C006—Connected

Rein leaning against a tree, his weak body barely able to stand, He still communicates telepathically with an anonymous person from out of nowhere.

" 25 seconds? Quite long enough... "

'What did you say?'

" Well, I only relate it to the story of my family when standing at the top, we can destroy a town in just 5 seconds, so I think you're stronger than them "

'A—a town?'

" HAHAHA, my family is strong, right? "

Rein tried to hold the pain in his body as hard as he could, he tried to divert the cold feeling of the tightness by rubbing his palms, but after a few seconds had passed, it did not warm him anymore but instead became numb.

Pain is pain, luck is luck, and you don't have to worry about it in life. It was the words he learned when going through hardship in life, because it doesn't matter what you do, if the time wasn't right, it may be hard for you, but if you missed every opportunity in life, then you may lose in a trade.

Rein just had to endure the pain while listening to the sentence from the person behind this telepathy, he convinced himself that there was something behind this meeting.

" But.... "

'Yeah?'

" My family... we knew we were strong, but when compared to humans, we are nothing. It's not just something I said randomly. Thousands of years ago were almost get swept out of this world by a person from the human race "

'Someone?'

" Yeah, don't you all too strong for a species that's living on the Earth? "

He sent the words with teras and dimmed tone too, but Rein doesn't say much in reply because he was bearing so much pain in his body, the telepathy was become hard to understand for him.

[ (!) You will die in (3) seconds ]

Rein began to feel empty inside and his awareness is slowly fading due to his impending death.

" I'M DONE! "

—ZING!

[ Got Blessing from Silence Season

You will not get affected by the negative effect of Silence Season!

- All Attributes (+50%)

- All Skill impact (+100%) if it carries the same attribute as Silence Season

*Active while inside the Silence Season skill area ]

After the notification appeared, Rein regained consciousness and could feel his body slowly recovering as before. The cold air that had been enveloping his body is gone and had just disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Everything returns to normal for Rein.

'What? Blessing? Who are you?' Rein asked after looking at the pop-up screen.

" I'm Kuro, from Sa—sorry... I have to go, please find my lord for us! Sayonara~ "

—DING!

[ Quest: Find the Lord ]

'Kuro? Are you there? 'Rein wants to make sure everything is first, he feels strange since coming here, every NPC like giving a quest so easily, even though the Goddess of War sometimes complains because NPC provides difficult conditions for quests. But after a couple of seconds, Kuro didn't answer him ....

[ Disconnected from Telepathy ]

Kuro is gone, but Rein was curious, so he immediately opened the quest, "Open Quest!"

—PING!

[ Quest

Main Quest

Side Quest

Daily Quest

Special Quest (2) * ]

—BUMP!

Rein was shocked that he jumped backward in his sitting position and accidentally hit his head on a tree so badly.

[ Critical hit! Health decreased (-90) ]

Unable to speak, he immediately lowered his head to the ground as he gently rubbed the part that was getting hit.

'You made VR too real! How could I feel very, very ill just because of an impact from hitting my back head!'

Rein felt an excruciating pain in his head. For a while, he remained bent down on the ground, frowning in pain. He closed his eyes, biting his lips, gripping the ground, and groaning in low noises. Rein did everything he could to fight the suffering, but somehow the pain seemed to attack him relentlessly.

[ Exposed to dizziness for (10) seconds ]

Rein was gripping the ground as if he wanted to lift it, his body trembling so much that he could only control the grip of his hands. The burning feeling in the back of his head coupled with the dizziness gripping his brain was a popular attack combo that Martial Artist and Monk—Job—often use in one-on-one situations in the Crossof Realm.

After a while, the effect finally disappeared.

Rein slowly raised his body again and rolled his eyes back with killing intentions, he wanted to find out earlier about the things that could put pressure on his soul. After paying close attention, he could now tell who the culprit was. It was a blunt point protruding from the tree he had been leaning against so hard before.

"You did it?" Rein thought about the protruding part that shouldn't have been there. Then he looked up to the sky, which was still cloudy like before, Rein focused his eyes to a certain point then he rant words out of his mouth.

"This is the major event you want to give me?! You slumpy stuff!"

"I will repay you!" Rein continued, pointing it for the developer, he knew one of them, 'Just wait!'

After pondering with a painful head, Rein intended to return to his goal of seeing the new Special Quest.

"Open, Special Quest!"

—PING!

[ Special Quest

Come here (2)

Find The Lord * ]

"Did the system go wrong because of my presence here?" Rein was confused, he became speechless again after seeing the title of the quest, "Come here? Shut up," he couldn't help but think about this game system.

While daydreaming about the system, Rein accidentally remembered a memory from a month ago.

—Woosh-swoosh

This cold wind that blew my hair reminded me even more of what the Goddess of War said when it rained heavily outside the house. At that time, the two of us were sitting in the family room and watching a movie. This was our weekly activity, at least once a week we would sit together on the couch and share stories and stuff.

Usually, we counted on three or seven people to sit with us and talk nonchalantly for a night, but this time it was just the two of us, me and Kiara—the names of Goddess of War. However, the atmosphere in the living room was extremely tense. We had just exchanged words and argued for a few minutes on the couch while covered in a white blanket to ward off the cold.

We were both silent, only the movie we were watching could cover the heavy rain noises outside.

I occasionally glanced at her, who was staring at the screen. Kiara's face might not look as irritated as it had in the middle of our debate earlier, but this was the worst possible scenario for me. Kiara looked lifeless, her blue eyes might have been watching the movie, but those lazy eyelids and the right cheek that was being bitten by her teeth from the inside scared me ....

"Archy."

Kiara called me with the same expression.

"Yeah? Oh, thanks for bringing the blanket, I never think the cold gonna be this worse," I said to reduce the tension.

However, her face remained unchanged, and she seemed unhappy about what I said. She didn't even look at me. I was completely dumbfounded, Kiara didn't reply or say anything.

'Is she more upset now?'

"Huh..." Kiara breathed out, "This is the last time I'd talk about that game."

"Archy, you said 'I can catch up the level'? Are you really thinking that way? Even after getting chosen to be a Successor?" She sighed about my sentence during our debate, "It seems your arrogance has swallowed your whole life."

'Ah... that's a big slap,' I thought about the current event that will expand to the next level of self-awakening.

"You're still thinking THAT WAY, aren't you? Even though you know the fact that happened?

"You remember it clearly, right? About some famous player from various games who one year ago were called the GOAT that WILL REIGN the VRMMORPG Crossof Realm?"

I looked at her with some nervousness inside me, but she was still expressionless. I couldn't help but lift the blanket a bit that I'm worry the tears may fall out of my eyes.

"Your 'Rein' is no different from them, dummy!"

My heart ached and started to pump rapidly after hearing her words, 'Dummy? Am I?'

"Once the game has passed the first year of release, you will only have a small chance of reaching the top 1% of players. Even being part of the top 10% is gonna be a big fortune for you,

"Yet you now have a heavy weight on your shoulder because of the Successor title, did you think everyone will become scared because of that? No! What they did is, they will haunt you to the death!"

"Hear my words!" Kiara went to face me, and staring deep with her blue eyes, "If you STILL think, Crossof Realm is just a matter of level, I WILL knock you, INSIDE... or outside the game, please remember it."

The Goddess of War just declared a war on me, and I was totally confused about it because I never think she so cared about me at all.

After she finished the sentence, she walked away from me.

Kiara rarely gets so upset unless it's an important matter in her life. How would I know that? Because the two of us are members of the same VRFPS Squad for five years, in the Ordinary People squad. Previously, there had been three people in our squad who had received Kiara's bitterness and now I become one of them. Even so, all of us on the squad know, 'Her anger brings blessing to that person.'

Yet, after hearing her words that pointed at me directly, it gave me goosebumps with fear.

My head immediately followed where she walked, Kiara was walking up the stairs, and I assume she wants to go to her room, on the second floor. My eyes didn't blink as saw her walking until she stopped her footsteps in front of the stairs and turned to face me, again saying ...

"Last thing I suggest about your self-confidence and arrogance is ...."

BANG—Crush!

The sound of thunder awakened Rein from his daydream, Kiara's words had kept him from sleeping well for a whole month.

Rein get up from his seat, and the pain in his head had disappeared completely, He intended to continue his journey again after realizing that Silence Season had no negative effect on him anymore, rather it become Blessing.

On the contrary ...

'Everything you said that day... I can finally understand.' Rein clenched his fists, a faint smile appearing on his face as he called out Kiara's last words that night.

"You won't talk to me until I play Crossof Realm, and ...

"Find out about the Special Quest, you said? Now I've got two of them, please don't be surprised later ...,

"Kiara!"

***

"Hachiii~" Kiara sneezed after getting out of her virtual reality cabin. She had been playing the VRMMORPG Crossof Realm since yesterday morning and needed to go to bed so badly now.

With sleepy eyes, she touched her forehead. "The temperature seems normal... maybe someone just talking about me."

"Hoaaam~ let's take a rest for a while, go for breakfast at four, and continue my journey in the Dungeon..."

Kiara climbed into her bed and pulled the blanket over herself to make some comfortable. Then she remembered something missing, "What is he doing? He didn't text me anything... is he going out and celebrating the new year?

"But with who?" Kiara said as she looked at the ceiling, "I never knew he had friends around this place—ah! Maybe his cousin come to meet him, but why didn't he invite me to join—"

"Never mind, better I sleep now. Why am I thinking about him when he doesn't care about me?"

Kiara close her beautiful eyes, and leave Archy alone who was struggling in the Exclusive Zone.