Steel and Sorrow: Rise of the Mercenary king - Chapter 2: Small men have great shadows()

Derek Carter never asked for a System, an apocalypse, or the pressure of being humanity’s so-called “last hope.”He was just trying to survive the daily struggles of being an orphan in Paleview City—dodging bullies, scraping together meals, and lying his way into school. Life was already hard enough.Then, one day, a blue screen pops into his vision:[Warning: The world is doomed. Try not to die.]Yeah, great. Just what he needed—cryptic doomsday messages and no instruction manual.Now, monsters are creeping into the city, reality is unraveling, and Damien’s “legendary” starting stats are barely above zero. The System promises him power, but there's just one tiny problem—he’s never won a fight in his life.Armed with sarcasm, questionable decision-making skills, and the sheer refusal to die, Damien is about to embark on the worst (and possibly last) adventure of his life. Because if the world really is ending… he’s at least going to make it someone else’s problem first.After all, heroes are overrated—survivors get to tell the story.

When they first met, Tang Wan sighed, “The fifth young master of the Jiang family is just as the rumors said. He’s celibate, aloof, prideful, and is a man to be revered. Unfortunately, he’s so smart that he no longer has any will to live, which made him sickly, and he’s going to die soon…Later on, the fifth young master brought her into his room. When she came out, everyone stared at her in shock.Why was she crying?……Later on, it was said that the fifth young master returned after he recovered from his illness, and he brought a girl back.She appeared pure and harmless, but underneath that harmless appearance, she was actually a spitfire that offended quite a number of people.But the fifth young master just said, “I brought her back, so I’ll let her do whatever she wants. If… anything happens, I’ll take responsibility.”His best friend gave him a reminder. “You’re going to be responsible for someone from the Tang family?”“Since she came back with me, she’s mine. She’s just a young girl and is spoilt. I have to take responsibility.”After Tang Wan married into the Jiang family, she only had one mission. She must give birth to his children before he died!Meanwhile, the fifth young master was puzzled. “You’re a gentle and shy girl during the day, so why are you so different during the night?”Tang Wan thought. ‘I have to make every second count. He won’t be able to live long.’After she gave birth to his son and he became one year old, Tang Wan was prepared to become a widow.However…‘Why isn’t he dead yet?’Much later, the fifth master of the Jiang family asked her, “I heard that you’ve been looking for my death every day. Do you want to kill me by sucking me dry?”

On an ordinary day, an inventory livestream descended upon the dimensional multiverse. Those who were selected all had a faint blue light screen appear before them.Immediately after, large characters appeared in front of them.《 Dimensional World Inventory — Top 10 Famous Scenes 》 Scene 1: One person, one sword, guarding a city, battling seventy thousand...Scene ***: The man who almost kicked out the grand finale, Eight Gates Formation! Might Guy!Scene ***: Menma, I found you!Scene ***: .....As one scene after another of regretful characters appeared, everyone watching the scenes shed tears.Monkey D. Luffy: That's amazing, one person, one sword, not only fought against seventy thousand people, but also returned alive?Uzumaki Naruto: I didn't expect that seemingly ordinary guy to be so powerful!Uchiha Sasuke: The one who made the final save was actually you.Jinta Yadomi: Menma, we found you~Everyone: Menma, we found you~Honma Meiko “Menma”: Hi! I've been found!

Due to the whims of a higher-dimensional being called “The One”, the World of Terra ushered in a Monthly Apocalypse World Update Era.Every month, the World will draw a random monthly apocalypse world update theme, and the world will transform depending on what update theme has been drawn.Starting with a Zombie Apocalypse World theme, The World of Terra became infested with zombies!As a transmigrator, Zayne Voss, who thought he was living in a normal modern world, was caught up in this madness.Fortunately, he awakened the innate ???-rank talent, the Doomsday Life Simulator System![The Doomsday Life Simulator System allows the host to simulate your future and life in a given doomsday scenario.][For example, the simulator will randomly draw a doomsday scenario, and one of them might be a zombie apocalypse scenario. In that case, the host can experience life in a zombie apocalypse world.][Of course, it's not limited to that, as there are also different kinds of doomsday scenarios like the Helios Extinction Event, where the sun explodes and humanity faces such a world-ending scenario.][Not all doomsday scenarios are winnable and survivable, as some can be a dead end. However, your goal is not to win but to survive as long as possible and attain as many achievements as possible.][The longer you survive and the more you accomplish within that doomsday scenario, the higher your score will be. The higher the score, the greater the rewards you'll receive.][The rewards you can receive are mostly related to the power, skill, experiences, and talent that you possessed before the doomsday life simulation ended. They will be brought back to the real world so the host can gain power from doing life simulations.]-Ding![The host can choose one doomsday scenario from four of the following:][A. Helios Extinction Event][B. AI Singularity Rebellion][C. Global Ocean Survival][D. Acid Rain Catastrophe]Drawing the doomsday scenario called “Global Ocean Survival,” where everyone started with a wooden raft on a vast ocean, Zayne grinded in the doomsday simulation to become stronger in the real world!While everyone was still running away from zombies, Zayne had already eaten a Fairy Fruit from the Global Ocean Survival World and killed all the zombies around him!