North University | Male Dormitory.
"It's going to rain again? Should I just skip class today?" Ryan muttered the words to himself as he stared out through the dorm window, watching the sky outside darken despite the fact that it was only eleven in the morning.
For almost a year now, the whole world had been experiencing extreme climate changes, and what Ryan was looking at should not have been possible in the middle of summer. Yet for the past ten months, since the strange shifts began, scenes like this had quietly become the new normal.
Just last month, the southern coastal regions had reported tidal waves crashing against fishing towns without warning.
Ryan had also watched news channels running constant footage of a three-day lightning storm in one country that for years had struggled with drought.
Meteorologists spoke of unstable atmospheric patterns and shifting ocean currents, but none of their explanations truly made sense.
The rain started without warning.
Fat drops struck the glass with dull thuds before quickly turning into a relentless downpour that flooded the courtyard below within minutes, puddles merging into shallow pools that reflected the flashing sky above.
Ryan leaned against the window frame and watched the rain intensify. A bolt of lightning tore across the sky, illuminating the dark clouds for a brief violent second, and for some reason a chill crept up his spine.
"Ryan, drop the curtain already." A voice came from behind him, rough with sleep. "You're letting all that lightning flash straight into the room. Some of us are trying to sleep."
Ryan glanced back. On the opposite side of the dorm, a tall figure lay sprawled across a bed with one arm hanging loosely over the edge of the mattress, the blanket kicked halfway to the floor, leaving his roommate fully exposed to the grey light pouring in from the window.
Mark.
Ryan had shared the room with him for nearly two years, and despite that they were not particularly close, though not because they disliked each other. Their personalities simply existed on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Ryan preferred quiet routines and spent most of his time indoors reading, playing games, or grinding through assignments. He was not exactly an introvert, but social gatherings had never been something he actively sought out.
Mark, on the other hand, could somehow find a party anywhere near campus on any given weekend. His life was a constant rotation of basketball games, late-night hangouts, and endless conversations that Ryan never had the energy to keep up with.
Yet somehow the arrangement had worked. Mark was noisy but easygoing, Ryan was quiet but tolerant, and they had simply learned to coexist.
Ryan reached for the curtain cord and pulled it halfway shut. "There. Happy?"
Mark groaned and rolled onto his side, burying his face in the pillow. "You have no idea how hard it is to sleep after a three a.m. return," he mumbled.
Ryan shook his head slightly and walked back toward his bed, deciding that skipping class no longer seemed like such a bad idea. The rain was only getting heavier, and the dark sky made the entire dormitory feel like late evening instead of midday.
Ryan dropped onto the mattress, leaned back, and stared up at the ceiling. Just as he closed his eyes, a sound rang out, clear and sharp, like a small bell ringing directly inside his head. Ryan's eyes snapped open and he lay completely still, listening, but there was nothing more. Only the steady drumming of rain against the windows.
'Did I imagine that?'
"Seriously, man?" Mark had lifted his face from the pillow and was glaring at him with half-lidded, sleep-deprived eyes. "You want me awake that badly? First you flash lightning into the room, now you're ringing bells?"
"I didn't ring anything," Ryan said.
Mark snorted. "Sure you didn't."
Ryan opened his mouth to argue, but before the words came out the sound rang again, louder this time. In the same instant, something appeared directly in his field of vision. A translucent panel hovered in front of him like a floating screen, its edges glowing faintly with pale blue light, and no matter how he shifted his gaze it moved with him, as though it existed not in the room but somewhere inside his eyes.
[System Initialization Complete. Planetary Integration Successful.]
Ryan blinked hard, but the panel did not disappear. Instead, more lines of text appeared beneath the first.
[All intelligent life on Planet "Earth" has been registered. Population Scan Complete.]
"What the hell…" Across the room, Mark sat up abruptly, his usual lazy expression completely gone. His eyes were wide and fixed on empty air in front of him.
"You see it too?" Ryan asked slowly.
Mark stared for another moment before answering. "Yeah. Some blue screen thing. What the hell is going on? Did we both inhale something? Are our neighbours cooking pot again?"
Ryan looked back at his own panel just as new text appeared.
[Warning. Planetary Conditions Unstable. Emergency Evolution Protocol Activated. All registered creatures will now undergo Awakening. Failure to adapt will result in termination.]
Outside, thunder rolled across the sky like a massive drum. "That doesn't sound good," Mark said quietly, the usual confidence stripped entirely from his voice.
The words had barely faded when a strange warmth began spreading through Ryan's body, faint at first, like the uncomfortable heat that comes before a fever, then intensifying rapidly.
"Ryan," Mark said from across the room, his voice already sounding strained. "Do you feel that?"
Ryan pushed himself up on his elbows to answer, but the warmth inside him surged violently before he could speak. It felt as though someone had poured boiling water directly into his veins. He clenched his teeth as the heat tore through his chest and flooded into his limbs, his heart hammering hard against his ribs.
Mark had already stumbled off his bed, face pale but skin flushing red, sweat pouring down his temples. Ryan tried to move as well and his body buckled almost immediately. The burning sensation kept rising until it no longer felt like heat at all but like every cell in his body was being forced awake at once.
As his vision blurred and dark spots gathered at the edges, the panel flickered one final time.
[Awakening Process Initiated.]
Then everything went dark.
Ryan did not know how long he had been unconscious. The first thing he felt when awareness returned was cold. The fever that had burned through his body was gone, leaving behind a strange emptiness in its wake, his muscles sore as though he had run for miles without rest.
He pushed himself up slowly, his head throbbing. The memories came back in pieces. As if responding to his thoughts, the translucent screen reappeared in front of his eyes, its pale blue letters calm and emotionless.
[Awakening Complete.]
"So it wasn't a dream," Ryan said quietly.
A low, uneven breathing interrupted him before he could process anything further. Ryan turned his head and found Mark lying on the floor beside his bed. He felt a brief wave of relief and called out weakly, but there was no response.
Ryan pushed himself off the mattress on unsteady legs and crossed the room, crouching down to touch his roommate's shoulder. The skin beneath his hand was burning hot. "You're still feverish," he muttered.
Then Mark's fingers moved. A small twitch at first, then his entire arm jerked violently. Ryan stepped back.
Mark's head turned slowly. His eyes opened, and Ryan's breath stopped. The whites had turned murky grey and his pupils looked dull and completely lifeless.
For a split second Mark simply stared at him. Then his mouth opened and a wet, animalistic sound escaped his throat.
Ryan barely had time to react before Mark lunged forward and slammed into him, knocking them both against the desk. Books scattered and the chair tipped over as Mark's fingers clawed at Ryan's shirt, his teeth snapping toward Ryan's shoulder.
Ryan shoved him away hard. "Mark! What are you doing?!"
Mark came again without answering, movements erratic and violent, nothing human left in them. Ryan grabbed the nearest object, a metal desk lamp, and as Mark lunged once more he swung with everything he had. The metal base crashed into the side of Mark's head with a heavy crack.
Mark staggered but did not fall. He turned back with cloudy eyes and a guttural growl rising from his throat.
Desperation took over completely. Ryan brought the lamp down again with brutal force, and the second blow crushed inward with a sickening sound that he knew he would never be able to unhear. Mark's body jerked once and then dropped heavily to the floor.
The room fell silent except for the rain.
Ryan stood frozen with the lamp still clutched in his trembling hands, staring at what remained of his roommate while blood spread slowly across the tiles beneath the body. His grip loosened and the lamp slipped from his fingers, clattering against the floor.
Before he could process a single coherent thought, the panel reappeared.
[You have slain: Mutated Human | Level 1]
[Congratulations. You are among the first 1,000 individuals on Earth to kill a mutated creature.]
[Title Acquired: First Blood.]
[Reward Generated.]
Something small appeared on the floor beside Mark's body, a transparent orb with faint swirling colors trapped inside it, like smoke suspended in glass.
Ryan stared at it for a long moment before slowly bending down to pick it up. It was warm and strangely soft in his palm, yielding slightly under his fingers rather than feeling like glass the way he had expected.
He wasn't sure when the urge came over him to squeeze it, but his fingers tightened almost on their own. The orb burst apart, not into liquid, but into a thin golden ray of light that shot upward from his hand and hung in the air before slowly taking shape.
A ticket materialized in front of him, about the length of his palm, old-looking and faintly elegant, as though it had been made from golden parchment rather than paper. Mysterious symbols glowed across its surface, shifting and rearranging in patterns he couldn't follow.
A new panel appeared.
[Item Identified: Skill Ticket | Grade: Unique]
[By tearing this ticket apart, the holder will gain a random skill. This reward is soul-bound to Ryan Ashford.]
[Possible Skill Grades and Probability: Basic 100% / Intermediate 95% / Advanced 90% / Extraordinary 85% / Epic 75% / Legendary 65% / Unique 50%]
Ryan stared at the floating lines for a long time. Then he staggered backward and sat heavily on the edge of his bed, lowering his head and pressing a trembling hand against his forehead. "Calm down," he whispered to himself. He breathed slowly and deliberately until his heartbeat stopped feeling like it would burst through his chest.
Outside the dormitory, screams had been rising steadily since he woke. High and panicked, followed by crashes, doors being pounded on, voices cutting off too suddenly, and something growling in the corridor beyond his door. He had not allowed himself to fully register any of it until now, and now it was impossible to ignore.
He made himself think. The weather had been wrong for months before today. Then came the bell, the system panels, the messages about Planetary Integration, the Population Scan, the Awakening, the warning that failure to adapt would result in termination. Then the heat, the darkness, and when he woke up he had survived. Mark hadn't. Perhaps this was what the system had meant by adaptation.
Ryan turned his eyes briefly toward the body on the floor before forcing them away again. The system had said he was among the first thousand on Earth to kill a mutated creature. That meant whatever had happened to Mark had happened to at least a thousand others across the world in the same window of time, and probably far more than that, judging by the sounds coming from the hallway.
His older sister lived two hours away by car. The thought struck him, and for a moment silent tears fell before he clenched his jaw and forced the feeling down. He thought of her voice on the phone two nights ago, telling him to eat properly. He hoped she was somewhere safe and that she had survived her own Awakening.
Panicking about her now would not help either of them. The first thing he needed to do was survive before he had any hope of reaching her.
Ryan looked at the golden ticket again. The system had given it to him because he had killed Mark. The thought twisted painfully in his chest. He pushed it down as he needed to think clearly.
"This ticket….."
The percentages on the panel told a straightforward story even if the rest of the system still confused him. Every grade above Basic had a lower probability than the last, with Unique sitting at fifty percent. The ticket itself was already graded Unique, which he understood to mean it was rare.
The grades themselves were familiar enough.
Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Extraordinary, Epic, Legendary, Unique.
Every game he had ever played used some version of that scale, and the rule was always the same. Higher grade meant stronger power.
Ryan closed his fingers around the ticket and exhaled slowly. He had no weapons, no notable survival skills, and no idea how many mutated creatures were already loose in the building. Without some kind of advantage, he would not last long.
He didn't know what the grades meant in this new world yet, but he knew what he needed now was power.
His thumb pressed against the edge of the golden parchment, and he tore it apart.