2026-08-25 17:17:42"Professor, the answer to that triple integral problem is 42 pi, not 36," Fabian Hart said without looking up from his notes.
The atmosphere in the Advanced Mathematics lecture hall at University College London was still quiet. Professor Aldridge turned around at the blackboard, an eyebrow raised.
"Are you sure, Hart? Show your steps."
Fabian stood up, picked up a piece of chalk, and swiftly wrote out the sequence of calculations. A few students in the front row nodded slowly. The rest just watched with bored expressions.
Suddenly, the fluorescent lights overhead flickered. A subtle vibration hummed through the floor. A thin gray mist crept in through the crack of an open window.
"What is that?" a female student in the middle row asked.
The mist grew thicker. Blue holographic screens materialized in front of everyone in the room. A flat, mechanical voice echoed inside their heads.
[System Initialization Complete]
[Apocalypse Protocol Active]
[Golden Pillars of Light detected in 17 locations across Greater London]
[Chosen Hero Registration Open. Average success rate: 1.6%]
A student in the back row yelled, "What is this?! A hologram? A prank?"
Professor Aldridge held up his hands. "Quiet! Don't panic! This must be a technical glitch..."
The screen in front of the professor displayed additional data. Red numbers scrolled rapidly: casualty estimates, monster lethality rates, mist radius. The professor's face went pale.
"I can see the mortality rate," a guy next to Fabian whispered. "Over 98 percent. That's insane."
Fabian had already pulled a dark gray pocket calculator from his jacket pocket. His fingers moved rapidly over the keys. He plugged in the data appearing on the System screen: the number of pillars, estimated participants, listed success rate, most variable factors, and entry-level monster projections.
"98.4 percent," Fabian muttered softly.
The student next to him turned. "What did you say?"
"The death rate at the golden pillars of light. 98.4 percent." Fabian didn't shift his gaze from the calculator. "The System displays a 1.6 percent success rate. That's a global average they use to entice participants. If you recalculate using London's population density, travel distance, and projected monster aggression within the first five-kilometer radius, the number goes up."
"You're crazy," the student said. "This is a chance to become a hero! Look, tons of people are already running outside!"
Shouts reverberated down the hallway. The window panes rattled. Outside, the fog had turned a dense, murky gray. Several students inside the classroom stood up and bolted for the door.
"Let's go!" a woman screamed. "The nearest pillar is at Regent's Park! It's only a twelve-minute run!"
Professor Aldridge was still standing at the front. "Don't everyone leave! We should..."
The System screen in front of the professor flickered again.
[Warning: Delaying more than 7 minutes decreases survival chance by 23%]
The professor fell silent. Then he grabbed his bag and ran out alongside the rest of the students.
Fabian remained seated. He pressed a button on the calculator once more, double-checking his math.
The student next to him still hadn't left. "Hart, aren't you coming? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"
"I've already run the numbers," Fabian replied calmly. "Chance of living if you go to the pillar: 1.6 percent. Chance of living if you seek shelter with food supplies and power: significantly higher."
"You're a coward!"
"I'm a realist." Fabian slipped his calculator back into his pocket. "You're free to leave. I won't stop you."
The student growled, then sprinted off after the others. The lecture hall was nearly empty. Only Fabian and two hesitant students near the door remained.
"Hart," one of them said, voice trembling. "Are you serious about not going? Everyone says this is the only way to get powers."
"Everyone else didn't do the math," Fabian answered. He stood up, adjusted his jacket, and grabbed the backpack that always held his notebooks, spare charger, and two bottles of water. "The System is offering Chosen Hero status. That status comes with mandatory quests, more aggressive monsters, and a target on your back. I have no interest in being a target."
"But if you don't take it, you won't get skills!"
"Skills are useless if you're dead in the first fifteen minutes." Fabian walked toward the back door of the lecture hall, which led to the emergency stairwell. "I have data. You have hope. Make your choice."
The two students exchanged glances, then bolted toward the main hallway. Fabian opened the emergency exit door. Mist was already creeping into the building, bringing a distinct smell of metal and damp earth.
Outside, the streets of Bloomsbury were pure chaos. Thousands of people were running north toward Regent's Park. The mechanical chime of System notifications echoed everywhere.
[Golden Pillars of Light Active. Time remaining for registration: 6 minutes 42 seconds]
[Early bird bonus for the first 1,000 registrants: Random Rank-B Skill]
A middle-aged man slammed into Fabian's shoulder as he ran past. "Get out of the way! You're blocking the path to the pillar!"
Fabian didn't reply. He turned around and headed south, walking away from the crowd.
A woman shouted from across the street. "Hey! You're going the wrong way! The pillar is to the north!"
Fabian simply raised a hand briefly without looking back. He kept walking. The calculator in his pocket felt cool. The figure 98.4 percent remained crystal clear in his mind.
At the Gower Street intersection, he paused for a second. The System screen materialized before his eyes again.
[Individual Detected: Fabian Hart]
[Intelligence Stat: 98.7 – Extremely High]
[System Recommendation: Pursue the Chosen Hero path. Maximum contribution chance to species survival: 94%]
[Do you accept the Main Quest: "Head to the Golden Pillar of Light – Regent's Park"?]
Fabian stared at the screen for three seconds. Then he swiped his finger through the air, declining.
[Rejection Recorded]
[Warning: Repeated refusal will trigger coercion protocols]
"Just try it," Fabian muttered softly.
He thrust his hands into his pockets, felt his calculator, and resumed walking. His destination was clear: an underground convenience store near Tottenham Court Road Station that he knew had a backup generator and a sizeable supply of canned food. Not a pillar of light. Not hero status.
Behind him, the screams of the people running north drifted further into the distance. The mist grew thicker. The distorted sirens of the System continued to sound, offering glory, power, and immortality.
Fabian didn't look back. He had already calculated the odds. And numbers never lie.
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Chapter 9: Arthur on the Brink of Death
The mist outside the convenience store shifted faster than usual as The Ledger's young courier burst inside, pale-faced with his jacket caked in monster dust.Fabian, who was weighing the remaining mana batteries at the staff desk, merely raised his eyes. Marcus was already standing up from the cashier stool, pen in hand over the notebook."Report from Russell Square," the courier panted out. "Arthur Pendleton forced his Hero Party into an old building that serves as a mid-tier monster nest. Without the latest map. Without enough backup potions. They're trapped on the second floor. Four people are already down and unmoving. You can still hear spells being fired, but it's getting sparser."Fabian closed the battery box. "Estimated remaining members?""Out of the twelve who went in, roughly seven or eight are still holding out. Arthur himself has a shoulder wound. He keeps claiming a hero's conviction will prevail, but his people are already panicking."Marcus let out a long sigh. "Craz
Chapter 8: The First Debt
The emergency light in the corner of the convenience store flickered twice before stabilizing just as the sound of spell fire and a woman's screams cut through the mist outside.Fabian, who was updating monster coordinates on the wall map, raised his head. Marcus was already standing with a potion in hand. "That's close. Very close."The glass doors rattled. The shadow of a body slammed against the glass from the outside. Fabian unchained the door just wide enough for an adult to fit through. A black-haired woman with her hair tied neatly, wearing a military coat torn at the shoulder, collapsed inside. Blood flowed from a wound on her right arm. Behind her, two dark shapes resembling mist hounds were still in pursuit."Close it!" the woman ordered in a raspy yet firm voice. "Now!"Marcus pulled her inside. Fabian locked the chain and stacked extra metal baskets against the door. The sound of scratching on the glass lasted for a few seconds, then faded as the mana battery installed at
Chapter 7: Information as a Commodity
"What's the price for the exact location of the three monster spawns near the British Museum?"The voice belonged to a man in a gray cloak who had just walked in alongside two companions. Fabian stood in front of the wall map, which was now filled with red dots and blue lines. Marcus was taking notes in the Ledger notebook from behind the register."Exact location plus estimated spawn times and movement patterns," Fabian replied. "150 pounds. Or the equivalent in two medium-grade raw mana stones."The robed man scoffed. "Expensive. Yesterday you sold a route map for only 70.""Yesterday was a route map. Today it's monster data verified from four separate courier reports," Fabian said without altering his tone. "If you don't want it, feel free to hunt for it yourself in the mist. The mortality risk in that area according to my model is 62 percent."One of the man's companions, a woman whose face still bore old scars, spoke softly. "Just pay it. We already lost two people yesterday beca
Chapter 6: The Stubborn System
"The System just jammed a skill into my stats without permission!"Marcus's voice sounded panicked from near the register. Fabian, who was reorganizing boxes of mana batteries on the back shelves, merely raised his head. A blue screen had been floating in front of both of them for the past minute.[Coercion Protocol Level 1 Active][Individual: Fabian Hart][Coerced Skill Granted: "Critical Analysis Rank-B"][Warning: Rejecting the next Main Quest within 12 hours will trigger a permanent debuff to vital statistics][Follow-Up Quest Offered: "Secure three logistics points in Bloomsbury and register them as a Chosen Hero base chain"]Marcus stared at his own screen, which displayed a similar warning. "I got slapped with a warning too just for being near you! Fabian, this isn't a game anymore. A permanent debuff! You could die a slow death!"Fabian looked at the new skill appearing on his status menu. Critical Analysis Rank-B. He opened his pocket calculator and keyed in the parameters t
Chapter 5: A 1,000 Percent Markup
A rough knocking on the convenience store's glass door woke Marcus from a brief doze on the cashier stool.Fabian, who was updating numbers on the wall map, only glanced over briefly. The mist outside had thinned slightly since morning, but the smell of blood and ozone still hung sharp in the air when he unchained the door just a shoulder's width.Four people stood at the threshold. Two men in torn, dirty suits, a woman wearing a mage's robe scorched at the hem, and a young nobleman whose face was covered in scratches. All of them were panting, the wounds on their arms and legs still leaking dried blood."Is this The Ledger?" asked the man in the front suit in a raised voice. "We need potions and mana batteries right now. Quickly!"Fabian closed his notebook. "Come in. One by one. Leave your weapons outside."The robed woman scoffed. "You're a shopkeeper giving us orders? We just survived a golden pillar of light. You should be grateful we're alive to buy your goods.""I didn't ask an
Chapter 4: Supplies and Safe Routes
"How many people did you see die on Oxford Street this morning?"Fabian stared at the skinny young man who had just entered the convenience store with a scratch on his arm. Marcus stood behind the register, ready to take notes. The mist outside was still thick, but it was more stable compared to yesterday.The young man swallowed hard. "Seven... no, eight. Another one fell into a hole that suddenly opened up in the asphalt. A dark shadow-like monster crawled out of it."Fabian pressed the buttons on his pocket calculator. "Time of occurrence?""Around seven in the morning. I ran here because I heard someone was selling batteries.""What route did you take from Oxford Street to get here?" Fabian asked again."Through the side street behind the old bookstore, then turned onto Gower, and came straight down. Quiet. Only two bodies."Fabian jotted it down in the Ledger notebook. "Information logged. The price for a box of AA batteries is now 180 pounds. What do you have?"The young man pul
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