For Harry, the end of our civilization meant only one thing: endless worry.

His third semester in college was finally over, and since it was Saturday, he was making good use of his well-deserved free time, by sleeping until noon. That was his intention, but unfortunately, someone began to knock on his apartment door at six o’clock fiercely.

“Oh, man,” Harry sighed. “What kind of person can make so much noise at this hour?”

With his eyes half-opened, he walked to the door; he was so sleepy that he didn’t even saw the huge box in the middle of the apartment. The knocks on the door became fierce and almost looked like the door was about to be destroyed, but Harry dismissed those thoughts, his sleepy mind was probably making him imagine things. However, he was wrong and noticed that when he unlocked the door. Suddenly the door opened, and he got knocked on the floor, then a strange shadow entered his apartment.

“Ouch, why are you…” Harry said.

For a second, Harry froze. Something unbelievable was in front of him; it was an oversized rat dirt with blood. However, he didn’t have time to think or understand what was going on. The monster began his attack aiming its claws at Harry’s face. Since he played basketball from an early age, he dodged that attack, but his cheek got scratched since he wasn’t fully awake yet.

“Holy mother of God…” Harry trembled.

The pain in his face made Harry even more cautious; that thing was there to kill him. It was small, even smaller than ten years old kids. But the creature’s claws were dangerously sharp. One single mistake and he would lose his head, slowly he began to walk away from the beast, but something stopped him, a strange wooden box.

“What…” Harry said, confused. “The hell is this?”

When he touched the box, it opened, and he saw something that would be very useful to keep his head on its rightful place: a sword. He saw that kind of weapon before, but he couldn’t remember where, but that didn’t matter he picked the sword and prepared himself, because the creature was going to attack again.

He didn’t have any experience with weapons, but he had another advantage: his long reach. The creature jumped to attack, but it stopped midair because Harry pierced its heart with the sword. A single and precise strike and the beast died, but instead of happy, Harry felt disgusted because the blood of the rat gushed on his body.

“What just happened here?” Harrys asked while trying to get rid of the blood on his body.

Before he could even try to understand what happened, he felt a headache and then he saw some blue screens in his mind.

Survivor Registered.

You survived your first battle.

You have obtained the skill: Troll’s Life Force

You have obtained 01 Evolution Orb.

You have obtained 01 Evolution Coin.

Harry was speechless; something weird was happening, something bizarre. But again, he didn’t have time to try to understand, because he heard Sarah’s voice.

“Help me!” Sarah screamed.

“Oh, shit… they got attacked, too?” Harry asked himself while running.

Without a single moment of hesitation, he headed towards his friends’ apartment; luckily, they lived on the same floor. Thanks to that, he soon arrived and saw Sarah’s clumsily using a whip to attack a rat. The creature was too focused on Sarah, thanks to that, Harry was able to kill it before he could be noticed.

“Are you alright?” Harry asked while checking Sarah’s clothes. “Are you wounded?”

“Thanks, Harry,” Sarah answered after she managed to calm herself. “I’m fine, that monster didn’t manage to attack me. But what is going on and where’s Rose?”

“Isn’t she with you?” Harry asked, and he began to tremble.

“No, when I woke up, she wasn’t here anymore, and then that thing appeared,” Sarah answered with tears in her eyes, already imagining the worse.

Harry felt a chill run down his spine, Rose was alone, and some monsters had invaded the building, he had to find her before the worst could happen. But to their surprise, she appeared right at that moment, she looked fine, but she was covered with blood.

“Where have you been?” Harry asked relieved and a bit angry.

For Harry, all that blood seemed to be Rose’s blood, but it wasn’t. She wasn’t wounded; she only suffered a few minor scratches. She showed them her knife also covered with blood and said.

“I have been fighting for my life,” Rose answered and the, she picked up a backpack. “Now let’s clean ourselves and get out of here.”

As a student of psychology, Rose knew what to do to keep herself, and most importantly, her friends calm. She had to analyze all the situation, ignore all the small problems, and keep moving forward. So without a hint of indecision, she ordered her friends to grab a few light clothes and all the food and put them in some backpacks. However, the only food and water that they found were in the vending machine. And for some reason, they were the only ones in the building.

Maybe an evacuation had happened, but they discarded that idea, the city was being destroyed by monsters, but they didn’t find any sign of evacuation. However, before they could leave the building, Harry taught them all about what he knew about those blue screen in their minds and about the game elements. Even though he was good looking, and a good basketball player, Harry didn’t have many friends. Since he was regularly seen with the two most beautiful girls of the college, Rose, and Sarah, all the men on the campus avoided him. This kind of situation also happened in high school, thanks to that, when he wasn’t studying, working, playing basketball, or with Rose and Sarah. He was playing videogames in his apartment.

That was why he was quite excited about the chance of getting stronger because, with strength, he could protect his little sister, his mother, Rose, and Sarah. He wouldn’t lose anyone precious to him again; he swore it on the day of his father’s funeral. Even though his father died in a car accident, he would never let himself feel that pain again.

“So,” Rose hesitated after she heard Harry’s explanation.” Those weird messages are things that we can see in games?”

“Yes,” Harry answered without hesitation.

“So,” Rose hesitated again.” Do you have any idea what is going on?”

“No, but there are many possibilities,” Harry explained. “Maybe we are inside of a video game, or maybe we got transported to a world similar to ours. Or perhaps we died, and this is the after-life. There is only one way to find out we have to survive until the very end.

“Fascinating,” Rose said while frowning. “But your explanation also smells like bullshit. I refuse to believe in any of those possibilities. But you are right. We have to survive and find as many clues as possible to understand what is happening. But we don’t have to this alone, let’s find some police officers. If we find some of them, I’m sure that they can escort us back to our families, or at least they will take us to a safe place.”

When they left the building, they had to fight a lot, but the fights against the rats were quite easy thanks to Harry’s natural strength and Rose’s telekinesis, but they had a problem: Sarah wasn't helping that much in their encounters. She even hit Harry in one of the fights.

“Sarah,” Rose said with a complicated expression on her face. “I think you should just offer support after the battle and keep an eye on our surroundings while we are fighting. Leave the fighting to Harry and me, okay?”

“Okay,” Sarah said and forced a smile.

Sarah felt quite frustrated, but like always, her sister was right. So, she just obeyed. However, she didn’t give up; one day, she would also fight along with her sister and Harry. As proof of that, she began to train with her whip. She trained when they stopped to rest; she trained after waking up and at night before they went to bed.

If in a battle she was useless; on the other hand, after the battle, Sarah was amazing. Thanks to her skill she could heal wounds, but since she also had a lot of medical knowledge, she could do a lot faster by controlling her MP. Just by activating the skill, she could heal wounds without even looking, but by concentrating she could repair muscles and broken bones. Although, that would make her pass out soon afterward.

At noon of the first day, Rose decided to change their plan. They had visited two police stations, but both of them were empty, they didn’t even find a gun in those places.

“I guess the situation is worse than I thought.” Rose declared while biting her nails. “We won’t have any help; we have to reach our families by ourselves.

“I wonder what happened to everyone…” Sarah said anxiously.

“That’s a good question,” Rose declared. “But we shouldn’t waste time thinking about that right now. We don´t need to solve the entire situation, we are just civilians, and we should only worry about keeping ourselves alive.

Even though no one of them had ever fought in their entire lives, their teamwork was almost perfect. Harry would block the enemies, Rose would kill them, and Sarah would heal their wounds as fast as possible. Thanks to that, they walked a lot on the first day. However, at the end of the first day, they found an obstacle too big for them: a mutant cat.

“We should retreat and look for another way.” Rose declared without a hint of hesitation after seeing the tiger-like creature.

“But this is the fastest route to our homes,” Harry said, unconcerned by the creature. “I’m sure that we can handle that monster too.”

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Sarah said with a pale face.

All of them had a point, but they were in a race against time. So in the end, they tried to fight the mutant cat. But the fight didn’t last even five seconds. Harry tried to block the monster’s fierce attack, and his left arm broke thanks to it. He didn’t scream, but the pain was visible on his face. The beast was too fast for him to attack and too strong to defend, But Rose managed to cause a lot of damage to one of the mutant cat’s paws using her knife and telekinesis. And that gave them the chance to escape.

After escaping, they took shelter in a ten-meter tall house. Sarah healed Harry’s broken bone and then fell asleep thanks to the exhaustion. However, he still had to rest because not only his bones received damage. They were in a dark room only slightly illuminated by the star's light. But Harry and Rose couldn’t relax enough to sleep.

“Harry,” Rose asked. “Why do you think we see those weird messages?”

“I’m not sure,” Harry answered while looking at the stars. “Maybe someone or something wants us to realize that we have to fight from now on. Fight for our lives and fight to get stronger. Those messages are simple, and I think they imply that.”

“Are you speaking about one of those game things?” Rose asked while frowning. “What was the name of that thing you mentioned? Level up?”

“Yeah,” Harry answered. “I know this is very strange. But the universe is vast, and humanity is always discovering new things. What is weird now, maybe won’t be odd in fifty years. What we perceive as laws of physics, may or may not be applied in other parts of the universe. I’m sure that you can understand it.

“Yeah, but…” Rose hesitated. “It’s just too weird.”

“Of course it is,” Harry said after a short laugh.” But a weird thing is just something that you are not used to it.”

Harry had a point, Rose knew it. But something was off, it would take time, but she needed the answers to those questions. Why was this happening, and why now? She only knew one thing, worrying wouldn’t help, it would only make they make mistakes. They had to find the clues, but that wasn’t their priority. They had to survive and find their families, and only after that, they would have time to find those answers.

On the second day, they decided to take a long detour since they saw many mutant cats ahead of them. Although those monsters didn’t like to walk in groups, one of them was more deadly than twenty mutant rats.

“Our best option is to cross downtown using ST Louis Street,” Rose said.

“Let’s just hope the street has less and weaker monsters,” Harry said while scratching his left arm.

“I hope so too,” Sarah said visibly uneasy.

It took half a day for them to reach their start point and they fight a lot, but thanks to that, they confirmed Harry suspicions. They could get stronger, smarter, and faster. Harry was the first one to break the limit, and he decided to break his physical limit because, with that, he would be more resistant and protect Rose and Sarah.

After ten long seconds of feeling pain in his bones and muscles, Harry decided to test his endurance against the mutant rats. And just like he thought, the monster’s attacks had become lighter.

“It seems to be true,” Rose said impressed. “Your body didn’t change, but you look to be stronger. How do you feel?”

“Very good,” Harry said while jumping. “I feel light.”

Since they didn’t notice any counter effects, Rose and Sarah also did the same, but both of them choose their mental limits to maximize the potential of their skills. But, they didn’t feel pain inside their bones or muscles. They felt pain in their brains; it seemed like someone was electrocuting their heads. But, they also noticed the improvement in their skills.

“This is too suspicious…” Rose said, showing a worried expression. “Too much benefit for just a day and a half of battles.”

“Well,” Harry said frowning. “At least this will make the battles a little easier.”

“But this progress it feels unnatural,” Sarah added. “Human beings can’t improve so fast.”

All of them were worried, but they couldn’t do anything to stop it. Besides, that voice in their heads would drive them crazy if they don't choose an option.

The second day and night passed without any significant incidents for them. But on the third day, they finally found some survivors — a group of bad apples, Martin and Ethan.