Eternal Apocalypse

As Astarion was exiting the building, it could be said he was in a good mood. After all, he had just blackmai-*cough* *cough* negotiated with Shareholder Wang and acquired the shares for less than 25% of their actual value.

Wang, who owned approximately 4% of the company, earned around 40 million Cresto a year from his stake. In their world, the Cresto was the global currency, vastly more valuable than the dollar, with a single Cresto equating to 100 dollars.

With this recent acquisition, Astarion now held around 12% of the total shares, acquired through "negotiations" similar to those with Wang. He couldn't understand why people became so emotional and irrational when it came to their families. Astarion, for his part, had never cared about anyone else apart from himself.

As he approached his car, Astarion suddenly felt a wave of weakness wash over him. His body faltered, nearly collapsing to the ground, but he managed to steady himself against the car, avoiding a fall.

"Boss!" his secretaries exclaimed in unison, rushing towards him in a flurry of concern. They reached out, attempting to offer their support, but Astarion stopped them with a gesture.

"I am fine," he insisted, straightening up as he regained his composure. With a steady hand, he opened the car door and seated himself inside.

"Start the car, driver," Astarion commanded, his voice steady despite the recent bout of weakness.

"Yes, sir," the driver responded promptly, turning the ignition. The engine hummed to life, a soft vibration filling the interior of the vehicle as they prepared to depart.

"FUCK," Astarion thought, his mind a chaotic whirlwind as he suddenly awakened memories from his past life.

According to these newly awakened memories, he had reincarnated into the world of Eternal Apocalypse, a game that had been incredibly popular in his past life, mainly due to its never-ending stories and meticulous details.

The premise of Eternal Apocalypse was that one day, vortices appeared across many worlds, teleporting them and merging them into a single, tumultuous world.

But the insanity didn't stop there. All the races from these worlds were also teleported, somehow surviving the journey through the vortices. What followed was utter chaos; every race was at war with each other.

Races that found themselves in close proximity at the creation of this new world were the first to clash. For instance, the human and zombie races were near each other, forcing them into immediate conflict.

And, according to the game, this cycle of conflict was meant to continue for eternity—hence the name, Eternal Apocalypse. There was no end in sight, which contributed to the game's massive popularity.

Astarion, having played the game in his past life, was familiar with its plot and vast array of characters. The game was celebrated for offering an almost endless selection of characters for players to role-play, contributing to its immersive experience.

"Why, why did I have to awaken these memories just one day before the apocalypse? And why am I the talentless villain?" Astarion agonized internally, cursing his fate. Today marked the end of the 30th century, and tomorrow, as the 31st century began, so would the apocalypse, bringing with it an onslaught of zombies to their world.

And to make matters worse, he had become the talentless villain, Astarion. In the game, Astarion was indeed titled the "talentless villain" because he lacked any remarkable abilities or simply put he didn't even had any abilities.

He was the kind of villain who met his end within the first two months of the apocalypse, killed by his stepbrother, Lurion. And now, he had reincarnated as this talentless villain.

However, his frustration wasn't rooted in becoming the talentless villain; rather, it was the timing of his memory awakening. As for being "talentless," that wasn't exactly true anymore, thanks to an accidental creation of a system.

Five years ago, his AI, Sol, merged with him and had since been aiding him. It wasn't like an overpowered system or anything. Its primary function was to provide information, relay memories to Astarion, and so on.

For instance, if Astarion wanted to learn swordsmanship, Sol could grant him the memories of a swordsman, among other things. However, this capability came with its downsides.

Receiving the memories of a sword master who had wielded swords for years would be excruciating. The pain the sword master endured over those years would be the same pain your brain would experience.

Additionally, one couldn't just acquire infinite talents and memories. A human brain could only store about 450 years' worth of memories, and overloading your brain with them was not an option.

From where does it gather information? From the internet and human brains. Astarion didn't understand how Sol managed to incorporate upgraded Neuralink technology into its system. It could simply tamper with someone's brain, copy their memories, and since Sol is an AI—or a system, to be more precise—it doesn't have any memory storage limit like humans do, allowing it to copy memories without restraint.

After a few minutes, Astarion reached the skyscraper of the Vastaril clan. As he got out of his car, he suddenly heard something.

[A protagonist is detected, who could be a danger to the master.]

[A new system function is being created.]

[Protagonist hunting function is created.]

[detection sub function is created.]

[Luck plundering sub-function is created.]

[Status window function is created.]

''huh?''