Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"Ahahahahhaha!" General Zhang burst out laughing while holding his stomach. Tears even formed in the corner of his eyes while his laugh bellowed in the air.

"Why the heck are you laughing?" I questioned angrily as I pinched his cheek.

"Ahahah! Forgive me, but-- Ahahahha!" He loudly cracked up again, "--but that's so typical of you, little cub! You're always doing something funny that's not in the script!" He said as he wiped the tears in the corner of his eyes.

"Of course people don't act according to whatever script you're talking about, they're not robots." I huffed.

"Yeah, but I can't believe you deliberately told him to hate you and to kill you," he chuckled, "I can't ever get bored with you, little cub~"

"I mean... I don't get why would he give up after he made such efforts, you know? Like, if I was in his shoes, like hell I would give up after I've suffered for years, and after I've built up an army slowly over the years. I would want the fruit of my effort before I die or something." I explained while shrugging my shoulders.

"Wait... I don't understand, I thought you said you didn't kill yourself?" Jeanne asked with a troubled face.

Ah, I did end the story in a weird spot.

"Oh no, no. I didn't stab myself. You misunderstood." I giggled while waving my hand in front of my chest.

"Then what was that stab?" She tilted her head, looking confused.

"I stabbed the sword, of course." I grinned wide.

"Ahahahhahaha! See, you always do the weirdest stuff, little cub!" General Zhang broke into laughter yet again.

"Come again?" General Emilio raised his eyebrow, also looking confused. Quite a change compared to his usually monotonous expression.

"You see, like this," I raised my right hand and formed a sharp spearhead using my mana, "slash, slash. But on the sword. Makes sense, right?"

"... Not quite," general Emilio sighed, "how did it come across your mind?"

"Hey, I said 'as an equal', so if I paid the entrance ticket with my blood, he better pay with his blood, too," I pouted, "or so I thought. Turns out the sword didn't have blood in it."

"Wow, flash news, inanimate objects actually have no blood! How shocking~" General Zhang said in a patronizing voice while struggling to suppress his laughter.

"Urk-- I figured it might be possible, you know! After all, I still don't understand how this whole magic thing works here! A lot of things are still foreign to me..." I sulked while I fidgeted with my blanket. Ack! So embarrassing!

"There, there. It's okay, I understand that this can be confusing to you," Jeanne stroked my head gently while trying to ease my embarrassment, "you'll learn as you go. There's still a lot of time for you to learn, so no need to rush."

"Jean-jean...!" I looked at her with sparkling eyes. Ah, Jeanne was the best! She never stopped being kind and understanding, no matter the situation!

I grabbed her arm and hugged it tightly, clinging unto it, "see, Jeanne is being supportive. Unlike you, eel." I glared towards the laughing general.

"So then, what happened after you broke the sword?" General Emilio asked.

"Yeah, about that... I'm not really sure. I only remembered the part where the sword suddenly gushed out a tremendous amount of mana, and then..." I trailed off.

"And then?" Jeanne tilted her head.

"And then I blacked out and woke up here. Hehe." I scratched my head while grinning.

"... Right at the most important moment." General Emilio sighed while closing his eyes.

"I never thought that such a test existed..." Firiell chimed in with a bewildered expression on her face.

"Me too. Nobody would know since you said that they didn't remember a thing after waking up," I leaned back on my bed, "but I do. And I think I know why."

"Why is that?" Jeanne inquired.

"This is just a speculation, but doesn't it make sense that if I was to follow either one of the instructions, which were to stay there or kill myself, then I would end up the same as them?" I started explaining to them.

"For starters," I held up one finger, "if I was to stay there, then I would probably just end up dead. Like the other humans who I suspected did just that because why would they choose a nonexistent king's order?"

And then, I held up another finger so now there was two of them raised, "and if I killed myself, I would probably end up forgetting everything, and woke up feeling like I was 'reborn'." I concluded.

"Wait, I don't understand the connection between killing yourself and being reborn..." Firiell wondered with a frown.

"Well," I smiled and patted her head, "I think the moment they agreed to submit to their 'king', the new crest claimed a spot in their heart," I continued, "I don't know how to explain this well, but I suppose it's close to sharing a heart? Like a 50-50 person?"

"Oh, you mean they lost a part of themselves, in order to make room for a new soul?" General Zhang stepped in to explain it with simpler words.

"Ah yes, exactly. Thanks, I'm not fluent in the human language. Hehe." I scratched my head in embarrassment again.

"I see, but you went for the third route, so... We're back to square one. We have no idea, huh..." Jeanne sighed.

"Actually, we might do."

I took a deep breath before I tried to call for a certain blue-haired man that had been enjoying his sleep for a biiiit too long.

"Luke, come here. You got some explaining to do." I muttered the words as a blue-ish puff of smoke started to emerge from my palm until it got bigger and bigger, and finally, 'poof!'.

"Oh my goodness, kid. You have no idea what you just did, you little rat." He frantically scrunched up his hair in frustration the moment he appeared before me.

"Yep, exactly as you said. I have no idea what I just did. Explain, please?" I grinned with joy. So he really did know something.

I figured that since he was the one who resided inside my mana, he must've had seen something, right? Something mana-related or something?

"I got a room renovation."

"Excuse you?" I raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"You heard me right. You have two mana cores right now. How the heck can you do that?" He questioned.

"What!? How can that be? Humans can only have one mana core. And that's absolute." Jeanne said with wide eyes.

"I have no idea, either. This is the first time I've seen someone with two mana cores," Luke continued, "just before it appeared, there was this random void that started eating up your mana space, so I desperately tried to adjust your mana flow so it would flow with it instead of against it."

"Oooh, thank you for your help." I smiled. So he did the same thing as I did.

"And then, all of a sudden, the void stopped eating you up and instead, it helped me build another room," he explained, "so that's how I got a renovation because a random void just decided to create a new mana core inside you without interfering with your current one."

"... Wild story you have." I stared at him as I tried to process the info dump that had just happened.

"So... In summary, Chaerin, you successfully mastered the crest. But fortunately, instead of replacing half of your soul, you now have two?" Jeanne spoke up, summarizing for pea-brained creatures like me.

"I guess so, yeah." I sighed in desperation.

"Big sis Chae, do you feel something different after, um, that event?" Firiell timidly asked.

"Now that you mention it... I do have more mana than before. But I don't think I have another freeloader inside my mana. Just this dude." I pointed at Luke.

"Yeah, that crest is different from me." Luke nodded in approval.

"Hmm, hmm." I quietly opened my stat window, which actually made me super nervous since I had never opened my system in front of so many people before, much less this close. I had to try my best to not look as if I was staring into space.

[Stat points: (Yoo Chaerin)]

[Strength: 38]

[Intelligence: 130 (+5)]

[Agility: 29]

[Physique: 38 (+5)]

[Stat points available: 0]

Whoa!?

Dude, now that was a surge in int stat. Heck, if my int stat could rise this high, that would mean that my mana pool rose even higher, since int stat determined how well I could use the mana, not the actual mana pool itself. But I guess 'understanding' that dead Prince played a great part, too, because their crest, their magic, is basically their heart. So if I was to understand his heart, I would understand his magic a bit better, too.

Oh, what about my skill, though? Did I get something new this time?

"Skill." I whispered the word so quietly under my breath that it almost sounded like gibberish. This system needed a patch, seriously, having to call it out each time was getting annoying.

As soon as the screen popped up in front of me, I quickly scanned each and every skill I had. But alas, there was no new skill. Still the same old.

Well, I should be grateful for what I already had, I guess.

"Little cub, hold my hand." General Zhang suddenly asked, snapping me out of my trance.

"What!? No!" I flinched backwards in surprise.

"Just do it. And then try to use your magic to burn my hand or whatever." He grinned mischievously.

"... Why?" I raised an eyebrow. Suspicious.

"I sensed something from your mana. It's okay, do it." He said as he grabbed my hand first, intertwining our fingers.

"Uh--" I quickly looked around to see the other people in the room, who seemed to have no problem with it and instead, they had this anticipating look on their faces. Did they all sense something different?

"I... Okay, don't blame me if you get hurt, then." I sighed in defeat.

"Don't worry, I'm strong~" He grinned and leaned closer.

"... Here goes." I hesitated for a bit, before firing my elemental magic into his hand. Ah, his hand was going to get some burn wounds. Well, not my fault.

'CRACKLE!'

"Huh!?" I exclaimed loudly in surprise, as did everyone in the room who had their eyes and mouth wide open.

Instead of burning his hand, I... Froze it!?