The message hung in front of me, unwavering in the darkened light. ‘Who would send me a message? What had I changed?’

I hesitantly accepted, curiosity overwhelming everything else.

From: [email protected]

To: Seamus Connor

Entertain us.

🤡

I stared at the screen in front of me, completely bewildered. Why would Chronos send that? And why would it say ‘us’?

‘Wait. Maybe… Chronos sent me back in time twice now. Maybe entertainment is the only reason he returned me at all.’

That made sense. In fiction, gods are depicted as uncaring immortals who only used mortals for entertainment. Why would any of them actually care about the apocalypse? It didn’t affect them anyway.

‘Maybe they created the apocalypse to watch us squirm.’

With that scary thought, I decided to put the whole thing out of my mind. I brought up the status screen, pondering on what job I should pick this time.

Name

Description

Unlock Condition(s)

Rarity

[Fighter - Sword]

Someone beginning down the long road of true mastery. The sword bows for no man, and neither will the Fighter

Use a sword to defeat an enemy

Uncommon

Name

Description

Unlock Condition(s)

Rarity

[Survivalist]

You can always trust the Survivalist to make it to the end. They will always be the last ones standing

Escaped from at least 5 deadly encounters

Uncommon

Name

Description

Unlock Condition(s)

Rarity

[Berserker]

The Berserker abandons their safety in favor of killing their enemies. Beware of being on the opposite side of one of them

Kill a least 10 enemies in one combat Enter a rage

Rare

Name Description Unlock Condition(s) Rarity [Hero]

Steadfast in their principles. Deadly on the battlefield.

True of heart.

Chosen of a deity

(Chronos)

Divine

The [Hero] option remained tantalizing, just a mere tap away from power. I hesitated. What if [Hero] was a trap of some sort? I mean, it didn’t seem likely, but I didn’t act quite like myself after I had selected the class. There had been an expectation that I had to become a hero, more than just the class. That didn’t quite sit right.

The new entry, [Berserker], was slightly intriguing. I’m not sure it would be the best choice for my health, but that would be worth it. After all, what person accomplished something without sacrifice? Plus, it appears that for the short term at least, it doesn’t look like dying will be permanent. Maybe I was just given three lives, but that seemed unlikely. It appears that as long as I remain entertaining, I get another chance.

Best of all, it would be exciting.

I selected [Berserker], crossing my fingers that it would be as good as I hoped it to be.

Skill: Sacrifice gained! Skill: Tough Skin gained!

While it wasn’t amazing, it seemed decent enough. The ability to sacrifice my own health for extra damage was tempting, but I was slightly worried about the drawbacks of such a skill

While I was figuring out my status, footsteps made their way up the staircase. The lady opened up the door, grey and black ash covering her clothes and parts of her face.

She noticed me sitting on the couch.

“Welcome back to the land of the living. You can get more clothes from the room on the left upstairs, they haven’t been used in years.” She walked up the stairs and entered the first bedroom. I took one last gander at the pictures on the walls, then went to the bedroom she had directed me towards.

When I walked in, a wave of nostalgia hit me. I could see sports posters on the walls, depicting a team I didn’t recognize. A University of Miami poster was barely hugging the wall, the bottom corner of it hanging by a thread. The bed was made, a thin layer of dust covering it. She must have not even touched this room since the previous occupant had vacated it. It also had that dry, musky smell typically reserved for basements and attics.

The dresser was closed and, peeking into it, the clothes were folded neatly. I picked out a shirt and replaced my current threadbare one with another, slightly stiff, t-shirt. It fit me decently, a little long but it would work for the time being. Quickly stripping down, I redressed myself in far comfier clothes that hopefully shouldn’t hinder me.

I checked myself out in the mirror. The outfit looked half-decent, which was a vast improvement to before. One thing I did notice was, for the first time in a long while, I was genuinely smiling.

Quickly dropping my expression back to neutrality, I left the room, closing the door behind me. I could hear the sound of water splashing from the master bedroom’s vague direction, so I decided to go downstairs and peek out the door.

In the street outside, there wasn’t much of anything. No burning buildings, no wasteland. Just a relatively empty city. I spotted a single goblin lurking in the opposite alleyway, not doing anything particularly devious. It was just standing there, looking from one direction of the street to another. Eventually, it left its place and headed to my left, swinging its arms like a child.

I sat back down on the couch downstairs, resolving to simply relax for a while. Taking breaks was never a good idea in the apocalypse because out there, anything can and will kill you. If I had felt safe enough before, though, I would have taken many more. They were important for your mental health, and boy did I need that right now. The past few days had been even crazier than most of my first life. It had only been about a week, yet I had experienced several deaths and met a god.

‘How could I be entertaining?’ I suppose I could kill lots of stuff and that would at least appease them, but it seemed kind of bland. I decided that pondering on it would just be a waste of time for now.

I leaned back further into the couch and closed my eyes.

‘Maybe this run is the one’

I snorted.

‘Yeah right.’