Earth in 2045 was completely different from the early 2000s. Numerous life-changing events like the civil war in the United States of America caused a huge crash in the global economy and the introduction of dungeons and towers that were filled with monsters that guarded an abundance of resources.

The dungeons randomly spawned worldwide, popping up repeatedly even after people had cleared them. Then there were the eight towers that spawned in almost every continent. The ninth tower was the largest and it was floating above the ocean near Antarctica.

With all of these significant changes, many countries were destroyed or on the brink of destruction. Some countries stood the test of time and were able to protect their citizens from the onslaught of monsters that occasionally poured out from unconquered dungeons.

When dungeons first appeared, no one knew what they were. It looked as though a rift in space had opened up, but only scientists were allowed close to them. There were timers on top of the dungeons, but they didn’t understand why it was there.

When the timers hit zero, large vertical cracks appeared on all the dungeons. At the same time, monsters poured out of the cracks, killing most of the scientists near the dungeons.

This event was called a dungeon break weeks later.

When the first set of dungeon breaks occurred, Hunters awakened to fight off the monsters coming from the dungeons.

That was five years ago. Now, it was 2045.

Countries, with the help of Hunters, were able to create safe zones where normal citizens could live.

The United States, even with the complete change in its societal structures, was still standing even after the dungeon breaks. There were a lot of hunters in the U.S. because of their large population size.

Freyr Tran, a Vietnamese-American living in one of the many safe zones, saw the civil war at the beginning of his life and then the start of the dungeon breaks. Even so, he was just a normal person who liked to indulge in video games.

Well, he liked to call it escaping from reality. Even after the dungeons and towers popped up, he was still forced to work at a small company sorting out resources from dungeons. It was boring and tedious work, but he was able to pay the bills…

After a long day at work, Freyr ate dinner and did his nighttime routine.

Once he had his pajamas on, he laid on his bed and took out his handheld console called the Mist Deck and turned on his favorite video game.

His current obsession was a fantasy farming sim called Rune Farming. There was farming, magic, monster fighting and taming, foraging, mining, crafting, cooking, and fishing. Basically, the whole nine yards. Still, Freyr loved the game because of its engaging story and well-written characters.

Freyr was at the point in the game where he was about to get married to the character he was dating. There were two more scenes he had to go through before the wedding would officially start.

As Freyr focused on his game, he heard banging sounds and screams outside his window. At first, he thought the neighborhood kids were playing roughly outside his apartment, but the screams never stopped.

A minute after the first banging sound, an alarm blared throughout his small apartment. The sound was coming from his TV, his phone, and even his Mist Deck!

Freyr jumped out of his bed and rushed toward the window to see what was going on. Strange raw chicken monsters with wings were flying past his window. Some of these monsters crashed into windows, terrorizing the people living inside.

He closed the curtains on his window and rushed to put his shoes on. He even grabbed his Mist Deck because there was no way he was going to leave it behind! He didn’t even get to save his progress yet.

Freyr opened the door and glanced down the hallway and saw many doors open. He could hear his neighbors screaming while monsters poured in and out of their rooms.

Then a monster saw him.

It was still the same raw chicken monster with wings, but now that he got a closer look, he could see it had red eyes and razor-sharp teeth. Not only that, it had claws that looked like it could rip his eyes out.

Freyr felt a shiver go down his back and he tried his best to close the door to his room, but a few of them rammed themselves into the crack of his door. Their claws tried to grab at his arms and his hands, occasionally scratching him, but he didn’t want to die by these ugly-looking monsters!

He didn’t have any weapons with him because this was considered a safe zone! Hunters frequently combed through safe zones to defeat new dungeons that popped up.

Unfortunately, he didn’t know that some of the Hunters missed an abandoned house where a dungeon formed in the basement…

Freyr, who still had his Mist Deck in his hands, was trying to figure out what to do when he heard a crash coming from his window. When he turned around, he saw the flying monsters on the glass-covered floor. The monsters didn't struggle on the floor and looked at him with hungry eyes.

He needed to figure out how to get out of here or he was going to die!

With his Mist Deck in hand, he used it to shove the monsters out the door and closed it before the other monster could get to him.

With the ones in the hallway out the way, Freyr focused on the monsters that came through his broken window.

He held his Mist Deck like a sword and whacked the first one to come after him. The console was reinforced with a sturdy case and a screen protector. Even if there were no visible cracks or dents, he knew he would probably have to buy another one if he survived.

He whacked the monster so hard, it flew into the wall and stopped moving. From the looks of it, the monsters were not very strong. He hadn’t awakened yet but he was still able to take them down.

Since that was the case, Freyr felt a lot more confident that he would be able to survive.

He took a look at the other monsters and decided to take them all down before leaving this apartment. He couldn’t stay in here forever!

Freyr finished off the monsters in his room fairly quickly. He looked around his house but was only able to grab a couple of knives to use as weapons. When he remembered how dull his knives were, he felt like groaning at his past self.

He didn’t feel like maintaining the knives, so they were not the sharpest. He was thinking about replacing them instead of sharpening them himself, but he was starting to regret it.

It didn’t hurt to take them, so he grabbed a bag from his room and all of his important belongings like his ID and phone.

He could still hear banging at his door, but he deadbolted it so the monsters struggled to get past his door.

Freyr took a deep breath at his door. He had the console in one hand and a knife in the other hand. He was planning on using the Mist Deck as a shield or a weapon just in case he lost the knives.

“I can do this.” He said out loud to hype himself up.

He could still hear screaming and loud noises from outside, but that didn’t matter to him. He couldn’t let his nerves get the best of him.

Freyr flung the door open and the monsters rushed toward him. There were more of them this time, probably because they either ate all the humans who couldn’t protect themselves or they had already run out of the building.

Regardless, it didn’t stop Freyr from slashing them or whacking them out of the air.

After taking care of the monsters in the hallway, he made his way down the stairs. The elevators weren’t working no matter how many times he pressed the button.

His room was on the 5th floor, so it was a long way down. Every time he passed a door, a monster or two would see him and rush toward him, but they were easily taken down by him.

When he got to the ground floor, he saw scattered limbs here and there, but there were no signs of people. Outside the building, he could see monsters floating around, looking for more victims.

So far, he had only seen the ugly raw chicken-looking monsters and nothing else.

From what he knew about dungeons, that was really strange. Usually, there were several different types of monsters in each dungeon, so only seeing one kind was strange.

Freyr slowly made his way out of the building. From a distance, he could see Hunters fighting against monsters using magic. Occasionally, there would be a hunter who was fighting in the air.

He slowly made his way in the opposite direction to get to the safe zone dome. This dome was reinforced with metals taken from dungeons and was where every normal citizen needed to evacuate to if they could. Sometimes, a Hunter could take them to safety, but that was pretty rare. It was almost every man for themselves.

Freyr was only halfway to the safe zone dome before the ground started to shake. The ground shook like an earthquake, making him fall to the ground. He couldn’t stabilize himself enough to stand up, so the only thing he could do was cover his head with his hands, hoping nothing fell on him.

When the shaking finally stopped, he looked up and saw the building in front of him was turned into rumble. What replaced it was a giant worm-looking monster that was the same color as the flying monsters. It had a mouth that seemed to be permanently opened and sharp teeth that looked like they could tear him apart if he touched them.

It didn’t have any eyes, but it seemed to have sensed that he was nearby because it turned its body in his direction.

With the flying monsters and this giant worm, Freyr felt that his chances of survival were slim to none. 

Without thinking too hard, Freyr started to run.

Unfortunately, the giant worm was intent on chasing after him!