Chapter 37 Hello, I learned something new today

The girl with striking orange hair got in their way, telling him something strange: "You are cute." The girl's orange hair hue and brightness were strange, as if someone presented him with a new color.

Her hair and choice of words took Dante aback. The unexpected compliment left Dante without an answer. He managed to stammer out a low "Uh... Thanks?"

Undeterred by his awkward response, she asked, "Can we took a photo?" as a camera materialized in her hands, the camera looked like an old one, even to his standards.

Dante, in his half-conscious state, didn't see anything bad, so he accepted the girl's weird request.

After taking the photo, the girl thanked Dante and turned to leave.

Before she left, Dante, in curiosity, asked the oranged-haired girl, "May I know your name if it isn't much of a problem." he wanted to at least learn the name of this player.

With a big smile, she told him her peculiar name, "Kaiden... Kaiden Katley," her gaze intertwined with his. Yet, there was an uncanny sensation in the air, a feeling of kinship and danger. Her eyes appeared empty, yet simultaneously brimming with life, like someone passionately pursuing something without understanding why.

I felt like we could understand, so I asked her, "Wanna join us? We may not know from anywhere, but I have the hunch that we can become friends. Also, I want to run from the mess I just made with my friends."

The girl rejected him, "I'm sorry, I'll politely refuse your invitation, perhaps if we met in different circumstances, but I already have a team. I'm busy searching for materials, and I think I finally found one."

Driven by curiosity, the pegasi asked, "I know it's not my problem, but what are you searching for?"

She responded to him with an otherwordly material. "For the soul of a dreadnought and the body of an Ali-" mid-way her sentence, a voice screamed in the distance, urgently calling for her and interrupting their conversation.

She replied back, "WHAAAAAAAAAAT!!!"

The voice pressed her, "WE NEED TO GO NOW!"

Katley Replied back, "BUT I JUST FOUND A-"

Quickly, he interrupted Katley with even more important news, "WE FOUND ONE OF YOUR TARGETS, THE DREADNOUGHT!"

The girl began running to his position. The way she ran was weird as if she didn't move, but her body constantly teleported. According to Dante, her eyes could perceive her, but her motion was just... undescribable as if it didn't exist.

Midway, the girl asked, "Are you sure he isn't a concept breaker? he is going to destroy us if so."

Replied his partner, "We are sure just get over here."

...

As Kaiden rushed away with her strange, indescribable movement, she bid farewell with a cryptic "Till next time."

Next time? I don't think we will meet again, but "Till next time." Dante waved his foreleg back, and with that, the strange coincidence finally ended.

"Mmh what does an "Ali" mean? guess I'll never know anyway Thalassa wanna keep accompanying me?"

"To where?" asked the robot. They'd been walking without a goal. She proposed a few things to the pegasi before, but he rejected most.

Without a clear goal in mind, he responded, "Dunno... Just there, we'll eventually find something to do."

Dante and Thalassa spent the whole day outside. Dante asked mainly about the world and the things any player should know. Thalassa even told him in a summary how they met and a few things about his old personality from what she knew.

The day after, five exotic Players were eating in a restaurant. The atmosphere at the restaurant was lively, filled with the sound of clinking glasses, the hum of conversation, and the occasional clatter of plates. And the food on the table ranged from very simple things like a salad that was nothing special to strange foods of alien origin.

Dante leaned in with a curious glint in his eye, directing his question to James, "So, how'd you end up in this situation?" With a nonchalant air, James responded truthfully, "Messing with the wrong person. My whole team paid the price, but nothing to worry about."

Daniel, sensing something wrong, was about to ask about it, but his hesitation to delve into it prompted Dante to speak first, "What are y'all going to do after this? Wanna go hunting monster near the city?"

Thalassa was the first to politely reject, with the logical explication from before, "I'm sorry, but like I mentioned to you earlier, I literally can't. My levels are just getting back. Give me 2 weeks, probably I'll be level 30 again by then."

Considering the recent events, Daniel retorted to Dante, "You barely survived. If not because I used my gold, you'll be dead by now."

Dante counterpointed him, "EXACTLY, I don't want just to survive. I want to dominate, just a few days ago death almost knocked my door, and I don't want to feel like that again... Even if my memory is hazy, I'm sure my past I wanted to get stronger... Probably"

Daniel pressed further, "Even so, did you even use your reward to upgrade yourself?"

I responded, "Ah, right, that thing... how do I reclaim it?"

Daniel replied, "What? It should be in the system, didn't it tell you?"

Even more confused, I responded, "Uh, no..."

Dante began inspecting the system, searching for anything similar. He even searched inside his inventory, but there was no avail, "Nope, can't find anything about it." he kept searching in his system, checking if it was hiding somewhere.

James, trying to dismiss his concern, suggested, "Probably used it while drunk or something."

Taking a sip of water, he shared a piece of advice, "Taking everything as a challenge might slowly self-destruct you unless you're an Aspect. Then your potential might be just enough to barely survive. But those guys are living time bombs, nothing good comes from staying near them."

Su Yuan laughed, adding, "Being blessed," Her eyes faintly turned to her friend. "Or cursed, depending on who you ask. If I'm not wrong, a lot of aspects die, and only a small percentage manage to thrive, right? I don't remember the exact number but it was of 1 digit."

James, with a chuckle, continued, "Only 9% of them survive. Considering there are at most a few ten thousand Aspects, and we're more than a trillion players, being the chosen one is quite the dream."

Dante was about to give up, but a purple page called his attention. A predetermined message welcomed him, informing him that this "thing" used it automatically to strengthen itself. He was about to inform everyone, but Dante was shocked by the staggering number they spelled.

Overwhelmed with astonishment, he exclaimed, "WHAT A TRILLION? THERE IS A FUCKING TRILLION OF US???" Turning to Thalassa because he hoped a robot would know how to calculate all this stuff, he inquired with a mix of amusement and bewilderment, "HOLY... Then my chances were... how much probability Thalassa? "

The robot, with her mechanical precision, answered almost instantly, "10E-12 or 0.0000000000001% I didn't include the chance of being chosen as a player, being born nor any other, making the result imprecise."

Dante, slightly baffled, mumbled to himself, "And even with luck, I couldn't win."

Confused, James asked, "Why did you spell it out like you were one?"

"Eh?" Dante gave everyone confused glances before saying, "Because I'm an aspect. Didn't my past me tell it to everyone?" Dante Casually resumed his meal again as if he hadn't just dropped the biggest bombshell of his life.

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Authors note:

I'll upload another chapter tomorrow. (And maybe this Wednesday...)

Sorry for not updating the last weekend. I was busy with my family.

Quite late, but...

Merrie Chrisma! And I hope you have a great day or night.