The End of the World has Come

Drop him! I swear to if there's any God, drop him now!

The scream tore through the concrete of the safe zone and was quickly drowned out by the sickening crunch of bone.

Creed slammed his back against a steel pillar his breath coming in ragged gasps. He pressed a hand to his ribs. Three were broken. Maybe four. The pain was blinding and hot. It was nothing compared to the cold realization washing over him as he watched the scene unfold.

You weren't supposed to be alive Creed Vane spat, wiping a smear of blood from his jaw. The called elite Vanguard leader didn't even look at Creed as he casually kicked their medical supplies into his bag. The System gave you a low-class maintenance job. You are weight. We needed bait to distract the horde. You were the only logical choice.

Noooooo! Creed's voice cracked, his throat raw from the dust. His eyes locked onto the heavy iron blast doors at the end of the corridor. The locking mechanism was already mangled the thick steel groaning under a weight.

Behind that door, a pack of Abyssal Hounds echoed through the ruined facility. These weren't monsters. They were -dimensional terrors, beasts that bled through reality rifts. They didn't just bite; their saliva dissolved matter.

The steel buckled inward with a boom. Dust rained down from the ceiling coating Creed's blood-soaked jumpsuit.

Vane and the rest of the squad stepped onto the circular extraction platform. The teleportation array beneath their feet began to hum glowing with a blue light.

Nothing Vane sneered. You fixed our armor. Carried our packs. Now you are going to buy us sixty seconds to channel this teleportation crystal. Die quietly, handyman.

The flash of light was blinding. When Creed's vision cleared he was alone in the dark.

Boom. The iron doors warped out of their frame the hinges screaming.

Creed spat a mouthful of blood onto the cracked concrete floor. He wasn't a fighter. When the Cosmic System integrated Earth rewriting the laws of physics he hadn't awakened with magic or a legendary sword. The System had analyzed his life. Branded him with a useless label: D-Rank Handyman.

For thirty days he had endured hell. The elites like Vane had treated him as subhuman, a tool. They had forced him into this collapsing Dead Zone to act as their pack mule.. Now they had literally fed him to the wolves.

As he stared at the lock the despair evaporated. It was replaced by a vicious fury that ignited deep within his chest. He refused to die. He refused to be a footnote in Vane's survival story.

He dragged himself toward the door his hands trembling as he gripped his bloody wrench. It was a weapon but it was all he had.

The blast door gave way. It was blown off its hinges by a wave of gravitational pressure. The slab of steel crashed into the wall kicking up a massive cloud of dust.

Through the haze, the first Abyssal Hound stepped into the corridor. It was the size of a grizzly bear its body composed of obsidian plates. Violet energy crackled between the gaps in its armor and its eyes were glowing voids of pure malice.

System Alert: Level 15 Abyssal Hound detected. Threat Level: Fatal. Recommended Action: Flee.

The translucent blue screen hovered in Creed's vision mocking him. Flee. Flee where? His legs were dead his ribs were. The extraction platform was burned out.

The Hound's void-like eyes locked onto Creed. It didn't roar. It simply lowered its head. Charged.

Creed scrambled backward grabbing wildly at the debris. His hand closed around a shattered rusted iron pipe. It was brittle and useless.. It was all he had.

As the Hound leaped into the air, Creed's survival instinct pushed his mind past panic. The System had rules. If his class was meant to fix things then he was going to fix this pipe.

He channeled every ounce of his dwindling mana into his core class ability.

System Alert: Target item Shattered Iron Pipe selected.

Skill Activated: Basic Repair.

Error: Item durability is beyond restoration parameters.

The Hound was inches away its stench washing over Creed's face. Time seemed to slow. He could see the individual violet sparks arcing across the beast's fangs.

Fix it Creed roared. Just fix it!

He forced his willpower into the System interface. He refused the error messages. He rejected the limitations of his -Rank class.

Deep within the System's architecture something snapped. A localized anomaly occurred. The brutal logic of the LitRPG framework encountered an anomaly: a mortal whose willpower exceeded the dimensional parameters.

Warning: System logic error detected.

Warning: Skill parameter overflow.

Warning: D-Rank Handyman class restrictions bypassing limiters.

Glitch Initiated. Hidden Mechanic Unlocked: Over-Repair.

The rusty iron pipe erupted with golden light. The rust was violently removed. The brittle iron densified.

In a fraction of a second the hollow pipe expanded, elongated and hardened. Kinetic runes, glowing with heatless white light carved themselves into the metal.

Item Evolved: High-Density Kinetic Alloy Staff.

Rarity: Epic.

Durability:

Special Effect: Stores kinetic energy upon impact and releases it as a localized shockwave.

The transformation finished just as the Abyssal Hound's jaws snapped shut over Creed's torso.

The teeth never reached his flesh. Creed had thrust the evolved staff upward wedging it into the beast's mouth.

The Hound bit down expecting to snap the human weapon in half. Instead, its jagged obsidian teeth slammed into the kinetic alloy.

A sickening crack echoed through the corridor. The Hound's fangs shattered into dozens of violet shards.

Creed didn't hesitate. The fear was gone. The vindication hit him like a shot of adrenaline. He wasn't trash. He wasn't disposable.

With a roar of exertion Creed twisted the staff prying the beast's jaws wider and then violently yanked it free. He rolled to the side as the massive hound crashed into the floor.

Before the monster could recover Creed gripped the staff with both hands. It felt heavy perfectly balanced and thrumming with contained violence. He swung it like a baseball bat aiming directly for the side of the hound's skull.

The impact was, like a bomb going off.

The energy from the beast's bite exploded at once. A huge shockwave went through the air breaking the rest of the glass in the corridor's lights. The Hound's black armor cracked, broke and then exploded outward. The beast did not even have time to scream. Its head caved in under the force its strange brain turned to mush.

The huge body fell to the floor twitching before turning into a pool of dark bubbling liquid leaving behind one glowing purple core.

System Alert: Level 15 Abyssal Hound defeated.

Experience gained.

Level up! You are now Level 4.

Level up! You are now Level 5.

All basic attributes increased. Minor physical healing applied.

Creed stood there chest heaving, his muscles burning staring at the glowing staff in his hands. The broken ribs in his chest moved, the pain getting less as the system's healing kicked in.

He had done it. He had killed a monster that many strong fighters struggled against. He had done it in one hit.

The win was short-lived.

From the darkness of the corridor, a low rumbling growl vibrated through the floor. It was not one growl. It was many of them. Dozens of glowing eyes lit up in the shadows with the sound of bad liquid hitting the floor.

The pack had arrived.

Creed gripped the staff tighter. The old Creed would have given up. He would have let the horde eat him.. The man standing there was different. The system had tried to get rid of him the strong fighters had tried to kill him and reality was trying to crush him.

He was done being a victim.

"Let's see what I can fix " Creed muttered, his voice cold.

He ran forward diving toward the glowing core. As his fingers touched the surface he did not absorb it like a normal fighter. He used his strange system interface.

Skill Activated: Over-Repair.

Target: Level 15 Abyssal Core.

The golden light of system data poured from his hands. The core, which was cracked and leaking energy did not just mend. It started to spin drawing in energy from the bad air. The purple hue turned into a blinding sphere radiating strong gravity.

Item Evolved: Collapsed Singularity Core.

Rarity: Legendary.

Special Effect: Can be detonated to create a black hole.

Creed smiled. It was not a hero's smile. It was a terrifying grin.

The first wave of Hounds charged through the doorway a wave of claws and void-light. There were at least six of them.

Creed did not swing the staff. He just threw the Singularity Core into the pack.

The moment the core hit the ground the world went silent. All sound was sucked into one point. For a second the air distorted.

Then the singularity detonated.

It was not an explosion of fire. It was a collapse of gravity. A perfect sphere of darkness. Then collapsed. The six Abyssal Hounds were caught in the radius. They were crushed, stretched into weird ribbons of dark matter and sucked into the void.

System Alert: 6x Level 15 Abyssal Hounds defeated.

Experience gained.

Level up! You are now Level 6.

Level up! You are now Level 7.

Level up! You are now Level 8.

Creed fell to one knee coughing up blood. His mana pool was empty. His brain felt like it was on fire.

He leaned on the staff using it as a crutch. The corridor was clear for now. He could hear more monsters.

He limped toward a pile of discarded gear. He needed armor. He needed to get out of the death trap.

He fell to his knees in front of the scrap pile. He did not have the mana to Over-Repair armor. He needed to be smart.

He sifted through the metal and broken leather until he found a tactical vest.

System Warning: Environmental Toxicity Level Critical.

Status Effect Applied: Entropy Rot.

He placed his hands on the vest. He could not afford a glitch. He just needed to survive.

Skill Activated: Over-Repair.

Target: Shredded Tactical Vest.

The golden light flickered. The shredded Kevlar stitched itself together.

Item Evolved: Weave Carapace.

Rarity: Unique.

Durability: 5000/5000.

Special Effect: Nullifies toxicity and filters oxygen.

Creed put on the carapace. The burning, in his lungs vanished. He felt grounded. He felt dangerous.

"I'm coming for you Vane " Creed whispered. "I'm going to watch your swords turn to dust."

The facility violently shuddered. The ground rolled like the ocean. The ceiling began to tear open.

Creed looked up through the widening rift. He saw a vortex of fractured dimensions.

A deafening voice rang out. It was cold and mechanical.

"GLOBAL SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT. The preliminary integration phase has concluded. Humanity's performance has been deemed: Inadequate. Initiating Phase 1: The Dimensional Collapse."

Through a hole in the ceiling, Creed watched in total shock as a gigantic black claw, as big as a huge building broke through a barrier.

It hit the ground far above him making a massive shockwave that destroyed the top parts of the shelter.

The voice that everyone could hear kept talking, without any mercy.

Countdown to destruction of the area: 48 Hours.

Be destroyed.

A huge timer appeared in the sky visible through the ceiling showing red numbers.

47:59:59.

Creed held his stick tightly his hands becoming white.

The rich people thought they were safe in their cities.

They thought they had won against the end of the world.

The end of the world was just beginning and everything they had made was about to fall apart.

The countdown went down another second.

Creed got up his suit protecting him from the dust falling from the broken sky.

He did not have 48 hours to hide.

He had 48 hours to make a shelter that could protect him from the end of the world

and he would need a lot more metal junk.

He stepped over the remains of the creature turned away, from the exit

and walked deeper into the dark area.