[The Heroes of the New Age]
A popular novel that recently emerged in the online literature space. It appeared like a dark star, instantly topping most of the rankings and charts at its start, surprising everyone.
Written by an amateur author with no prior experience, such instant resounding success was unexpected and shocking.
But after the readers, conquered by curiosity, read the novel, they only had one remark about it.
Amazing.
It was the type of novel that made one shed tears, laugh out loud, and act ecstatic and childish.
It was unique and special, an amazing work with well-written characters that the readers could relate to.
And it wasn't no surprise that with its spreading reputation, the novel quickly gained a sturdy fanbase, having the spotlight for a while in the online literature space.
To the readers or fans of the work, it wasn't merely a novel. The novel far surpassed that. It was a novel with the fun of web novels and hints of classics.
Although it wasn't safe from criticism as it was not perfect from all ends, the good it had far outweighed the bad it could have.
In short, it was a resounding success.
Therefore, it was entirely puzzling why the author suddenly messed the story up, badly ruining everything.
***
[Heavenly Sovereign God: Dogshit author! How come Lance reverted to his original personality???]
[Fallen Human: I've seen many authors messed up, but never this badly. You should be ashamed of yourself for existing.]
[FuckYouEroan: I made this account on how much I hate you. You ruined everything.]
[AliceLover12457: Even Alice wasn't safe from your clutches... I curse you...]
[...]
A young man garbed with black linen clothes and wearing a scarf on his neck silently read the comments.
"They're really angry."
Elias Roan chuckled. He was not surprised by the reactions of the others to the novel. No one in the world was more familiar than him with the novel.
Why? Because he was the amateur author of that novel.
Author: Eroan—The author who wrote [Heroes of The New Age].
When he wrote it, the popularity and trend it brought only made him widen his eyes and scoff in madness at the situation; it was a surprise, really.
An ironic twist of fate that a novel he created on a whim of sarcasm could amass him such popularity.
That was not him being arrogant, it was the truth.
Often he would browse through reviews of his own work and he would see fans praising it for being a work made from heartfelt emotions and passion, filled with nuance, complexity, and themes of human nature.
On that, he would laugh. Elias Roan would laugh without hesitation. There was no doubt that he made the novel with heartfelt emotions and passion; but not the emotions which they were thinking of.
It was a work written out of spite and rage. Out of malice, sorrow, rage, and spite—a way to vent his repressed emotions during the worst times of his life.
It had no nuance, complexity, or any other thing. It was just pure nonsense. There was no deeper thought to it. Just a pure, heap of bullshit.
And yet such a thing… It was regarded as a great novel?
"What a load of bullshit… what has the world gone to?"
Elias sighed self-deprecatingly.
That's why, during the last arc he decided to ruin everything. To throw away all character development and destroy every little good thing about the novel.
Back then, he was quite looking forward to the reaction that would spur when the novel got worse.
And he wasn't disappointed.
"Curse all you want, nothing is going to change."
Elias muttered to himself, stretching his hands lazily.
Looking at the time on the laptop, he realized it had been a while since he was writing.
He looked at the laptop screen, the smile on his face widening.
It had been three years since he made the novel, and now was the time for its final publication. After this, it would thoroughly end.
With little to no reluctance, Elias saved and uploaded the final chapter of the novel before standing up from his chair.
Before he left the room, he took a last glance at the laptop before chuckling self-deprecatingly. It's done and he finished it in the way he wanted.
Of course, the way he wanted—the opposite of what the readers wanted.
To elaborate, the last arc and the last chapter of the novel is a tragic ending.
It was the type of ending that would spur a fandom to curse the author, destroy what reputation remained of the work, and completely ruin the experience of every reader.
It was the horrible ending that every author should avoid, but one he purposely wrote.
He did it for one reason; out of damn spite. He already got everything out of it, might as well spite everyone in the process.
Childish? Yes. Immature? Yes.
Did he remotely care? No, not at all.
"Hahahahahahahaha."
Elias laughed with a hint of mockery as he exited the room. Soon, the lights turned off as silence descended the room, leaving the laptop on the desk.
[...]
After a while, since he left, the laptop suddenly vibrated. Its screen turned on under no one's influence, brightening a portion of the room.
[You really did that, huh?]
A sentence appeared on the screen before being wiped out as a new sentence formed again.
[Sigh, that was my favorite work, you know? What a nasty bastard… I should've seen that coming when the last arc started... the characters were getting twisted...]
[I've decided! I'll use you for that spot. Hmph.]
The text in the screen paused, as though contemplating.
[Maybe I shouldn't do that? Nah. It's his fault anyway. Technically. Yeah, that should be good.]
At that moment, the laptop turned off. The room once again descended in silence, overriden of darkness.
***
In a pitch-black room, the smell of blood and steel filled the small cell. At the back of the room, a young man with rough features groggily woke up.
The young man wore a matching uniform and leggings, with parallel stripes woven in hue of contrasting black and white.
He had messy black hair and a long scar beside his temple that accentuated the dangerous and threatening air surrounding him.
Slowly, the young man opened his eyes as the drowsiness that occupied his mind vanished with each second.
However, before the young man was confused, bewildered and before he could even react —he suddenly grabbed his head in panic as his body fell to the ground.
'What the hell?! Wha—!'
Elias Roan groaned as he felt a massive headache abruptly assault him. It pierced through his fragile soul.
"Arghhhh—!"
Elias eyes shouted uncontrollably.
At that moment, several scenes flashed through his mind. He didn't know how, but upon seeing them, he immediately recognized what they were—memories!
Under the assault of an intense headache, he couldn't think of anything other than to integrate the memories.
After a few seconds, the headache abruptly stopped as the memories that appeared finished engraving themselves on his mind.
Fragmented memories of the past mixed along his present memories, interweaving. In the end, he was lost in a daze.
Shortly after, Elias sobered up from his daze and displayed an expression of astounding disbelief.
"What the hell are these memories... my name is supposedly Elias Vito Castellano?"
Elias Vito Castellano, the fallen successor of the destroyed Castellano Family.
Due to a new ruler in the underworld, the Head of the Castellano, unwilling to surrender and swear subservience, was subjected to extermination as the entirety of the family was soon killed or jailed by the surrounding forces.
And it had been approximately a week since the caught Castellano remnants had been thrown into jail.
"I'm Elias Vito Castellano? No. I'm certain I'm me, Elias Roan... it seems I inherited the memories and emotions of Elias Vito Castellano."
Elias realized this all at once. He could also feel some foreign emotions erupting from within him.
Bottomless sorrow and infallible rage.
He calmed himself down for a moment and assessed his own situation. Then, like the wind blowing the fog, he grasped on to little clarity he possessed to think critically.
'A possession... no, more aptly. Transmigration or fusion of souls. I possessed this body and gained the memories and emotions of this person.'
'It could be said, although I am Elias Roan. I am also Elias Vito Castellano.'
Soon, the fog of confusion departed from Elias' mind. He groaned irritably as he had gotten an answer.
After a wave of calmness, he managed to slowly separate the confusion between his identity and fix the dissociation within him.
'I'm Elias Roan, not Elias Vito Castellano.'
At that moment, while he was thinking, a loud mechanical sound erupted in his mind.
[Have you woken up yet?]
Welcome, love y'all.
9/26/23
Hearing that, Elias suddenly turned alert. Huh? Did... I just hear someone speak in my mind? Who was that?
Confused, Elias slowly raised his head and suddenly felt the wind breeze, making his body tremble from the cold.
The prison room which was quiet, suddenly shook, glitchy overlays appearing on the surface of reality as though there was a bug in 'reality' itself.
Seeing the changes, Elias was in a daze. He felt his hands tremble slightly—before he clenched it tightly and focused, narrowing his eyes.
[Hello, Elias Roan.]
At that moment, Elias felt the room suddenly increase in temperature.
[Or should I call you by your pen-name, Eroan?]
Internally shook, Elias felt an indescribable chill suddenly spurt from his throat. How does he know that? I didn't even use my real identity when I sighed the writing contract with the company....
"Who... are you? No, do I know you?"
The voice paused, turning the room silent. After thinking for a while, it replied with a chuckle.
[Me? Hm… It would be anti-climatic to reveal myself at the start, wouldn't it? That's not interesting at all. More importantly, that's not what you should be concerned about.]
Unable to understand the thought process, Elias' lips twitched as he deeply breathed, calming down his nerves in the process.
"Who—no, what are you? Are you the one responsible for transmigrating me here? What do you want?"
[Unexpectedly, for a spiteful bastard... you're calming yourself more quickly than I imagined, impressive. I'm sure you have a lot of questions right now. But I figured, wouldn't it be more fun if you solve the mysteries yourself?]
Despite feeling like there was something amiss of the whole situation, Elias was sure that the entity behind the voice was playing with him.
Laughing at him, mocking him.
He couldn't help but feel a tinge of irritation.
[Though, I'll give you a headstart. The world you're in now is a very, very familiar place for you. Not Earth though. Far away… or perhaps very close? Who knows.]
Elias was confused, rightfully so.
[The world of Aegis, familiar?]
Hearing that name, all manner of color instantly drained from Elias face as his expression paled.
Aegis… Elias widened his eyes at that word. He immediately thought of something, but he denied it fiercely. No way! There's no way!
As though taking relish over his suffering, the voice continued, but now filled with derision.
[Indeed, the exact Aegis you're thinking about. Be happy about it! It's the world that you created! A world that you know very well, with your knowledge, even becoming the strongest is no impossible task!]
Despite the confirmation and encouraging words by the glitchy system, Elias could no longer keep the horror he desperately contained inside him from those words.
[Heh. What a twist of fate, right? Of course, I won't leave you helpless. I'll give you this system as a help, I won't take it back. Its only downside is that it kills you when you fail a mission… and you can't reject a main mission either.]
[I can't help with that. There's a concept you should know very well: equivalent exchange. If you want power, you need to exchange for it.]
At this point, the voice's words fell to deaf ears. Elias was struggling to understand anything. It was unrealistic, unbelievable and flat out... horrifying as a prospect.
[But I'm sure the great Omniscient Author can handle that! Goodluck! I hope you survive until we meet, Elias Roan… or should I now say, Elias Vito Castellano.]
As soon as the voice's last words fell, a harrowing silence creeped in the prison cell and made the air turn colder.
Afterwards the glitchy overlay of reality vanished along with voice, leaving behind a blue system interface in front of him.
Despite the harrowing and incomprehensible entity already leaving, Elias was still paralyzed in disbelief with a pale face.
The rest of the contents of the glitchy system fell flat to him and entered one ear to leave to the other, only the word Aegis was resounding in his mind like a broken cacophony.
Why?
It was because Aegis—the world where [Heroes of the New Age] occurs was headed into a certain, inevitable future.
It was a future he meticulously weaved. The ending that Elias rigorously planned and written for years out of spite.
The last chapter of blanketed tragedy.
A future without life, a world of desolation.
Aegis was headed into an absolute, certain inevitable future of destruction. In other words, a tragedy that could not be circumvented.
***
After a few minutes, Elias returned to reality, his face still pale while his eyes slightly regaining luster.
The impact of the realisation of his situation left him in deep seated despair. However, he also realised one side of the situation that gave him hope.
"Even if the world is going to get destroyed, It doesn't matter, as long as I can return to Earth. I can't give up yet…"
Elias reminded himself. At that moment, various questions arose in his mind to distract him from the fact of his situation.
'How could the world I created come alive? Who was the person speaking behind the system? What's my purpose in all of this? How can I return to earth?'
His mind was full of questions with no answers. Elias grimly sighed as he temporarily let every concern including his current situation be buried for the moment.
Currently, he had no answer to any of the questions. He had some preliminary guesses from experience based on reading novels, but those were just some nonsense; this was reality.
Shaking his head, Eliad looked at the most pressing matter right now.
[Hero Creator System]
From the words of the entity earlier, this system could be considered their help to him. However, he couldn't verify if it was safe or not.
But upon careful consideration, if the entity wanted to kill him—it wouldn't be using such a difficult and troublesome way.
But... his mind was in a mess, repulsed by the thought of trusting some strange high dimensional entity.
Thinking of that, Elias murmured a word he had read in the past: "Status."
At that moment, the system screen displayed itself to him.
[Name: Elias Vito Castellano (Elias Roan)
Race: Human
Talent: Indomitable Spirit
Rank: E+
Level: 17
Unused status points: 150
STR: E+ (78/100)
AGI: E+ (70/100)
STA: E+ (58/100)
CONST: E+ (65/100)
INT: E (51/100)
MAG: E- (43/100)
GROWTH: D (50/200)
SKILLS: [Way of Castellano], [Ferocious Underdog(Passive)], [Gaze of Intimidation(Passive)]
'These kind of stats... they're so fucking trash?'
Elias was stunned as he looked at the screen. In the world of Aegis, there were rankings implemented to measure strength
Rank F pertains to people as strong as ordinary humans, usually people below level 10.
Rank E pertains to people above average, with levels around 10-19.
Rank D pertains to those with levels around 20-39.
Rank C pertains to those with levels around 40-59.
Rank B, Rank A and beyond those… were above level 60 and almost unmeasurable.
There was also a system status screen in the world.
But unlike the status system people use in this world, the Hero Creator System he currently has seems to have more advanced uses and additional tabs.
For example, the latter has something called status points which have the ability to grant the user immediate power up at moments notice or instantly increase their familiarity in skills.
That was a very broken ability, considering the way people raise their strength in Aegis is through either training, killing monsters, subjugating dungeons and enlightenment.
There was also something called Mission Tab which immediately caught Elias' notice as he remembered what the entity said.
[MISSION TAB]
Looking at the shining section, he recalled what the entity said before.
'It's only downside is that it kills you when you fail a mission…'
Elias hesitated to touch it as it may give him a sudden mission. But he had a feeling that regardless of his intentions, the system would force him a mission anyway.
Before he could decide whether to touch it or not, the Mission Tab glowed brightly before a new screen override the status.
[Main Quest: No. 1]
[Rule the Underworld]
[The Underworld has plunged into chaos, all the organisations and the long order within it has been broken down as a new ruler sat on the ghostly throne. The Ghost King killed all those who wouldn't swear fealty to him. You, Elias Vito Castellano must rise up, kill the Ghost King and rule the Underworld to change your fate of death. Use any means necessary.]
[Time Limit: 1 Year]
[Rewards: ???]
Beneath it, two new quests suddenly formed and entered Elias' sight.
[Subquest: No. 1]
[The Don]
[Create an organization and become the head honcho.]
[Time Limit: None.]
[Rewards: [Godfather], [Honor Among Thieves], [Master of Crime].]
[Subquest: No. 2]
[Student of Arcana Academy]
[Enroll as a student of the famous Arcana Academy.]
[Time Limit: 3 Months]
[Rewards: [Advanced Talent Selection], [Technique Selection] and [Advance Item Selection]...]
This… Elias was in a daze as he saw the list of quests. He didn't know whether he should laugh or cry.
Edited: 9/26/23
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