The Origin Warden

A disturbing sound echoed through the empty and ruined streets of the city.

The sound was like a swarm of bees flapping their wings. But the source of the sound was not a swarm, it was only a single member of the same family.

A giant wasp the size of a large motorcycle fluttered above something, or rather the lifeless corpse of an old man whose lower body had been crushed into a bloody mass of flesh.

' Fuck. As if what I lacked was a giant wasp, even its normal size is terrifying and deadly, let alone this thing '

Jacob thought with fear and anxiety while staring at the giant wasp which had currently pierced the head of the old man’s corpse with the spear-like stinger in its rear and smashed it into a bloody mess mixed with shattered brain pieces.

Jacob was currently hiding inside a trash container that contained rotten remains and because of the apocalypse that had suddenly descended 7 days ago, bringing with it ruin and death, animals mutated to become terrifying and deadly things and worse than that some humans also transformed into horrifying zombie-like creatures that Jacob once saw in one of those apocalypse movies.

' Hmmm, wait is that an Origin Core?. Ah.. do humans also have Origin Cores? '

He stared with widened brown eyes at the wasp which held with its clamp-like jaws a small bead resembling a crystal ball glowing with a milky white light.

That white crystal ball was something called an Origin Core, Jacob discovered it by coincidence when he was forced to kill a mutated monster which was an ordinary snake the size of an adult man’s body, had he not seen the snake through the reflection of a car mirror he would have...

He stopped thinking about the unfortunate events of the past and stared with a confused expression at the giant wasp that fell to the ground twitching as if it was suffering from damage, but Jacob had been observing it for a long time and did not see it receive any kind of injury.

' Wait, is ...is this thing evolving? '

This random thought appeared in his mind and what further confirmed this idea was the black stinger protruding from the rear of the wasp’s body had detached from its body and another one that looked sturdier had begun forming.

' This is my chance '

Jacob thought nervously unable to drive away a certain idea that appeared in his mind about taking advantage of the situation to kill this giant wasp. It was not like he had any grudge or hatred against it, the matter was for the sake of survival and evolution.

' This is a crazy idea but... now or never '

Jacob pushed the trash container lid violently causing it to slam into the building wall behind it and rebound to close the container again. Fortunately Jacob had already come out and started running like crazy toward the twitching wasp.

He ran through the narrow alley toward the main street where his target lay. He ignored the numb feeling in his legs due to remaining inside the trash container for a long time.

The wasp somehow sensed his approach, Jacob guessed it was because of those fleshy antennae that moved like signal receivers.

The terrifying wasp stared at him with its six completely black eyes each surrounded by a shining golden circle that stole one’s attention.

The monster made a strange sound like a roar but less threatening than a real roar. Jacob saw the giant wasp move its rear intending to attack and pierce him but apparently the monster forgot that it had detached its weapon when it started evolving, while the new stinger had still not fully grown.

Jacob took advantage of the monster’s confusion resulting from missing its prey. He grabbed the black stinger which was almost as tall as him then without any delay, holding the stinger with both hands like a spear, Jacob pierced the giant wasp’s abdomen with extreme difficulty.

' Die you damned freak '

A wide smile formed on Jacob’s face as he saw a quarter of the black stinger pierce the monster’s abdomen, but before he could celebrate more the wasp struck him with its body unintentionally as the latter began twitching even more than before because of the pain caused by a sharp object piercing its body.

Jacob felt as if a car had hit him and he knew the feeling well because he had experienced it before. He rolled several times before crashing into a lamp post, letting out a painful groan from his mouth.

This hit was not enough to make him lose consciousness or suffer serious injuries, aside from some scratches on his arms and pain in his back nothing else happened to him.

He raised his head and stared at the enraged and pained wasp which was trying to fly upward but failed most likely because it was still in the middle of evolution and also because one of the six transparent yellow wings had been torn due to the stinger protruding from its abdomen.

' Damn this thing’s life is stubborn '

Jacob cursed resentfully while looking around in fear of another monster appearing. Fortunately it seemed this street was empty of any other monsters.

The wasp fell to the ground after a failed attempt to fly but this time it fell on its right side where the stinger had completely pierced its body and exited from the other side. The wasp staggered in place a little before falling lifelessly to the ground.

At the same moment an ethereal voice appeared in Jacob’s mind.

[ You have killed a level 1 Rooted Monster : Thorn Spear ]

[ Congratulations you have obtained 57 fragments of Origin Energy ]

[ Your level increases ]

Jacob ignored the voice which had recently become familiar to him and which served as confirmation of the monster’s death.

He felt something bypass his physical body and enter deep inside him into an area Jacob could not trace.

He placed his hand on the lamp post and rose from the ground ignoring the continuous pain in his back.

He reached the wasp’s side and stared at the lifeless corpse of the insect mutated by Origin Energy before focusing his gaze on the pale green energy sphere floating above the corpse while ignoring the laws of physics.

Jacob was not surprised upon seeing this, he had encountered a similar matter days ago.

Seven days ago from now humanity and every living creature on the planet faced a turning point when Origin Energy appeared and swept across the entire planet bringing with it ruin, death, mutation, evolution and prosperity.

Not every living creature on the surface of the planet could resist Origin Energy, the majority failed and mutated into dangerous monsters, especially humans who transformed into dangerous zombie creatures driven by nothing except pure instinct.

In return those who succeeded in resisting Origin Energy obtained the ability to survive and also the ability to evolve in order to keep up with the dangers of the new era.

And there was also the strange system matter that appeared in Jacob’s mind when he killed a zombie creature that was trying to kill him.

He raised his hand and grabbed the green sphere between his fingers, it was the size of a tennis ball.

He put it in his pocket, this was not the right time to inspect its contents. He grabbed the black stinger with his hand and tried to pull it out, but no matter how much he tried the stinger did not budge at all, remaining stuck inside the giant wasp’s body jammed between the muscle fibers.

' Damn this stinger would have made a great weapon. Forget it, it’s not like it’s the only weapon in this world. There’s still the police station '

Jacob thought with irritation and resentment before limping away, but he stopped halfway when he remembered he forgot something important.

' Why am I so careless. That damned stinger made me forget to take the Origin Core out of the monster’s corpse '

He turned intending to return and extract the core which according to what he noticed during the past few days was located inside the skulls of both monsters and humans alike.

' What if some monster appears while I’m busy extracting the core. I don’t even have a single weapon in my hands. Also how exactly am I supposed to extract the core. With my hands? '

Jack stared at his rough dirty hands and shook his head with a dry laugh.

He looked around his surroundings searching for something sharp enough to open the giant wasp’s skull.

The street he was standing on now was complete chaos. There were many overturned and destroyed cars and there were also red bloody remains scattered everywhere from limbs to internal organs not only of humans but even monsters. As for who did this Jack had no idea and did not want to know.

He was barely resisting his disgust while as for his urge to vomit he had already emptied all the contents of his stomach until he became used to the hideous scenes that the soul could not accept.

' Disgusting, but it might do the job '

He grabbed a small white sticky bone. This bone had been broken to form a sharp needle-like edge at its tip. It was a perfect weapon for what he was doing.

He limped toward the wasp’s corpse then knelt on one knee. With a disgusted expression on his face he held the bone with both hands and began tearing apart the skull in a bloody mess until he revealed a milky white crystal sphere glowing brighter than any one he had seen before.

Without hesitation he grabbed it between his fingers and stood up leaving the place before his luck ran out and he encountered something that would end his life.

He returned to the trash container which served as a temporary shelter for him.

He opened the lid and climbed inside returning to his companions, the rotten garbage bags.

He tossed the bone which had become his temporary weapon aside and pushed a garbage bag containing something liquid and sticky that Jack did not want to know the nature of.

He leaned against the cold wall of the container then took out the small green sphere from the pocket of his black pants.

The sphere illuminated the dark trash container with its pale green light.

Jack played with the sphere between his hands then let out a muffled sarcastic laugh when he remembered how he tried to eat this sphere to consume it thinking it was something that could give him superpowers.

Who could blame him, his mind had been affected by all those novels and manhwas he read or anime and movies he watched where the protagonist obtains a mysterious item then gains superpowers through it. Oh, Jack thought he was the main character when the system interface appeared before his retina.

But cold water was soon poured over him when he met others who confirmed his hidden doubts, he was not the only one who obtained a system of his own!.

He shook his head to drive away the thoughts that brought bad memories with them. He tightened his grip on the sphere then applied some pressure.

The sphere shattered with a sound like breaking glass mixed with a strange wind sound. A green ethereal gas resembling an aura spread out then entered Jack’s body.

Jack ignored the ticklish feeling coming from deep within him. The feeling was strange and addictive at the same time.

' I still haven’t gotten used to it '

He rubbed his hands together while a greedy smile formed on his pale face due to lack of food and sleep.

With a thought from his mind he immediately summoned the information of the item he obtained.

Before his retina appeared a transparent black interface carrying white symbols.

Even though he had never in his life seen such symbols or studied them, Jack was able to understand every word perfectly as if there was an intermediary translating these symbols directly into his mind.

Item Name : [ Azoth Armor ]

Item Type : [ Armor ]