2 The Trapped Alchemist

"It's going to happen again, huh? I wonder if the new batch is going to be as foolish as the last one.. Damnit, most of them were gangsters that didn't know how to respect others. They died faster than the previous batches as well.." Elgin sighed as he lamented his fate.

He chugged the remaining liquid in his cup. It was black coffee, the most bitter version he could get. It reminded him of how much of a pain life could be.

With disinterested eyes, he gazed out of the window. Far away from his home, there was a black shadow hidden by clouds. The shadow was Yggdrasil, the Tree of Origin and most probably the source of all his stress to begin with.

Somewhere inside that thing, the remaining Players were working hard and risking their lives to clear the floors, right?

But it's no use.

Elgin no longer placed his hopes on these Players.

The next update is due to arrive soon. News revolving the Players' diminishing numbers had been circulating around for quite some time now.

Which would mean.. a transition to the next phase.

"Ahh, I was growing such beautiful flowers in the back garden as well.. All of it will go to waste! The last Players, I bet they won't even last until winter! My precious flowers.. Why is it that you can only bloom during winter?" He ran to his garden and watered the various herbs he grew out for his experiments.

Of course, those experiments never yielded him any results beyond what he already found out from his monstrous amount of experience, but it was still fun to try and mess around.

After doing his daily gardening routine, he went back inside his house and sat down on a nearby chair, only to be struck by a sudden pang of pain in his heart.

A surprised look appeared over his face. He pursed his lips and gulped a mouthful of saliva.

'This unsettling feeling...'

He rushed out into his garden once more, and looked up to the sky.

Sure enough, the [Deleter] was already starting to appear. The eerie black mist that would swallow everything up.

"..It happened much earlier than I expected. Fuck! Time to restart, then." Elgin sat down on the hard wooden floor, feeling the world start to shake and distort.

Within seconds..

Elgin closed his eyes and counted up until five.

Once he reopened them, his surroundings disappeared. Not just his abode, but the whole world was deleted.

'Now, let's close my eyes for five more seconds..' Elgin thought.

The next time he opened them, everything was magically restored, as if nothing had happened.

"And there you go. Haa.. I'm starting to question their selection program. I don't know where this batch was drawn out from, but please, for the sake of God, choose better people next time!" Elgin complained.

Within each phase, there would usually be a few days worth of absence before the Players start coming in. In these few days, his job was to set up his store to greet the incoming newbies with a big smile.

However, to Elgin, who was aware of everything.. It was nothing but a pain in the ass, cleaning everything up and seeing all of his research and ingredients erased.

He picked up the cleaning tools and began organizing everything he needed. After he was readied up, he continued to laze around, sometimes squinting at the faraway Yggdrasil tree through his window.

"I'm not a diviner, but I do know that this phase won't be any different.. I'll just hope the new Players are kinder."

He shut his eyes close and wanted to doze off.

However, the moment he fell into a relaxed state, a voice rang.

"The anomaly..." A woman's voice, whose volume was so small that he almost didn't catch the words, entered his ears.

"Huh?" Elgin turned his head to look at the source of the sound.

'That's weird.'

There shouldn't be anybody that could enter his home yet, at least not until the first Player came around.

Don't tell him, the gate really opened this early?

'No.. it couldn't have been a Player.'

Upon further thinking, he eliminated the chances of that happening. The opening of the gate was accompanied by a super loud buzzing noise that he would've heard no matter how poor his hearing was.

Then, who was the one to speak so softly like that?

As if responding to Elgin's curiosity, a light ball soon passed through the doors and circled his body.

"The anomaly.. You really do exist! They didn't lie to me, you're actually here!" The voice's volume grew much larger, and her excitement shone through her tone.

"...?"

With the intrusion of this new guest, Elgin entered a state of shock. This was the first deviation he experienced in his entire lifetime. A deviation from the set routine he knew for generations.

This light ball might not be much, but it was still something. It made his anticipation spike up like crazy.

With this type of deviation, his mind was quick to try and guess what would happen next. Butterfly effects was a real concept that he had personally experienced before. This light ball, what sort of effect would it bring?

"Hello?" Elgin was still in shock, but he wanted to interact with this creature so badly that he said whatever came to his mind first.

"Hello! Come with me this very instant, there's not much time to work with! Sorry!" The light ball shone brighter and brighter, making Elgin wince and back away from the light source.

Zing!

Elgin felt his body warm up, like a blanket was wrapped around him. It lasted for a few seconds, and he felt a warping sensation throughout his whole body.

The next thing he saw, however, was no longer the light ball that infiltrated his home, but rather a an angelic figure with six majestic wings coming out of her back.

'Beautiful.' He thought.