Jason

Jesus Christ it’s stormy today. Pretty fitting for how I am closing off my book. Really, I need to think of a new series now or I am going to go homeless. The money that my book has made with patreon has been pretty nice and is the only thing that is stopping me from falling into poverty.

Maybe I should move it onto amazon? Risky, but now that my book is over, I doubt many people will still subscribe to my patreon. Something to think about.

System initialis—

///Error///

Hahahaha so foolish, so foolish of them.

Ahem.

Humans! Welcome to the new world. Survive! Thrive! Die! Or do whatever you want! Who cares?!

Okay….There is technically a goal…But don’t worry about it. Bad luck!

Huh? Oh great. A system apocalypse.

—----------------------------

After leaving the room of doom, which was very suspiciously empty except for an exit sign, I was teleported to a cave entrance.

Four other people were also teleported with me. Three women and one teenage boy.

They were all from England as well. After a quick greeting, we entered the cave, which I assumed to be a dungeon.

The cave turned out to be just one long empty corridor. Eventually, it opened up into a large cavern.

Congratulations! You beat the dungeon! AMAZING! For your reward, you each get a ten credit coin!

I picked up the small card which appeared in front of me. My teammates did the same.

In the corner of the cavern, an exit sign appeared. I double checked the room for anything interesting, then touched the exit.

A grey room greeted me. It seemed to be the ‘room of doom’. The only difference was a large, blue pyramid was sitting in the centre of the room.

Hesitantly, I touched the pyramid, and a system message greeted me.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Hello human. I am the shop. Buy what you want. You may ask one question as part of the tutorial.

The shop was selling food, water, stat points and soul stat points. Oddly, there was only one stat point for sale - ‘mana pool’. It was also sold under soul stat points. The normal mana pool cost 10 credits while the soul version cost 50.

What to ask for my question? It needs to be something that other people probably won’t ask while also being useful straight away. Most people died within the first few weeks of the system apocalypse after all.

I was very confused about the soul stat points. They might be incredibly useful or just an expensive version of the normal stat. I also had some theories about what it meant. Maybe it stayed with you after death? Or perhaps you can change bodies in this system apocalypse and the stat points will stay with your soul?

“How do soul stat points differ from normal stat points and if they just stay with my soul, where is my soul likely to end up?” I asked. Technically two questions, but hopefully it will be allowed.

Soul stat points are linked with your soul. If you die or lose your body, you will keep your soul stat points. Your soul will most likely end up in the afterlife, obviously. But, since I am helpful, I will tell you that there will be more than one iteration of this system initialisation.

Great. A time loop. I wonder how many times I have already gone through the system apocalypse. The shop did list that I have bought zero soul mana pool stats. Maybe I died before I bought any?

No point thinking about that.

I used my points to buy a point in the mana pool stat. There was no noticeable difference after. I tried many methods to use mana, but nothing worked.

Ten minutes later, the system spoke again.

Teleporting in three, two, one.

—----------------------------

I was back in the room of doom. It looked exactly the same as before. Sighing, I went over and touched the exit sign. Why the system continues to pointlessly move me into this room and not just directly teleport me was a mystery.

Looking at my surroundings, I realised that I was in another cave. It was still very bright despite having no light source. The walls were a dull stone but looked perfectly cut. However, the most striking thing was the small green monster in front of me. It looked like a goblin but was unarmed.

I tried to back off but found that I couldn’t move. Luckily, the goblin wasn’t moving either.

Floor one. Reward: 30 credits. Starting in one minute.

Without wasting any time, I analysed my opponent and tried to plan out my actions. The cave was too small to bother running. Taking the initiative and surprising my opponent would probably be my best bet.

Started.

Rushing forward, I tackled the monster to the ground. I used my feet to then kick its face in repeatedly. The goblin wasn’t really ready for my sudden attack, so I managed to kill it without taking any damage.

Unfortunately, some blood got onto my clothes. That could be an issue since I didn’t have any spares.

I felt the slight urge to throw up but managed to squash it. I knew that fighting would probably be the norm in a system apocalypse, so I was prepared for this.

Some credits appeared near me. I grabbed the three 10 credit cards.

An exit sign appeared at the opposite side of the cave. I quickly walked over and touched it.