I, Alone, Survive (Prologue)

To everyone still alive and reading this, have you ever imagined the entire world going through an apocalyptic event? Running together with your loved one, trying to reach an oasis, and living there peacefully as the world burns?

Or maybe having the city suddenly get hit by an unprecedentedly large tsunami? Drowning everyone under billions of tons of water.

I do that every day, imagining my hateful bosses and coworkers across several workplaces dying helplessly under the chaos. I always find solace in my imaginary "apocalypse survival situations" and killing off everyone that irks me. However, that's just within my imagination.

Right, it was only a fiction of my crazed mind, worn down by repetitive labor that wasn't worth the wage I get. At least, I'm sure I'm not crazy enough to actually kill someone.

At least until that moment.

Nobody knows when it actually started, but everyone realized it too late. An actual apocalypse befell the entire world!

A world-ending earthquake? A gigantic meteor hitting the planet? Or is it the world succumbing to global warming and finally getting completely submerged in water? If it were those scientific endings, then it wouldn't be as chaotic as it had become, I think.

The apocalypse wasn't anything like that, but more direct: monsters.

Right.

MONSTERS.

It's not like in novels, where the monsters pop out of gates or dungeons but rather appear out of thin air. It was so abrupt that when a monster emerges, casualties will certainly appear.

The entire world was engulfed in chaos within moments of this event, and, along with it, billions of casualties.

Of course, everyone tried to fight back, using weapons like knives, hammers, guns, and such. However, the monsters remained unscathed, no matter what we did.

I just heard of it, and I haven't seen it myself, but the US even decided to use their wide array of nuclear bombs, but the monsters didn't even seem bothered by it. Not a single scratch despite getting hit by humanity's most destructive weapon!

After that, everything went downhill.

The world's population dropped from over 8 billion down to less than half a million. And the monsters became the de facto rulers of the world in just a single night.

It didn't even take 24 hours before humanity was wiped from the surface of the earth.

Yes.

Everyone has died once already.

And when I say "everyone," that includes myself, of course.

How am I writing about my death in the past tense? Because I'm still alive, of course.

Earth's God, who didn't dare name itself, took pity upon its creations and decided to save them. God turned back time for the entire planet, returning to 48 hours before the monster invasion began.

However, even if we knew about the incoming invasion, given that we can't even dent their skins, there's no way we could survive.

God, of course, didn't miss this small detail. After reviving everyone by turning back time, he used most of his power to create a powerful system. Everyone called it the Hero Creation System, but it doesn't have an actual name.

Everyone on Earth received this system, whether they were a newborn baby or a demented old man. After the system became bound to their souls, everyone received special powers; it was the primary support provided by the Hero Creation System.

Upon binding, one would receive one to five abilities at random. For example, one could receive pyromancer and swordsman abilities, making them able to throw fireballs while wielding a blade. Or maybe singing, dancing, and pretty looks could become their special abilities, although they're not useful for survival.

I received the system too, and with it, I gained a single ability. Although it was my only ability, I rejoiced upon receiving it. The Curse of Infinite Rebirth! No matter how many times I die, I will be revived at the exact moment that I get bound to the system!

Back then, I could only feel happiness for literally having infinite lives to fight against this apocalypse. However, it didn't take long before I realized why "Curse" was added at the beginning.

Have you ever wondered how death felt? I didn't even need to imagine it, as I've experienced various ways of dying consecutively.

And no, it's not like I wanted to die, but rather because I got caught by monsters while running away... After all, I could only literally survive. I gained no increased strength to be able to injure monsters, nor was I blessed with weapons to fight with.

I'm technically just an immortal observer, unable to interfere with the walking death approaching me.

Each time I die, I become useless for an entire day. The pain of death and the feeling of your life quickly slipping away aren't things you can get used to, believe me.

However, with each death, I gain information.

Location of monsters, their abilities, their strength, location of other ability users, their abilities, and usefulness. Despite all the suffering I had to go through for not being able to fight, I still strived to survive through the apocalypse.

However, no matter what I did, I couldn't survive more than a week. It was as if surviving any further than that was impossible. That's the only conclusion I could draw after ten deaths at midnight, right as the seventh day came.

Just like right now, as I'm writing this, the clock ticked midnight on the sixth day. Without any warning, a large maw filled with jagged yellow fangs appeared before my eyes, crunching down on me.

*CRACK!* *CRUNCH!*

I could feel my bones break as the sharp teeth pierced through my skin. I couldn't even shout out loud, as the first thing it got was my throat. And just like that, I died again.

I wasn't sure how many times I'd died, but the system seemed to have kept track of it. A floating blue window appeared before my eyes right after I regained consciousness, the feeling of death still fresh in my senses.

[Congratulations! You have died a total of 100 times. Your ability, Curse of Infinite Rebirth, got upgraded to Level 2!]

[Skill effect upgraded: After death, you will gain a random ability from the person nearest to you, regardless of distance.]

[Gained ability will only remain until the next death.]

[Death confirmed. Randomly acquiring skills from the nearest person...]

[Congratulations! You gained the Persuasion ability!]

As soon as I read about the new ability I gained, an idea popped into my mind. With this new skill, combined with my Curse of Infinite Rebirth, can't I save humanity?!