September 25th, 6:35 AM
As every day, the soft rays of the sun settled on Yumiel's skin, before they began to burn it.
« Arhhh »
Yumiel woke up with a scream of pain. She instinctively slid into the corner of her bed.
Her terrified eyes searched for where to look, eventually landing on her hand. The skin had been burned to the 3rd degree.
Her heart skipped a beat. Panicking, she wanted to join her parents in the living room, placing her foot into the daylight. A sharp pain rose, burning her foot in just a few seconds.
« Arghhh fuck this isn't possible. »
Yumiel retreated to the corner of her bed. She looked at her foot, which resembled melted cheese, then began to cry.
But she didn't cry milky tears—she cried tears of blood. Touching her tears and seeing only blood on her hand.
She was no longer panicked but completely disoriented, her mind wandering and spinning. She saw her vision fading. Her head started spinning.
Before the light ended all of it by stretching out. Onto her, burning her from everywhere. In an indescribable scream of pain, then she gathered her courage and closed the curtains, preventing her flesh from turning into cauliflower.
Unfortunately, it wasn't over. Feeling her insides screaming, she ran to her bathroom, faster than almost any human.
Spewing a good mouthful of blood into the sink. Yumiel caught her breath. Trying to remember as much as possible. And applied the rule of 3 to understand the reason behind all this. Where? When? How?
Nothing came to mind, and a few seconds later the answers came by themselves.
A window drew itself in time, one could call it a panel or even a screen. The window appeared in front of Yumiel. Letters began to appear, many would panic. But Yumiel hadn't finished spitting blood in the sink, so a floating window was the least of her worries.
Once the sink's new "brushing" was done, she lifted her head to see a window with written:
Greetings, I am a system designed to answer your questions. To call me, say « system », then ask your question.
The window stayed there while Yumiel, with a dumbfounded look, stared at it. Everything was spinning in her head, were the answers really that easy to get? Or did someone hit her in her sleep?
Passing her hand to try touching the window, it suddenly disappeared,
« Fucking… »
What made her swear wasn't the window disappearing suddenly, but her hand, which had gone from burnt to completely healed.
A sort of miracle, she checked her other injuries, starting with the one from yesterday. The injury on her right arm was gone, nothing, she moved on to her foot, the most injured part of all, before seeing that the skin on her foot was regenerating at insane speed.
Struck by a flash of genius, everything clicked together, she now knew what was happening—she had become a mutant like in X-Men. She quickly dismissed that idea,
She hesitated to shout « system ». But between burning in the sun, spitting blood, regenerating, and a floating window, not much could shock her anymore.
« System »
Without warning, the window reappeared in front of Yumiel
-------
Greetings, I am a system designed to answer your questions. Please specify your question?
-------
Questions? That, Yumiel had plenty.
« Tell me what's happening to me? »
The system didn't reply and the window stayed there in front of Yumiel with the same message. Yumiel sighed and looked at herself in the mirror, before freezing, petrified by her reflection.
Her skin had become smooth with no imperfection, her eyes oscillated between red and gray, and above all, fangs replaced some of her teeth. Her hand began trembling, she felt weak. The only one able to provide answers was that thing called the system. She tried again, but this time all together.
« System, tell me what's happening to me! »
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Right now, 50% of Earth's population have been changed in their deepest nature. Congratulations, you are one of them!
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Yumiel's eyes widened. 50%, that represented 3,510,866,074 billion people, it was scientifically impossible.
« How is that possible? »
…
« Ah you shitty system »
« System: how is that possible? »
Yumiel absolutely wanted to know if what the system was saying was true, and how so many people could have been transformed in the span of half a day.
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It is possible because it was.
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« … Great, what am I supposed to do with that? »
« System, what have I been transformed into or changed into, whichever you prefer. »
Although she already had a little idea, she wanted to confirm.
-------
You have been changed in your deepest nature, the development of it only applies to you.
-------
That didn't really help her.
« System, am I a vampire? »
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You are what you are. The rest will depend solely on you and your choices.
-------
Yumiel wanted to punch that floating window for all those vague answers.
« System what do you call the rest? can you help? Any kind of help like showing stats or anything else? »
She asked several questions. After all, we're not limited to one. And maybe it was like those many mangas or other stories she had seen with a stat system for powers and tons of awesome stuff.
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The rest, is what you decide to do from now on. Yes, I can help, I can answer your questions. I cannot display any statistics or windows related to your powers or any abilities.
-------
At least now she knew that powers and abilities existed, otherwise the system wouldn't have mentioned them, but she still lacked too much information. She didn't think the system would give her a better answer.
In this kind of situation, the news is the best source, she thought. She walked to her PC, turned it on and put on the news.
You're on London FM: chaos currently reigns in the city, hundreds of people are killing each other in the streets, it's a real carnage, authorities are trying to control the situation, but a monster is massacring our local forces. I ask all residents to stay in their homes. The armed forces will soon control the situation.
Yumiel hurried to look at newspapers from around the world. Apparently, absolutely every country had been affected and reported carnage in each major city. According to the census of several nations, the estimated number of deaths was in the thousands.
Panicking, she grabbed her phone before noticing the overwhelming number of notifications. There was the government's message looping, telling people to stay in their homes.
Then she scrolled, the messages
Dad:
00:50. yumiel don't leave the house
4:00. I won't be back for a while, stay at home. I can't come pick you up, but I have your mother with me, stay home, don't move, I'll come as soon as possible.
This contact tried to reach you 13 times, tap to see the time or call back.
Mom:
00:20. Sweetie, I had to go to work urgently, I may not be back for a while. There's some pie in the fridge. Kisses.
3:35. Sweetie, don't you DARE go outside under any circumstances, your father will come pick us up, don't move under any circumstances and don't open to anyone.
4:05. My heart, your father and I can't come get you, you must stay safely in the house and don't go out, I love you.
This contact tried to reach you 27 times, tap to see the time or call back.
Crazy Group:
Mathis: 5:55 AM. Did you see the news girls? We definitely must not leave the house, that'll give me time to practice music.
Mathis: 5:57 AM. Just thinking about it, you should come to my place so we can rehearse together.
Mathis: 6:20 AM. My dad is freaking out, he told me not to go out, I don't understand, he started barricading the house.
Mathis: 6:45 AM. Hey girls? I'm starting to worry, answer!!!
This contact tried to call the group 4 times, tap to see the time or call back.
Mathis:
6:50 AM yumiel, are you there? Answer, it's not funny.
This contact tried to reach you twice, tap to see the time or call back.
Yumiel took a long moment to think, her parents must be safe. Mathis wasn't in danger and didn't seem to have transformed. But Morgane wasn't answering, which was a bad sign.
She sent a message to the people close to her that said: « I'm fine, don't worry, I just woke up. » with a little tired emoji, as if to say she hadn't had enough sleep.
« BOOM »
She barely had time to think about what to do when an explosion was heard near her. From the sound of it, it must have happened in her neighborhood.
« What the fuck is going on! »