After driving for a couple of hours, enjoying the setting sun, and stopping to top up his gas tank, Leo finally reached his destination.
It was a small clearing that was surrounded by towering cliffs on one side and a large lake on the other with only a single opening to enter or exit the area.
This space had been where a group of survivors from the surrounding areas had built a small settlement and eventually created a bustling town.
It had also been the place where Leo had spent the longest amount of time after the apocalypse so he had some fond memories of the place and knew that he wanted to use it as his base of operations moving forward.
At least for the foreseeable future.
So, with slightly less than an hour to go before the world would change forever, Leo got to work.
That being said, their was only so much he could do with his current levels of strength/power so he mostly just organized his haul from the store and set up his camping equipment.
Once that was completed, all that was left... was to wait.
Leo took a seat on a large boulder next to the lake and relaxed as he looked out over the calm waters, thinking about everything that had happened to him in the past and how he was going to change things moving forward.
'This time I will not allow anyone to take advantage of me. Too often was I forced to bow my head to scum just so I would survive.
This time around I will take what I want and... wait... that makes me no better than them though...
Son of a bitch!
How do I do this without becoming like the people I despised the most in my last life?
Towards the end of my last life I was just doing whatever I could to survive.. I never thought of taking more than I needed or being more than what I already was!
If I follow the plans I have laid out already though, I will inevitably become one of the strongest humans on this planet..
And as they say, 'With great power comes great responsibility'!
But I don't really want power, do I?
I mean I want power, sure, but not power over others per-say.
I want the power to survive!
To thrive!
I told those in my class I wouldn't help them if they came and begged me for help, but I was just pissed off at their insults and mockery..
Well ain't this quite the predicament...
Ah fuck it!
I'll just do what I want to do!
Help those in need? Maybe..?
Kill those who deserve it? Certainly!
Yosh! It's decided!
I will live how I want, survive how I want, so that I can die how I want!
I will be me, regardless of how others may see me or remember me!
As long as I am true to myself then I will have no regrets!'
With a renewed determination and mindset, Leo continued to look out over the lake with excitement for what was to come.
Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long because the screen that he would come to know so well finally appeared before his eyes.
"Welcome Leo Fisher to the end of your world as you know it!
Countdown until the rebirth of your planet: 5 minutes"
Rather than wait for the countdown to reach zero, Leo took advantage of the time to check where he currently stood stats wise. "System, show me my status while I wait."
The timer quickly disappeared and just as quickly was replaced by another one that displayed Leo's current stats.
[Name: Leo Fisher (Can be changed)
Race: Human
Title: Newbie
Level: 1
Exp: 0%
Health: 10/10
Mana: 0/0
Strength: 1.3
Agility: 1.1
Stamina: 0.1
Constitution: 1
Magic Core: None
Skills: None
Passives: None]
Although Leo already knew that he was weak, seeing it in numerical form displayed right in front of his face, made it all the more real and somewhat laughable.
Even so, regardless of his current stats, Leo was prepared to struggled took and nail to gain power.
If all of his stats were 0.1 across the board, his determination would not have waivered in the slightest.
After taking a quick glance at his stats, he quickly closed the window and flipped over to his inventory screen.
Of course, the inventory was currently empty but he was planning to deposit rather than withdraw, so he quickly made his way over to his makeshift campsite and threw everything that was unneeded into it.
'How kind of them to give us such a large storage space for no reason. No wonder people managed to have items from pre-apocalypse even years after the day of reckoning, as they called it.
They probably walked through stores after the reckoning and stored everything they could find in their inventories.
I never gave it much thought since the items were so worthless by that point, but it does make sense now that I think about it...
Oh well, lets focus up. Shits about to hit the fan!'
With the makeshift camp relatively devoid of stuff now, Leo strapped a .45 pistol holster to each of his legs and slung the rifle over his shoulder before he slowly made his way towards the entrance to the clearing and waited.
While he waited for the final seconds to tick by, he glanced down at his phone which had remained in his pocket on silent for the past few hours.
The same as in his previous life, he only had a single missed call from his mother.
Although Leo was relatively unaffected, the fact that only a single person reached out and only a single time, still stung just a little bit.
'Was I really this lonely before...? I could have died in my dorm room and no one would have so much as batted an eye... How pathetic...'
The pity party did not last long though because the timer reached 0 and another message appeared before his eyes.
"The worlds rebirth will now begin! When you awake, the world will be born anew! Do try your best to survive in the coming chaos!"
The moment he finished reading the message, he felt a weight on his mind and fell to the ground unconscious.
After what felt like an eternity, Leo felt his consciousness slowly returning.
Since the system/gods deliberately restrained the initial wave of monsters for the first few hours, he knew or thought, that he would be safe even in the middle of nowhere.
So with unhurried movements he slowly got to his feet and dusted himself off before looking around.
Thankfully, the area that he was in remained relatively unchanged.
The vegetation in area had grown considerably and the water in the lake had changed from a deep blue color to a shimmering purple.
Other than that and a few other subtle changes, all remained as it was before the reckoning.
Leo, who was planning to explore the area a bit more in order to prepare for the fights to come, suddenly became alert when he heard the sound of rustling in the bushes not far from him.
'This is too soon.. what happened for them to move so quickly? Is it because I'm not in the town? Or has something already changed?'
Unbeknownst to Leo, one of the gods who was responsible for the chaos that was currently unfolding on Earth, had noticed Leo's actions and seemingly carefree attitude since the gods' initial contact with the human race.
The way Leo had handled the announcement had piqued the gods' interest; so much so that he had kept an eye on him ever since.
The god became even more interested in Leo when Leo opened the status window and used the inventory before the system even had a chance to explain their existences or functions.
Seeing how well Leo had handled himself and how knowledgeable he seemed to be about everything, the god decided to test the young man.