Chapter 1: Prologue

'Efforts never betray you'

A quote that has been widely respected and repeatedly preached across the world.

Some people widely regard this quote as a personal mantra to follow throughout their life, while others simply scoff over the quote as if it were a mere joke.

I mean why put effort when you have a super-rich dad that provides you with all that you need?

Big house?

'Hello, daddy can you buy me a house?'

New car?

'Daddy~ There's this new car that I really love and was wondering if…'

There's also those that live in luxury because they are simply lucky, like the ones that win a lottery

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I mean how much effort does it take for someone to win a lottery?

'Congratulations you have won 200 million'

How does 'efforts never betray you' apply here?

Of course, setting those examples aside, there were many cases in which the quote proved to be correct.

For example, have you seen the movie…hmmm what was it called.

Ah! right the 'Pursuit of happyness'

It was your perfect example of 'Efforts never betray'.

It was a touching story about a homeless dad living in the street with his son, and later because of his pure love and dedication for his son, he managed to succeed and became a millionaire. Very touching.

But what about me? What have I got to say about 'Efforts never betray'?

It was utter bullsh*t. Period.

'Efforts never betray?' I could only simply scoff at such a ridiculous notion. I mean sure if you put in some effort you would definitely achieve better results than your regular mob out there, but was that really all to it? Was this the key to success?

No. It simply wasn't

The key ingredient to success was 'Talent'

No matter how much effort you put into something, you would never be able to surpass the unsurmountable mountain known as talent.

I mean look at football for example. Many people trained just as hard as Messi or Ronaldo, but in the end, they don't even come close to their level. No matter how much they trained, no matter how much blood sweat, and tears they put in, they would never be able to even touch their ankles.

What kind of Bullsh*t was that?

Getting back on topic. Why did I have such a grudge against the quote 'Efforts never betray'?

Simple. It was because I was one of those idiots that wholeheartedly believed in the quote.

You see, my parents died when I was 14. Some bastard got drunk and ran them over. I couldn't remember how many times I had cried myself to sleep because of the accident.

My parents didn't have siblings, and both my grandparents, maternal and paternal, had already left the world, making me an orphan.

Luckily, they had enough money in their bank account to last me until school finished, and thus I studied as my if life depended on it. I mean it literally was.

I would study hours and hours on end, just so that I could enroll at the prestigious University A and later find myself a suitable job for myself.

But hold on. How could I possibly afford to go to university? I mean university usually costs a hell of a lot of money.

A bank loan? Would they loan to someone that had no parents and no assets? Well, I tried but in the end, I got rejected by the government.

But there was a way. A scholarship.

If I managed to secure myself a scholarship I could attend university without paying a single cent.

Luckily University A, the only university near me, offered a scholarship program that was perfect for me. One of my teachers heard that they only offer one scholarship a year for people in the school I attended. But that was enough for me. If I studied hard enough and achieved a high enough score, there was definitely a chance.

And so I studied, studied so hard that all the friends I had made over the years became estranged. But I was fine with it. As long as I could attend university I could make all the friends that I wanted…was what I thought at that time. But looking back at it now, I could only laugh at how naive I was back then.

Thanks to all the effort I put in I managed to get on the top 1% percentile in the national exams, but in the end, the scholarship I so wanted never came.

Funnily enough, I only found out later that the one who got the scholarship was actually lower ranked than me. Apparently, his father was a highly influential person and helped him secure the scholarship for him.

That scholarship should've been mine! All the sleepless nights and lonely days that I had spent became worthless!

What's even more frustrating was the fact that the father could totally afford to send his son to university without a scholarship.

Since you could afford it, why not give it to someone who actually needed it?

I wanted to apply to other universities for scholarships, but they were all outside of my city, and I couldn't afford to move.

At that point, having exhausted all my family's savings, I was dirt poor.

I could barely feed myself through part-time jobs. How could I possibly study in another city where the rent was levels beyond what I could afford.

And thus left with no choice, I dropped all my studies and continued attending part-time jobs.

I slowly sank into depression and found an escape route in food, manga, and web novels

As I gained weight and found myself putting on more pounds with each passing day, it became increasingly harder for me to continue going to part-time jobs as I would always run out of breath after standing for over 10 minutes.

Fortunately, I found myself a new hobby. Writing web novels. At first, I took it as a hobby to pass time, but later as more and more people started reading my novel, a fire that had long been extinguished ignited inside of me, prompting me to continue writing.

And I succeeded

My first novel was a hit, and money started coming in.

……

[Descent of the Hero]

Description : Sypher an orphan boy from a poor village hopes of one day becoming a hero and embarks on a tough journey to fight against all odds and become a hero.

Rating : 4.7 (513 reviews)

Views : 5.5M Words : 1.3M

……

Sure it was your typical story of Hero vs Demon king, but what could I say? As long as I liked it, and it made money it'll do, right?

At least that's what I thought at first, but as time progressed and as my second and third novels came out, I found myself slowly and slowly losing interest.

It was not because I hated writing, no, it was simply because of what I was made to write. Because I was catering to my readers, I slowly started straying away from what I liked writing.

I started writing things that I did not like. For example, people loved fan service, but it was really uncomfortable from a writer's point of view. Especially for a virgin like myself. Fortunately, I had the internet to help me, but it was stuff like this that made my passion for writing decrease. I mean who would want to write about putting some cucumber in their mouth? Certainly not me.

And though I did exactly as my readers asked, apart from the first novel I never found my novels making it in the ranks.

And here I was today staring blankly at my laptop

click click click click click

The monotonous sound of my keyboard typing echoed inside of my room.

The same boring pattern repeated like any other day.

Wake up

Type

Eat

Type

Repeat

Finishing my last sentence, I pressed the save button at the top right of my screen and clicked [Send]

Sigh

Letting out a long sigh, I dazedly look at my ceiling. How long will I have to continue to do this?

Bitterly shaking my head, I look at my novels comment section

……

Goodguy85 : Ugh Author-san I feel like your writing is becoming worse and worse……

--] Weeboo : Replying to Goodguy85, I totally agree with you. This novel had so much potential but I feel like lately the story started derailing.

--] TruckDriver : I totally agree with you man. There are too many plot holes and Deux Machina. It's getting ridiculous.

Boywonder : ~Thanks for the new chapter!

TwilightStar : Dropped

BoobMonster : hey hey hey, where the ecchi scenes?

Roosterboy65 : Dude is married to mary sue.

……

BAM!

"Fuck! What do you mean my writing is getting worse!"

Slamming the table with my fist, I raged at my computer.

"I'm tired of this sh*t!"

Closing the laptop down, I forcefully tried to calm myself. Getting angry was not good for my blood pressure.

I actually quite liked my new novel. This novel was the fruition of my frustration and desire to try something new so that I could ignite the last remaining embers inside of my heart.

It was your typical weak to strong story, but unlike my previous novels, this one was set in a modern futuristic setting.

The story's background starts in 1980 where the 'Great Cataclysm' occurred. A three-stage disaster that hit the earth causing the world to drastically change

The first phase of the 'Great Cataclysm' - Shift in tectonic plates all over Earth, moving countries from where they were previously, resulting in tsunamis and earthquakes, killing millions in the process. The sudden shift in tectonic plates caused the world map to permanently change, with there only being one landmass surrounded by water.

The second phase of the 'Great Cataclysm' - Huge portals started appearing where unknown species which were later identified as demons and other races, started emerging. At first, they were docile, but as soon as they deemed humanity weak they started rampaging all over the place.

But with great disasters come opportunities. As portals appeared, humanity managed to gain access to mana. A special force that lingered throughout the atmosphere and originated from other worlds. It would allow humans to do things they could've only dreamt of doing in the past like summoning fireballs or cutting through metal.

Lastly, the third phase of the 'Great Cataclysm' - This happens near the ending of the novel, and it was when the Demon world forces started a full-scale invasion of earth.

Ten years after the Second cataclysm, three factions ruled the world. The demon faction, the Human faction, and the Fantasia faction which was compromised of Orcs, elves, and Dwarves.

The Fantasia faction was sort of an alliance between the elves, dwarves, and the orcs. And that was because they were practically forced into one.

Demons were the manifestation of 'greed'. They were created with the sole goal of devouring planets. They would first start by entering a planet, then as time progresses they would reproduce like crazy, and slowly once they gained enough strength they would devour the planet.

The Elves, orcs, and dwarves were all refugees and survivors from the demons, who had already conquered their home planet.

At first, when the elves, orcs, and dwarves arrived on earth, they chose to observe. They wanted to see if the humans were worthy enough to join their alliance to fight against the demons. At first, they were very excited with the prospect of gaining a potential ally, but as time passed their excitement turned into disappointment, which later became into disgust.

For the prideful elves, the selfish acts and schemes which they witnessed during humanity's dark moments made all thoughts of collaboration vanish, only to be replaced with utter disdain.

For the orcs, humanity's weak and frail body left them utterly disappointed and thus deemed them unnecessary.

And for the Dwarves, humanity's primitive technology made them seem like brainless monkeys who roamed around flaunting their power and intelligence with no substantial backing.

In the end, the demon faction and the Fantasia faction each claimed 3/8 of the earth, while humans only claimed 2/8 of the earth, making them a minority group.

Initially, the story starts with the protagonist enrolling in the 'Lock', a specialized school that was established by the effort of all humanity, to raise warriors to defend the borders against the attacks from both factions.

He was your typical MC with a tragic past

- Parents died due to war at the hands of demons

- Vengeance against Demons

…and so on

It was what you would expect from an MC.

It was my masterpiece. At least that's what I thought, but looking through the comment section I couldn't help but rage.

I mean how would you feel if what you feel is your masterpiece gets insulted?

Terrible right?

Letting out a long breath, I try to once again calm myself.

Lately, I've been having anger issues. The simplest thing could get me mad, which just goes to show how bad my anger issues were.

But it couldn't be helped. With how sh*tty my life was, I was bound to develop a twisted personality.

"Guh…Aaah!"

Just when I was about to close my laptop, a sudden pain struck me in my chest, more precisely my heart.

Clenching my chest, I kneeled on the floor. With heavy pants, I forced my way to my desk.

"I need my medicine…"

Because of my poor living conditions, I took a lot of medicine. There was one for my blood pressure, one for my asthma, and another for my depression.

and right now I was looking for my blood pressure medicine.

Because of my sudden outburst, my blood pressure must have increased, causing this reaction.

So as long as I could take my medicine…

"Gaahh!"

Falling to my knees my vision become blurry

It was starting to get increasingly harder to breathe.

"Ahhh, is this how my sh*tty life ends…"

Those were the last words that escaped from my mouth before I found the whole world become black

……

Chirp chirp chirp

Awaking me from my slumber was the peaceful sound of birds chirping

I could faintly feel the warm gentle sunshine envelop my whole body, causing my lethargic self to feel more energetic.

Opening my eyes, I found myself inside a one-bedroom apartment.

Rubbing my eyes to make sure I was still not sleeping I blinked a couple of times and once more looked at my strange surroundings.

'Aren't I supposed to be…dead?'

…was what I thought at first, but seeing that I was still breathing and seeing just fine, I thought that perhaps someone had rescued me moments before I died, and right now I was in a hospital.

But with each passing second, I realized that this was not the case.

Why?

Simple…it was because a large screen appeared right in front of me startling the living daylights out of me.

===Status===

Name : Ren Dover

Rank : G

Strength : G

Agility : G

Stamina : G-

Intelligence : G

Mana capacity : G

Luck : E

Charm : G-

--] Profession : [Swordsmanship lvl.1]

==========

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