I awoke to a face full of tree leaves and branches poking me into my side. It took about half a second before I was fully awake and then another second until I was in full panic mode. Not caring about my own safety I used a few poison bombs to completely decimate the tree’s crown, blasting open a way out for me. Immediately followed by a curse when I realized that it’d be faster to just teleport. I prepared the spell while I activated leap to rocket myself out of the freshly made tunnel through the leaves, emerging into the colorful crater. Not caring about the nice view for once, my spell snapped into place and I used the portal to go straight up, snapping my wings open and banking toward the volcano-ridden lands in the distance.

I could feel the effects of Tim’s drink as I glided at an unnatural speed. Gliding shouldn’t be very fast by the rules of physics, especially since I was going somewhat straight, but whatever concoction Tim had made seemingly didn’t care about physics. For good measure, I activated rush, which gave me another fifty percent increase in speed. I started charging another void jump, this time intending to pump it with a ton of mana to maximize the distance traveled. I needed to get as far away as possible and I was running out of time. The system seemed to agree with me since it issued an emergency quest at that moment.

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Danger! Emergency Quest! Danger!

A void invasion is taking place in your immediate vicinity. A team of travelers has been dispatched to take care of it.

Objective: Survive until the travelers arrive.

Reward: Depending on actions taken.

Failure: Death.

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A team of travelers has been dispatched? The system was sending out travelers to care of the void invasion? I was a bit confused by the situation, wondering just how close travelers were supposed to be working with the system. I wasn’t afforded any time to think about it, though, since a massive gash in reality appeared in the crater behind me, voidlings of all shapes and sizes pouring out of it.

I was speeding away from the crater and could only barely make out the voidlings as they emerged but I clearly recognized some of them from the bar. It would seem that they somehow brought along some friends to aid in the hunt as I counted at least thirty of the fuckers before bedlam broke out. There were a ton of voidlings and only one seed, so of course taking out the competition was a priority.

Spells, skills, and other attacks were flung around, the mostly purple light show effortlessly destroying massive swaths of land. I had seen enough to know that I definitely shouldn’t be anywhere near these maniacs, snapped the void jump that I’d been charging all this time into existence, and hopped through, emerging far, far away. I still had some ways to go before reaching the volcano area, but I’d put a decent amount of space between me and my pursuers.

I allowed myself but a single moment of relaxation before starting the casting of the next void jump when a purple laser missed me by a hair's breadth. I cursed as I hadn’t seen the attack coming at all, and cursed even more when the laser beam hit one of the distant volcanoes, causing it to explode spectacularly, sending a rain of rock and lava all over the place. My eyes snapped back and I scanned the area for any voidlings and, sure enough, there was a large eyeball with batwings hot on my tail.

Its iris was glowing a menacing purple and I could only assume that the next laser was about to come for me. Not wasting any time I activated the void jump, placing the portal right in front of me so that I’d instantly go through. After emerging on the other side I immediately dove down, narrowly avoiding the laser that had followed me through the portal. The laser cut a rend into the volcanic rock ahead of me. Aware that the following explosion was giving away my location I started casting void jump like a madman, doing several short hops in quick succession in an attempt to cover up my movement.

I was setting the targets of these jumps semi-randomly, albeit still away from the crater that was now ground zero. Every now and again another laser would shoot in my general direction as the voidling seemingly had given up on precision shots and was attempting to get me as collateral. It was a good strategy, as everywhere I went there were massive chunks of stone raining down, with a healthy dose of lava mixed in. For a short moment, I had a clear view of the eyeball behind me recklessly shooting lasers everywhere.

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A cold shiver ran down my non-existent spine when a massive voidling seemingly phased into existence right next to it, a massive, clawed appendage smacking the eyeball out of the air. I could see the poor sod literally explode into a bloody mist upon impact with the ground but had no time nor empathy to spare for it. The new arrival was shaped like a massive, horned werewolf that was so dark it seemingly absorbed the light around it. Its glowing, yellow eyes were trained on my exact location, following me effortlessly through several void jumps.

I didn’t notice, but I started hyperventilating as its stare put the fear of god into me. I was reminded of the voidling that forced me to hand over half of my attribute points and felt just about as helpless now as I felt then. How the hell was I supposed to deal with this guy?

I saw it bring its two clawed hands together, summoning a black sphere that was getting bigger and bigger by the second. It got ready to throw the thing at me, lifting it over its head and I saw my life flashing before my eyes already when another voidling delivered a massive blow to the giant werewolf. This new voidling was seemingly a collective of tons of smaller worms, its form in constant flux as the smaller beings that made it up flitted all over the place. They had formed a spiked club that sent the werewolf flying, and with it, its black sphere of doom.

The sphere touched the ground after flying a few kilometers, sending a shockwave out that decimated everything in its path. I was certain the entire layer, if not the entire world, was shaking as I braced myself for impact by activating all of my defenses, hoping that it might just be enough. It took only a split second for the shockwave to reach me and I was swept away like a pebble in a tornado. Pain coursed through my entire being as I helplessly flew through the air, barely able to see the two Titans clash in the distance.

I felt like a dead man walking as I pulled up my status and saw that I only had forty-six HP left. That shockwave had almost killed me, doing almost 1500 HP of damage. If I’d been even a few meters closer or hadn’t activated my defenses before I got hit, I would have perished right there and then. I impacted the ground hard and rolled to a stop, losing a few more HP in the process.

For a few moments, as I lay there in silent pain, I wondered why I was even trying. I was so hopelessly outclassed in this scenario, that even a stray hit could take me out. I had no clue how long it would take for the system to send the travelers over, and while it felt like the emergency quest started forever ago, it couldn’t have been more than two or three minutes. Just how long was I supposed to avoid being obliterated by these beings that were clearly on another level?

The earth was shaking as I lay there, contemplating the futility of my efforts, proving once again that any random attack of these… monsters could end me with ease. I thought back on the journey I took to get to this point. My past life as Liam the Gambler. A life wasted on chasing an unattainable, easy success that always seemed oh so close. A destructive life that not only eventually caused me to be killed in cold blood, but had a devastating effect on the people that loved me at one point.

It was only fitting then, that when I arrived in this world, I was all alone with the sole purpose to destroy even more. With the twist that this time, I would be rewarded for said destruction. I had been driven by both fear and excitement, ever willing to leave behind the disaster that had been my last attempt at life. So absorbed I’d been with running away from my past, that I only too easily embraced the potential future I’d been offered. A future that would see me succeed, not through cheap and easy attempts, but through hard work and tenacity.

It was weird that I, so hellbent on taking the easy road, managed to take this peril-ridden path in front of me. But, a mixture of literal fear for my life and the immediate rewards handed out by the system, of adrenaline and dopamine in extreme doses, seemingly managed to do the trick. Instead of chasing the big win, I instead started chasing the high that combat brought. The high of getting stronger than I was before.

This, of course, had been no less destructive a way of living than how I’d lived on Earth. No, it was even worse. I’d come to realize so eventually and tried reigning myself back a bit, recognizing my addiction for what it had become. I still chased after that high, after that goal of becoming strong. I made mistakes. Mistakes that almost cost me my life on several occasions, and every time I cursed myself for missing the obvious mistakes I could’ve avoided or mitigated by keeping a level head.

I had been doing so incredibly well, and now I was laying in the dirt, hurting all over while immensely powerful beings fought over who got to end my existence.

Another tremor shook the ground and a massive boulder slammed down next to me, missing me by a scant few meters and making me flinch. I thought again about how these selfish bastards were only here to take away from me what I needed to work hard for. I’d risked my life again and again to get this opportunity, and now they wanted to simply swoop in and take it from me because, well… they could.

A sudden wave of anger passed through me and I put myself right-side up on the ground. Fuck this! These assholes wanted to take away my hard work? Not if I could help it! This thrice-damned seed was my ticket to becoming the powerful being I wanted to become. If I gave up now and let them take it without a fight, I would have wasted my second chance at life.

I didn’t like my chances, but damn it! I was going to either make it as hard as possible to wrest this seed from me and die trying, or actually manage to survive until the rescue squad arrived. I started casting another void jump, coordinates set away from the battlefield, and when the portal opened, I jumped through without hesitation.

Time to make a run for it!