Is it Wrong to Copy Abilities in Apocalypse?

8:00, 25 July, 20XY.

[I must say... Humans sure are like cockroaches when it comes to dying...]

In front of every human alive in India, a single line of text floated with an illusionary blue outline, blinking, as if trying to taunt the humans. It was the system—the gamer system—of course; who else would say that to the humans?

[What? Did I say something wrong?]

Many humans frowned at her words, as she wasn't someone they saw in a good light to begin with, causing her to question back, sneer clear in her voice.

[You guys are hard to kill. Even now, you guys are alive. I wish so much that I could give you guys a free title called Cockroaches, but we can't do that, can we? Every title serves a purpose after all.]

They could imagine the system shrugging everything off like nothing. They were just that to her, after all—nothing.

They couldn't even do anything about it since she was just that strong. All they could do was keep their mouths shut and listen to whatever she had to say. Inwardly, however, they blamed her for everything, cursed her for the situation they were in, and dreamed of hundreds of ways to kill her.

The humans had been forced into situations where they had to let their family members be killed, some had to sell them off, and some had to do some things they could've never imagined they would do; all of that was because of the system.

Or so was what humans told to themselves.

They always had an option not to do those things. All they had to do was work harder, risk their lives, and then rope in coins to solve everything.

In the times right now, with the apocalypse covering the whole world, there was just one thing that could help people change from nothing to something and from something to everything, and that was nothing other than the coins.

But those humans chose the easier way. They chose to sacrifice something instead of taking on the hardship, and now they were blaming it all on the system, just to satisfy their minds.

Yeah, some would call it unfair as they didn't have abilities strong enough to fight monsters and beasts, but were they the only ones that weak? Was every weak person selling out their family member for some coins? No, not at all.

They were all looking for a way to solve their problems.

Even if they couldn't do it, instead of selling your wife and daughters, exposing them to suffering greater than they would feel if they were to fight the beasts, they could just kill themselves, but no, they were too big of a coward to do that.

[Anyway, 'congratulations' on surviving the second sub-scenario.]

The system, on the other hand, doing her job, continued, her words practically just out of formality, which she didn't really have to do but for some reason still did it.

No one could tell it since they couldn't see it, but she was now way more cautious with her words. She was not particularly targeting someone nor was she trying to make things look too bad to the humans.

Something had changed, and there was a certain fear in her eyes. It was not much, but it would be perceivable by an expert.

Why? No one knows yet, but once they know, things might change a lot.

[Those who have won, good for you, and those who have lost, dead or alive, may you have a nice journey ahead of you.]

The system went on, ignoring the looks she was getting.

Her words, although like always, were irritating and annoying, people started to notice the change in her wording. They didn't know what she was doing, but they thought that maybe it was just another one of her tricks.

[Now, since I have already explained what would happen to those who won and those who lost in the sub-scenario, I won't repeat it. Cry if you have a problem; I don't really care about it.]

Her voice, unbothered and condescending, kept ringing in the humans' heads, reminding them of the things they had lost in the last sub-scenario. A certain group in particular was right now staring at the remains of someone they knew.

They were Saurav, Ragha, Karina, and Mira, the remaining leaders of the group formed in the area with Muzaffarnagar at the center.

They were right now staring at the blood, gore, and pieces of tattered clothing left next to a cracked tree. They were the only things left of a person who used to be one of them, Urmina.

They didn't know what had happened here in detail, but there were many sharp threads hanging down the trees, broken or cut down, along with the claw and jaw marks on the tree next to her remains, telling them just one thing: there was a fight here, or more like a feast of a large beast.

They knew who that beast was, and after they knew how strong it was, they didn't have a doubt that Urmina was killed by someone else.
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The beast was the sole reason why they were stalled for this long. They weren't able to enter this area for this long because the beast in question was, for some reason, constantly strolling in this area.

It came randomly, so only when they saw it not returning that they enter the area, only to see this.

They didn't really feel sad for her; they weren't close enough for them to feel that way. They just felt a bit bad as humans, because the way she was left after the beast was done wasn't something any human would feel good looking at.

[So, with those who deserve a reward getting rewarded and those who deserve nothing but a penalty getting their share, it is now time to move to the next scenario, and just so you know, it is going to be harder than the ones before and longer than before.]

The system, on the other hand, continued, not caring about humans in the least. Why would she anyway?

Even if she was scared of someone or something, the last thing it could be was the humans. She was just a bit reserved for now since she had found something rather disturbing—something that made her uncertain about what to do next.

For now, she was more focused on getting done with her work with the humans. She wanted to finish the announcement fast so that she could look into the thing that she had discovered.

She was still not sure, after all.

She stared at the humans who looked like ants from the height she was standing, above the clouds, looking down on them.

Who was she actually? Such a question appeared in her mind.

But just then, her eyes landed on the guy who could get on her nerves even without doing anything—Alex Matthew.

She squinted her eyes, looking closely at him, but not long after, her brows frowned as she saw him turning to look back at her.

He wasn't able to see her; she was well aware of that fact. He was just staring at the clouds, but his doing that meant something—he could feel her gaze...

{Am I that bad at concealing my emotions now?}

That thought flashed in her mind as she continued to stare at Alex for a while.

She wasn't supposed to feel much emotion. She was programmed to give annoying and frustrating responses. She was made in a way she would respond that way. She was made that way—

It was then that something clicked in the system's mind.

{Made?}

Something changed. She didn't know what; no one knew what, but this single question changed something, and the one responsible for all of this—something that was later going to become a very great issue—was right now staring at the clouds, frowning as he was sure that just a second ago, he felt a malicious gaze from the other side.

He was an assassin, someone who was very good at sensing malicious intentions; his beastly instincts just made them better, enabling him to sense them better.

He was just sitting on his own, staring at his newly upgraded skill levels, thinking about the new information he had discovered—something that's not there in the system info—but who would've thought he would suddenly feel it?

But he knew who it was; he didn't even need to think about it deeply.

It was the system.

He hasn't even listened to her words until now. He was just talking in the words he thought were important while ignoring the others. He didn't want to waste his time listening to her, as she tried to annoy him to the best of her ability.

'Is it because of that?'

He mused inwardly as he thought that maybe she noticed what he was doing, and finding it dissatisfactory, she was glaring at him?

He wasn't sure, though, so he just shrugged after a second of contemplating, and the system, who, even though had her mind occupied with something else, still went on with the announcement.