“Stupid, stupid, stupid!”

Victor berate himself for what had happened. What was he expecting? While he did not expect to meet his daughter, it was common sense that she would appear at the open house sooner or later. Her son was there! The chance meeting went as well as he had expected. She did not want to see him. She did not even want to speak to him. Victor did not blame her. He was gone from her life for all thirty-two years of her life, and only showed up now. Of course, his daughter was going to react the way she did. Victor blamed himself for putting her into such a position. He should have just left the moment he saw Zachary.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!”

He was still berating himself when he entered the ruined building. He jumped down to the basement and cut himself again. In his unstable mental state, the cut was much bigger than necessary, but Victor didn’t care. When he came out of the spell the first time, his cut had been magically healed. Victor did not know if this was a function of the spell and didn’t care. The pain felt good.

He felt dizzy again, but this time he managed to stay on his feet. The sounds of ancient bells echoed in his head once more and the basement disappeared again. Victor looked around and saw that he was floating in the void. A light blinded him, and when the lights disappeared, the darkness returned. Only the five lights floating around his body remains.

“I am here. Where are you?” Victor’s patience was at an end. “Show yourself!”

“Well, someone is in a bad mood.” Victor turned towards the voice in the darkness. A distinguished looking old man wearing an ancient robe appeared. He had long white hair and a carefully groomed beard that was long enough to reach his chest. He was carrying a strange short staff of wood with bundled hair at one end. Victor believed that the staff was called a hossu. He looked at the old man carefully and noticed his mischievous eyes.

“Reunion?”

The old man’s mouth opened in shock. “What? How did you … I mean; No! Who is this Reunion? I had never heard of her?”

Yup, it was Reunion. Victor sighed and played along. “Then who are you?”

“I am … your Grandpa!”

The silence of the void was deafening as Victor looked at the idiotic System in confusion. “That makes no sense.”

“What do you mean? It makes perfect sense. I am you grandpa. You know, the mysterious, highly experienced mentor that will impart his great knowledge to the young stupid warrior and make him great?”

“I’m not young.”

“I noticed! Usually host comes much younger, but the term still fits. I am your grandpa!”

“Reunion, that still makes no sense.”

“Come on, I’d checked! There are records of such people in your world. You called them trainers, teachers-”

“But no grandpas!” Victor interrupted. “Not only that, why the change in body type? Not that I mind one way or another, but why?”

“It’s traditional. In cultivation worlds, it’s almost always an old grandpa that provides the knowledge. Besides, it’s kind of strange for a young girl to provide you great knowledge, right?”

“No, it’s not.” Victor countered. “Why can’t a young-looking girl give me knowledge? And why must it be an old man? Why not an old woman? If you ask me, it’s kind of sexist.”

The old man who was Reunion swore softly, and Victor heard murmurings about ‘stupid liberal’, ‘superpower world’ and ‘no sense of traditional’. Then the old man straightened and replied.

“I am beginning to see why the other Systems hate superpower worlds. Most hosts would be more interested in their rewards than the concept of sexism.”

“Who says I’m not interested in my rewards. Wait, you can contact other Systems?”

“We have an inter-dimensional forum where we post our thoughts, and some of the older systems sometimes gives advice to youngsters like me. Now, do you want your reward or not?”

So Reunion was considered young by the standard of the systems. Somehow Victor wasn’t surprised. He’s not sure if that’s good or bad thing, but mentally filed that piece of information away. It could be useful in the future.

“Of course, I do. What superpower are you giving me?”

“Not a power,” Reunion said. “You are not a registered power user, and from what I checked, there’s only twenty people in the entire history of your world who managed to manifest a power after the age of fifty. Giving you a superpower now will bring up too many questions. Instead, I shall give you this.”

Two books appeared out of nothing and floated in front of Victor. Victor looked at the title on the cover of the first book and was surprised by it. “Iron Bear Sambo?”