Surrounded by darkness, al signs of life were gone. I floated through the void, after everything was over, only left with my memories.

It was the middle of May when it all started. The world began to change, faster than anyone could expect. Humans fought against climate change, epidemics or themselves, all in a spiral towards destruction. But all these problems were incomparable to the invasion by the demonic forces, led by ninety-nine evils, set out to destroy and conquer.

Slowly the demons came out of hiding, first the lowly ones, like Goblins and Kobolds, led by their higher variants. First there were we, the Hunters or Awakened as the common folk called us, snatching every monster in sight, monopolizing the delicious treat of superhuman powers gained by killing these things. Then, a week afterwards, came the military, taking over the dungeons, stopping us from power-leveling.

“Is that all you can do? [Fireball]! Hahahaha!” I watched them burn, laughing at the miserable mobs, burning only to fill up my experience. “Come on! Is that everything you got? The mobs at Central Park gave more experience than you and they weren’t even humanoid!”

“Wooooh!!!”

A kobold twitched on the ground, his fur spreading the flames all over his body. I smiled at the burned, black body. The exhilarating feeling of their power entering my body.

“Ahhh, that’s the good stuff. What I wouldn’t give for some real monsters. These cubs just failed at becoming werewolves in their childhood, nothing really worth fighting.”

“Hey ****, shut up, you’re scaring the new guys.”

I looked at the man next to me, a brawny, middle-aged fucking badass.

“Don’t you think you are scarier asshole? There’s still some entrails hanging at that axe of yours.”

“I don’t know. I would definitely say the guy who looks at them burning while laughing seems evil.”

He hit me on my back. “Ouch motherfucker, that hurts!”

“Already regretting becoming such a scrawny mage?” He smirked at me.

That little bastard, I thought to myself.

“Let’s go, further up ahead should be the group of hob-goblins according to that scout.”

Little did I know that this should be the last time I saw him. And the first time I saw someone die.

One year has passed. One fucking year and the demons fucking overran the cities. And what did the military do? Nothing! After taking over the bigger spots and leveling themselves they still relied on their guns.

I crouched inside a building, hiding from the massive waves of monsters roaming outside.

“Shit, what should we do?”

A young woman asked me, as I had the highest level out of all of us. But I didn’t knew either. I saw these guys outside, variants of ogres and orcs. Higher level than the standard versions, with skin like armor, hard enough to withstand bullets and beginner-ranked skills. No wonder the military retreated.

As I was lost in my thoughts that woman sneaked up to me, silently grasping my hand. I looked at her, understanding what she wanted without her needing to tell me. It was the way she looked at me, ready to do anything to survive, even selling herself. And it’s not like I couldn’t understand her, after seeing how that guy got eaten alive, after hearing him scream.

Five years later I met the guy who would become my best friend, even my sworn blood brother. A big, brown-skinned fella, muscles bulging, impossible to cover with the armor he had on him, in his hand a spear nearly eight foot long.

Standing in the ruins of Shanghai, in front of the Dungeon in midst Changxing Island, he looked outwards at the sea. The dungeon turned the river around it into a bloody red, changing the seascape it flew into.

Trying to look cool, don’t you?

“By now you should be accustomed to the change in scenery.”

I called out to him. It was good to see other living human beings in these monster infected times, even if most of them were a little crazy in the head by now. Hell, even I would fail any psychological test and be admit to an asylum if they would still be running.

“Hellooo? Are you still alive?”

I stepped next to him, waving my hand in front of his face, but still couldn’t get any reaction out of him.

“Does he even understand me? What am I thinking about, after the initialization of the system we should be able to understand everyone who has a system. Then what could it be…?”

Ahhh! I know, this fucker ignores me!

“Hey you piece of…”

As I wanted to curse at him I heard the rumbling behind me which coincidentally was the direction he looked at. I turned my head, looking out at the ocean. In it a giant fin shoved its way out of the water, followed by a long, scaled tail. Soon it disappeared back into the water, but not without crating heavy waves, creating their way inland.

Okay, he didn’t want to look cool.

“You up for some sashimi?”

So you can actually talk! Well, sound like a robot with a broken chip, but whatever! I turned back to him. “You know that sashimi is Japanese cuisine? We’re in china for Christ’s sake! At least make it their cuisine, something like Shui Zhu Yu.”

“So you don’t want anything?”

I looked at him looking at me. There was no sign that he had any sense of humor, a personality as flat as… I didn’t even know anymore, seeing how the land was distorted after the materialization of the dungeons, destroying anything around it.

“Nahh, count me in. My last food has been some kind of humanoid tiger.”

His eyes showed a glint of sadness. But his voice betrayed any hint of it whatsoever.

“The Dòngwù Rén. I understand your pain.”

The way this guy talks, without a hint of any emotion. Fucking wants to mock me or something? Maybe I should just punch this guy. No. I suppressed my shaking fist, it wouldn’t be wise to punch my first human contact in a month. Maybe after this guy in the sea calms down a bit.

I turned my head back towards the sea, feeling the shaking again. This time the sea serpent showed itself completely. Silver scales covered its body, its head slim, split apart by a gaping jaw, filled with razor sharp teeth. If it wasn’t for the three pairs of eyes and what seemed like two pairs of barbels I would have taken it for a gigantic eel.

“Well then, I heard you need to cool it down beforehand.” I turned around, waving my hand in front of me to make a magic circle, thirty foot in diameter appear. “[Ice age; Modify: Focus].” With my word as the command the circle started to spin, the symbols inside changing form, settling down into a shape before starting to change once again. Then the air began to freeze, spreading outside to the sea, like fog. Waves slowed down and turned into ice sculptures as the sea froze over, the cold reaching out to anything living inside.