(Special Chapter) The Lost Love (part 1)

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter takes place during Alexander's first life.

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Real-world year 2102

Stellar year 8002

***

ORC EMPIRE—QUITIRAS SYSTEM—PLANET QUITIRAS VI—NORTHERN MOUNTAINOUS ZONE

Apophis had been farming for nearly ten hours straight when he finished off a "Quitiras Giant Snake" with a fireball.

A notification popped up.

*Level 59 achieved*

System: Congratulations on completing D-rank quest "Cleaning of the Northern Valley."

Final grade: A+

Reward: 91,025,145 EXP + 2,548 GC

Finally, the quest was over! It had taken almost a whole week of work, but the reward was worth it!

Apophis had spent close to eight hours a day farming, and now it had all paid off. Of course, as stipulated in his contract with his guild, The Warlord, he had to give them 20% of all EXP and GC he earned from the mission. In return, the guild guaranteed him protection from PvP attacks and a base salary of 1,000 real-world credits per month.

Apophis was quite satisfied with his day. He was just on his way to a nearby city to disconnect when another system notification popped up.

Planetary Notification: A planetary boss has just emerged from a dungeon at global position 15687, 4789.An exceptional reward will be given to players who defeat the boss.

Apophis, who had been grinding mechanically for two weeks, saw this as a welcome break in his routine, a gesture of destiny! After all, the boss was only an hour's drive from his current position. If he succeeded in killing this boss, he could even pay for his mother's monthly cancer treatment! It was an imperative goal to reach!

***

After an hour of motorcycle travel, Apophis arrived at the listed coordinates.

This was such a huge, meaningless planet in the grand scope of the colossal galaxy that Apophis hadn't expected to see any other player nearby—and perhaps only a hundred players on the whole planet, surely nowhere close to this isolated location—but he was shocked to find that his assumption was wrong!

Upon arriving, Apophis found a giant hairless Yeti fighting with a player of the Engineer class, a girl named "Lotus" who commanded a thousand battle robots!

Apophis was amazed! This player was fighting so professionally. Usually, a boss of this type could prove difficult for even a party of five on-level players in a standard dungeon composition.

Yet here was a single player managing to face the boss alone! In fact, she'd already managed to deplete 80% of the boss's HP!

However, even as Apophis watched, the boss entered a rage state. It began frantically destroying the robots at such a speed that this player would be incapable of summoning them back.

The situation quickly became untenable, and it grew apparent that a single player, no matter her skill, could never defeat the boss at its full power. In a few moments, in fact, she would surely die.

Apophis had to make a choice. Either he waited for this player to die, then jumped in, finished off the weakened boss, and ninja-looted everything for himself, or he helped her now and then shared the spoils with her.

Apophis didn't think for long. Back then, he was a particularly altruistic person, even if it had caused him problems. He decided that he had to help this person. It was nothing less than a moral imperative for him.

Apophis, who was a fire Esper back then, as he would later be in his second life, expended a huge amount of energy as a fireball to sear the Yeti's flesh!

The boss roared in pain and surprise. It ceased attacking for just long enough that Lotus could resummon her robots!

Between them, they managed to suppress the boss until it fell to its last sliver of HP. Apophis, who had far more HP and Energy remaining than Lotus, dealt the final blow.

*Level 60 achieved*

The two players collapsed on the ground, exhausted by the hard fight, and began to consume regeneration potions. Eventually, Lotus got up and stretched her hand towards Apophis. "I am Emma. I am glad to meet you! Thanks so much for your help."

Apophis took her hand and got up. "I'm Alexander. Nice to meet you, too!" He then went to loot the boss, which had dropped not only 150,000 GC but also a set of armor worth about 50,000 GC.

This was exceptional loot for a player like Apophis, even if he had to give some back to his guild. But before that, how were they going to split the loot? Apophis had arrived at practically the last moment, when the boss was already very weak.

Apophis said, "Well, how about we split it fifty-fifty?"

Lotus responded, "Thanks, but I did 90% of the DPS. Eighty-twenty sounds more fair."

Apophis felt embarrassed, realizing she was right, but said, "I know you deserve 80%,, but I'm in big financial trouble. My mom's sick, and I owe my guild money. Would you consider an even split?"

Lotus said, "Oh! I didn't see you were part of a guild. OK, let's go fifty-fifty. Either way, I couldn't have taken down the boss without your help... but you owe me a drink!"

Apophis was shocked! No other player would've given in like that. In fact, since Lotus was five levels higher than him, any other player would've simply killed Apophis and taken all the treasure!

But instead, Lotus had shown great understanding and kindness.

"Deal!" said Apophis. "Let's do this!"

Later, the two players had drinks in one of the planet's bars. Apophis had a sense of humor that Lotus adored, and the two players appreciated each other's company quite a lot.

The next day, after a short night's sleep, they started playing together. They continued to do this very regularly, then, after a month, decided to see each other IRL. Thankfully, Lotus also lived in Paris.

Lotus's real name was Emma, of course. After they shared their first dinner in person, Alexander leaned in and kissed Emma.

***

Their relationship developed quickly. After a year, they moved in together.

Alexander was really madly in love with Emma. This relationship was the first time someone else had shown so much affection to him, outside of familial love. As it happened, what brought them together the most was Alexander's mother's cancer, which worsened by the day and undermined Alexander's morale.

The day his mother died, Alexander was devastated.

He had worked hard to pay for his mother's cancer treatment, but unfortunately, it was nowhere near enough. Her low-cost treatment was known to be barely effective at all, and not even the most optimistic doctor had any hope of its success.

The most effective treatments were completely out of the question, costing up to a million credits a month because of the pharmaceutical industry's freedom to speculate on drug prices.

At least Emma was there to support Alexander at this lowest point in his life.

But from the moment of his mother's death, Alexander began to change.

Once a kind, just, and respectful boy, Alexander now became bitter, ready to do anything to anyone in order to reach his ambitions.

As far as he was concerned, other human beings had let his mother die out of greed. In fact, the capitalist system that had encouraged this behavior was at fault, but Alexander hardly considered that fact.

Nevertheless, despite Alexander's change of behavior, Emma continued to love him.

She told herself, over and over, that this behavior was only temporary.