How To Survive A Calamity

I, Zachary Harper of planet Earth, was transmigrated! Holy fuck, miracles do happen!

I felt a deep sense of relief and melancholy wash over me. My heart was beating again, I really was alive. I could feel the warmth of what I presumed to be the sun trickling from the window on my skin.

I assumed I was in a cradle from all the light rocking I felt. My hands and limbs were tiny and chubby, and my whole body felt like it belonged to someone else. Other than my gaze, I could barely command myself to do anything else.

Yet the sheer sensation and stimuli my senses shared was proof enough that I was still alive.

How was this possible...I didn't care.

Wasn't I supposed to be dead...does that matter now?

Where am I exactly... Least of my problems, plus I would find out too!

I was in no rush to leave the presence of such a beauty. The lady with a dazzling smile continued to gaze warmly at me from the wall of my wooden crib. She had long locks of light brown hair, thick and lustrous. Each strand shimmered enchantingly in the sunlight, and her deep green eyes were bright with warmth.

Please let her be a maid, please let her be a maid, please let her be a maid...I began honestly pleasing inside my heart. Would be a huge turn off if this were my mother, that would make things awkward...

But reincarnation, huh. And Transmigration too.

I was glad. Melancholic, but glad. It meant I could relive a new life. I got a chance to live peacefully, away from all the blood and violence of my previous existence.

I had died with countless regrets and sins, so such a chance was both overwhelming and fulfilling. Like I had the possibilities to do things right this time around.

This is it, Harper, one last chance to not screw it up...I had no idea the conditions of my reincarnation and transmigration and was unsure if I'd be able to be reborn a second time, but I wasn't eager to find out or risk it.

You only live once!

I lived twice, but who's counting!

You only get one chance at life...I would live this turn following that mantra.

..A life of fulfillment and tranquility...

...

[DING]

...

...I could already hear it ring like a bell.

[DING!]

Hm? Too clearly maybe?

Suddenly my head buzzed faintly with a myriad of synthetic voices like a strange symphony. Then strange illusionary string of texts began to appear on a translucent screen before my very eyes.

The first string...

...

[

[WARNING! WARNING!

The {Great Calamity} is upon all..]...

'What...?

The second string...

...

[A New Quest has been issued:-

Type:- SURVIVAL

Name:- Quest To Becoming Stronger:

Description:

The {Great Calamity} is coming...Get stronger and survive.

Duration-: ...

Reward:- ...

Penalty:- Death, ??? ]

'...eh? '

I gaped however I could at the strange texts, then blinked.

Huh. Looks like I've got some lingering trauma from dying once...I should see a doctor once I'm old enough.

Hehe. For a moment I thought it was a system screen foreshadowing an impeding doom in the not so distant future and urging me to grow stronger so that I could survive, which could also mean that I would die when the so called doom descends upon this world.

That was impossible though. I mean...

This was supposed to be my redemption arc! The second life where I live in peace and tranquility, while smiling back at the days filled with struggles from the porch in front of my little farm house overlooking a large plain of golden wheat crop with a giant golden retriever called Eighty-seven sitting next to me!

I felt a sense of unease creep over me.

This wasn't what I signed up for!

I wanted a peaceful life not a survival quest!

Please tell me this is some post-death hallucination or PTSD!

I would cry now if I had control of my tear glands... Which I still do not.

But alas, I had to sober up to the reality of life.

The illusionary screen was still just before my eyes.

Warning, warning...a great disaster...get stronger... survive....death penalty...rewards...

Quickly skimming through one more time, I confirmed.

Yep, it was a bonfide system.

...fuck.

.

.

.

.

.

Three years had passed since my transmigration, and I grew closer to understanding various aspects of my new life.

The world I was born into was called Aetohria, confirming my previous conjectures concerning being Transmigrated into another world after all.

I kind of expected that, so it wasn't as much shocking as the revelation would have been. I was quite familiar with tropes like this in webnovels and TV series back on Earth, so I believed i had some experience.

Aetohria was a land full of mystic and fantasy with four discovered Great continents; Eastern, Western, Southern and Northern continents respectively. And I currently was a Westerner, a citizen of the great Lunar Kingdom found further east of the Human domain.

From what I had been able to gather up until this point, the Lunar Kingdom was a rather flourishing Nation. It appeared so on the surface at least.

Quite frankly, I couldn't tell. I was still just a kid, a three year old yet the knowledge I possessed about this world already could make me seem a genius. But in the end it wasn't detailed or substantial enough.

I spent about a year to learn and master this foreign and unusual language, and only after that did my information gathering proceeded more smoothly.

I was born into a small noble family — into the body of the first son and second child who's name was Victor. I had an older sister who was currently seven years of age; Adrianne Bright, first born child of the Bright family.

The beautiful woman with a dazzling smile and vibrant locks of brown hair from that day was indeed my mother, Alissa Bright.

... Not a maid. Sigh.

My father, was Baron Dorian Solvaine Bright, the head of this household. Yet, I've learned we were only a branch family to a bigger whole

The Solvaines

A rather renowned Noble household known for their long ancestral history of powerful and renowned Magic Spearsmen and Lancers.

It was a spear family.

Not a sword family.

So far, those are the extent of my information and knowledge. I have close to zero idea about the society or civilization of this world, not their norms and standards. I would have to learn about their common knowledge and history too.

And certainly more about Magic! All I knew was that it existed, and this was only because it was latched on to the name Magic Lancers!

Sounded like a circus group, but I'll be damned!

Ahem.

In any case, my understanding of this world will only continue to deepen overtime. During all of it, I intend to slowly take my time and absorb all the possible knowledge i could and play an entirely passive only role during this lifetime.

I would just sink into the background and live my life quietly, peacefully, and fulfilling. I wasn't going to play an active role in the course of this story.

This world was a strange place compared to earth.

But it doesn't click with any of the webnovels I've read before on earth... Aetohria wasn't a World I had seen before in any of the works I had read.

It also isn't from any show or TV series I've seen, neither is it a game I'm familiar with.

It was a completely different world than any I was familiar with.

Sigh. There goes a part of my hope out the window. I was hoping if it were one of such worlds I knew, then I would have a certain degree of advantage over the future possible occurrence, and can shape the direction of my life accordingly.

Jeez, aren't i supposed to be transmigrated into my favorite story or my worse one, as an extra and pull obvious red flags from the very moment i realize, or something, isn't that how it's supposed to go?

But it also doesn't seem my second chance at life would be straightforward either...

I stared blankly into mid air. Before me, only for my eyes to see, was an illusionary screen with a long string of letters.

...

[WARNING! WARNING!

The {Great Calamity} is upon all..]...

—DING!

A New Quest has been issued:-

Type:- SURVIVAL

Name:- Quest To Becoming Stronger:

Description:

The {Great Calamity} is coming...Get stronger and survive.

Duration-: ...

Reward:- ...

Penalty:- Death, ??? ]

...

I drummed my little fingers against my bed.

I had a few conjectures I had reached concerning this 'system message ' after a few experiments over the last few years.

For one, this is obviously something only I could see, and hear. The screen isn't completely always blocking my vision or in my head, although it would pop up daily for a few hours each day as a form of daily reminder. The message also never changes or shifts since then.

In addition, I could dismiss and call on the screen with but a thought, however, that was the extent of it all. There was nothing else I could do, I still hadn't figured out the function of this 'system' or it's true purpose.

Using my rich and incomparable experience from reading numerous system novels, i had tried everything.

From chanting "System" in a deep and really edgy voice to saying "Property" like one certain...

...Nevermind

But regardless of what I did, nothing seemed to work. I couldn't see my 'stats' or use 'skills'.

Shazam, Pierce, Arise... No matter what I did, nothing worked.

It's just a damned message board.

But what truly troubled me was the message it delivered.