After the announcements that echoed all across earth, to say there was chaos and panic would be an understatement. 

The planet convulsed. For the first time in millennia, Earth awoke from dormancy. Mana, long starved, long forgotten poured back into its bones. The air thickened, rich and strange, colors too deep for the human eye shimmering at the edges of sight.

Forests twisted, roots gorged with new vitality. Trees grew vast and alien, sprouting blossoms of flame, fruit that pulsed with inner light. Animals mutate and transform; deer sprouted crystalline antlers, wolves’ furs sparkled with electricity and ice, birds’ wings shimmered with half-formed runes.

The seas fared no better. Whales swam with glowing ridges along their spines in the air, krill swarmed like luminous clouds, and in the abyss, shadows older than human memory stirred awake. And the lands changed.

Continents stretched and cracked, jagged coastlines reshaping as though Earth itself tore open scars long-hidden. New mountain ranges erupted from nowhere, splitting countries in half. Rivers rerouted in days instead of centuries, carving fresh valleys. Old deserts bloomed into jungles overnight, while fertile plains turned into salt-crystal wastelands.

Cities cracked. Old ruins rose from the ground as if answering a call. Stone circles, forgotten ziggurats, ancient temples long lost to time surfaced once more, exhaling dust and mana in equal measure.

Auroras bleed across the world, even at the equator. Stars flicker, constellations twist. Sometimes the night sky shows other realms, hinting at places far beyond Earth. Astronomers go mad charting skies that redraw themselves weekly.

And then came the Gates. All across Earth, rifts tore open — glowing arches of stone, obsidian, light, bone. Some bloomed in the middle of cities, hanging above highways, rising out of rivers. Others appeared in wastelands, deserts, jungles, and mountains. No two were the same, yet all bore the same marking: [Gate Active — Time Until Descent: 365 Days]

Each gate ticked like a cosmic hourglass. The world knew instinctively: when the count reached zero, what lay beyond would pour through. Every human awoke with a screen before their eyes.

[System Online]
[Species Registered: Homo Sapiens]
[Tutorial Sequence Initiated]

The world went mad. Archetypes whispered themselves into the minds of men and women. Fighter. Explorer. Magician. Scholar. Crafter. Merchant. It was waiting for all to choose from, perfectly curated by the system almost like destiny stirring awake inside. 

It wasn’t long before Archetypes became anchors for people and a stable for new human life. With it people unlocked many new traits that helped them excel at their chosen role. 

Dungeons appeared, hollowed within skyscrapers, buried beneath cathedrals, carved into subway stations. Within them lay tokens, Class Tokens bound to the echoes of ancient heroes and legendary figures. A janitor cleaning in Boston stumbled into the crypt of a forgotten knight. A soldier in Damascus unearthed a Tomb of Kings beneath the sand. Farmers, students, criminals — the System did not discriminate.

Soon governments and corporations alike declared ownership of dungeons on their soil. Soldiers and private contractors were sent in to hold it. And from time to time, blood was spilled in the streets not just for treasure, but for access. Wars broke out over subway stations, over ruined temples, over forgotten crypts unearthed by the awakening earth.

More still, Bloodlines stirred. Ancient legacies slumbering in human veins woke under the tide of mana. Some felt their skin itch, burn, break. A woman in Ireland wept blood as her body remembered the banshee’s scream. In Japan, a child’s eyes slit like a serpent. In Cyprus a woman gained gills and fins like that of a mermaid. In Nigeria a man saw his shadows stretch into the forms of a laughing hyena with something similar happening to another in Egypt who had a crocodile, as old spirits long thought myth awakened.

At first, disbelief reigned. Governments scrambled. Scientists tried to chart what they saw, but the System resisted analysis. Faiths fractured, others surged. Cults rose overnight, declaring the gates as mouths of gods, others as pits of hell. Markets collapsed as people abandoned work to chase dungeons, to gamble on evolution.

But beneath it all, the change crept. Every passing day, humanity grew more entwined with the System: Streets became hunting grounds for mutated beasts. Hospitals overflowed with people warped by failed evolutions. Black markets sprouted for stolen Class Tokens and bottled monster blood. Nations began arming not with guns, but with Awakened, newly minted Classholders, and powerful racial bloodlines. 

And always the Gates loomed, counting down in silent menace. The world understood not in words, but in bone-deep certainty that this was only the beginning. The System was not Earth’s guest. It was its law now.