The Tree

A towering portal stood tall in a crowded niche, the sound of banging feet plunging upon the dry floors of an expansive domain. Newborns from the Trade Realm continued to jump out from the harsh lights at a fast pace, wearing different countenances as they placed gazes on the area. Soon, it was Seth's turn to show himself to the new world.

Of course, everyone had expected to be born as an infant, but seeing themselves in the same state they were before dying made them astounded to the point that many began to doubt the possibility of living again. Maybe they were fooled and would possibly end up being slaves to God knows who.

Seth also began to question himself after noticing that he was still carrying the structure of a sixteen-year-old pale-skinned boy. Though he was not too stunned by that, his main attitude to his arrival was due to him, almost pitching face-first into the rocky silt while landing on his knees. 

After calming himself, he veered around and looked at the portal. 

The "Portal of Vitality" was a connection to the Trade Realm, which was noticed to be the border between Nature-1 and Nature-2 — where Seth got his God and Angel. This portal was affixed to the sky with its exiting encircled gap opening at the face of a huge building, directing the Newborns freely without a conveyance defect. But who knows that the portal was going to disappear in less than a minute after Seth had arrived? 

At that moment, a middle-aged man who had stood calmly while he watched the scene sighed and turned to the crowd before uttering: 

"The portal is closed, sorry to those who were late. Now you all should wait for your family to come get you. And most especially, group yourselves by 'hair colors', so you will make it easy for them to find you."

'Family? What family? When did I suddenly get a family just minutes after arrival?' Seth asked himself as he gazed at the fair-skinned man with a dubious look. 

Everyone was also surprised, but that didn't change the fact that they had to obey the instructions. They were new to the environment and that made them clueless about the lifestyle of their new world.

A mirror appeared before Seth, enabling him to get a sight of his hair color. And fortunately, the color he had just hoped to see displayed on the mirror, making him produce a wide grin and sighed in satisfaction. 

"A blonde hair... Awesome!" Seth shrieked and withdrew his face from the direction of the mirror. Afterward, he stared at the crowd who were already grouping themselves, and finally, he found the group with blonde hair. With the way he saw them, they were the most populated group amongst others. Both Humans and Half-elves, they all sat motionlessly on a lengthy bench, all eyes on Seth who seemed to have hesitated to approach them. 

'It should have been in a Race Range not a Hair Color Range. How can I stay close to those Half-elves? Uhh...'

After standing lonely in the face of the burning sun, Seth decided to bare the inconvenience that might take place. He calmly strode to his group, face on the ground, as he sat without even trying to make a speech with anyone. 

However, no one was moved by his rude manners. The silence at that spot remains inevitable.

Nonetheless, Seth noticed something strange about this world: 

"Two suns?!"

Two suns rose from the sky. East and west, they shone harshly upon the area as the heat continued to become intense for the Newborns to endure. At a point, many began to pray for their so-called "Family" to come get them. 

It took more than two hours till someone arrived with a huge Griffin. The Griffin's lion-like face caused a fright to everyone including Seth who had just hopped on the body of someone. 

"Whoa! What's that?" Seth asked without receiving an answer to his question. After panicking for a while, he noticed that he was held like a baby in the arms of a long-eared figure. He forced himself to give a glance at that figure only to realize that it was an Half-elven. 

"Let go off me!" Seth yelled with widened eyes as he jumped down, dumbfounded. How did he manage to get skin contact with that thing? Uhh! He must have been a fool of himself to touch a weird figure. 

"You slammed into me first and I will advise you to watch your fat feet next time," the female Half-elf said and moved away from Seth's standing spot. 

"Tsk. Whatever," Seth said and turned to take a long look at the Griffin.

Soon, a young boy was brought out from the group with blue hair colors and was led to sit on the back of the Griffin which laid straight like a resting dog. Seth watched the comedy scene as the boy shivered on the back of the Griffin, he almost passed out the moment the Griffin rose and made its first hop before rolling sideways and balanced on the air.

Shortly, the Griffin roared in a low tone and flew towards the east, drawing the Newborns' attention to the prominent city ahead.

It took not less than three minutes and the area was already filled with countless numbers of "Family members". In this world, families were determined by marks. People with the same mark are considered to be of the same blood, however, this was founded on the "History Book" written by past reincarnated individuals who had died and ceased to exist. 

That was the same way the "Hair color" stuff was discovered. People with the same hair color are said to be of the same Clan. It might have sounded somewhat fake, but that was the true reality of the way Nature-2 bestowed. 

Though only one person can be granted into a family in a decade. Newborns who appear to have the same mark are considered "twins", and these twins must be entitled to the same clan and the same family precisely. Nothing was related to a mother's birth in this world and this uniqueness from that of Planet Earth made this world so weird. 

"Why are they examining our wrist?" Seth wondered as he watched the unfamiliar figures with blonde hair. This was not only happening in the Golden group but also in other groups. Many had checked Seth's wrist but nodded negatively in disappointment and went on to examine others. Fortunately for some, they were taken after an inspection. 

Then Seth noticed something: Newborns with the same mark as these people were likely to be part of their family. The undeniable similarities of the mark made a match. 

These marks were boldly drawn on the wrist of an individual after the Affinity Ritual had taken place in the Trade Realm. However, multiple Newborns were lucky to have some people as their new family. But for Seth who just saw a playful young man before him, his case was different. 

"Yeah! It matched with mine. Hahaha... You are my Newborn Brother now," a tall yet handsome figure with fair skin and blonde hair uttered with a delightful expression. Seth's eyes narrowed a bit as he heard those words. At that moment, he was the angriest man in all Natures. 

'This is so miserable... Very miserable,' he thought bitterly as he furiously frowned at the chap in front of him.

"Check it out, it's the same," the boy said in assurance, kicking forth his legs in between Seth's thighs. 

"I'm not coming with you. Go away!"

Seth yelled. 

"Hey easy, there is no time for that. You belong to the Rotunda family and that's never going to change," the mischievous boy said, and after a breath-balance, he continued, "I'm sure you don't want to be left here for Villains to come get you. That's going to be more tragic you know."

'Huh, Villains?' Seth mumbled. 

Was he trapped in a video game or something? Why has he been hearing and seeing things with fantasy traits since he got into this world? To him, this world might have been a complete illusion, or something more. 

Coming to talk of Villains, they are seen to be the most treacherous living creatures ever recorded. Being taken by a Villain was not something Seth wanted for a start, so he had to go with the young man after noticing that the crowd was rapidly lessening. 

They walked to the middle-aged man who wore an admirable outfit with a 3-star batch at the top of his shirt's pocket. And after, inspecting both marks, he nodded positively and accepted the match. 

The young man grinned and glanced at Seth, causing him to get more furious inside of him. Seth's gaze remained uncongenial as they progressed to the East. Others had taken Griffins home, some had used cars and many had followed the once-passing modern caravan to the North. But why are they walking home? Was it that he was lunging into an "inferior" family? Or was it that their home was not so far from the area of the Portal of Vitality?

Judging by the way he saw the setting, houses were possibly not nigh at all in that area. The area was highly deserted, opening the view of an expansive city ahead. All in all, their walk towards there would definitely be around thirteen kilometers. 

Truth be told, Seth couldn't make a mention. 

As they progressed, the joker wouldn't stop his numerous unanswerable questions. Though Seth never dared to answer one, because doing that was only going to make his life as miserable as before. 

Regardless of Seth's silence, the young man continued to ask: 

"I don't know, what's your MV? You could tell me if you wish."

"I'd rather die again than tell you my MV. If I may ask, what's the need?" Seth questioned as he glanced at the young man with a serious expression. 

"Ummm," the young man flickered his eyelashes in amazement and muttered: "Never mind, let's move fast so we can get home on time. A festival is going on all over The Tree and I'm sure you don't wanna miss the huge feast at the Rotundas' home."

Seth nodded positively and hastened up his footsteps. He was really hungry though, but he still wanted to ask some questions. The questions he might ask now and the queries he would have to keep in mind to raise another time. 

"What do you mean by The Tree? Where is this place?" Seth asked. 

"Litchnigan is The Tree. This world is called Litchnigan, and can also be referred to as a Tree. From the History Book, we discovered that the map structure of Jupiter looks exactly like that of a tree. And that brings in the idea of creating the continents significantly as parts of a tree."

The young man glanced at Seth with a slight grin and continued his speech: 

"We have the East, North, Mid, and Western continents in Litchnigan, all having their capital and regions except for the Northern continent which has no regions but clans. That didn't only make the Northern continent special, it also made it the second strongest continent in The Tree after the Mid continent."

"Hmmm, interesting. So where is the Northern continent located?" Seth questioned. 

"Well, that's where we are heading to. You should be proud of yourself for being a part of the Northern continent, a Golden Fox Clan chap at that," the young man said, convincing Seth to produce a calm look.

'I can't wait to see this place," Seth thought as they walked forward. 

Soon, they approached a park. It was a portal park. People with low wealth usually use teleportation for transportation. This portal was nothing compared to the Portal of Vitality because it was not connected to the sky and also didn't possess a protective structure. It was just like a ring that was convened by Portal Creation Summoners to transport people to their various destinations. 

But due to the usual overpopulated scene at the portal park, many preferred using cars and trains which really cost about 30 S-coins — the third-class currency of the Northern continent. However, people with Griffins are mostly from wealthy families who had really gone high on Rank to have gained the power to capture and hack the soul of the Griffin to their favor.

Nonetheless, the portal seemed to be the fastest yet slowest at the same time due to its overpopulation issue. Regardless, it still stood as the best because of its direct transport to one's destination. 

After waiting for about an hour, it finally reached its turn to cross into the Golden Fox clan. As soon as they stepped forward, they entered the portal and rapidly found themselves at the gate of the "Golden Fox clan" which stood tall, shortening all buildings within.

Before Seth could utter a word, a screen suddenly appeared before him. But this one looked totally different from that of the screen of the Trade Realm, with different information. 

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Personified God system activated. Angel Liliana's mission was completed halfway. 

You can now check your stats at any desired time.

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"Hey, bro! I got a system!"