Chapter 5- The New World (Part 2)

Zane scrolled slowly through the article, reading every word with the kind of focus usually reserved for something far more serious than a tabloid news site. By the time he reached the bottom of the page, his entire expression had changed. His brows were furrowed tightly, lips pressed in a thin line, and his squint conveyed more disbelief than actual concentration.

He leaned back slightly in his chair, rubbing his temples as he exhaled through his nose. "Okay… okay. Let's take this one step at a time."

The article itself seemed innocent enough on the surface—a high-profile guild switch by a powerful figure named Lancelot. According to the piece, Lancelot was an S-ranked "Awakener"—a title that already suggested something superhuman—and had recently moved from one guild to another, a shift that apparently sent shockwaves across the world.

"So, from that alone I can assume three things," Zane murmured, his voice low, like he was lecturing himself through the chaos. "First, this world—whatever version of it this is—isn't exactly normal. Something supernatural is at play here. The system I have… that only confirms it. So I should completely stop looking at it from a normal perspective."

He wasn't just guessing anymore. The clues were stacking up. The photos in the article were compelling in a way that fiction couldn't replicate. There was one of Lancelot himself—tall, sharp-featured, charismatic in that unreal way celebrities often were. His hair blazed in a shade of crimson that practically glowed, and in his palm, he held a flickering ball of fire.

Zane had watched enough edited videos and seen enough photo manipulation back on Earth to be skeptical of anything flashy, but this… this didn't look fake. More importantly, it wasn't being treated like a spectacle. The article talked about it like it was normal.

'The people here already know,' he thought. 'They've accepted that powers exist. It's just a part of life now.'

"The second takeaway," he continued aloud, "is that the term 'Awakeners' must refer to people who've developed these supernatural abilities. And if my system uses the same term, then maybe I'm either one of them… or I will be."

He tapped his chin in thought, the wheels in his head turning faster now. The system's mention of awakening wasn't accidental. This wasn't just terminology. It was a connection. A thread tying his experience to this strange future-Earth.

Still curious, Zane closed the article and clicked into another one that had caught his attention: something about an uptick in "mutant attacks."

He braced himself, expecting a few unsettling headlines. What he found instead made his skin crawl.

The first image hit like a punch to the gut.

It showed twisted, nightmarish creatures charging through city streets—some vaguely human, others grotesque fusions of flesh, fur, and bone. Familiar animals—dogs, wolves, even cattle—were turned into abominations. Clusters of muscle and jagged bone jutted from malformed limbs, and faces that once held innocence were now masks of rage and decay.

It was a sight born straight out of one person's nightmare, and yet the images looked as crisp and as real as they could.

They looked like zombies. Horrific, apocalyptic monsters ripped straight out of the horror films he used to scoff at for being unrealistic.

"These are mutants…?" he whispered. "This… this is what the world's dealing with now?"

The article didn't try to soften the details. It talked about a spike in attacks, how entire districts had been evacuated due to new waves of these monstrosities. It explained that only Awakeners stood between them and complete annihilation. Yet, even these awakeners were at work 24/7, trying to contain these recent attacks in several cities down south.

Piece by piece, the puzzle started to form in Zane's mind.

"Awakeners fight these things," he muttered. "They use their powers to push back the tide. But now the tide's rising faster than ever."

That realization sank in with a strange weight. It explained the need for organized guilds like the one Lancelot joined. It explained the growing celebrity culture around these fighters. And it explained the sheer desperation Zane had sensed between the lines of every article he read.

But it still didn't answer the biggest question lingering in his mind.

"What the hell happened in the last hundred years?"

Zane knew the world had changed dramatically since he passed out—if the 2134 date was real—but this was something else entirely. This wasn't just evolution or cultural development. This was upheaval.

So, deciding it was time to dig deeper, Zane returned to the search bar and typed in a single question:

"How did mutants appear?"

The results flooded in almost instantly. But one in particular caught his eye—a headline in bold at the top of the page:

"The Apocalyptic Eruption – A Century Later"

Zane clicked on it without hesitation, and the page loaded into a full Wikipedia-style article. He leaned in and began to read, each word tightening the knot in his stomach.

It was worse than he expected.

The article laid everything out like a timeline of doom. It all started around a hundred years ago—right after Zane's accident. The Earth's climate had been pushed past its breaking point. Global temperatures rose dramatically. Ice caps melted at unprecedented rates. Flooding swept through coastal cities, displacing millions. Seasons collapsed into chaos—winters vanished, summers became infernos.

Natural disasters followed like dominoes. Massive storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions—every corner of the globe was affected. And then… the world began to expand. 

Literally.

Reaching that point made Zane stop again, his eyes locked on those words as if he couldn't believe what he was reading.

'The world expanded? Wait, what?' He frowned. 'How is that even possible? That shouldn't be... What am I even saying? I'm seeing literal zombies wreaking havoc in the world. The world expanding isn't that far-fetched an idea anymore.'

New landmasses formed, some overnight. Entire continents shifted, and mysterious new islands and territories emerged. Scientists were baffled. The Earth had grown in size—five times its original mass—yet gravity remained unchanged. Physics still worked. It was, as the article stated bluntly, "a scientific paradox."

But all of that chaos was just the overture.

Then came the real horror—the microscopic invader that tipped everything over the edge.

A new kind of bacteria emerged, likely triggered by the extreme environmental changes. At first, it only infected plant life, wiping out crops and creating global food shortages. But it didn't stop there. The bacteria evolved rapidly, targeting animals next.

But instead of killing them, it mutated them. Drove them mad. Made them aggressive, ravenous, and violent beyond recognition. Animals infected with the bacteria would attack anything in sight—including their own species—and spread the bacteria through blood and bites.

Then it reached humans.

Zane stopped reading for a moment, his eyes frozen on the screen, mind spinning. He knew where this was going.

The bacteria mutated again, now targeting human biology in horrifying ways. Unlike with animals, it didn't just make humans go feral—it reshaped them. Twisted their minds, their bodies. Some died, others became… something else. Creatures of madness and rage. The mutants.

And the scariest part? It was still evolving. The article mentioned that to this day, no scientist has found a cure or a way to stop the bacteria. Cities were fortified with walls to protect them from these monsters while they roam the world. Almost 90% of it was completely undiscovered and uncharted, occupied by these creatures and their continuously evolving state.

Zane slumped back in the chair, staring blankly at the ceiling. His heart thumped in his chest, slower than before, like his body was processing grief.

"What a mess," he muttered. "What a sick, twisted joke."

Everything he'd read painted a picture of a world on the brink—one that had somehow survived long enough to develop powers just to hold the chaos back. A world where cities were barely clinging to safety behind fortified walls, while monsters roamed the wilds. A world where nature itself had turned into the enemy.

And here he was, thrown into the middle of it.

By who? And for what purpose?

The answers still eluded him. But now he understood the stakes. Whatever this system was—whatever purpose it had for him—it clearly wasn't for fun.

Someone brought him here. Someone gave him this power. And someone expected something from him.

He wasn't sure what worried him more—that this was all random… or that it wasn't.