How To Survive A Calamity

"Why am i just hearing about this now, and what do you mean?"

[This is something you should have already realised, or will, one way or the other, at some point. The signs are already clear and obvious. You've constantly put your body under repeated stress, that even if it may not show physically, you're already worn out. As a result, every energy you accumulate towards the next level up or breakthrough over flows from both your body and core, causing you to remain in an uncertain state with no apparent progress. In other words — a bottleneck.]

"What are you talking about?" Meta's unexpectedly, disturbing words almost made me jump in place.

'Yo, yo, yo. You're kidding, right?'

What the hell does it mean i should have noticed it? Your adventure continues at My Virtual Library Empire

Meta's words were all sounding like an I'll sounding joke to me. I was a bit confused and quite unsure how to respond to them.

[Negative. Unfortunately, this isn't a joke...] Meta said and her voice paused.

Then she continued.

[At this rate you the host, Victor Bright, will never breakthrough to the next rank.]

"Meta..." I took in a somber breath and controlled my breathing. "Elaborate."

[In the last one year, you've experienced an extended period of desperately trying to level up and breakthrough into the next rank by using all sorts of means you could come across. From repeatedly putting your body under pressure and strain, to constantly hunting down beasts and monsters for experience. It's amazing you haven't realised.] Meta's synthetic voice almost sneered towards the end.

Then i felt something almost snap inside of me.

"What bullshit are you talking about? The only reason I've been ripping my ass off and fucking myself over and over so much to get stronger is because you keep sabotaging me one way or another. This is all your fault. Everything else in this world seems to want to react against me one way or another, and even the system has never ever actually been supportive right since the beginning!" I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist as i rose up.

"So don't you dare try to pin all this on me."

The muscles around my clenched jaw grew taut.

Wasn't it already too much?

Ever since coming into this world, it's like every single step i took forward, only brought me three steps back or in place.

None of my actions have ever seemed to be my own, and even then i constantly found myself at a lost at what exactly to do.

'What exactly am i supposed to do? What else is there than to just keep leveling up?!'

Just grind. Just level up.

It was always the next level, and the one after that.

It was always the next rank, and even after that, the next rank after that.

That was what had become of my life!

What else had i achieved in this world, and what else had i to show for anything.

Wether i realised it or not — wether I agreed to it or refused, i was already bound by a matrix.

I had become one of many pawns in a cogwheels of series and sequences.

"Hasn't everything I've done so far — every bastard little thing I've experienced in Aethoria all this time, up until this very moment brought me to where i currently am? Everything has led me to believe, the only right for me to live, a gate pass to freedom is to become powerful — Only, and only if i could get stronger!"

[...]

I felt something rise up from feep inside of me and stir from my Ether core as if reacting deeply to my emotions.

I was at wit's end.

"I've done everything! I'm doing everything! Every little insignificant thing my meager existence, one as tiny as a grain of sand in a desert, could do! I've been beat up!

"I've been exhausted."

"I've bled till even my wounds no longer even dry!"

"Shed tears and sweat so thick and red that i find myself forgetting the feeling of being normal and unburdened by anything at all! Heck, I've even died a few times! I've stared death, often danced with it, hand in hand! The concept no longer seems so strange and unfamiliar. Every single breath i take, i feel it! It's always there around me, truly my only companion. Embracing me! Comforting me!"

"—Accompanying me through my highest and lowest! What exactly is my life if you took the system and quest out of the equation?! So don't you dare —EVER in what bastard, empty and code driven life you may dream you possess, tell me that IT IS MY FAULT!!!" I roared, raged from the depths of my being.

What was truly different from my previous lifetime?

The game had remained the same. Only the rules were different now.

I still had nothing.

I had still been made a machine.

All of a sudden...

I felt vain and empty.

"Ah..." My lips parted emptily and i cast my gaze downwards despondently.

"... Maybe if i were a bit more stronger everything would be different..."

Yet again, i found myself restricted.

Indeed, this was my whole life.

A second life at redemption?

What was that?

-Clench!

I folded my fists so hard my joints creaked.

Eventually, only silence once again, had returned to the ruined chamber. The pile of Monster corpses remained sprawled against the ground before me as a pool of blood slowly seeped out from underneath them, spreading all over.

I just glared into empty space, listening to the sound of my racing heart and panting breaths. It felt like my blood and body were boiling.

A disgusting and pathetic feeling stirred inside my gut.

And then...

After a while, i heard Meta's emotionless voice.

She was curt.

[Are you finished?]

I flinched slightly.

"What...?"

Ah...

[I'm asking if you are done? But this is good. Self introspection and understanding where you stand and pouring out your emotions like this are good ways of stress relief. Affirmative. As long as you understand, you'll be able to eventually surpass your bottleneck and breakthrough at some point. Indeed, this may already be considered as a small progress. The earlier, the better, the stronger you can become faster...]

"..."

I wanted to laugh.

Except there was nothing amusing. Only anger and self-loathe.

Only emptiness and vanity.

What had i been expecting from a creature of numbers and zeros sent to dictate my life and existence?

Truly, in this world i was...

I exhaled deeply and restrained my emotions. What i felt didn't matter and was indifferent.

I shoved those grudges down my throat like pills.

I swept loose strands of my hair back and raised my head.

"What the hell are you talking abo— huh?"

•[Ding! New Quest has been assigned!]

Before i could complete my words, i heard a sudden chime and a blue transluscent system screen flashed before my eyes.

At the same time i felt my heart beat deepen and widened my eyes

===

...

•[DING!]

•[New Quest Alert!]

•[Type:- Survival

»Name: Classless Messiah

»Description: Prevent Alexander Crossfield from dying.

»Duration: ...

•Reward:

»Location of a fragment of the God-Slaying Spear, Goliath.

»+1 Instant Rank-up (Mortal Rank --> Eta Rank)

»???

•Penalty:

»Death, ???

....

————End of Quest————

===

[Surpassing a bottleneck like yours isn't uncommon. Only the right amount of stimuli is needed.]