Human species understood pretty early that everything died. On this earth, every life form had a set expiration date but they could also die prematurely from various other causes. So if everything died then would the world die too? The planet too should have a set lifespan no?
The complete destruction of the world, apocalypse. It was something humanity always wondered about. The various records through the history of civilization proved that. Cataclysm, Armageddon and Ragnarok, they are but a few of the many names humanity called the end of the world.
Even in the 21st century ,society still theorized about when the world might end. That was the purpose of Apocalypse Theory. It was a web platform where they discussed, analyzed and came up with theories about the annihilation.
Due to it being a worldwide platform with English as it's main language, Apocalypse Theory was pretty popular. There were also pretty ridiculous conspiracies floating around in the platform from the amount of members it had.
For Cha Doyun, A.T was something he joined out of boredom and a wish to get away. He didn't really care about the cataclysm itself nor just when it might happen. For a trash of the society like him, it was simply a place to escape from the reality of his life.
There probably wasn't anyone in Korea who didn't know his name. After all, killing 3 of your classmates, one of them who had been a son of a high ranking politician, was a pretty big crime. Doyun spent 8 years in prison and had only been released 2 years ago.
He hadn't been able to hold a single job for longer than a month at most since his release and it showed. He was a thin, gangly thing with shaggy black hair and sunken eyes.
His life had only gone downhill from that day 10 years ago. The only reason he even had a place to call home was thanks to his mother. She had left Doyun the tiny little apartment building they owned.
So Doyun thought it was perfectly acceptable for him to want to escape from reality sometimes and if he got an internet addiction out of it, then it wasn't like there was anyone left to judge him for it.
Anyone he cared about anyway.
Just as he was thinking, his phone pinged with a new notification.
Doyun looked down at his battered old phone. It was a pretty old model, half of the things in it didn't even work. It could make calls, receive messages and allow internet connection but that was it for the most part.
He hummed then quickly tapped the notification open. Instantly, his demeanor changed from bored to interested. There was a new post from the admins of A.T, saying that the Apocalypse Theory app was ready to be downloades, along with the link.
Doyun pressed open the link with a quiet, almost invisible type of excitement. He had been waiting for it for ages since it had been first announced to the public. The app was supposed to not only access the newsfeed easier but also to make friends and form groups to compete with each other. It had sounded pretty fun to him.
Within minutes, the app was installed and ready to be used. It really said something about Doyun that he god excited over a mere application. Not like he had any real friends, people tended to shy away from him whenever they recognized Doyun.
The black haired, hobo looking man opened the app and was greeted with a login page.
[Username:????]
[Pass: ]
Doyun typed in his username that simply stated "YunCha912" along with his password. He then logged into the app and was met with a black screen with 'Tap Me' written in bold white letters on it. He did what it said all the while hoping that it wouldn't break his poor old phone.
The black screen was soon overtaken by white and a cutscene played out, albeit a low quality one. A star dropped from the sky into what appeared to be the sea, sinking into the bottom before the screen flashed again. Soon enough, a dark blue tarot card appeared on his screen with "The Fool" written in gold letters along with image of a two faced clown.
[Congratulations! You have been sorted into "The Fool" category! For more info, please tap anywhere on the screen.]
'Tap'
The phone screen once again flashed, this time into an information board with a night sky background.
[The Fool]
[Welcome to the Apocalypse Theory. 'Prophet YunCha912'.]
[ The Fool is one of the seven categories we are dividing our Prophets into. There are 'The Judge', 'The Lover', 'The Fool', 'The Executor', 'The Seeker', 'The Pillar' and 'The Magician'!. The selection is totally random and it cannot be changed once given out. We won't be accepting any complaints about it.]
[You can collect more badges of your category from completing quests! If you get the badge of another category, you can exchange them for badge shards! Or exchange them with other players once a week! For more information please refer to "The Badges" section of the app.]
[Current Badge Count: 0]
'The Fool huh? How fitting…' Doyun thought, his mind whirling rather unpleasant memories. It always left a bad taste in his mouth. If only he hadn't been that foolish-
He shook his head sharply, it wouldn't do for him to dwell on the bad thoughts. Cha Doyun instead turned back to his phone. He decided to put aside the info about the badge collection for later and entered the newsfeed section of the application.
He grinned slightly when the newsfeed finally loaded to show a bunch of new "Prophecies" about the cataclysm. Some of them were realistic while others downright ridiculous.
Apocalypse Theory called their users prophets and the posts as prophecy. The whole thing seemed rather childish, Doyun admitted. But he loved spending time on it, reading and discussing the theories with every bit of seriousness he could muster.
He scrolled down through the newsfeed, taking his time to read the Prophecies. He had gotten fired from another job the previous night so he had nothing to do for the day.
'I'll go job hunting tomorrow, definitely.' Doyun would promise himself everytime he lost a job. Though, even he, himself was losing hope at this point. It had been his, what? 27th job? At least the boss lady had been nice enough to give him his pay fully before firing him.
"Ugh…" he grimaced. There wasn't any point in feeling hurt. It wasn't like he had been expecting anything else. Cha Doyun, in the eyes of the society was a dangerous criminal who should have never been released.
It didn't matter he had spent 8 years of his life rotting in prison, no one who valued their reputation would keep a trash like him around.
The man sighed in frustration at his own failure to stay positive and instead put all his effort into reading the currently trending prophecy. While the post was rather messy in writing, it was interesting. The Prophet's name was "UnavoidableFate" and their prophecy read:
[ July 8th,20XX.]
[ On the day of July 8th, 20XX, around 1500 hours, the sun will eclipse fully.
It is the beginning of the Apocalypse.
The Lord shall raise the gates of hell.
Of the 8 pillars of humanity, only 3 shall be left standing.
For you, who are reading this.
Hopefully we won't survive this day, because the days that will follow the judgment will be a path we won't ever be able to reach the end of.]
[I hope you will forgive me.]
'It's like a farewell note…' Cha Doyun noted. Others probably wouldn't agree with him, but it was definetly a suicide note. He knew at least that much.
After reading the most likely last message of "UnavoidableFate'', Doyun didn't feel like scrolling through the comments anymore.
He glanced at the small cracked clock on the wall, staring as the second needle ticked. There was a quarter till 15:00, plenty of time to get himself some food, Doyun decided.
The black clad man stood up and put on his shoes. He grabbed his phone, some money, keys and was out of the door within a minute. With what money he managed to save from his last two jobs and yesterday's salary, he could feed himself for a week. Thankfully, he had paid off his bills the three days prior.
Doyun pulled on the hood of his dirty black jacket over his head when he neared the convenience store. It won't do for him to get recognized by the owner unless he wanted to get chased out.
He swallowed and stepped into the store, immediately heading towards the food section. From there, he picked up a loaf of bread, cheap instant noodles,a gas and few bottles of water. He then headed towards the cashier to check out.
Doyun placed the items in front of the cashier carefully. The cashier, a high schooler from what Doyun could see, immediately checked them out.
"that would be 7000 won." she told him.
He handed out the correct amount of money and quietly left with his bag of items. Ignoring the polite "Please come again" coming from the girl.
Doyun stopped a few steps away from the store to see people pointing towards their phones whispering among themselves. Curious as to why, Doyun pulled out his own phone.
On his screen was a timer in white. It showed 14:55. The black haired man frowned, trying to get out of whatever it was that showed him the timer.
"Look!!!"
Someone yelled from the crowd, startling Doyun. Doyun was surrounded by gasps as soon as the people noticed whatever it was that the person had pointed at.
Following the line of direction of their gazes, the black clad man turned his head up and froze. Unable to tear his gaze away from the phenomena happening in front of his eyes.
Clock on the screen of his phone ticked ominously as the moon slowly covered the sun. The sky darkened bit by bit until the only thing illuminating the dark world was the artificial lights of human creation.
At 15:00PM sharp, only a ring of faint white light was left in the sky. There had been no hint, no warning, no prior notice about it. On the day of July 8th, 20XX the sun had eclipsed fully.
'Just like the message said..' Cha Doyun thought. Because it had been a message, a message of someone saying goodbye to the world they had condemned.
Dread pooled inside his stomach at the implications of what that meant for them. The people that were left behind.
[Until the End Of the World]
[ 00:00:00]