As William was slowly being choked to death, his life began to flash before his eyes. His bright childhood and the dark eternity full of pain and agony that came after. But he wouldn't be who he is today if not for them.
He could feel the binding chains sapping away his physical strength, stamina, and ingenuity. In this agonizing position, he smiled. He laughed with however much of his windpipe he could use.
As he gazed at the masked assassin wielding a blade that could cut nearly everything, he laughed and laughed. His eyes as dry as ever.
'Death is approaching...For real this time...'
He would close his eyes and stop struggling, submitting to his fate, even halting his breath.
In his final moments, he thought to himself.
'I wonder what the afterlife is like! I was getting rather bored with living anyway!'
[Attribute: Monster is gaining power.]
[Mission: I am the one thing in life I can control]
[Humanity: 6.15%--->4.44%]
In the next moment, William would lose consciousness as he passed out from oxygen deprivation.
----------------------------------------------------------
William awoke in a crater. Again. This time he was rather injured and beaten up, but alive.
More importantly, his clothing was intact! Well except for his sleeves on the right side of his body, not that he needed it anymore anyway.
Even more importantly, Xiao Wei was fine and simply unconscious in her shapeless form, just a blob of darkness that William picked up and put on his shoulder.
'How does this keep happening...If I had a nickel everytime I passed out and woke up in a crater, I would have two nickels, which isn't alot but it's weird that it happened twice.'
He'd look around himself, seeing a bloody battlefield, but no corpses. Before noticing something on the ground in front of him. A letter.
-Salutations, Truth-Seeker of Falsehoods. We are the Ludus Company. We regret to inform you that you were attacked by the Laws of Order in an attempt to harvest your Victory Points, if not for our intervention you would have been dead. If you'd like to learn more come to this address.
444 Linghun Street
You will not survive in this world without a backing.
William would sigh. Before plugging the address into his phone.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Arriving at the place after sprinting in the shadows for half an hour, William took a couple seconds to catch his breath.
'This is nothing compared to the training Kaelus put me through.'
The building in front of him was an abandoned looking house made out of dark, molding wood. The windows were shattered and the house creaked constantly like a symphony of wraiths begging to be released. There was a small decaying garden in front of it, with a dark brown path leading to the main entrance.
'Needs renovations...'
William walked carefully across the path, winding up at the door and knocking calmly.
After a couple seconds of waiting, the door would open and reveal a shadowy duo of figures, one male and the other female.
They would speak in unison.
"It seems you've come. Please make yourself at home...What was your name again? We don't fancy addressing you by that title, don't worry, this isn't some kind of trap."
William would look at them seriously, his coat fluttering in the wind as he stood in front of the doorway.
"William."
'Yknow, after that description of the house Mr.Narrator, I think I'd rather not.'
You won't die, trust me, I know this story better than most.
'Alright I guess...'
He would lift up his foot and step into the house.
Immediately, his coat was altered into a more unique theme, still as black as midnight, however with a couple of white boxes scattered throughout, as a badge shaped like a white pawn from a chessboard was attached to the front.
'Welcome."
'Well that was easy.'
"Why did you choose to help me?"
William would ask inquisitively.
The two shadows would stay silent for a second, before saying.
"You were simply the most convenient choice. Now place your hand on this."
They each used one hand to simultaneously pick up a fancy-looking ornate chessboard and put it in front of William.
'How cryptic...They remind me of Odysseus.'
William would place his hand on the empty chessboard.
Suddenly, a screen in the Library appeared.
[Affiliation logged. The Ludus Company: Pawn]
The Chessboard would start to glow, as thirty-one translucent chess pieces appeared on the board, simply missing a singular pawn. Which would be filled in by William on the h2 square.
The two shadowy figure's clothing could be more clearly seen now, the woman beared a knight badge, while the male had a bishop.
Their faces still shrouded in darkness, would speak once more.
"Remember our company motto, we are hated by life itself, so find your own reason to live."
Before disappearing into the shadows. Leaving William to his own devices in the creepy old house.
Suffice to say, William left the house pretty quickly after that.
This time, he learned not to walk in the middle of the road, out in the open, although his pursuers likely suspect that he was affiliated with that mysterious organization and would not be attempting anything anytime soon.
'All things considered, this isn't so bad. As long as I follow their instructions I gain a backing who isn't too hostile towards me, and perhaps some extra rewards like connections to strong people.'
At this time, the sun had begun to rise, making sneaking around a little harder, so he did the next best thing.
[Record, The Odyssey: Chaos Edition has been brought to reality.]
As a golden sun was etched onto William's right eye, he summoned his bident.
As the bident materialized in a cacophony of illusory text, the surrounding area turned cold.
[Skill: Chariot has been activated.]
He then hopped on the Bident like a snowboard and used it as a chariot to fly back to the Watchtower whilst blending in with the early rays of the sun.
However, due to certain reasons, the speed of the chariot ability had been drastically weakened from his time in The Odyssey, becoming closer to that of a very fast bullet train.
Once he got close to the watchtower's premises, he would deactivate the skill. Afterwards, he did notice that the bident seemed noticeably colder than usual, like it held malice towards him.
'I guess the holy sun and the underworld don't mix well...Who woulda thunk it...'
He'd desummon the bident casually.
Before getting too close, he'd make sure the tuck his pawn badge away in an inside pocket of his coat, which was now probably worth tons more because of the company branding.
'I wonder if I could resell it and spin a huge profit? I won't, but it's an interesting thought...'
Then, he'd walk calmly into the premises confidently like he owned the place, which frankly, he did.
[Current Victory Point(s):174]
Once he neared the entrance, he saw some familiar faces, Li Jiaojie, Fei Kangzhen, and the young men and women he hired as workers. He was finally back from his break.
'God it's been a long night...I've never wanted to get back to work so much before.'
Just then, a screen invisible to those around him appeared.
[You have received a mission from the Ledus Company.]
[Mission Details: Do as well as you can in the Fame Game. We'll try our best to make sure you don't die.]
[Reward: Your life. And extra stuff.]
He'd sigh softly with his hands in his coat pockets.
'At least the branding is good.'
It was the end of a long night, and time for a new day.