Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] Chapter 2: Chapter 1: Welcome

Read chapter 2 of Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

Chapter 1: Welcome Chapter 1: Welcome It was difficult to say which moment was the one that messed up Alex’s life entirely. If you asked him, it was when he had picked up that god damn rock. If he was more honest with himself, he would say it was the moment he split from his brother in the womb. That would have been his massive negative self-esteem talking though. Being more objective, it might have been the moment he signed up to join the military service. That was the choice which had led him to be in that soccer field when it happened, after all. In absolute truth, it was the moment he was swept up in the blast of a nuclear bomb. That turned out to be a pretty big fucking deal, unsurprisingly. Finding out exactly why he was bloodied and exhausted, standing over the shattered body of an undead Dungeon Boss, might not be the point though. Who really gave a shit about the why? Instead, Alex cared about the realization he had just gone through. The feeling of conquered fear and connection to the world around him. I survived, and I’ll keep surviving. He raised his head to look at the cavern chamber, or at least the smoldering remnants of it. I’ll make it through whatever is thrown at me. His hands tightened into fists as anger started to bubble inside his mind. The meager amount of aether energy in his body kindled in response to his emotions. Was it his new powerful understanding, or yet another bit of influence by the so called “Heavenly System”? Relax, Alex, figure out what to do next. His teammate’s faces loomed in his mind. He was so close to earning their freedom back. Once he did, that was only the beginning, they would have even more hardships to triumph over. Alex once again looked at his quest timer as he brought up the system screen. Nearly a month since we were all brought to this fucking world… it has felt like so much longer than that. *** Time Until Nuclear Incident: 7 Hrs 48 Minutes… “Fucking hell.” His stomach growled a protest on his behalf. Alexander Pierce was having a pretty crap day. Chaffed sores on his feet, a sunburn on his neck, regret of his lunch from earlier. MRE’s are never actually ready-to-be, nor should-be, eaten. When he had first signed up for the New States Armed Forces, he thought it would be a little more laid back. Instead it was missions which had him on long romantic hikes through a dilapidated city-scapes, with views of nothing but concrete and metal far beyond the horizon. It was like a snapshot of generations past. Each day Alex and his team sulked through half-destroyed buildings, crumbling malls, and overgrown city parks. If time travel were a thing, Alex would’ve gone back and slapped the pen out of his own hand at that recruitment office. But alas, all he could do now was suffer in sunburned silence. "Okay let's move squad, enough rest for the day." Captain Thompson called out to them. "Intel says there shouldn't be any contact today either. No known Union squads out here until the mid-zone." The captain said this with a reassuring smile. No one was itching to run into any hostile squads. "We haven't run into any Uni's on our entire detail,” Allie mumbled. She was elbow-deep in her medic bag, rearranging its contents for the third time that hour. It was her personal coping mechanism, like stress-baking, but with tourniquets. “They’re probably not even out here.” Her statement was probably true. Alex remembered reading on the web that in Europe people were calling the conflict the "Second Cold War". A reference to an earlier non-combat conflict between a country where Russia currently existed and, ironically, the old United States. "We won't know until we get out there. And we have at least three more relay points to set in either case." Devon said. Alex peeked up from his tablet screen to look at Private Devon Andrews. The guy was scrawny, but not freakishly so, and had rather well-kept dark brown hair. Alex kind of saw him as a younger version of that one actor, in the old movie w