Before Rune stood an avatar, but it was not his, and he wasn’t in his original body either, it was an unknown avatar.

That he encountered in the Void.

An infinitesimal event just happened to him.

It’s now been 2 months since the Ether Law pieced itself together and awakened, it was a period in which a lot happened in lots of places for lots of reasons.

After refining his plan and deciding to train the spiritual and energy branches in the future, Rune continued to farm for 17 days, those days that consisted of peaceful farming days and not peaceful news allowed his stats to jump forward at a terrifying speed.

8 days into his farming frenzy, he reached the equivalent yield of 2 stat points per day after spending 134 121 EP to increase his momentum to 80 and absorbing 11 ether resources per hour.

Like a lot of people, he discovered that after becoming used to absorbing an ether resource, the time of one whole minute was the minimum time needed to absorb a resource valued at 70 EP, not that there was any indication that denser or richer resources took longer.

After an additional 9 days, with the ninth actually just starting, so more 8 days of farming, he gained an additional 160 234 EP, which translated into 16 stats, which he continued to invest in his momentum, making this stat reach an exceptional 96 points.

Avatar (Basic Rank) (Tier 1)

EP: 14 426

Stats Total: 295

Health: 10

Health Regeneration: 1

Strength: 1

Cohesion: 1

Energy: 10

Energy Regeneration: 65

Purity: 10

Affinity: 1

Momentum: 96

Perception: 100

With his ether resources per hour increasing without break, the last level of the resource gathering objective of the Void Initiation event was coming dangerously close to completion,

Rune only needed an additional 8 days before completing it and gaining a sweet 1 000 000 EP reward.

But while his stability plan worked, some, called heroes by the board, those who risked everything to accelerate their EP gathering speed, had already attained 500 total stats, to the dismay of others.

Some like Ethan were farming in an asteroid belt, also called automatic EP delivery for the haters, and in fact, he caused a mini-trend by himself, causing those who encountered gravity planets to retrace their steps and invest in their physical stats, hoping for a miracle.

Back to the impossible encounter event.

‘So it’s possible.’

Inner turmoil would be too much to describe what was happening in Rune’s mind, he had heard from Gar and Arik that some avatars came in contact with each other but it was like having the ambition of becoming the IGS leader, it was theoretically possible, but for it to really happen?.

‘For this to happen to me… Did I just use all the luck of my life and then will henceforth be unlucky for the rest of it?’

The reason this sort of news was nonexistent was that it was too rare.

After they encountered each other, Rune and the other didn’t know how to react, were they both from the IGS? Did the other come from an unknown civilization? Were they going to fight?

This type of stressful situation, Rune had not felt in a long time, if it ever happened in the first place.

During exams, he was the type to not be stressed because once it began he could only do his best, the fact that studied or not didn’t enter as a factor for him.

But for social interactions, only the instant counted, and Rune, as a silent observer in life, was more qualified as a tree than anything else when it came to talking with strangers.

Fortunately the other seemed a lot more at ease, he was trying to communicate by gesturing with his arms and hands, his mouth also opened but talking without air was impossible and it was only after ten minutes that they finally found themselves in a forum.

It wasn’t resolved by decrypting the other's sign language but by the stress making Rune’s chaotic mind order his system to send a private message via the information board to the opposite avatar.

And it worked.

After having a mental sigh of relief, it was time for the less stressful part, communicating, with intent.

[Theo: So it was that easy]

[Rune: I was dying of stress]

[Theo: it’s so amazing to encounter another avatar, can you see all the details of my avatar body? My perception sphere just gives me a blurry visual return]

[Rune: If you can see mine then so can I, but the reason you’re asking this question is that I appear blurry right? Well tough luck it’s the same for me, so no, I can’t see the details]

Being asocial didn’t mean he couldn’t communicate, it signified that apart from when there was a clear discussion thread to guide him, he couldn’t come up with ways to continue this conversation.

His weakness was casual talk with not friends because with true friends you could talk sh*t for hours or keep silent and there would not be any loss of comfort, however, with strangers…

[Theo: I just checked what the others who encountered each other did, and it seems that some answered the government’s request of trying things in exchange for massive amounts of money. Want to try something big? Want to take 10 days of vacation?]

[Rune: Nope, I still want to farm seriously and 10 days would impact my plan too much, just the targeted private message things should be given, as for the rest… It’s impossible for me, I didn’t invest in the right stats to reach the numbers they want data on]

[Theo: Yup, same for me, I only invested a little in them…]

Then it was followed by ten awkward seconds of pause before the other decided to finally re-engage in the conversation.

[Theo: It was good meeting you, if we have nothing else to talk about, we should go our own way]

To say goodbye.

[Rune: Yeah right, in this case, goodbye]

[Theo: Goodbye]

For some, it could be considered an awkward end, but for Rune, the faster it was done the better, awkwardness be damned he was above that and could live with it, maybe even revel in it.

He also had another reason explaining why he wanted to leave as soon as possible, he needed only 8 days before receiving one whole million points, and holy ether that’s a lot.

To regenerate the sanity he had consumed during this social interaction and help evacuate the generated stress, he shortly discussed with his own group of friends, but it wasn’t enough, so he started to pray.

‘Please Ether Law, could you, in your infinite goodness, give me access to music on the board?’ He thought really loudly in his mind.

He never got an answer. His system didn’t react.

He didn’t miss the taste of food or his family that much, but he certainly was missing music, just some good music could hype him up so much he wouldn’t feel the time pass by.

‘Spiritual stats should include dividing my own awareness right? I’m going to grind it so much and put everything in perception after getting my MO to 100! Freak!’ Self-motivation had always been one of his talents, he was good at it.

…

*Ding*

8 days later, Rune received a long-awaited notification and immediately opened his event window, immediately claiming a million points.

Event

Void Initiation

Gather a total of 100 ether-rich resources from the Void Dimension: 10 000 EP (COMPLETE)

Gather a total of 1 000 ether-rich resources from the Void Dimension: 100 000 EP (COMPLETE)

Gather a total of 10 000 ether-rich resources from the Void Dimension: 1 000 000 EP (COMPLETE)

Travel more than 100 kilometers in the Void Dimension: 10 000 EP (COMPLETE)

Travel more than 1 000 kilometers in the Void Dimension: 100 000 EP

Travel more than 10 000 kilometers in the Void Dimension: 1 000 000 EP

Survey the Void Dimension for 100 hours: 10 000 EP (COMPLETE)

Survey the Void Dimension for 1 000 hours: 100 000 EP (COMPLETE)

Survey the Void Dimension for 10 000 hours: 1 000 000 EP

Discover a special resource: 10 000 EP

Discover 10 different special resources: 100 000 EP

Discover 100 different special resources: 1 000 000 EP

Use 10 000 total energy in any way: 10 000 EP (COMPLETE)

Use 100 000 total energy in any way: 100 000 EP (COMPLETE)

Use 1 000 000 total energy in any way: 1 000 000 EP (COMPLETE)

Attain 100 in any individual stat: 100 000 EP (COMPLETE)

Attain 1 000 total stats: 1 000 000 EP

Completion Bonus: 10 000 000 EP

In this period, Rune reached 100 in his momentum stat, and while he knew that if he only focused on perception, his yield would have theoretically increased a bit more, he was happy with his choice.

In the latest evolving model of EP yield, the weight of momentum became much higher because simple maths told something that couldn’t change, with 20 Momentum and 200 Perception, how much time would you need to reach any resources you found?

10 minutes, yes, 10 minutes just to potentially reach a new resource, a single one.

Your cycling speed of scanned volume would also be so slow you’d just look at multiple distant resources the whole day.

So 1 point in perception, as exponentially as it theoretically helped, was useless without a corresponding amount of momentum.

Now traveling 100 meters every minute, he could focus again on his perception stats, the key to hearing music again.

At least from his self-created theory that perception would help him manipulate his awareness easier, the wiki didn’t want to answer his query on that subject.

After those 8 days of farming, his total gain was 202 369 EP.

After he added four stat points to his momentum, he put everything into his perception, which he brought to 116 before receiving the holy grail of all farmers.

Accounting for the 1 010 000 EP he just gained, the 100 kilometers objective being finally done, it took so long only due to the high time needed, his avatar status now had a Christmas present for him.

Avatar (Basic Rank) (Tier 1)

EP: 1 026 796

Stats Total: 315

Health: 10

Health Regeneration: 1

Strength: 1

Cohesion: 1

Energy: 10

Energy Regeneration: 65

Purity: 10

Affinity: 1

Momentum: 100

Perception: 116

‘So, what will invest everything in perception give me, let’s see.’

Opening the Divine Spreadsheet, he localized the corresponding stats line, ‘100 MO and 217 PER, here it is, 65.3 ether resources per hour with volume scanned only.’

‘Considering traveling time, it’s 2.37 minutes per resource, and adding the optimum absorption time of one ether resource every minute, it becomes 3.37 minutes per resource, so in total it’s… 1 246 EP per hour and 29 911 EP per day.’

He was still far from reaching the limit of farming, the limit of one ether resource per minute, and there was even a better choice available that could bring him, even more, return if he took it.

‘If I decide to invest in my momentum, then I’ll be able to gain another million EP in a pretty short period after I complete the event objective of distance traveled.

However, he didn’t really need to think, his mind was already made up some time ago.

The farming path had an end for different reasons, such as the stat limit imposed by the tier of the ether soul, the absorption time of a resource being set, and the value of each resource changing depending on the location.

But it didn’t concern Rune.

‘If my goal was really to reach the maximum resources per hour possible then I wouldn’t need to think and I’d just go and invest in my momentum, maybe I’d even invest to bring my survival chance against a death asteroid to 100%... if I continued to farm for… Hum, no, I don’t need to know how much time I have to spend, it’s not my path after all.’

He already decided that he couldn’t go on without changing his approach to farming, so attributing all his EP except the safety deposit to his perception, he confirmed.

‘Music comes first.’

Avatar (Basic Rank) (Tier 1)

EP: 16 796

Stats Total: 416

Health: 10

Health Regeneration: 1

Strength: 1

Cohesion: 1

Energy: 10

Energy Regeneration: 65

Purity: 10

Affinity: 1

Momentum: 100

Perception: 217

Dazed by a suddenly expanded perception sphere, Rune stood in place for a dozen seconds.

After exiting this state he started to contemplate the situation.

‘Steadiness is the way, it’s the true path for no risk and still being among the top, changing my plan and farm till all my stats reach the tier 1 maximum, the tier cap? No, my comfort comes before that, I want to hear music again too much.’

Long periods of isolation only continued to mark his psyche, and Rune was starting to lose the feeling of excitement he had at the start.

‘If I analyze my choice of not optimizing my farming, then there are 2 different answers, or I’m weak-willed, or my drive to divide my awareness will allow me to surpass others… And I’m confident in my will.’

He knew it was only confirmation bias that he did, but he was never the protagonist of a story.

He was the protagonist only of his own life.

So while laughing inwardly, he renewed his determination to farm a bit more, secure his survival in the Void, and only after that, return to the universe and do awareness training all day while listening to audio anything, and music forever.

‘I’m so pumped up! Let’s go! Immediately! For music and melody!’ Rune exclaimed from inside.

There was only a single problem.

‘I can see 2 ether resources at the same time... And I need 2 minutes just to reach one… I diverged from the farming path, will you absolve me from my sin spreadsheet god?’