On the other side of the world about ten thousand kilometers away from country Zelda stood the Rhode islands, a group of huge islands that were all together part of country Rhode.
This country was regarded as one of the top tourist destinations in the world due to its breathtaking scenery and the abundance of natural attractions, cultural landmarks, and diverse experiences it offered to visitors.
It was easily among the top ten best locations to visit in the world.
However,the government of the country had suddenly stopped tourists from entering, finding a flimsy reason as an excuse. This act raised a lot of voices criticizing them but they simply remained mute refusing to give any tangible reason.
The crazy thing was it didn't end there as other countries also did the same thing and eventually a trend was noticed,all these countries were mainly tourist destinations that usually received hundreds of millions of tourists. It was as if they had suddenly decided to do this together making the whole case more intriguing.
Further digging by internet users and the cause was soon found out.
Recently a new rumour had gone viral on all social media platforms talking about an apocalypse. At first the post was only in a few conspiracist theory groups
but then it suddenly spread to other communities that were not even remotely conspiracist!
Initially, it was ignored as people were already too insensitive to this kind of attention seeking. However,after more and more posts like these flooded the internet more and more people started to view it differently as some of the natural disasters mentioned in the post were actually coming true!
At the end of the day however,most brushed it off as nothing more than lucky speculation as those events could have been coincidences,thus no one really paid it any more attention.
***********
[Mission completed!]
On the streets of Brayden a young man not quite over twenty could be seen walking along the busy walk ways. His eyes were droopy with dark bags under them while his hair was somewhat dishevelled,overall he looked like a homeless person.
It was the noon rush hour and there was a great deal of people moving about.
Suddenly the youth paused when he heard the voice before grinning wildly as he swung his fist in the air which immediately attracted the attention of passerbys as they gave him weird looks.
Sitting on a bench an old couple glanced at him as they sighed in pity.
"Aiyah...another youth gone crazy from doing drugs,dear lord what is the world turning into!"
"It truly is a pity,the poor boy must be going through a lot,say honey, do you think he's living in a dumpster,poor boy!"
''Sush, he can hear us!''
Hearing the duo's conversation an extremely embarrassed look appeared on the youth's face as he quickly fled the scene.
The two oldies just sighed as they thought to themselves that the world was no longer like it used to be.
Meanwhile a few blocks away the youth from earlier could be seen again. This time he entered a hardware store eliciting strange looks from those around.
"Next time giving me notification wouldn't hurt!"
[I did hence the message]
"Would it hurt you not to talk?"
The 'crazy' looking youth was none other than Dante who was just coming back from the research institute after over a week of continuous research..
Yes,you heard right a week!
Counting from the first day, today was exactly seven days since he started Germaine's research mission and finally,finally he had just received the notification informing him of it's completion.
The mission wasn't that complicated, in fact it was just a research into dimensionality and some other stuff. The reason they had completed the mission so early was due to the fact that Dante had prior knowledge from the apocalypse accelerating the process greatly. The only thing that remained was for the research results to be officially validated which was almost done anyway.
He had received his remunerations though, a total of ten thousand dollars which had been further increased to fifteen grand thanks to Professor Germaine in appreciation of his efforts.
''Just came right in time.'' Smirking, he entered the rows of shelves in the store.
Eventually when he walked towards the counter with a huge amount of items the shopkeeper was dumbfounded
The storekeeper had a strange look on his face as he scanned his items,there was a hint of hesitation on his face but eventually he opened his mouth.
"Mind if I ask kid but what the hell are you doing with these things?"
"I'm preparing for the apocalypse!"
Shopkeeper:''....''
Hearing Dante reply in all seriousness the shopkeeper's mouth twitched a little before he finally spoke.
" You know those rumours on the internet aren't true right? It's probably some crazed bastard who's just craving attention."
Shaking his head,Dante looked at the man for a while before replying solemnly as he took his items.
"I won't say that they, whoever they are, are crazy. Rather they are a visionary who can see beyond others. I don't know if there's a truth to what was said but it isn't gonna hurt to stock up anyway."
Saying this he left without giving the shopkeeper time to reply.
[Shameless!]
"Hah say whatever you want,I really am a visionary you know?"
Chuckling as he walked out Dante bantered with the system in his mind.
Obviously the recent rumours circulating on the internet about an apocalypse were naturally all his doing as he was the only human to have experienced the apocalypse.
This was something he had decided to do after considering how abruptly the apocalypse came in his last life. There had been no time for anybody to adapt before they were thrust into the hellish,new world order causing nearly half of Earth's population to perish in less than twenty four hours after the apocalypse's descent!
Most civilians disregard the info since they couldn't wrap their heads around such an event, furthermore, there was nothing to prove it.
However, he knew that those at the higher levels of the government and the military would definitely take notice.
To achieve this he had even gone the extra step of adding the exact time and date when the apocalypse would descend.
Now everything they did was up to them. Whether they acted upon his info or not he had done his very best.
Arriving home Dante dropped the stuff he had just bought among a pile of other bizarre stuff like fertilizers,metal sheets and some other stuff that were enough to raise eyebrows.
"Ugh…I miss my old strength."
Slumping on the chair from exhaustion,Dante mumbled before pulling up the system I interface as he massaged his face.
[Mission completed!]
———————
You have received
[Due to the high completion rating you have been given x2 on all rewards.
————————
Rewards:
1000 gear points, one E-tier weapon type blueprint, Basic mental potion x1, +30 Germaine favourability,+25 Handoff family favourability.
— — — — — — — —
Milestone achievement: Dimensional researcher
20% chance for every equipment you craft to gain a special ability
—————————
Mission remark:
A very basic achievement,nothing worthy of praise. You can do better.
————————
Just as expected. This milestone title though is crazy. A 20% possibility of equipment i design having a special ability would mean that in every five designs I create there's a chance of one getting a special ability, not bad.''
Every other thing was the same, the favourability points would come in handy in the future, maybe sooner than he could expect. The weapon blueprint was a type of grenade bomb thingy while the potion supposedly increased his intelligence stats. Overall it was a good haul.
Scrolling down further he saw the system's remark and his eyelids involuntarily twitched.
[ A very basic achievement,nothing worthy of praise. You can do better.]
At this point he couldn't help but wonder if the system enjoyed downplaying his efforts. He wanted to argue with it but one lesson he had learnt in the past week was that he should never argue with the system—he never won.
Regardless , he was just going to pretend like he never saw the remark. YES! That was the way forward from now on.
Since he had finished Germaine's mission he could finally start designing his first piece of equipment. Right now it only remained less than four days till the apocalypse descended.
In his last life he wasn't prepared and as such nearly lost his life.
''But now hehe…."
Looking at the various items scattered on the floor, an excited glint flashed in his eyes as he glanced at the timer.
''lets just say things are gonna be interesting.''