'Groowwwl'
This was about the 70th time Haruki Ito's stomach had growled in the last hour. He had been sent on a god-forsaken trip to the outer city to search for a new type off item fruit that had been discovered that can instantly upgrade oneself level by just taking a bite off it.
'A load of bullshit that is, if they're was a op fruit like that out there, we would never had been given awakenings and systems.'
About 10 years ago the earth on which everyone lived in had entirely changed. It stated when Haru was only 9, he was out with his sister Himari, who was 16 at the time.
It was a normal day for the Ito siblings doing there weekly shopping. Haru's parents had passed away when he was still a baby and his Aunty who had taken them in was always out of the country, so his sister had practically raised him by herself.
They had heard screaming in a ile close to them so his sister had picked Haru up and ran out of the store, but to there horror something much worse was outside. Evil looking creatures where running rampage outside destroying and killing anything in there sight. They where like normal animals that had been enlarged and mutated into different shapes and colours, it wasn't until months later that these creatures just got the name 'beasts.'
Haru and his sister had made it almost half the way back to there aunts small apartment where they lived because off his sisters crazy amount of athleticism, when they got surrounded by these rat-like mutated beasts. They where like normal rats except there teeth had transformed sharp and pointy like sharks teeth and that they where the size of a large dog. It may have been easy for Himari to handle a few by herself but there where just to many of them, not to mention she had to take care of her little brother who had been paralysed by shock.
But even in this hopeless situation she had to try and get rid of them or her and her brother would surely die. She had dealt with around 3 of the horrid beasts, when one had bitten into Harus shirt and pulled him out of her arms onto the ground. The force had knocked Haru out but when he came to the hoard of rat-beasts where all dead on the ground and his sister was covered in blood with two massive golden and white koi fish floating in the air next to her.
He soon learned that when he had passed out his sister had had something called an 'awakening' and the two beautiful koi fish was apart of her awakened power.
'Awakenings' where one of the things that humans had gained after the beast outbreak that had nearly destroyed the world, they gave chosen humans magic like powers and abilities, that ranged to many different things. Harus sisters ability let her summon two koi fish that gave her the ability to control water, yet some people got abilities like super strength they're was even someone who was said to be able to control time.
The second thing that humans had gained where things called 'systems'.
When a person gets awakened they start at a certain level that determined how strong there stats and abilities where, which instantly made a gap between the powerful and the weak that determined how much worth you had in this new apocalyptic type world.
But there was a way to make yourself stronger and more powerful land that was the systems. by following tasks given by systems, people could upgrade in level and even gain more awakened abilities the only problem with this being that to gain a system was even more rare then being able to awaken. So most who started out weak in this beast outbreak died being weak. Or they where like Haru who was used as a sacrificial lamb to explore fake rumours of miracle fruits.
'Sigh, if only these fruits where real then I'd be able to spend my life living as a powerful awakened who get paid million just by waving there hand'
Haru who, unlike his sister who had awakened at one of the highest levels, awakened as a weak pathetic low level shit who's only ability was something dumb called chain reaction. Chain reaction let him create another attack based on one he just saw, X whatever his mental stat was. Though it sounds op Harus mental stat was at a dead zero so even if he saw the most strongest skilful attack he could only X it by zero and y'know anything times zero still equals zero. So the main point being? His skill was absolutely useless.
'Groooowwwllll'
Now he was up to the 71st, he had been dumb enough to eat all his food that was meant to last him a week in the first day of searching that he had none left.
'Should I head back yet? But if I come back in only two days with nothing to show I'll get fired and end up living on the streets again'
After letting out another over-exaggerated sigh Haru found a old abandoned house to spend the night in.
About two years after the beast outbreak strong awakened people had cleared most of the main cities of the beasts. Because of this all the beast settled at the outer cities while everyone lived cozy inside the city's exempt for the occasional minor beast outbreak that happens when a strong beasts gets bored and decides to hunt in the city which causes minor beasts to follow. The only reason people ever go to the outer cities is to travel to different main cities or in Harus case, to search rumours, so when you leave a main city almost everything you see is abandoned.
The house in which he decided to camp in was small and cozy, and he put a lamp on to have a look at his house for the night. After walking around d observing the houses old memories of the people who would have lived there he stopped at a photo. It was a photo of a little girl holding a baby that Haru was guessing was probably there younger sibling. The picture made his heart sting. Around 4 years ago Haru had gotten into a big fight with his older sister and swore never to see her again, but staring at this photo it made him miss his older sister that had raised and protected him for all his younger years.
'Maybe once I come back from this trip I'll try and go see her again.'
After staring at the photo for a couple moments more his folded it down to not look at it anymore and then settled on the couch to sleep. There where beds but it felt disrespectful to sleep in them even if there owners weren't there anymore. After drinking the little bit of water he had left Harus stomach growled once more before he drifted off to sleep.
Haru had had many awful experiences of waking up while living with his sister, the water bucket in face, the jumping on the stomach, the banging pans next to head, but none of them compared to the moment he opened his eyes and saw a human sized white fluffy moth eating his leg.
"Aahhh!"
Haru wasn't sure if he screamed from shock or from the pain of a cute fluffy white tarantula with wings having a munch on his leg. He quickly grabbed the blunt sword in his bag that was next to him and slammed it into the horrifyingly cute bug that let out the most horrific screech after getting its meal interrupted.
'Why on earth is there a beast here I'm meant to be wearing gear that cloaks my presences to beasts'
Haru thought when he suddenly realised he had left the lamp on when he went to sleep, he looked at the monster moth that started trying to bite at his leg again
'Stupid bug and it's light sensing abilities!' He aggressively thought to himself.
He once again slammed the sword into the moths head, leaving it in there as he started to run for the lamp.
After getting the sword out of its head the moth headed straight towards Haru as if nothing had happened.
'I mean sure I'm a very low level but you're telling me I'm still to weak to leave a scratch on a bug?!'
He thought as he quickly grabbed and threw the lamp at the fluffy creature that was heading towards him, almost instantly the bug caught on fire.
'A giant moth one of the most common beasts found at nighttime, it's weakness fire. Thank god I used a oil based lamp.'
But just as Haru was celebrating his small victory he heard something come up from behind him but by the time he noticed that something was there it was to late and he felt a sharp burning pain in his back.
"Arghh! Who the hell are you?"
From the feeling of the wound this wasn't a beast behind him it was a human, but as he turned around to see the culprit they had already left.
'Goddam it they must have used some sort of poison on the blade it's making me dizzy'
Haru tried to hold himself as right as he could but the moment he tried to take a step he fell over onto his back letting out a grunt as the wound slammed on the floor.
Is this really how he was going to die? Well I guess it's better to die quickly now rather then starve to death on the streets.
Just as his vision started to go dark he saw flashing gold lights in-front of his eyes then a screen appeared before his eyes. It read;
[You have died]
'Oh well,' Haru thought 'I got pretty far being as weak as I am, I-I just hoped that I could see my sister again and say thank you'
But just as Haru begun to make peace with himself the screen begun to flick and change.
[error]
'….?'
[I was wrong… I guess you're gonna live hurray! ヽ(o＾▽＾o)ノ]
'...…Huh!?'