’Ten days....’
’Damn it, so much time has gone already, at this rate there wouldn’t be enough time to prepare.’
Taking a glance at Elena who was standing in front of him, with his years of experience in the apocalypse he had long been able to see what most people could not.
Although she stood there trying to make jokes with him, he could see the worries hidden in her eyes.
That fight with Marcus, although he had awakened beforehand and even learnt some abilities.
But Marcus was someone destined to stand out in the apocalypse.
Even now Ethan found it surprising that he won.
’However Elena’s worries are not without reason.’
’Just the scale of my injuries another person would have long since died, had my physique not been enhanced by becoming a mage...’
Ethan didn’t want to think much about it.
How sad would it have been for him to be reborn and die not even a week later?
In that case he would probably be the saddest rebirth in history.
’Twenty days left till the apocalypse, there’s no way I can spend the rest of the twenty days in this hospital bed, I have to do something.’
Recalling all the opportunities he had to steal and the plans he had made.
Unknowingly began to struggle, trying to get off the hospital bed.
"Arghhh!"
"Shit! Why does it hurt so much!"
Cursing in pain, even the slightest movement caused him to scream out in agony.
It felt like his bones were being shattered all over and over.
"Don’t move Ethan! Even the family doctors said they couldn’t understand how you survived."
"If you move now you could end up opening a wound."
In a fit of panic, Elena rushed towards his side.
She couldn’t understand what was so important that it made her brother try to move regardless of his injury.
At that moment, she no longer cared about fighting, nor did she care about getting stronger.
All she wanted was for her brother to be alright.
As she thought this, tears began to fall from her eyes.
"Brother... back when Mom and Dad died in that accident."
"We both promised to stay with each other no matter what."
"If we did that, then why the hell did you go off almost dying like that?"
"Do you even know how worried I was!"
The more she spoke, the more her emotions poured out, like a floodgate with no rails.
"Not only that, but despite your life hanging by a thread, you do not even try to rest."
"But you ask the whereabouts of the person who almost killed you and even try to stand up despite your condition!"
"Think of how I feel! Think of how grandpa feels!"
"You know ever since Mom and Dad died, everyone in this family has been fighting to inherit."
"The only person who cares about us in this place is Grandpa, and imagine how he must feel watching you almost kill yourself for his sake!"
Wiping her tears she took one last glance at Ethan, the pride of the world’s greatest fighter completely gone from her eyes.
"Brother, I don’t know what it is that happened to you, or what’s going on in the world."
"But don’t forget Grandpa and I exist, so stop trying to carry everything alone."
"I know that you might think that you’re protecting us, but you might end up causing us more harm."
Saying this, she didn’t look back and left the room.
....
"Protecting huh?"
"Who would have thought I the former unawakened trash would ever protect someone."
Watching Elena leave, a wry smile appeared on Ethan’s face as her words rang through his mind.
"But was I really trying to carry everything alone?"
"The main reason I came back to the family house was to use the Smith family’s power to prepare for the apocalypse."
"Plus I already planned to teach Elena and a few others the mage system to try out the ten thousand time feedback."
"In that case, did I really do something wrong?"
Staring at the white ceiling Ethan began to reflect on himself.
While it was true that he did put himself in incessant danger at times, it was all within reason.
"After all, considering my skills and experience when fighting and scavenging in the apocalypse, it would have been more than enough to kill Marcus."
"However, to analyze his abilities I deliberately dragged out the fight even at the cost of injuries," said Ethan.
Yet despite knowing this, he didn’t have an ounce of regret on his face as he knew this was the only way to get stronger.
Without taking any risk then even with his two abilities he was destined to be unable to make any waves in the apocalypse.
"But again these injuries, if I can’t move then 90 percent of my plans are done for."
At times like this, Ethan wished he had a healing ability.
Unfortunately, his max-level comprehension hadn’t understood that or any healing spells yet.
Sighing unwillingly, he began to go through his memories looking for any opportunities or ways out.
His system notification suddenly popped up.
[Congratulations Awakener Ethan Smith!]
[Your random reward has been generated!]
[You have been rewarded with three blind boxes.]
[Continue to grow stronger!]
Reading the prompts, Ethan’s eyes couldn’t help but go wide.
Blind boxes, unlike what one might think about gacha, were items rewarded by the system and contained anything but duds.
According to what he had heard in his past life, these were given to awakeners who had achieved incredible feats.
Not only that but they contained the item the awakener needed the most.
"Good! I never expected to get something like this, perhaps the heavens are smiling on me."
Smiling whilst still wrapped in bandages, in the face of such a reward, Ethan didn’t hesitate.
"System! Open all blind boxes!"
With his eyes shining brightly, he could not wait to see what was inside them.