The last few weeks haven’t been particularly kind to humanity.

In the span of only 36 days practically every infrastructure has crumbled. We have regressed hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Everything “organized” is gone, and utter chaos has taken its place.

But, for as much progress as we’ve lost in technology and tools, humans have lost more. People are barely recognizable. Shared struggle usually brings us closer together, but not this time. We were not as far from the animals as we’d hoped.

It started with everything wireless. People were confused, and many were mad, but things were still under control. The worst was still to come.

Around 30 minutes later, all electrical appliances and systems died. Phones, cars, pacemakers, pipeage. Planes dropped from the sky, roads became war zones. Surgeries and life support failed. Mankind thought the end was here, but this was only the beginning.

Mother nature took back her world. Unnatural earthquakes shattered cities and brought devastating tsunamis to our shores. Volcanoes spewed ash and darkened our skies. Rivers flooded, sinkholes grew, and hurricanes ravaged the land.

It seemed nature had grown a will of its own. It tore down skyscrapers, cracked roads and killed men. The earth worked ceaselessly to bring down all of what humanity had accomplished.

It’s impossible to estimate how many were lost. Even if we were able to find out, I’m not sure I would want to know. We were given three hours of silence to adapt to our new earth. After that, things got weird.

With an all too casual ding, individually visible screens appeared in front of every surviving human on earth. Mine looked like a pristine piece of parchment. Even now, I remember perfectly what was on that screen.

“Congratulations! The council of control has voted to include your planet in the prime multiverse. You are the first species in the universe 639-vi to be included. Planetary merging will commence in 50 years if no milestones are reached.

Habitat compatibility: 39%

Biological compatibility: 96%

Technological compatibility: 44%

Cultural compatibility: 62%

Dominance level: 2/5

Following incompatibilities, your planet and species have been scheduled for a level (2) reconstruction. Human knowledge and perceptions have been sampled for the topmost layer of the reconstruction”

At the bottom of the screen were two distinct bars. The top bar had small picture depicting a planet at its right, the lower bar had a person. At first glance, the upper bar looked finished. If you looked closely, however, you could see it was frozen right at the end. The lower bar was slightly behind, but quickly catching up. Soon they were both completed, simultaneously.

At that point, we experienced something that that can never properly be put into words. It felt as if every person on earth was intimately connected and were all part of a grand plan. Small and inconsequential by ourselves, but a part of a larger design. It was pure bliss.

Then it was gone, as quickly as it had come. I needed time to recollect, but our break was up. Our world had been rebuilt.

Calling it our world is, however, no longer correct. What can only be described as monsters and beasts now roamed the earth. I’ve seen everything from goblins and minotaurs to drakes and specters. It’s like a mixture of a nightmare and a fairy tale.

Humans too, had changed. We became part of a game-like system. We had distinct attributes and levels, titles, user interface, abilities and spells. We were “rewarded” for fighting, exploring, creating, killing.

To me it still feels unreal. If I focus for a second, I can bring up my character screen. 19 Years of life summarized in only a few numbers and words. It’s not right to reduce an entirely unique being into info on a page. Sickening.

I remember what happened after, although I almost wish I didn’t. It went something like this.