Butcher Demon - Chapter 71: Playball

A question I often ask myself, is the human desire for self-destruction never going away?

Travel through the endless apocalypse world, and find the answer behind every kind of demise!

- Description from novelbuddy

In the year 2057, the world has become a corporate-run utopia for the super-rich, and a hellhole for all the rest. Catherine 'Cat' Leblanc is an orphan that is about as far from super-rich as one can be. When the Incursion alarms start blaring and the sky starts raining hungry xenos, it's just another blemish on an already piss-poor afternoon. A cyberpunk magical-girl alien-invasion LitRPG.It’s exactly as wild as it sounds.

Humanity is caught in a great upheaval after the Intergalactic Union of All Species coincidentally discovers their existence on what they had formerly considered to be the fringe of the universe.Without any say in the matter, they get indicted into the Union as a legal member. Unfortunately, this meant that they were now obligated to partake in the exploration of a new Chaotic Realm parallel to their universe containing rich energies, resources, and essence that the universe itself craved.To that end, the universe has created its own will, which seeks to gather all races and strengthen warriors from them to explore the dangerous but lucrative Chaotic Realm, initiating the Augmented Reality simulation, Essence.In Essence, one can experience a carefully crafted universe similar to an RPG game, either by going in through your soul or going in through VR. The former means that death is true, and the latter is similar to a normal FIVR experience.Those who go in with their souls can freely receive feedback from their 'game characters' to obtain all stats, skills, and items they acquire in Essence, while those who go in with VR do not obtain that benefit.However, those who pay for it in Essence can receive an awakening of genetic talent called abilities. These abilities are graded from F to EX, a total of 10 stages.Not much is expected from the human race when the first 100 participants get chosen at random from the public - a standard protocol - only for each one of them to awaken at least an A-grade ability.Then, there was Damon Arnan, a young Ghanaian politician, who ended up awakening, not one, not two, but three EX-Grade Talents.The human race, which had just entered the galactic playground, was about to experience a storm with Damon smackdab in the middle.

Jaden lived an ordinary life. This was the life that he had lived for several years now. This kind of life was one that had existed ever since the death of his parents.His parents died in an accident, leaving him an orphan. The moment that his parents died, his uncles came over and took over everything that was supposed to be taken by him.He tried going to court, trying to see if he could get back the wealth that belonged to his family, but due to the connections that his uncles possessed, he did not succeed.Completely abandoned by his relatives and friends that existed before the death of his parents, Jaden was left to fend for himself.He managed to get a job as a bouncer in a club. But as a coincidence, he ended up irritating someone that he was not supposed to offend. And with that, he was beaten and left in an alley to die.But it was at that exact moment that out of nowhere, he was bitten by a dog. Jaden could not believe it. He had never expected that he was going to die just like this. And even before dying from the wounds that he had suffered from the beating, he was going to be infected by rabies?But the strange thing that happened was the fact that after the dog bit him, a holographic screen appeared in front of him.[Congratulations on being chosen by The Bodyguard System.]And with that, Jaden's life changed completely.