After Shesmu logged out, it was already midnight. As such, he went to sleep. By the time he woke up, the Beta had already ended.
Seth, prepare me a British Breakfast.
Understood, Mark.
Shesmu opened the curtains of his room. The warm sunlight eroded his grogginess. He then turned on his PC and opened Ashes of Gods’ webpage. The live game was announced. The release date would be July 15th, two weeks from then. Shesmu smiled and thought, This time, Allan would join us too. The squad is already forming back again.
This train of thought led him to Ryan. One thing he didn’t expect was for Ryan to be the King of the Underworld. That’s one surprise he didn’t see coming. Plus, he did talk about Sophie. Were they related?
Somehow, Shesmu felt lost. His interactions with the King of the Underworld were minimal at best. Everything he knew about him was from hearsay. Moreover, Sophie never talked about a Ryan, and neither did her family.
Shesmu’s confusion only grew further, but he knew that the only way for him to clear them up was by talking with Ryan. Talking about that, I never got their contact info outside of the game. How stupid could I be?!
Mark, your breakfast is ready. Do you want me to serve it right now?
Seth’s telepathic voice cut Shesmu’s train of thought. He stumbled for words for a few moments before he finally replied, “Yes, please do.”
A hole appeared in the desk, and from it, a plate full of food ascended. Fried eggs, mushroom, buttered toast, and bloodwurst, all of which accompanied with a warm cup of milk tea.
Shesmu was feasting on his breakfast when he received a notification from his messaging app. The name of the contact was Ryan.
“Hey, idiot, do you know how hard it was to find your contact info?!”
That was his opening message. Shesmu chuckled before replying with a comment of his own.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t the one who just fell unconscious and had to be carried on my friend’s back for four fucking hours, only to wake up with a ghost possessing my body.”
The two’s banter kept going back and forth until Ryan gave Shesmu a world ID to join. Shesmu copied the ID and typed it on the Dreamscape console keyboard.
The capsule opened and Shesmu jumped right in. The world turned dark before he was teleported to a night beach. The full moon reflected off the dark ocean while the waves crashed on the sand.
“Yo!”
Shesmu turned around to find Ryan behind him. He was wearing a light green jacket, and warm, fuzzy, brown pants.
“Achoo!” Shesmu scratched his nose. “You little shit! You put yourself in warm clothes and you invite me here with only a sleeveless shirt. Are you trolling me?!”
Shesmu clenched at his arms and hurried out of the beach, while Ryan laughed his ass off. He just kept looking as Shesmu ran barefoot on the cold sand towards a hatchet by the side of the street.
Ryan walked after Shesmu and brought out the keys, while the latter was shivering in the cold.
“You sure took your time, goddammit.”
“Well, well, well. Life is better taken slow, no?” Ryan replied while trying his hardest to stop himself from bursting out laughing.
“Yeah, yeah, tell me that when your eyes aren’t literally laughing in my face. Just open the damn door already.”
Ryan opened the door with a chuckle. The moment the keylock clicked, Shesmu burst in without waiting for Ryan. He immediately made his way to the fire to warm up his hands.
“Hope that laughter was worth the wait. Just what sick shit went through your mind when you made the parameters of this world. It’s fucking freezing!”
“Haha, don’t worry, it was definitely worth,” Ryan replied as he sat down on the couch. “As for the temperature, it’s at minus two.”
“You psycho,” Shesmu muttered. He then joined Ryan on the couch and continued, “So, how was your meeting with your future self? You guys got to talk?”
“Yeah, we did.” He then looked at Shesmu with a cheeky smile. “And, between everyone I imagined my cousin to fuck, I never would have ever thought it was you. So that’s where you got your always serious attitude from, you got it from Sophie!”
Shesmu’s eyes opened wide at the revelation. “Wait, Sophie is your cousin?”
“Crazy, right?” Ryan replied. “But I guess you never got to know that before. I guess you never got to meet me.”
Shesmu stayed silent at Ryan’s solemn tone. He struggled to find the words to say. “Did he get to talk to you about that?”
“No, we didn’t talk about real life. We only talked about the game, about his adventures, about his friends, about his enemies. The only thing he told me about real-life was to live my life as I please. Talk about fucking cliche, right?”
Those words spoke to Shesmu as much as they spoke to Ryan. Being stranded in this timeline, shackled by the ghosts of his past, Shesmu longed for that feeling of freedom. A feeling that would seldom come.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“For you, you wanna be reunited with the friends of your past life. Leo was one of them, right? That’s why you have such a soft spot for him.”
Shesmu nodded Ryan. Everything that he lost, he would do everything in his power to gain back.
“It must be great, having a clear goal like that. For me, I wonder what I should do.”
Shesmu looked at Ryan and said, “Didn’t your future self already tell you? Just live your life as you please, don’t overthink things.”
Ryan was surprised by Shesmu’s answer. His expression of surprise, however, soon turned into that of a smile. “I guess you’re right. I guess I should just do what I want, and I’ll find my goal on the journey to get there.”
Ryan then had a moment of realization, surprising Shesmu. He wondered what conclusion the little kid could have reached to make such an expression.
“Oh, actually, I found my goal.” He looked at Shesmu with a cheeky smile. “From now on, my goal is to become your wingman! I won’t rest until I get to see my niece!”
The disappointment on Shesmu’s face could not be described by words. “Please give me back the concern I wasted on you.”
Ryan laughed until his eyes teared, making Shesmu smile too. “Hahahaha, that was a good one. But this time for real, what do you think about making a studio, where me, Leo, you and any friends we bring into the group live all together. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
Ryan’s suggestion surprised Shesmu. Well, I was already planning on bringing Alan to my house. I guess making a studio wouldn’t be too bad.
“Sure, I don’t mind that.”
“Great!” Ryan beamed at Shesmu’s positive response. He stood up before he continued, “Okay then, I’ll make a messaging group later where we can discuss the logistics of the place.”
Shesmu scratched his head before interrupting, “Why not just come to my place? It’s big, the internet is good, and I’m alone there most of the time.”
“That sounds like a terrific idea! Especially the part where you’ll have a bunch of creepy dudes in the house when you bring Sophie home after a good night at the bar. There wouldn’t be any awkward moments at all!”
Ryan’s straight face didn’t betray the sarcasm in his voice at all. Shesmu could only shake his head at his antics.
“Do you wanna take the house, or do you wanna spend 600k on a mortgage that would take 30 years to pay off?”
“Haha, I’m just joking.” Ryan finally broke character. “But are you sure about it? I would feel bad if I just get to stay at your house rent-free.”
“You’re fucking fourteen, don’t fucking talk to me about rent.”
Shesmu’s words were final. He stood up, looked at Ryan, and said, “Is there anything else you wanna talk about?”
“Nah, not really. Just see you in two days.”
The two bade their goodbyes and logged off.
* * *
Meanwhile, in a realm high above the clouds, islands floated. Water fell from one island to the next in streams that seemed never-ending. The ground had a pinkish texture, while the grass was abnormally green.
On top of the highest island was a magnificent castle. It was made of the whitest marble and decorated with the most exotic stones. Diamond blue, amber, black, and ruby red merged to create a piece of art. Anyone who could see the structure would have their breath taken away.
Inside the castle, Gabriel was carrying a stack of paper that reached above her head. She put them on a desk and heaved a sigh, their weight almost broke her back.
On the other side of the desk was a little boy. He had both of his legs resting on the desk while he snored under the comic book that covered his face. Not even the thunderous sound of the stack of paper slamming on the desk could wake him up.
“Cough, cough.” Gabriel’s attempts to wake the boy up were left unanswered. Understanding that there was only one way to get his attention at that point, Gabriel walked up to his ear and screamed, “Yaksha!! Wake up!!!”
The boy lost his balance and almost fell from his chair. He looked at Gabriel with a disgruntled expression and complained, “Do you always have to do that when you come?”
“It’s not my fault that your sleep is deeper than an elephant struck with a drugging shot.” Gabriel shrugged at Yaksha. Now that he no longer had that comic book covering his face, she could finally see it. He had light neon green hair that matched his deep blue eyes. A half magical circle tattoo covered his right cheek.
“Well, either way. These are the reports of the day.”
Yaksha looked at the immense stack of paper and gloom covered his face. He could swear that the heap of reports was taller than him.
“Noooo! Please don’t make me do that. That’s too many reports!”
Gabriel puffed her cheeks in exasperation. “This your job, you know. You can’t just push all of your work to me.”
“But you already went through all of these reports yourself, can’t you just tell me what’s important?”
Gabriel sighed at Yaksha’s pleading look. “Sure, but this is the last time.”
“Yay! Thank you!” Yaksha jumped in joy.
Gabriel sighed and cast a spell. A holographic image of the world materialized in front of the two.
“The way all of the countries responded to the arrival of the players were different. Fortunately, most of them were positive. Those that were hostile to them have been marked in red. Once the live game goes up, it won’t be possible for the players to start in there.”
“Boring~” Yaksha yawned at Gabriel’s explanation. “Did nothing interesting happen?”
Gabriel clenched her fist in anger at Yaksha’s attitude, but she calmed herself down by taking a deep breath.
“Well, we had some abnormalities all over the world in terms of players. Some had reached level 25 by the end of the beta, some were able to discover the world’s secrets, but the most abnormal one of them would be this one.”
Gabriel handed Yaksha a paper. In its top right corner was a picture of Ryan fighting Lavador.
“This is player DepressedRyan fighting the Avatar of one of the primordials, Lavador.”
“Heh,” Yaksha smiled. “How did a player that hasn’t been playing for more than a day get to fight the avatar of a primordial? And for him to beat it even.”
“Yeah, that’s why he is the top of our list. From analyzing his fight, it felt like I was watching a Tier IV player fight. No, with how high his connection was to the ether field, Tier V isn’t a stretch either.”
Yaksha’s attention was taken by a player that could barely be seen in the image. He pointed at him and asked, “And this guy, who is he?”
Gabriel looked at the player Yaksha was pointing out before she answered, “That is Shesmu. He is also one of the abnormals.”
“Hmm, I see. Okay, that’s it for now. You’re dismissed.” Yaksha dismissed Gabriel with his hand before putting his legs back on the desk and resting.
“Ehm, what do we do about the abnormals?”
“Just leave them be. In fact, encourage them to do whatever they want. It will be more interesting that way.”
Gabriel put her hand on her forehead and shook her head. “As you want,” She ended up saying before leaving the room.
After Gabriel left, Yaksha took the report about Ryan and looked at it once again.
“So you ended up coming back, didn’t you, Mark?”
Right at the top of the wall, Yaksha leaned on with his chair, his name and title were written in gold.
Yaksha The Aspect Overseer