The sound of bullets flying out of the gun's nozzle and into bodies graced the usually quiet and dreary environment, as a curly haired, slightly muscular young man who went by the name Mateo focused solely on gunning down the numerous undead that surrounded the darkened stone walls of the medieval style fortress he found himself in.
Whilst shooting, his mind couldn't help but wonder how he ended up in this situation, as instead of celebrating his birthday, which thanks to his parents, happened to fall on New Year's Day, he found himself shooting aimlessly at the mass of zombies and ghouls that plagued his vision, while also watching the timer at the top right corner of his vision telling him he had to survive 12 more long and grueling hours against the unrelenting horde of undead in order to be teleported out of this hellhole and into his somewhat normal life in California.
 He threw two more grenades, lowering his stock to only six from the original 10 he took, and giving him enough time to catch his breath and relax his arms, while also remembering the reason he was in this situation in the first place.
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Two years ago, as the countdown for the new year drew to an end, and people were ushered into 2037 with heads and hearts filled with hopes and dreams of a better, brighter and more successful future, a global panic ensued.
People all over the world felt an itching sensation on their chest, which was accompanied by three green, slash-like marks with a dull glow to them, each about an inch thick and about 5 inches in length.
This, of course, was taken as a chance by conspiracy theorists, rival companies and opposing political parties to blame ruling governments and big corporations, claiming that the aforementioned parties were responsible, by weaving tales with elements containing: leakage of waste products from secret superhuman lab experiments, environmental pollution caused by factory smoke, to even the retaliation of alien races whose members were believed to have been captured and tortured in Area 51.
Ultimately, the United Nations along with its member countries released countless statements to the press, adopting the environmental pollution approach, they pinned the blame on a new, cleaner type of energy which caused some minor side effects for only a short while.
They concluded by saying that the issue would be resolved within the timeframe of a week, which was widely accepted and calmed a majority of the distressed masses, leaving only the skeptical but fearful minority to formulate theories on their own, each theory more absurd than the last.
It was only exactly a year later that those marked understood their marks' purpose and started to appreciate these marks like their lives depended on it, because they in fact, did.
In the year 2037, as mankind was celebrating the new year, the COSMIC WAVE, an in-explainable phenomena, had reached the Milky Way Galaxy, and eventually, the Earth's solar system, bringing with it changes not even the everyday drunkards nor the delusional would have dared to imagine.
Due to this phenomenon, on the day someone turned a year older, they would find themselves in a separate plane from Earth, given the name THE DEAD-ZONE by the common populace, a quite fitting name, considering all of its inhabitants are undead, so numerous that they are all that can be seen no matter how far into the distance one gazes.
In this plane, they were given one mission alone which was to "SURVIVE 24 HRS IN THE DEAD-ZONE". Hearing this message in their minds and seeing the endless horde that surrounded the fortresses which they had been spawned into, some weak-hearted ones immediately passed out and died from shock, while the stronger-willed ones accepted their situations and made plans and fought for their survival using the medieval weapons in the fortress to survive, even if it was for barely a second longer.
At the end of the allocated time, each of the summoned appeared in a grand white and gold themed hall where an apparition with an ancient and divine presence spoke, congratulating everyone on receiving what it called the FIRST BAPTISM.Â
It then proceeded to award everyone with coins based on the number and quality of undead killed. These coins were the universal currency which could be used in any store to purchase anything for sale as long as one had the authority to purchase it and the strength to keep it.
Luckily, these coins could be stored digitally in the wallet, an option found in the digital display located in the top right corner of a baptizand's interactive interface so that they cannot be stolen.
It was with the coins gotten from his meagre kills in his previous summoning as well as the fortune amassed in his current one that he was barely able to afford two items, with one being a possible solution to his current predicament.
Dropping two more grenades in the sea of the undead, he bought himself enough time to descend the wall via its stairs and use one of the two purchased items.
A potion, though not just any potion but an affinity potion, the stuff of novels and the fantasies of many people on Earth, though because it was of lesser quality, it had the power to give only one of the four basic elements, the one that the individual was attuned with the most. To top it off the individual got only a lesser manipulation ability of the said element. Even with all these setbacks, it was still extremely useful to the people of Earth.
 After reaching the foot of the staircase, Mateo took a right turn and entered the sturdiest looking building in his immediate surroundings. Upon entering, he sat on the cold stone floor and uncorked the glass tube containing his potion. After inhaling the sweet scent of the multicoloured liquid, a colour for each element, he gulped it down, reeling from the shock of it's bitter taste, though not for long.