In a one-bedroom apartment located in the older part of town, a woman slurped up the milk in her bowl of cereal. She had a serious case of bedhead and was still wearing her pjs which were only a pair of old shorts and a plain t-shirt.
She pushed her round-rimmed glasses up on her nose as she lifted her head from her bowl. Her messy brown hair was blown out of her sight to reveal her brown eyes. She looked ahead at the television in her living room where the news was playing but she quickly looked back down at the table.
On the right side of her bowl was her phone and she currently had the web novel app open and was reading another cliché Chinese novel. Although it could get boring and frustrating reading about haughty young masters and jade beauties all the time, it had a certain allure to it that Ariana just couldn't get bored of.
Ariana was in her late 20s and lived for her hobby of reading. In her living room and her bedroom, there were hundreds of physical books just thrown about everywhere or stacked upon each other on shelves or in the corners of her rooms.
She even had some in the bathroom for her to busy herself whenever she had to do her business.
She loved reading fiction, as it was her way to escape reality and dream of a world where she could dictate how she wanted to live, and not be forced to follow society and find a job to live. It was too boring and monotonous for her but what could she do?
On top of that, her family always made sure she knew how much she sucked at life. Her parents were the definition of tiger parents, and always reminded her how much she lacked. She was constantly compared to other children in her old neighborhood and was always expected to be perfect at everything.
The only good thing that came out of it was that her parents realized early on that she was a "lost cause." They gave up on her when her younger sister was born and focused all their "love" and attention on the newborn.
They ended up getting their wish, as Ariana's sister was talented and smart, just as they wanted. She quickly became the center of the family, and many times when going to gatherings with family friends, or business colleagues, the parents would always try to emphasize that she was their "only" child.
Ariana was definitely the black sheep of the family, as she was plain average in everything, while her sister overshadowed her in everything. It didn't matter if it was academics, sports, or looks, her younger sister was much better than her.
At first, Ariana felt hate for her new sister, as she "stole" everything from her. But she soon realized that she could never be angry with her. Her sister Grace was just an angel. There was truly no bad bone in her body and she never treated Ariana like she was inferior.
They had a good relationship, and because she was the favorite child, she even got their parents off of Ariana's back for the most part. They stopped bothering her as much and just ignored her like she didn't exist, and she did the same to them.
Right on her 18th birthday, Ariana left early in the morning to start her own life. Although those last few years were bearable, she never felt alive when she lived with her family. The momentary happiness with her sister wasn't enough to get her to stay and she needed to be on her own.
She knew her sister would beg her to stay since Grace also didn't like their parents much, but she didn't want to make unnecessary drama with them. It was something she always felt guilty about and even her breakfast became bland as she recalled her memories.
She watched the news absent-minded after she was caught up with her latest novel and thought of her sister. She wasn't sure how she was doing after a decade of time passed and she had a feeling her sister hated her just as much as their parents did now.
It was one of the reasons she was reluctant to go and visit. Would she just be shunned like her parents? Would Grace try to beat her up or something? She was unsure how her little sister would look at her now, but knew she would need to see her soon.
That was because the last phase of her plan was almost upon her. As children, the sisters promised to live together away from their parents and start anew when they were adults. Ariana had saved up most of her money and only spent what was necessary for food and a little extra on books.
Grace's 18th birthday was now a month away. Even if Grace didn't want to hold up her end of the promise, Ariana would still hold up hers. She wasn't even sure if Grace still remembered their promise, as she was barely 7 at the time but she remembered perfectly since it was one of the few good memories she had of home.
Ariana took a deep breath to calm her nerves and decided to focus more on the news. It wouldn't help just worrying about the future, she had plenty of time to worry about it on the flight over since she was several thousand miles away from her hometown.
"Archaeologists are still uncovering the strange ruins found at the base of Mount Everest. The most recent discovery was a fascinating jewel that was sent off for analysis but many speculate it to be a new ore almost 10 times stronger than diamonds!" The news castor spoke into his microphone as he stood in front of a gathering of tents with many people and equipment inside.
As she was not an archaeologist, she had no idea what was going on, but her interest was piqued since it was just the type of mystery she liked in fantasy novels. They even had a picture of the jewel which was about the size of a quarter and a dazzling bright blue color.
She continued watching as her cereal grew soggier and didn't notice a spider crawl across her kitchen table. If she had noticed it, she would've screamed and try to kill it with fire since it was much bigger than your normal house spider. On top of that, it had strange markings on it that were not known to anyone on earth.
It scurried across the table and hid in the shadow of her bowl. Its numerous eyes flickered with intelligence as it waited for something. None the wiser, Ariana kept her attention on the tv.
"Here with us, we have Dr. Steven Williams, head of this archeology team. Dr. Williams, can you tell us anything about these ruins? What makes it so much different from other ancient ruins that have been discovered before?" The castor asked with interest.
An older man with white hair and wrinkles on his face answered with a smile.
"The ruins we are in the process of uncovering is something that baffles even me with my 50+ years of experience in studying our past civilizations. Although we have not found a way to translate their language yet, the documented pictures in well-preserved books and files suggest that this civilization is on the current level, or even more advanced than the current world!"
The castor had genuine shock on his face as he continued asking questions, and Ariana also listened carefully. Such a discovery could really change the world as we know it!
Just as the Doctor was going to answer more questions, screaming could be heard in the distance at the dig site. The two in front of the camera turned to look before running ahead causing the camera to turn with them.
The mouth of the ruins was dark, but from within, pairs of red lights could be seen. The workers towards the front of the ruins were screaming something inaudible from their distance to the camera while they were running away from the ruins.
The camera took a while to focus but it soon reveal something that looked like a large feline animal, except it had two heads. On top of that its body looked massive compared to the humans around it, maybe even bigger than a lion!
Ariana felt a shiver go down her spine.
"What the fuck was that?" She couldn't help but say out loud. Her spoon hung loosely in her grip as she didn't dare to take her eyes off the screen. Many more of these strange animals began to emerge from the ruins and crawl all around the entrance. Some of them climbed up the mountain while most went towards the humans that were now running and screaming.
The cameraman screamed and dropped his camera as another one of those dual-headed cats charged toward him. The camera dropped to its side roughly creating some static in the video feed as the sounds of screaming and tearing flesh came through the audio feed.
When all was eerily silent, a giant paw came into view of the camera with blood dripping off it. Some splattered on the camera before a bloody head plopped on the ground with a blood stained furry chin in view.
As the dual-headed cat lowered one of its heads into the camera view, the video feed finally cut off and turned into static. Ariana dropped her spoon into her bowl as she stared in shock at the tv.
She had absolutely no idea what was going on, but she broke into a cold sweat long ago. Although this type of scenario might have come out of one of the numerous stories she read, she didn't think something like this would actually happen!
Her mind was racing to figure out what was going on but she had no answers. She sat in silence for a while with the static of the tv slowly turning into white noise. As she stared at the table in shock, something suddenly blocked her vision.
She thought she got an eyelash or something in her eye so she rubbed them and put her glasses on the table. When she opened her eyes again it was still there. She felt like she was hallucinating now as every time she moved her eyes, the thing followed.
Frustrated, she finally put her glasses back on and focused on what was blocking her vision.
[...survive...]
A small green translucent screen was in her vision and this was the first word she could find. Her eyes widened in shock.
"No way! This can't be happening!" She yelled and stood up out of her chair.
This was straight out of all those Apocalypse stories she read on the web novel app! Her expression changed many times, from terrified, to excited, to frightened again.
"Grace!" Ariana exclaimed.
If this really was the beginning of the apocalypse then her sister was in danger! She could care less about herself and immediately started stripping as she ran to her room. Her boobs bounced around as she ran to her dresser and pulled out warmer clothes and jeans as she tried to pull her pajama bottoms off with her legs.
Meanwhile, the spider began to crawl towards her room at a speed that could compare to a cat and hid in the carpet before climbing up the back of her dresser to observe her. Ariana struggled to get dressed and grab a bag for supplies as the spider saw this as a chance to catch her off guard.
"God damn this stupid system!" Ariana cursed as she tried to swipe away the "survive" notification that was blocking her vision. It wasn't working and she was too worked up to calmly find a way to get rid of it. Just as she was hitting the point of her frustration, she saw out of the corner of her eye, something flying toward her.
She couldn't really tell what it was but she was frightened and immediately screamed and covered her face with her arms. The spider that launched itself at her flew and landed on her hand and swiftly bit her finger.
Ariana screamed in pain and out of reaction, curled her hand into a fist, and punched her wall. A dull gong ran through the wall and Ariana thought she heard a crack. She was unsure if it was the wall or her knuckles that broke since the pain she was feeling was something she never experienced before, but she tried to endure it and focus on the thing that was now splattered against the wall.
It was twitching a little and she thought it looked like some sort of tarantula but her vision was quickly becoming blurry. She felt lightheaded and struggled to breathe so she looked down at the wound she got.
Right around her middle knuckle, was a dark blue, almost purple spot that had quickly swelled up. Through the blur in her vision, she could make out similarly colored veins popping out of her skin and followed it up her arm.
She paled at the thought of what was happening. She fell to her knees as she lost her strength and stared at the wall where the big spider was.
'I don't want to die!' This thought echoed in her mind as the pain swiftly swam throughout her entire body. Tears fell down the side of her face and her lips began turning blue from lack of oxygen.
Her life flashed in her mind as she closed her eyes. There was so much she regretted in life yet there was nothing she could do to stop whatever this fast-acting venom was.
'I'm sorry Grace...' She thought as she blacked out.
[ Commencing Evolution... ]