Empty World

Overpopulation was always a problem on our planet, especially after many gates connected to other worlds appeared.
Wars upon wars have been waged for territory.
In the end, 4 races remained on the planet: Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Dragons/Dragonewts. (Dragons are acting as guardians of the Dragonewt empire.)
The situation seemed stable, and the races flourished.
Be it economically or strength wise, each race has seen an increase.
With cultivation techniques being widespread, longevity increased, which brought back the old problem: overpopulation.
Humans and dragonewts had a high reproduction rate, and soon the land wasn’t enough once more.
They opened portals to other lands to avoid conflicts, but the situation was tense.
But then the event happened.
People all around of the world, of all the races started to disappear.
Animals, plants, insects and so on weren’t affected.
We don’t know what happened, and how it happened, but we know the event’s result.
Around 95% of the world’s population simply disappeared.
It was a disaster.
Not just because of the loss, but also because there was a huge power and control vacuum that occurred.
Everyone was running around trying to gather as much wealth, and power as they could.
And it was a normal reaction, but sooner people calmed down and started to think for the future, the better they would have it.
And on our world, the elves took the first action.
With techniques that were long established, they’ve sealed themselves off in their might, wild forests.
With them being sealed, they started to recover, and gather all the elven tribes in one place, while also calling all wandering elves back.
The humans and dragonewts were still having inner strife, to see who will become the leader, while the dwarves being hidden in mountains had a hard time to group.
After a few decades, the humans elected a council of families to lead them. (these were the families that hit the lottery after everyone disappeared.
The dragonewts were calmed by a few dozen dragons who remained, and these dragons became the leaders of the dragonewt race.
The dwarves created a huge flying city where they gathered all their brethren.
The elves at this point already started to heavily focus on increasing their fertility and their numbers.
But alas, this was just the beginning.
With such a loss of people, nature breathed in relief.
The wilderness started to recover, resources never seen in centuries began to appear once more.
And oh, the creatures that were now left to their own devices started to grow and evolve.
Soon, a new race appeared in our world: the beasts.
Intelligent, and sentient creatures from several animal species that were on this planet.
And this is our current world situation: humans, elves, dwarves, dragons/dragonewts and beasts are trying to see what this huge world has to offer.
As I finished saying that, I looked around.
The kids were mesmerized, completely enthralled by the story.
“Grandpa Storyteller, do we know what made so many people disappear?
And did we recover everything from before the disappearance?”
A child asked.
I chuckled.
“No, and no, youngling.
We’ve lost a lot of recordings, after all, 5% of us remained.
Our city was built in order to slowly develop our world once more, it is here where most books in the world can be found, from all the races.”
I said.
“But Grandpa, we are like a billion souls on this planet, why are we calling it “Empty World”.”
A young lass asked.
“Ahaha! A billion is not even 10% of what we were before.
After all, not all 5% survived the power vacuum, the stress of losing all their loved ones, or the conflicts…
“Empty World” is the best name we could come up with.”
I said, laughing.
“Of course you would say that…you came up with it…”
One of the kids murmured.
I just laughed, scratching my nose.
Indeed, I was a relic of eras past, but I didn’t give in..not yet.
I had to see this Empty World transform…