章 1: Countdown to Apocalypse
[ THE EARTH YOU KNOW WILL END IN SIX DAYS ]
A transparent text accompanied by a mechanic sound suddenly appeared on the bus.
Clyde, a glassed high school boy widened his eyes. His reaction was almost the same as the people on this bus. They were all confused and terrified.
"What does it mean?!" A man wearing a neat suit shouted.
"What's this?" A girl asked her boyfriend.
"I don't know." Her boyfriend said while holding the girl's hand, trying to calm her down.
All those voices of panic and fear were heard throughout the bus.
Clyde spread his eyes around and swallowed his saliva.
'Shit, what the hell happened?' Clyde thought to himself.
He had not imagined that this day would actually happen.
Apocalypse scenarios like what he read in online literature.
It was something Clyde often imagined in his spare time.
He spends his time reading apocalyptic novels, watching apocalyptic movies, and playing apocalyptic games.
Clyde liked the scenario where the world would be destroyed. Either by a zombie outbreak, nuclear war, or monsters.
The earth has been very close to apocalyptic scenarios for a long time and imagining what scenarios will happen is just a fun thing to do.
However, Clyde never imagined that the apocalyptic scenario that would occur was something so far from predictable.
A red letter that floated like a notification pop-up window in the game appeared.
Clyde knew that the text was real. Unlike these people who have a hard time believing it.
Because he had read it in a web novel. Something like this is very familiar to him.
After a while, Clyde finally calmed down.
On this bus, he was the only one who can be calm.
Not because he felt he could handle this apocalypse, but because Clyde was ready if he have to die.
His life wasn't a pleasant one that he wanted to keep it longer.
He was bullied at school because of his difficulty in socializing.
Although Clyde is quite smart, he is just being exploited.
His parents divorced and they already have their own families.
Leaving Clyde to live alone. They only send him money every month.
Clyde had always wondered why they bothered getting married and having children when they ended up throwing him away.
Clyde was always looking for an opportunity to die but he was too scared to kill himself.
Eventually, he immerses himself in video games and web novels to escape reality.
"Why didn't the bus stop?" asked an old woman in front of him.
Clyde also wondered why the bus didn't stop.
He had guessed that, maybe that was because the bus driver have also seen the transparent writing in front of him.
Then an idea popped into Clyde's head.
"Maybe something happen to this bus and its driver," Clyde muttered in a very low voice.
"You think so?"
Clyde turned his head when he heard a voice.
He saw a girl wearing the same uniform as him staring at him.
The girl had straight, shiny black hair.
Her face is small and cute. Her expression looked troubled making her face look even cuter.
"You talking to me?" asked Clyde.
"Of course!" said the girl.
Clyde stared at the nametag on her chest. Asqa S.
Clyde thought she had heard the name somewhere. Possibly at school. But he didn't know who this girl was.
"I don't know," answered Clyde. "Maybe."
"What do you think this is?" the girl named Asqa asked in a panicked voice.
Perhaps subconsciously, she moved closer to Clyde.
"As you can see. The world is coming to an end," Clyde said flatly.
"Oh, God!" Asqa starts shedding tears. "What should we do?!"
Clyde looked at her dryly. Too bad he met such a beautiful and cute girl in such a situation.
Clyde's luck had never been good so he couldn't help but sigh.
At least the last sight he saw before dying was Asqa's face.
Suddenly, another line of transparent text appeared before Clyde's eyes.
The text was also red and floated in front of him. Like the interface Window he had seen in video games.
Asqa and everyone on the bus seem to get the same Window. Because they stared ahead with shocked eyes.
Suddenly, a thought appeared in Clyde's mind.
If there was such an Attribute Window like this, there was a chance that they wouldn't die right away.
'This looks like a game, or a scenario. Maybe we should play.'
He also read something like this in web novels. A very famous one.
Clyde's originally pessimistic feelings turned to optimism. If it's about games or scenarios. Maybe he has a better chance to survive.
The shape of Clyde's Attribute Window looks pretty simple.
<<Character Information>>
[ Name: Clyde Cross ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Age: 17 ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ Exp: 0/100 ]
[ Private Attribute: Easy-Mode Player. ]
[ Exclusive Skill: Inspection (Lv.3), Weapon Mastery (Lv.1) ]
[ Skill point: 0 ]
[ Player Stats: Strength (3/10), Stamina (2/10), Agility (3/10), Magic Power (5/10) ]
[ Stat Point: 0 ]
[ Inventory: 1 Gold Starter Pack ]
<<==================>>
"What's this?" Asqa's panicked voice woke Clyde who was observing his Attribute Window.
The girl was very confused. It seems she had never seen anything like this at all. So did most of the people on this bus.
Suddenly while everyone was panicking, a screen appeared under the red text.
The screen looked like an LCD screen. However, the absence of a projector made Clyde think that it must have something to do with what was happening right now.
The form of a man with glasses appeared on the screen. He smiled greeting everyone like a friendly host.
[ "Good afternoon, Earthlings! Are you ready for the 69,399 editions of the End of Time Game?" ] said the man on the screen.
Clyde listened intently amidst the panic.
When he glanced out the bus window, everyone outside the bus was also staring at something in front of their eyes.
'Everyone goes through the same thing.' thought Clyde.
"Who are you?! what happened?!" asked a man who looked furious.
"Stop this bus!" a young man walked up to the driver, but he immediately backed away when he saw something terrifying.
Clyde guessed that the bus driver got the same thing. Or worse. Maybe he was already dead.
The young man sat back down.
[ "Hahaha. Don't worry. The bus will stop and the First Chapter will start. I'll just give you a small guide to make things easier for you." ]
[ "First, you have an Attribute Window that you can check at any time. Inside the Attribute Window is your status in this End Times Game. All Players will start with a Level 1 status." ]
[ "Level 1 is your current state. As the Game progresses, You will get Status Points and Skill Points which you can use to upgrade your power." ]
Clyde stared at his Attribute Window. Surprisingly, he had a Status that was at a Level above 1.
'Everyone except me I guess.'
Something else that caught his attention was his Private Attribute which read "Easy-Mode Player."
Was it because of that choice he made three days ago?
~~~
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