Gasp. He lurched awake reaching for his weapon and trying to find the enemy. As soon as he looked around he froze then said with confusion. “Wait where the hell is this.” He was in an unfamiliar room with clothes and papers laying everywhere. He quickly calmed and thought back to his last memories. He remembered waking up yesterday and turning all his gear in to the guild then going to the reset obelisque and picking to reset. He remembered looking down as his body seemed fade into smoke like when you got the death penalty. Quickly his eyes flashed open and landed on a picture on the wall. It was of his parents and him at his graduation ceremony.

The advent had all started while he was in college, and he remembered being one of those who scrambled when it came to light because he wanted to become an immortal. He grabbed his cell phone and when he looked at the date it was exactly one year before the apocalypse started and almost four years till he officially became a player. With a manic grin he started chuckling then giggling and finally into full blown mad man type laughter. People three doors down from his dormitory woke and shivered before covering there ears or going back to studying.

When he finally calmed down he grabbed a pen and a notebook and immediately started making plans. First was that he needed to track down an old friend who had saved his life so many times he had lost count. Then he made a kill list of people that actively tried to drive humanity to the brink during the transition days. Then he made a list and notes of every notable piece of information he had heard of whether it was people, places, events, items, or even major rumors about certain things.

Foremost among them was the shattered armor of Marut, this armor was the pinnacle for all Mage-type armors and even though its actual stats were never revealed it became well known when its wearer was the last one standing against a world boss even though as a general rule mages and other magic casters had comparatively low health and he never specialized into any kind of magic and it was theorized that this was because of him armor.

As for weapons there was simply too many to choose and he could only go barehanded until he found something suitable, but seeing as how he was going to be a mage anyway it wasn’t an insurmountable problem. He continued for almost six hours when the sun started to lighten the area. Luckily for him his parents were filthy fucking rich so he didn’t have to worry about money but that would be his first stumbling block was getting them on board and willing to listen. Unfortunately they were as stubborn as he was so it was going to take something drastic.

He booked a flight for three hours from now then grabbed a shower and a taxi. He spoke as little as possible and paid with his card, again from his parents. He remembered how his dad had started a small company that catered to immortals after the advent and made it successful through sheer grit and stubbornness. He let all the memories and tears flow as he broke down in silence. He was never much good at anything as a mortal and was frankly a piece of shit before the advent. His attitude was reckless and brash and gave no fucks for the consequences of his actions. He was basically your typical young master in two bit novel. He did what he wanted when he wanted and avenged every slight no matter how small.

He gave no forgiveness to anyone and always went to far, he was as despicable as they came and eventually he paid for it. Eventually he was captured and tortured then degraded and humiliated as his so called ‘friends’ stood by and laughed on the side lines. He ended up alone and helpless and deserved nothing less. The only two things he can say was that it successfully woke him up well and good and that he changed drastically for the better. After nearly a year of simply wandering like a dead man he made a choice and found each and every family he could ever remember that he wronged in some way and spent the next eight years atoning for his sins.

Eventually he joined a second rate guild and one day challenged a world boss. They lost horribly and most were captured never to be seen again. Only a bare handful escaped but they were all targeted after that by the vultures that swooped in to pick the bones clean. Even his family was targeted and before his eyes his mother and two sisters were raped then tortured repeatedly. His father and him were forced to watch and hear them cry out for them while they were powerless. It was a scene that would have fit in perfectly in Helsing. Thus over half the people on his kill list was a part of that. He never expected to go back in time like this seeing as how it wasn’t supposed to be even possible, but without fail he was going to make the most of it.

Finally the plane landed and he quickly grabbed a taxi to his parents house. He had called ahead on his way to the airport and asked his dad to get everyone together saying it concerned the future of everyone in the family, be they young or old. Sure enough the driveway and garage were both full so he walked from the gate. Before he got half way across the lawn the door was thrown open and his aunt who couldn’t even stand the sight of him stood there with a look of disgust. He clearly new why she looked like that and couldn’t help but let a tear go down his cheek. She looked utterly confused and hesitant when he stopped and kneeled about a foot from her. “I can never apologize enough and I can only ask for a chance to repent.”

His aunt was from the more ‘civilized’ side that lived and managed all our japanese businesses and so he kowtowed three times. When he stood there was a blood splatter mark where his head hit the cement and a trickle flowed from the broken skin down his nose. He felt her lift him up and so he stood and looked her in the eye. During the awakening he had heard that she was born with the passive skill called ‘soul sight’ that allowed for her to feel the essence of a soul to a certain extent. Her confusion only deepened as she said “Impossible. Your soul is like a fifty year old man, not a twenty year old kid. But it's still the same soul as when you were a child but....”

She trailed off as he put a hand on her cheek, “Aunty, I will explain later but I bring dire knew that the family needs to know. We will talk later after I have told what I must.” He gently pushed her inside and walked towards the living room where there was a general mutter of discontent and anger. As soon as he walked in every eye turned to him and a few scathing remarks appeared as expected. “Whelp what god given right do you seem to think you have that allows you to call us all here and arrive last, huh.” That was his uncle Jake who owned his own gym and fitness center complex and several several sports pharmacies. He stuttered when he noticed the blood running down his face

Most of his family had few good things to say about him and he had done little to earn them. Taking advantage of their confusion he walked to the front and stood before them then said “My family I bring dire news that will either be our salvation or our downfall. But first I have something is eighteen years overdue.” So saying he shocked them all yet again by doing a first and repeating his earlier words and actions with the only difference being the impact rattled loose dishes off the table.

It was a pin drop silence. Even his youngest nieces and nephews were old enough to know just how rotten his character used to be. Finally after nearly thirty seconds there was a creak and his great grandma slowly made her way to stand in front of him. “You know your wrongs.” It was a statement rather than a question but he answered anyway. “Yes Grammy.” All the adults teared up then since he hadn’t said those words since he was just learning to walk and talk. Grammy was his first word as well. He stood when the cane tapped his shoulders.

There was already both a bruise and a cut now overlapping most of his forehead. He could only cry silently and murmur ‘I’m sorry’ over and over again as he hugged his grandma like he used to as a kid. Finally he said loud enough for all to hear “Grammy I need to ask to bring out Shikar.” She instantly stiffened and looked at him incredulously. “It’s the only way. What I’m about to say cannot be confirmed otherwise.” Slowly she nodded.

In all the world what most people don’t realize is that espers, magic, and myth were all as tangible as they were once but had simply hidden themselves since they didn’t want to be interfere or interfere with humans. His grandma was born prophetess and in her youth she was a soldier which was given a ceremonial knife. This knife worked in tandem with and amplified her foresight powers so that the more restrictions they placed the more powerful it was and if the user broke one of the restrictions then it would instantly pierce their brain. When his aunt brought the knife that looked no different than a typical K-Bar, he cut open his sleeve and ran a gash from a little below his inner elbow, between his veins to his wrist.

He put the knife in his blood and said “Activate Shikar.” The knife shivered then drank the blood greedily. Finally it jerked began to float in front of him, pointed between his eyes. “I Jacob Mathew Dawn do so hereby swear that one: if any of my words for the next twenty four hours be false, two: If any of my stated predictions have any chance of failure or being prevented to come to pass, three: If my information is not trustworthy then I hereby consign by life to be forfeit and my soul to be surrendered.” Everyone had completely bloodless faces except the kids who were below eighteen who didn’t understand what he had just put on the line.

His father’s face was grim and his mother was close to having a panic attack. It had taken him about eight hours to get here but even so he chose his words carefully. “The world is going to end at exactly twelve o’clock AM on January first of 2031.” Several jumped up as they expected him to be pierced but could only collapse in dumb shock when the dagger merely shivered like it was trembling as it listened. “Some of you may have read fantasy novels or played video games and this ending will be similar. It will later be called by most as the Systems Advent. It is going to reintroduce mana to humans and the earth and the world as we know it will cease to exist and instead it will be a union between reality and fantasy. Not all the laws of existence will change but human anatomy and the laws of physics will be bent in new directions. Mages, Warriors, paladins, gods, devils, and monster’s will all make an appearance.

At first humans will turn a blind eye this and pass it off as mass hysteria or some other form of daydreams or some such. I can tell you that this is false. The system never lies, but how you interpret it is up to you.” He continued for almost four hours as everyone present slowly got over their shock and actually listened to everything he said. He told them everything from the best ways to benefit as much as possible to which classes he knew and the importance of picking a class that suited you rather than one that simply seemed powerful at first glance.

He taught them nearly all of what he knew from how to level up quickly to recipes for potions that wrote down. The details of unique things like the armor of Marut and a few other he kept to himself but everything they could all use was laid bear. He answered questions of the few that had them and left off with one last thing. “Remember that eternal youth doesn’t mean eternal happiness. There are things that are far more important but the bottom line is that strength is the requirement to live for your own ideals instead of under someone else's.” With that he finally sat down and had a drink that his dad had left untouched in front of him.

One thing he could say about his family is that they new how to roll with their punches. Already there was no doubt in anyone’s mind about the truth of his words thanks to the dagger, and now they were all making contingency plans and throwing Ideas around. His mother finally broke off the conversation and grabbed him and his Dad before moving to another room. When the door shut she turned and finally said “Are you really my son.” “Yes.” “Why are you so different.” “Because my soul was sent back from the future.” and so on until they were both satisfied that it was simply the version of their son who had seen the light and decided on a different path.

This was the point he told about the regime everyone needed to start which mostly consisted of martial arts, self defense, melee weapons handling, and fitness. He then wrote down location names and direction of dungeons that he was going to unveil as soon as the system started integration so they could be ready to take control of them and buy the land so that they would have at least a two years head start before shit hit the fan. He also warned them not to be cheap since money would be worthless after about four years and everything would be bought and sold with bronze, silver, gold, mithril, and adamant coins. Above those were bars which were worth ten of the higher currency and a hundred of the former.

So a bronze bar would be worth one hundred bronze coins, ten silver coins or one gold coin. But since those were almost always used for forging and smelting he didn’t mention them. He slowly walked around and made sure everyone was alright and beginning their preparations. For the next year he trained his body to the limit with martial arts masters and weapons experts until finally they gathered all together again and he gave the location of the first of the obelisks.