The Apocalypse Begins

"OK… Either I am in a very lucid dream or this is real…" Despite the pain in my ankle, I slowly stood up.

The lava continued to ooze around me but I was lost in my own world. The message from before startled me. 

Just to be safe, I started dragging my leg around while occasionally staring back to make sure that the lava wasn't catching up to me.

I pinched both of my cheeks twice to make sure it was not a dream. It was the most sensible thing to do at that time.

While walking, I started remembering everything I knew about The Inheritance Mania.

In the universe I had created, there were multiple planets that had life. But there was one supreme planet that had everything one could want.

Their planet had large amounts of mana, a magical energy that gave everyone magical powers. Due to this, their planet was the strongest in the universe. 

Looking back, not only did this make the back story extremely boring, but it also portrayed me as a lazy author. I did improve these descriptions later on.

Due to its strength and an almost abundant amount of resources, conflict within the supreme planet rarely occurred. This didn't pair well with its population that loved chaos and mischief.

The supreme ruler of that planet, alongside the rulers of various races, had spent many years researching for a way to use their magic powers to have some fun.

This led to the creation of the golden scroll, the object responsible for the start of inheritance mania.

Using the scroll, they could enter the name of a random planet in it and a direct portal would connect the two planets.

Slaves from the supreme planet would invade the chosen plant with orders that if they conquered the chosen planet, they would be freed.

In this way, they obtained countless planets as their playgrounds with tons of different races captured or fighting against the slaves.

They had an almost infinite amount of living beings to send to hundreds of planets and in the first chapter of my novel, they had selected earth.

But since I had to set up a way for the humans to fight back, I had written that the chosen planet would get access to magic powers.

My first choice was mana but since I didn't want to experience the whole pain of calculating stats, I decided to just use the mana to grant humans powers.

As for the powers they gained, it was completely random. It was similar to a gacha where you obtained a random power.

The main reason for doing this was so that the beings from the supreme planet could enjoy a good struggle but they would also get a few powerful slaves under their control.

Mana, however, was a force that even the ruler of the supreme planet couldn't control. And that was why from every planet, a few people would get too overpowered abilities.

And the MC of my novel was such a person. Pretty predictable, right? Well, it was popular back when this genre was slowly emerging.

"If my novel is coming to life, does that mean that I will become the MC?…" My voice trailed off immediately.

Nah, the chances of me becoming the MC were the same as Hunter X Hunter reaching its conclusion. Such things were simply not possible.

I could use my knowledge to become as strong as I could, even managing to enjoy things that I could have only dreamed of.

But of course, karma thought that this was the right time to get me back for ruining the future generations of the thieves I had kicked in the balls.

+

[ Basic Evaluation Is Complete. ]

[ . .. … ]

[ Overall Body Status Can Now Be Checked ]

+

"Status." My blood was boiling with excitement as I wondered what I could do with my newfound abilities.

After all, everyone was granted a skill at the beginning of the apocalypse.

Skills could be obtained through numerous ways but for the beginning of the inheritance mania, one could only rely on the random skill they had been assigned.

Of course that didn't apply to me. If I had a decent skill, I could easily obtain other amazing skills to become extremely strong.

But as the status screen loaded up, I lost the functionality of my left lung.

===

Name: Michael Solanski 

Race: Human

Skill: None 

Supporter: None

Overall Stats: Strength Lv 3, Agility Lv 4, Physique Lv 2, Strategy Lv ???, Magic Power Lv. ???

===

The stats were quite… average to say the least. Other than that, the absence of a skill shocked me.

Even the scummiest people on earth were granted with some sort of skill. 

And I, the one who created the novel, had no skill. I never imagined that I would get to see a plot twist in a world I created.

Maybe I should have jumped into the cracks and isekai'd when I had the chance to do that.

So what if I would have become a fly? At least a system would be supporting me.

'OK, calm down. You still have two things marked with question marks. They are either too low leveled to be of notice or cannot be calculated due to their high level.'

Once again, the question marks were something I never wrote in the original novel. This confused me even further.

Even if the two stats turned out to be super overpowered, I was disappointed in my stats. The average adult between twenty to forty years of age would have a starting stats of level 5.

An athlete in their prime would have a beginning stats of at least 7. But that was only for the physical stats.

Physical stats refer to strength, agility, and physique. These were the basic stats that contributed to the physical appearance and power of a person.

As for strategy… Let's just say it was something I came up with to have an additional stat that I didn't need to develop.

Magic power, however, was one of the most important stats.

Magic power refers to the capacity of mana inside a person and how much mana they can use. It was the main source of energy that allowed a person to use a skill.

'It's not the end of the world. Technically it is... whatever, I can still get myself some good skills by external help. But first, I need to do something about my ankle.'

Even though I was still not hundred percent sure whether everything that was happening was from my novel or not, I was in for a treat.

I know it's weird right? I should be panicking and feeling an existential crisis but here I was taking things quite calmly. Being an author did mess up your mind a lot.

My mind was thinking about the items I deliberately made the MC miss. Such items were hidden throughout the novel. I kept most of them for the villains but they never received them.

Why, you might ask. It was simple.

I forgot about their existence. 

They were mentioned in a few sentences in the novel but never came back in the future. Instead, they were lost through the pages, and with little to no readers, it was not like anyone remembered them.

As I tried to form a plan to temporarily fix my ankle and start hunting for the special items, a blue window appeared in front of my face.

[ New Skill: 'Author's Skill' has been unlocked. To check details, think of the skill's name. ]

Huh, what?

Even though I was confused, I still checked the details of the skill.

===

Author's Skill [Unique] 

- With focus, certain parts of '#$*' can be recalled. Might not work at times due to fish brain memory. 

- ???

- ???

===

…Did I just get mocked by a skill?

Though it was true, there was no need to slap me in the face with it. Try writing millions of words and then I will see if you can remember everything.

'But what are those three signs? The name of my novel should be there.' With curiosity, I wondered why the name of my novel was censored.

It was not like it was anything obscene or explicit that would get me famous on the hub or something.

Furthermore, the question marks indicated that there was more to this skill than what met the eye.

'Wait, the world is ending and here I am wondering about trivial things. I need to do something.'

For starters, I was going to visit a supermarket that was situated two kilometers away from my current location.

My second novel had its main theme as apocalypse. Since I published the novel back when I was only 17, I chose my own city for the starting portion of the novel. 

After all, it was the only area I knew well enough to write about. Sure the internet could help me by providing me descriptions of other places but I was not interested in it.

Apocalypse novels require a vivid description of the surroundings to ensure that the readers can imagine the scenes. To provide that description, I definitely needed to visit these locations in public.

I definitely did not regret this decision.

But before that, I had to do something about my ankle. So I decided to walk back to my house.

On my walk back, I noticed that a lot of people had come out of their houses due to the earthquakes and were panicking.

Screams could be heard all around the neighborhood as many houses had collapsed due to the repeated earthquakes. Some frantically dialed the emergency helpline number.

It was of no use. None of that would work.

Debris of cracked houses and electrical poles could be seen everywhere. A grim atmosphere hung over the entire area of the city.

My stomach felt slightly queasy after seeing this when I remembered that numerous dead bodies were buried under the debris.

Years of being an online author had introduced me to quite a lot of gore and disgusting things.

One of my starting traumas was the Two Girls and One Cup video.

I would never recommend any person to watch that cursed video, especially if they were eating. I had felt like puking after watching it.

The reason I even mentioned it was to prevent some people from being tricked into watching it. I am nice enough to protect them from such a horrible future.

'I have a habit of yapping and going off topic… I shouldn't remember those things.'

Shaking my head, I managed to get rid of the disturbing thoughts about the video as well as the dead bodies.

My house was now visible from a distance and fortunately, it was still standing. Cracks had appeared on the walls but it was standing still.

It could still fall down but meh, might as well risk it.

I hurriedly dashed inside the house and grabbed a backpack. 

I grabbed some clothes as well as my laptop. I knew electricity would be down and internet would not be available.

However, my laptop carried all the information about the apocalypse in a neat and clean manner. Though my only skill might help me in remembering stuff about the novel, I still trusted my own writing more.

I grabbed all the medical supplies present in my house. After spraying my ankle and tightly wrapping it with a white medical cloth, I felt the pain decrease immediately. It almost disappeared.

I then decided to grab one last thing from my house.

'For the time being, this is the only safety measure I have till I reach the supermarket.'

I looked at the sharp army knife in my hand, the only weapon I found inside my house that could be used without requiring much skill.

I did have some two katanas and a nunchaku but both had their separate problems. The katanas were heavy and would drag me down whereas the nunchaku required high level of skills.

Using a katana would surely provide me with a lot of fun. Too bad I couldn't use it.

Putting the knife inside the pocket of my jack, I took a deep breath.

'If this is the new reality, then the Scenarios are about to begin. I need to be prepared for them.'

With confidence in my knowledge, I decided to step outside my house and face the world.

What could go wrong?

But as an author, I knew that a whole lot was going to go wrong.