The Void!

Have you ever wondered what the apocalypse would look like and what would follow in its aftermath?

Could it be natural disasters like tidal waves, earthquakes, tsunamis?

Or the invasion of pandemics, monsters, zombies as in science fiction movies?

Or conflicts between nations and the outbreak of a third world war accompanied by nuclear bombs erasing civilizations?

No, the apocalypse I want to show you is not just one but all of the above combined, and I'm not joking at all, your world is about to come to an end if you don't start doing something about it today.

This was the strange content broadcasted by a mysterious person appearing on the TV screen while I was still having dinner with my family.

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Ten years ago, while having dinner with my grandparents, as usual in a family meal there would always be rice, vegetables, soup, and side dishes, not to mention a small TV, a treasure of rural families. We would sit at the table together, dine, and enjoy the news at exactly seven o'clock every evening.

It was the day when everything happened, in a way that no one could have expected...

The TV screen gradually blurred with distorted sounds, making us think this TV was old and encountering some problems. Then, the images started to become clearer and instead of the usual beautiful newscaster from the television station, there was a mysterious figure dressed in a black cloak. The voice of this person was also very strange but somehow I could understand it as if listening to my mother tongue, warning of a catastrophe that would bring this world to an end.

This person repeated many times a phrase meaning 'Void', likening it to the world's apocalypse, requesting governments to start building emergency shelters, conduct drills, and establish a warning system for spatial instability.

Finally, the mysterious figure made a prediction about the disaster that was about to happen, the first would begin exactly two years from that day and then disappeared from the television news, mysterious as the way they appeared.

In the following days, news articles about the mysterious figure were reported across social media, news, and television stations worldwide. Some thought it was a prank by some hacker group, others fully believed in it and crazy cults parading made governments around the world deploy the military to suppress.

Indeed, it might have been a real prank... but what made the public and the media, even celebrities quite agitated was because of its intriguing mystery. And there's one more thing, at the same time, the mysterious person was broadcasted on all electronic media including TVs, computers, phones, and even radios. In each country, the mysterious person used the language of that country, fluent as if a native speaker, and the broadcast duration matched perfectly, not at all like a pre-recorded clip.

The keywords about 'The Void' quickly became a hot trend for a short while when social media was not yet as developed as it is today. Until everything began to settle down, people started to believe it was just a well-invested joke. As usual, governments around the world also ignored the warnings and baseless demands... and then two years later...

In the city of Pearl Springs in the Sunrise state of the Crimson Shores territory, a strong earthquake occurred along with tsunami waves that began to flood the city of over a million people. The space twisted and then shattered like a broken mirror, creating a strange black crack. In an instant, as if containing dozens of nuclear bombs, the distorted space caused a shockwave that wiped out life on three-quarters of the Crimson Shores territory, leading to the collapse of a capitalist superpower.

That day, humanity first learned of a disaster known as 'The Void' which the international language refers to as 'The Void'. More than two hundred million Crimson Shores people were killed or severely injured, and creatures within the crack's range that survived gradually became mad, their bodies transforming into grotesque beings that attacked the living. Yet, that was not the worst part as from the other side of the crack, countless powerful monsters emerged that seemed to only belong in science fiction stories.

The crack had its own self-defense mechanism, emitting a magnetic field that prevented long-range missiles from destroying it; even robots could not approach it, and nuclear missiles launched from satellites could not destroy it either. Thus, Crimson Shores officially fell, losing three-quarters of its territory to the Void force.

Not long after, numerous cracks began to appear all around the world. Creatures mutated by the Void, although having short lifespans, possessed extraordinary physical abilities and formidable regenerative powers, making the fight against them extremely difficult. In just one year until the final crack appeared, humans quickly lost half of their habitable land area, and the world population decreased by 70%, ushering the Earth into a dark era.

However, humanity is a species with incredibly strong willpower; history has proven that people can overcome any adversity to adapt to new environments, no matter how terrible things may get.

At a time when darkness and despair were engulfing the entire world, once again, the hope of humanity was reignited.

Some people who had been in contact with the affected area of the crack, still retaining their selves without being transformed, appeared as miracles amid the apocalypse. They possessed the ability to resist the invasion from the cracks, some even had special supernatural powers, and most importantly, they could endure within the affected area longer than machines or ordinary people.

These people gradually became pioneers in the fight against the Void catastrophe. After a period of struggle, humans found a way to use the bodies of transformed creatures for medical applications, creating a serum that allowed humans to expel the invasion from their bodies. Thanks to this, even ordinary soldiers without the ability to resist the invasion could fight against the transformed creatures to reclaim territory.

Through research, scientists invented a device capable of measuring the extent of invasion in living beings, a unit called the corrosion amplitude.

Compared to water bears that can endure a corrosion amplitude exceeding 40%, a human can only withstand a threshold below 5%. If their corrosion amplitude exceeds 5%, symptoms such as hallucinations, headaches, and vomiting begin to appear, and surpassing 10%, they would be completely transformed into monsters. However, those with the ability to resist the invasion can endure up to a 20% threshold without being transformed.

Realizing the importance of possessing manpower and weaponry to combat the greatest disaster in the world to date, the United Nations decided to create a training organization, providing people and weapons capable of fighting against the Void. These individuals would receive full equipment and management as well as subsidies from the governments of various countries, with their task being to enter the invaded areas, clean up the transformed creatures, and destroy the rifts before they could spread further.

These individuals were given the name 'Void Keeper'.

Just five years after the official operation of the Void Keeper organization, humanity had regained half of its territory, clearing most of the rifts.

In the fight against the Void, the Void Keepers would always be at the forefront against the transformed creatures, launching armed attacks on the rifts to destroy them, with the remaining tasks belonging to scientists seeking ways to minimize the radiation of the invaded areas. Walls, alarm systems, and shelters were also erected by the Void Keeper organization, protecting humanity from the Void disaster and the transformed creatures.

As most of the rifts around the world closed, except for the three largest at Crimson Shores, Rainbow, and beneath Cedar Cove, the world gradually returned to its original stable state, though it was no longer as it was at the beginning. The Void Keepers became heroes in the eyes of humanity, ushering in a new era of world order change.

Since Rainbow and Crimson Shores were the two countries that suffered the most damage, they quickly ceased to be powers. Instead, a Tri-Polar bloc was established worldwide, and naturally, in an era where Void Keepers were humanity's heroes, countries possessing quality Void Keepers became the new superpowers.

This Tri-Polar bloc includes:

The European Union, with its abundant resources, owning quality Void Keepers, has continuously recruited talented and potential Keepers from all over the world.

The Oceanic Alliance is known to be a place that has hardly suffered any damage from the Void disaster, during which it developed remarkably. Not only do they possess quality Void Keepers, but they also own powerful Void monsters.

The Emerald - Paradise Alliance was established because Emerald, a nation with extremely high-quality Void Keepers, lacked the resources to retain them, significantly impacted by the Void disaster originating from Rainbow. As a result, Emerald suffered considerable damage at that time. To retain a workforce full of potential and rebuild the nation in the post-apocalyptic era, Emerald agreed to partner with Paradise, forming a strong alliance. Paradise invested in the Void Keepers in Emerald on the condition that they would also be able to exploit those resources similarly.

Among the three alliances of the Tri-Pole block mentioned above, the Emerald - Paradise Alliance was the most controversial at the time because Emerald had only one S-class Void Keeper, yet it was considered the strongest. Thanks to the appearance of that Keeper, Emerald quickly became a superpower in the new world order, no longer a poor country with low-quality infrastructure.

And this is the story about me, a schoolboy obsessed with games and movies, living with my grandparents in a remote countryside, dragged into the battle against alien creatures from another world.

In the suffocating battlefield, where an inevitable fight was bound to happen between two men. I, a prisoner carrying the burden of sin and shackles, confronted the enemy, a proud general with his famous axe in hand.

We rushed towards each other, life or death, while the clacking from the keyboard and the sound of mouse clicks, along with the cursing of kids lagging at the internet cafe, continued to echo.

Yes, you guessed it right, I was playing a game, and the battle mentioned was a one-on-one solo fight with the enemy across the frontline, an age-old matchup.

A few minutes later, with the thick-headedness of an experienced and skillful long-time player, I... lost the match in frustration.

"Damn, I told you to ban Yasuo already, if he feeds seventeen kills, who can carry this?"

I angrily turned to my friend sitting next to me.

He sighed, took off his headphones, placed them next to the keyboard, logged out of his internet cafe member account, picked up his backpack, and patted my shoulder.

"Come on, it's time, we should go or we'll be late."

"I've told you so many times, if you don't ban Yasuo when playing rank, now I'm about to drop to rank A."

I sighed, turned off the computer, threw my backpack over the handlebars of my bicycle, and rode off with him.

I am Sebastian Robbins, attending a high school in the same village, with a strong passion for video games, movies, and Paradise culture, where people often call someone like me a weeaboo.

I'm currently living with my grandparents, who own a woodshop in this region, always hoping I would take over the family's woodshop because I'm an only child and partly because I showed them my creative talent when I was young. However, I have a different, much more interesting desire than managing a woodshop in this remote countryside.

Right next to me is my lifelong close friend, Simon Nichols, a man of few words but extremely kind-hearted. Notably handsome and wealthy, he always carries a guitar in a black case but never seems to use it.

Thanks to his charm and seemingly bottomless pockets, he is always chased by the girls at school. He constantly wears a strange watch all year round, and some schoolmates have rumored that he is undergoing an internship for a company and will become a Void Keeper after graduation. But anyway, that's just a rumor, there's no way someone as clueless as him could become a Void Keeper.

Void Keeper, arguably the king of all professions, is not a job just anyone can do, with an undisclosed salary but judging from the famous Void Keepers in the media, their quality of life is comparable to millionaires or even billionaires, you can imagine how large their income is.

However, the high salary always comes with high risks, especially when facing a global disaster and potentially losing one's life at any moment. If a fool who doesn't know to ban Yasuo - a character in an electronic game that only fools choose to ruin the game - becomes a Void Keeper, then society would be in chaos.

We stopped the car in front of the school gate, a bit late but it didn't matter because today is the last day of our student lives, our high school graduation ceremony.

And today is an important day for me, not because of the graduation ceremony but because of something else that is about to happen which I have planned.

I sat on a red plastic chair during the flag salute before the graduation ceremony ended, unconsciously looking at the sacred red and gold star flag in the schoolyard that I would no longer see every Monday morning.

"Hey Sebastian, what are you thinking about?" Simon suddenly started a conversation.

"Me? Hmm... I don't know, just like, you know, sleeping for eight hours, it's long but once you close your eyes and wake up, it's already morning. Our student life is also like that."

"You've lived with your grandparents for so long you're starting to sound like an old man, dude."

"Graduated now, do you plan to go to university or work?"

Simon scratched his head hesitantly and answered vaguely.

"Probably work, what about you?"

"With your looks, you could probably be invited to become a model or a social media idol, as for me, I'm still clueless about what to do."

As kind as ever, he patted my shoulder to encourage me.

"You'll find the goal of your life eventually!"

Sure enough, just as he mentioned it, the goal of my life also appeared.

Her name is Madeline Young, a student who transferred from the city to this quiet countryside. The urbanite's understanding combined with her charming appearance quickly made her the center of attention among the boys in our grade. Besides, she also owns a social media account with over a million followers. That's none other than the person I've secretly admired for so long.

Just as I was deeply lost in my fantasies about our future wedding, I was snapped back to reality by a thump on the head from Simon.

"Stop daydreaming and lusting, you weeaboo, aren't you supposed to confess to Madeline today?"

"Yeah, but what if she rejects me? Then I'll become the laughing stock of the entire school, and the lower grades will pass down the legacy of Sebastian Robbins, the weeaboo loser who confessed to the school's beauty."

"Come on, be confident. Your grades are always at the top of the school, how can you call yourself a loser? Even though you are a real loser... just go confess quickly, and I'll treat you to some grilled eggs to comfort you."

"Damn, you're already cursing me."

While Simon and I were still bustling with each other, Madeline had approached us without notice, and with the boost of courage from my best friend, I approached Madeline and stammered.

"Sebastian, is something wrong?"

This isn't good, face to face with my crush like this, my heart is all over the place, how can I stay calm? Suddenly at this moment, I develop selective mutism, who else to blame but my parents for not giving me a face that could easily talk to girls like Simon... Wait, hold on, did she just call my name? How in the world does my crush, who has never spoken to me before, know my name?

"You know me?", I managed to reply calmly.

"Of course, you're rumored to be the smartest person in the school."

Oh, thank the heavens, thank my parents for giving birth to me with such a bright and brilliant mind, even my crush knows my name, what bliss.

It seems my impression in my crush's eyes is pretty good, alright then, let's go for it.

"M... Madeline... this Saturday... this Saturday..."

Before my useless mouth could finish speaking, Madeline surprisingly interrupted with a request.

"Could you take pictures for me this Saturday?"

"Oh, I knew you would reject me..."

Wait, hold on... what just happened???

I look around in bewilderment, and the boys are no different, looking at me with eyes full of surprise, Simon too, staring wide-eyed at us.

Didn't my crush just confess to me? Am I dreaming or what?

The unexpected request left me speechless as if a cat got my tongue, and seeing this, Madeline only responded with a shy smile.

"Then, nine o'clock in the morning at the city park, okay? Don't be late!"

After saying that, she left, leaving me standing there petrified with a heart in turmoil.

"Blushingly watching her walk away, I stand frozen in the rain~", the currently trending song playing from Simon's phone brought me back down to earth.

"Hey bro, you look so out of this world, you know?"

Until he saw my vile, satisfied expression, he frowned and clicked his tongue.

"Tsk, tsk, this is bad."

"Do you see it now, Simon? Do you see it?", I grabbed Simon's collar and shook him continuously like I was having a seizure.

"What the hell are you talking about, you lunatic???"

"My era has arrived, muahahahaha!", I laughed maniacally, causing the girls around to shun me with contemptuous looks.

"Wake up, you fool. Do you think it's that easy? Suddenly, the school beauty invites you on a date, don't you find that odd?"

Simon firmly held my arms to calm me down, which annoyed me due to his untimely seriousness.

"What's wrong with you? You should be happy for me, you idiot."

"I'm just a bit skeptical, suddenly inviting you out of nowhere while there are so many others in school?"

By then, I couldn't think much beyond my crush, coldly shrugged off my best friend's hand, and responded.

"The only weird one here is you, Simon. Are you just jealous of me?"

"Jealous? Jealous of what?"

"Why suddenly doubt a girl out of nowhere? You're usually so quiet, you fool."

"I'm just worried about you, you simp!"

So, we argued with each other, ending up going our separate ways without any video game sessions or our usual snack time. It's a bit sad to argue with a close friend, but his doubting my crush was unacceptable. To top it off, he even blocked my account when I got home, truly infuriating. With that, our brotherhood ends here.

Instead of thinking about that traitor, I eagerly prepared everything and the schedule to date my crush this Saturday. After that, I will confess, and she will accept me. We will spend our university years together and get married, have a few kids, and become a happy family. Just thinking about it feels wonderful.

Finally, that wonderful day arrived, oh what could be better than a Saturday after the end of the school year and a date with the crush of my dreams?

I wore a simple T-shirt, long jeans, and a short-sleeved jacket. It was past nine, but Madeline hadn't arrived yet, wondering if I was being stood up?

"I've only been waiting for two hours and I'm already panicking, calm down Sebastian, you're a man, a man must be patient and composed."

The wait wasn't in vain, a few minutes later, Madeline quickly arrived, wearing a pretty short dress far different from the school uniform she usually wore. Truly impressive.

"Sorry, I missed the previous bus, so I'm a bit late, have you been waiting long?"

"Oh, no, I just got here myself."

I lied as a courtesy, scratched my head, and then proceeded into the park with Madeline.

Throughout our journey in the amusement park, Madeline did look at her phone quite a lot instead of interacting with me, the only time she looked into my eyes was when she looked into the camera lens she brought along.

She seemed quite reserved, always buried in her phone without uttering a word to me, probably just shy. So I decided to take the initiative to start a conversation, sharing everything with her including my favorite movies, everything and anything. But perhaps movies and games weren't her cup of tea, so I guess I had to change the subject.

"Hey Madeline, is there anything you want to ask me? You seem a bit uncomfortable."

"Do you really think so?" Madeline quickly turned off her phone screen and pondered: "What about Simon then? Your close friend."

"Huh? Why him?"

"Isn't he very cool? Rich, with good fashion sense, and handsome too."

"Do all girls think of him that way? To me, he's just a stubborn guy, never understands others' feelings and always ends up annoying everyone." I sighed.

"But you two seem pretty close, right?"

"Not at all, who could be close to him? He just blocked my account yesterday."

"So you have Simon's number? Can I have it?"

"Sure... uh, let me put it in for you..."

For some reason, I felt a bit unhappy and had a bad premonition. But all those feelings and premonitions quickly vanished as I looked at Madeline's lovely face.

"Do you know what brand Simon's watch is? He always wears it, it looks quite similar to the watches that Void Keepers usually wear."

The Void Keeper's watch, also known as the Clock'o Keeper, is a locator watch capable of tracking the erosion range of active Keepers.

"Oh, come on, in this day and age, there are so many fakes out there, people buy them in the market, that guy being a Keeper or something."

"Haha, probably true, but I heard that the Void Keeper's watch starts at two billion on the market." Madeline replied with a forced laugh.

"Two billion???" I exclaimed in astonishment.

After that, we continued to walk around the park, enjoying some ice cream and rollercoaster rides, taking a few photos of Madeline before the evening.

Finally, the moment arrived, the moment of sunset unveiling a romantic red curtain, the harmony of yin and yang, the fusion of heaven and earth. Like in the anime I often watch, this was the perfect moment for a confession.

I stood in front of Madeline, my classmate whom I had always secretly admired during break times, with all the courage of a man and the secret techniques I learned from watching over a hundred different romcom animes, I opened my mouth and began to enunciate each word clearly.

"Madeline!"

She silently looked at me with curiosity, as if waiting for what I would do next. Alright, if it's going to be like this, go big or go home.

"I... I......"

In the romantic and tense atmosphere of the destined late afternoon, I swallowed my saliva once more, trying to calm myself, and finally spoke the last words meant for Madeline.

"Warning: Instability in the spacetime detected, citizens are urgently requested to evacuate to the nearest shelter!"

The alarm siren along with the emergency broadcast suddenly broke the awkward silence, startling both of us.

"Please be advised, this is not a drill, all citizens are urgently required to evacuate to the nearest shelter!"

Below the streets, sidewalks, buildings, and surrounding public areas, steel doors quickly opened with stairs leading down to the underground shelters. Media outlets also swiftly switched to the red warning screens, with alarm sounds blaring deafeningly. People hurriedly jostled and pushed each other to enter the shelters, and even I could do no better, holding Madeline's hand and running towards the nearest shelter.

"Aah!"

Madeline screamed as she tripped over her heels. Realizing the situation was extremely critical, I shouted for help from the people around.

But... my cries for help seemed to fall on deaf ears, just like those times I screamed for the internet café staff to come assist me. Right, it was the Void disaster that nearly completely destroyed Crimson Shores and Rainbow, so it wasn't surprising that people reacted this way.

I could have left her and gone to the nearest shelter, but I, as a man, would never abandon my girl. I tried to support my crush towards the shelter while she was still sobbing.

"Sebastian, don't leave me behind!"

"That won't happen, we will survive this together!"

Somehow, even when death was looming, I could still utter such cool lines. Probably because of my weeb nature and the dialogues from games that have seeped into my blood.

But... life isn't a movie, and even if it were, I'm not the main character.

The shelter door coldly slammed shut, as if denying our existence to this world. I was momentarily stunned by that moment and quickly composed myself because this was not the time to be disheartened, with a girl behind me needing my protection.

I led her into a café next to the amusement park, locking the door tightly as the last alarm bells rang.

"Are we going to die?"

"No, don't talk nonsense, I told you, we will survive this together!"

I asserted firmly even though my heart was still pounding with fear, my eyes trembling at the sight of the now desolate amusement park that was bustling just a while ago. I leaned my head against the glass door and sighed, praying that the upcoming crack was not a level three or higher.

But... I really am jinxed. As the alarm siren suddenly ceased, that was when a streak of black lightning appeared in front of the giant Ferris wheel of the amusement park. Space began to warp, and "boom." just like that, a loud explosion caused the café's glass windows to shatter. At that moment, I saw no one but my crush, quickly moving to shield Madeline and taking the brunt of the glass shards myself.

Throughout my life from birth until now, I have endured countless wounds and beatings from school bullies. But this is the first time I feel such agony, as the jagged pieces of glass tear through my flesh, causing unbearable pain.

The pain isn't the worst part when the space outside seems like a piece of fabric punctured by a large black tear, emitting dark electrical sparks. From below that rift, the ground gradually turned pitch black, spreading in all directions around. The bodies of pets left behind in the park after the spatial explosion begin to be invaded by the strange darkness from the rift, slowly rising like undead monsters, their bodies grotesquely transformed beyond recognition.

The ability to invade and transform, it must be at least a level three rift. I immediately assess the situation we are in, realizing that we can't stay near a level three rift for too long, as we would either be transformed into monsters or become a meal for those bizarre creatures. Not to mention, a level three rift is large enough for pure Void creatures to penetrate through the tear into our current world.

I try to struggle to my feet, looking towards the back door behind the counter.

"Madeline, escape through the back door!"

At the same time, the monsters also sniff out the living creatures around us, without hesitation, they immediately pounce towards us like hungry beasts.

I push Madeline to run, while grabbing a wooden chair to strike at the head of a transformed dog, now larger than me. A mutated hamster charges at me, I instantly push the dog stuck by the chair aside, grab the steaming coffee pot next to me, and slam it onto its head.

The hot coffee poured on its head makes the monster retreat in pain, seizing my only chance, I parkour over the counter, clutching the bleeding wound on my side, and run towards the back door.

I can... I can survive, I can overcome and become Madeline's hero.

That's what I thought back then, how naive...

Do you know what hurts more than the cuts that the glass inflicted on my physical flesh? It's betrayal, especially from the girl I've liked for so long.

Madeline slams the wooden door behind the coffee counter shut, not forgetting to push the trash can next to it to block the door securely.

"Madeline, open the door! What are you doing?"

"Open it so we all die, you idiot?"

"Huh?..."

"Damn you, you useless game addict, always clinging to Simon, hanging out with you really makes my skin crawl!"

"Madeline, what are you saying? Or are you being invaded?"

"Invaded my head! Think about it, why would I want to hang out with a loser like you, besides your academic achievements there's nothing notable at all. I wanted to leave after getting Simon's number, but you keep nagging and droning on, so annoying."