《Ultimate Loner》 Chapter one: Count down ¡°Tick tock¡ª¡± The classroom was mostly silent, sans the whispers of the kids who decided it would be a good idea to ignore the teachers warning to be quiet and wait for the daily announcements. ¡°Tick tock¡ª¡± The clock was the only thing in the room seemingly louder than the students, it was a symbol of both freedom and slavery for most of my classmates as it was the last day of the week while also being the first day of school. ¡°Tick tock¡ª¡± I couldn¡¯t stop myself from looking around the room. It was the first day so I had to relearn my classmates 3/20th I already knew, which was higher than normal. ¡°Tick tock¡ª¡± The clock wrung again and with it came the buzz of the speakers. ¡°Good afternoon everyone.¡± The voice of the principle overpowered the clock, and the rest of the class for that matter. ¡°I hope you all enjoyed the first day of school, what you¡¯ve experienced today was only a slither of things to come¡­¡± He went on, talking about the plans for the coming week. I looked around the class once more, only half of the people in the room were paying attention, I wasn¡¯t one of them. I looked out the window to see the late summer sky, and the somewhat busy streets. The scenery screamed ¡°Small urban town,¡± when it was anything but that. ¡°¡ª and for further updates on that, be sure to check the online portal.¡± The principle seemed to be finishing up. with the speaker¡¯s silence came the sound of my classmate¡¯s whispers, as well as the omnipresent clock¡¯s ticking. ¡°Tick tock¡ª¡± The clock read 1:57, we¡¯d be free after just three more minutes. Of course¡­ that never happened, no soon as the clock ticked once more, a chipper and feminine voice suddenly appeared in my mind: ¡°WELCOME: PART ONE! Hello everyone! The world as you know it is about to end, so to be nice, we¡¯ve decided to give you all some last couple hours of peace¡­ Oh wait what? Give them 3 minutes? Ok, we start the countdown¡­now! 2:59¡­ 2:58¡­¡± Most of my class was freaking out, and, I could even hear the skeptical babble of some of my close classmates, like a boy with messy hair next to me:The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°T-there¡¯s no way this is actually happening, this, this is like that Manga series I read!¡± he stopped for a second to face palm, sending his voice into his mouth making him hard to hear. ¡°B-but I¡¯m not generic enough to be a main¡­ what if I die right away!?¡± ¡°2:45¡­¡± He noticed that I was staring at him and freaked out a little. ¡°You didn¡¯t, hear that, did you?¡± I shook my head ¡°No¡± to not make the situation more useless. ¡°A-anyway, do you have idea what to do?¡± I looked at him blankly and simply shook my head again. But he was right, I needed a short term game-plan until I could properly gauge the situation, so I put my head down and tried to think. ¡°2:30¡­¡± ¡°2:29¡­¡± I started counting down with the disembodied voice, to get my mind in a Rhythm. ¡°2:28¡­¡± but the more I thought about it, the less this situation made sense. ¡°2:27¡­¡± so instead of actually thinking up anything, I decided to discretely gather up my stuff. My classmates were still freaking out, even more so as the girl counted down. Although, in the sea of panic, there was one guy, in the center of the room, seemingly ignoring the voices around and inside him and saying things like: ¡°HAH, nah, this ain¡¯t really happening, after all this is the real world, right Mana?¡± the girl he was talking to give him a blank stare and responded to him after a second . ¡°Nick sometimes I think you¡¯re both blind, deaf and an idiot all at the same time.¡± ¡°2:13¡­¡± The guy, Nick, continued to argue his point: ¡°be quiet mana, if this was a real issue don¡¯t you think the principle would have said something?¡± The girl, ¡®Mana¡¯, looked irritated now. ¡°Yeah sure, ignore the voice in EVERYBODY¡¯S heads.¡± ¡°2:05¡­¡± I stopped paying attention to my classmates at this point, looking around the room for any sort of weapon, just in case it came to that. I found nothing. However, I did find something else important, next to the door, was an old closet that would be hard to notice, because of the fact that the door to the closet in question was the same color of the wall. I walked in. ¡°1:25¡­¡± I hid in the small room for about ten seconds before realizing that someone else was in the room with me. And that person was Anna, one of the few people I knew from last year, and a friend. ¡°Why are¡ª¡± she cut me off while looking towards me and wiping her eyes. ¡°Everyone¡¯s¡­being loud¡­a-and there¡¯s a voice in my head!¡± ¡°1:15¡­¡± ¡°L-like that!¡± she was loud, which was something she never normally did. I put my finger up to my mouth, intending to calm her down. ¡°I have a plan¡± I lied. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°yep.¡± Not really. ¡°What is it?¡± this girl was pulling at me. ¡°uhhh so.¡± I grasped at the closest thing to my mind. ¡°We¡¯re going to stay in here, and wait for something to happen, and either run for our lives, or counter attack if need be.¡± She was about to comment on my ingenious plan but got cut off by the voice. 30 seconds remaining¡­ hope you have you lives together! I don¡¯t know where 45 of those seconds went but it seems as if times about up. ¡°Our lives together¡¯?!¡± Anna was worried. ¡°What¡¯s going to happen to us?!¡± I gave her a blank stare. I honestly had no idea what was about to happen to us, but I already put on the brave facade so it would be dumb to turn back now. ¡°0:00¡­ times up! Ok, everyone it¡¯ll take about 30 seconds for our meddling to finalize! Until then, please enjoy the extremely painful migraines we¡¯ve prepared for you!¡± Chapter two: something promblematic It didn¡¯t take long for my classmate¡¯s groans of agony to be heard from outside the closet, although Anna and I weren¡¯t exempt either, I suddenly felt as if my head was being ripped apart while also being squished by some unseen force. I attempted to ignore the pain and tried to think of happy thoughts, but my mind just kept ending up on the fact that someone decided to end the world on a Friday and it ruined my mood. And that continued for about 15 seconds before I realized that something akin to a computer¡¯s notice screen was clouding my vision. It displayed counter intuitive information at the top left corner like my name and age. But below that, things like ¡®str¡¯, ¡®int¡¯ and ¡®end¡¯ sat, and next to those letters were some numbers that constantly decreased from what I was assuming was an incredibly high number. The layout reminded me of something akin to a video game, or DnD or something. Eventually the headache stopped but the screen lingered until the numbers ceased moving, to their final resting places. If I were to describe what I saw it would look like this: Name: ¡®Yuki¡¯ Age: 16 Title N/a Condition: Near perfect EE: 100 Str: 8 Int: 10 End: 5 Agi: 11 Skills: N/a The image lingered in my head for another 5 seconds before the ¡®screen¡¯ dissipated from my vision and I found myself on the floor. I looked over at Anna, she had the same expression I assume I had: one of shock and distress. Anna was the first to talk. ¡°I-is it over?¡± I didn¡¯t respond, hoping that abstaining would stop the issue from continuing. I sat in place to get my Barings, after a few seconds of calming myself down I dragged myself and Anna out of the closet. ¡°We aren¡¯t staying in there?¡± ¡°I changed my mind...¡± I looked around the classroom, most of my classmates were still recovering from the headache earlier. I was contemplating leaving the building when I looked out the door to the hallway: it looked different, alien, hellish almost. The vents were oozing a strange substance which was gold in color, which puddled on the floor. The lights were flickering on and Off, I assumed that they¡¯d eventually stay off for good. Below the vents sat small golden pods they were all 3 times the size of my fist. They were disgusting so I decided to look away, unto the rest of the hallway. It was more of the same. Just when I was about to turn around, the door to a room 3 classes down opened. Out of said room came two people a boy and a girl, although the boy turned around and gave the girl what I could assume to be a really meaningful glare as she quickly walked back into the room and shut the door. The boy took a step forward and looked around the hallway. Then all of a sudden, the lights flickered off, the only light source for the hallway was now coming from my classroom. I had the urge to the shut door, however, I was curious to see what the boy would do. I saw his silhouette quickly turn around and attempt to open the door behind him. ¡°Hey what the hell, it¡¯s locked?!¡± the boy sounded as if a murderer had just walked into the room and killed his dog. ¡°Maria, open the door!¡± he yelled at the door a little bit more and turned toward the hallway once again, spotting the open door to my class, and me. ¡°Hey, you there, can I hitchhike in your class?¡±The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. My urge to shut the door increased but I didn¡¯t want to be that person, and lock him away from whatever safety we had. He leaned his hand against the wall as he began walking and talking, his hand was going to collide with the golden stuff oozing out of the vents. I abstained from telling him, mostly due to the fact that he should have seen the stuff when he first left the classroom. When his hand touched the ooze he almost instantly pulled back. ¡°Ow, what now?¡± he pushed his hand forward, toward the light, but that was a stupid idea, as he just moved his hand back into the ¡®danger zone.¡¯ He took a step forward while moving his hand away from in front of him. The lights suddenly turned on again while he was in the middle of a step, causing him to fall over in surprise. He landed next to a bunch of pods. We made eye contact for about 5 seconds before the two pods closest to him started to violently shake, and crack. The boy began to stand up, however he was too slow. A darkish-golden creature leaped out of the cracked pod thing, unto the boy¡¯s chest. ¡°What the¡ª¡± the boy instinctually reached out to grab the monster-ish creature, when he touched it, it looked as if he felt intense pain as he moved his hands back, almost as fast as he put them there. The creature ignored his failed attempt, it began to move, however from where I stood I couldn¡¯t see what it was doing to him. ¡°H-hey get off of me!¡± My will to look at this horror was quickly fading, and my irritation was growing at the boy who was screaming for his life. I sighed and slowly began to close the door, the soon to probably be dead man looked at me, with eyes of shock that said: ¡°what the hell are you doing?!¡± I ignored his pleas for help and closed the door shut and locked it, but before the deed was done, I noticed something...the other ¡®Pods¡¯ were cracking. I turned around, only to see that several of my classmates were standing behind me, waiting in anticipation in what I was going to say. I shrugged. ¡°don¡¯t unlock the door.¡± What I had just seen was incredibly disturbing, I needed time to sort out my feelings so, I began to walk back to my desk but was stopped by the uneasy voice of one of my female classmates. ¡°what about that guy outside, why didn¡¯t you help?¡± before I could respond she continued to speak. ¡°what did you see out there, why is he screaming?¡± I gave her a simple answer: ¡°Something problematic, which can be avoided.¡± Another student spoke up. ¡°that¡¯s not an answer.¡± I sighed. ¡°well then, go outside and find out for yourself.¡± The girl who originally confronted me responded. ¡°B-but you just said to¡ª¡± she was cut off, not from anyone in the classroom though, but rather from the silence of the hallway... the guy who was assaulted by those pod monsters finally shut up. There was silence in the room for a short while, although that silence was ended by a door opening outside the room. A loud male student broke the dreadful silence. ¡°What the heck was that?!¡± his outburst caused another student to talk ¡°I-I think it¡¯s just a-a door.¡± From there, everyone calmed down a little, and began to talk amongst themselves, although as soon as they started, the teacher shushed them, most likely to hear what was happening outside better. I too, was curious so I discreetly walked up to the door and put my ear next to it. I couldn¡¯t hear anything so I almost gave up when I heard a muffled voice: ¡°Whoa!¡± the voice was male. ¡°what in the¡ª out here¡± Another voice responded to him, although it was harder to hear. ¡°¡ª shell thing¡¯s¡ª¡± the voices grew louder, and easier to hear after this. The original speaker talked next. ¡°yeah this is strange¡­ wait a sec¡­ I think we found the cause of the screaming everyone.¡± A different person continued his thought. ¡°what, happened to him though?¡± they were quiet for a second, mostly likely looking around the hallway. The next person to talk was female. ¡°everyone, is it just me or¡ª¡± The original speaker cut her off for seemingly no reason. ¡°or what?¡± ¡°is that golden stuff moving?¡± I held my breath, a repeat of earlier was about to happen, and I didn¡¯t really care much to stop it. The original speaker spoke louder all of a sudden. ¡°You might be right, hmm¡­¡± there was a pause. ¡°Is he getting up?¡± He got slightly louder so I assume he took a step closer. ¡°why were you on the floor, my dude¡­you alright?¡± Another new voice started talking. ¡°I-is there something on his chest?¡± The original speaker spoke again. ¡°Yeah... hey, wait, DUDE GET OFF!¡± I moved my ears away from the door as the calm subdued voices suddenly and quickly turned into screams of panic. My classmates were freaking out, although I ignored them for my own thoughts, most of them lingered on the fact that I was the cause of this. Chapter three: plan.

The panic outside of the classroom never died down, in fact, it probably only grew from where it started. The voices of unaware, and ignorant teachers tried to calm things down. Their shocked yells for help, and peace Permeated through the building soon after. Many of my classmates thought it would be a good idea to go out there, however our teacher forbade it. I Ignored my surroundings though, and instead looked outside the window, with my thoughts in hand. That being said, the outside world looked very different: a thin layer of fog covered the ground directly in front of the school building, however since I was on the second floor I saw past it. In the distance downtown seemed to be in flames although it was hard to tell since it was far away. ¡­¡®Ok then...¡¯ I began to think to myself: ¡®¡­This must be a city-wide crisis and not just limited to the school¡­.¡¯ I let my mind wander, thinking of the quickest way to leave. ¡®¡­Wait a second, if the whole cities like this then what¡¯s even the point of leaving?!¡¯ I looked around my classroom again, everyone had essentially split into 3 groups: the kids that stood by the door, the kids who stayed up at the front near the teacher, and the students who were talking near me. A plain looking student was talking to the boy with messy hair who sat next to me. The plain one spoke first: ¡°I have a plan¡­and I need your help.¡± The one with messy hair gave him a confused look. ¡°Wha¡ª why me?!¡± The plain one continued, as if he knew he was going to say that. ¡°Well, I know that you know this school like the back of your own head.¡± The boy with messy hair let out an irritated sigh. ¡°Yeah? Then what¡¯s your plan, Marcus?¡± Marcus gave him an over confident smile. ¡°well it¡¯s really simple, K-man.¡± He paused, and then said the next bit incredibly fast. ¡°We¡¯re gonna get my sister, and then¡­ bust this joint!¡± The boy with messy hair was silent. ¡°dude?¡± The boy with messy hair looked disappointed with Marcus. ¡°you know that¡¯s not really a plan right?¡± Marcus laughed. ¡°Ha-ha¡­ yeah that¡¯s why you¡¯re here, to turn my crappy outlines into Novels, ya¡¯know?¡± The boy with messy hair sighed again. ¡°I mean; I have no idea what¡¯s causing the panic out there so I can¡¯t properly build a plan around it.¡± Marcus looked dejected for a second before looking at my direction. ¡°Well, Yuki saw what caused the panic out there¡­¡± I quickly turned my head away from them when I was found out, as too not get dragged into their plan. ¡°She could just tell us what she saw.¡± ¡®Crap.¡¯The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The boy with messy hair spoke in an Agreeable tone. ¡°Yeah, I would feel better if she came with us.¡± Marcus Spoke before I could. ¡°Then it¡¯s settled, Yuki, Keita, and I will leave this classroom!¡± ¡°What¡ª¡± I was cut off before I could voice Me dis-pleasure with this outcome. the body and voice of Nick appeared, to ruin my chances of leaving. ¡°¡ªWait just a second you three, I think you¡¯d benefit a lot from Mana and I coming with you.¡± ¡®Keita¡¯ looked at the two of them with skepticism in his eyes. ¡°Is that so¡­ what exactly can you do for us?¡± Nick let out a cocky smirk. ¡°Heh, well you see¡­¡± he pulled out a bat from seemingly nowhere. ¡°I can swing this thing ¡®round pretty good.¡± Marcus looked at him in awe before concealing it and asking a question. ¡°W-what about Mana, what can she do for us?¡± Nick looked back towards her as if he hadn¡¯t thought about it, ¡°She can¡­ uh, she can hold things¡­?¡± she looked back at him with a glare that said: ¡°You suck.¡± Marcus Beamed. ¡°Oh¡­ that can be quite useful as well!¡± Keita turned to Nick and Mana and then back to Marcus. ¡°Come on man, don¡¯t you think three people is enough?¡± Marcus looked at him. ¡°Yeah, but she can hold stuff ¡®K¡¯, that¡¯s so useful, don¡¯t you think?¡± Keita looked at him with Irritation and sighed. ¡°you¡¯re just mocking them now aren¡¯t you?¡± Marcus responded fast, as to not be heard. ¡°Pretty much.¡± Nick spoke as if he didn¡¯t hear them. ¡°Yeah so¡­ whaddya think?¡± Keita and Marcus both said ¡®Sure in unison, although Keita sounded as if he was mad. Just as they were quieting down I noticed that the panic from earlier had died down. I was going to use the lack of noise as my chance to leave. I lightly slammed my hands on the desk to get everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°So I¡ª¡± I was suddenly cut off again. ¡°I-I¡¯m coming too!¡± the voice of the idiot who cut me off was None other than Anna. Everyone in the area looked at her in disbelief. Marcus looked as if he has seen a ghost. ¡°D-did Anna just yell?¡± Keita had a shocked expression. ¡°She can do that?!¡± Anna continued as if she didn¡¯t hear anything they had said. ¡°I¡­ um¡­ I¡¯m going were Yuki goes.¡± she put her head down, most likely because she thought she¡¯d be denied. Marcus and Keita talked at the same time saying ¡°Of course¡± and ¡°Yeah¡± respectfully. She looked at the too, with surprise stuck to her face. ¡°R-really, you aren¡¯t going to ask me what I can do?¡± Marcus and Keita responded to her at the same time again, saying ¡°Of course¡± and ¡°yeah¡± respectfully, again. ¡°I think it¡¯s obvious.¡± Nick started. ¡°She can be used as bait if things go wrong¡ª¡± I cut him off, my irritation was growing. ¡°¡ªMana can be the same.¡± ¡°WHAT?!¡± Nick was now angrily yelling at me, however I ignored him and watched as Marcus went to go convince the teacher to let them leave, under the guise of making sure things were finished out there. As Mana calmed Nick down I took the chance to exit the conversation. I began to let my mind wander as I waited for Marcus to come back, and then the thought hit me: ¡®¡­wait just a second¡­ I lost my chance to leave earlier didn¡¯t I?¡¯ ¡°¡­Crap.¡± I turned toward Keita looked him dead in the eyes and began to speak. ¡°Right... so¡ª¡± I was cut off again, this time by the girl who had confronted me earlier. ¡°I have decided to leave the room with you.¡± It seemed as if everyone in the area had disagreed, however before anyone could reject her self-insert, she continued. ¡°Marcus and the teacher have already allowed it.¡± Keita face palmed. ¡°By ''join'', you mean Follow at a distance right?¡± I began to ignore their conversation, knowing full well that my only chance to leave this ¡°group,¡± would be when they go through that door. I laughed to myself but then I realized that they still needed me to go over what I knew.