The System Awakens: Rise of the Champion

While Damian was keeping himself busy thinking about his next course of actions, the rest of the world was also very busy.

It was understandable, given that they were experiencing an apocalypse.

It had been two months since the day of the awakening, and there had been many significant changes on Earth.

The first major change was the metamorphosis process, which awakened the dormant traits of Earth's inhabitants, enabling them to evolve and unlocking supernatural powers, abilities, talents, and even secret bloodlines that had been sealed within their blood.

However, metamorphosis did not occur in everyone.

It only affected people above the age of 15.

For those below the age of 16, the system informed them that they could undergo metamorphosis once they reached the age of 16.

The total population of Earth was 8.1 billion.

People below the age of 16 made up 25%.

People between the ages of 16 and 65 made up 65%.

People above the age of 65 made up 10%.

The number of people who had undergone metamorphosis was 75%.

The number of people who survived metamorphosis was 65%.

The number of people who failed to survive the metamorphosis and turned into Corruptants was 10%, with most of these individuals being above the age of 65.

About 25% of the total population of Earth had been killed in the apocalypse on the first day.

These estimates were made by Earth's leaders, and the number was still rising, though at a much slower rate.

Meanwhile, the number of people turning 16 and leveling up was increasing at a faster rate than the mortality rate.

The second major change in these two months was, of course, the leveling up of people by hunting Corruptants, mutated beasts, and dungeon monsters emerging from the Red Gates.

In these two months, about 65% of Earth's total population had become familiar with the system and started hunting monsters to level up.

Most of these people were between the ages of 15 and 65, while the remaining population consisted mostly of children who had not yet turned 16 and the elderly who were unable to hunt monsters.

Little did they know, they could easily reverse their age if they leveled up and evolved.

Many smart senior citizens realized this and did their best to hunt monsters and level up.

Earth was progressing rapidly on the path of evolution, at a much faster rate than before Damian's regression.

This was largely due to a video that quickly became a viral sensation, watched by millions of people all around the world, regardless of language or race.

The video, streamed by a famous influencer who was immensely popular among the youth, showed a weak, sickly-looking man slaughtering monsters that had emerged from a Red Gate.

The video became so popular that it was watched by over a hundred million people.

This video inspired many passionate individuals to confront the monsters head-on, rather than flee.

As a result, tens of thousands of people began fighting back against the monsters.

Those who watched these brave individuals fight also gained the confidence to hunt monsters themselves.

This video, along with other similar events, caused a chain reaction that encouraged 45% of Earth's population who had successfully undergone metamorphosis to start leveling up.

There were even people voluntarily entering dungeons to face the monsters.

After two months, the number of people who had grown unnaturally strong began to dominate society, even though it was still in shambles due to the ongoing apocalypse.

The biggest challenge arose for the government, which found itself unable to control the increasingly powerful individuals appearing across the globe.

Governments and world leaders have always enjoyed their positions of power.

They wielded influence, amassed wealth, and commanded respect, not because they earned it but because their positions made it necessary for people to listen to them.

While some world leaders did good things, they rarely acted without ensuring some benefit for themselves.

Most people believed the government was a scam, favoring those with money and power.

It was unfair, but it was the harsh reality.

Damian shared a similar opinion.

In his view, these leaders simply took advantage of the opportunities given to them.

He believed it was human nature to exploit power for personal gain.

If he were in a position of power, he admitted he would likely do the same.

That is just how the world worked, simple and cold.

Now, with people gaining the ability to achieve near-immortality, the government could no longer control them, not even with military force.

You might wonder why the government did not resort to nuclear weapons for extermination.

The answer lies in the strange phenomenon caused by the system's descent.

The release of supernatural and otherworldly energies into Earth's atmosphere rendered all nuclear materials inert.

Fissionable isotopes decayed as if they had aged tens of thousands of years, much to the horror of governments that had hoped to use nuclear weapons against the monsters swarming the planet.

With this development, the government had no choice but to rely on the leveling system and the awakened individuals to handle the extermination.

However, this reliance on the awakened came at a price.

The government's authority over the people was rapidly eroding.

Why would people listen to a government when they could now gain the power to do as they pleased, independent of any external authority?

In this new world, government, money, and social position had become irrelevant.

Power and strength were all that mattered.

As the government's influence waned, other forces began to rise.

Each country produced awakened individuals who were unnaturally strong compared to others at the same level.

These awakened individuals began to attract followers, people who wanted to grow stronger or at least align themselves with the strong.

These groups evolved into organizations known as guilds.

Guilds were collectives of awakened individuals who took on the responsibility of clearing gates and hunting mutated beasts and corruptants.

The term "guild" was borrowed from numerous games that dealt with dungeons, apocalypses, zombies, and monsters.

Supposedly, the earliest guilds were formed by high-level gamers.

These gamers, surprisingly, became some of the strongest awakened individuals on Earth, so strong in fact that their power made governments deeply uncomfortable.

The influence of these guilds grew rapidly, and the government, unable to control them, found itself increasingly overshadowed.

Damian was sitting on a couch, making himself comfortable as he watched a documentary summarizing everything that had happened since the Day of Awakening.

A frown appeared on his face.

"What the hell? It's only been two months, and they're already forming guilds all over the globe?" Damian rubbed his chin with a confused expression.

He clearly remembered from his past life, prior to his regression, that guilds had only begun to appear six months after the Day of Awakening.

"And this isn't the only thing that's different," Damian thought.

The number of people who had died in the past two months was significantly lower than he remembered, and the number of individuals leveling up and hunting monsters had increased drastically.

"Everything is happening much faster than it's supposed to. Could it be because I've changed the sequence of events too much? Is the entire future starting to shift?" Damian wondered, an uneasy feeling rising in his chest.

"I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Will something happen to me? Will someone come after me? Changing the future and altering facts based on memories from before my regression... this isn't a simple matter. Shouldn't there be a higher force preventing me from doing this? Am I not violating the laws of time itself? Aren't there consequences for my actions?"