I froze in place. Hellman had seen my entry on his [Friend List]. He must have noticed my class, Eldritch Alchemist, and he would certainly attack in a matter of seconds.

Yet there was no change in Hellman’s behavior, and Carlos did not react either. Hellman could have just been playing dumb and pretending to not notice my class until I gave him the starship he needed to get back to Genesis, but Carlos should have reacted. My class was on Carlos’s [Friend List] as well, so he should have known that such information would let Hellman know that I was the host of the Fifth Star Child.

I knew Carlos well, and he had a terrible poker face. Something so major would cause an emotional reaction, and I would have been able to perceive Carlos’s response. Yet when I looked at Carlos, he did not react at all.

A sound echoed within my skull. It was a sound so quiet that only I could possibly hear it. The sound was not a verbal communication, but rather a simple utterance conveying an emotion: pride. Epsilon vibrated quietly, proud of its own skill.

I recalled Hellman saying that the Star Children were becoming more skilled over time. Somehow, Epsilon must have managed to change how my class was viewed by other people. My class should have been displayed as “Eldritch Alchemist” in other players’ [Friend Lists], but it was instead displayed as “Alchemist.”

After pausing for a second to come to this conclusion and conceal the many emotions spinning in my mind, I said, “You’re in luck. I actually just built one.”

“Is that right? Good. I was afraid I would have to steal a car or wait a few hours for you to level up. I’ll make sure to compensate you sufficiently. Where is this starship?”

“Just a hundred feet that way,” I said.

We began to walk back to Phillips Hall. It was a very strange experience to walk next to a man with horns, red skin, and a pointed tail. The experience was made more uncomfortable due to the fact I knew he wanted to kill me.

I tried to keep my thoughts away from the strange experience by focusing on spreading Hellman’s recording as quickly as possible. I uploaded the video to my YouTube account and posted the recording to every Discord channel I could find with the message, “How to Survive (Tell Everyone You Can).”

At first glance, the video could easily be interpreted as particularly distasteful clickbait. I probably could have phrased the title of the video better, but none of that was important. The only thing that mattered was the content of the video, and the video’s title would be forgotten once it started spreading by word of mouth.

We were standing in front of Phillips Hall by the time the video had finished compressing, and I got the notification on my phone that it had been uploaded to YouTube. Once I was confident that enough dominos had been overturned to spread the message sufficiently, I turned notifications off on my phone and returned it to my pocket.

“Okay, it’s done,” I said. “Anyone that still has access to the Internet should see the recording within the next few hours.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“You’re going to be famous, Vincent,” Carlos said, though his smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“Maybe I can launch a lucrative YouTube career in the six hours before the YouTube servers are destroyed by a pack of Diluvians.”

A confused look fell over Hellman’s face. “This is sarcasm, yes? It’s hard to figure out tone through the translator.”

“Yes,” I said, surprised once more by Hellman’s understanding of our culture. “For an alien, you’re pretty similar to us. Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. The Coalition of Light has been watching us for a while, and they’ve seeded our culture with certain ideas, right? Revelation, Genesis, Nephelim, those can’t be coincidental.”

“Naturally,” Hellman said with a shrug. “We had to prepare you guys for System Integration. Of course, our memetic seeding was a lot more extensive than you may think. Video games, elves, magic, feudalism, Atlantis, literature, and agriculture all originated with the Coalition.”

“Jesus Christ,” Carlos swore.

“That to,” Hellman said with a smile. “Though, not as directly. Our name for the son of the Overgod is Malkuth, and we view him as the God of Space.”

“Oh no…” Carlos said, squeezing his eyes tight and resting the back of his head against the stone wall of Phillips Hall. “Is God real?”

“Kind of?” Hellman said. “That would take a while. There is definitely an entity called the Overgod or the Administrator that closely fits the Christian concept of God, yes. I mean, we told you about God for a reason.”

“One last question,” I said. “Why did the Coalition portray the Nephilims as demonic when you left us with the stories that formed the Bible?”

“That one was an accident,” Hellman said with a sardonic smile. “My ancestors tried to portray themselves as gods in certain pagan religions that the dominant religion eventually considered ‘evil.’ After a thousand years of religious syncretism, the pagan deities modeled after my people were eventually integrated into Christianity as demonic creatures. In the Bible itself, my people are described as quasi-angelic creatures who possess great strength. It was a real mix-up on our part.”

“I think I understand now,” I said, and we walked into Phillips Hall.

As we began treading through the large empty hall in the center of the building, I called out, “We’re coming back now, and we’ve brought an ally!”

We walked into the lecture hall, and several of the people in my group recoiled in fear once they saw Hellman approach. I could tell that diplomacy between Nephilims and Humans would be difficult in the coming years. It wouldn’t be easy to deal with the negative associations that people make the moment they see a Nephilim.

“There it is,” Hellman said, looking at the Sarcophagus Starship sitting on the floor. His eyes squinted for a moment, and several pop-ups appeared in my vision.

[NEW QUEST, AID THE VANGUARD AGENT: TRADE STARSHIP TO HELLMAN, +1,000 EXP]

NEW QUEST, AID THE VANGUARD AGENT: TRADE STARSHIP TO HELLMAN, +1,000 EXP

[TRADE REQUEST, HELLMAN: 1 SARCOPHAGUS STARSHIP → 1,000 CREDITS]

TRADE REQUEST, HELLMAN: 1 SARCOPHAGUS STARSHIP → 1,000 CREDITS