"Uh yeah, sure... Go right ahead."

Scar nodded softly, prompting to woman to break out into a smile before twisting it into an overdone pout as she began to take somewhere roughly between twenty and fifty selfies with him in the span of thirty seconds.

Why she needed so many, despite the fact they were barely moving between the rapid clicks of the phone's camera, he had no idea. But it was the least of his concerns at the moment.

Just the fact that the phone was working was in itself a mystery.

"So other than the internet not working, nothing weird has happened at all?"

"I mean, it's not just the internet. Power is totally out too. Like a total wide range blackout, it sucks. Thank god I got one of those charging batteries, otherwise I would literally die without my phone."

The image of this woman being run through by a ghostly pirate flashed in Scar's mind for a second before he softly chuckled.

"Yeah... Totally. But really, is that all? I mean think about it. Really think about it. Not even in the last day. Try thinking further back, say for the past... Oh I don't know. Year and a half? Nothing strange or unusual then?"

The woman tapped her chin, giving a genuine pout, as she thought about it for a few seconds before simply shrugging dismissively.

"Nope, not a thing. Why, should I?"

"No, I guess not. Thanks for helping."

Scar quickly turned and moved back to the group, continuing with their march through the turn. It seemed the lack of interesting things happening in this small town worked in their favour, as news of the lost Cosplayers quickly spread.

The gawking stares quickly shifted to stares of amusement. Of course it didn't change the fact they were still staring, but at least it was slightly more comfortable to have them thinking that they were simply amazing costumes rather than some freaks of nature to be captured and studied.

On a few occasions they were stopped for more pictures, with people seemingly invested on asking Cynthia for the secrets of how she made her costume so damned realistic. It was amusing watching her bumble through clearly made up answers. Eventually she just settled on a dismissive 'It's crazy what you can do with make-up these days.' before telling them to look up a non-existent tutorial online when the internet worked once more.

That seemed to quell most of their curiosity.

But they were not the only ones with questions. Every person that approached the group with a barrage of questions was met with an equally overwhelming barrage of questions. One's that left them either confused, over how these people could not know such basic things, to amused, thinking that asking about ghosts was simply part of their cosplaying antics.

Eventually, the group found themselves lounging in the local park, loitering on the benches like a bunch of hooligans, while Daisy enjoyed herself in the playground with the other kids. Every answer they got to their questions only left them more confused and no matter how many people they asked, it was always the same.

According to the people of this town, it was October 21st, 2025. The exact day that the system descended onto the world and started the apocalypse, if it could even be called that anymore.

Trying to convince them that it was actually more than a year in the future was useless, simply because they had no evidence. On the people's still functioning phones, it showed the date they thought it was. Whereas this gang of hooligans in costumes had no such thing.

To these townspeople, the future apocalypse should be sci-fi weapons and aliens, people running around in ragged clothes with dirty faces shooting laser beams. It should be driving cars through the desert, shouting about precious water and fuel while wasting that same precious fuel and water on flamethrowers and giant, impractical waterfalls.

They had no newspapers, no photos of past events that were mid change, no phones with impossible dates on them. Not even a fancy car they had fashioned into a time machine.

As future doomsayers, they were honestly a little useless. Especially since any proof they did have just looked like another prop for some fantastical role play.

"Cyn, do you remember what time, exactly, that the system descended?"

"Oh uh... Not exactly, but it was definitely before mid-day. We hadn't been in work for very long."

"Right. My memory puts it at around roughly 10 o'clock. So, if the people are right and this really is that fateful day... Where is it?"

Scar held up a phone, pressing the button on the side to show a picture of two scantily clad anime boy's holding each other, each with the rippling muscles and god-like physique every high school aged anime character naturally had, as they looked like they were about to kiss.

"Oh um... That's a very nice screensaver. I didn't know you were into such things. You should have told me sooner, I could have helped you find a nice guy you know."

Cynthia stifled her laughter as she took in the sight of the soft-core anime picture he seemed so proud to show off. Scar rolled his eyes, not even bothering to look at the picture.

"Har har. Very funny. Get all your giggles out. Muscular guys aren't my type anyways, I prefer the softer ones.

But that's not the point. I am talking about this, you dirty minded bowl of jelly."

He tapped the screen, directing her attention to the clock of the phone above that artistic masterpiece, which showed the time to be after three o'clock in the afternoon.

If today really was apocalypse day, it was late. Very late.

By now there should be screams filling the air and monsters tearing people limb from limb. He had been watching those children closely, while trying his best not to make it look creepy, waiting for any one of them to turn into some horrible abomination or display any sign of mystical powers.

Yet there was nothing despite the mana permeating every ounce of the air around them.

Cynthia frowned softly, opening her mouth to reply, but before she could Alexandra shot to her feet, the force of which exploded the portion of the bench she had been sitting on.

"Enough of this! This is a complete waste of time! What does it matter why it's like this?! What matters is that while we are sitting here, doing nothing, so is that bastard! The only difference is, he's getting stronger while he does that!

So I'm not going to sit around any longer. You want to figure out the great mystery, you go ahead. I need to find that bastard Cratos and make sure he finally pays for what he did before he gets too powerful."

With one final huff of annoyance, Alexandra turned on her heels and stomped off, leaving footprints in the cracked stone behind her.

Cynthia glanced at Scar apologetically, which he simply waved off without a care, before rushing after Alexandra to help her search as well as calm her down before she crushed someone's care in a rage.

After a few more minutes of sitting around on the half destroyed bench, Scar himself had to eventually move on too. He collected Daisy from the playground, which she complained about quite a bit. But he could already see a lot of the other parents exchanging hushed words between each other, as well as one walking over with a member of the local police.

For some reason the strange man in a ragged cloak and a mask watching the children play freaked them out. Who would have thought.

Getting away from the local police wasn't very hard, It would have been more embarassing if he couldn't do it, and for the next few hours he simply wandered aimlessly. It was strangely nice to walk around in a peaceful town.

Even if Ravenkeep was safe, there was still always an air of edge. People carried weapons and guards roamed the streets waiting for beasts to pop out all of a sudden. But there was no such edge here. It was truly blissfully peaceful.

However even that had to come to an end.

When the sun disappeared behind the horizon and night blanketed the sky, all warmth was drawn from the air and a deadly chill replaced it. Every breath Scar let out curled out from beneath the mask while the cold nipped at his fingers.

He was currently standing with Daisy at the edge of a cliff, overlooking the ocean beneath him, looking for any signs of pirates, ghostly or otherwise. Signs that started to appear, as a thick fog crawled up from the ocean, climbed the cliff side and spilled over its edge.

The fog flowed around scars feet and suffocated his vision, obscuring the ocean completely from view, as it slowly crept towards the innocent town behind him.

A devilsh smile spread across Scar's lips as he finally saw his signs. Not in the ocean below, which was hidden from view, but riding along the fog as if it was the water was a sickly green ship.

It was a galleon with cracks and holes in its ruined hull, looking as if it had been freshly dragged from the bottom of the ocean. It's tattered sails filled with a non-existent wind as it headed straight towards him. At the very top of the flag pole, fluttered a ruined flag with a twisted skull painted on a black background.

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