Damn Plot Armor

While walking outside, I tried to use the skill to remember the starting chapters. Much to my surprise, the skill worked smoothly and words from the novel entered my mind.

I realized one thing. I sucked.

The insane power-ups the MC received and the neglect of the side cast clearly pointed out the failure of the novel in the future.

Only the popularity of my first novel allowed this one to earn as much as it did in the beginning.

'Except that, it isn't that bad of a novel.'

But since I was the one who wrote it, I couldn't exactly hate it.

My first priority was to secure the item at the supermarket but in order to do so, I needed a person with a skill that could help me cover the distance.

I had no skill to defend myself and many unfortunate incidents could happen soon.

The best course of action was to search for someone with an ability that could take me to the supermarket.

If the main character of my novel showed up in reality, I would just leave everything to him and enjoy my life on Earth.

After all, I knew how powerful he would get just after the end of the first scenario. Scenarios were the events prepared by the Supreme Planet to ensure that things remained fun.

They were certain tasks that needed to be carried out by every single individual. They provided you with rewards on completion and failure resulted in different consequences.

"AHHHH!"

Suddenly, a female shriek entered my ears, pulling me back to reality. I looked around to see where the scream came from but couldn't see anyone on the street.

'Where did everyone vanish? Shouldn't there be people on the street after the earthquakes?'

With a frown, I stared in the direction of the shriek. It probably came from one of the houses on the other side of the street.

'Hmm, isn't my neighbor a low-level model? Don't tell me it's what I think it is.'

I slowly started trudging towards the direction of the scream. I knew it wasn't the smartest choice but a part of me couldn't ignore it.

In a way, I might be responsible for whatever that was happening. Even if I couldn't stop things, I still needed to check what was happening.

I soon reached the house where the scream had emerged from or at least I thought it was the right house. 

"FUCK!!"

Another shout rose through the air and this time, it came from the backyard. I hurriedly moved to the backyard with an anxious expression while grabbing the knife in my pocket.

Contrary to what I expected, my neighbor was throwing people away from her garden. Literally.

The first thing I noticed was the movement of her hands. With twists and turns, she sent two females flying which landed close to three other females.

'Could it be? Surely the plot armor is helping me here.' My eyes widened when I realized what was happening.

The group of five females slowly stood up, all of them looking extremely young. I guessed that they were either seventeen or eighteen. 

A shit ton of makeup was sprawled all over their face, making them look identical to each other. Their hair also had the same shade of light brown, making them appear similar to each other.

In fact, they even wore the same lace black dress that went down to their knees. A matching shade of heels could be seen on their feet.

Just from a glance, anyone could say that they were either trying to be idols or models.

Compared to them, my neighbor looked rather dull. After all, she was dressed in simple black jeans, a blue top, and a matching black leather jacket. 

"Get lost, you fking creeps!" My neighbor shouted before thrusting her hands in an outward manner.

A smile appeared on my lips when I saw wind revolving around her hands. The wind suddenly concentrated into spheres around the palm of her hand. The spheres flew forward due to her thrust and struck the women in their abdomen, throwing them away.

All of them skidded towards the ground before coming to a halt. Judging from their body conditions, they weren't likely going to win the fight.

"We will defeat you later!" one of them shouted and took off her heels.

After throwing the heels towards my neighbor, the woman took off, passing me in a flash. The others followed her example and passed me as well, none of them stopping to give me a second look.

A silence hung over the place.

"Um, hello?" I said awkwardly. "I am Michael. I came to look who was shouting but I guess I didn't really need to…"

The only reason I spoke up was because my neighbor had seen me. Her eyes were glaring at me as the wind continued to revolve around her hands.

I knew that it wasn't the best way to start a conversation but I wasn't used to talking to people physically.

Sure I was pretty good at texting but when it came to holding a real conversation, a ten-year-old could probably talk much better than I could. It was the downside of living in seclusion.

"Michael?" the woman asked in a confused tone. Her gaze became much softer, finally allowing me to get a good look at her appearance.

A few strands of blond hair fell on her soft white face while the rest of them were tied behind in a ponytail. Her blue eyes, which were an ocean blue almost coming closer to green, were looking at me in confusion as though she was trying to remember if she had met me before.

She was probably around my age, judging from her face.

Though she was currently wearing slightly oversized clothes, she had the figure of a model, one which would make men fall for her at first sight.

Damn, was I giving the cliche description of a beauty from a web novel? Well, Vin was a beauty even if her description consisted of repeated descriptions one might have read countless times.

At least I didn't use the words 'jade beauty', 'voluptuous bosom', or 'cold beautiful face' to describe her.

"Do you know me from somewhere?" I couldn't help but ask once the staring became too much.

"I am Vin," Vin smiled. "Judging from your expression, it doesn't seem like you remember me."

"Wait…"

I wracked my brain hard while trying to find out who this Vin was. The name did ring a huge bell which meant that she was once an important figure in my life.

All of a sudden, it all came back to me. Like water pouring out of a dam, I remembered who this person was.

"Vin..." I murmured.

Someone I knew during high school. Someone who was the complete opposite of me.

While she was trying to achieve things and stand out more, I was trying to hide myself in the shadows and simply just keep on writing stories.

Our paths had crossed a few times and somehow friendship blossomed between us. We would hang out at coffee shops and do schoolwork together.

Vin had especially helped me with maths, one of my weakest subjects. I was pretty smart but I hated maths that didn't have any numbers in it.

One of the main reasons we became friends was the fact that both of us liked the same anime and also shared a great taste in video games.

I felt quite surprised to know that Vin actually remembered my name and face. I couldn't be that memorable right?

After all, I had plain black wavy hair and somewhat of an average build. The only thing that relatively stood out about me was the color of my eyes.

They were technically blue but under different lights, they almost seemed purple. Though I was sure no one really paid attention to that.

Wait, I am overthinking things, aren't I?

"You are correct. I didn't know you were living so close by." Vin said in a surprised tone.

"I've been living here for quite some time. Didn't know you were living right next to me." 

Technically, I had seen her a few times before but had never paid that much attention to her appearance. I might have recognized her if I paid attention.

Though plot armor really seemed to be saving me since Vin clearly appeared as a wind user. I also knew her from the past so I could easily convince her to help me.

"All this time we were living so close yet never met each other." Vin sighed. 

"Yeah, I wish we met sooner."

I wanted to ask what she was doing in a cheap area like the one we were currently in. Vin had often dreamed about becoming a space engineer at the HAWASA space center

It was also surprising to see how both of us were talking so casually. It was as though a natural disaster had not happened around us.

I mean, it was expected that I was acting fine but she was acting calm too.

"Did you also receive those messages?" Vin questioned. "One moment I was fighting with those girls and the next moment you know, the world turned into a fantasy."

Vin explained how the models had been there to fight her for an ad that she was working on which eventually led to an argument.

The earthquakes had suddenly started and the screen with words had appeared in front of her, giving her some time to think of a way to save herself from the models.

"I also got a skill of sorts with a tutorial. It felt like I was playing some kind of video game." Vin added.

I, however, was severely confused. I never mentioned anything about tutorials in my novel.

'It did seem odd that she was able to use her skill that easily. What kind of tutorial did she get?'

"What is the name of your skill?" I asked curiously.

Knowing the specific skill she had would help me train her a bit and give her tips.  It would also be much more beneficial for both of us if we could strike a good deal.

Until I had found some sort of skill to protect myself, I was pretty useless.

"According to what the screen tells me, the current skill I have is called 'Wind manipulation'. There is a whole skill tree kinda thing below it…" Vin said in a dazed tone.

WTF

This damn plot armor was working way too well. Wind manipulation was an S ranked skill and was also the skill that could help carry me away.

Skills were graded in a pretty simple order: F < D < C < B < A < S < SSS < Unique.

Abilities graded between F to C were considered minor skills whereas B to S rank skills were called major skills.

Skills above B rank had the chances of providing an entire skill tree underneath them that allowed the user to learn numerous skills related to the major one.

For example, flight was something that came under wind manipulation. An advanced form of flight, wind walking, also came under wind manipulation which could be mastered.

Not all high level skills had this and even those that had it were quite rare to obtain.

SSS and unique abilities were usually exclusive to one person or a handful of people. 

However, they would appear quite later on in the story even though I already had one. It was a bad skill to be considered unique but since it was in my hands, it was useful.

At least I hoped it would be useful.

Vin was extremely lucky to get such a good skill and if she was guided in the right direction, she would become a powerhouse during the later stages of the apocalypse.

I struck diamond to say the least.

"So can you like fly or something?" I asked, hoping to receive a yes because flying would make things much easier.

"I think I can." Vin muttered, her eyes still assessing the window in front of her.

However, I couldn't see it. Such windows that told one about their skills and stats could only be viewed by that person.

It was a basic privacy feature I had thought of early on.

"Then can you help me?" 

I explained how I sprained my ankle and needed someone to take me to a location. I didn't specify where I wanted to go and what I was going to do there.

I was about to conjure up some stories in case I needed to convince Vin.

"Sure, I can help. But I want to ask one question before that."

Surprisingly, Vin managed to agree without the need of convincing her.

"Go ahead and ask it."

"What can you give me in return for helping you?"