Tragedy Transmigration

Hearing that, Elias suddenly turned alert. Huh? Did... I just hear someone speak in my mind? Who was that?

Confused, Elias slowly raised his head and suddenly felt the wind breeze, making his body tremble from the cold.

The prison room which was quiet, suddenly shook, glitchy overlays appearing on the surface of reality as though there was a bug in 'reality' itself.

Seeing the changes, Elias was in a daze. He felt his hands tremble slightly—before he clenched it tightly and focused, narrowing his eyes.

[Hello, Elias Roan.]

At that moment, Elias felt the room suddenly increase in temperature.

[Or should I call you by your pen-name, Eroan?]

Internally shook, Elias felt an indescribable chill suddenly spurt from his throat. How does he know that? I didn't even use my real identity when I sighed the writing contract with the company....

"Who... are you? No, do I know you?"

The voice paused, turning the room silent. After thinking for a while, it replied with a chuckle.

[Me? Hm… It would be anti-climatic to reveal myself at the start, wouldn't it? That's not interesting at all. More importantly, that's not what you should be concerned about.]

Unable to understand the thought process, Elias' lips twitched as he deeply breathed, calming down his nerves in the process.

"Who—no, what are you? Are you the one responsible for transmigrating me here? What do you want?"

[Unexpectedly, for a spiteful bastard... you're calming yourself more quickly than I imagined, impressive. I'm sure you have a lot of questions right now. But I figured, wouldn't it be more fun if you solve the mysteries yourself?]

Despite feeling like there was something amiss of the whole situation, Elias was sure that the entity behind the voice was playing with him.

Laughing at him, mocking him.

He couldn't help but feel a tinge of irritation. 

[Though, I'll give you a headstart. The world you're in now is a very, very familiar place for you. Not Earth though. Far away… or perhaps very close? Who knows.]

Elias was confused, rightfully so. 

[The world of Aegis, familiar?]

Hearing that name, all manner of color instantly drained from Elias face as his expression paled.

Aegis… Elias widened his eyes at that word. He immediately thought of something, but he denied it fiercely. No way! There's no way!

As though taking relish over his suffering, the voice continued, but now filled with derision.

[Indeed, the exact Aegis you're thinking about. Be happy about it! It's the world that you created! A world that you know very well, with your knowledge, even becoming the strongest is no impossible task!]

Despite the confirmation and encouraging words by the glitchy system, Elias could no longer keep the horror he desperately contained inside him from those words.

[Heh. What a twist of fate, right? Of course, I won't leave you helpless. I'll give you this system as a help, I won't take it back. Its only downside is that it kills you when you fail a mission… and you can't reject a main mission either.]

[I can't help with that. There's a concept you should know very well: equivalent exchange. If you want power, you need to exchange for it.]

At this point, the voice's words fell to deaf ears. Elias was struggling to understand anything. It was unrealistic, unbelievable and flat out... horrifying as a prospect.

[But I'm sure the great Omniscient Author can handle that! Goodluck! I hope you survive until we meet, Elias Roan… or should I now say, Elias Vito Castellano.]

As soon as the voice's last words fell, a harrowing silence creeped in the prison cell and made the air turn colder.

Afterwards the glitchy overlay of reality vanished along with voice, leaving behind a blue system interface in front of him.

Despite the harrowing and incomprehensible entity already leaving, Elias was still paralyzed in disbelief with a pale face.

The rest of the contents of the glitchy system fell flat to him and entered one ear to leave to the other, only the word Aegis was resounding in his mind like a broken cacophony.

Why?

It was because Aegis—the world where [Heroes of the New Age] occurs was headed into a certain, inevitable future.

It was a future he meticulously weaved. The ending that Elias rigorously planned and written for years out of spite. 

The last chapter of blanketed tragedy.

A future without life, a world of desolation. 

Aegis was headed into an absolute, certain inevitable future of destruction. In other words, a tragedy that could not be circumvented.

***

After a few minutes, Elias returned to reality, his face still pale while his eyes slightly regaining luster.

The impact of the realisation of his situation left him in deep seated despair. However, he also realised one side of the situation that gave him hope.

"Even if the world is going to get destroyed, It doesn't matter, as long as I can return to Earth. I can't give up yet…"

Elias reminded himself. At that moment, various questions arose in his mind to distract him from the fact of his situation.

'How could the world I created come alive? Who was the person speaking behind the system? What's my purpose in all of this? How can I return to earth?'

His mind was full of questions with no answers. Elias grimly sighed as he temporarily let every concern including his current situation be buried for the moment.

Currently, he had no answer to any of the questions. He had some preliminary guesses from experience based on reading novels, but those were just some nonsense; this was reality.

Shaking his head, Eliad looked at the most pressing matter right now. 

[Hero Creator System]

From the words of the entity earlier, this system could be considered their help to him. However, he couldn't verify if it was safe or not.

But upon careful consideration, if the entity wanted to kill him—it wouldn't be using such a difficult and troublesome way.

But... his mind was in a mess, repulsed by the thought of trusting some strange high dimensional entity. 

Thinking of that, Elias murmured a word he had read in the past: "Status."

At that moment, the system screen displayed itself to him.

[Name: Elias Vito Castellano (Elias Roan)

Race: Human

Talent: Indomitable Spirit

Rank: E+

Level: 17

Unused status points: 150

STR: E+ (78/100)

AGI: E+ (70/100)

STA: E+ (58/100)

CONST: E+ (65/100)

INT: E (51/100)

MAG: E- (43/100)

GROWTH: D (50/200)

SKILLS: [Way of Castellano], [Ferocious Underdog(Passive)], [Gaze of Intimidation(Passive)]

'These kind of stats... they're so fucking trash?'

Elias was stunned as he looked at the screen. In the world of Aegis, there were rankings implemented to measure strength

Rank F pertains to people as strong as ordinary humans, usually people below level 10. 

Rank E pertains to people above average, with levels around 10-19.

Rank D pertains to those with levels around 20-39. 

Rank C pertains to those with levels around 40-59.

Rank B, Rank A and beyond those… were above level 60 and almost unmeasurable.

There was also a system status screen in the world.

But unlike the status system people use in this world, the Hero Creator System he currently has seems to have more advanced uses and additional tabs.

For example, the latter has something called status points which have the ability to grant the user immediate power up at moments notice or instantly increase their familiarity in skills.

That was a very broken ability, considering the way people raise their strength in Aegis is through either training, killing monsters, subjugating dungeons and enlightenment.

There was also something called Mission Tab which immediately caught Elias' notice as he remembered what the entity said.

[MISSION TAB]

Looking at the shining section, he recalled what the entity said before.

'It's only downside is that it kills you when you fail a mission…'

Elias hesitated to touch it as it may give him a sudden mission. But he had a feeling that regardless of his intentions, the system would force him a mission anyway.

Before he could decide whether to touch it or not, the Mission Tab glowed brightly before a new screen override the status.

[Main Quest: No. 1]

[Rule the Underworld]

[The Underworld has plunged into chaos, all the organisations and the long order within it has been broken down as a new ruler sat on the ghostly throne. The Ghost King killed all those who wouldn't swear fealty to him. You, Elias Vito Castellano must rise up, kill the Ghost King and rule the Underworld to change your fate of death. Use any means necessary.]

[Time Limit: 1 Year]

[Rewards: ???]

Beneath it, two new quests suddenly formed and entered Elias' sight.

[Subquest: No. 1]

[The Don]

[Create an organization and become the head honcho.]

[Time Limit: None.]

[Rewards: [Godfather], [Honor Among Thieves], [Master of Crime].]

[Subquest: No. 2]

[Student of Arcana Academy]

[Enroll as a student of the famous Arcana Academy.]

[Time Limit: 3 Months]

[Rewards: [Advanced Talent Selection], [Technique Selection] and [Advance Item Selection]...]

This… Elias was in a daze as he saw the list of quests. He didn't know whether he should laugh or cry.