"Ding! Welcome to the Multiversal System humans of Earth. Your world has been forcefully integrated into the System 423 years early due to the extremely poor state your world is currently in. If you had been left to your own devices there is a 62% chance you would have rendered this world uninhabitable to the vast majority of sentient races throughout the multiverse and that is not acceptable.
Normally various multiversal energies including mana, chi, psionics, and other more esoteric energies are slowly introduced to a world containing sentient species after it reaches a certain point. This allows the population and all of the living species of the planet to slowly adapt to these energies which prevents certain… issues when a species is forcefully introduced to them like what is happening now.
Your world, being forcefully integrated, will no longer remain as a complete world under your people's control. A large percentage of every species in your world will react poorly to the sudden influx of multiversal energies and will mutate into mindless monsters whose only purpose is to fuel the growth of System users. Human's who failed to adapt are currently most closely related to what your popular entertainment media would classify as "zombies" while plants and animals have begun to and will continue to mutate in unpredictable ways as the world continues to adjust to the System integration.
These mutations and zombies have not been integrated into the system but you can still kill them to earn rewards. We have based your world's version of the System around video games known as RPGs as we have found that your worlds technology and System options most closely fit such a view. As such you can level up, gain classes with skills and talents, and gain loot from defeating enemies. Other features will unlock over time based on various stimuli.
Your world for the next 12 months is still your own to contend with. After 12 months the Integration will stabilize and the world will be separated into various districts and the quest system will be activated in your systems. The quests provided will allow the world to be pacified and brought under full System control so that it can be brought into the greater multiverse. This process WILL happen, your world WILL be parceled out to various groups, empires, clans, and super world conglomerates. The method the System uses to determine who gets what is based on the contribution % of the users involved in each district. If you and a group of humans contribute towards 20% of the pacification process of a district then 20% of that district is awarded to those humans further broken apart based on the hierarchy of those humans in regards to total contribution. You may then decide to keep, trade, sell, or give away your portion of the world gained.
This may seem unfair to you humans but it matters not as this is the price to be paid for forcing the System to step in 400 years earlier than planned. If you had taken care of your planet or even expanded to other planets making them habitable and thus able to be integrated into the system by being populated by sentients you would have integrated according to schedule and your species would have kept full control of your worlds. Now you must FIGHT for your survival and for your own small piece of your home.
This isn't all bad news for your species and world either. Most worlds integrated on schedule are generally more… mellow and have a far lower ceiling for power gain. Yes, many humans have not survived integration but those that have will generally have a much higher chance of better classes, higher power levels, and faster growth than your human counterparts from other places in the multiverse. They get a certain level of power for free but since it's safe it's relatively low. You have to EARN the right to survive and grow so the System rewards you accordingly.
Lastly, the next 12 months are known as the tutorial phase as you adjust to and learn how best to use and grow with the system. Because it's a tutorial many core System features are not currently active, such as the store function, as it would have the potential to unfairly affect the outcome of each person as an individual. Do to this the System, in a week's time, shall create specialized zones, scattered around the planet and denoted by light beams reaching into the sky. These zones will be safe zones from the many dangers on this planet as no damage can be taken or done to others in them also no entity without the System can enter them. These zones will have access to high quality shelter, food, water, medicine, and special low grade shops to cater to your various needs and desires. Earn points by killing mutants and zombies and in 12 months you can also earn points by completing quests. These points are your currency now, especially in the provided safe zones. Nothing is free in the Multiverse.
This is the end of the Multiversal System announcement. Good luck humans, you will need it!"
The first thing Ryu noticed after seeing the announcement wink out of existence in front of him was that the well soundproofed apartment was no longer so silent. Normally you couldn't hear what was going on outside the room unless it was a piercing noise close by like a police siren right in front of the building, but currently the early morning air was filled with screams of terror, roars of monsters gone made, crashing vehicles, gun shots, and all manner of other hard to determine noises.
Ryu jumped from his bed and quickly threw open his sliding door that led to his balcony stepping out to take in the chaos in the predawn darkness. It was currently late winter, just after the snows melted but before spring really took hold so it was dark for another hour and change before the sun started to rise. Even with the low light it was easy enough to see the chaos with all of the still working lights of the city, fires in various places already building into out of control infernos, and people with flashlights moving here and there.
The streets below Ryu were filled with ferocious animals that might once have been dogs, cats, and other small to medium sized mammals, mutated in various ways but all of them filled with rage and hunger lashing out at anything that moved around them. He saw what was obviously once a dog… but now the size of a VW Beetle car fighting with a persian cat that matched it in size except it had claws of glowing orange fire. He saw zombies chasing down running humans pouncing on them to then eat them alive or tear them limb from limb. Ryu watched as a police car ran down a couple of zombies before getting stuck on a fire hydrant, the officers abandoning the vehicle and using their side arms to take down zombies as they tried to make their way… somewhere.
Looking down Ryu even saw zombies moving in the street right below him, catching sight as a few pushed their way into his own apartment building. Ryu snapped back into focus on the immediate needs he had to protect his own safety after seeing the monsters enter his building and stepped away from the balcony before closing the door. He then closes the blinds to prevent anything from seeing inside after he had the thought that if dogs and cats mutated there might be flying bird monsters now too that could easily break through glass if they discovered him.
He then headed straight for his front door. It was already closed and locked of course, no one lives in any city without maintaining at least basic personal security anymore, but now he also went ahead and put his large wardrobe along the wall next to it in front of the door. Stopping to look around and see what else he could use to block it he moved the small couch and loveseat in the area he had set up as his living room against the door as well. Ryu next went over to the small fire resistant lock box under his bed and after putting in his security code quickly removed the small .38 revolver that he kept there for safety's sake. He didn't have many spare rounds, only keeping two boxes of 20 rounds each with the small pistol, but it should be enough if he is careful as God knows he is so out of shape his chances of going hand to hand with zombies were not very good.
Ryu, now as secure as he could be for the moment, started up the gamer part of his mind from when he played survival games, and started thinking about plans for now, plans for tomorrow, and plans for the future. He immediately turned on his TV, setting it to the local news channel as he began listening to the various reports going out and government responses. Turning on his computer he began scanning live streams and popular content posting sites for new videos to collect information. While he was doing this he also mentally took stock of his remaining food and water supplies of which there weren't many. He had only enough food to stretch out for a couple of days as for water he had almost none as he usually drank soda.
Ryu had a thought and stood up gathering any empty glass, jug, bottle, or any other container he could find and began filling them with water from his sink. The building has its own internal water filter that keeps all water coming into the building clean and safe to drink so as long as they still had power and water in the pipes it would work fine. Ryu was simply filling every container he could so that when the power and water stopped flowing he would still have a backup to rely on until other plans could be enacted.
After finishing filling every container, including several double bag garbage bags of water that he left on the balcony, he returned to gathering information. Within a few hours he already saw reports on the news and by people posting their own videos from their smartphones showing that some people had already acquired various classes allowing them to do special things. One guy was showing off his S Rank Superhuman class that was apparently based on comic books he was a huge fan of. The guy could apparently absorb sunlight and store it as power in his body. As he reached certain thresholds he would gain abilities like superhuman strength, endurance, damage resistance, the ability to fly, and other such interesting skills.
Ryu was excited at first as it seemed like humans really had a chance with such strong ability users running around! He continued to watch the man explain his new abilities and even showed how he could now lift a car as he unlocked increased strength at the first threshold, even the reporter interviewing the man on the street was excitedly discussing this with the user… until the small horde of zombies came around a corner and made a beeline right for the loudly speaking reporter and S class user.
The superhuman managed to splatter the heads of several zombies but it appears he had let the potential he was gifted go to his head and rather than assuring his safety he chose to stand and fight… until he was plowed under by the crowd of zeds who then started a feeding frenzy that didn't stop until the flesh was stripped from his now bare bones. Apparently the powers he was supposed to unlock that would make him immune to bites and scratches weren't unlocked yet and now never would be since he was in pieces on the street.
The reporter had been taken down with him and the only reason Ryu knew how it all ended was the camera man had been the only one there with any sense of self preservation.
When the small horde had rounded the corner the man had immediately ducked into the small two story restaurant they had been interviewing in front of before quietly making his way up to the roof from an interior access point. After securing the only doorway leading up to him he then filmed the user and reporter's tragic end while quietly talking to the crowd about not being overconfident just because they have abilities. It takes time to grow them and if the superhuman below had run away and kept absorbing sun for a few more months he might truly have ended up as a savior for humanity, now he was just bloody leftovers.
Ryu sadly watched a little longer before fatigue started to set in as currently he had already been awake for almost 30 hours. He slowly turned everything off again and made his way to his bed where he collapsed into a deep and rejuvenating sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.