Chapter 2 – Life 1 – Year 50 – The Trade

Who are you? What’s going on?

Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang

Aren’t I dead? Are these my last hallucinations?

Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang

…Are you supposed to be the thing in charge, then? The one responsible for the flare, for the orbs, for the monsters? It all felt so random, yet so intentional…

Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang

*Sigh* Will I hallucinate anything different if I say “Yang”?

Focus Chosen. Reincarnating…

Hey, wait, what’s that supposed to mea-

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Reincarnation. That was the word that popped into my head this morning. Honestly, I hadn’t really put much stock into the concept. You die, but a person somewhere else is born with… some connection to you? Was I supposed to believe there were babies that knew a whole person’s life and just pretended like they didn’t?

And yet, when I woke up, I felt like I had had a REALLY long dream… longer than I thought possible. One where I lived before the Collapse. I could somehow remember what the stars looked like, even though I had only seen pictures. Was I going crazy? That wasn’t good, I was supposed to be out there killing monsters, I didn’t have TIME to be crazy!

It was 50 years since the Collapse, and our community was barely holding on. We were formed out of a bunker that some bill-e-on-air had made out of fears that something was going to happen. Well, he was right, but the elders say he had been on some trip to a tropical island when the flare hit. I guess he wasn’t as prepared as he thought. Still, his supply of food and water has kept us going for far longer than most communities we know about. But it was all finally running out.

The hunters have been using scrap metal to make things they called “bear traps”. Trapping a bear seemed like a terrible idea to me, but apparently, they worked wonders on the smaller monsters. The trick was to take a running leap over the trap, in a way that looked like you stumbled a bit. The monster would see that as an opening and run at you. The trap would spring shut thanks to a clever mechanism, hopefully around the monster’s leg. Then, you would beat it to death with the clubs made by our resident crafters. They often talk about things called ‘guns’ that would do the trick a lot better, but apparently the Collapse made them all stop working. They kept warning me, if I ever found a gun left behind by someone, never EVER try to use it, or it would explode and kill me.

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There was, however, some use in explosives. Apparently, the elders were trying to organize a trade for more food, in exchange for our supply of guns. I didn’t know why some other community wanted guns if they were so dangerous, but what do I know. That’s how I ended up sleeping in the forest, under the light of the moon and the orbs, when the guard on watch woke me up. It was my turn to stand guard. Unfortunately, all I could think of was how weird the dream I had was. So vivid in some places, and so… vague, in others. A word came to mind. Yin-Yank? No… Yin YanG. One of the elders said that was one of his many old-world religious symbols he collected. But I feel like the dream ended with, not the whole symbol, but… part of it? The Yang part. Not sure how I knew which part was the Yin and which the Yang, but I knew. Not sure I knew what the hell it MEANT though. Something to do with a choice I made… or was it some other person, who is now part of me? Ugh, why is this dream so confus-

Movement. A white-colored stag, in the distance, horns gleaming. I felt an instinctive shudder at the sight of it… wait, but had I seen one of these before? I didn’t remember any of the elders talking about this kind of monster… but that pure coloration meant it had to be, right? Wait, I feel like I remember something about this monster. Where did I… the dream? Yeah, in the dream there was one of these that moved really fa-

I *barely* dodged out of the way as the stag crossed the distance in a fraction of a second. I slashed out with my sword, but it barely managed to shear off a couple bits of antler before getting stuck in a much larger part. The stag quickly shook its head, making me lose my grip on my sword. Damn it, what is this thing?

I drew out my dagger from its sheath while yelling for the other guards to wake up. Then I heard screaming. Yeah, they were up. And so were the deer. I made to grab for my sword, but the dear reacted more quickly, and impaled my arm. GAHHHHH!

They say pain can give you clarity. I think that’s bullshit. But I did RETAIN enough clarity to hack at the stag with my dagger. It reacted by swiftly pulling its antler out of my arm. Jesus FUCK that hurts. Not sure how I’m still awake, to be honest.

Actually, I don’t think I’ll be awake for long. Blood was pouring out of my arm. I think it hit an artery. I collapsed to the ground. The stag looks at me in what can only be a gloating manner. But I noticed something. Right next to where I collapsed is our mission’s ‘cargo’. I use my good arm to reach nice and slow into the bag. The stag doesn’t seem to think I can do anything else against it. I’m going to give it the biggest lesson of both of our lives. I find what I think is a trigger, hope the ‘safety’ isn’t on, and gently squeeeez-

*BOOOM*

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You have died as a Rank 0 Unaligned Warrior (Yang).

You have killed 1 Air Demon in this life.

Calculating….

Your connection to the Air is improved by 50% for the next life.

You have killed your first Demon.

Calculating…

You permanently progress through the first Rank 10% faster.