The Culling of Man
By CRAIG KOBAYASHI
Peril’s Prodigy - Book One
Everyone still alive on Earth remembers July 14th, 2020. That was the day before the apocalypse. The last day before our pale blue dot was no longer ours alone.
Part One: Apocalypse, now?
Chapter 1
Dawn
Aleron was spending his Tuesday evening in much the same way he had spent every evening in recent memory: playing games hunched over his computer. On that fateful night, he had been solo grinding to level up his new Warlock in VotRL. Though his main role in the MMORPG was to rock heals, sometimes it's nice to just wreck some monsters instead of monitoring Health bars and cleansing status debuffs.
The sun had set since he made it home from his 9-5 job managing a storage facility. The job was nothing to write home about, but the twenty-nine-year-old gamer absolutely loved it. The money wasn't great, but he was able to make his bills on time. The reason he loved it was simple: between all the down time, WiFi, and a laptop, the job provided him several (paid) hours a day for gaming.
An untimely July storm had filled the night sky with malevolent dark clouds. The lights in his apartment suddenly went out. Computer off. The blinking lights and whirring of computer parts stopped abruptly, leaving only silence. A stillness that had become completely foreign to the life-long gamer hung heavily in the air.
Aleron wondered if the storm had caused a power outage. He fumbled through the dark one bedroom apartment to the window and tugged on the cord to open the blinds.
From the thirteenth floor, he had a pretty good view of most of the city. There were no lights as far as he could see. For a single moment, nothing happened - a complete standstill. The jarring silence was ended quickly, and almost as suddenly as it had arrived. It was replaced shortly by the sound of cars crashing all over the city. Airplanes fell from the sky and panic crept up the spine of every living person on Earth as everything humans relied on, every convenience of modern technology simply shut down.
A message in bold text appeared, hovering in front of Aleron's vision. The elaborate font was easily legible despite the oppressive darkness and remained directly in his line of sight.
A new day has dawned. Concentrate on the word MENU for more information. Good luck, human.
"What the fuck? What the serious fuck?!" he shouted, throwing his hands out then running them through his tangled black hair in exasperation.
Just as it had arrived, the text disappeared. Aleron tried to shake it off and pull himself together. He made his way into the kitchen and picked his phone up off the counter, the screen was black. He pushed the power button, nothing. Held the power button, still nothing. . .
He rushed back to the window, scanning the industrious city for some explanation. With less than nothing to go on, he decided to humor the idea that he had just received an actual prompt. He focused on the word MENU.
A semi-transparent interface appeared in the same way the text had, hovering in front of his vision. In the center of the interface was a central panel listing the MENU options. Before he was able to look them over, another prompt popped over it with the same elaborate text.
The designation ‘Aleron’ has already been assigned.
Accept designation: Aleron#2 or
Choose alternate designation.
‘Like hell I want to be referred to as Aleron#2,’ he thought to himself.
The words, “Accept designation” and “Choose alternate designation” were highlighted like hyperlinks. He gave the latter option an affirmative thought and another prompt replaced it.
Enter name below.
Just as he wondered how to 'enter name below', a glowing keyboard appeared below the empty space. Instead of reaching out to touch each key, he found he was able to select the letters with a little mental flexing.
Would you like to choose the name, Garath?
Yes or No
He chose the 'yes' option with an affirmative thought.
Garath, explore your new abilities quickly. The next age of Earth will begin at 03:00AM (PST) and you will need them to survive. Be prepared.
With his name confirmed, the holographic MENU interface panned unimpeded in front of him in a semi-circle. There were three, evenly spaced panels. The textless outer panels framed the MENU with the options in a vertical list.
MENU
Items
Profile
BeastScape
Friends
World
Garath glanced over the options and was wondering which to open first, and what the hell BeastScape meant, when yet another prompt interrupted his rapidly peaking curiosity.
Choose a Class.
Now engrossed in the intriguing system, he almost accepted what was happening as some kind of epic dream. He knew somehow that it wasn't, that this was really happening and to take it seriously. But when had he ever not taken a game seriously anyway? And what the hell else was he supposed to do?
A new panel opened over the MENU panels again, this one displaying thirty unique Class options, each represented by a small - incredibly detailed and colorful - icon and the corresponding Class name. Even with way more Classes than any game he had ever heard of (and frankly more than a game needed, in his not-so-humble opinion), Garath took time to open and read each of the summaries in full before narrowing it down.
Some of the Class options caught his eye and others made him screw up his face in confusion, an Administrator Class? Who would want a Class that specializes in organization and planning? Could those things even be improved by a Class on an individual level?
After the better part of an hour of comparison between a few of his favorites, it came down to three suitable options: the Tamer - Garath knew first hand that having strong pets can
