Broken Anomaly

Eric hadn’t really thought his actions through. When he entered the workshop, he didn’t plan to escape through the window. No, that came after he saw the expressions on his friends’ faces.

As soon as the others had all entered the workshop, he could tell by their expressions that they wanted answers—answers that he didn’t have. He himself was as astonished as they were by what had happened. His body had moved on its own, or at least, that’s how it seemed at first. When he thought about it, though, it hadn’t—not really.

Though the words were entirely his own and he meant to say exactly what he ended up saying, but he wasn’t entirely himself when he delivered them, at least not the whole time. When he began, it was normal—his words, his thoughts, his voice—but it felt as though something else had taken over. Again, it was him, but somehow it wasn’t.

So, not wanting to deal with his friends and not wanting to explain something he didn’t fully understand himself, he escaped through the window.

Once outside, he began to walk without any real direction. However, it didn’t take him long to decide to return, merely because he had gotten bored of walking.

He walked and walked, certain that he was going the right way, but he had already been walking back for longer than when he walked away. Not thinking much of it, he continued, assuming that he might have taken a wrong turn.

At some point, he even appeared behind the gym. Confused as to how that was even possible, he wondered what kind of wrong turn he took to end up there.

He walked past the gym and into the forest ahead, knowing for a fact that if he went straight, he would arrive at the center of Solace, where the dungeon was.

When he saw the top of a building peeking out from the tree line, he began to think about excuses to tell the others for what had occurred earlier in the day.

Possessed? Could be true. Reincarnation? Could also be true. He didn’t discard any possibility, no matter how insane it sounded. The world was different now. Everything is possible, he thought.

He was ready to give whatever excuse worked, but when he stepped out of the forest, he found himself near the indoor pool building. At this point, Eric was certain something strange was happening.

“Either I’m being targeted, or Solace is,” he muttered, his tone serious.

Preparing himself, he began walking in the direction that he knew the dungeon was in. He did so not with the intention of actually getting there, but to see if he noticed something amiss while passing a certain limit, or something of the sort.

Trying to get Mental Focus to work was a failure. Telling it to notice something that he himself couldn’t, guaranteed that it wouldn’t work, and it didn’t.

This time, when he exited the forest, he ended up where they had fought the giant crab, its massive body still lying there. In the distance, he noticed a group of people approaching.

“They’re probably here to check on the water levels,” he said, holding back any enthusiasm.

He began to approach them, but just as he was about to step off the road, he found himself somewhere else once again.

His attempts lasted until late at night. Sometimes he would end up considerably farther away, in places he hadn’t even visited before.

This was one of those times. As he walked back after appearing far up north, from the distance, he saw Alex leaving the forest and heading in the same direction.

Eric’s mind began to race. Both he and I are in a clearing. There’s absolutely nothing here that could cause me to take a wrong turn or get lost.

Trusting that he was under the most optimal conditions, and keeping his eyes wide open, trying to avoid blinking, he ran toward Alex as fast as he could.

Then, he ran into a car, shattering one of the side door’s windows. Glass shards got stuck in his arms and some even made their way into his mouth. Frustrated, he punched the car repeatedly.

With a heavy sigh, Eric forced himself to calm down. “I can keep trying, or I can do something else,” he said, his voice filled with exhaustion, not physical but mental. “First, where am I?”

He took a quick glance around and noticed that he could see the southern edge of the lake. Then, he noticed that many of the car doors were open.

Taking a glance inside some of the open cars, he noticed that many of them had dirty seats. “Looks like someone got on while dirty,” he muttered, noticing some footprints made of dried mud.

Taking a step back, he noticed something else. Many of the vehicles had been pushed away, as if someone or something had forcefully moved them to pass through. The last thing he noticed was that a lot of tools were on the ground, as well as more glass than he was responsible for breaking.

“The trolls?” he asked himself, beginning to put two and two together. “Meaning that the people from the city were the ones inside the cars.”

Lifting his gaze, as if he could peer through the dense forest he said, "Guess I know where I’m going," before setting off to the south.

The walking only lasted until he reached the forest. Once he stepped inside, he began to run at full speed. With his current stats, basically, no monster could catch up with him. At least, none of the monsters that were currently around. There was also no reason to fight them other than to make credits, and unless he was on his land, they weren’t worth that much either.

So, he ran and ran, ignoring every single monster that he came across. After running for so long and not randomly appearing anywhere else, he concluded that it was only when he tried to return to Solace that the weird space phenomenon occurred.

By the time he finally reached the city, it was early morning, and something looked... off. It seemed as if the System had removed the very center of the city, where most of the buildings were crammed together, and placed it in the middle of nowhere.

“Or was it everything else that was carved out?” he asked himself as he looked at the road that was abruptly cut off.

When he had heard that the people had come from the city, he had thought it was the city to the south of the university, and he was right, except he wasn’t, not entirely. He knew the city to the south. His university was technically a part of it, except it was at the very edge of the city limits.

The university was, once upon a time, surrounded by farms and rural towns on one side and the ever-expanding city on the other. This was done by choice, as a way of saying that the university welcomed everyone—everyone that could pay or had something to offer, that is.

But this… this wasn’t his city. His city was in no way as developed or as large as this one.

For one, his city didn’t have a subway, and he was currently staring at a subway entrance. But that wasn’t the biggest indication that this was a different city. Neither were the skyscrapers deeper into the city center. No, the biggest indicator was that everything was in a language he didn’t understand.

Eric spoke Spanish fluently, and at first glance, the words tricked his mind into thinking that they were in Spanish, but when he reached the third or fourth letter, he realized it wasn’t. Looking at more street signs and announcements, he finally grasped the language.

“Italian?” he said, surprised. “How did I understand the people that arrived from the city, then? The System?”

He took a closer look at the street. Most of the buildings were storefronts, so there with large glass windows facing the sidewalk—and much of that glass was shattered, with much of that glass reaching the road.

Some vehicles had crashed, some stopping at walls, while others had driven straight into the buildings they hit.

Curious as to what happened to the driver of one of the vehicles. Eric walked into one of the stores, which appeared to be a jewelry shop, and searched for traces of the driver. No matter where he looked, there was no clue as to where they had gone.

That’s when he noticed something: a dried blood stain under the car. Crouching to get a clearer view, he saw a bloodstain that was as big as the car itself.

“They’re dead,” Eric muttered, his expression indifferent. “Far too much blood,” he added as he looked around, noticing that nothing remained. Then it clicked in his mind. Since arriving in the city, he hadn’t seen a single body. No humans, no monsters. Nothing.

“For a city overrun by monsters, it’s pretty empty,” he said, leaving the store behind.

He kept walking, eventually turning a corner—and paused. No, this wasn’t Italy. On the street he had just entered, every sign was in perfect English.

With that, he began to form an answer in his mind.

“One street is clearly Italian, and another is clearly American or British,” he said, pausing to take a good look at the street. “American,” he concluded, noting where the cars were facing. “Taking that into account, this isn’t a city, it’s parts of many cities, or parts of at least two cities.”

He continued walking, his eyes scanning his surroundings intently, determined to reach a new street to see if he was in an amalgamation of two or perhaps more cities.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a loud crash demanded his attention.

Giant rats came bursting out of a store in front of him. They smashed through the glass with ease, sending shards flying. Bricks were dislodged from the building's frame as the creatures swarmed forward, their eyes locking onto Eric.

Eric took a sharp turn and ran the other way. When he ran away from the workshop, he had no idea that he wouldn’t be able to return. So, his weapons were still at the workshop and not here, where he needed them to be.

What he ran into was clearly not a restaurant, but a cafe. He darted toward the back of the shop, jumping over the counter and hitting basically everything that was on it. Stopping briefly, he took a quick glance around, searching for a knife.

“What the fuck do they cut the bread with?!” he exclaimed with urgency, searching for a knife or anything sharp.

The giant rats poured into the store. There were so many of them that they acted like a wave. If the back of the swarm pushed, the rats in the front would feel it, and vice versa. Many of the rats died, trampled to death, but they were quickly replaced by the seemingly unending horde. Soon, the entire floor disappeared; the rats left no room for anything else to be seen.

Finding nothing to use as a weapon, Eric retreated into the storage room, quickly moving boxes toward the door to create more obstacles.

The rats slammed against the door over and over, moving the boxes bit by bit. Eric took a quick glance around the room. He found a mop, but it was one of the screw-on type. With no time to spare, he turned to the emergency exit and, without hesitation, sprinted into the alley.

As he ran, he heard a cacophony of smashing and destruction behind him. When he turned to see what had happened, he saw something beyond belief.

Rats poured from every single door, window and alley. Some were even jumping from windows, regardless of height, dying on impact and cushioning the fall of those that followed.

An endless stream of giant brown and gray rats was following him. When he exited the alley, he barely dodged the influx of rats that were about to enter it. Again, behaving like a wave, the incoming rats were pushed back, the entire horde pushing to chase after Eric.

Shortly after he exited the alleyway, he found a street sign on the floor. It looked like it had been ripped off from the ground. A piece of concrete from the sidewalk was still present at the bottom of the pole.

Reaching for the street sign, he struggled a bit to lift it, not due to the weight but due to how imbalanced it was. The hurry with which he picked it up was also no help.

Strengthening his grip on the street sign, he continued his running. The swing of the street sign was far too wide for the sidewalk. The buildings and the cars got in the way.

He ran into an intersection and moved to a street corner free of most obstacles. He adjusted his grip, and just as he finished adjusting himself, the rats arrived.

Without hesitation, he made a wide swing, knowing that it wouldn’t be enough to kill any of them. The swing had no power; it was only meant to create space. However, he still got the kill message.

Giant rat +300 credits.

Giant rat +300 credits.

Giant rat +300 credits.

They’re killing each other, he exclaimed in his mind. He had already guessed they were from their behavior, but actually getting confirmation surprised him a bit.

He swung once more, with greater strength this time, much greater strength. He earned himself a couple of seconds, immediately retreating into the building behind him.

Knowing that closing the door would do nothing, he just rushed in, saw the stairs, and climbed as high as he could. When he opened the last door, he came upon the building’s roof.

He flexed his neck and clenched his fists; he lost the sign while rushing through the building.

“Now or never,” he said, a bit winded.

The rats began to pour out the door. Eric, having no other option, began to punch, tear, and rip apart any rats that came his way.

For a single second, he had considered jumping to the next building over, but ultimately decided not to. The running had already gone on for longer than he would’ve liked. Running didn’t feel like him, though he wasn’t entirely sure if the feeling came from him at all. Regardless, he decided that whether he died or not, it would happen here.

Sharp teeth tore pieces of flesh off of him. Eric could tell that they were ripping pieces of flesh off of each other when they fell on him. In this moment, he got an answer to one of the first questions he had when he arrived: Where are the monsters?

The answer was pretty simple. The rats ate them. They ate everything that they became aware of—everything in their path.

A part of him knew that he would die here, but he didn’t care. He grabbed the front leg of a rat, and whipped it around, using it as a weapon.

“If I die, I’m taking all of you with me!” he exclaimed, a smile appearing on his face.

Pushing his entire being to the limit, he began to push mana into every fiber of his being. He was trying to emulate the effects of Amplification and Dash. No longer caring for any possible repercussions, he just wanted to fight.

These were his death throes.

He pulled and pulled mana into himself, until suddenly, the world disappeared.