ARC: Survival Online, #1

By J W O Braxton and Jack Braxton

[The Trial Phase has now begun!]

This story begins with the appearance of a fleet of unknown spacecraft arriving above all of the major settlements and cities of Earth causing widespread panic and chaos to become commonplace. The alien fleet is controlled by an unimaginably advanced artificial intelligence that oversees all activity on arrival, known as 'the System'. A voice that doesn't use words appears inside the mind of every living creature on the planet and labels them as 'System Users' and is recognized as belonging to the alien artificial intelligence, offering Users a path to power and immortality.

Shortly afterwards, the sky became cloaked in fire. The dead began to rise again as demonic creatures that appeared as twisted parodies of what they were in life. Users began to awaken supernatural abilities that allowed them to combat this new threat at the cost of civilization as we know it. The System's motives are a mystery that must be uncovered as the world's fate rests firmly in its grasp.

Does the arrival of the System herald the world's hope for salvation or is it the cause of its tragic downfall?

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: JackOfHeart
• Release date: Jun 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223555568

Book preview

Prologue

A Window In Time

A handsome man covered in glowing-purple tattoos with radiant, glowing hair lay dying in his lover's embrace. The woman held an otherworldly beauty, unmatched by any mortal. Her beautiful features were marred by grief as glowing tears flowed freely down her face. Her voluptuous body was also decorated by bright tattoos and shining hair of an amber color.

An intense aura of light was being released from the woman as she steeled her will for what she must do next. Orange-lifeforce began to build in intensity until it became impossible to look directly at the pair. A vortex of light appeared above the heart of the dying man, drilling into his body with a wave of amber light.

「You will live, my love... Even if I must sacrifice everything!」

A luminous circle of amber light hovered in the air above the man's torso, revealing a particular moment in time. An Amber butterfly formed of light separated from the woman's chest to enter the circle, after which the scene being displayed altered. A second butterfly entered the circle. This cycle repeated itself until the woman collapsed in exhaustion. The glow of lifeforce faded away as the woman slumped over the cold corpse of her lover. Whispering into his ear before slipping into unconsciousness.

「Noah, come back to me...」

Chapter 1

Arrival

It was late at night, and Noah drunkenly stumbled down the sidewalk. He had just been kicked out of a bar restaurant after yet another failed date. He was completely absorbed in his own thoughts when suddenly people began to scream hysterically, pointing at a mysterious light in the sky. He abruptly stopped as the ground started to violently vibrate with loud, howling wind humming in his ear. Looking up, he noticed something enormous hurtling from the sky towards him, Noah fell on his ass in shock.

Oh my God, is that a fucking meteor? It's big enough to blot out the whole city! Is it real, or did I have way too much to drink?

Noah sat on the floor and took a lazy look around him, noticing that people were running and screaming erratically in all directions. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a glowing Amber butterfly. He turned and watched it land on a metal trash can down an alley off to the side of him. It lasted only a moment before disappearing in a brief flash of light. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief before looking again, but it was gone.

Noah...

Noah thought that he faintly heard his name called out before the sound was overwhelmed by startled cries, accompanied by the screech of car tires braking hard on the asphalt shortly followed by the sound of a collision as a car rammed into the back of another vehicle.

Noah turned his head in a drunken stupor to watch a crowd gather around an unfortunate woman. She had been crossing the street in front of a car that had stopped to allow the woman to cross the street before being rear-ended by a distracted driver. When he looked again, the unconscious woman was gone while the onlookers stood around in bewilderment.

I must be going crazy. I guess today is nobody's lucky day, Noah muttered to himself before inhaling deeply.

While closing his eyes in an attempt to stop the world from spinning unsteadily, he then lay back on the pavement. Noah decided it was a good idea to fully enjoy his last moments alive before he got crushed into a pulp by whatever that 'thing' in the sky was. A while later, when his expected end never came, Noah decided to peek through one of his eyelids only to discover that the thing in the sky didn't seem to be getting any closer.

He climbed up off the ground and then dusted himself off, seeing that he was the only person still on this street. Noah could still hear people yelling and alarms going off in the distance. While Noah stood there wondering how he should react, the alien object began to emit a soothing hum that calmed his panic. Noah looked up to see countless specks of small glowing light, faintly pulsing, raining down from the sky.

When one of the specks landed on his upturned face, it passed through his skin as if it wasn't there, turning into a wave of light. It was still visible as it passed through his body, stopping at the base of his skull. Where it settled, Noah felt a warm, comfortable, itching sensation. The rest of the night and what happened after were a blur.

***

The next morning he awoke with the worst hangover of his life. He rolled out of bed, tangling himself in the sheet before landing on the floor with a thud letting out a groan while grabbing his head. Noah felt something poking into him underneath his arm.

It must've been a dream. It felt so real... Noah muttered to himself as he picked up an empty bottle of alcohol to inspect it.

It's the bottle of top-shelf whiskey that I was gifted for my birthday a few years ago that I was saving for a special occasion. It's completely empty. No wonder I'm a mess.

He glanced at his alarm clock beside the bed to see that it was past midday. He placed the empty bottle beside the clock before picking himself up off the floor. He then made his way towards the bathroom before turning on the shower and getting in before it had time to heat up.

After he got out of the shower, he stood in front of the mirror as he reflected on what had happened the night before. At dinner, Noah's date had disappeared in the middle of their meal. He assumed with the bartender.

Noah's date had politely told him how she knew the bartender from school and hadn't seen each other in years. They spoke together about old times while waiting for him to arrive, the bartender's shift was about to end. He had finished eating dinner alone before proceeding to get blackout drunk at the bar. The rest of the night didn't make much sense after that. He could only vaguely recall his fall to the ground, but the rest was too far-fetched to be real.

I'm not that bad looking, am I? Noah asked himself as he touched his face while looking at his reflection. He was of average height and looks, not particularly ugly or attractive. His appearance was completely unnoteworthy.

What actually happened last night? Nothing makes sense. I mean, I even opened up that bottle of whiskey I'd been saving and well... that's not like me at all.

Noah quickly got dressed before heading for the kitchen.

He dropped the glass of water he had been holding, smashing it on the floor. He stopped dead in his tracks, staring agape out the window, an enormous strange object floating in the sky. Noah thought he had dreamed up the spaceship, which was floating conspicuously outside his window. Faint prismatic lights would appear and then fade away in a random sequence over the object's surface. They formed intricate patterns, creating a mesmerizing effect.

***

That had all happened about an hour ago. Noah let out what is probably his one-thousandth sigh in the past hour. He discovered that all TV stations are reporting on the unidentified objects in the sky. They had stirred up a lot of extreme weather around the globe after their arrival and still hadn't attempted contact with humanity. People everywhere were going into a panic, saying that the end of the world had come with some religious communities calling them gods or demons.

The government suggests that all civilians remain at home or somewhere indoors until they can ascertain the intentions of the alien spacecraft which entered the Earth's stratosphere yesterday at approximately eight o'clock in the evening local time.

They have maintained an altitude of roughly thirty thousand meters above sea level without any activity after their initial arrival. Analysts have determined that they appeared above all cities with a large concentration of people. We have yet to be able to open communication with our extraterrestrial visitors. All world military forces are on standby...

Noah turned off the TV that had been playing the news. It was the same on every channel. He stood up to look out the window at the towering vertical object. It was smooth and metallic, almost invisible due to the reflected sky around it, except for the flickering lights covering it. The mysterious object hovered quietly in the sky high above the city, with military aircraft frantically flying below it, looking like small dots in comparison.

What a bunch of nonsense, they're probably not much different from us. Only a lot more advanced, Noah muttered to himself.

Noah had just moved to the city and met some new people the week before on a night out, who had invited him out to lunch then show him around the city. He was initially supposed to meet his new friends for lunch today, hoping to get some sympathy about how poorly his date went. But now the government was urging people to stay home. It looked like he had to change his plans. He opened the front door to the street to leave.

I don't want to stay home when this could be the end of the world.

As he pulled the door closed behind him, just as the object in the sky began to emit a deep baritone that caused even the air to shake. Noah looked up at the sky to witness the unidentified object begin to pump out a thick cloud from its base. He covered his ears and then quickly ran back inside to switch on the TV, the news reporter was covering her ears yelling, but he couldn't hear what she was trying to say.

The news station showed footage from all around the world where all the alien spacecraft emitted the same noise as the objects were about to disappear from view behind the strange cloud cover. The lights on the mysterious object's surface all lit up at once, illuminating the clouds in hues of red, creating a fiery effect throughout the skyline.

He looked out the window just in time to see a pulse of light pass through the clouds towards the ground before expanding outwards. Noah saw the investigating aircraft outside his window begin to fall in slow motion after the pulse touched them. The pulse-wave was still moving towards the city with no sign of slowing its expansion.

Shit! Noah let out a curse as he ran towards the table before throwing himself headfirst under it.

A second later, the pulse passed through his house, destroying his windows and doors before passing under the table where he was hiding. The air felt different, thick, and clean. There was also a static tingling sensation along his skin. The Baritone from earlier was still there, but it had become muted into the background. The air felt like being in deep water whenever Noah moved. He swished his hand randomly in front of his face.

What the...

As Noah was talking to himself, he felt a rumble come from deep underground as the dust began to descend from the ceiling covering all the furniture, while blanketing the floor beside him. Then suddenly, everything became still as he became paralyzed in place. A voice that didn't use words started to speak inside his mind.

Chapter 2

Undergoing Trial

"Argh!" Noah let out a wordless scream as the news broadcast on the TV and electricity all suddenly shut off at once.

He discovered that he was free to move again as he clutched at his head. The pain began at the base of his skull and then travelled along his spine into the rest of his body. The wave of pain was countless times more intense than the hangover he suffered from the night before as it washed over him.

After the voice belonging to the System disappeared from his head, Noah noticed that aside from the air smelling a lot purer, he could move smoothly again.

When Noah crawled out from under the table, he was able to see that his house was a mess. He had only recently moved to the city alone into this small house in the suburbs. He decided to go outside to check on his neighbours to see if they were okay before he cleaned up the mess inside.

Hey, are you okay? did you hear that voice too?!

He walked out just in time to see a group of his neighbours gathering outside on the street. The street didn't look much better than the inside of his house did. There was debris from scattered roof tiles of homes with a few abandoned cars, which Noah assumed must belong to some of the people already on the street.

The person who called out to him was a slightly overweight young man dressed in a polo shirt with bleached blonde highlights styled into spikes, a few years younger than Noah. The young man looked a bit dishevelled and dusty but otherwise unhurt.

Yeah, I'm okay. How about you? Is anybody hurt? What's your name? I'm Noah.

I'm Joseph. We need your help. There's an old lady we just pulled out of one of the cars. We think she may have had a heart attack because she's not responding, Joseph said.

"Ahhhhh! She bit me!"

Noah and Joseph looked over, a middle-aged woman held her neck as the old lady got up from the ground in front of her.

It won't stop bleeding! Why'd you do that? I was trying to help you! the middle-aged woman yelled. Whatever else she intended to say was cut short as the old lady threw her to the ground before jumping on top of her, sinking teeth into her throat.

What the hell?! the people gathered around cried out in shock as they moved away from them.

What is she?! Look at her face! It's a god damned zombie apocalypse! someone yelled out as they began to run away in a panic.

Noah noticed that the old lady seemed to have an unnatural ripple pass through her back, the middle-aged woman that had tried to help her had stopped moving, but the old lady was still mauling her throat.

Get off her! What're you all still standing around for? Stop her! Joseph yelled out as he started to run over while the group was staring in a daze.

Wait! Noah called out to Joseph as he caught his arm.

There's something not right. Look at her back. Noah pointed to the ripple in the woman's muscles, which seemed to be slowing down.

I think we should maybe get those people away from her, Noah suggested.

The old lady suddenly turned her head to make eye contact with him. Her eyes had become entirely black without any emotion, devoid of life like an endless abyss. The woman's face was twisted in unnatural angles with razor-sharp teeth, replacing her empty gums and pushing out her dentures, which lay discarded on the ground beside the unmoving woman.

Uh oh, what is she looking at us for?! Aren't there people standing right beside her?! Shit! Joseph cursed as he hurriedly started to back away.

"Argh!"

The old lady let out a cry as she jumped to her feet and then began to run straight at Noah. The people around her seemed to wake up as they started to scatter in different directions.

Do you owe her money or something?! Shit, why did I have to stand beside you? Joseph was starting to panic as the old lady drew closer.

I don't know what she wants. I've never seen her before in my life! Noah replied as he turned around and dragged Joseph into the house.

"Don't drag me into this with you! If you haven't noticed, you