The System’s Era

Chapter 01: The Dawn of Ascension

Aurora City, Williams Estate, 24/04/2123, O7:10 A.M.

Inside the kitchen, a young black-haired man was silently having his breakfast as he watched the news on his laptop.

”Good morning, everyone, you are watching Leaf news. Its Ethel Brooks. We begin this hour with enigmatic weather. Last night, Domino city became the first city of the northern continent to be affected by one of the unexplained meteorological anomalies that had been plaguing the world since last week. ”

”As they were heading home, the citizens of Domino city found themselves surrounded by a heavy and mysterious fog. The confusion and poor visibility created by the appearance of said fog led to many accidents, mainly car crashes, happening all around the city. Of those, the deadliest was a massive car pileup that occurred on the X bridge causing dozens of deaths and hundreds of wounded…… ”

”Its the same old news, ” Jay sighed as a scene of a city completely covered by a dense white fog was shown on the screen followed by images of the car pileup the anchor previously spoke of. While the images shown on the screen were gruesome and disturbing, they could hardly raise any waves in Jays heart. He had seen worse things.

It has been almost two weeks since such weather anomalies had been occurring everywhere around the globe. Though unfortunate, at this point everyone was already getting used to it. Also, this fog was neither the worst nor the strangest of the things that had been going around lately.

For example, in a certain city, it rained for a whole day without interruption. In the end, a years worth of rain fell in a single day resulting in a devastating flood that killed hundreds of people and destroyed most of the city.

Meanwhile, another town was seemingly targeted by a divine judgment. As crazy and unscientific as it may sound, that town was hit by thousands of lightning bolts in less than 5 minutes. For 5 short minutes, an eternity for the inhabitants of the unfortunate town, the sky never stopped roaring and the town was constantly covered by bright and blinding flashes.

Then, there are tornadoes popping out at random places, supposed dormant volcanoes suddenly erupting, lakes getting dry overnight, or deserts suddenly turning into snowfields.

And those were merely the things the government was unable to suppress. For example, stories about pets displaying unusually aggressive behaviors, or plants showing abnormal growth still hadn made their way to mainstream media or social media.

Anyway, while some of those oddities weren that odd, courtesy of the worsening global warming, the fact was that they happened one after another, at places they never occurred before, and at times they weren supposed to happen.

At that point, anyone would notice that something was wrong and would start to grow some concerns. The kind of concerns that need answers. However, until now not a single government could give anyone a plausible explanation, much less do anything to ensure anyones safety.

The only statement was bullshit about a solar storm or a nearby star nova interfering with the planets magnetic field. However, Jay didn believe it and he was sure even those who released that statement didn . Anyway, they didn need to as their goal was just to placate the publics worry.

”It isn really their fault. Those things are just too random, ” Jay mumbled. Today it could snow in a desert and the next day an aurora borealis could be seen near the equator. Also, the weather changes were often sudden, fast, and unjustified. Imagine that an instant you are enjoying a picnic on a sunny Sunday and the next instant you are standing under a storm.

Simply put, it was almost impossible to study those phenomena as there lacked a factor that linked them together and they were seemingly driven by a force way beyond humans understanding. And though most may not want to admit it, it was already clear that humanity could do nothing to resist their current predicament. Not with the current technology at least.

The only fortunate thing is that events that completely trump common sense such as the lighting rain or Domino citys fog, were few and far between, Jay thought. If it wasn the case, he was sure people would be unable to continue with their normal lives while hoping that whatever was happening would calm down soon. Anyway, they could do nothing else. And if the world was to really end, most were of the mind to enjoy life as much as possible.

As Jay was having those thoughts, another person entered the kitchen. It was a gorgeous olive-skinned red-headed girl with neck-length curls. She was tall, standing at a height of 171 cm. She wore a sky blue sweater on top of black jeans and white sneakers. And though slightly oversized, her clothes could hardly hide her beautiful and enthralling curves.

”Bonjour, ” the girl said, her beautiful voice waking Jay from his thoughts as she sat beside him.

”Hi Jess, how are you doing? ” he said, turning his head to look at her.

”Hungry!! ” She smiled and snatched the apple he just finished peeling.

”Why did you have to take mine? ” he asked, looking at the apple in his sisters hand and then at the plate full of apples in front of her.

”Munch, munch… Too lazy to peel one by myself, ” she answered, happily munching on the apple.

”Oh! Alright, ” he said. Then, with a swift move, he grabbed the apple she just snatched and put an unpeeled one in her hand.

”Hey, give that back. ” She pouted, her lips pressed together as she glared at him and tried to take the apple back.

”I too, I am too lazy to peel another one, ” he said with a small chuckle.

”Hmph, ” she snorted and took the glass of pineapple juice in front of him. Then, she slowly drank it as she stared straight at him with her big amber eyes.

”You! ” he said, his temple throbbing as he saw her empty the glass. Honestly, he didn know why he was even getting upset now. As far as he remembered, she had always had this mischievous side to her. She was 16 and after all this time spent with her, one would expect that he would get used to this. However, he wasn . Somehow, he would always lose h