I blinked my eyes and scanned the surroundings again. The city was in ruins; the silence was strange. But what was real in my hands was my family and this mysterious stat screen.