Zal almost doubled over from all the messages. His head was swimming. Village grade 1??? Strength of 2?? Luck of 10? This didn’t make any sense! Then he remembered. The weird voice! That’s right, he could just ask the weird voice! But firstly, maybe knowing “it’s” name would be better. So he asked “it” and this is the reply he got.

[my name is Zal. I am you. You can ask me questions about the World Of Dreams and I can happily answer you!]

So…. Zal is talking to himself?!? That’s crazy! But also cool at the same time, or at least Zal thought. “Zal” also mentioned that he can answer any question about the World Of Dreams, so Zal grilled “Zal” on WOD (World Of Dreams for short, and what it will be called from now on).

Zal learned that the strength and intelligence stat could go up to 20, and luck and charm had 10 as max. Who knew he had max luck?! Maybe it was karma. But, he also learned that the max stats represented only the max for that layer of WOD. As “Zal” put it, once Zal cleared all 3 layers of the WOD, he would be finished. As to what that meant, Zal had no idea, but this was the only clue he’d gotten till date about how to beat the WOD, so he will take this matter to heart.

Zal also learned that in this weird world he was in, there were warriors and magicians. Warriors were divided into ranks based on their strength. Every 2 strength stat was a rank, and rank 10 was max. It was said that rank 10 warriors could lift mountains and punch rocks! Magicians were similarly divided into ranks based on their magic stat. Zal found out he didn’t have a magic stat. His heart sunk. Did that mean he had no chance to be a magician? But this was a question for the future.

Village and house grades were the same. They each went up to grade 10. Every 100% increase in the village was an upgrade in grade, and the grade of the house correlated to Zal’s levels. Every 10 levels, the house will increase a grade. At level 90, his house would be max. To increase levels, you had to kill monsters and gain EXP, like any typical RPG.

Aside from this information, “Zal” refused to talk any further, and Zal would just have to find everything out on his own. As he was pondering his future while lying in bed, he realized. Maybe he should explore the village first and get to know everybody!

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Zal hurriedly got dressed and sprinted out the door.

What greeted Zal was complete silence. Vassal village seemed strangely quiet. Zal was weirded out. What was going on? Vassal village was a “square village”, in other words, it was gridlike, with the most important house in the center. This was why, when Zal came out, he could see half the village. Zal was confused. What happened to everyone?

He kept wandering around the village until a fist came flying at his face. It left behind a white trail, and Zal knew it was really powerful. He sidestepped at the last moment, avoiding a potentially bruised face. He got a clear look at his aggressor. It was a beautiful girl with long blonde hair. Zal remembered her. It was Alice! The girl the previous Zal tried to rape. Zal didn’t know what the previous Zal was thinking, but this girl was a Rank 6 warrior! She was deemed a prodigy. She was only 16 this year, the same age as playboy Zal. Zal only had a strength of 2, while Rank 6s had a strength of 12. They just couldn’t be compared!

Alice sent fist after fist as Zal tried desperately to dodge. In his last life, Zal had some experience fighting, but not much. And his meager experience was showing. Once there was an opening, Alice would jab him. And it hurt. A lot. Zal could just meekly plead for her to stop.

“I—-I didn’t mean to—— try to assault you,” he said weakly.

And for the first time, there was a change in Alice’s expression. One must know, the previous Zal was very arrogant. So why was he trying to apologize? Alice stared at Zal curiously. Zal sighed in relief. At least she had stopped trying to hit him. Now was to try to reduce the damage to his face and body as much as possible. He played his weak card.

“I’m just a Rank 1 warrior Alice, maybe we could just talk it out.” He suggested.

But apparently, that was the wrong reason. As Alice’s gaze turned cold. She humphed and resumed punching him.

“Did you think about that when you tried to rape me?” She said, he gaze piercing cold.

Zal felt cold sweat dripping down his back. Zal, oh Zal. You could have at least thought things through a bit. At this point, there were bruises all over his body, and his legs were exhausted from dodging too much. On the other hand, Alice looked full of life and looked ready to beat the cookies out of him. Zal sighed bitterly. This was the gap between Rank 1 and Rank 6. Zal basically gave up at this point. He stopped dodging and let the strikes hit him. He just stood there as blow after blow hit him. Alice was surprised. Zal was believed to be a coward, and she thought he’d run away. Her lips curled up. All the better, Alice thought. This is for the village, and everyone you abandoned or treated wrongly. That’s what her hits seemed to say. And Zal welcomed them all. And when he finally fell down unconscious, he had a feeling of a large burden being lifted off his back.