My name is Alex Bart, I am twenty-three years old and my life has not exactly been a walk in the park. I come from a painfully bad background, an abusive father, addicted to drugs and gambling.

When I was fifteen, he came home drunk and covered with bruises, having been beaten up badly by the loan shark for money he had borrowed to do drugs. He started beating my mother out of frustration and ended up killing her; he was arrested and was sent to trial, leading to his execution, which left me and my dear sister orphaned. With no money, no family connection and a lot of debt to pay the local Mafia.

My life has always been agony.

I am not particularly smart, good looking, or talented. I am what you will call a fated loser, but there is one very thing I excel at and that is survival.

Whatever it takes, whatever I have to do or go through, I will do it without hesitation just to see my sister happy, to shield her from the evil of this world, and there is one thing I have learned so far in my life, there is always evil, it doesn’t matter where you look; it is always there in the shadows cast by the light, looking at you right in the eye.

The child protection agency didn’t care for us so I took on odd jobs as early as fifteen years old, I sell drugs and even joined the local mafia, just to make sure that my sister lives a happy life, I didn’t care that I get beat up and injured sometimes.

 It doesn’t matter if the police are after me or even if the mafia becomes my enemy. I just wanted to take care of my sister. This is how we survived all these years. Looking at us now, I have turned twenty-four a week ago and my sister is going to be twenty soon. Then why? Why did this have to happen to us? Why am I here in a pool of my own blood, looking at the lifeless body of my sister? We only ever wanted to live.

Three years ago, the infernal rain occurred, a meteorite of unknown origin and composition was supposed to pass near earth but suddenly changed course and hit the atmosphere, shattering into thousands of fragments and falling all over the earth, with it came the virus that brought the apocalypse, a few days later, man-eating zombies begin to show up.

The virus that came with the meteorite known as the rune virus has turned five billion people on the planet into zombies, governments fell and societal structures were overwhelmed, amidst all of this happening, the zombies started evolving, mutating and becoming faster, smarter and stronger. Just when all hope was about to be lost, we discovered a way to fight back.

A brilliant man who will be among the ten emperors in the future discovered that the same viral energy that makes the zombies to mutate can also help humans to evolve, to develop mutagenic powers that can rival the unparalleled abilities of the zombies, the name of this man is Kaiser, the mutant king.

Kaiser invented a device that helps awaken the mutant powers humans and soon used his invention to rise to power. People all over the world developed powers, giving birth to the evolvers. People who possess super powers from the rune virus; my sister Elise got the most extraordinary power of all, a healing ability that transcends logic.

With a single drop of her blood, she could heal any kind of injury and illness. She quickly gained popularity and was soon known as the tenth emperor, the Healing queen.

Then there is me, did I already mentioned my luck is bad? Well, let me say it again. Even after I used the awakening machine, I got zero mutant powers. My body is just too incompatible with the mutation it turns out.

Even so, I worked hard to survive. My sister’s powers became the sought after by the powerful evolvers who want to exploit her and gain even more power. Although my sister is called the tenth emperor, her powers are completely unsuitable for combat, so she cannot defend herself even against a normal human if she were to get attacked.

That is why I worked the hardest I can to become stronger, to become someone who can protect her. I worked my body and put myself through hell just to raise my abilities and it is only thanks to that I survived this long.

One day, Elise got invited to meet the rest of the nine emperors. I was against it. I know nothing good will come of her association with them, but she refused to listen.

After my argument with her, she left for the meeting with the emperors and that is the last I heard from her; I worked myself to the bone, strengthened myself, and honed my fighting skills against the mutant zombies. It was a painful journey where I almost died many times, but thanks to that, I have survived this long. Three years of fighting zombies without any evolver powers.

I have made it to the Mutant King’s Castle. I sneaked in knowing fully well that my chances of getting out alive were very slim, but this was to save my sister from the emperors who I believe were holding her captive.

It has been a long two and a half year’s journey for me, but it is worth it. I will rescue my sister today. Is what I thought. So, why?

Why am I standing here surrounded by the nine emperors with my sister’s body dead cold in a freezer being used as a healing buff for the emperors? Why am I staring at the lifeless body of my beloved sister, naked and dehumanized like this?

“She only wanted to help people. She wanted to heal the world, which was all she ever wanted to do. So why? Why did you do this to her?” Alex finally asked, standing in the middle of the room surrounded by the nine strongest men and women in the world.

His hands trembling and tears profusely running down his cheeks. He looks around the room and felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He looked back at the frozen altar and saw the lifeless body of his sister gazing at him.

“Why did we do this? Who the hell are you to break into my castle? Do you not want to live anymore?” Lexa, the sword maiden said and pulled her sword in a fast movement that Alex could not track, by the time he turned around to look at her, he felt a sudden hotness on his left hand, followed by an excruciating pain that made him scream out.

His right arm from the elbow down is on the floor, severed so fast he did not know it happened. His blood has splattered all over the frozen body of his sister on the altar.

“I got this guys, I can make him tell us what he knows, so calm down and let me handle this!” a lady in a nun uniform said and all the rest of them nodded in agreement.

She walked close to Alex and looked him directly in the eye. Her eyes glow a bright yellow shine and all of a sudden, she said.

“Now be a good boy and lick my shoes, you rat bastard!”

Alex did not know how to react. He knows about Celen the enchantress and her powers that can make anyone weaker than her to do what she wants, but he does not feel brainwashed or compelled to obey her as the rumors said.

He stood there glaring at her instead, so intense that she lost her composure and took a step back. Alex quickly draw his concealed knife and slashed at her, missing her neck and grazing her cheeks with the knife.

“I think your little magic trick didn’t work on him Celen.” Lexa said to Celen, who is now running away from him.

Alex pulled out his foldable crossbow and fired it at Celen, but Kaisar suddenly jumped in front of her and used his hand to deflect the arrow, then he looks back and made sure that Celen was okay before he turned around and looked Alex in the eye, this made Alex’s knees weak, making him fall on his knees and before he knows it, Tsukasa, also called the sword mistress has sneaked close to him and sliced off the wrist of his right hand.

Kaisar walked slowly towards him and stopped suddenly.

“I cannot sense any rune energy from this man, although I have already figured out who he is and why he is here. But to think that there is a person without a single drop of rune in his body, has this man not been breathing the air? To not have rune energy at all means to never have been exposed to the virus at all. While this explains why the enchantment didn’t work on him, just what is going on in his body?” Kaisar said.

“In any case, it is time to finish this off and move along with our plans.” Lexa said and walked to where Alex is lying in a pool of his own blood. He managed to stand back up and fell on the frozen body of his sister.

Lexa draw a small dagger and stood behind him with a wicked smile on her face. She used one hand to grab his hair and placed the dagger on his neck.

At this point, Alex knows that his life will be over soon, he simply closed his eyes expecting her to slit his throat which will kill him the easiest, but he felt the knife raised and instead of the neck, he felt the dagger stab his thigh; he screamed in agonizing pain.

She pulled the dagger out and stabbed him on the other thigh as hard as she could, burying the short dagger in his flesh. She then pulled it out again and severed his Achilles tendons. Lexa pulled out a piece of cloth from her pocket and stuff it in his mouth.

“You can finish him however you want, but do not damage his heart and brain. I will be checking these later!” Kaisar said and left.

“Lexa, you sad and twisted bitch! You really enjoy torturing people weaker than you, don’t you? Well, if Kaisar allows it, I will not say anything.” Octavo the shadow ruler said and went after Kaisar.

Lexa finally placed her dagger back on Alex’s neck, slitting just his jugular vein and sitting by the side as he bleeds.

With the last of his strength, Alex turns his head and looks at Elise’s frozen body, “you must be really cold sister, but do not worry, I will soon be with you as always. I’ll warm you up. If I can’t, we will be cold together like we have always been when we were kids. I am sorry that I could not protect you from these psychopaths. Just wait for me.” He said with his last breath. As he cursed his fate and the bad luck that followed him all of his life.

“Isn’t this cute? You are dying, and you still have the courage to worry about your poor sister. Well, good night Alex, I will enjoy watching Kaisar cut your sister into nine different pieces.” She said and finally stood up.

“It was fun torturing her while she was still alive. She made more attractive screams than you did, though! You are no longer fun to play with but here is another secret, Celen just told me that Shin and Baal caught someone trying to get in the castle, I bet they are your friend so I will go and play with them for now, good night Alex!” she added as she walked out.

As the last breath leaves Alex’s lungs, his consciousness faded and everything was becoming dark and blank. He saw a computer window-like projection glowing just above his line of sight and it has something written on it,

Possible Player candidate found, calculating the amount of misery and inflicted.

Checking compatibility

Player conditions: fulfilled.

Congratulations, you have met the criteria to fulfil the quest: {Revenge of the fallen}.

After Alex finished reading the window, everything went dark.

After a slight moment of absolute silence and nothingness, Alex started hearing something. At first it was just an indistinguishable sound, but as time passes more and more, it gets louder and louder until he could finally hear it clearly.

“Alex! Alex! Alex Bart!” a woman’s voice shouted into his ears.

Alex opened his eyes and woke up from his nap with tears rolling down his cheeks. ‘What was that? A dream?’ he thought and all of a sudden he said to himself. “No, I am certain that it was not a dream. The apocalypse happened and the nine emperors killed my sister. Lexa, that bitch!......” Alex was taking to himself out loud when he heard the boys in the back seat laughing at him.

This is when it suddenly hit him that he was in a classroom and the person who was shouting his name was his home teacher, Miss. Olivia.

“Are you alright Alex? You were sleeping throughout the class, and now you are suddenly talking rubbish. Did you spend another entire night watching movies instead of sleeping?” she said.

Alex looked around him and realized that all of his classmates were alive. The people who he fought the zombies with, some of which died in his own arms, were right here in front of him and immediately realized.

‘I was sure I died at the hands of the nine emperors, but what is this?’ he thought and looked at the board to see the date, 23-05-2049.

“Did I really regress back in time to three years back just before the infernal rain? And what is that red bar that says configuring system?” he said out loud that Miss. Olivia, their teacher, walked to him and asked.

“What red bar? Are you okay Alex? You are acting weird today.”

“You really cannot see the red bar?” he asked just to be sure and Miss Olivia just stared back at him in disbelief at what he was talking about.

“Excuse me, I need to use the restroom now.” He said and left the class where the teacher could not understand a single thing he was saying and all of his classmates were laughing and making jokes about him.

He ran through the hallway and entered the bathroom, locking the door after him and going to the mirror on the wall of the bathroom near the sinks.

Seeing the reflection of his former self all the more convinced him that he has indeed regressed to the past with his memories of what happened in the future.

All of a sudden, the red bar that has a text on it showing the configuring system disappeared and showed “Installation complete: player system ready!”

Player name: Alex Bart

Age: twenty-one years old

Awakening level: level one

Rune energy: 0

Special abilities: none

Class: none.

Available missions: find the Girl named Edith Johnson and rescue her from the serial killer that has her in a basement on the fifth block from the school building.

Time duration for the mission: Seven hours.

Rewards: ????????????

Penalty for failing the mission: ???????????