Chef in the Apocalypse

Jayce, Jackie and Amber were moving through the ruined streets of the city, looking for a suitable place to set up the teleportation array. The girls were eager to quickly set up the circle so they could use it to head back to their houses in Bastion.

They rounded a corner, dodging the debris and the smell of rotting garbage before their eyes finally landed on a clearing. Its paved area was similar to the one in Bastion where Jayce had prepared the feast on their first night.

"This will do." Jayce said, nodding his head.

"Thank god, I was beginning to lose hope." Amber rubbed her hands together, not bothering to hide her relief.

"Can we just build it now?" Jackie blurted out with an air of impatience.

Jayce’s eyebrow twitched as he attempted to calm down after copping an earful of nagging this whole trip. ’You say it like it’s so easy!’ he yelled in his heart with annoyance.

In truth, Jayce’s way of constructing the teleportation array was hundreds of times easier than it would have been for the people in his previous life. That was because of the skills he had acquired up till now.

Reroll was something that he had picked up as the reward for clearing the World Quest first. Initially he had doubts about this ability, especially when he had seen the drawback. However, this ability had turned out to be a godsend for him.

6 months ago after defeating the Beast tide, and surviving against the machinations of the 3 beings atop the thrones. Jayce had woken up in bed with nothing but his underwear on, his stomach growling with the prowess of a wet kitten.

With his status window opened, he scrolled the notifications that had built up considerably. One usually expects to see only good things after surviving such a large-scale battle, such as level-ups, skill increases and the like.

However... 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

[World balance has deemed you too strong for the world at this point in time - You will be removed]

[Danger! Player’s existence is being erased from this plane of existence]

[World balance is rejudging your existence...]

[...]

[World balance has redeemed you]

[Skill: VIP15 has been deemed too imbalanced and will be altered accordingly]

[Skill: VIP15 has been changed to Ill-fated]

...

Ill-fated (passive) - A curse that follows the character relentlessly, reducing their luck to 0 while this is active. Can not be dispelled.

"What?"

Jayce quickly sat up, a feeling of dread rising from the pit of his stomach. He rubbed his eyes a few times, hoping that he had misread the pop-up windows in front of him. Yet the words did not change, they stared back at him as if taking a massive shit on all of his hard work.

"Those f*cking pricks! First you power up the boss monster, then you come to my world and try to finish me and my friends off." Jayce’s face turned red, feeling anger and frustration boil inside him.

"But noooo, that just wasn’t enough for you. You had to take away my LUCK! The thing I had spent over 200 free stat points on." He continued to rant, before stopping to take a few deep breaths.

"You’ve done it now you motherfu– OWW" Jayce cried out in pain. He had bitten his tongue hard after talking so much, causing him to curse again and again.

He tried to calm down and think logically, however his body felt hot from the anger and blood rushing to his head. Jayce decided he should go wash his face, in an attempt to clear his mind.

Moving his legs off the side of the bed, he pushed off with his arms, planning to land on his feet and make his way to the bathroom. Yet he seemed to use too much strength, causing his legs to completely miss the floor and sending him face-first into the cold hard ground.

Jayce cried out in pain and shock at the sudden meeting of his face and the floor. The blood which had rushed to his earlier tongue wound, redirected itself to his nose which began to bleed profusely upon contact.

Withholding the raging fury within him, he calmly raised himself from the floor, holding his hand beneath his nose so as not to leave a trail of blood in his room. The feeling of pain attacking his nerves seemed to bring with it an icy clarity, washing away any rash thoughts in Jayce’s brain.

He slowly made his way to the bathroom, trying his hardest not to lose his footing lest he cause himself anymore harm. He sighed in relief as he made it in one piece, checking out his nose which had begun to stop bleeding.

Thanks to his large vitality stat, injuries were healed at a faster rate, which meant that his blood coagulated at a faster rate, making it difficult for him to bleed out. The nose did not look broken, yet it had begun to swell.

Jayce washed his hands and face with some water that was left in the sink, instantly feeling a little better. He stared at his reflection, noticing that he had some stubble on his young face. Yet instead of giving him a mature look like in his past life, its patchiness made him look ridiculous.

He let out a sigh, feeling dispirited. He brought up his status window to confirm what he already knew. Seeing his once glorious Luck stat being reduced to 0 was a big blow to his psyche, making him lament deeply.

His eyes trailed to the skill, hoping to get a clue on how to remove it.

Ill-fated (passive) - A curse that follows the character relentlessly, reducing their luck to 0 while this is active. Can not be dispelled.

"Damn it." Jayce cursed, the words "Can not be dispelled’ were like a knife to the heart, killing any hopes that he had of ridding himself of the curse.

Jayce lowered his gaze, feeling a sense of defeat which he had not felt in such a long time. In this life he had battled his way through adversity time and time again, however this time he felt helpless.

As his gaze lowered, his eyes happened to fall upon another one of his skills that he had forgotten about.

Reroll (max): skill allows the player to reshuffle skills, abilities, enchantments, bonuses, or attributes of an item. Upon failure, item will be destroyed, success rate is tied to users Luck stat

"Reroll..." he muttered aloud, feeling the cogs in his brain turning.

"That’s it!" Jayce slammed his fist against the bathroom counter in triumph. Unfortunately, the strength he used was too much, causing the mirror to shatter in front of him and send shards flying in every direction.

"Great... an additional 7 years of bad luck"