A council of elders sat around the jade table. At the far end was Queen Qirien. The frowns on these elders showed that trouble was brewing and even the queen was at her wit's end. She never expected things would go to such a path.

“My queen, when is this savior going to help us?” said one of the elders.

“Indeed, what the fourth elder said is correct. When is it? All I have heard about this savior is him running around the outskirt of the city,” said the third elder.

“Hmph, I have already foreseen such an event. Relying on an ap…” Gunron words fell short as he felt the death stare coming from the queen. “I mean I have always known relying on a human is not exactly the best.”

“Perhaps the second elder has an opinion about this?” Gunron asked.

For a long time, Lautiria came back to the elder’s meeting. She had remained quiet throughout the whole meeting as she only bothered to come due to her disciple's involvement with Kevin.

“Mind your manners little Gunron. Remember, I’m the second elder, and trying to lure me into your farce is an ill-conceived attempt,” Lautiria said her piece. As she didn’t want to be any part of whatever Gunron was planning.

“Cease your childish behavior Gunron! You’re an elder. Behave like one,” said the fourth elder.

Gunron harrumphed as he then continued to be speechless.

“Are your squabble ended?” the queen words escaped her lips.

All elders fell silent and the third slightly bowed his head at Queen Qirien.

“Please understand my queen, we are on the run, fled away far from our home. All we want is just hope for the survival of our people,” said the third elder. A sensible man of the Alva with his thoughts only for the better of the vindtra.

“Have faith,” said the queen. The rest looked at the queen in puzzlement. Faith was something hard to accomplish after all they had been through, and to place faith to a man not one of their own was a pretty difficult thing to do.

Unlike what the queen said, she had trouble understanding the reason for whatever Kevin had been doing for the past week. Yet, she kept her calm and put her trust in the man that she had brought to this world.

Meanwhile, on the outskirt of the city, Kevin Wang was doing his daily routine, running without stopping. The only time he stopped was when the moss on the ceiling started to dim, a sign for him to sleep for another day.

His running partner on the other hand, Yaereene, had glazed eyes staring forward with boredom killing her from the inside. Doing the same thing for a whole week would definitely drove her crazy. But due to her shyness, that crazy appeared on the third day. Her outlet at that time was only to glare menacingly at the person that caused all of this. But on the fifth day, the crazy vanished replaced by an indifference to the whole world. In a way, Yaereene went through one hell of an emotional roller coaster for the past week.

But then, the disappearance of her partner made her snapped from her running daze. She turned and to her surprise, the sight of Kevin made her jaw dropped.

Kevin was glowing with a sparkling shine surrounding him. It lasted for a second until it finally died out. The surprised look on him turned into a smile as his effort finally paid off.

Dunia has acknowledged you

He remembered a time when he didn’t have to think about paying the bills, maintaining good work performance, or coming up methods in how to suck up with your boss and last but not least, a one on one date in trying to find a partner in life and in bed.

It was a time where all he did was playing up his video games, especially one special kind of game, Dunia Online. Back in the days, he heard rumors about a certain special player. A player who only like to run in the game, it sounded ridiculous, but it was the truth.

Unlike any game at that time, Dunia Online was the first of the MMORPG to integrated the use of VR headset and thus opening a whole new possibility. This certain player was known to the community as the runner. The runner opened a forum topic detailing his play through along with the various images of the in-game scenery. He was like any other casual player in the game, but the runner had something unique about him.

The runner narrated in his forum that the moment he played the game, he started running. Running as the scenes past by him, running as if he had his legs back. He didn’t do any quest or kill any monsters to level up, he only ran. Ran with joy on his face.

Unlike what Kevin knew, the runner had a special circumstance. He didn’t have any legs. A marathoner with a tragic past and yet technology brought back his joy. Strapped on a special machine making him afloat in the air, the little two stumps on his hip connected to a machine relaying the sensory movement which in turn responded with a movement in-game. He ran and ran until he received something that baffled him.

The thing the runner stumbled was found by Kevin, through the runner's forum. And it didn't take long for him to imitate it in the game. Well, this time, Kevin just did it in real life.

Steel Heart Novice has been bestowed on you

The glowing light receded as Kevin returned to normal. Yet the smile still hung on that face. He opened up his status as he inspected his newfound prize.

Kevin Wang

Level : 1

Class : None

HP : 1700(+200)

MP : 150

Strength : 5

Agility : 5(+2)

Dexterity : 5

Vitality : 5(+25)

Intelligence : 5

Wisdom : 5

Points : 0

Skills : Language(Alva)

A whopping increase in his status only curved even more the end of his lips. His one-week effort didn’t go to waste as the prize was more than worth it.

I’ve got it a little bit faster than before. If I was playing the game, it would take at least a month or so, is it because of the title boost? Since it did state that it gave me a triple boost in experience gain or am I a bit too hardworking in trying it.

While he ruminated the effect of his title, Yaereene was still gawking at Kevin in disbelief. She heard tales from her teacher about the Acknowledgement of Dunia. Lautiria had told her that a shining light along with glittery stars surrounded those who had been acknowledged by Dunia, and seeing just now of how Kevin was the same as her teacher described, she still couldn’t believe it.

Title menu.

Kevin opened up the title menu, but his eyes narrowed as he didn’t find what he wanted.

Where is it?

Title

l Guest from Another World

There was only one, and Kevin couldn’t help but frown. Then from the corner of his eyes, a shadow ambushed him.

“Did you received Dunia’s Acknowledgement?” it was Yaereene. She appeared out of the blue from Kevin’s blind spot catching him by surprise. But her words intrigued Kevin.

Acknowledgement?

Another window popped up.

Acknowledgement

l Steel Heart Novice

Steel Heart Novice

l Vitality +20

l HP +200

l Increase 5% health regeneration

Separated? Well, this is a surprise. Usually, it will fall under the same category as title, but it seems like it’s a bit different here.

Then Kevin noticed the stare from Yaereene. To be frank, he was quite surprised seeing this alva speaking to him out of sudden. For the past week, the only time she spoke to him was when he suddenly stopped at the beginning of the week.

“Yeah, I did,” said Kevin.

“But how…” the twinkling eyes Yaereene realized she was getting a bit too excited. Her words fell short as her head droop down.

Her curious intellectual mind betrayed the hate in her heart. She was disappointed at herself as she cussed at herself for letting her guard down.

“I run,” said Kevin.

“Hmm?” Yaereene looked up as she stood a head shorter than Kevin. “You run?”

“Yeah, we run. Both of us,” said Kevin with a smile.

“But it can’t be, why didn’t I get it?” Yaereene pressed for an answer as once more, she forgot about her hatred.

A hatred that was rather shallow considering she had no one, no one that she could call father or mother. The sense of loss was far different compared to someone else. The only one she has was her teacher, Lautiria, a teacher that nurtured her and took care of her from the day she was a child. She didn’t know much about her parents except they were long gone, died due to some unforeseen event that involved a wanted monster.

“Well, there’s a condition, and you definitely didn’t meet the requirement,” said Kevin.

“What is it?” Yaereene leaned closer to Kevin, almost an inch away from each other. At this point, her curiosity was the main priority of the naive little alva girl.

“Well, you need to be at level one,” said Kevin with a proud smile hanging on his face.

A pronounced sigh escaped from Yaereene’s lips. She crossed her arm over her chest as she said.

“Are you lying?”

“It’s the truth, aren’t you with me for the past week? All I’d done was just running, right?” said Kevin as he tilted his head to Yaereene.

In the end, Yaereene had to accept that simple fact with much regret. Kevin told her that she was relieved from assisting him, and that news was enough to make Yaereene jumped on her feet with much elegant grace.

Kevin bade farewell as he returned to his room. Yet as he stepped inside his room, a person at the end of the hall saw him, and that person had her eyes opened wide, as disbelief was the correct word for it.

“He received Dunia’s Acknowledgement?” said Queen Qirien.