It was a cool Wednesday morning, Marcus Cheng was home, playing his game, after all, the radiation was supposed to reach Earth's surface tomorrow, or so they thought...
"Damn it!" he muttered under his breath, squeezing his face in frustration at the overpowered villain he was fighting.
The problem was that, having used every means to get points, skills, and level up, he had avoided helping the in-game characters as the developers had intended.
Consequently, he was struggling because he lacked a crucial skill that would be more effective against the villain.
With no other choice, he navigated through the interface and started checking tasks.
"Whoa! That is cringe," he exclaimed, seeing a task where he had to help a lad up after he fell because he was blindfolded.
"Shit game!" he yelled, but the reason he was still hell-bent on playing it was because of the villains; the fights were so epic!
Sitting on his bed, his eyes focused on the TV.
"Yeah, I just need to help an old man carry some stuff inside his house, right? All done!"
He clicked the controller. "Let's go and fight. I must finish this level today," Marcus said determinedly.
He could hear one of the guys living in the next room yelling at someone.
"Hey, be fast! I don't know if I'll be able to do it tomorrow."
"But we did it all night, I'm fucking tired," a lady whined.
"Shitheads!" he thought.
"Like, damn! They are just too loud."
He moved on with his game. At least he should finish this level; he might not be able to play the game tomorrow either.
But then something happened suddenly.
Normally, he sat on his bed, facing the TV and playing the game.
But he felt a breeze blow past his face as if he were actually relaxing outside in cool weather and not in the enclosed space of his room.
This latest occurrence made him instinctively jerk his head to the left side—the direction the breeze was blowing from, and the true horrific explanation was there for him to see...
Marcus' eyes narrowed, it appeared he was in an apartment complex that had been split in half because he couldn't see the wall boundary between his room and the next neighbor's room.
He didn't know how it happened. Rushing towards the edge which now opened to the outside view, he could see the next building and even the whole street.
Glancing down from about twenty-five feet in the half-split apartment, "What the heck happened!" he yelled, the wind whistled passed his face.
There they were, his loud neighbor and his girlfriend, almost on the verge of being swallowed alive by a Venus flytrap.
One of the plant pots that lined one side of the lawn and the terrace outside had grown enormously enough to swallow the whole building he was in.
"Don't tell me it was the one that bit off half of this building,"
Marcus realized, struggling to accept the scene in front of him.
The half-naked guy and lady were struggling inside the lobes of the plant, which looked aggressive even though it didn't have a face.
Looking over at the street, he realized it wasn't a normal street anymore. It was as if an apocalypse had started.
In front of the next building, which was a bungalow, a girl held a dog on a chain. Suddenly, the chain broke immediately as the dog grew big and about fifteen feet tall, almost taller than the building.
With one raised paw, it smashed the whole building to bits. The girl screamed like someone watching a horror movie in the middle of the night who suddenly felt something blow a cold breeze on the back of their neck.
Marcus struggled to get his bearings on what was happening. It felt like a dream, like it was unbelievable. He was still standing on the jagged edge of his room, his heart pounding, morning wind whistling past his face.
Instinctively, he ran back to the TV. Perhaps the best thing was to find a way to get down the building before the plant bit off the remaining part. He switched the TV to a news channel while breathing heavily.
A reporter, a man in his late thirties, was reporting from a location he recognized.
His head rang like a large bell. "This... is... the... front... of... the... hospital... my... mum—" He could only speak slowly because of how his heart was racing. He couldn't even finish the sentence because of the scenery, his legs started quivering and a cold sweat broke from his face.
A giant mosquito, about ten feet tall, was on the verge of sucking the back of the reporter's head with its proboscis, which looked as long as a six-foot tube.
Looking at how giant it looked, it was almost something out of a horror movie, even the buzzing sound it made sounded like a big machine motor operating.
Its two big multifaceted green compound eyes were like looking into a mosaic of tiny, reflective lenses while reflecting an eerie and malevolent intelligence.
But then, he saw a fist hit it from the side. Nope, he didn't miss it, even though the fist was so fast it almost appeared like a blur—not when it was happening in front of the hospital where his mum was.
"The PlatinumXgamma radiation, which reached Earth's surface early this morning as stated five days ago has mutated a lot of living organisms all around the world. But don't worry, we also have our heroes who have awakened unbelievable powers in the process, the awakened are fighting the mutant beasts currently," the reporter said while nodding with a grin.
"Eh!" Marcus was shocked and somehow at ease. He heaved a heavy sigh, his legs gave way and he sat on the bed with a thud.
Marcus didn't mind what was happening, as long as his mom was still sleeping safely in the hospital. That was all that mattered.
"That fucked up woman even casted rubbish, Shit channel, so it was today all along" he muttered.
The time was around 8:30 am...
"He said early this morning, so... the mutation has already started a couple of hours ago,"
Marcus gazed back at the TV and saw Elena Wong, the girl in the wheelchair he always saw outside anytime he went to visit his mum. But she wasn't in a wheelchair anymore.
"What the hell!!"
Marcus gasped.
There she was, fighting a giant cockroach in her patient uniform, the sound of the shrieking and hissing of the creature almost made Marcus' heart jump out even though it was on the TV.
Marcus never imagined those insects to be as hideous as this, with its opened mouth, saliva sprayed out of it like some hideous beast as it stood on its last pair of legs, the hairs and claws of its three pairs of legs were something else as its swipe one of the pairs at Elena's head, the colossal cockroach excelled at speed but it seemed Elena was faster as she dodged so fast her body blurred.
Marcus came to a conclusion. "So the radiation only mutates animals, plants, and insects.
But in the case of plants, it was only the carnivorous species like the Venus flytrap."
"Wait!" Marcus yelled and used his hands to prop his body up from the bed.
"Speaking of the Venus flytrap, I hope that guy hasn't been digested by it!" Marcus ran toward the edge of the half-split apartment complex...