Conner sat in the back of the lecture hall, the overhead lights buzzing faintly as his professor droned on about post-industrial economics. He wasn't really listening. His thoughts drifted with the clouds outside the window—thick, low, and unusually still. England in autumn was always a little gray, a little wet, but today felt different. Like the sky was holding something back.
He tapped his pen against his notebook, trying to shake the odd tension in his chest. Something was wrong. Not just with the weather—but with the air itself. The way it seemed to hum.
Then it happened.
The first tremor was small. Barely enough to make anyone look up. A couple of students glanced around, confused.
The second knocked half the class off their chairs.
The lecture hall groaned as if something beneath the earth had punched upward. Screams burst from every corner. Lights flickered, glass shattered, desks crashed together. And through the fractured ceiling, Conner saw the sky.
It was splitting.
Veins of white-blue light tore across the clouds like lightning caught in a spiderweb. Only it wasn't lightning. It wasn't anything natural. The lines glowed, pulsed, and opened—like wounds. And from those wounds came the impossible.
Something fell—a shape. No, not fell. It dropped and hovered, twitching unnaturally in mid-air. It looked like a centipede made of bark and wire, dozens of legs chittering as it floated silently over the university courtyard. Another one followed. Then a third. And then the sky screamed.
The sound was high and sharp, like metal tearing. Conner dropped to his knees, hands over his ears. The lights died. A final jolt knocked out the power. Phones stopped working. Everything went dark—except the sky.
That's when the notifications started.Not on phones. Not from speakers. In his head.
[System Initialization: Global Evolution Protocol Activated]
[Welcome, User.]
[Trait Assignment in Progress…]
Conner froze. It wasn't a hallucination. The message burned behind his eyes like words carved into his mind. He blinked, but the text stayed.
The professor was shouting something—probably to get out—but nobody could hear him over the chaos. Another crack echoed outside. Someone screamed again.
Conner looked at his trembling hands. He wasn't panicking. Not yet. He was processing. Fast.Then, more messages:
[You have been assigned a Trait: "Hollow Marksmanship (F)"]
[Trait Description: You possess an innate, instinctive connection with the bow. Your aim is true. Your perception aligns. You may identify and lock onto living targets using your right eye.]
[Note: Your Trait is Evolvable.]
His right eye burned suddenly, like someone had jabbed a needle of ice into it. He clutched at his face, groaning. When he opened it again, the world had changed.
A soft glow traced across his vision—almost like a HUD in a video game. Shapes flickered around moving figures, and for a brief second, he could see glowing outlines through walls. A scope had locked onto someone screaming in the hallway below.
Then the stats appeared:
[Initializing Status Panel…]
Name: Conner Hayes
Trait: Hollow Marksmanship (F) – Evolvable
Level: 1
HP: 100
MP: 50
Stats:
• Strength: 5
• Agility: 6
• Vitality: 5
• Perception: 8
• Intelligence: 6
• Wisdom: 5
• Magic: 4
Available Points: 0
A translucent panel hovered in front of his eyes, clear as day. Conner could think it away, and it vanished. Think it back, and it reappeared. No phone. No tech. Just his mind.
"What the hell…" he muttered.
Students scrambled past him, climbing over debris. Some screamed for help. Others shouted about monsters. But a few… stood still, wide-eyed, the same blank stare Conner had when the system messages appeared. He wasn't the only one. It was happening to everyone.
A girl near the door started crying. She was staring at her own arm—no, at her hand. It was growing bark. Her skin was hardening, sprouting twisted green vines. She shrieked, backing into a wall.
The system wasn't just giving powers. It was changing people.
Conner's gut twisted. His heart raced, but his hands were steady. That felt strange. The fear was there, but buried under something else: focus. A strange calm. Was that part of the Trait?
[Alert: Monster Presence Detected Nearby.]
[Mini-Boss Spawned: Rootcrawler Lv. 4]
The doors at the far end of the hallway exploded inward. A creature slammed into view—twisted and long, its body a mess of wood, pulsing plant matter, and thorns. Multiple legs scraped across the tile, dragging its mass forward. Red glowing eyes blinked along its sides.
A student charged it—panic, maybe bravery. He was holding a chair like a weapon.The Rootcrawler impaled him with one of its legs and tossed him aside like garbage.
Conner flinched. That kid was dead. No question. This was real.
The system didn't wait.
[First Combat Scenario Detected.]
[Tutorial Objective: Survive.]
Another message appeared:
[Skill Unlocked: Magic Scope Eye Lv. 1]
Effect: You may lock onto one visible target. The longer you aim, the more accurate your next shot.
Cooldown: None
Conner looked at his hands. Empty.
"I need a bow," he muttered.
Then, another ping.
[Crafting Menu Unlocked – Basic Proficiency Granted by Trait]
[Material Search in Progress…]
Conner's eyes flicked to a broken railing nearby, half of it splintered and long like a shaft. A snapped support rod, thick and curved like a makeshift bow frame, lay across the floor. One of the windows had a curtain rod hanging loose—wire thin enough to pull taut.
"Are you kidding me," he whispered.
[Temporary Weapon Crafting: Basic Bow – Success Chance: 73%]
He didn't hesitate. He moved. Fast.
While others ran, screamed, or froze, Conner scavenged. Hands working without thinking. He bent the rod, used some discarded laces for the grip, tensioned the wire, and tied it off.
The thing looked pathetic. But when he gripped it, a faint hum ran through it. Like it clicked with something inside him.
[Weapon Created: Improvised Shortbow (Common)]
[Skill Active: Magic Scope Eye]
Target Locked: Rootcrawler Lv. 4
A faint blue ring narrowed over the creature. He didn't even think—just pulled and released.
No arrow.But mana surged. A glowing bolt formed in midair and launched.The shot slammed into the Rootcrawler's eye. It shrieked, staggering.
Conner blinked. His hands trembled slightly—not with fear, but with adrenaline.
"I can do this," he whispered.
The Rootcrawler shrieked, recoiling from the mana arrow buried deep in its side. Conner didn't have time to think. He nocked again—if you could call it that—and fired.
The second shot veered wide, hitting a wall and bursting into a puff of blue sparks. His breathing was ragged. His mana low.
[Warning: MP Critically Low – 12/50 Remaining]
The Rootcrawler hissed, now fully focused on him. It crouched, legs tense, ready to strike.
Conner froze. He had no cover. His body wanted to run, but his mind wouldn't move. Not fast enough.
"Oi, down!"
A voice thundered from behind. Conner dropped instinctively.
A blur of motion exploded past him—a heavy metal wrench the size of a sledgehammer crashed into the Rootcrawler's side, glowing with red-hot runes.
The creature screamed again, limbs flailing, its balance knocked off.
Standing between him and the monster was a broad-shouldered guy in a scorched hoodie, fire licking up his arms.
"Joey?" Conner blinked.
Joey Tribbiani grinned like this was a training montage. "Mate. You really picked the worst day to skip leg day."
"Are you—on fire?"
"Not me. The wrench." He stepped aside, revealing the smoldering metal weapon. "Trait: Infernal Engineer. A-rank. I build weapons out of raw heat and metal. Not bad, huh?"
The Rootcrawler recovered quickly. It lashed out with one clawed limb.
Joey ducked under it, moving smoother than Conner had ever seen him move. With a full-body twist, he brought the wrench down hard on one of its legs. The limb cracked, burning from within.
Conner stared—not just at Joey's strength, but his confidence. The Trait must've enhanced his coordination and heat control. It was raw power.
Not like Conner's.
He looked down at his bow. Makeshift. Weak. His Trait—Hollow Marksmanship (F)—barely felt like it belonged in the same world as Joey's.
But then the system reminded him:
[Trait Note: Evolvable – Unique Condition Detected]
No one else had that message. He knew it. He felt it.Everyone else got static powers—fixed boxes. He got a slow climb. A long road.
Joey called out, "Conner, you got another shot in you or what?"
Conner snapped out of it. He raised the bow.
[Magic Scope Eye Activated – Target Locked]
The Rootcrawler hissed, turning its attention back to him. The glow around his right eye pulsed slightly. Time slowed—not really, but the focus sharpened.
He held the aim. Just long enough.
Three seconds.
Then loosed.
The arrow struck dead center between the creature's twisted wooden eyes.It didn't die instantly—but it staggered, twitching, screeching louder than before.
Joey didn't wait. He rushed in and brought the wrench down with both hands—hard.
The Rootcrawler crumpled under the impact.
[Enemy Defeated: Rootcrawler Lv. 4]
[EXP Gained: 240]
[Level Up – Conner Hayes: Level 2]
[Trait Progress: 3% toward Evolution]
[Stat Points +5]
Conner stood there, blinking as the stats flickered across his vision.
Then Joey turned to him. "That shot was clean."
"Lucky."
"Focused. You held it longer than I thought you would."
Conner gave a tired smile. "First time I ever killed something that wasn't made of foam."
They stood in the quiet for a second. Then the shaking returned—distant but growing. More monsters.
"We need to move," Joey said. "Regroup with others. Check for survivors. You good?"
"Yeah," Conner said. "Yeah, I'm good."
When Conner was eleven, his dad took him into the woods—just once a month, always early. Bow in hand, backpack full of gear, and silence between them that wasn't awkward. It was peace.
"Bows don't lie," his dad used to say, crouched beside him, steadying his elbow. "Guns bark. Bows whisper. You wanna hit something? Listen to the whisper."
That line stuck with him.Even now, in the middle of a crumbling world.He wasn't strong. His Trait wasn't flashy. But the bow felt right. Like it had been waiting.
They moved through the hallways slowly, careful. Joey's wrench now cooled into solid iron, still hefty and reliable. Conner followed, bow drawn, eyes alert. The scope in his eye hummed quietly, feeding him small flashes of heat, motion, and shape.
"By the way," Joey said, watching a flicker of movement disappear into a side room, "did your Trait say anything about evolving?"
Conner hesitated. "…Yeah. Apparently it can. Says it's unique."
Joey nodded, thoughtful. "Makes sense. You were always the long game kind of guy."
They shared a look. Mutual respect. Different paths, same war.The system had torn open the world—but it gave Conner a chance. Not to be the strongest. Not yet.
But to become something no one else could.
The staircase down from the third floor was scorched and cracked, half the railing bent inward like something had slammed through it. A dead Rootcrawler lay splattered at the bottom—burnt and motionless.
"Think this one was yours?" Conner asked.
Joey sniffed the air. "Smells like overkill. Yeah, probably."
They stepped over the body and into the lobby, where the full scale of the collapse hit them. The front wall of the building was gone. Not damaged—gone. Blown outward like a bomb had gone off. What remained of the entrance was now a jagged frame of twisted steel and ash.
The outside world didn't look like England anymore.
Flames crawled across cracked pavement. The sky above was still bleeding light—those same jagged glowing lines, like someone had torn holes through reality. Strange shapes floated through the gaps. Not satellites. Not aircraft.
Beasts.
Dozens of them. Some flew, their wings translucent like insect shells. Others skittered across buildings, leaving trails of unnatural moss. The air shimmered faintly—thicker, heavier.
Joey let out a low whistle. "Looks like the whole world's been flipped upside down."
Then—
[ALERT: Global System Sync – COMPLETE]
[World Event: Apocalypse Protocol – Tutorial Phase Ending…]
[New Functions Unlocked.]
[System Territory Generation: In Progress…]
Territory?
Conner frowned. Before he could question it, new windows opened across his vision.
[Zone Identified: Cambridge – Unclassified Territory]
[Local System Structures Manifesting…]
In the distance, a column of blue light erupted from the ground. Then another. Then three more. Strange, angular towers—half metal, half magic—ripped through the landscape, forming a scattered web around the city.
It was like the world was being rewritten in real time.
"Joey…" Conner murmured. "We're not in control anymore."
"Nope," Joey said, eyes scanning the horizon. "But I don't think anyone is."
[Trait Observation Complete: Joey Tribbiani – Trait: Infernal Engineer (A)]
[Trait Status: Fixed | Evolvable: No]
Conner blinked. A new window had popped up beside Joey, listing his stats. But at the bottom, it was clear: Trait Evolvable: No.
Another message flashed just for Conner:
[Your Trait remains unique.]
He closed the window. The scope in his eye still faintly glowed, adjusting automatically to track the motion of distant monsters without his command. It was subtle—almost gentle. No explosions. No flashy buffs. Just quiet clarity.
He didn't know what "Evolvable" would eventually mean. But it set him apart. And not necessarily in a good way.
Suddenly, someone screamed. Down the street, a young man stumbled out from an alley, bleeding from the side, chased by something that didn't belong on Earth.
It looked like a wolf—but with no skin. Its body pulsed like muscle and vapor, each step sending a ripple through the air.
Joey grabbed Conner's arm. "Let's go."
They ran.
By the time they reached the end of the block, they found cover behind a broken double-decker bus. Conner ducked low and peeked through a shattered window.
Two more Rootcrawlers scuttled down the far end of the road, dragging tangled vines behind them. A skinned wolf-thing stalked closer to a collapsed café. And up above, something with wings like tattered sails circled the skyline.
"There's no way out of the city like this," Conner said. "We're boxed in."
"Not for long," Joey said, pulling a jagged metal pipe from the wreckage. "You saw those towers go up, right? They're not just scenery. That's the System making rules. Drawing zones."
Conner narrowed his eyes. "You think we're gonna get… what, dungeons? Quests?"
"Bound to happen," Joey said. "Tutorial's over. That was the warm-up."
They sat in silence for a few seconds, catching their breath, watching a world fall apart.
"Do you think this is everywhere?" Conner finally asked.
Joey nodded grimly. "My phone died earlier, but I had a signal long enough to check. Same thing in Germany. America. Australia. Sky split, monsters dropped. People getting Traits. Total collapse."
Conner ran a hand through his hair. "So what now? We survive? Level up? Beat the world?"
Joey smirked. "Nah. We figure out what comes after the tutorial."
Conner looked down at his bow, still shaky, barely held together with wires and tension. Then at the Scope Eye—the one thing that didn't feel temporary.
He didn't have an answer. But he felt something deep in his bones.Whatever came next, he couldn't be the same person he was this morning.