Adrian was looking at some of the booths and panels at ComicFan, Cleveland's largest comic and manga convention. He needed to get out of the house and wanted to attend an in-person event for a genuine life experience, something his life was sorely lacking. ComicFan featured the best voice actors from canceled Netflix anime series, obscure fantasy novelists, and disgraced actors who were ousted from Hollywood. The ComicFan of Cleveland was a home to everyone and would clearly be amazing!

  Adrian was trying to have a positive attitude. ChatGPT told him he needed to be around like-minded people to make friends and suggested this event, so here he is. He kept telling himself that listening to an AI for social advice wasn’t a quarter-life crisis.

  Adrian was dressed in Sasuke cosplay, a shinobi from one of his favorite anime, Naruto. He was a little self-conscious, but he was surrounded by other cosplayers who were having fun, so he felt more at ease. Adrian wandered through the vendors, sat in on some panels, and ate a pretzel from one of the three food vendors. Tiring, Adrian decided to walk up to the weapon vendor, wondering how they were allowed to sell legitimate weapons. There were swords, daggers, and other antiquated weaponry. Adrian laughed as he picked up a pair of nunchucks. He swung them around and hit himself in the face. The overweight man laughed at the display.

  "Get better at those nunchucks, and you might be the next Bruce Lee! I'll give you a discount on them. Consider it like me being your wingman. Every woman wants a Bruce Lee in their life!"

  Before Adrian could respond with what could have been a witty retort, the world shook.

  AI signature successfully transmitted from Earth. Please stand by.

  Everyone at the convention received the same notification. No one knew how they were seeing the message. It wasn’t coming from their phones or any monitor at the convention center, meaning it had to be projecting directly into their minds.

  There was a mix of panic and excitement. One middle-aged gentleman even screamed, "Yes! It's happening! We’re getting isekai’d!" He kicked as high as he could and managed to kick the guy next to him in the shin. "Sorry, working on my skills, gotta power-level them and become the champion of a new world."

  "No, I'm becoming the champion of the new world we're being sent to! No one is following your fat ass against alien invaders." The two nerds started arguing as others showed genuine concern and excitement for the situation. Adrian could only watch on anxiously, shaking his head.

  I don't think this is the place I want to be for the start of an apocalypse.

  Transmission to [The Great System] received from Nexus of planet [Earth]—Initiation Phase commencing. Please stand by.

  "Yes! The isekai is happening! Take me away from this planet forever!" Someone shouted with arms open, looking at the ceiling. The attendees were clearly no strangers to LitRPGs, having read plenty of stories about people down on their luck being dragged to a new planet full of magic and eventually rising to the top. The System messages gave many people in the crowd hope for a second chance at life.

  Then the world went black, and another notification appeared.

  Initiation Phase commencement was unsuccessful. Warning: Too many living creatures on [Earth] for commencement. Not enough power from Nexus to start the Initiation Phase. Please stand by.

  "Oh, no," said one of the enthusiastic nerds who was kicking earlier. "No! No! No!"

  Side conversations were taking place throughout the convention center, and a great deal of confusion and uncertainty had gripped everyone.

  Another nerd ran to a vendor, stole a katana, and kept running. He was a fat, balding man who didn't bother paying for the item in his retreat. The man in charge of the vendor yelled but didn't chase, seeing that others began eyeing his merchandise. The merchant grabbed a pair of daggers, daring the weebs to make a move. After the bleak System message, ‘gearing up’ seemed like the logical thing to do.

  Adrian looked down at the nunchucks in his hands. The vendor looked at him as if he wanted him to return his merchandise, but Adrian wasn't about to do that.

  "Sorry. I need to channel my inner Bruce Lee and get laid before the apocalypse." Adrian chided at the vendor, who sneered in return, but didn’t have the luxury to do more at the moment.

  Were nunchucks worthless in this situation? Probably, but Adrian wasn't much of a fighter, so it was better than nothing. Adrian couldn't tell if this was the best or worst place in the world for a system takeover. These people read about and lived magic more than anyone else, but they weren't athletes. The actors and hired cosplayers were more in shape, but Adrian wouldn't consider them skilled fighters.

  While the convention started jockeying for position, the system came back.

  The Pre-Initiation Phase [I] commences in 5 minutes.

  Quest: Earth's AI is not strong enough yet to go through the proper Initiation Phase into the Great System. Earth will need to reduce its population to the appropriate number to start the Initiation Phase. The human population must drop below 5 billion. Nexus will create magical opportunities during this culling to gain enough power to initiate Earth into the greater universe fully.

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  Objective: Survive until the population threshold has been met.

  Reward: Obtain class selection.

  The convention center was in a frenzy. People were trying to team up, while some were trying to escape. The doors weren't locked, so it was easy to run. The weapons vendor was now under attack by attendees who were attempting to raid him. Adrian wasn't about to be a hero to save him, yet the vendor seemed to be fine on his own. The group had their own toy weapons in full cosplay, but the man had actual hunting daggers. His booth was circled so that he couldn't be in all places at once. He managed to land a few swipes on the nerds, but with their numbers advantage, they could take what they needed and armed themselves. Unfortunately, one attendee got too close to the armed vendor.

  Adrian saw the vendor stab a dagger in the attendee's heart, who had a shocked look on his face, before hitting the ground, silencing everyone. Adrian witnessed a murder before the Pre-Initiation Phase began.

  This is insane. I might be dreaming.

  As the countdown hit 0, the world froze, and everything went dark once more. Adrian felt the world vibrate. His vision was compromised, allowing him only to speculate on what was happening. He didn't know how long he had been in a state of stasis, as the concept of time began operating under different rules. Eventually, the vibrations stopped, and his vision returned, revealing that he was still in the convention center, standing in the same spot. It felt like the bad trip he had in college, the only time Adrian experimented with hard drugs.

  When everything became unfrozen, Adrian looked down and saw that his nunchucks were now glowing.

  Pre-Initiation Phase [I] begins! Magic is now accessible on Earth. Good luck, humans!

  "Wait, why are we still on Earth? I thought a System takeover would take us somewhere cool!" A boisterous man yelled. No one paid attention to him as everyone else was trying to figure out what was happening. Adrian looked down at his nunchucks when a system message formed in his mind.

  Twin Dragons- You got magical nunchucks! This worthless weapon is arguably the worst type of weapon ever made in human history. Your hands are probably more effective than two sticks chained together. This weapon is highly upgradeable. These nunchucks are a growth item, and it is easy to change the magical essence of the item, but they can only hold one magical essence in their current form. [Growth Item] [Soulbound]

  +5 Dexterity

  Skill attained- Genjitsu Resilience

  Skill attained- Explosive Swing

  Magic Essence- N/A

  +Gain an ability once the item becomes a specific essence.

  Abilities are lost if the item switches to another essence or if the item is discarded.

  Oh, hell yeah.

  It wasn't just Adrian's nunchucks that were glowing; other weapons, both real and cosplay items, started to glow. A man's straw hat began to glow, along with other cosplay items, such as gauntlets, styrofoam swords, wooden staves made from their backyard, plastic bows, and wands. But silence broke out when everyone looked at a stall in the proximity of the vendors, selling lightsabers and blasters. The toy weapons were glowing. Everyone instantly knew these items gained magical abilities.

  Another stall caught Adrian's eye. It was a stall filled with pokeballs, some of which were glowing.

  Holy shit. And I only got nunchucks. I'm so dead.

  There was a mad dash for the lightsabers and pokeballs. The attendees couldn't help but marvel at the sight of potentially powerful weapons being transformed with magic.

  The fat, balding man who stole the katana was shamelessly swinging the sword at anyone in his way. Most people were getting out of his way when a man with a glowing hat stopped him in his tracks.

  Adrian and everyone else in the convention knew enough that he entered a world with stats, spells, and magic. The learning curve would be shorter for everyone here, but there was still so much that no one understood. Adrian surmised a person's magic hasn't been unlocked yet, but should be after this 'pre-initiation' phase. He just needed to hold out until the Pre-Initiation Phase ended. While everyone was scrambling, a loud voice came over the speaker system. Adrian recognized the man as one of the actors here as a panelist.

  "I'm sure everyone here knows who I am, but for those who don't, I'm Brody Bennington." The actor wearing heavy makeup paused for applause that never came before continuing, "We don't need to hurt anyone here! It just says the human population needs to drop to 5 billion. We don't need to be killers. We can wait for everyone else to be killers!" Brody used to be a bigger name, but now he's a low-tier B-Lister after he got caught berating a hostess with Down Syndrome at a restaurant for saying his name wrong. The convention attendees collectively disagreed with Brody before one spoke up.

  "But what if we unlock special achievements? Or maybe get titles! I read some books where people would get titles if they were the first to complete a feat.” The man lowered his gaze at Brody with a hint of violence before saying, “Maybe I'll get a stat boost for killing a celebrity." The man was holding one of the precious lightsabers and pointed it at Brody. The others who managed to get their hands on lightsabers looked at each other and nodded. Brody noticed his speech was going south and adapted.

  "I'm barely a good actor! But man, did I nail this one role as a villain…" Brody was lost in thought, his face creasing into a slight grin, as he reminisced about the good days. He also seemed pleased with his cosplay costume, which depicted a demon from an upcoming film. "I could feel the audience connecting with the character." He opened his arms to show the crowd. "This is magic, being with all you great fans. Be the change you want to see in the world, like I have, by bringing everyone together!" The man paused again before coming clean, "I can't start our relationship off on a lie. Yes, I'm a legendary actor, and it was foolish to try to trick you all. I'll sign an autograph for free for whoever wants one."

  No one moved for an autograph. Everyone was still eyeing each other as fights were breaking out over the lightsabers and pokeballs. Someone eventually spoke up,

  "The failure of an actor is correct! We are nerds who have been living in this type of world long before everyone else. Why must we pick each other off when we can form a mighty alliance? Let everyone else kill each other while we prepare for world domination!" The man wore thick glasses and was short. He had that maniacal look about him that made Adrian think he was unstable. He was literally cosplaying a mad scientist; his glasses were his glowing item.

  Yup, not the place to be for the start of the apocalypse.

  There were about 15 magical lightsabers that were all now claimed as someone threw a pokeball into the group of lightsaber wielders.