Humans aren't equal from the moment they are born, or even when they are in their mother's womb. That is a fact that every human knows when they reach a certain age.
There are some who accept that fact and live on and some just don't want to face the harsh reality of inequality and want to fight a hypocritical war for equality to hide their own weakness.
From the start of the earth till human evolution, everyone followed the law, the one and only law of the jungle: The strongest being will survive and the weakest will die. In the past, everything was decided by strength and adapting to any kind of situation alone.
People think that after the evolution of humans, the law has changed, but it still hasn't changed. The things that changed are its meaning and its application. To survive in this world you just don't need strength any more, you need something more than that. That is money power, social power, political power, and your intellectual capacity to understand any situation. If you have all of those, you can survive in this hellish world till your death come.
You can't survive in this world if are weak, or naive, or if you trust someone fully or when you try to become some champion of justice for the sake of others because in this world those are the first ones to get crushed and become a stepping stone for others if they don't have the willpower to fight against the whole world.
People think the type of people who like a post-apocalyptic world who don't have a good life or face injustice in this world that's why they are wishing to be in that world, but that's not always the case for most people.
Sometimes people just don't want to live in this world of fakeism and showoff where everyone is judged everyone on the base of the "Halo Effect" and the fake reality of incompetence of people.
I'm Dvesh a 27-year-old man. I was a top successful businessman, I lived the type of life that every person in my world would like to live. But now I'm currently a warrior or a survivor who trying to survive in a world that I like the most.
If I want to describe myself in just a few words it would be 'realistic & post-apocalyptic world lover'. People would think that I went through a terrible childhood but that wasn't also the case. My childhood was pretty average and not so special and so was my life.
My first time getting obsessed with the post-apocalyptic world was when I started reading a novel about that world and then I started going into that world where only your survival skills matter to survive in that world. Where you are only judged by your skills and your ability to survive.
People thought that I was a maniac, well to be true I'm a maniac. A normal person wouldn't love a post-apocalyptic world, but I love it because this world gives a chance to everyone from the start to utilise their skills, and their greed, and to dump their pride in mud to survive till the end. It is a world where no one knows what will happen next and who will survive till the end.
*****
As I sat on a heap of monsters and finally got a moment to rest after 6 months of the continuous killing of those monsters. I looked up at the empty sky of this world which was probably filled with human machinery and now it is completely devoid of it.
While finally catching my breath, I said "So...…., it's finally over?" with uncertainty in my voice because I was not sure if there was anything left for me to do.
Then to answer my question the system screen popped in front of me.
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[[[NOTICE]]]
[[[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU SURVIVED AS ONE OF THE FINAL SURVIVORS OF THIS STAGE. DO YOU WISH TO PROCEED TO THE FINAL STAGE?]]]
[[[YES, RIGHT NOW]]] [[[WAIT FOR
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I pressed [[[WAIT FOR
Before moving to the final stage I just want to visit the grave of friends and allies who were unfit for this world and died along the way to survive in this cruel world.
I took out a deep breath and with a low voice I said "I'm not getting time to rest at all. Well it's just 50 days they'll pass by in a flash till I'll reach their graves. And then I'll still be having time to view this distorted world one last time." and it was not somebody can hear me anyway.
I'm the last person standing on this abandoned planet. So, without any delay, I started moving towards the place where their graves lay.
As I was running towards the destination, the memories of how I used to live were flashing in my mind as if it were my last moments and I'm not ready to kick the bucket yet to see my last moments this early. But I don't think of myself as human any more because to survive in this world I did many things which can't be considered humane from the societal point of view but I was not worried about that anymore because I don't live in that society anymore.
But I remember when all of this started, it was the summer of my 11th class when I was a post-apocalyptic fanatic and joined many online groups about it.
There I meet a person with a user-id 'Post-Apocalyptic Lover'. I don't know who he was, what his name was or anything about him, all I knew about him was his gender and how big of a 'Post-Apocalyptic World' lover he was like me. We were just some online friends who shared their views on the 'post-apocalyptic world'. And then one day that I got to know something that later will be the start of everything.
***** 11 Years Ago *****
BEEP BEEP
A sudden message from my phone distracted me while I was studying, but I couldn't ignore the message because it was from my online best friend 'Post-Apocalyptic Lover'.
I first unlocked my phone while leaving everything aside. When the read the message, I felt kinda strange about it. Because he has never sent me that kind of message before.
"[Hey man do you want to live in a post-apocalyptic world despite having a pretty normal life?]"
"[Yes its obvious. Why ask?]"
"[Because I can make real. Do you want to participate in it?]"
I waited for a moment to reply because I wasn't able to grasp the situation but even though I replied with "[Yes]"
After giving a reply, he suddenly went offline and then a few seconds later he send me a reply which seemed like an automated message.
"[Do you want to become one of a main candidate for a Post-Apocalyptic World event?]"
"[YES OR NO]"
Reading that automated message felt like something was suspicious. "[What type of contest is this?]"
"[Just answer it and I'll explain it later.]"
I looked at the message for a while and then I pressed [YES] for confirmation.
"[Congratulations! You have been selected as one of the 108 main candidates for the event. The event will take place after several years. You'll be informed just before the start of the event. If you wished to withdraw from this event you can do it anytime you want only if the number of requirements for the candidates is satisfied. Thank You]"
Just as I was staring at the above message, he replied to my previous message.
"[It will be real life contest. Prepare for it mentally and physically to survive in that event.]"
Just this he went offline and blocked me as I wasn't able to message him anymore after that. And this was also the last time he messaged me.
A few days later I don't know why, but his warning about that contest stuck in my mind. Being a post-apocalyptic novel fan I started to train myself by joining various adventure camps, gyms and mind training sessions for fun but later as time passed those training and adventure camps become a part of my daily life and that event was completely out of my mind.
Those camps started to excite me, and I also became a fitness freak and self-defence instructor for a year, those mind training sessions with the monks became a part of me to regulate my stressful lifestyle.
Time was passing by and I was growing with it. I got married and started my own business when I was 22 and it went successful by the time I was 25. In just 3 years I created a business empire no one could dream of.
Even if my life was going perfectly but something was missing from it. It was the thrill of living life but I convinced myself that I'm pretty satisfied with my life, it was the thing that will remain missing until that day come I was secretly waiting for.
***** 2 Years Ago *****
While was doing my work in my cabin, my phone rang. It was 'his' call. There were many questions in my mind when his call came but I ignored all that questions and picked up his call.
At first, all I could hear was just silence for a few seconds followed by some distorted sounds then suddenly a clear yet beautiful and pleasing sound came from the other side of the phone"[Do you still want to live in the Post-Apocalyptic despite having a lavish life and a beautiful family my Online Best Friend or should I say..... Mr Dvesh?]"
Despite him having known my full name and details about my life, I remained calm and replied"[No, not now.]"
As I replied, he asked me a question in a doubtful way"[Is it 'Family' or 'Luxury life' or 'Something else'?]"
When I heard him talking I wasn't able to tell the emotion behind his voice, as it was an AI-generated voice. "[Not your concern.]" without waiting for his reply I ended his call and return to do my work.
Just after a few moments, I ended his call, I felt a not-so-big earthquake that settled after a while. I thought it was just a regular "Crack" vibration but later it appeared it was not a "Crack".
*****
In the year 2531 these "Cracks" first appeared in Antarctica. That was when the phenomenon called the "Cracks" started to appear. These "Cracks" refer to deadly quakes thought the globe.
Scientist started researching those invisible quakes also termed "Cracks", but wasn't able to find anything about it as if they were all supernatural. Some scientists stated that they are cracks in the space-time continuum or they the quakes of the creation of stable invisible wormholes but some say they are just normal earthquakes.
But the theories about the wormholes and cracks in the space-time continuum became so famous that people started to call those invisible quakes "Cracks".
Those quake shocks were deadly but they occurred in areas where there is no human population and were not doing any damage to human society not until that day.
***** 3 Days Until D-Day *****
As I doing my work in my cabin like usual, a phone call broke me. For the past almost 2 years, "Cracks" were appearing in places where the human population doesn't exist but, the first case of "Cracks" appearing in the human population was my house.
My whole house has completely vanished as it disappeared in thin air with everyone and everything in my house and the only thing that I found was the bodies of my wife and children, I was looking at the half-torn bodies of my wife and both of my children as if they were torn apart by some force. I was standing in the rain with just an expressionless face looking at those bodies. At that, I didn't even know if I was crying or not or if it was the rain that was washing away my tears.
And then my phone rang louder than the normal audio range. I was 'his' message.
"[Now that all obstacles are removed from your life. Start preparing yourself you the event. It starts in just a few days. Enjoy!!!]"
Even after reading that message, I didn't feel anything, I was still standing there blank, devoid of emotions and actions. And then a pop-up gaming screen blinked in front of me displaying a notice.
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[[[NOTICE]]]
[[[THE EVENT WILL START IN A FEW DAYS (NOT FIXED). PLEASE PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THE EVENT.]]]
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