He bid his time, no gaming, nor wasting time seeing unnecessary videos. How to butcher animals, whetstones, knives, cleavers and machetes, sleeping bags, and an ultra-big backpack. Survival guides, book on fruits, how to make traps…
The list goes on. He had already organized many "packs" full of stuff he would need. While trying to help people who may or not work, he slid some notes in the dead of night on their doors, warning about the apocalypse and warning them to seek refuge outside of the building.
Standing against his apartment's window, to stares at the streets below. It is comfortably on the sixth floor of the building, conveying a nice view of the world below the building. A nice view that will soon be destroyed, but those are merely details that don't matter right now.
'Hah, thinking like that does convey a feeling of power. It doesn't matter because I'm strong enough to ignore it… now I know why so many MCs are assholes.' Fool yourself with overconfidence and self-assurance to cope with your choices and what the world throws at you.
Down there there isn't much to see or do, besides a small park in the middle of the roads and buildings, a cozy little place in the middle of a highly developed urban area. A patch of green to say they have one… and all bets is on the crystal falling there.
If the crystal falls there, it means no flood or that type of apocalypse is coming, since it is too low in altitude to survive a flood and serve as a base for survival.
Sin clicks his tongue, sitting on the floor. There is much to do, and little time to achieve anything. The fact he managed to gather so many resources in only two days speaks volumes of his diligence… or he likes to think so.
Life hasn't been exactly easy for him either. Start to buy strange stuff and people will become suspicious. Well, they won't have time to act upon it, anyway. Picking up his phone, he calls his future companions, the starting ones anyway.
Instead of calling them directly, he will just leave a message. "Yo, it is Hwang Sin, I won't be in my apartment, but in the park before the apartment complex, mind me there." Sending the voice message to them, Sin resumes his business, cell phone put in his pocket.
They must be worried, or not. He didn't go to university for two days now. "System, time until Tutorial."
[26:43:37 UNTIL THE TUTORIAL STARTS]
Fate will align in less than a day… in the noon. 14:40, will be when the tutorial will start, and he finally will be able to call upon most if not all the Hero features if this system hasn't changed anything, including starting gear, he hopes.
But even if it doesn't give him any starting gear, there are more than enough things he brought to be used as one. Sharpened wooden handles, cleavers, and knives. He is prepared.
A small smile appears on his lips. Despite the lack of good starting companions, if at least some people he left the notes take heed of his warning, the road to one hundred survivors will be shorter than he expected.
'This type of fantasious dream still is in my mind, huh?' A cynical thought pops up, the system did its best to help him, or at least, to give some information. FERALR is not a game known to be kind and offer olive branches.
In other words, the chances are that those actions will be wasted, and only those two will survive the start and come to the park. Back to step one. "It is so bad…" Shaking his head, he picks up a bottle of water and drinks its contents.
Staying there, sitting and rooting away doing nothing is not acceptable either. He has a super physique, it will go to waste if he doesn't train it. Cracking his bones, he starts to work out, as he had tested for himself, this body doesn't act in any way if he does warmups or not before working out.
This means, that skipping warmups is possible without any hindrance or drawbacks this time around.
What does having someone bed a lizard in your bloodline do to someone. Granted, an Ancient Dragon is anything but a normal lizard, but in the end, it is a winged lizard, or in this case, a serpent. Eastern dragons do not play by the same rules as Western ones. "System, status screen."
The status screen pops up, boi no changes have been made to it as he works out. As he expected, anyway. The immortal class does get stats from training, but not this type of training. It is far too tame for their standards.
Meditating and gathering ki for a breakthrough is the way to go, initially. There is no doubt that specialized and professional training equipment, is far too expensive and useless in this scenario, long-term survival is far better. If one gym survives intact enough, it can be raided for equipment.
Meditation is easy to do, but it will have to be put on hold until the tutorial starts. Despite the physique, he is a mortal, not an Immortal yet. Which means meditations are useless right now.
The useful things to do and achieve are all put behind a timer. 'Shit will hit the fan the moment this timer runs out, which means no preparation besides the one I did.' And the crystal, the heart of your base. For now, it will be a safe place because of the tutorial mechanics, it will take around seven days for the monsters to be able to simply bypass the crystal's area.
Which means one week to gather supplies freely, and help survivors. After that, monster attacks are fair game. Ironically, this is the first time the seven days will matter. In the game, one week was around thirty minutes, for a game that could go on for a hundred hours until you reach one of the endings.
The seven-day mark wasn't needed, at least for experienced players, but now it may make the difference between life and death. The last bits of equipment and things he brought will arrive when things are going to be dark. Better to set things in the park already and wait for the dreaded demise of this planet…
(...)
Turns out, going out in the morning carrying a bunch of bags is more than a little suspicious, but he doesn't care about people's stares or guards looking at him the wrong way. Although it is not that late or soon, just 10:00
Alongside the bags, he had bought baggage to put all things there, to make it easier to bring them down, alongside a few hiking bags to help any other survivor able to explore with him… which may be no one, because what are the chances of someone having Unfettered?
'The prime strategy was to get two unfettered starting companions, and then use them as explores alongside the starting HU, which means you would've three explores from the get-go, no matter if their stats are bad…'
More explorers mean more supplies and Unfettered characters are harder to break down than others. Normal people? To raid zones infested with monsters? No, thank you. They won't step in one unless they have to.
A police worker may do the job, and in South Korea was the obligatory enlistment thing, which means men may be more willing to throw hands against monsters and go exploring for supplies, but this is all supposition at this point.
Getting all the luggage down there wasn't hard, people may stare and stay things, but what would they do? Call the police? it will take a few hours until they do anything. A man standing in the park with a bunch of baggage isn't too suspicious, after all, they are near an apartment complex
There are other buildings around them, apartment complexes, a few stores, and office buildings, what to expect of a busy city? In a way… it is kind of dumb to not know the city you are in.
Maybe it is Seoul…? Would it matter beyond the basics Monsters are coming, and the Apocalypse will destroy any semblance this city has to civilization. On the edge of his vision, a dark silhouette passes fast, almost like a ghost.
Focusing his vision on the silhouette, it is vaguely familiar. The shape and outline of the guy he had seen back in the university. Walking alone. 'Maybe he lives close by?' If so, rescuing him when the time comes may be easier than it seems.
For some reason, he didn't feel the need to go and talk with him. he looked slightly familiar, but not enough to warrant investigation or even interaction. 'As far as I know, this will be my last moment alone without anything nailing my head. Better to sit back and enjoy it while I can.'
What a strange feeling, to want to be left alone, to not interact with other people when it will be essential to save at least ninety-eight of them to escape the apocalypse… easier said than done.
Life can be confusing at times. Up in the sky, darkness overwhelms any semblance of light. He had slept like a rock in the night, despite obviously being worried about what would happen. "I will just roll with what I had…"
He always did to manage those MS and SF back in the game, to get as many of them as possible for the best run to be better. It was a vicious cycle of trying the best and the best, and the best until you succeed.
Ironical as it is, the best runs had just unfettered characters in the start, who died fast in the beginning but managed to help get the initial kickstart. The best runs were the ones we rolled through bad luck and without boosts, most of the time.
Boosts do give a kickstart, but what matters are the skill and mindset, spite, and determination to win against all odds in a game that plays against you at most moments. No Sunlight despite its presence should be here.
His heart beats fast, staring at the pitch-black darkness and the counter down to its final moments.
[3:59:45 HOURS UNTIL THE START OF THE TUTORIAL]
If one gazes into the abyss, it shall stare back. Up in the skies, the darkness made it clear the presence of WHO was there, waiting to invade this world. The World Ender: Izanami. The worst outcome made manifest.
Maybe the reason he slept so well is because the best ender to represent the "Finale of a World" is there. Get all rest before the storm hits your type of situation. The void's maw envelops the earth, while Dantalion is also there, spreading mistrust and discord amongst humanity.
'Just because two World Enders can hit the place, doesn't mean they will help each other.'And he takes solace in that fact, even for Dantalion, Izanami is too much of a problem to face.
He smiles black at the abyss in the skies, smiling back at the looming death and dread of Izanami, one of the, if not the hardest challenges of FERALR, without UltraMantisWarrior or not, he can't let it defeat him, not without putting a hell of a fight in the way.
"Sorry, Mantis, but this time I will steal away your title as the slayer of Izanami." To step on his friend's toes and achievements wasn't something he liked back then, but this time it couldn't be helped.
Despite being four hours early, his heart beats hastens, and his eyes are straight against the skies, as if seeing the ugly deadly face of Izanami eye to eye. With a finger gun, he makes the action of metaphorically shooting it. "Just you wait. I will bring you down too."
He couldn't lie, a part of him wished the World Ender to be the Demon Lord Azazel, but someone can't win all outcomes.