Derek slumped in his chair, staring blankly at the whiteboard as Mr. Calloway, his world history teacher, adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. The man was one of the few teachers Derek didn't actively despise—he wasn't overly strict, nor did he drone on like a zombie. If anything, he seemed genuinely interested in the subject, which was more than could be said for most of the class.
"Alright, class, let's talk about something different today," Mr. Calloway announced, pulling up a presentation on the screen. "I know history is supposed to be about the past, but what if I told you history might be repeating itself as we speak?"
A groan came from the back of the room. Someone muttered, "Not this again."
Unfazed, Mr. Calloway clicked to the first slide, showing a grainy satellite image of the ocean. "Over the past six months, unusual seismic activity has been recorded across the globe. Just last week, a previously undiscovered trench was found off the coast of Japan—one that appeared overnight."
Derek straightened slightly. That was… odd.
Next slide. A series of news headlines. 'Mysterious Sky Phenomena Baffle Scientists,' 'Increase in Animal Attacks Worldwide,' 'Hundreds Missing in Unexplained Events.'
"You've probably seen some of these stories pop up online. Animals behaving strangely. Unidentified creatures spotted in remote regions. Sudden disappearances of entire villages in less developed areas. A lot of these have been dismissed as hoaxes or mass hysteria, but the sheer volume of reports? That's what makes it interesting."
"Interesting or fake?" one student called out.
" it should be fake right? " someone asked.
"Dude, you hear about the freak lightning storm in Europe?" Jason, a lanky student with wire-rimmed glasses, nudged his seatmate. "It wiped out an entire power grid—like, gone. No explanation."
"No, but did you see that thing in the ocean?" a girl named Riley piped up, flipping her dark curls over her shoulder. "Some cargo ship just disappeared. No distress signal, nothing. Just… poof." She made a dramatic hand motion, her silver bracelets jingling.
A few others leaned in, exchanging snippets of half-read headlines and conspiracy theories.
"Probably aliens," someone murmured.
Derek exhaled, gripping his pen a little tighter. The System had warned him about an approaching catastrophe, and now, the news was painting a picture that looked eerily familiar. His stomach twisted. Was this really the beginning?
Mr. Calloway shrugged. "That's the question, isn't it?"
Derek's grip tightened on his pen. He wasn't the type to believe in doomsday conspiracies, but this wasn't just a weird history lesson to him. The System's first warning had been vague, but it had mentioned 'anomalies increasing at an alarming rate.' And now, here was Calloway, listing them off like a casual thought experiment.
The teacher continued. "In the past, civilizations have fallen because they ignored the warning signs of change. Rome didn't collapse in a day. The Mayans didn't just disappear for no reason. What if something is shifting right now, but we're too distracted to notice?"
The class barely reacted, half of them scrolling on their phones or doodling in their notebooks. To them, this was just another lecture.
But to Derek, it was a puzzle snapping into place.
" System, are all of these stuff real,"
[Affirmative.]
"But, I thought it was that man who walked out of the portal that was going to destroy the world"
[No, what the host saw was just a part of the end, the end of the world is not going to be instantaneous, though Earth is just a low level civilization don't underestimate humans, those superpowers have several weapons developed]
His blood ran cold. This was both good news and bad news for him.
The good news was that the governments of various countries were probably aware of the pending doom and had methods prepared to deal with it. The bad news was that the apocalypse was not simple as he thought.
That demon who had walked out of the crack in the sky was only a part of it. That meant there were more dangerous things he had to face.
" So much for being the savior "
This wasn't a joke. The world wasn't just acting weird—it was unraveling, piece by piece.
Mr. Calloway sighed, clearly seeing the lack of engagement from the class. "Alright, fine. Back to the syllabus." He switched the slide to something about medieval trade routes, and just like that, the conversation ended.
But Derek couldn't let it go.
Because for the first time, the System's warnings didn't feel distant. They felt real.
Lila, who had been resting her chin on her hand, flicked her gaze toward Derek. Her sharp blue eyes narrowed as she took in the slight tension in his shoulders, the way his fingers gripped his pen just a little too tightly.
She nudged him under the desk with her foot. "Hey. You good?"
Derek blinked, jolted out of his thoughts. He glanced at her, forcing a smirk. "Yeah, just—y'know, enjoying the latest episode of 'Earth is Screwed.'"
She raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh. Sure. You look like you're about to either pass out or punch someone. Which is it?"
"Both," he muttered.
Lila didn't buy it, but before she could press further, Jason piped up from the next row. "Okay, but for real, Mr. Calloway, what do you think? Is the world ending, or are we all just bored and looking for drama?"
The teacher chuckled. "Good question. If I had to guess? I'd say something is happening. Whether it's the end of the world or just the beginning of something new… that depends on how we handle it."
That did nothing to calm the unease twisting in Damien's gut.
Lila leaned in, lowering her voice. "Seriously, what's up? You keep looking at the board like it's personally threatening you."
Derek hesitated. He couldn't exactly tell her about the System, about the warnings, about the fact that every strange occurrence Mr. Calloway mentioned was part of something much, much worse.
So instead, he shrugged. "Just thinking. Weird stuff, huh?"
Lila studied him for a beat longer, then sighed, leaning back in her seat. "Weird stuff always happens. Doesn't mean the world's ending."
Derek wished he could believe that.