When Khrx logged back into the game, he found himself lying on an altar. A second later, Lorin appeared in the air beside him and fell to the ground with a yelp. They sat up at the same time and looked around. “This…,” Lorin said and bit her lower lip. “We’re back. Is my world really just a game you call [Resolution]? Am I a real person?”

[Quest acquired!]

[Lorin, your companion, is experiencing an existential crisis! Assuage those feelings of helplessness! Take responsibility as a man.]

[Rewards: 10,000 Achievement Points and a Legendary Weapon.]

“You’re real,” Khrx said with a nod. “Don’t worry about it.”

Lorin crouched down and clutched her hair with her hands. “I’m not. I’m not. This world is a lie. Have I been living a lie my whole life? Lord, I don’t understand.”

[Quest failed!]

[You’re really bad at this, aren’t you?]

“One day…,” Khrx said and clicked his tongue. He hopped off the altar, still wearing his bear onesie. The blowpipe and dart had disappeared, but he was expecting that. The room was similar to the tomb he had first spawned into when starting [Resolution], but his current place was better maintained. There was a statue of a woman leaning against a tree while eating a fruit behind the altar. A plaque, written in Rokean, was placed underneath it.

Khrx went up to the statue and dusted the plaque off.

[Fiel, the Goddess of Reincarnation]

A translucent rectangle appeared underneath the plaque. It read, “Only someone spiritually attuned may commune with the goddess. Would you like to try? Y/N.”

Khrx hummed and rubbed his chin. The last time he interacted with a god, he was struck down by lightning. “Should I…?”

Lorin stood up, recovered from her momentary lapse in sanity. “Khrx? You’re a believer of Fiel?”

“If I tried communing with her, would she kill me?” Khrx asked, blinking at Lorin.

“No,” Lorin said, shaking her head. “Fiel is a benevolent goddess, forgiving of everyone. Unlike the current god, Jax. I failed one mission, and he made me fall. Just one! Forget the thousands I completed before.” She snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. “God, now that I think about it, this world really sucks compared to yours. We don’t have zoos or aquariums.”

Khrx scratched his head. “You’ve changed a lot since I first met you,” he said. “And it’s only been three days.”

“Well, duh,” Lorin said, rolling her eyes. “I fell.”

Khrx shook his head before addressing the translucent box. He pressed Y and waited. A screen, similar to the one that appeared when he called Luke, appeared. There were even ringing sounds. A second later, a feminine voice asked, “New phone, who’s this?”

“This is Khrx’Lrvnjl,” Khrx said.

“…Who?”

“Khrx’Lrvnjl, the mighty dragon emperor.”

“I think you have the wrong number,” Fiel said. “How did you call me?”

“There’s this statue,” Khrx said, raising an eyebrow, “and I communed with it.”

“Statue?” Fiel asked. “Oh! Oh. That statue. I understand now. Your spirit must be very high. It’s not often a prayer goes straight to my phone. They’re usually caught by my secretaries.” She cleared her throat. “Can we pretend this whole exchange never happened and start over? It really dims my glamour as a goddess, you know?”

Lorin’s expression darkened as Khrx nodded. “Of course,” Khrx said. “I know how important face is. I’ll cancel the call and call again, okay?”

“Yeah, that’d be great,” Fiel said. “Thanks, Khrx’Lrvnjl. I owe you one.”

Khrx pressed the red button on the rectangular box to end the call. “She’s friendlier than I thought,” he said and smiled. “I think she and I would get along pretty well. Maybe I can replace Luke with her as my new best friend.” He pressed the commune button, but this time, the box disappeared.

Light filled the altar room as a wisp of golden smoke descended from the ceiling, merging into the statue of Fiel. The statue’s eyes shot open. “Khrx’Lrvnjl,” Fiel said as she rose onto her feet, no longer leaning on the tree. “The mighty dragon … emperor?” She blinked and lowered her head, staring at Khrx. “Is that you?”

“Yes,” Khrx said with a nod. “Due to reasons, I’m stuck in this form. But I’m really a dragon.” He puffed his chest out and placed his hands on his hips.

Fiel coughed and covered her smile with her hand. Her eyes flickered onto Lorin, who exaggerated a sighing motion while shrugging. “Then Khrx’Lrvnjl, why have you summoned me?”

“Eh?” Khrx furrowed his brow. “I want a quest. Or a title. Or a nice piece of equipment. Achievement points work too. Oh, and can you increase my stats? Wait. I want to learn some skills as well since this system doesn’t accept my normal methods of casting magic.”

“Normal methods?” Fiel asked. She looked towards Lorin instead of Khrx.

The fallen angel spoke in a monotonous voice. “Master can cast tier ten spells without batting an eye … if he wanted to. It’s not that he can’t, it’s just that he doesn’t want to.”

“It’s the system’s fault!” Khrx said, smacking Lorin’s shin with his tail. It tickled her instead of inflicting pain. “It wants a magical formula! But as a dragon, spells are like farts to me. I don’t know any calculations; I just cast spells.”

“In other words,” Fiel said. “You wish for strength to survive in this harsh world.”

“Yes,” Khrx said and nodded. “Max out my strength stat.”

“Sadly, there’s a limit to what I can do,” Fiel said and sighed. She handed him the fruit that she was holding, which was no longer made of stone. “Eat this fruit. And if you’re lucky, you’ll receive great benefits. If you aren’t lucky, you’ll still receive great benefits. Aren’t I benevolent?”

Khrx inspected the fruit.

[Golden Mango]

[Rarity: Mythic]

[Did you steal this from the land of the gods? You better eat it quickly before someone finds out. You don’t want to be smote again, do you? Effect varies depending on your [Luck].]

Khrx raised his head. Faint rumbling sounds came from above as cracks formed in the temple’s ceiling. He stuffed the fruit into his mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed it all—skin and pit included. The temple stopped trembling as the rumbling faded into the distance.

[Skill acquired: Nature’s Spirit]

[Rarity: Mythic]

[Passive: You are the personification of nature. You can commune with animals. Whether or not they listen to you depends on your charm, you adorable fellow. Only a heartless monster would ignore someone like you. That means you should avoid golems.]

[Active: Become one with nature. You may experience the world through the senses of any animal you have communed with in the nearby vicinity.]

[Cooldown: None. Decreases with an increase in spirit.]

Fiel furrowed her brow. “You seem to have a bad relationship with Jax,” she said. Then she leaned back against her tree, folding her hands in front of her waist. “Before I run out of time, I’ll also give you a quest. Recently, bandits have infiltrated my temple and decided to make it their base. Clear them out.”

[Quest acquired!]

[Fiel’s house has become dirty. Exterminate all the cockroaches, err, bandits that have invaded her sacred space. She would do it herself, but she has to maintain her image as a benevolent goddess. It wouldn’t be right for her to slaughter people no matter how badly she wants to, which is why she has hired you.]

[Rewards: 10 Achievement Points.]

“It won’t be a problem,” Khrx said and dismissed the rectangle. “I’ll exterminate the pests for you.”

Fiel smiled at him as she turned to stone, starting with her feet. Gray light crawled up her body until she had returned to being a statue. Instead of leaving, Khrx sat on the altar as he pulled up his status screen.

[Name: Khrx’Lrvnjl]

[Title: Apostle of the Sun God]

[Strength: 2]

[Constitution: 2]

[Intelligence: 1]

[Spirit: 1,000]

[Dexterity: 2]

[Perception: 1]

[Charm: 50]

[Luck: 1,000]

[Active Skills: Nature’s Spirit (M)]

[Passive Skills: Nature’s Spirit (M)]

[Companions: Lorin]

Khrx pressed on his title and another rectangle appeared.

[Apostle of the Sun God]

[Your damage is increased by 10% during the day. While interacting with followers of the Sun God, your charm is increased by 10. While interacting with followers of Jax, your charm is decreased by 10.]

“In other words,” Khrx said to himself as he dismissed the screens, “I’m still as harmless as a rabbit.” He sighed. After doing some research on [Resolution] while waiting on the lines for the theme park, he was no longer a complete novice to MMORPGs, but he wasn’t an expert either. “The first thing I have to do is increase my constitution. There’s no way I can afford to die again if I want to get Fufu back. Luke wouldn’t accept a mediocre player.” His ears swiveled around, and he faced Lorin. “Let me see your status.”

Lorin nodded and waved her hand.

[Name: Lorin Nirol]

[Title: Betrayer of Jax, Fallen Angel, Ex-Guard of Heaven]

[Strength: 5 (50-45)]

[Constitution: 5 (50-45)]

[Intelligence: 5 (50-45)]

[Spirit: 5 (50-45)]

[Dexterity: 5 (50-45)]

[Perception: 5 (50-45)]

[Charisma: 1 (7-6)]

[Luck: 1 (13-12)]

[Active Skills: War Cry ©, Smite (U)]

[Passive Skills: Sword Mastery – Elite (U), Shield Mastery – Elite (U)]

[Companions: Khrx’Lrvnjl]

[Betrayer of Jax]

[All stats decreased by 90%.]

[Fallen Angel]

[Angelic spell tree disabled. All angelic spells are forgotten. Demonic spell tree unlocked.]

[Ex-Guard of Heaven]

[The rarity grades of all skills decrease by 1.]

“…Aren’t you just as useless as me?” Khrx asked, raising his head.

“If I hadn’t fallen, I would’ve been clearly superior,” Lorin said, her face turning red. She lowered her head.

“Your base luck is pretty bad. How did you manage to roll a total of 13 with ten dice?”

“I’m sure my low luck is the reason why I met you.”

Khrx snorted. “Becoming my servant was the best thing that could’ve possibly happened to you,” he said. “Compared to a bandit, how strong are you?”

“The average strength of an adult male is five.”

“Then you’re as strong as one bandit?”

“More or less,” Lorin said, avoiding his gaze. “It also depends on their skills. And whether or not I have my sword and shield, which I don’t.”

“Can you exterminate all the bandits in the temple?” Khrx asked.

Lorin laughed and scratched her head. Then she smiled at Khrx without saying a word.

“Great,” Khrx said and sighed. “I’ll figure something out.”

Lorin bit her lip as she followed after Khrx. “If I wasn’t here, what would you have done? Perhaps you should create a plan of action that doesn’t entirely rely on me?”

“I said I’ll figure something out,” Khrx said. His tail swished back and forth as he hummed, walking through the dimly lit temple in his bear onesie.

There was a tug on Lorin’s chest as she stared at Khrx’s tiny frame. She had always wanted a little brother. Is this what it felt like? He was an unreasonable brat, but she wasn’t put off by it. In fact, she found it a little … endearing. Except when he tried to eat her face. That wasn’t fun.

Rough laughter broke Lorin out of her reverie. She rounded a corner with Khrx, revealing a hall with an open door on the side, lights and laughter coming from within the room. She stepped in front of Khrx and put her finger to her lips before tiptoeing towards the room. Her wings folded against her back as she pressed herself flat against the wall before peering past the doorway. A group of seven people were drinking around a table, a set of cards between them. The bandits had red faces, their weapons strewn about but lying within arm’s reach.

Lorin flinched and suppressed a scream as a furry head squirmed its way past her legs to peer into the room. Khrx frowned at the sight of the bandits and retreated after surveying the surroundings. Lorin followed him down the hall and around the corner. “Do you have any ideas?” she whispered.

Khrx nodded. “Of course. Who do you think I am?”

Lorin’s brow furrowed. “Are you sure your intelligence is one?”

Khrx snorted. “That only happened because I didn’t know how to read numbers, but I do now! I demand a retest!” Sadly, no rectangular box appeared to test him again. He pouted before shaking his head. “Here’s the plan. We wait for one of them to use the bathroom, then we kill him and take his weapon. Then we react accordingly. Hopefully, they’ll send one person at a time to check on him.”

“That’s … a bit despicable,” Lorin said and pursed her lips. “Well, I expected nothing less from the one who woke the Sun God despite being as harmless as a rabbit.”

Khrx frowned. “If only I still had that [Paralyzing Dart]. I should figure out which frog’s toxin was used to create it.”

Lorin covered Khrx’s mouth and placed her finger to her lips. A second later, the sound of footsteps entered Khrx’s ears. He shot her a glance that asked, “How did you notice it before me?” and Lorin shrugged in response. The sound of footsteps came closer, unsteady without a rhythm. A coarse voice mumbled out song lyrics, accompanying the thumping. Lorin and Khrx held their breaths as a grimy man rounded the corner, then they pounced forward and tackled him to the ground.

Lorin seized the man’s weapon which was dangling from his belt while Khrx smothered the man’s face with his body. Muffled grunts turned into a scream as Lorin stabbed the rusty sword into the man’s chest. By the time she stabbed and removed the sword three times, the man had stopped responding.

[Drunk Bandit defeated. Gained 1 Achievement Point.]

Khrx climbed off the bandit’s face and frowned at the black stains left on his onesie. Lorin dragged the corpse away by its feet, unceremoniously dumping it into a corner. Khrx wiped at the stains with his sleeve, but all it did was smudge them. He pouted before asking Lorin, “Now that you have a sword. Can you beat them all?”

Lorin furrowed her brow as she inspected the sword. “The hallway’s narrow enough that it’ll be hard for more than two of them to fight me at the same time,” she said. “But what if the others run away?”

“Then fight them in the doorway?” Khrx asked. “They’d have to get past you to run.”

Lorin stared at Khrx. “You should really take a test at a school to reevaluate your intelligence.” Lorin smiled and walked over to the corpse in the corner. She raised her sword and beheaded it in one strike. Then she picked up the fallen head with her free hand, grabbing onto its hair. “A makeshift shield,” she said, answering Khrx’s unasked question.

“I thought angels were supposed to be nice people?” Khrx asked, raising an eyebrow. Did Bongle lie to him again?

“Who says I’m not a nice person?” Lorin asked, tilting her head. She walked down the hall, the head in her hand dripping blood on the ground. “It’s not like a dead person needs their head anymore. He should be happy he’s useful even after he died.”

“Who’s there!?” a bandit shouted as Lorin stood in the doorway with a smile on her face. “J-James!”

The six bandits rose to their feet, pulling out their weapons. “It’s a fallen angel,” one of the bandits said. “S-she can’t be that strong. Pat, you go test the waters.”

The man called Pat trembled. “C-can’t be that strong? She killed James!”

Khrx peered around the doorway before retreating back. One day, he’d be useful in a fight. He opened up Bongle since he had nothing else to do. “How … to … increase … strength … in … [Resolution].”

“The same way strength is increased in reality: weight training, exercise, practice. Strength gained in [Resolution] carries over to reality. There are other ways to gain strength not readily available in reality such as blessings, elixirs, and special foods. Do you think it’s impossible to obtain a high elf’s blessing in your country? Experience in [Resolution] what you cannot experience in reality! Disclaimer: it is just as difficult to obtain a high elf’s blessing in [Resolution] as it is in reality.”

“Weight training? Exercise? Practice?” Khrx asked, his eyes widening. “That’s bullshit! I’ve never exercised a day in my life! How am I supposed to do that now?” He narrowed his eyes and muttered to himself, “It looks like I’ll have to scour the lands for blessings, elixirs, and rare foods.”

“You should really train your body the normal way before relying on outer influences,” Lorin said as she took a seat beside him. Her body was covered in blood, and six bandits lay dead by the doorway. “Only after you reach the limits of your body should you use elixirs to get the maximum effect.”

“It’s over already?” Khrx asked as he dismissed Bongle’s screen. Another six screens, each with the same message, were stacked behind it.

[Drunk Bandit defeated. Gained 1 Achievement Point.]

And behind those, there was another one.

[Quest complete!]

[Fiel’s home has been cleaned out by your servant! You lazy bum. But I suppose being able to rely on women is one of your strengths as well, you adorable creature.]

[Rewards: 10 Achievement Points.]

“I’m great, aren’t I?” Lorin asked with a smile. “I even unlocked a demonic skill! It’s called [Terror].”

[Terror]

[Rarity: Uncommon]

[Passive: You’re scary. Mortals tremble in your presence. Terrified targets have their stats decreased by 1.]

“If I was scared of you, would my intelligence drop to zero?” Khrx asked. He shook his head. “Well, you’re not scary at all, so it doesn’t matter.” He dismissed the screens and frowned. “How many Achievement Points do I have now? 68?”

[Would you like to access the leaderboards? Y/N]

“Yes.”

Khrx’s eyes widened at the first line that appeared in front of him. “How does Luke have 1,487 Achievement Points!?” He scrolled through the rankings. Second place had 1,130 points. Khrx didn’t even appear in the top 1,000 with the thousandth place person having 324. Khrx chased the leaderboard away and called Luke.

“Eh? Khrx?” Luke asked after picking up. “You’re back in the game?”

“How are you first place!?”

“Because I’m simply amazing?” Luke asked in return. “And I’m not incapable like a certain idiot who died thirty minutes after starting the game. Where are you right now? You should understand that [Resolution] heavily requires a group. Don’t try to solo your way through the content.”

“I respawned in Fiel’s temple. Do you know where that is?” Khrx asked. “Bongle doesn’t have any maps.”

“I’ll send you my map data,” Luke said. “Don’t share it with anyone! I spent over ten million euros purchasing handmade maps from people. Fiel’s temple is way off to the north. The Tribish have set their base near there. Watch out for them; they don’t play nice. I’m stationed in Swift’s Peak. You’ll find it on the map. Hurry up and get over here so you can start contributing. You want Fufu back, don’t you?”

The call dropped before Khrx could respond. A second later, a fragmented map appeared in front of him before shrinking and disappearing into his menu.

“Then we’re heading to Swift’s Peak?” Lorin asked.

“Yes,” Khrx said with a sigh.

“You seem reluctant.”

“I dislike listening to other people’s orders.”

“So why do you listen to him?”

“Because he has my Fufu!”

Lorin raised an eyebrow. “Your what?”

“Fufu!”

“Oh,” Lorin said and nodded. “I understand, master.”

“You understand shit!”

***

Awakening Cycle 1,072,362: Day 11.

Dear Diary,

I obtained a skill today called [Nature’s Spirit]. Somehow, it reminds me of Yegrundl’s ability. You know, Yegrundl, the spirit of the great tree? I wonder what happened to him. Is he still around? Maybe someone kidnapped him like Luke kidnapped Fufu. Poor Fufu. That bastard better be feeding her properly.

Love,

Khrx