How To Survive A Calamity

-Click!

"Haa..."

With an exhausted sigh, I shut the door close behind me as I returned back to my room.

I felt the weight of all of the day's events weigh on me like lead.

"What the hell, it feels like I've just run a marathon..."

Of course, the exhaustion was all mental and in my head. Regardless, I stumbled to my bed and threw myself against it with a groan.

My first day of school was trash as fuck. Since there was no other thing on my schedule for today, I could return early and do whatever I wanted.

"Now what I want is too sleep..."

But even I knew I couldn't do that.

Caught in the comforting embrace of my bed and soft pillows, I thought back on the last day and reviewed upon my encounters and events.

That was right.

I couldn't slack of immediately.

There was still a whole lots of things for me to do.

And so, with a begrudging groan, I forced myself up and pulled back my head.

"Haa..."

Running into the hero this early was certainly unexpected, but it doesn't change too much of anything in the grand scheme of things.

I was a little panicked earlier, but perhaps this was also good? It at least saved me the trouble of searching the world for him later. The only thing is, I'm currently unprepared to face Alex.

Without a doubt, his existence is definitely the most sensitive, and someone like him is the number one most dangerous person to my life.

As good as it was that I've found him, it was also equally delicate.

Hmm, how do I put this.

Musing silently I got up to my feet.

"In novel terms, Alexander is like the main character and protagonist of a dark fantasy series. And protagonists are calamity magnets, both literally in this case, and metaphorically speaking."

As such, carelessly staying around him is bound to put me in more danger and unfavourable scenarios than is already necessary.

"I'm kind of like the extra without a name..." I chuckled hollowly.

And as an extra, I could either die of really easily in the background from getting swept up in the protagonist's events, which is the incoming Great Calamity, or try to leave peacefully.

In this case for both ways, Alex is an entity that threatens my own existence, regardless of my choice.

Even if I tried, I couldn't leave peacefully as long as the Great Calamity still looms.

"But he's also the hero of this world. As much as he may have failed in the future, Alex is still very well needed. Even if I don't like him, I can't just kill him off or avoid him."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Alex was necessary. That was a regrettable fact.

Getting rid of the Hero ahead of time like this will be like taking up his responsibilities then.

I didn't want to be the one who goes against the Demon King. I couldn't even if I wanted to. The system has already established my role and purpose in this world.

"I have to survive."

I couldn't save the world. The mantle of hero belonged to Alex, and as for how all of this was somehow connected to me, I still had no idea.

"...Not yet at least."

-tap -tap

While I was stretching and arranging my thoughts slightly, I was suddenly drawn to the sound of a light tapping coming from behind me.

Specifically from my window.

"What the..."

Meow!

Right there, there was a black cat tapping it's paws again the glass.

"Ah..." The side of my face twitched.

"I was wondering where that bastard went all this time..."

I pushed open the glass and let the furry black cat leap into my room and on the bed.

"Where the hell have you been? No, forget it. I don't really want to know."

It's been over a year since I got Hamlet. That hateful slime that has gut me out and decapitated me during its Dungeon boss days has strangely been more content as a black cat now.

Often, at times, Hamlet would disappear and return randomly. It's terrifying innate skill and attribute as a specie allowed it to take the form of any creature it devoured so that meant Hamlet had over a dozen looks and appearances, but is oddly mostly fund of being a cat.

It was strange at first, but even now I still can't fully get used to the fact it could shapeshift.

Meow.

The black cat jumped on to my laps as I took a seat in the midst of my thoughts.

"All that said, Alex is needed and can indeed be useful."

I don't intend to completely ignore him. One way or another, my survival is entangled with his fate. I couldn't save the world, but it would be a shame if it was destroyed.

Having all of these thoughts only made my mental exhaustion weigh heavier on me as I groaned and fell back against my bed.

"Well, whatever. I'll take corresponding actions to whatever that happens from now. For now I'll just do whatever I can..."

I came to Aegis to get stronger, but right from day one it was affirmed things will be more troublesome for me.

'Contigency....I have to make contingencies for that too.'

My assesment is both a burden and a curse. At least, no one will be expecting much from me, but at the same time I'll be constantly looked down upon that situations like today will become regular.

I wanted to avoid all kinds of unnecessary attention.

"I'll think about it later..." In the end, I murmured slightly in a muffled voice.

I was more exhausted than I thought, and before I realized, I was already fast asleep.

***

The first week of the semester, the Freshmen classes didn't really have much of a schedule. Well, we did, but the timetable was one that was meant to give us an idea about how the actual one was going to be.

That meant, whatever classes we participated during the Frist week will be revised by next Monday.

It definitely also didn't mean we were free to laze around until the Orientation or after the banquet during the weekend.

"Move those legs, you brats! Come on, faster, faster! Hap! Hap!"

The loud booming of a voice that was more like the cry of an engine exploded just behind us like a roll of thunder, sending actual shockwaves behind us.

"Ughhh!! No-no more...! I'm gonna die...!" A guy next to me was already a walking corpse with lingering regrets as he muttered half-dead.

Gym class.

Right now we were currently running a massive lap round a field, with a beast like instructor hounding us from behind.

The main purpose of the first preliminary week was to get us introduced to all classes and used to certain aspects of it.

One of them was, of course, the gym class.

Now, one would usually think, it's just gym class, aren't you guys superhumans?

But, yes, exactly. We are superhumans.

Now imagine the scale of the field.

"Victor!!"

"Argh!"

All of a sudden, a sharp voice came out of nowhere and I almost had a heart attack. Right next to me appeared a guy with pure white hair and deep blue eyes.

Alexander laughed lightly at my reaction.

"Pfftt! Sorry, sorry, i didn't mean to scare you like th— pfft.."

"...What do you want?"

It's been three days since I ran into Alex in the hallway. We haven't met directly ever since, since I've been actively trying to ignore him.

But it was only inevitable that we'll eventually meet again.

"Hm? Oh, uh... Actually, I just saw you and thought... I'm not sure."

I also discovered, he's an idiot.

"I see." I curtly said and increased my pace.

It's been almost an hour since the entire class has had to run multiple laps round, and I was beginning to slowly feel the burn.

"Haah...haah..."

The track field in Aegis was no joke. All of the institute's facilities, everything was specially designed to accommodate Awakened heroes of all ranks and to test them and push them to their limits. It was no different here.

I watched as more than half of my classmates sprawled on the ground, half dead with pale and sunken faces.

"...these are pride of the Human domain." I heaved under my breath.

"These are the pride of the human domain. Pathetic. Ptoi!"

Hey, coincidentally, the instructor and I shared the same thoughts, as he spat.

There were a few of us who were still able to stand and control our breathing like me, while the majority had their souls leaking from their lips.

I was already used to this kind of training from back home. Running a few hundred laps wasn't enough to make me drop dead any longer, but I was definitely feeling the impact after five hundred, although I didn't let it show.

[You stamina has considerably improved a lot.]

A familiar synthetic voice buzzed mildly in my head, and I wiped the trail of sweat beads against my face as I silently murmured.

"How's that supposed to make me feel when there are monsters like that guy?"

Saying so, I side glanced at a specific figure not to far away.

"What can I say, as expected of the Hero?"

Compared to even I who was still standing and barely panting, Alex didn't even have a single drop of sweat on his pretty white face.

Frankly, it was infuriating.

I was really curious what his stats were...for some reason, i can't access them with the system.

"Mwahaha! Well I guess this is fine for the first time. A lot of you punks have a long way to go, but we'll call it a day for today. Now scram!"

With the permission of the gym instructor, classes came to an end.

...

[A/N: Second chapter coming soon. And on a separate note... We finally have a discord! The How To Survive A Calamity discord is officially ready as of today. Feel free to join with the link on my profile. I'll try to see if I can paste the link at the comment section tho]