Chapter 1. I want to beat J.K Rowling
'I'm a writer. More like I try my best to be a writer but I'm not one, and I probably won't ever be.'
I shook my head to get out of my dark thoughts, my blank screen staring unsympathetically at me.
I swiped my forefinger across the touchpad of my laptop and the screen came back to life.
I was currently writing 'Titan Wars: Rise of the Destroyer'
Even though it had an impressive name, it was quickly going under.
I started the novel last year. It wasn't great but it had gotten a good reception at the start.
I was even earning good although the novel was free as my readers donated.
But as the novel progressed, the readers didn't like the new arcs and they commented that the characters were shallow and there was no character development.
I knew that they were right but I couldn't seem to do anything about it.
To continue the novel, I went with quantity over quality thinking it would give me a chance but then my donations started to decrease.
They decreased further with each chapter I published and I had been in a state of depression since.
I still forced myself to write because I lived alone and I had to pay for my bills somehow.
Shaking myself out of my thoughts again, I realized that I had been staring at a blank screen again for the past 20 minutes.
Writing my book was draining now but I couldn't stop. I had to keep trying because there was nothing else to do.
I didn't like checking the site that I wrote on anymore, although before I checked it at every chance I got.
I checked it now and my eyes were instantly drawn to my new notifications. The first thing I saw when I tapped on them was about 4 or 5 comments from angry readers.
I didn't even need to read them all to know what they were saying. I got at least 10 of those kinds of comments every day.
They were from readers who had enough of me and were dropping my book.
Even more than the terror of having no money to live on, readers calling my novel trash and writing negative reviews about it to discourage new readers was heartbreaking.
In a fit of frustration, I shut my laptop and then turned around to get a look at my apartment.
It was a mess all around so I instead fixed my gaze on the posters on the walls.
They were mostly Harry Potter posters. I remember thinking that I wanted to be as big as J.K Rowling.
That was a long time ago, now I was here in a rundown apartment, writing a failing book.
I cursed under my breath and got to my feet. I needed a smoke.
A quick check showed me that I was out of cigarettes. I would need to get more.
I checked the time, 9:03 pm.
It was late but not too late that the stores would be closed.
It rained earlier today so it was cold out, I grabbed my jacket and left my apartment behind, making sure to lock up properly.
I lived in a lowbrow neighborhood, and while burglars would only find my old laptop as the one thing worth stealing, I would be ruined because I couldn't work without my laptop and I definitely couldn't afford a new one.
The sky was cloudy outside and I walked quickly so that I wouldn't get caught in the rain.
My dad died when I was young but my mom did a great job of raising my sister and I even though things hadn't been rosy.
I had a few friends but I lost them from how absorbed I became with writing. I barely spoke to my mom now, my elder sister even less.
I quickened my pace again. It wasn't very safe downtown, there were frequent cases of muggings but it was the only place I could afford an apartment on the budget I had.
I needed a cigarette badly to distract myself from my failing life.
I had only taken out enough money to buy a pack of cigarettes. I was running low on cash as the donations kept decreasing.
Now, I barely earned 1/10th of what I used to.
I lit up a stick of cigarette as soon as I left the supermarket, taking a deep draw.
I should quit smoking, my mom wouldn't like it.
My phone rang and I scrambled to get it, a frown on my tired face. Nobody ever called me, well, except my mom.
I had guessed right because she was the one calling.
"Liam!" Her upset voice came through the phone as soon as I picked it up.
"Hi, mom," I mumbled.
"What are you still doing?" She demanded in a shrill voice.
Her voice always got high-pitched when she was upset.
She could never understand why I chose to write after graduating college. I was never the type to take risks and was always level-headed but this was the one thing I wouldn't give up on.
"I told you to come back home and get a real job! Stop writing and get an actual job like your older sister!"
I just kept quiet. She didn't call often but this was how our calls always went.
Sometimes she would be calm and try to cajole me but she always ended up screaming and yelling at me because she knew I wasn't listening.
I didn't want to argue with her so I always kept quiet. I was already depressed so my mom calling me to tell me to give up on my dreams shattered the rest of my spirit.
I remained quiet till she hung up, staring at my phone with cloudy eyes.
I had already made a promise to myself before I left home, that I wouldn't go back till I got richer than J.K Rowling.
I took a deep breath as I started to continue my journey home, only to freeze up, my blood running cold as I felt the telltale tip of a knife pressing into my back.
"Don't do anything funny now, we're just tryna talk." A greasy voice said somewhere behind me and a couple of other guys also armed with knives stepped out from the alley beside me.
I was about to get mugged!
The next moments were a blur and then I was lying down on the dirty ground.
The last thing I remember thinking while staring up at the cloudy night sky as it started to rain was. I was going to die.
I could smell the overpowering scent of blood. My blood. The pain in my gut was unbearable.
Then the rain started to fall and it all went numb, I could feel my life draining away.
Even though I was way too young to die at 23, I had no urge to fight to live. I hadn't lived much of a life anyway.
I was 23 but had nothing but the clothes on my back to my name. My one-room apartment was filled to the brim with empty ramen packets and crushed soda cans.
The rent was long due anyway and I was about to be kicked out of a place that was my hell on earth.
The guys who mugged me must have been so pissed to find nothing on me but a pack of cigarettes and a taped-up phone. 'I can't even blame them for stabbing me.'
It was probably to scare me to give up whatever money I was hiding, even though I kept telling them that I had none.
I could tell that they hadn't been planning to stab me by how quickly they ran off when they saw that I was bleeding out.
I closed my eyes to the falling rain, tasting metallic blood in my mouth. 'I hate my life.'
I really was expecting to be dead so my eyes flew open in shock when the pain started all over again.
This time it was much worse than a stab wound, it was all over like I had been tied up and then stomped on by a crowd of angry people.
I blinked rapidly to get my vision going again. The rain had stopped falling but something was very wrong.
Firstly, I wasn't in the back alley of a street downtown where I had gotten mugged anymore.
Secondly, I was now lying down on what looked like soft grass and a large house stood menacingly a few meters away from me.
It was still night but the air felt warmer, nothing like the biting cold air that the rain had brought.
Had I somehow blacked out for so long that months passed and people stepped on me as they went through their day-to-day lives? I thought to myself with a muddled brain.
I wouldn't survive that long if I was in a coma without any medical attention, plus it didn't explain why I suddenly changed locations as well.
I slowly raised my head through the blinding pain, nearly passing out again from the effort but now I could see better.
A sound of shock froze in my throat. People were lying around me!
They all looked unconscious or perhaps dead.
My panic started to grow. 'Where am I? What is this place? Who are these people?'
"Master Audric!" A shrill, panicked voice came from somewhere near the mansion.
I forgot all about my previous worries as the terrifying sound of pattering feet drew nearer. 'Who can that possibly be?'
"Master Audric is alive!" The shrill voice screeched in a half sob, sounding closer to me.
'Master Audric? Who are they talking about? My name is Liam Smith, did the thugs also rob some rich guy after me?'
A small figure threw itself on my body causing me unimaginable pain which made me hiss.
It must have been able to tell I was in pain because it quickly retreated and started to bang its head on the ground, muttering under its breath all the while.
"Bad Wilkins! Bad Wilkins! Wilkins is sorry sir. Wilkins touched Master Audric and caused him pain, sir…"
A strange sense of deja-vu hit me, it worsened when I got a good look at what had come for me.
'What the fuck? It is a House-Elf!'
I didn't need much mental gymnastics to figure it out. Any Harry Potter fan worth their salt would be able to tell one at first glance and I was a big fan.
The creature furiously banging its head on the ground had bat-like ears and was wearing tattered robes.
I nervously cleared my throat, nervous that the House-Elf would bash its own head in.
"Stop." I croaked out in a voice that sounded nothing like my own.
Fortunately, the House-Elf stopped trying to pour his brains out on the perfectly manicured lawn.
The information overload was too much for my confused brain.
I wasn't dying in a back alley anymore but now in an entirely different reality that had House-Elves?
I slowly raised a hand, ignoring the House-Elf that had gone back to fussing over me.
I couldn't see very well in the darkness but I stared at my own hands every single day while I wasted my time on my old laptop. What I was staring at looked nothing like mine.
"Wilkins is very very sad. Master and Mistress and Mistress Amalia, all dead!"
Another wail started up from the House-Elf who started bashing his head on the ground again.
I paid him no mind as I tried to make sense of what was going on.
'Could it be…'
A crackling sound interrupted my thoughts, it was coming from inside my head.
The rest of the world seemed to fade away. I rolled over to my back and found myself looking up at a starlit sky.
The starlit sky soon faded away, a black screen appearing in front of my vision.
A line of unfamiliar characters crawled across the black pixelated background. The characters glowed a radioactive green, like those old-timey computers.
There was a flash and it disappeared leaving the black background glitching silently. It looked like a projection but I couldn't find the source. 'Is it projecting from my eyes?'
A loading bar showed this time and I speechlessly watched the numbers count up to a hundred.
Another flash and a list of familiar letters filled up the screen.
=========
[Audric Albeline]
<SP: 100>
<Health: 2/100>
+ Physical Stats
[Strength: 10/100]
[Stamina: 6/100]
[Speed: 2/100]
+ Non-Physical Stats
[Magical Power: 40/100]
- Sub-stats
[Charms: 23/100]
[Dark Charms: 50/100]
[Knowledge: 30/100]
- Sub-stats
[Intelligence: 7/100]
[Information: 41/100]
+ Special Skills
[Animagus - -]
<Locked> this feature can be unlocked with 500 SP
[Legilimency - -]
<Locked> this feature can be unlocked with 500 SP
[Bloodline Magic - -]
<Locked> this feature can be unlocked with 2000 SP
=========
By now I had already begun to catch onto what was going on. I played enough games, watched too many animes, and read enough mangas and light novels to know what was going on.
I felt a flicker of excitement. This could be it! An opportunity to start over and live a life I wouldn't hate at the end.
But my strength was failing me. The starlit sky came back into focus and my vision blurred over the next moment.
"Shit." I cursed silently.
I was in a state as bad as the one that had killed me in my first life, maybe even worse.
'Am I going to die again before I even get the chance to live my second life?'
'That would really suck.'
If that happened, I'd be so pathetic that I would laugh at myself.
But I couldn't stop the looming darkness. My body was too weak to hold on to consciousness.
I felt my entire body go weightless as my eyes slipped shut and I blacked out.
///Author's Note///
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