Ughh," Darren moaned in pain as he opened his eyes. His head had a throbbing ache, and his limbs ached. Exhaustion was all over him as he blinked against the bright sunlight and tried to sit up.
What's wrong?" he grumbled to himself, his head jerking in pain as he moved it. The world around him swirled slightly before steadying.
His breath was stuck in his throat.
"What is this? Where am I?" he breathed as his heart raced. "Wasn't I dead?
Darren's eyes grew wide when he recognized the surroundings around him. These were the fields he grew up in, which he used to toil on his own hands before it was torched at the beginning of the apocalypse.
"But that was. years ago," he whispered. "It was gone. Burned, and I watched it all fall apart.
His head moved wildly, looking for a reason he was there, until a voice rang in his head.
Congratulations, you have regressed using all the wealth you have accumulated in your past life.
Wait! What?
What did he just hear? His whole damn wealth was used to revive him in the past where he had nothing? Not even a single penny to last a day? Let alone, he had huge debts to the landlord.
"Fcuk! I had trillions of dollars that I traded for my life, only to be dumped here in the most pitiful stage of my life!" Darren shouted in anger as he wanted to murder the system that had toyed with him, when a thought crossed his mind.
His brother!
If he had regressed in time, then his brother would still be alive? Right?
With this thought in mind, Darren chose to forgive the system and rushed to meet his brother, only to find the landlord in front of his door and knocking furiously.
"That landlord bastard! He is here again!" He cursed under his breath and tried to control his temper.
Darren recalled that he was beaten to half dead by the landlord and was sent to the hospital due to it… He couldn't save his brother when the apocalypse struck the whole world.
But this time, there was still one week before the apocalypse, and he was not going to back off and let his loved one perish right in front of his eyes.
"What do you want?" Darren walked towards the landlord and demanded in a frosty voice.
"Oh… Look who is here?" Tom, the landlord, said with a sly and repulsive grin on his face. "The young master and the sole breadwinner of this house!"
"Whatever do you want?" Darren paid no attention to his rude remarks and asked. "If you are here for money, then forget about it, I don't have any money for you, and as per law, I have paid more than the interest itself!"
Tom's eyes grew bigger because he had never seen Darren's this side before. He had always been a timid and hardworking fellow. But at the moment, his single gaze was so cold that it was making Tom's entire body tremble in fear.
"Do you dare!" Tom ignored the aura that Darren carried around him and launched an attack toward him, but before his punch could find its way to Darren, he ducked and instead kicked brutally in Tom's abdomen, making him roll on the ground and wince in excruciating pain.
'It seems I have lost all my wealth and achievements, but I still retain some advantages as my body is still stronger than that of ordinary humans at the moment. Darren thought as he glared at the landlord, telling him to scram or die.
"Just you wait!" Tom crawled on the ground and fled, cursing at Darren. "I will come back with my men and kill you and your brother…"
"You!" Darren's eyes blazed red upon hearing him mention his brother! He wanted to kill Tom at the very moment but he had more pressing matters at hand.
Congratulations, you have overcome the obstacle of the landlord.
The system's voice echoed within Darren's head, making him annoyed. If only it were present in the past and guided him like it was doing now, Darren and his family would not have died such a horrible death!
Just like now, he had awakened the system in the fields, but it never responded to him until the time he was verge of death.
Darren ignored the system and went inside his house, as the lock of the house had already been broken by Tom.
"Seems like Sam is still in school," he whispered and entered the house, which had only a single room where they slept and cooked.
"I missed this place so damn much… regardless the amount of wealth I had accumulated in my past life," He sighed. He had always missed this feeling. Although he detested living here and despised his brother in a corner of his heart for being a burden on him and using all his resources for his living, he regretted it.
He regretted that he couldn't dote on his brother as much as he should have! But this time, he would give him the best of everything in the world and wouldn't let him die.
As he sat on the edge of the single bed, he was reminded when the first apocalypse that hit and everyone panicked. People who had survival skills and money were able to survive.
Resources like food, water, and energy were stored largely by the rich and were sold in higher amounts where poor people like him were forced to die, but luckily, Darren was clever enough to live and survive through everything, killing whoever came his way, looting their money.
He hated that he had to kill innocent people for his survival, and only then did he realize that he had become one of those monsters who had evaded the earth.
He wanted to stop, but he was beyond saving, and after his brother's death, he could no longer feel empathy toward any human. Despite the so-called hate he had for his brother, he was the only person who could save him from becoming what he had become.