"Miss Alice, are you ready to start talking and admit your crime?" A professional in black asked and the lady in question, Alice, rolled her eyes.

She was strapped to a chair. Her hands and legs were shackled with power restraints and there were tubes attached to her head connecting to a truth machine.

There was even an awakened who could tell lies from the truth with their special skill.

'This is getting old.' Alice thought and answered, "For the 25th time, I don't have a freaking system!" Alice said, almost to the point of yelling.

The professional looked at the people operating the truth machine. They nodded that she was telling the truth, and then he looked at the lady with the truth skill. But she shook her head and said,

"I apologize, my skills could not tell if she was telling the truth or not. It would seem she is still able to use her skills even while under restraint."

Alice rolled her eyes.

'Give me a break. If I could use a skill, any skill at all, I would've said something. But I honestly don't have powers. I am not an awakened, and I don't have a system, but they won't believe me.'

"Miss Alice, will you tell us what happened at the red gate then?" He asked but with glazed eyes, she said,

"No comment."

"Hah!" The professional sighed. "Miss Alice, the world is in danger. Do you intend to still keep your powers a secret? The world needs people with your powers." The professional said. "As an S-class awakened, your powers could save millions of lives. And there are a lot of benefits that come with it. Fame, money. Why won't you admit it already?"

"I'm pretty sure the world has more than a dozen S-class awakeners to keep it safe. What's one less?" She shrugged. 'Ah, if I really had that kind of power, I would waste no time showing off so I could live a carefree life, but I don't have it. These headstrong bastards see something that I don't and I want to know what it is. Until they tell me what it is, my lips are sealed about that incident.'

"Well, I guess we'll have no choice but to wait for the other S-class awakened to come back from their raid." The professional said. "It's almost over."

"Yeah, yeah, you guys do that." Alice said. "And while you do that, I'll just carry on life in my cell. Oh, and don't forget what you promised would be for dinner today. I'm already hungry so do make it quick, boss." She snickered.

The professional nodded his head.

"You're always hungry." He said and signaled the guards to escort me back to my cell while he talked with the lady.

'Being accused as an S-class who broke the code and hid their awakening isn't so bad. I mean, I'm living life better than I ever did. There's a lot of special treatment too. It's all you can eat, I tell ya.' Alice thought as the guards led her away. "See you on the 26th interrogation, boss." She said and snickered.

They took her to her cell, took off the shackles, and left, encrypting the metal bars with codes that would raise up the security system of the cell and stop her from breaking out.

It was said that even a superhuman would never be able to break out of those cells as long as the mana stones were intact.

Not that it worked on her.

But, who cared about that? She certainly didn't.

She bounced on her bed and picked up an apple from the fruit bowl beside her bed.

This place that was considered a cell was no different from a suite in a five-star hotel.

This was the special treatment that Alice wouldn't mind living with for the rest of her life. And also the reason why she wouldn't repeat the story of the 'red gate' with anyone.

She tried to tell them once but they did not believe her.

And after experiencing this the first time, she decided to keep the secret to herself and only say the rest.

'But seriously,' she gazed at the metal ceiling. '...how in the world am I being mistaken for an S-class awakened when I can't even open a system? Where's the power coming from, eh? It's crazy.'

Well, it was all crazy from the start. From the moment she stumbled on that 'red gate', things were bound to get crazy from there.

"Hah! I'm hungry. When's the food coming?"

**********

A young girl, around ten years old, stood frozen in place as she watched in horror as her mother got carried up by a flying monster.

Her eyes stuck with the monster even as it flew high into the sky. She did not tell, did not cry or run away but her expression showed pain.

The flying monster stopped midair and threw her mother up into the air, opened its mouth, and swallowed her whole.

Only then did the little girl react.

"Mummy!"

Then, someone came with fists that glowed blue, jumped into the sky, and brought the monster down with a single punch.

It died.

This young girl approached the monster but the 'hero' knelt in front of her and said,

"You're safe now, kid."

But the little girl got angry and started beating his chest, and shoulders and even hitting his face while screaming in anger,

"You didn't save anyone. My mummy. Bring me back, my mummy. You were supposed to save my mummy but you didn't. It's all your fault. Why were you so late? If you had come any sooner then, my... My mummy." Only then, did tears roll down her eyes.

She was devastated and only felt the impact of her loneliness at that point.

The hero, being blamed like that, did not take it out on her but hugged her and said,

"We will all heal together."

What happened?

********************

"Ahhh! Save me!!"

In a single day, the world, as humankind knew it, fell. Or to say, it was falling.o

It was riddled with Chaos. Monster chaos.

Large buildings that seemed to hold the beauty of the world crumbled as these monsters descended from the sky as if announcing they were forthcoming.

The buildings fell to the ground killing hundreds in the process and sending despairing the hearts of mankind

The sky was dyed red as it welcomed the foreign inhabitants through multiple colored gates in the sky and down on the ground, allowing them to slaughter and feast on the innocent humans who had been going about their everyday activities.

They screamed for help as they crumbled under the monsters and were ripped apart.

Children cried, unable to find their parents, and disasters occurred.

There was no place to hide. Nowhere to run to. There was chaos everywhere, all around the world.

People had to watch their loved ones die in front of them while others watched as they were abandoned by their loved ones, to the fate of the monsters that had descended on them.

"Is this hell?"

Was the question many asked themselves as they watched the dreadful scenes unfold before their eyes with horror all over their faces.

Their body could feel it. Their minds... There was no escape. It was the end.

"We're all gonna die."

And then, amid the chaos, a beacon of blue light manifested in front of a selected number of people as a screen, one you would see as a pop-up notification on a video game, and these words were displayed right in front of them.

/Do you wish to save your world? If so, accept your fate and wield our power. We, the constellations, have heard your cries and will liberate you./

Who were they? No one knew.

Who were the 'constellations' that were bestowing their power on the weak and defenseless humans? No one knew, but...

As long as they could use their power to save themselves, to save humankind, they took the chance and accepted their fate.

And just like that, humans were granted unrecognizable powers, becoming superhumans who could lift rocks the size of a house and use their bare hands to harm these monsters.

It was a miracle, they said. And so they praised the constellations.

With this, humanity found hope of survival and fought back these monsters with all they had.

But of course, not everyone could wield that power. Not everyone could be an 'awakened'. There were requirements, the system said, but it did not state what those requirements were, leaving desperate humans to use whatever it took to awaken themselves as heroes.

But not everyone was lucky. And not everyone awakened with a skill that made them heroes. There was a 'class'.

But even the lowest of them all was still far set aside from the average individual. And that was what everyone craved.

To be an awakened.

But the more pressing question that never found its answer was,

'Where did these monsters come from and who was it that created a 'gate' for them to invade Earth?'

The constellation never gave them the answers but told them this,

/Do not fret and be of good courage, as long as you wiped out power, your world shall not fall/

Those simple yet inspiring words were what made humans so proud and very negligent.

The monsters would be their downfall; they would.

But they didn't know that yet, because they decided to be drunk on the power bestowed on them and underestimate the enemy.

Seven years later...