Tom's PoV

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"Tom you have a message waiting for you" A voice said, not belonging to Lilly or myself. Time also seemed to have taken a break for our chat.

"What? From who?" I asked confused.

"From you," a likely god said, with a smirk in his voice.

"Huh. Well Allright let's hear it." I say, curious.

"Do note that this is heavily edited from what happened originally, but it is for you own health," The voice says. Then the actual first chapters of my life replay in my mind.

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I wake a few minutes after said message has player through my mind. Now knowing slightly more, yet knowing I don't know it all. Parts of it were obviously edited. Background thoughts were just missing in some parts, time skipped around. Which left me thinking. Why even give the message? I guess I could just ask.

"Why was this message even given to me? It contained some background information but why this format, why not just a couple of pages of text for me to read?"

"We decided on it together, though you are now your own person in a way. Main reason for the format was just that it's fast and I can. though maybe it would've been a more coherent experience in text for, In fact I'll just give you a transcript of it as a system message you can view at any time." Order, whose name I now knew, replied.

"Hmm. Why not. Why was it edited to begin with, and what was the actual reason to wipe my mind? that sounded a bit... spontaneous to put it lightly," I asked slightly suspicious about why any of this was like it was.

"Well the main reason for the memory wipe was mental health. You just don't know what original Tom knew. As I said, it's not what happened, just a version of it. If I just gave you all the memories from beginning you'd stop being you, and just become the first Tom. Probably. I haven't actually tested it so I can't know really." Order replied.

"What was I so afraid of?" I asked.

"The truth," Order replied. And time resumed it's seemingly endless march.

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"Tom?" Lilly asked next to me.

"Hm? What?" I ask, still in thought.

"You're spacing out. I said we're almost at the base. What are you thinking about?" Lilly asks

"Ah, Order decided to give me a message from myself. or a set of memories? it was weird in either case," I reply.

"Order?" she asks. Ah right.

"The name of the god who gave us the quests."

"Oh. What was the message?" she queries.

"My memories from before the memory wipe, but they weren't all of it, edited. 'a version of the truth' Order told me" I tell her.

"Why not just give all of the memories" she asks, suspicious.

"Apparently mental health reasons. 'Original Tom was afraid of the truth' was how Order put it." I answer.

"That's still incredibly suspicious, though i don't think there's a lot I can do to help you in gaining your memories," she states.

"Yeah. I'm quite certain you just can't go against Orders" I snicker a bit and Lilly smacks the back of my head.

"How strong is he? she? it?" Lilly asks.

"Omnipotent, omniscient. Though I was the one to trust him enough to give him most of that and create him. Apparently even the system was created by me just bumbling about," I tell her.

"You just fucked around and accidentally created a god? I guess there are worse creation stories out there" Lilly huffs slightly.

"Just thinking of them was enough to make them, I didn't even need to fuck around to find out." I tell her, equally surprised.

"And why haven't my thoughts of ice cream just manifested?" she asks.

"We patched that bug out early in the process. Order is actually the main driving force in keeping things in order. Love the name by the way." I chuckle. Lilly smacks the back of my head again, and then proceeds to get her face planted in the floor.

"Thanks, I made it myself," a proud voice of Order sound through the mind of mine and Lilly's.

"I hate you both," Lilly mutters into the ground.

I give her a hand, get her up and tell her, "Aw, 'cmon, it's not that bad."

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"You're not the one with a face full of dirt," she says and proceeds to kick my legs from under me.

"Still not that bad," I say from the ground.

"You're just saying that so that you can be right," Lilly replies and continues walking.

"I'm never wrong!" I yell after her. I sit on the ground for a moment and then chase after her.

"At least I'm not the comic relief character!" Lilly shouts and runs faster. Being already near the base she gets in a few seconds before me. I get inside and she is sitting on a makeshift chair, out of breath and deep in thought.

"What are we even doing?" she asks the air.

I just keep quite. I don't really have an answer.

"Surviving, living, adventuring. And you shouldn't forget about the cosmic relief character in your comeback," Order says.

Lilly smirks a little. Then asks, "Is it fair that i'm the one alive? Why not some other eldritch rock out there? Shouldn't I be doing more?"

"There's always the should have and could haves. You do what you do. no more, no less. Besides who's telling you what you should be doing? There's no society out there. Even if there was who gives a shit. As tom said, Society is a mess, why let it decide what you do for you. As long as you aren't actively hurting someone you should be able to do whatever the fuck you want," Order tells her, and I mostly agree.

"Isn't that selfish?" Lilly asks.

"Is being selfish a bad thing?" I ask her.

"How is it not? Being selfish means stepping on other people to get further myself. How is that not a bad thing?" Lilly asks.

"You confuse being selfish with with narcissism. Being selfish just means you're advancing yourself. If you never help yourself, how would you get anywhere?" Order asks pointedly.

"To me it just sounds like you want to do more but don't know where to even begin," I observe.

"Why does a literal god sound less convincing than you?" Lilly asks me with a smirk.

"Ouch, my astronomically massive ego! But to be fair Tom has the right approach, even if I know everything it doesn't mean I'm always using my knowledge well," Order says.

"Right. I guess I just can't decide what I want to do." Lilly says.

Your party has been given a Quest!

Revive 10 people, and form a surviving community.

Reward: +5 to all attributes.

"I guess that works," she agrees.

"Neat. Why not just give levels?" I ask Order.

Text forms in the air out of blue little sparks and it reads, "Secret :)"

Lilly tosses a pebble at it and hisses with humor "Go away mysterious god!"

I chuckle and start thinking of a plan to complete the quest, It would've taken 10 days at level one but with the cost reduction from [Anatomy] and the increased mana regeneration it would probably be less than that. I still don't know how much the reduction from said skill is, so I'd also have to test that.

Then there's the whole community building part. It would be difficult alone but at least Lilly had a clue about how society used to work so maybe she could help me figure out some possible problems before they happened.

"We need more strength so we can police things if there are any trouble makers," Lilly says.

"Sabotage? Why would they destroy their chance of survival?" I ask, confused and semi horrified.

"People are stupid as shit," Lilly sighs.

"Right, Even a small society is a society. I guess i should be glad my first revival was you and not some idiot who would kill themselves in whatever way and for whatever reason." I ponder out loud.

Lilly blushes a little and says, "Thanks. But honestly, between waking up to a dude in the nude and the pain, I was a bit too preoccupied to consider spontaneously combusting," then she smirks a little.

"You know that's not what I mean," I say.

"Yes, But the nude part would've had me running the fuck away if it wasn't for the pain and the tumors."

"Guess i'll compliment just the tumors then," I snark.

"How dare you? My tumors were a part of me!" Lilly half shouts and giggles. I just smile at her antics.

A few minutes pass with Lilly looking in thought and then she comes to talk to me once more, "Sorry. I wanted to be sure that you know something," she says and fidgets a bit.

"Sure?" I reply slightly confused at the behaviour.

"I'm not into dudes," she says and blushes slightly.

"Oh? And how does that change anything?" I replied.

"Wh- I mean how doesn't it?" Lilly asks, seeming confused with the result of her confession.

"I'm not attracted to either gender." I reply.

"Huh, Didn't you say my tits are aesthetically pleasing though?" Lilly asked.

"Yes. And? I can admire the landscape without being sexually attracted to it," I reply.

"I guess I just assumed things," she mutters quietly to herself and walks off.

"Thanks for telling me!" I yell at her disappearing form. To which she holds a thumbs up to the door frame and continues walking.

'wonder if she's just walking away for dramatic effect or didn't even notice' I chuckle to myself.

I continue drawing plans for the encampment and then it hits me. 'The mana cost will be atrocious'

I reset the stone slab I've been changing the color of and started redrawing the plans, adjusting to make the mana cost of building them minimal.

Slowly over time it became darker and night was once more upon us. Lilly comes back and looks at me with a thoughtful expression, then decides, "I know there's no attraction but I'd still like privacy eventually, so could you make the sleeping bag into a two parted whole? Share the heat, but less touching type of setup."

"Hmm, sure, I liked the touch part though" I replied.

"Huh, is that just a human reaction?" Lilly asks.

"Perfectly natural release of oxytocin upon contact with another being!" Order chimes in and disapears once more.

"Uh. Thanks wikipedia. What about us waking each other?" Lilly asks.

"I don't really mind it," I reply, and I didn't, at least not enough to give up anything.

"And I suppose I can trust you, though i'm definitely demanding you to put on underwear, still feels weird though. Like anyone who'd see us in the same sleeping bag would totally think that we're fucking," she says and blushes a little.

"Lucky you, there's no one to judge," I say.

"I'm judging you," god says. And both of us chuckle.

"You can join in if you get permission from Lilly," I jest.

"NO! You already spy on me in my nude, I ain't giving another inch!" Lilly protests in mock outrage.

"Tooom~ Heelp~" Order pleads.

"Foolish god, even with omnipotence you fall to your knees in weakness against the might of a simple woman's 'no'," Lilly heckles.

"That's it! I'm extending the survival quest!" Order announces.

"No! Anything but survival! I beg of you" Lilly pleads.

I watch their antics, eating a bag of 'popcorn' which conjured itself next to me, while I was sitting. Chuckling every so often at their demands. Happy, that the drama presenting itself was for enjoyment, and not to pity.