This new Pook was a Mr Olympia. Arnold Scwargzennegar would have envied him. His large protruding potbelly was gone, replaced by eight pack abs. His huge chest seemed like it could easily deflect an rpg. His biceps were pumpkins. His jawline, a Greek god’s. Pook had become the stereotypical fine male specimen that girls swooned at first sight.

For a couple of moments, I just kept staring at Pook, unable to digest the extraordinary change he had gone through. Finally I regained some of my senses.

“Pook… did you take steroids?”

“Steroids?” Pook said in his usual child-like innocence, which was at odds with his muscular physique. “What is that?”

“Never mind,” I said, waving my hand. “How did you change? I mean you were… fat.”

I pointed at his impressive body that was straight out from the book cover of a billionaire romance.

Pook looked down at himself.

“Alas, I think I have been infected by some disease,” he lamented.

“Wait… what? Disease?”

My right eye twitched.

Did Pook think his amazing transformation was an infection?

“I used to be so handsome before,” Pook said. “Look what has happened to me now! I suspect I caught a malady after I leveled up. It has made me so ugly.”

Okay I got it. Pook had been awarded a new body after leveling up, and he erroneously took this to be a disease.

“Anyway,” Pook continued, before I could attempt to correct his outlook, “you seem to know a good deal about me. You know my name and you know that I have changed. But I do not know you, at all… Though strangely I feel like I do.”

“That’s right, we both know each other,” I said. “We are friends!”

“Humph,” Pook said. “Never.”

He dissolved into the air. A message appeared in my vision.

A quest, and the acceptor of the quest are never friends.

Friends help each other. A quest does not help the acceptor to complete the quest.

“But,” I said, “I was just trying to make you remember me—”

No buts, my friend… I mean my ‘not-friend’. And what will I even do by remembering you? Let’s just get back to business.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

A pause. The words in the translucent box faded and were replaced by new ones.

Quest Accepted!

By merely passing through the portal, you have accepted an ultimate quest. There is no turning back from this point. You must play.

In the first leg of this quest, you must build the great Tower of Oddity.

Six storeys.

Spacious ones.

Very spacious.

Each no less than 30 meters in height.

In the second leg of this quest, you must protect the great Tower of Oddity. You will become qualified for the second leg of the quest only if you complete the first leg (obviously).

In the third leg of this quest, you will be given the reward that you were promised. Of course, that is only if you complete the third leg successfully (obviously).

This is the ultimate quest there is… so if you fail, you will be done for (obviously).

Now you must go out of this house, and start building the great Tower of Oddity. You will have to figure out everything (obviously). But here is a hint that I give to all the acceptors of my quest: Simple observation is the key to winning this quest.

After becoming a king of monsters, after fathering kids with a zombie queen, after crossing half a sea using a boulder as a boat, I reckoned building a Burj Khalifa in the game world was the logical next task for me.

I sighed and looked outside at the mist through the window panes, as my mind began an analysis.

I knew Pook could do either one of two things: a) mix the game world outside himself with a world of his own, or b) create a world entirely within himself.

If he had mixed the game world with himself then if I wandered far there was a possibility I could get out of the quest.

Also, there was a possibility I would see familiar elements inside the quest. Like the forest that I had been in before Pook lured me. Or the wall of the settlement of the players.

In case b) though, I was entirely dealing with Pook’s imaginary creations. So no chance of walking out. The hellish world Pook had once created was still fresh in my mind.

And not just that, let’s not forget Pook had leveled up, and he likely had new abilities that I wasn’t aware of.

I needed to leave the house. I would have appreciated a door in the room, but I guessed I had to do without one.

I removed the vest underneath my tunic and put it over the glass on the window, so as to prevent shards flying at me. I hit the window pane with the sole of my boot as hard as I could.

Crack.

I threw away my vest. It was no use to me as fine splinters of glass were now stuck to it.

Once outside I could see absolutely nothing in front of me, except the mist. I touched the solid surface underneath me. It felt more like a smooth marble floor, than an uneven ground made of soil and rocks.

I turned back towards the window, it was gone. I tried to touch the house with my hands, but all I felt was air.

For some time I moved around in the mist like a blind man, sensing what was in front of me, flailing my arms and tapping my feet. But after half an hour, I gave up.

The mist led to nowhere. Perhaps the mist was ‘nowhere’. I couldn’t even see my own body, and I predicted I would have an existential crisis after some more time here.

“This isn’t very helpful,” I said aloud to Pook. He should hear me. Ultimately the mist was in him and he was the mist. “How can you expect me to do anything here?”

I sat down on the floor, tired and sleepy.

The bizarre thing was that when I closed my eyes I still kept seeing the mist. This was disturbing. Insanity, here I come.

Adamant, I tried to sleep anyway, finding some solace in one thought.

This mist is creepy, but it’s just Pook. So, relax.