'Where am I?'

Gerard woke up and couldn't comprehend where he was. The place was like a box. After a few moments, everything came back to him.

"Right. I died, and this is my grave," Gerard said aloud, realizing then how outrageous it sounded, "But how am I alive?"

The situation was quite strange. Gerard remembered getting shot inside a bank. It was supposed to be a typical day with him getting some money out of his bank account, and then that happened.

Three robbers suddenly appeared, yelling, aiming their guns at everyone present, commanding them to kneel. Gerard didn't kneel. Was it because he was brave and wished to fight the robbers? No, not at all.

Gerard had a severe problem with his knees, so he couldn't crouch or kneel.

"Listen, I can't do this because I have-"

They shot him before he finished his sentence. He was dead and dead, and nothing could save him.

But Gerard was inside a coffin, breathing and acting like an ordinary being. Like someone alive. It looked impossible, and Gerard couldn't find an answer but rejoiced.

'Miracles can happen!'

Gerard couldn't wait to climb out of that grave and see his friends and family, and do all the things he loved doing. All shattered after he realized that wasn't the world he knew anymore...

The reward he got after using all of his strength to open up the coffin and push the dirt away was a wasteland, rows of wrecked buildings with plants growing on them.

'What is this? Did five hundred years pass or something?'

It looked like an apocalypse straight from a book. The buildings had long disappeared, and the streets were desert without a sign of life. Human life, at least. Gerard spotted a few birds and rabbits.

The air that entered his lungs was the purest one Gerard had ever breathed.

His mind worked at full speed, trying to understand some parts of his situation. The first thing he thought was: reincarnated into another world.

No, that was not it. Gerard's memories were intact, and his body was the same. No two souls were merging, with the protagonist taking over another body.

'Then maybe Isekai? Transmigration? No, this world IS Earth. I can tell that.'

If those two possibilities were impossible, the only answer was one Gerard disliked.

'Apocalypse? Why am I so unlucky?'

Gerard wanted to find a hole and put his head on. 'The coffin here can work... Stop, Gerard, focus!'

Then, suddenly, a notification appeared before his eyes.

<System Initialization Completed>

'A system? Let me check this.'

Gerard opened his system tab, and a list of passives appeared. There were only two tabs: one with passives and another with a shop for him to buy new passives.

'Look, I already have a passive.'

[Undying (Godly Rank): That's right. You don't die. But hey, there's a catch, you will die randomly every day.]

'Ayo. This doesn't feel that great...'

Gerard didn't recall having a system before and that passive. Was it because of the Undying passive that he survived the apocalypse? With a glance, Gerard could tell the world wasn't the same as it used to be.

Anyway, he kept checking his system to learn how to earn points or whatever the system used for him to buy more passives, and it was pretty... strange?

To earn points to exchange for passives, Gerard had to... have sex? No, that shouldn't be right. He read it multiple times, and still, it was the same sentence.

'How can I do this?'

Gerard was a virgin who wasn't that good at getting girls. He browsed through his available passives for purchase, noticing a charming aura that would likely help him get some girls.

But, to buy that, he needed points, and to get the points, he had to get girls...

'Wait. What's this charming aura? Ayo.'

[Charming Aura (Rank 1): You have an aura around you that captivates the attention of women who will surely want to get in bed with you. But hey, there's a catch. You'll also attract powerful beasts from time to time, those who will not be looking for a fight.]

'Not looking for a fight... This is daunting...'

The System Gerard had was more like a God playing tricks on him, giving him the benefits and the downsides of some abilities. How could he survive in a world like that one with such a System?

It should be better than having nothing to rely on. Gerard did not have any points to spend and buy passives, so he returned to his task to figure out exactly where he was.

Gerard could see the area had remnants of a lost civilization; he wasn't sure if it was the Earth he knew, but it looked somewhat advanced. Yet judging by buildings conditions and the dense vegetation, that civilization had fallen long ago.

'I bet more than one thousand years. Did I sleep for that long?'

Gerard was about to move and look for clues when a woman appeared out of nowhere, standing before him with a wand aimed at him.

She had white hair, pale skin, and pointed ears. Gerard instantly recognized her as an elf! Her mouth moved as she muttered a few words, but Gerard couldn't understand her.

"I am sorry, lady, but I can't understand a thing. Elvish? I read and saw Lord of the Rings, but my mind can't remember the words..."

While the two were chatting, another elf appeared behind Gerard. He did not notice her presence, and when he did, it was too late. She put a sack on his head and tied his legs and arms.

'Why am I so unlucky?' Gerard internally cursed.

One of the elves waved her wand, casting a spell that made Gerard float. They didn't want to carry him around using their bodies. That was exhaustive.

They made their way toward their village, which wasn't far from the nearby forest. But destiny was quite fun sometimes.

A snake fell from a tree, pouncing directly toward Gerard's neck, biting it. The poison was too much for him to endure, and he died.

The elves were clueless about what had happened. It didn't seem natural.

"Wait. What?" the two gorgeous elves said in unison.