As preparation for the world exploration, Mikael put on his usual casual clothing. After all, his D-rank leather armor had been partially destroyed and wasn’t particularly useful anymore. At least with normal clothes, he’d blend in better. He also took his best weapon, a C-rank sword.
Once ready, he returned to the Hub and repeated the same request he made five minutes earlier: “Records, I’d like a world I can complete quickly, with a reasonable danger level, and where I can easily farm LP.”
[A potentially suitable world]
[Parallel Earth World N.356567482312...]
World Type: Unique world
World Power Levels: Tier 0
Description: A world nearly identical to the Origin World, Earth, before it was connected to the Records—except this world is about to experience civilization-ending natural disasters.]
Optional Quests:
[Survival 1
Description: The world is ending due to devastating natural disasters. Survive for 24 hours after the start of the calamity.
Rewards: 5K LP]
[Survival 2
Description: The world is ending due to devastating natural disasters. Survive for 1 week after the start of the calamity.
Rewards: 10K LP]
[Savior
Description: Save as many people as possible from the upcoming calamity. Warning: These people must be capable of surviving even after you leave this world.
Rewards: Varies depending on the number of survivors.]
[Disaster What?
Description: This planet is too beautiful to be destroyed, stop the disasters before they happens and consequently prevents a mass loss of life.
Rewards: 25K LP]
Mikael took the time to carefully read all the details before thinking, 'This world will give me a good amount of LP if I survive just 24 hours, but the problem is that even though my body is much stronger than a normal human's, it isn't stronger than a tsunami... So yeah, there will be some risks, but it’s not a suicidal mission. With my speed, I can outrun most natural disasters, so as long as I’m cautious, it should be fine.'
He continued considering different scenarios before asking the Records, "Records, I have a quick question: when I appear in this world, how much time will I have before the natural disasters begin?"
[The users will appear exactly 1 hour before the start of the natural disasters.]
'That’s pretty manageable,' he thought. 'The only thing I’m worried about is my sword. It would be better to leave it at my apartment since it’ll be useless against a tsunami or hurricane. I could just risk losing it, or getting arrested by the cops for carrying a weapon.'
After making that decision, he made a quick detour to his apartment, left his sword behind, and then returned to the Hub to enter the Parallel Earth world.
When his 'teleportation' ended, Mikael appeared in the middle of a crowd.
"What the hell? A guy just appeared out of nowhere!"
"Damn, man! Why are you pushing me?"
Mikael noticed that people were startled by his sudden appearance, but he quickly disappeared into the bustling crowd while they were still in disbelief over what they had just seen. By the time they regained their senses, he was already long gone.
A few minutes later, Mikael managed to break free from the dense crowd and found himself on a street overflowing with people. Some looked serious, lost in their own worlds, seemingly heading somewhere important, while others appeared more relaxed.
The bustle of voices and the sound of cars created a lively atmosphere that Mikael hadn’t experienced in a while—but somehow missed. He had grown used to living in cities, so traveling to different places always felt a little strange.
As he scanned his surroundings, he thought, 'And none of these people know that they’re already dead.'
He sighed.
'It’s kind of depressing when you think about it. Imagine living your life, going about your day, and then suddenly the ground opens up and massive waves appear. You can’t do anything but die and pray... At least in a mana-filled apocalypse like the ones you read about in novels, you have a chance to survive and grow stronger. But with this... you're just dead. There's no struggle, no escape—nothing.'
'It could have been me if I’d been born in this world instead of being lucky enough to be born in an Origin world! There’s no "if" or "maybe"—I was lucky. Sure, I worked hard and still do, but the truth is, someone can work extremely hard, and without a "power system," they can’t get stronger. They're doomed when a disaster like a tsunami or tornado strikes near them. Even I’m not 100% safe in this world, but I’d rather risk my life to grow stronger than stay on Earth, "safe" but living a meaningless life.'
'Even if I die, at least I would have had fun... or at least more fun than staying on Earth, counting down the days while hoping that nobody who chose to chase real strength decides to kill me.'
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After having these thoughts, Mikael began strolling around the city, doing nothing but appreciating its atmosphere. After all what could he have really done to prepare. Honestly not much so he decided to take this time to relax. Soon an hour passed, he then noticed a small crack forming in the ground.
Nobody really paid attention to it, except for Mikael, who knew exactly what was coming. He was right—within moments, the crack expanded, and people started to take notice.
"What's that? Is there going to be an earthquake?"
He also saw some kids trying to approach the crack, but their parents quickly pulled them back, tightly holding their hands. As for Mikael, he calmly walked in the opposite direction. 'Now I just need to survive for the next 24 hours,' he thought.
Boom.
He heard a loud crash, far more intense to him because of his enhanced senses. Fortunately, his new senses automatically adjusted to his environment and were under his control. For instance, he could hear the crash more clearly than the people nearby, but it wasn’t deafening for him.
He watched as a two-story building collapsed into the widening crevice. People screamed, especially those who had been inside the building. Mikael, however, didn’t care about them and simply kept walking, staying alert for any sign of danger.
After swallowing the building, the crack didn’t stop—it continued expanding. But at least the people were smart enough to start running. The expansion was slow enough at first that their escape seemed possible. However, more cracks soon appeared all around, and people, cars, trees, and buildings started falling into the growing fissures. All except for a few lucky individuals—and Mikael.
He moved swiftly, occasionally leaping over the crevices. He wasn’t performing superhuman feats; he was just running at an "average" speed. His agility, however, was far beyond that of a normal human, making his balance and dexterity extraordinary. For him, navigating the chaos was easy.
Mikael continued to move, avoiding danger, until he heard a weak voice cry out, "Help me, please."
Turning in the direction of the voice, he saw a man trapped, his legs crushed under a large piece of debris. Mikael glanced at him but ignored the plea, focusing on his own survival as he began walking away.
The man panicked. "No, don’t go! I’m hurt, I can’t move! We should help each other in a disaster—please, don’t leave me here to die!"
When Mikael kept ignoring him, the man’s tone turned desperate and angry. "HELP ME, YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD! I HOPE YOU DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH!"
Mikael heard him perfectly but didn’t care. The man was going to die, one way or another, thanks to the natural disasters. No matter what he said, Mikael wasn't moved and continued with his survival, walking away without a second thought.
By the time Mikael had moved some distance away from the injured man, he saw him being swallowed by the ever-expanding crevices. As he looked around, even he felt somewhat shaken.
It was a true massacre, with bodies scattered everywhere. Some had been crushed by the debris from fallen buildings, but many more had likely fallen into the crevices, never to be seen again.
Not far from him, he spotted a small leg crushed under a large piece of debris, lying in a pool of blood. The leg was too small to belong to an adult… The countless horrifying sights, even for someone as normally indifferent as Mikael, made his stomach churn.
Despite Mikael growing desensitized to death from a young age, having already killed multiple people. He also killed countless monsters since he joined the Records, this scene unsettled him. It was a truly horrific sight, one that rivaled the horrors of a war zone.
He averted his eyes from the mutilated bodies. 'Even for me, this is pretty disturbing not gonna lie. Maybe I’m not as desensitized to death as I thought.'
Taking a deep breath, he glanced around, trying to fully desensitize himself to the carnage. 'Being shocked by death is a weakness. I’m not there yet, but if I could ignore even a massacre like this, it would be for the best.'
He continued surveying the scene, carefully avoiding the crevices, and after some time, the impact of the horrors lessened. After all, humans are an adaptable species at their core.
While going through this desensitization process, he suddenly heard a rumbling sound approaching.
‘What’s this sound?’ he thought while looking around, but he didn’t find anything and was obstructed by the debris around him, so he decided to take higher ground for a better view.
He jumped to the top of an intact building and scanned his surroundings. North, east, west, and south—he looked in every direction but still couldn’t find the source of the low rumbling sound.
He stayed there for a few minutes as the rumbling grew progressively louder, yet he still didn’t notice anything unusual.
Then, he spotted something small and blue on the horizon. ‘What is that?’ He continued to observe the blue object, which was growing larger, and suddenly realized, ‘That’s a wave. And given the earthquakes, it’s probably a tsunami—it just looks like a wave because I’m so far away.’
Seeing what was likely a tsunami heading towards him, Mikael began running in the opposite direction at a brisk speed of 150 km/h.
Gasp
“Am I seeing things!?”
Even with the ground splitting beneath their feet, people were still startled and questioned reality when they saw a human running faster than a car on a highway.
Swish
Mikael passed the disbelieving people, ignoring them, and focused solely on his survival.
Once he was at a safe distance, he turned around and watched as the tsunami engulfed everything in its path. Nothing was spared—buildings crumbled under the force of the waves, and people were swept away, crashing into walls at high speeds, falling unconscious from the shock, never to wake up. Witnessing this, he was struck by how truly fragile the human body is against the overwhelming power of nature.
For the next several hours, Mikael stuck to the same strategy: dodging crevices as they opened and running away whenever he spotted a tsunami. The plan worked—until the eighth hour since the apocalypse began.
By then, water was everywhere. Even when he avoided the tsunamis, it was getting harder to move because of the gradually spreading floods.
Mikael saw another tsunami approaching and logically began running in the opposite direction. But only minutes later, he spotted yet another tsunami heading toward him.
‘Seriously? One behind me and now one in front? Well, at least I still have left and right,’ he thought.
Just five minutes later, he regretted that thought. As he turned right, he saw a third tsunami coming his way.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me! A third one?’ He glanced back at the first two tsunamis, now much closer. The waves were towering, tens of meters high, and the rumbling sound had transformed into the deafening roar of an enraged beast.
‘Now I’m trapped on three sides, and the waves are closing in.’
Sigh
‘I can only go back and hope I’m not unlucky enough to get caught between four tsunamis…’ With that thought, he immediately took off at his maximum speed, surpassing 300 km/h.
As he ran, he quickly adjusted his trajectory—if he didn’t, he would’ve run straight into one of the waves. After correcting his path, he shot between the two waves, now dangerously close, but still, he was faster.