I look around my room in shock and slowly walk backwards. I don't notice the bag that is lying on the ground behind me so I end up falling over and sitting on the ground.
I raise my eyebrows and ask out loud, "A System?"
Then I come to a realization and ask by speaking in my mind, "Hold on, can you hear me when I speak like this? Because if you can, that's pretty cool." I let out a laugh.
I get myself up from the floor and sit on my bed.
"Yes human, I can hear you, please answer the question that was asked previously." The system says in a robotic tone.
"About the tutorial and introduction? Yes I would like an intro." I answer back.
As soon as I say that a transparent panel pops up in front of me with a countdown, it starts counting down from 5. I assume that it's better for me to get comfortable because I don't know how long this so called 'introduction' will be. I scoot backwards onto my bed until I can lean back on my pillows and wait until the countdown finally reaches 0.
The panel in front of me has a little loading animation come on and eventually pictures with words written underneath pop up, I notice that if I scroll down with my mind the panel actually scrolls down in front of me.
The system begins, "I am a system but I won't be communicating with you much more after this so it's good that you took the chance to ask for a tutorial," it continues, "I am called the 'Base Boss' system and my purpose is to help you start, manage and operate a base."
I nod my head in understanding and quickly implore the system to explain more.
"To build up your base and keep it operating smoothly during the apocolypse you will need to hunt for materials and get crystal cores from the mutated humans and plants which will be roaming the earth."
The system says as pictures of the monsters pop up, one being an image of a man who looks somewhat like the man with the grey skin and black eyes from my dream, he has long hands and sharp nails that seem to resemble animal claws.
Mutated humans? I think back to my dream and remember all the growling I'd heard and all the chaos I had witnessed. I shiver a bit and look closely at the pictures being presented to me.
The system seems to hear my thoughts and explains, "Humans tend to be curious, sometimes too curious for their own good, so the people whom you refer to as 'scientists' tried to create something that could make people stronger and something that could allow humans to live longer."
There's a flash of light in front of me and I notice that there's a video playing on the transparent panel.
The video has a man lyring on something that looks to be an operating table in a small room and he seems unconcious. There are people in the room with him but they seem to be seem to be doctors and nurses. The room has plain gray concrete walls and floors. Medical equipment seems to be neatly be put in the other end of the room.
"Pass the syringe."
I hear one of the doctor's say. He's the one who is currently standing in front of the patients head with his gloves on and a hand outstetched towards the nurses.
A nurse then swiftly hands a syringe with a sharp needle on it to him. He then lifts it up and it gleams because of the light reflecting from the lights on the ceiling. The doctor then directs the needle to the mans head and carefully injects the man with whatever is in the syringe.
After the doctor injects the man he slowly removes the needle from where it's been inserted in the man's head and carefully passes it back to another nurse.
"The operation has gone by without a hitch, take him to a room and begin observation," the doctor states in his monotonous yet serious sounding voice.
A round of mumbled answers can be heard from the group of people in the room. The doctor takes of his gloves, throws them in a trash can by the bed and leaves the room. The nurses in the room then start pushing the bed with the still unconcious man out. The video ends with a view of the bed being pushed through a dimly lit hallway.
Some more pictures popped up on the screen. One with the man seemingly thrashing around on the bed in another room with people trying to sedate him and more showing the man struggling then eventually escaping.
"Although the operation seemed to go off without a problem, the virus that they injected into him quickly overpowered him and the man they operated on started to have show more and more animalistic behaviours, going as far as trying to bite a nurse's hand." the system says.
"They could not control him and he eventually managed to escape and they have been trying to find him ever since but he seemed to have mutated further and gained certain abilities so they have been unable to retrive him."
I shake my head in dissapointment. Of course this all started because of a science experiment gone wrong. Now everyone has to suffer because of it.
"So what about the plants? How did they get infected, I'm sure they didn't do any experiments involving food." I ask the system.
"The plants were infected by the animals the scientist had tested the virus on before finally infecting a human." the system explains.
"They had been conducting this experiment for years before finally testing it out on a human, the animal remains they had thrown away were not properly sealed off and eventually seeped into the ground which infected the plants and it will eventually start to have an affect on the water which you drink from."
I clutch my sheets and my body tenses up as I begin to think of all the horror movies I'd watched before in the past with people struggling and fighting to get even a simple bottle of water.
"Keep in mind that although the plants have been infected not all of them have mutated, there is vegetation out there that is still edible."
The system continues.
"Soon the environment will change and get harsher. Life will be difficult but luckily you managed to activate me before any of that happens so at least you will have a better chance at survival!"
I lie down on my bed and look up towards the ceiling and ask, "Will I gain any powers?"
"Yes, some humans will be infected yet instead of becoming mutated, man-eating monsters they will gain special abilities, some will obtain abiltires that are related to the physical body like strength, physic powers, healing abilities and speed, some will gain powers related to the elements such as the powers to control wind, ice, water, fire, metal and earth and other people will gain the ability to store things in a separate space."
The tranparent panel in front of me shows different pictures of each ability, "The powers of each ability will not be very strong in the beginning but they will be enough to help you escape some tricky situations."
A picture up on the panel shows someone putting up a wall in front between the group of people they're with and a group of open-mouthed mutated humans.
"You will also undergo the transformation and awaken an ability, maybe two if you're lucky."
I start to get excited, at least I have a better chance of survival now, life for a woman in the apocolypse would probably be terrible if she couldn't protect herself.
The system continues, "People who awaken these powers will have a longer lifespan as well but they will also need to upgrade their abilities by consuming the crystal cores found in the heads of the mutated humans. The end of the world will start in a month."
A pop up then shows up on the system panel. I see a picture of a small gift box rapped up with a ribbon.
"This is a gift that will be bestowed to you by the system today, let's hope that you get something good." The system says.
When I focus on the gift and it opens a pop up box appears.
BASE BOSS SYSTEM:
- Gift: Large Storage Space. Time = Unlimited
I feel something shift for a moment and when I think of the space, I find myself seeing a vast space with huge and empty storage units.
"This is a gift for you that will help you start building your base, you next step should be finding a suitable territory and then your base building journey will officialy begin."
The system then continues to speak and it says, "When the apocolypse starts you will also be able to use just crystal cores instead of materials to obtain new base infrastructer, all the necessary base building and mainatance items will be available through the system store."
The panel flashes a little once more and the main interface appears.
Base Boss System:
- Store.
- Lottery.
- Upgrade.
"I hope you've taken in all this information well. Soon the end of the world will start and you will have to try your best to survive and make yourself stronger in order to protect your base! I wish you the best of luck," the system says in a more upbeat tone.
Then the panel that has been in front of me this whole time dissapears and the system's voice is gone.
I get off my bed and walk down my short hallway into my living room. When I'm in my living room, I walk up to the windows and open up my curtains, the sun has started to rise but I feel as if the end of the world has already arrived.
I pinch myself on the arm to see if I'm still asleep.
"Ouch, nope, I'm definitly awake all right," I say as I take a seat with my legs crossed on the floor.
All I can think of as I look outside at the city is that I'll need to start preparing for the apocolypse as soon as possible. As terrified as I am, I must live well in the apocolypse!