Optional Music to Accompany the Chapter:
Melancholy
https://youtu.be/CCl-9QJ1Xzg
Late Morning - Early Summer : Year 0 | Month 0 : Richmond, Virginia | East Coast United States
World: Earth | Rank: 6 Population: ~1,895,413,000
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"~You need to leave.~"
Feeling Michael's presence warp as time itself thickened, my senses sharpened with adrenaline.
"~I do hope you will comply and leave yourself, for if you don't, by the grace of God I will make sure your final moments in this world aren't easy...~" Growing heavy, his voice turned cold like an executioner raising the blade of a guillotine.
However, the moment his hand motioned to let the blade fall, I stepped back, and in that instant, my vision was overtaken by the suffocating darkness of a gate. *Vwoop*
But I wasn't in it.
Dissipating the void-like sphere, our gazes met again, mine sharp, his unamused and irritated.
He knew just as well as I that the only result of a fight between us would be vast swaths of collateral damage.
He was strong, yes.. but no where near strong enough to kill me.
If he couldn't catch me in a gate, he couldn't get rid of me.
And so, it became a game of cat and mouse. "~Tch…~" A game he couldn't afford to play. "~Even if I must call a higher level administrator to forcibly relocate you, I will… You are not a being that can stay in this world. The longer you stay, the more your presence will raise Earth's rank, and the harder this world will have to fight to survive.~"
-Wait, what..?- My mind hitched as he spoke. -My presence will raise Earth's rank..?- It was a notion that came with more implications than I could possibly imagine in that moment.
But among them, one sparked an idea. "What if I proposed a deal then?"
Pausing, his lips pursed with bitterness.
But in that moment of pause, I saw an opening. "If you permit my stay, I'll compensate you with every drop of XP I gain from monsters here."
His cloudy figure visibly stiffened as his hostility stuttered.
No matter how much he wanted to deny it, the deal transformed me from a walking natural disaster to his personal gold-egg-laying goose...
If he let me stay, Earth's rank would rise, stronger monsters would appear faster, and not only would he get every drop of experience I got, he would collect an exponentially growing amount of 'server taxes' from every other system user—tiny percentages of XP, gold, and items scraped off the top of users' kills.
He just needed Earth to survive.
So I tossed him a safety net. "If a monster humanity can't handle appears, I will take responsibility for it."
However, with the agreement to give him my XP, it was truly like I had laid a cherry atop an milkshake.
One even he couldn't deny was irresistible.
Squinting, a glimmer of greed gleamed in his eyes, and he opened his mouth with a cautious hesitancy. "~All to let you stay here?~" To him, it was too good to be true. XP was like the lifeblood of system users—the system's payment for work—food to heal and grow.
But to me, that food was a string of dependency I needed to cut. He just didn't know that.
So I had to balance things. "I need a favor as well."
He immediately paused.
"I need information. Specifically, I need someone who can teach me about mana." Watching the greed in his eyes flicker, I dropped the final bomb. "If you can find me one, I'll even leave most of the artifacts and items monsters drop."
His expression instantly scrunched with displeasure. To him, it felt like he was making a pact with the devil.
But that displeasure was forced by the skin of ethics.
Looking toward the horizon—toward where The Warden's body lay still and lifeless—he stared quietly before lowering his gaze with a bitter click. "~Tch...~" He wasn't happy—not at me, but at his temptation.
To him, the agreement felt like a baited trap, hooking him into a deal that would lead to Earth's end if things went awry.
His gut told him no…
But the horrific strength emanating from the being before him was the greatest insurance he could have been granted.
So, he broke. "~Fine.~" Turning back to me, not bothering to hide the conflicting greed and anxiety in his eyes, he opened his system with a wave. "~Since you aren't connected to Earth's server, I need to form a data link with you in order for the rewards you gain here to be taxed. Think of it like creating another user profile that's connected to this server, allowing you to interact with Earth, and Earth to interact with you like any other user.~"
Continuing to tap through panels for another moment, he let out a stiff sigh.
But his ease hardly lasted. "~To set up the link, I need to know who you are.~" Looking me in the eyes, he grew visibly uneasy. "~What server are you connected with, and what is your server ID...~"
"My name is Evren Lestir," *Vwoop* Opening my system to check what server I was on, I spoke without giving the text mind. "Central Server."
That unsuspecting text, however, made him freeze as if he caught the gaze of Medusa. "~Central server... As in THE Central Server?~"
Watching his eyes shoot open, I hesitated. "Y..yeah..?" I wasn't connecting the dots. Unlike him, I didn't recognize the name.
"~U..uh... Okay...~" Frantically tapping through panels, I felt as if I could see a bead of sweat forming on his head. "~I won't be able to initiate the link.. so.. in a moment.. you will receive a 'Data Link request' outlining details about the data link... Upon accepting it, you'll be able to exist here like a normal mercenary—you'll be given a local system panel, be able to interact with Earth's server features as much, or as little as you'd like.. And I'll be able to.. on your approval.. instate a server tax on you.~" His voice quivered slightly as he spoke.
Almost like he was hiding something...
But rather than being something to give him leverage over me.. it seemed to be the other way around. "Alright."
"~Then, as per the deal, when you accept it, I will give Earth's strongest mage a quest to teach you about mana.~"
-How perfect...-
*Vwoop* Finally closing his panel with a slight shake in his finger, he curled a fist and bit his lip before letting out a heavy sigh.
His fate had already been sealed. All he could do now was adapt to it.
"~Hooh… Okay…~" Looking me in the eyes, his bitterness finally started fading. "~While you wait for the link request, I'd like for you and this world to get acclimated with each other.~" Stepping to the side, he motioned me down the road. "~Because of the shockwave your outburst of mana caused, this city is in shambles and is currently being evacuated. I'd like for you to head into the city and join them, meet people, and try to relax that freakish aura of yours…~" Looking toward my feet, getting reminded by the cracked concrete beneath my soles, he continued softly, "~At least relax enough that you stop breaking everything in your vicinity...~"
-Ah… R..right...-
Finally giving in and calming down, he pinched the cloudy bridge of his nose, slowly easing his posture before suddenly vanishing, the flow of time returning with it.
*Woooosh* In an instant, my senses returned to normal—the scent of concrete punched into my sinuses, and the caress of the breeze returned to my cheek, carrying with it the distant wails of sirens.
While it couldn't compare to the fresh winds carrying with them the tweets of birds and rustling of leaves on the mountain, in that moment, peace granted me it's grace. "Hooh..." Things went undeniably well.
Confrontation with the administrators was inevitable, but in terms of how it could have gone, I found it hard not to smile.
At long last, I was home, and after giving up something I already wanted to get rid of, I no longer needed to worry about an administrator waiting for the moment I let my guard down.
I could finally relax my nerves for the first time since I entered the system...
Even if, after endless years in the system, I had forgotten how to do that.
Looking up the road, toward the sirens Michael motioned me toward, I didn't waste a second to get moving, taking things slow enough to control the pressure of my steps and keep the concrete from shattering before moving up to the rooftops, looking into every storefront, shop, and restaurant I passed to try and gauge what Earth's culture had become.
But that was hard when there wasn't anyone left.
The city was completely desolate. Warm plates of food still sat at the tables in the restaurants, while the chairs laid scattered from panic, but rather than the mess being tended to by an uncaring local or being scavenged by a thief, the only things I saw moving were animal-looking robots.
Nothing was locked.. and yet I couldn't find a single person.. neither a local, nor a thief looking to steal while everyone was away... -How.. odd...-
Unless Earth was in a far worse situation than the monuments of infrastructure like the railgun implied, I couldn't think of what would cause such a deep seated fear that not a single soul remained...
But nonetheless, after approaching the deeper reaches of the city near the railgun, and spotting the masses of collected vehicles lined orderly on rails hidden in the concrete, I caught up.
All gathered together, hundreds, if not thousands of people were moving down the street like a herd shepherded by geared mercenaries and knights...
However, while I expected the mercenaries to be of varying races since they typically came from other worlds, looking at the locals in the crowd.. the mothers, children, and escorted elderly.. my breath hitched. -Dwarves, elves, demihumans... There's even a few druids...-
It was one of the first times I had ever seen so many races congregated together in one place—not only without fights breaking out, but with all sorts of hybrids I didn't know were even possible being among the crowd... -Humans and druids.. dwarves and elves..?- I didn't know it was physically possible for such a sight to exist.
Yet right beneath me, that sight.. the very same so many monarchs I knew dreamed of.. a dream even I believed was impossible.. was seeing light…
To say it was eye-opening was an understatement... -Earth really is a different world now...- Not just a changed version of what I left behind so long ago, but something reborn—reshaped through the collision of magic and machine.
With so many races walking side by side beneath the same flag, my mind wandered.. wondering what kind of unimaginable advancements Earth might have made—where science no longer reigned alone, but marched hand-in-hand with magic.
If the greatest minds of each race put their heads together, not even the sky would be the limit…
However, despite my hope of the perfect storm churning up a uniquely fascinating concoction, the polarization of society was always suffocating…
Just as I had grown to forget a sky existed after wandering a maze for so many eons.. a world bound by peace would inevitably forget the fear that drove them to where they were.. and continue down the path of least resistance...
The path greed and ignorance happened to compliment…
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