Despite all this, Maxwell could still see that the eyes beneath the mask that the thin-spoken woman had placed over her own eyes were smiling just as her lips were smiling.
Perhaps... The thin-spoken woman had truly wished for these things with all her heart.
Still, none of this mattered anymore.
Maxwell finally began to lose his vision completely and then lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness, it would be back at the point where it all began.
He had even thought that he was dreaming and that he had to go to work, but when he looked outside the window, he saw what was happening.
The scene outside the window was terrifying.
The area was littered with ruined buildings, and strange creatures could be seen wandering around. Burning cars, human bodies scattered about. Everything was utterly terrifying and equally awful.
Even though Maxwell was on the fourth floor of the apartment building and far away from the bodies he saw, he noticed his stomach churning incredibly.
He immediately ran to the toilet and vomited a handful into the bowl.
"Zombies?!" Maxwell muttered. The scene before him defied logic. He could see the surrounding areas... It was an all-too-familiar sight, one he knew very well.
Was this what they meant by a renewed world?
If so, what kind of renewal was this?
"This is literally the apocalypse..." the young man muttered, his mind unable to comprehend what was happening. The thin-spoken woman hadn't prepared him for something like this.
What Maxwell had done was kill a few people and escape from many others. This was something completely different, a terrifying sight, of course, nauseating and disgusting.
When he finished vomiting, he tried to flush the toilet but realised there was no water. This was bad, really bad.
He had appeared in a place where he didn't even know what to do, who knows how many years after the beginning of the apocalypse, when most likely everything had been depleted.
Still, he knew where he was.
When he came out of the toilet and looked out of the window again, he could see that the whole place resembled Sheffield. He could sense that strange gloom even without the apocalypse, and now it was on a whole other level.
After taking a deep breath, he sat down on the bed in the room.
Immediately afterwards, he covered his face with his hands and took a deep breath. Apparently, he had to work in this life, too.
Still, at that moment, when there was nothing else, the last thing the woman with the thin voice had said came to mind:
"You can check your skills from your profile."
These words formed in Maxwell's mind, and for a few seconds, he hesitated, then blurted out, "Profile?"
At that moment, an image appeared before him... Like a window, similar to the system windows in games.
What Maxwell saw was something that would make him almost cry:
[Maxwell Elwood
Age: 22
Race: Human
Level: 1
Class: Delivery Driver
Title: Story's Extra
Skills: Building Management (Divine), Perception (Divine), Inventory (Legendary), Intermediate Defence Arts (Rare), High-Level Stamina Regeneration (Unusual), Poison Resistance (Unusual),
[Statues]
Strength: 14
Agility: 19
Stamina: 11
Luck: ?
Intelligence: 15
Status Points: 0]
When Maxwell observed his profile, everything seemed perfectly normal to him, but he had also managed to notice something that made his eyes widen.
"Delivery Driver? What kind of joke is this?" Maxwell muttered suddenly, and it wouldn't be wrong to say he froze where he stood.
Every card he chose, everything he won, was at least gold-coloured, so why did he have a class called Delivery Driver?
"Story's Extra?" he thought to himself, and at that moment, something appeared before him:
[Title- Story's Extra
You have read the entire story from beginning to end countless times, thinking about what you would do if you existed in the same world. You have now earned the right to realise those thoughts. Give it your all and enjoy your newfound comfortable life.
The user cannot level up by hunting. For the user to level up, the Delivery Driver's personal level must increase, and the user will automatically gain status points with each level increase.]
Maxwell narrowed his eyes as he read what was written in this system window that had opened with a single thought in front of him, and he seemed to realise something.
What's more, the appearance of this system window seemed very familiar to him... Really, really familiar.
"Wait a minute..." Maxwell said instantly. His eyes widened, he immediately got up from where he was sitting and walked back to the window of his room to observe outside.
At that moment, something occurred to him:
[No matter when, the redness in the sky never faded. The air was cold, not warm, but there was no snow or rain. Lush vines still managed to cling to the buildings that remained standing, trying to hold them together.
At night, it was possible to see mutants and normal walking dead out on the streets. It was possible to see people still fleeing, to come face to face with people killing and eating each other. It was a world where harassment and rape were considered normal, where women and men sold each other for a morsel of food.
Here, the main character had awakened in such a world, finding himself and his sister facing such a scene.
He had watched the red sun, witnessed the apocalypse, and realised the beginning of the end. That was exactly how he had died.]
These were the first paragraphs of the prologue to Maxwell's favourite book.
It was the very story of an apocalyptic tale called 'The Cold Voice of Death' and the continuation of every kind of horror in the realm of fear.
It was a series consisting of thirteen books in total and still ongoing, perhaps one of the two things Maxwell enjoyed doing most outside of work. Watching series and reading this series.
"How can I live? Even those with abilities that can destroy everything die easily... How can I live with this class?" he said to himself.
He needed to think it over and examine his abilities to reach a decision. If he really was in the world he thought he was in, he was already aware of every event that would happen.
"Then..." he said suddenly, and without hesitation, he blurted out, "Ability characteristics."
With that, four system windows opened one after another in front of him.
Instead of feeling sad, Maxwell did nothing but rejoice: