Vince was thrown inside a dark small cave. His mind a mess, body on the brink of collapsing, Vince greedily gulped the cold night air as he turned to his savior.

He didn’t pick up at first then something clicked in his mind as he perceived the silhouette of the familiar wild hair.

“Vic? Were you alive?” Vince incredulously uttered between his breaths.

Vic, who was in the process of blocking the entrance with a heavy-looking rock, snorted ridiculously.

“Yeah? An Extinct survived a fucking Doom Bringer’s crash, and me, a pathfinder whose only job was surviving, couldn’t? Hah.”

After Vic placed the rock, the cave became pitch black; no light existed. Vince looked around with a hint of fear as used his hand to find a suitable place to lean upon. As he was about to call for his savior and caretaker, a flame appeared in the air and illuminated Vic's wrinkled, handsome face.

Vince looked at the source of the light and saw it was just floating above Vic’s hand.

Is that some kind of magic? Damn. I don’t know if I am surprised or not anymore after zombie stuff.

Vic looking at the flame in his hand, whispered something inedible and threw fire to the ground. There, flame roared a little and illuminated all of the cave, banishing the darkness.

After nodding his head satisfactorily, Vic sat on a rock and turned to Vince.

He rubbed his neck while groaning in relief as he questioned Vince. “So. Tell me, kiddo. How the heck did you survive the beach? The last time I checked, you lay down on the sand bleeding in your head. ”

Vic gave him a look before nodding his head, “An Extinct with no whatsoever lifespan except what he came with made it to Cliffs of Desperation before being bitten? That is an impressive feat, even for me.”

Feeling stunned for a moment, Vince asked in a voice rearing to become angry, “You were there? You saw me and left me there?!”

Vic lifted his right eyebrow and asked in wonder, “What should I do then? Doom Bringer destroyed our fleet and made us crash onto the Twilight Shore, the last place I wanted to be after an Eclipse. Plentiful people drowned in In-Between, and all of their corpses are going to turn into Drowners until the moment they hit the shore.”

He wrapped his arms around his chest and continued, “So tell me, why would I want a deadweight who is ignorant of the world with me? I am a pathfinder, and it's my duty to make the call to be a survivor.”

Vince looked at Vic with intense eyes. He couldn’t argue with Vic because he had a point. It was true he was ignorant, it was true he was weak with low [Attributes], but it was also ridiculous. He woke up in a goddamn forsaken world, and not even half of a day passed, and the shit he went through was enough for a lifetime.

Vince wanted to lash out. To someone or something. To ease the brewing amalgamation of frustration, pain, and fear inside his heart.

To just forget the horrors he witnessed.

Looking into Vince’s eyes, Vic smiled pointedly and said, “But it seems like I made the right call. If I had taken you with me, you would have died even before reaching the forest as the mayhem of looting after the crash was hardcore as death-rowers doing death-rower business. But that is not the point now. Let's start again.”

Vic gave Vince a slight bow and introduced himself again, “I am Victor Skalev, an Emberling specializing in pathfinding. Sorry for the dick move on the longship and beach, but that was necessary, given the situation.”

Vince looked at Vic for a long time before taking a deep breath to suppress irritation inside and spoke.

“Vincent D’raan. A… An Extinct? Or whatever you call me.”

Vic nodded his head and asked again, “So what happened to you, Vincent?”

Vince spoke. He spoke about how he woke up, stole a pair of boots from a corpse and the impaled man. And how he left him dying there.

After he was done, Vic roared with laughter. The flame on the ground shook as it was resonating with Vic.

“Suits him well. All of them should be long dead, if not for the need of the people. Don’t feel guilty about the man, kiddo. That man is either a murderer, a thief, a traitor, or a rapist, or all of them together. Like every other death-rower.”

Vince looked at the man with a frown and asked, after a moment of hesitation, “And you?”

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A deep oppressive silence descended on the cave as Vic looked at the flame with deep eyes that were lost in memories before looking back at Vince with a soft smile.

“I am a dreamer and seeker of truth. A truth they feared upon.”

Vince’s curiosity peaked, but he held back the question. Instead, he asked about fatigue, and he learned that the impaled man was right. Vic explained that Extincts started to lose function of their body as they hit three months of lifespan. At first, it was innocent things like fatigue, tiredness, and such, but as time passed, they would lose the ability to move, speak and think until they would become nothing but a husk that waits for death.

Other people called it ‘Decay’.

For higher-ranked people, the limit of decay was lower.

Vic played with the flame as he said.

“So, you scammed the bastard a month of lifespan, good, but it doesn't add up. With that amount, you could only push your [Agility] to 30 or so, but after the rush that lifespan gives expires, you should be laid on the ground, helplessly waiting to be bitten due to exhaustion and turned.”

He eyed Vince with interested eyes, “What happened next?”

Then Vince explained what happened, how he escaped shipwrecks and made it into the forest before witnessing what happened to Nash and Soph. Before he could explain the pouch and the craving he felt afterward, Vic interrupted.

Vic, for the first time, looked deadly serious and asked, “You say that Sophia the Laughing Viper is dead?”

Vince nodded slowly, and Vic’s frown deepened.

He muttered to himself for a couple of seconds and asked, “That bitch needs the worst death possible, but that isn’t the point. If I knew that bitch right, she would have killed herself rather than give her belongings to someone else. Are you sure Nashor secured the monster cores?”

“Monster cores?” Vince asked.

“Shinny little rocks. Are you sure? If not, we can make a killing. I saw that the duo was hunting and plundering the moment they woke up. They must have secured two years of lifespan worth of monster cores, each, by then.”

Vince smiled wryly and continued with the latter half of the story. He explained how he saw the pouch that was filled with monster cores underneath Sophie and how his body acted on its own and devoured everything.

Vic looked at Vince with a gaped mouth as he looked at some kind of piece of work.

He incredulously pointed at Vince, “Do you, perhaps, have innate [Luck] attributes by any chance? That. That was really lucky. Beach. Sophia’s death, Nashor missing the other half of the cores, and you somehow stumble upon it. Damn.”

Vince could only give a wry smile. He knew he was really lucky if he looked back right now.

“So, how many months have you earned?”

Vince looked at his left forearm as his heart beat like it was about to come out of his chest. He first laid eyes upon his new lifespan when he was thrown into the cave, and his heart was still beating fast seeing it now.

[Remaining Lifespan: 1 year 4 months 22 days]

More than one fucking year.

Although Vince didn’t know how hard it was to farm a year's worth of lifespan, he knew that it was something from Vic’s expression.

“About a year or so,” Vince tried to say casually as much as could muster, but his voice gave it away hidden excitement underneath.

“Woaw.” Vic whistled in amazement.

After that, they watched the fire in silence but then the questions that Vince suppressed from the moment he saw the Vic surfaced again and edged him to ‘do something about it or forget inner peace’ situation.

Vince took a shaky breath and muttered weakly, “So, Vic. You know what happened next. I ran, I made it into the cliff, and the rest is history. I… You said you will answer my questions when we are ashore… We are safe right now… So can you answer me right now? I want to know.”

Vic glanced at Vince before turning to the fire again he then said slowly, “Know what?”

Vic fidgeted in his corner, uncomfortable as he asked all of it, “Why am I like this? This calm, even after the hell I went through. I was chased by frickin zombies, and a fucking megalodon jumped onto me. And what happened to me? Why am I here? And where is this place?”

Vince watched in silence as he waited for Vic to answer. Vic looked like he ignored Vince’s question, but he pondered as he looked at the dancing flame.

He then shuddered and casually said, “I don’t know.”

Vince frowned and opened his mouth to argue, then Vic continued.

“But I can answer two of your questions. Why are you calm, and why are you here. They are connected, actually. And the answer is ‘by design’. You are calm because of System designed it that way.”

Vic took a deep shaky breath as he continued, “Once in six months, the Eclipse happens, world changes, creatures from beyond crawls all over the place, and the System brings people like you to this world in fixed places. This is also the goal of the failed Expedition. We were hauling people who just arrived in this world. The purpose of the System is unknown to me but I know it wants you to survive, but you can’t survive when your old world is so fresh and lively, for lack of a better word, so the System kills it and makes it like a dream, a distant past or even a nightmare. For me, it was like some kind of first-person movie I hated the most.”

He took another breath, lost in thoughts while he was explaining, “Also, your emotions are damped to an extent not to make you lose cool in the middle of a crisis. It is all to have a shot to adapt and thrive in your new world. You can’t run away from drowners if you are still in shock of your demise.”

No. No. No. It can happen. Vince felt the world shook as he heard the last part.

Vic looked into Vince's eyes and said with a dead voice, “And that comes to the next part, What happened to you, and why you are here. You already know that Vincent, it is hidden inside your memories. You just don’t acknowledge it. What has happened to you.”

“You were dead, Vincent. And, by design, System resurrected you here.”