While Ariana was crumpled up on her bedroom floor, the world outside was in chaos. After the bloody massacre at the strange Everest ruins, everyone in the world received a strange message that stuck to the retina and mind of every living being.
Many were shocked and confused, some were excited about this fantasy experience, some immediately killed themselves out of fear, some tried to pray to this mysterious system to ask for forgiveness, and some could care less and thought it was some strange widespread hallucination.
Everyone had different thoughts on what was going on, but everyone could agree that there was something strange about those ruins. However similar to the ruins and the spider that attacked Ariana, strange creatures that resembled known animals in some ways, as well as normal animals that began to exhibit rabid habits, began attacking humans all around the globe.
Anarchy quickly rose as humanity struggled against these monsters. On top of that, some humans began exhibiting similar symptoms and began attacking other humans as well. It soon turned into a zombie apocalypse like in movies or tv shows but they were different than the zombies most people knew.
Zombies didn't trudge about, they ran.
They ran at the full speed of what the zombie used to be as a human, but they were mindless and tripped and fell over lots of things. However, their speed made it impossible for most people to fight back. Victims were either trampled and killed or eaten alive.
It was complete chaos.
To add more fuel to the fire, these strange, almost portal-like areas began appearing all over the world. Many didn't have monsters coming out of them, but when a person stepped into it, they would get a system notification saying it was a Dungeon where monsters did live.
All these game-like features appeared everywhere while Ariana was fighting for her life.
The system she had was going through changes, as she got two notifications that she couldn't see before blacking out. The two of them conflicted with each other and the mysterious system was figuring out how to fix it.
By the time the system figured out a solution, a week had passed where Ariana had endless pain ravaging her body. She would have long been dead if the system didn't use some strange energy to keep her comatose.
With one foot in the ground, Ariana's body began to morph unnaturally. Her unconscious body squirmed as several protrusions quickly broke through her clothes. Her shredded clothes got tangled in the strange limb-like structures that came out of her back.
Her face contorted and her skin rippled as something tried to break through her skin. Her finger and toenails grew longer and sharper and she grew muscle in her legs and arms rapidly. If she were awake right now, she would be experiencing even worse pain than the venom that was in her body.
She continued to contort her body unnaturally for hours into the night.
- - -
Just a few hours before the 7th day began after Ariana fell into a coma, her eyes suddenly shot open. A few seconds later, she gasp for her first breath. Realizing it felt like her body had no oxygen in it, she began coughing and gasping for breath and struggled to get on her hands and knees.
Tears came down her face again but she didn't know if it was from the lingering pain in her body or the fact that she was still alive. Her mind raced for an answer as she struggled to calm her body but she still had more questions than answers.
By the time she got her body settled, it was past midnight and the beginning of the 8th day. She continued to heave a few big breaths before collapsing on the floor again.
"Uggghhhh..." Ariana groaned in pain.
Everything hurt and the tears kept flowing out of her eyes.
"Heh...haha... HAHAHA! *cough* *cough*" Ariana started laughing and coughing as the tears fiercely came out of her eyes.
She was alive! Unsure whether it was the stupid system or some mysterious god, she didn't care. The entire time she was in her coma, she just kept thinking about her sister. The good memories with Grace kept her going in her mind while the system kept her body alive.
She lay in her own sweat and tears for a while longer before she struggled to lift her sore body. She got to her feet with wobbly legs, only to fall down on her butt the next second.
She sat there confused since it felt like she was taller. She wasn't entirely sure, but then she looked at her feet. Her eyes widened as she saw her skin was now a dark gray color with purplish-black lines that looked like tattoos, going up her legs. She also had strange little spines that followed the tattoos up her body.
Although she still had her jeans on, they were ripped in places where the spines were. She laid back down and took a look at her hands. It was the same as her feet. Sharp nails and gray skin with dark purple tattoos that seemed to follow her bone structure. The spines were smaller than on her legs, but they were still enough that a long sleeve shirt wouldn't work well with it.
She then noticed that she was still half naked from when she rushed to get dressed. She felt the clothes she fell on tickling her skin from underneath her and tried to grab them however she grabbed something else instead.
She paled as it felt like the skin on her arms, but it wasn't where an arm was supposed to be. She could feel herself touching her skin, but it was a foreign place for a limb or her back to be. She slowly let go and got to her feet again.
She had a blank expression since so many things were going wrong with the world. She was eventually able to get to her feet and regain some balance. Since it was new for her to walk from a new height and with stronger muscles, she took her time and used the walls to make her way to the bathroom.
Once inside, she turned the lights on and looked at herself in the mirror. With her mouth wide open, she saw a strange being in front of her. This being that followed her movements had the same gray skin and markings over her face. There were no spines but there were a pair of sharp ears on the sides of her head and longer, sharper teeth in her mouth.
Her eyes were a bright purplish-red and her hair became a matching color. Woven into her purple hair with red highlights, were more spiny protrusions, both big and small that formed a strange shape that almost looked like a crown.
There were also 3 pairs of lines hidden in her face but Ariana hadn't noticed because...
"Holy shit! I'm a hot monster girl!"
Instead of being frightened, she was actually excited! Who didn't like monster girls? Although they were many times sexualized for male fantasies, who would stop a woman from having similar fantasies?
Although she wasn't completely sure what she had become, she knew she was some exotic, fantasy beauty. Her skin had cleared up wonderfully and her cheekbones shifted a bit to give her the looks of a model. She no longer had slightly asymmetrical features and quickly realized she could see just fine without her glasses.
Her tits even grew a size! Her areolas were a dark gray, maybe even black, and the purple tattoos formed an intricate design on her bosom.
She was mesmerized by her own looks but her excitement was short-lived when 3 more pairs of eyes suddenly opened on her face.
"AHHHHHH!!!!" Scared to death, Ariana jumped back and slipped on her bathroom mat before falling into her bathtub. In the process, she scratched and tore through the bathtub's wall with her claws and hit her head. Her head hurt, but she didn't feel very dizzy which surprised her.
She rubbed her head and felt a few more small spines hiding in her hair but nothing else out of the ordinary. However, her back did hurt a bit and she remembered that she felt something weird with her back earlier.
She quickly got up and kicked away the ripped-up bathmat and took a few deep breaths to prepare herself. She could now see she had several pairs of eyes on her face. They all looked in the same direction and she felt like she had a wider field of vision now. It was new and interesting, but she was more concerned with her back.
With one more breath, she quickly turned around. Her back was now facing the mirror and she slowly turned her head to the mirror. In the mirror, there were a number of pitch-black... things... attached to her back. It reminded her of the legs of a spider when it curled up and died.
With that thought, she glanced over to her room where she remembered smashing some sort of creature on her wall. She quickly looked back at the mirror wondering how she was going to figure out what it was.
She gently touched the things with her hand and it felt like she was touching a part of her body. Whatever it was, it was now a part of her. While she looked at it, that part of her felt really stiff, like she needed to stretch. Curious as to what would happen, she decided to give in to those feelings and stretched her arms out and arched her back.
She tried her best to look into the mirror from over her shoulder as she did it but it was easier said than done. She caught a glimpse of the thing moving but she had to wait until she finished her stretch to look.
Once done she turned around and her jaw dropped. Outstretched and attached to her back, were the same pitch-black things. Getting a better look at them now, they definitely looked like they could be the legs of a spider.
Ariana was surprisingly calm. Even though she was still shocked, a lot of things had happened suddenly so there was only so much shock she could take before getting numb to the feeling. When they were stretched out like that, it felt like Ariana had her arms out. Even though her human arms were by her side, it still felt like they were out.
It was a really weird feeling and she didn't know if she could get used to it. She tried moving it with her human arms but it didn't work, so she would have to come up with something else. She felt tense after all that had happened but she was happy to at least be alive. She smiled and tears came down her face again.
She covered her face with her hands but accidentally hit one of her new eyes.
"This is going to be a huge problem." She covered that one eye gently.
*growl*
A loud noise soon echoed in the bathroom and she realized how hungry she was. She quickly forgot about her looks and raced to the kitchen. Her boobs bounced around again and she stumbled over her feet to reach the refrigerator.
She quickly opened the door, but actually tore it off its hinges. She didn't know her own strength and quickly realized how much of an issue this would be. She realized she was way more thirsty than hungry, so she quickly snatched a gallon of water than was in the fridge and tore off the top with her claws.
The gallon quickly leaked water from her dangerous grip but she didn't care. She guzzled down the water before it could reach the floor. It was almost like she was a competitive water drinker as the water disappeared with little actually reaching the floor.
She then proceeded to drink any sort of juice she could find before eating the food she found. She could care less whether the food was expired or not, all she wanted was to get something in her.
- - -
Halfway through the 8th day since the Apocalypse started, Ariana laid down on her couch awkwardly in a deep sleep. Although she had been asleep for a week, she was dead tired still.
The kitchen was a mess and her fridge was no longer working but it did not matter to her at the time.
She let herself drift off to dreamland, as this would be the last time she could probably relax for a long time. It was time to find a way to reach Grace.
*ding!* [Main Quest: survive a week.]