1 Not Wanting to Wake Up Expecting Your Same Old Life Might Not Be That Bad

"Arghhhh…." A messy head popped out of a blanket. Afterwards, the entire body was revealed, which was frail and pale-skinned.

"What time is it?" The owner of the body was a boy named Alric. His obsidian eyes glanced at the digital watch on top of his door. The moment his eyes laid upon it, they widened in shock. "Oh shit! I am late for the orientation." 

Alric had just enrolled in a prestigious college for which he had worked hard to pass the entrance exam. Today was January 1st, the day of orientation. Missing the orientation would not only embarrass him but also fill him with guilt.

Quickly putting on some casual clothes and filling his backpack with notebooks and pens, he was ready to rush to the college as fast as possible.

"Man, I shouldn't have read that awesome web novel last night. Damn it!" 

Alric was a big fan of novels. Not the traditional ones, but the ones on the internet that have become famous lately. At first, Alric was doubtful if words could enthrall his attention, but he was proven wrong. Light novels, webnovels, and then manhwas and mangas—he couldn't get enough of them.

Alric opened his door and prepared to take a sharp turn to the left, where the stairs were located.

But there was something different today that shocked and dumbfounded Alric to the very core of his being.

"Where in the hell am I?" Alric uttered it with his mouth wide open while looking at the scene before him.

The city he would always see and walk through was in complete ruins. No skyscrapers or tall buildings could be seen standing proudly. Trees and various plants have taken root in the ruins, slowly turning them into a forest. Making it completely unrecognizable if he was in his city in the first place.

However, the shock didn't end there, as what came next shook Alric's soul. 

Several thick and giant tentacles rose up from the forest and captured unknown beasts that looked like tigers, wolves, and warthogs. Gathering them to the center, the tentacles let go of them, letting them drop into the giant circular hole that had jagged, sharp teeth rotating all the time.

"RAAAGGGHGHH!"

Then followed by loud, agonizing screams. 

After finishing its meal, the tentacle monster closed its mouth and returned the tentacles to their original spots. Now, where the tentacle monster's mouth was, it looked like a plain ground that could fool anyone easily.

Finally, the short show ended. 

"Huh…huh…huh…huh….." Alric breathed in and out heavily, with terror written on his face. His body and face were filled with cold sweat. He was having a hard time believing what he had witnessed just now.

Alric was in a ten-story building, and his room was on the seventh floor, so it was easy for him to see anything. He also believed his eyesight was perfect; there was no way the thing he witnessed was a hallucination or blurry.

He quickly retired to his room and closed the door, locking it with the keys. 

Then he slumped down to his buttocks and grabbed his head. "What is this place? Why am I here? Am I going to die? Will a monster burst into my room? What am I going to do?" 

Alric panicked heavily, not knowing what to do. This was beyond his comprehension. He should be attending the opening ceremony of his first day at college, spending time with new friends, but here he was, not knowing when his death might come knocking on his door.

"What should I do? What should they do?" Alric questioned himself, about the protagonists he read about who also got dumped into situations like this.

"Huh!" Then the realization hit Alric. "Wait a minute. I am in a totally new place, or…world. Did I reincarnate into a fantasy world? No, that can't be. There are modern buildings here, which means I might have traveled between times or I am in a parallel world."

"No, no, no... Why am I thinking about these? If there are monsters like these, then there will also be humans who are as strong as them. It means we can grow stronger." Hope filled Alric's mind as he gradually recognized the basic plot of the stories he read.

Standing up with optimism and courage, he decided to do what every protagonist does.

"System."

Nothing showed up, but that didn't let Alric's hope die down.

"Come out, my goddess." 

Still nothing.

"Well, if I didn't get any goddesses, then how about an overpowered item?" 

"Come, show your true form!"

",,,,"

The veins on Alric's forehead started to twitch uncontrollably. After holding his anger and frustration for a while, he decided to let it out. Punching the empty air, he shouted. "Where is my insurance to stay alive in this world? Did you throw me here just to let me die?" 

"KROOO!!!"

Alric came to a halt, freezing in his spot. 'Shit.'

Time passed, but nothing happened. 

Alric finally moved his body. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he sighed in relief. "Phew~ Might be passing by me."

"Now, what should I do?" Alric was stuck in a dilemma. He didn't know where he was. He wasn't sure if there was a human settlement nearby. He knew the food he had in his house wouldn't let him stay for long, and the thing that was making him most anxious was some kind of monster attacking his house. 

If this scenario truly happened, then he would be a dead lamp, trapped in a cage with a hungry predator.

"Well, let's just go out. I would rather die than be anxious." Finally coming to a decision, Alric opened the door.

Once again, he was blasted with the natural and unreal beauty of a post-apocalyptic world. 

"It looks like I am neither a protagonist nor a chosen one. Let's see how I can survive in this world."

Alric accepted that he had traveled to another world and should just go with the flow. He was an orphan from childhood, so he had to survive the harsh world by coping with whatever came at him. That was how he managed to come this far. 

To be literate, he picked up the books thrown into dumpsters by kids. To go to school, he sold everything in his possession to afford to apply. To stop being bullied, he learned to fight by exchanging blows in the streets. To have a proper place to sleep, he worked a part-time job on overtime. To save money for college, he cut his food consumption to a minimum and didn't waste it on other stuff. 

Alric didn't mind the misfortune brought to him or whether he was destined to be a lowlife; he just wanted to survive. Because he believed one can achieve greatness if he doesn't lose hope. And the novels he read kept his heart much firmer. He deluded himself, believing that he was the protagonist and that all these were challenges that he had to overcome to get better rewards.

Alric was glad that he did that to himself because it managed to truly bring him happiness as his life was going smooth sailing later on as he managed to get into a prestigious college with a scholarship that he earned through hard work, and he was also financially stable because of getting promoted to manager in the supermarket where he was working. 

"My backstory might be generic, and so are the protagonists of the novels, but they were lucky to be chosen by the author. Huh~ I don't know if anyone would do that to me? Am I in a novel too?"

Slap

Alric quickly slapped his cheeks, bringing him back to his senses. "Fuck! This environment is making me think stupid things and cope on a whole other level. Let's just find a way to escape this forest."

Giving the green sea below him one another look, he began to head toward the staircases—to see if they were intact. But something caught his eye. He came to the edges of the broken floor and looked up. 

He uttered it with shock. "Holy!"

[ World Mission — Clear World Tier- 3 ]

[ Time Remaining — 6 months 19 Days 13 hours ]

[ Rewards — Every leveling cap is raised (even the world) ]

Alric smacked his lips; he couldn't believe he was in this type of scenario. He had two types of scenarios in mind. The first being that he was in a game, and the second being that game-like mechanics have assimilated with the real world. 

However, no matter what it was, it confirmed one thing. 'I can get stronger.'

This eased Alric's mind more, as he was worried he would not find a way to counter those gigantic creatures. But now he knew he could get stronger, so there might be a way to kill them.

Filled with boundless hope, he headed toward the staircase with big strides. 

With a smile on his face, he hurried before the staircase, noticing it was not broken from afar. 

However, just as he looked below, his heart jumped from his chest. 

Three four-meter-long hyena-like beasts that had urchin-like spikes on their backs were gorging on a big mass of meat. 

Alric's arrival caught their attention and made them look back. They saw a human looking at them dumbfoundedly.

Alric forced a smile on his face in that situation. He waved his right hand at them and said it with a high-pitched voice. "Hello~"