ABYSSFALL ONLINE

CH. 02: A Whole New World

…

  A throbbing pain splits Alexander's skull open.

He groaned and awakened to an unusual environment. Overturned furniture. A broken flat-screen TV. A broken home. He had his back against a wall, light bulbs flickering sporadically above him. Electric sparks announcing themselves in the distance.

Alexander dragged himself up, his movements slow and unsteady. His eyes peeled open to take in the obscure living room. It looked like it had been hit by an unstable wave of demolition—everything torn apart, nothing left intact.

He stumbled across the room, his footing unsteady. He nearly fell, catching himself halfway before crashing into a broken glass table. He stopped, breathing desperately, eyes widening as he caught his reflection in a shard.

Horror.

This wasn't his body. This wasn't his living room. Nothing here belonged to him.

Before he could process another thought, something catastrophic happened.

A gushing wave of memories that weren't his own crashed into his brain like a tidal wave. Memories of a man who'd recently lost his job. Who'd been betrayed by his wife. A man who lived a horrible life trying to prove himself to people who didn't care.

Just like Alexander had.

A low gasp escaped his throat.

He decided to venture outside, pushing through the broken door and looking around. The sky above wasn't the familiar blue of Sunburn City.

 It was a sickly yellowish hue, corrupted and wrong. The world itself felt broken—buildings reduced to rubble, the air thick with an acrid stench of decay that made his stomach churn.

He was no longer in Sunburn City.

He'd died in his previous life. And the result was this. Transmigration. Into the body of a man named—

Trevor Hathaway.

"From bad to worse... how is this any better?" he thought bitterly. Being beaten to death and awakening in an apocalyptic world was supposed to be an improvement?

Based on Trevor's memories, something extraterrestrial had struck Earth before the transmigration. Some kind of cosmic event that had shattered the world.

[ Ding! ]

A cold, mechanical, authoritative voice swept through his mental space. So loud it startled him, made him wince with discomfort. A glass nearby shattered in response.

He looked up.

Golden text in a crimson tab, suspended right above his eye level.

[ Host Detected: Alexander Wolfstang ]

...

[ Former Host Occupant: Trevor Hathaway ]

...

[ Remarks On Trevor: A worthless piece of trash with no skills whatsoever to survive and satisfy his wife. Worse—a pauper who died a virgin. ]

...

[ Remarks On Alexander: Another worthless piece of scum chosen to replace the brat Trevor for greater purpose. ]

...

[ Will Host Like To See Stats? ]

His mouth twitched violently. What the hell had he just read? Was the thing in his head really mocking him?

[ Will Host Like To See Stats? ]

"What the hell is the meaning of all this?" Alexander remained confused. First transmigration, now this mockery?

[ It's either you see your stats or die again a virgin. ]

Alexander's face turned ugly. What the hell was this thing, and why was it being so rude?

"Yes..."

[ Ding! ]

...

[ STATS SCREEN ]

...

[ Name: Trevor Hathaway ]

...

[ Title: None ]

...

[ Mana Residue: 100% ]

...

[ Gear Rank: 2 (Vanguard) ]

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[ Level: 1 (0/500) ]

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[ Strength: 4 ]

...

[ Speed: 3 ]

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[ Intelligence: 3 ]

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[ Perception: 3 ]

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[ Agility: 4 ]

...

[ Skills: None ]

...

[ Weaponry: None ]

"Don't tell me this is supposed to be like those system novels," Alexander muttered, his gaze never leaving the screen. In his previous life, he'd heard about system books—but never once had he heard of a system being this rude. "What exactly am I doing here?"

[ Ding! ]

...

[ WORLD MISSION: Return The World Back To Its Former Glory ]

…

[ Cure Humanity ]

…

[ Stop The Being At The End ]

…

[ Failure Result: Earth And The Known Universe Will Be Devoured ]

...

[ Good luck, Scum! ]

…

"Scum?! What the hell are you on about, you piece of trash! Quit it already!" Alexander lost it.

[ Careful Now. Your Blood Pressure Might Make You Die While You Are Still A Virgin. ]

"Argh! Quit saying that!" Alexander turned away swiftly, trying to calm himself and ignore whatever rubbish the system had to say. But he had more questions. He needed answers.

However, first he needed to move.

This part of town had no sign of life within it. Not a single soul except him. From Trevor's memories, this district was far from the main city—a forgotten place where the apocalypse had already consumed everything. If he was going to start "saving the world," he needed to begin now.

He moved carefully down the empty street, his footsteps echoing off the crumbling buildings. The silence was suffocating. No birds. No distant sirens. No sign of anything alive.

Just the wind, carrying that awful stench of decay.

He'd walked maybe fifty meters when he felt it—a subtle shift in the air. A presence. Something moving in the distance, barely at the edge of his perception. Alexander's instincts screamed at him to stop, to listen.

He paused, eyes narrowing as he scanned the rooftops and alleys.

Nothing visible. But the feeling remained—like being watched by something ancient and hungry.

Before he could investigate further, something moved.

Fast.

A shadow bolted from one of the broken houses above, screaming a jagged, broken sound—something between a howl and a death rattle. The creature plummeted directly at him.

CRASH!

The impact was absolute. Alexander was driven face-first onto the hard asphalt, the wind knocked clean from his lungs. The creature's weight was immense—cold, heavy, and reeking of rotting flesh and sulfur. Its odor was so overpowering it made Alexander gag.

He tried to react, but the creature was already moving. Its claws raked across his back, tearing through fabric and skin. Its snapping jaw lunged for his neck, teeth clicking with mindless hunger.

Alexander made a low groan, adrenaline surging through him. A cold, deafening instinct took over. He twisted his body, getting one hand under him, and punched upward with everything he had.

The creature shrieked and recoiled.

Alexander scrambled to his feet, breathing hard, his heart slamming against his ribs. His eyes widened in disbelief.

"A fucking zombie!"

His breath came in ragged gasps. He'd anticipated something moving from above, but a zombie? Here? In broad daylight?

[ Note: System expectation of you has dropped further. ]

...

[ Remark: Host is such a worthless scum, unable to handle a single zombie with given stats. What a waste of productivity. ]

"What the hell are you saying?!"

But the system's judgment was the least of his concerns.

More heart-wrenching sounds oozed from the woods—guttural groans that surrounded the entire neighborhood. From afar and beyond, zombies began pouring into the streets like a tidal wave. Dozens of them. Hundreds maybe.

"Bloody hell! Where the hell did they come from?!"

Within minutes, Alexander was surrounded.

[ Ding! ]

...

[ THREAT ASSESSMENT ]

...

[ Creatures: Zombies (Multiple) ]

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[ Gear Rank: 1-2 (Comparable To Host) ]

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[ SIDE MISSION: Eliminate 100 Zombies Within Estimated Time For Greater Rewards (00:04:59) ]

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[ Failure To Accomplish Task—Certain Death ]

...

[ Good luck, Scum. ]

Alexander's legs felt weak. The zombies were closing in from all sides, their broken forms moving with disturbing coordination. Some were missing limbs. Others had chunks of flesh hanging from their frames. All of them had the same empty, hungry look in their clouded eyes.

He was surrounded.

And he had no weapons.

No skills.

No way out.

Just mana and a body that wasn't his, with stats so low they might as well be useless.

The first zombie reached him, lunging with its claws outstretched. 

“Fuck me!”