Chapter 1: Challenge Accepted

“I’m sorry…” The Main Character coughed out blood as he stared at the spear that had pierced through his chest. His vision was hazy as he gazed helplessly at a massive boar whose snort unleashed a gale, vaporizing his gushing blood. A legendary cultivator that had terrorized the Sumatra Continent for more than a millennium. That was the Boar King, his enemy. 𝒐𝑽𝑙𝒩xt.𝗇𝓔t

“You were a disappointment, Resha.” Saying so, the Boar King stomped on the Main Character’s head and splattered his brain matter all over the ground. Soundless, soulless, unable to utter a cry, the Main Character fell, to his demise, a death unknown to anyone, but mourned by all.

The End!

Author Notes: To my readers, I express my gratitude…

…

“Gratitude, my ass!” A youth seated in a dimly lit room roared as he flailed his hands in anger, “Six years! Six fucking years! We supported you on this journey and you give us this pathetic ending?”

“Fuck! I’m pissed!” He crumpled a cup of ramen nearby and threw it with force, watching it splatter all over the wall upon impact. A couple of seconds later, the youth collapsed on his chair, wheezing. He had overexerted himself with that tantrum.

After he graduated from university, the youth was unable to land a job, and hence, he remained unemployed. Thankfully, his parents created assets on his behalf. The rental income alone was enough for him to get by.

But every time he opened social media and saw his peers succeeding in life, he became more and more depressed. In such a shut-in life, the novel, ‘Sumatra Chronicles’ was his solace. The author uploaded three chapters a day, so it provided him ample entertainment.

Since he followed it for six years, Sumatra Chronicles became part of his life. He wasn’t even worried about it ending, for based on the lore setup, the novel should have run for another four years. It was a realistic novel with zero plot armour granted to the characters, including the Main Character.

Hence, it received a large fan following from people that were fed up with stories about Main Characters with gold fingers, cheats, Systems, etc.

The latest arc was gut-wrenchingly engaging, as every step of the way, the Main Character came close to death. And finally, the Boar King appeared, a villain teased for more than two years. He was supposed to be a villain impossible to be beaten by the Main Character, with death certain upon encounter.

So, everyone looked forward to the clash, for until now, whenever the Main Character came faced with such situations, he used his wit and ingenuity to realistically survive the crisis. But faced with such hype, the author decided to kill the Main Character.

“Fuck him! Fuck! Fuckity Fuck!” The youth was unable to calm his rage. He slammed his keyboard and pulled up the novel’s review section, intending to leave a brutally negative review. Only then would he be able to vent his frustration.

“The author was born when his dad boned a pig…no, it’s too tame. The author’s brain is infested with maggots…damn, this isn’t even insulting enough. The author fuck…no, the word fuck is banned here. Shit, can’t I even come up with a decent insult?” The youth grumbled. He then got an idea upon seeing the various negative reviews that were rapidly filling up the review section.

“Got it!” He grinned excitedly as he began to type a short, but nasty review, “Your mother must have been a female dog to birth a fatherless son like you. If that ending was the best you got, be hit by a truck and Isekai yourself. Even I can write a better story than yours and I’m not even literate, lol.”

“That’s a perfect insult.” The youth was proud of himself. He imagined a scene where the author was roasted upon seeing his review and drowned in his tears. “Hahaha!”

“Fucker, what did you say about my mother?” A booming voice echoed in his room, startling the youth. His monitor shone with radiance bright enough to fully light up his room as an ethereal hand of light burst out and grabbed his face.

It applied pressure, forming a depression on his face, causing the youth to scream in pain. He didn’t even have enough time to fully process his fear when the ethereal hand yanked him into the monitor. The monitor shut down as beeping sounds resounded from his CPU. A couple of seconds later, the PC exploded.

…

“Ahhhhhhh!” The youth screamed as his vision was blanketed by white light. When he came to his senses, he found himself in a greyish room. The floor felt like jelly, eerie to stand upon as the sensation transmitted through his feet disgusted him.

He looked at himself, noticing that his body was a mere blur. There was an Indigo hue emanating from him. Suddenly, he realized he couldn’t recall his name anymore, unnerved.

“You were saying?” A muscly octopus-headed humanoid stood before him, spanning a height of two metres. Its arms were ripped. “What did you say my mother was?”

At the sight of the creature, the youth’s survival instinct kicked in, making him deny the accusation as his brain clocked into overdrive, “I didn’t say anything. That wasn’t me. I was your supporter all along. I’m a good child.”

“Enough, eat my fist!” Followed by a roar, the octopus-headed humanoid pummeled the youth for a good ten minutes. Satisfied, it snapped its finger and healed the youth, saying with a smile, “Your review got me thinking.”

“Can someone clear that scenario?” The octopus-headed humanoid propped up the youth and stared into his eyes to speak calmly, “I was like, why not? I can rewind time and see if that’s possible.”

“You’re not making any sense.” The youth was flabbergasted, “What are you? Where am I? What is happening to me? Why am I like this? What are you after?”

“Relax, bud.” The octopus-headed humanoid slapped him on the face once, speaking after shutting up the youth, “During my journey through space, I came upon an interesting world. I was excited after observing it for a while and wanted to share the experience with others. Hence, I came to Earth and published that as a webnovel. Many liked my story. But, too many hated the ending, even though, to me, it felt perfect.”

“In that situation, there was no way Resha could survive. I mean, he faced the Boar King that was supposed to guarantee his death. And in reality, that was what happened there. Resha was killed by the Boar King. I literally wrote what had happened, but it seems not everyone likes reality.” The octopus-headed humanoid’s shoulder slumped in disappointment.

One of its tentacles wagged like a dog’s tail as it spoke, its voice one of excitement, “Seeing the reviews, and observing a few challenging me at executing the story better, I thought I’ll see what will happen.”

“What…are you getting at?” The youth realized by now that the entity before him was the author of Sumatra Chronicles. It wasn’t a human but some creature on the likes of Cthulhu. The entity seemed to talk in circles, so he was getting confused.

But once he thought about the sequence of events until now, he realized what was up, ‘It’s a challenge! My god! I challenged him that I could write a better story than him. And now, he’s asking me to prove it.’

“Well, seems you got the gist.” The octopus-headed humanoid nodded with a smile, capable of reading his mind. It then clapped its hand as five others appeared beside the youth, each emanating one of the colours that formed the rainbow.

There was Violet, Blue, Green, Yellow, and Orange. The youth emanated Indigo. Only Red was missing. The bodies of all six were a blur, their height, body shape, facial features, and even gender unable to be identified. Their sole identifying feature was their colour.

The heads of the octopus-headed humanoid multiplied by six. It seemed each head had been conversing with a person in private, just as it happened to the youth. Once everyone had been briefed, they were brought to the same location.

The six heads stared at the six people, saying in unison, “I’m sending you to Sumatra Continent once I rewind its time to the start of the story. Since each of you challenged me in being more capable than my Main Character, I dare you to show it.”

“T-That’s…” Violet was in tears, aware of how violent and dangerous Sumatra Continent was. There, death existed at every turn. Unless one was as capable as the Main Character, they wouldn’t even know how they died.

This was a story where even the Main Character died. So, how would average Joes like them survive in such a treacherous world?

“If you’re scared, commit suicide once you arrive there.” One of the heads of the octopus-headed humanoid stared at the youth, “There’s no truck there. So, you’ll have to choose a painful route.”

‘Dammit, he’s just mocking me. I have read Sumatra Chronicles multiple times in the past six years. I know the story by heart. Challenge? Bring it on!’ The youth snorted, “You won’t remove our memories of the story, right?”

“Are you afraid we’ll strip all the benefits your MC gets?”

He was still angry. And having been a shut-in for six years, he neither had a good lid on his emotions nor was he able to exercise control. As a result, he lashed out.

“You think my MC is that weak?” In response, the octopus-headed humanoid laughed raucously, “Even with your knowledge of the future, you’ll still fall short. As if trash like you can hold up to my MC.”

“Don’t cry when I defeat him.” The person emanating a green hue snickered, “You boast about Resha. But he was only that good in the second half of the story. During the first half, he was a frustrating idiot. So, be ready to accept defeat.”

“If you manage to succeed, I’ll grant you a wish.” The octopus-headed humanoid said in anger, “You can even be an immortal and own Earth and every living being on it. I can grant any wish. But it’s game over if you were to die in Sumatra Continent. I won’t bother reviving a failure.”

“C-Can you send me back home?” The person with a Violet hue raised their hand and asked.

“Nope,” The octopus-headed humanoid denied with a snort, “Don’t put on a scaredy-cat act. I know you’re excited to cultivate. I know all of you are.”

He stared at the six people, “Among those that challenged me in the review section, I selected those that were ambitious enough to face the dangers of Sumatra and surpass my MC. I can read your thoughts and I can already see you thinking of ways to benefit yourselves.”

“Whatever,” It laughed, “All six of you will start with the same condition as the MC. There exists only one set of treasures that you must consume to become strong and not die a premature death. You’ll be competing with my MC for that.”

‘That means when I’m reincarnated there, I’ll be an orphan just like Resha. And I’ll also be a victim of the Fragment Disease.’ The youth thought as he looked at the five others next to him, ‘There’s just one cure to the disease. Only the one that gets the cure will survive the Four Major Disasters.’

‘The rest are enemies.’ The youth concluded. The air was fraught with tension as everyone else also seemed to arrive at the same conclusion. But, there was also a strong vibe of excitement present in the expressions of everyone.

All six of them had been bored with Earth. They wanted something beyond their mundane mortal selves in life. So, being reincarnated to a mystical world was giving them a chance to live their dreams. They could cultivate and wield supernatural powers.

Hence, none of them even entertained the thought of returning to Earth.

They were already daydreaming of becoming powerful by taking advantage of the countless benefits that lay on their journey. All of them knew the story by heart and were react to take action.

The youth had already begun his calculations, ‘Thankfully, Resha is a weakling at the start. So, I only need to guard against these five. As long as I obtain the cure, I’m guaranteed to become a powerhouse.’

“Now that everyone is on the same page, you’ll be reincarnated to Sumatra. Put on your best act, as I’ll be watching your journey. May you surprise me.” The octopus-headed humanoid put on a solemn expression as the bodies of the six began to dissipate. They were being reincarnated.

The youth observed his legs turning faint before they vanished, followed by his hip, then the stomach, and so on. The case was the same with the others too.

Just as their heads were starting to dissipate, the octopus-headed humanoid muttered as if it had forgotten to mention, “Oops, there was one detail I failed to mention.”

The faces of all six people flinched in response as a sense of worry set in them. Seeing their expression, the octopus-headed humanoid let out a comically evil grin as it chuckled with a mocking tone before its voice turned solemn, “This time, there’s one difference from the story you read.”

“Resha will be a Regressor.”