Exhaustion

Opening his eyes, Kazi saw a smooth grey ceiling. The popcorn ceiling he was acquainted with for most of his life was gone. Smoothness implied wealth but that wasn't the case here.

He was in his own personal dimension. A place described by Azrael as being in the middle of nothingness.

He got up and instinctively had the desire to wash his face.

"Oh shoot." Kazi face-palmed. "No bathroom or shower."

As much as he wanted to snag the equipment and parts necessary for a full bathroom, he didn't have the points. His Prize Point count had drained down to a measly one hundred. Furniture, food plus the Touch of Thunder, and he was out of money.

He smelled himself. "It's not that bad. Buuut I should probably take one anyway. Don't wanna stink up the place."

That begged the question on what exactly this new body was. Was it purely the soul? Did that mean souls had smells? So weird, but also impossible to figure out.

"Open party status."

[ Name: Kazi Hossain

Level: 8

HP: 50

MP: 72 ]

[ Name: Yoon Sun-young

Level: 8

HP: 40

MP: 64 ]

[ Name: William Martin

Level: 7

HP: 40

MP: 61 ]

Kazi, William, and Sun-young farmed for a solid three hours and managed to gain a level. There were increases to all their stats (a one point increase to everything) and they were given three distributive points. William was pretty open about it and so was Sun-young, surprisingly. She was quiet yet forthcoming when it came to aspects of the Game System.

On the side bar was an option to create a group chat.

[ > Kazi Hossain: hey you guys up? ]

A message immediately arrived from Sun-young.

[ > Yoon Sun-young: here

> Kazi Hossain: I hope you got some sleep!

> Yoon Sun-young: I did.

> Kazi Hossain: Nice! Let's meet up soon!

> Yoon Sun-young: sure

> William Martin: My bad! Just woke up! I'll be there too! Meet at the Tower in an hour?

> Kazi Hossain: Agreed!

> Yoon Sun-young: yeah ]

"I should grab something for them to eat too."

A quick jog would be a great way to get the blood flowing.

"Exit home."

***

He took a shower at the Recreation Sector, brushed his teeth, and headed over to a random café. Having actual servers, it took time for his tea to be readied. The points were transferred in advance. The ambience was very similar to American cafes.

Kazi sat by the window, his fingers wrapped around a warm cup of chamomile tea. The cozy atmosphere was further heightened by the soft chatter of other patrons and the gentle clinking of cups and saucers. With his unruly hair and perpetual smile and the world beyond, he couldn't help but get giddy.

'I still can't believe it. I'm in the next world, the afterlife. It's crazy.'

Kazi never considered himself the most faithful man in the world. He read namaz when he could but he never pursued it as deeply as other people did. Going to America opened his eyes and granted him so many opportunities that he never had the time. It was, well, liberating. Transformative. He learned to build, help, and guide people. Nothing was out of reach. Nothing lay beyond the horizon of his thought process.

Stores, farms, houses, roads, highways, no aspect of land went unchecked. He could do it all. He could build it all. He could FIX it all. He had become a one-man army capable of terraforming an entire city.

But life refused to bend to the whims of one man.

His lips almost tugged into a frown.

'I should have prayed more. Maybe life would have gone better for me. Maybe Allah would have done something.' He sipped on his tea and licked his lips. 'I wonder...if I was an imam, would I have gotten a bonus or something? Some sort of holy advantage against monsters? I assume priests and monks get it, so in principle imams should also get it. Then again, there's no use crying about rotten milk.'

He received the Mage Class in the battle against the Slime Jack. The Class Skills might have been checked but he had yet to see what the skill tree offered.

'Open skill tree.'

The hexagonal icons appeared and he selected the last, an open palm wielding a fiery blue ball of magic. The Amateur Player Class' tree had been straightforward. It went up and up with no divergence. The Amateur Swordsman and the Mage Class distinctly spread out like tree roots. There were seven straight paths representing the seven basic elements.

'Fire Starter, Fire Ball, Flame Whip, Fire Dart, Ember Control…' Kazi's fingers hovered over the fire elemental skills, his other hand occupied with his mug. 'Ember Control, a passive skill that increases your understanding and attack power by ten percent. Interesting.'

He went over to the lightning branch. 'Static Charge is the lightning equivalent of Fire Starter—the basic control of an element. After that, it goes Lightning Bolt, Lightning Arc, Shockwave Pulse…ooh, that's slightly different. Rather than passive, it's a General Skill that increases lightning attacks by twenty percent for a duration of time.'

What Kazi sought were techniques that would stay relevant even as he evolved and grew stronger. The Heavenly Games would last two whole years. Ninety nine games. Planning ahead was the best way to stay alive and gain strides in power.

Each skill cost three distributive points, with the exception of the final skills of the branch. For the lightning element, it was Lightning Infusion and it cost five points.

He went over to his Amateur Swordsman Class. Spark Strike, Thunder Slash, Lightning Lunge, Shockwave Slice, Volt Parry, and, at the top of the thunder cloud costing seven distributive points, Static Swipe. The description worded it as an attack that exponentially increased the chance of a critical hit.

So far, in Kazi's hours of grinding, he hadn't hit a single critical hit. He wondered when it would happen.

He sipped his tea, humming, when a distinct burst of excited chatter reached his ears. His curiosity piqued, he turned his attention to a nearby table where a trio of young women were engrossed in conversation with a single man.

"Like, can I just say? It is an HONOUR to meet you!" one of the girls exclaimed, her eyes shining with starry admiration.

Kazi watched as the sole male of the group, hidden behind oversized sunglasses and a casual outfit, leaned back in his chair and offered a humble smile.

The second girl gushed, her words tumbling over the other in a race to be heard, "I used to watch all your videos!"

The young man must have been a celebrity given his body type and cool smirk. "I do my best, that's all. And without phones and social media, I gotta just be an ordinary guy."

"You're definitely not some ordinary guy," the third girl replied in a snap. "You work out, I'm sure you'll do well in this."

"Maybe," the celebrity replied. "Maybe."

Kazi chuckled softly, finding himself inexplicably drawn into their excitement. It was as if he had stumbled upon a secret world where the lines between fan and idol blurred into genuine camaraderie. His ears were too well-trained to not hear them either. The girls talked, they gossiped, and they gushed over this man that didn't seem to care about them.

A party of four entered the café. Middle-aged white men that were giddy from their conversation. His eyes continued wandering. In the corner sat a young skinny man with glasses and a shaky disposition.

Most players wore the black Garbs of Death, the default outfit. Long sleeved and perfectly tailored to every body type.

So many reactions to this world. So much potential. He wondered how things would end up after ninety or so gates.

The celebrity and three girls left a couple minutes left, marked by a chorus of giggles and hushed squeals from the girls. Kazi watched them for a moment longer before turning his attention back to his tea.

'Man, I wonder if I'll ever see anyone from my old life. If it's every twenty years, then maybe…'

He smiled. There was nothing to lose if he raised his hopes, right? Right! He downed the remainder of his tea and went to join his party at the Heavenly Tower.

He kicked himself off, ready for another thrilling day of farming. He couldn't wait to see the faces of his new friends!

***

"Er…what happened to you guys?"

The shopping bags dangling from his fingers slipped lower. He blinked twice but reality didn't change. William forced a smile while Sun-young looked away, embarrassed.

In the group chat, they seemed fine. Right now, standing in front of him, both William and Sun-young looked like walking corpses. William's back slouched over and his bed hair went wild. Sun-young's eyes were red from the sides.

"Well, this isn't good." Kazi's lips curled upwards and broke into a chuckle. He could feel the embarrassment oozing from them. "You know, if you guys were so tired, you could have just told me."

"We—I'm fine," William protested.

"Alright, alright, enough of that." Kazi approached Sun-young and extended the bags towards her. Tentatively, she took them. "You two, go and get some rest. I should have figured that you guys weren't used to exercising at that level. No worries, we can continue tomorrow."

"But—"

Kazi cut William off, "No buts and no ifs. Go home. Go for a bath. You guys are kids. Let the adult handle it, alright?"

He could see William softening. Sun-young's shoulders, however, were still tense. She licked the inside of her cheeks. She must have been thirsty.

"C'mon, Ms. Sun-young. Don't work yourself to death. We're already dead." He flashed her a smile. "I'll put in triple the effort, promise. I'll transfer the points to you guys afterwards."

Sun-young raised a hand, shifting the white bag to her wrist. "No need. I get it. Thank you." She lowered her head slightly.

"Chin up," Kazi encouraged. "You'll be better in no time."

She pursed her lips and agreed.

The looming gate that led to the Heavenly Tower wasn't busy. Sprawls of people went in. Parties and what seemed to be advisors from guilds discussing what they should do. Kazi rolled his shoulders. The timer above the gate was accompanied by another bigger, bolder timer. The original indicated the time till the opening of the next gate, 150:50, while the second timer by process of elimination had to be the time for Anjaneya's respawn—83:00.

Kazi tapped the grips of his two swords.

With the Touch of Thunder and the attack stat of forty-eight, farming was going to be easy peasy lemon squeezy.