Chapter 2: HTSCF CH 002 Isn’t the first world supposed to be easy?

Beta: Jeannette

When Jun opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on a twin-sized bed. Sunlight was filtering through the curtains and birds could be heard chirping to the tune of some generic cell phone ringtone. Loud snoring sounded from the opposite side of the room, and, combined with the birds, it made for some kind of dysfunctional symphony. But at least for now, things seemed peaceful.

|System?|

|Yes, dearest Host?|

|Aren't you supposed to be providing me with this world’s plot, my identity, and where I am in the timeline or something?|

|Oh yeah!|

A mental smack consisting of the world’s plot hit Jun’s mind. As the name ‘Reborn to Bloom in the Apocalypse’ implied, this world was doomed to face a zombie apocalypse. The female protagonist, Dahlye Taylor, was reborn a year before the apocalypse began after being betrayed by her dearest friend. With her rebirth, she brought back her spatial abilities and knowledge of the future, which allowed her to prepare for the apocalypse in advance and get her vengeance.

As for his present identity, he was Jun Taylor, the unfortunate elder twin brother of the protagonist, who ended up sacrificing himself to save her at the start of the apocalypse. What a coincidence he shared the same name as his current identity. That’s right. Jun was destined to die and to die soon. 

|What is my mission?| He asked, even though he already had an idea.

|Mission Type A! Don’t die until age 19!|

|Do I have to save the female protagonist?|

|No, dearest Host, you are free to do anything to survive until age 19, even kill the female protagonist… Though I wouldn’t recommend it.|

|Not that I would kill the protagonist, but why not?|

|Because she has the protagonist halo, and it might kill you.|

|Why not just tell me not to kill her?|

|…|

|Hmm… At what point am I in the story?|

|... Right now, it is half a year before the start of the apocalypse, so you have a good amount of time to prepare.| 

|Right.| 

At this point, System 00 provided Jun with some more detailed but basic information. He was currently a freshman in college and living in the dorms. Soon it would be winter vacation, and he’d be able to return home for two weeks. Jun smiled at the prospect of being able to experience college life until—

|Wait, a freshman? Then that means I’m already 18?|

|That is correct, dearest Host! You’ve been 18 for over 3 months now.|

|Then doesn’t that mean that the ‘protection period’ is wasted…?|

|Right you are, dearest Host! You are not under the ‘protection period’ right now. That means you could die at any time, even before the intended plot point.|

|Just how useless are you?|

|Uwu, don’t be mean, Host. We systems have feelings too, you know?|

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6 months wasn’t a lot of time, but just enough to prepare. Based on his calculations, once the apocalypse began, he would only have to survive for 3 months until he turned 19. As for the female protagonist, he didn’t plan to save her as it wasn’t necessary. The plot of the world wouldn’t allow her to die and instead, it would focus more on ensuring his death.

|I forgot to mention that this world is an R-18 harem—|

|What does that have to do with my survival?|

The Host was right, but System 00 still thought it was best for him to be as aware of the world’s plot as much as possible. Since his Host was not appreciating his efforts, System 00 went on standby.

As for Jun, he still had to plan out how best to make use of the next 6 months. After all, he was a cannon fodder destined to die at the start of the apocalypse, so he had no abilities like the female protagonist, though he did know how future events would play out. His current identity was also just a regular college student, and the only thing that stood him apart from others was that he was a rich young master.

That’s right—he was rich! Though he had no space dimension, he could just buy space! He could rent several storage units and start buying supplies to fill them up with. The most important thing to stock up on was, of course, tea leaves, nondairy creamer, and sugar. How was he supposed to survive the apocalypse without milk tea? And he didn’t even have to do it himself, just hire people to do it for him. 

If anyone were to ask questions, he'd laugh it off. Doomsday preppers weren’t that unusual anymore after all those books, movies and tv shows about zombie apocalypses became popular. Other than gathering supplies, he decided to sign up for some self-defense and survival classes. Some archery lessons would also suffice, as his slender body was more suitable for that type of weaponry than anything else. 

Only a week later did Jun realize how naive he was regarding how the world was really out to get him. During the self-defense class, the instructor often “accidentally” injured him. He switched instructors twice already and the results remained the same. As for the survival sessions, he’d often run into the most ridiculous situations, such as falling into a pit trap or falling into a net trap, or falling into a trap of his own making. If he wasn’t falling into something, then things were falling onto him, like a large tree branch capable of rendering someone unconscious.

Regarding the archery lessons, he was often given training spots next to people with the worst hand-eye coordination in the history of mankind. It had only been a week—a week! Jun was seriously starting to be concerned with his survival chances. But soon, it’d be winter break and he was determined to not give up. After all, he didn’t want to have to forever go through this kind of lifestyle. Dying would be better, but dying was unfortunately not an option.

Another week passed and Jun returned home to meet his sister for the first time. After all, he didn’t gain any of the original owner’s memories. Dahlye had chosen to wait a year before starting college, probably because she had been reborn and didn’t see the point. As for Jun, he still wanted to enjoy the experience of college life he had missed out on.

Despite being fraternal twins, Jun and Dahlye still bore a strong resemblance to each other. Both had small faces, pouty lips, and wavy brown hair. The only real difference between the two was their eye colors. Jun had retained his original eye color, an emerald green, while Dahlye had honey-brown eyes. Whenever Jun looked into her eyes, he was reminded of brown sugar boba and would get a craving for milk tea…

Jun swallowed his saliva.

Two weeks of winter break passed in relative peace. Dahlye, Mr. Taylor, and Mrs. Taylor didn’t seem to notice anything different about him so that was a relief. Then again, as a cannon fodder, he probably wasn’t much of an existence in their eyes. Even in the original storyline when Jun died, Dahlye hadn’t mourned his death.

Jun felt the most comfortable returning to the dorms. His roommate often slept like a bear and didn’t bother to talk to him, so he was able to fully focus on trying to survive until his death day. After 6 months of preparation and hard work, he was armed to the teeth with milk tea supplies and other necessities, could shoot arrows pretty well, and wouldn’t die in the wild for the most part.

A few days before the start of the apocalypse, there was a worldwide meteor shower. Though it was beautiful and not harmful, some people saw it as a sign of incoming doom, and they were right. The apocalypse was a natural disaster, and it didn’t happen immediately after the meteor shower but a few days later.

For Jun, it was also the week before finals. He didn’t even bother studying. These days he had developed some muscles from all the exercise, self-defense, survival, and archery lessons he’d been doing, and he was quite proud too. Though he didn’t have a six-pack, he was a lot stronger than before, and his agility and stamina had increased, which would be very useful for dodging and running away from zombies.

The day before the start of the apocalypse, Dahlye paid him a visit to his college, telling him that she wanted to experience a little bit of college before she started the following school year. Jun knew that it was complete and utter bullshit, that the plot was just pushing him towards his death. How else was he supposed to valiantly sacrifice himself to save his sister if she were not within the vicinity of him at the start of the apocalypse? 

That said, he still tried his hardest to avoid this death summoner sister of his. Though he couldn’t prevent her from visiting him at college because of her insistence, persistence, and their parents’ indulgence of her, he could still find excuses to leave or other people to accompany her. Be it passerby A, B, C, D, or F, who was even lesser than a cannon fodder, they would probably have a higher chance of survival than him, especially with the female protagonist’s halo nearby.

When the day of the apocalypse came, Jun was still on campus, but he was on the opposite end of campus farthest away from Dahlye, his dagger, bow, and arrows ready for the upcoming madness of death and decay.

|Dearest Host, congratulations on making it to the day of reckoning without dying yet!|

Now there was a voice he hadn’t heard in a while. Why did its words have to be so brutal? Was System 00 trying to invite death on his sister’s behalf?

|Oh no Host, this system would never wish death upon you. I really, really, really want—Er, hope—for your survival!|

Jun didn’t have time to respond to the system because at that moment the apocalypse began.

— 

A/N: Oh where, oh where are the MLs? In the next chapter. Comments are always super appreciated.

[HTSCF can also be found on Wattpad or my website . If you want to support my sanity, please consider my ko-fi .]

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