Chapter 009: Companion

Laughing lightly, Fei also pushed her chair aside gracefully and the duo left the restaurant. After a short walk, the duo reached the card shop and walked into the building.

A spacious and luxurious looking hall lined with dozens of booths greeted them. Each booth had a queue of orcs, dwarfs, rakshasa, hound archons and other humanoid creatures. Using , Chrono smacked his lips greedily as he saw that almost everyone in the building had more than 100 years for their lifespan. He started to brainstorm on how he could catch all of these big fishes.

“Good afternoon, how can I be of help to you?” The sprite behind the counter asked politely.

“Hi, we would like to purchase a card please.” Fei replied.

[Total life span: NIL | Cause of death: Unknown]

Her life span is NIL? Wow. Does that mean that a sprite does not die?

“That would be 1,000 AP please.” The sprite replied.

Fei took out a bronze card from her pocket and passed it to the sprite. After deducting the amount, the sprite returned Fei’s bronze card and gave them a token.

Holding on to the token, Fei led Chrono towards the portal of the card selector.

“Chrono, each player can only enter the card selector once per month. When you step into the portal, you will be transferred to the card zone. This card zone is not under the jurisdiction of The Arena, it is the other way round instead. No one knows how or why the card zone exist, but The Arena exists only because of the card zone. When you are in the zone, cards who have taken a liking of you will appear and then will you be able to select them.”

“Huh? They select me? So it isn’t like buying a Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh booster pack?”

“Pokemon? Yu i yo?” Fei who was from Mars asked puzzedly.

“Ah. Nevermind. I shall go in now. Wish me luck!” Chrono walked towards the portal and inserted his token.

When Chrono opened his eyes, he found himself standing on nothingness. Looking around, Chrono realised that he was in outer space. It was obvious because he could see the planets of the solar system a distance away from him. The view of the outer space was breathtaking, with stars dotted all around space. Chrono was mesmerised with the view and did not nothing that a column of light was approaching him silently.

*Woosh*

Chrono was surrounded but billions and billions of cards. The cards were spiralling like a whirlpool around him. As the cards spiralled around him, cards started to be attracted to him and drew closer to him. Suddenly, all the cards that were surrounding him disappeared except the card that was floating right in front of him. Stretching out his hand, Chrono grabbed the card. The next moment, Chrono found himself back in The Arena.

Blinking his eyes, Chrono looked around and tried to figure out whether what transpired was a dream or not. Tapping him on the back, Fei laughed at his dazed look. She then explained to him what had happened and that when each player returned from the card zone; their expression was the same.

The card that had chosen him had entered his body when he grabbed it, hence he was kicked out of the card zone. It would take some time for the companion to awaken in his body. The time period was random, but most of the time it would take a couple of days. However, the longest time ever was close to a year. The time period had no correlation with the strength of the companion, it was all random.

As there was nothing else he could do, Chrono decided to look for customers in The Arena. Since he already know Fei, he attempted to use the skill on her.

However, nothing happened.

Chrono used his skill again. This time round, nothing happened again.

Opening up his status screen, Chrono pressed his finger against . Information which was previously not available suddenly revealed.

[Race unlocked: Human (Default)]

[Requirement to unlock other race: Kill 100,000 of a specific race or have sexual intercourse 1,000 times with a race]

What the hell? Kill or have sex? Where am I supposed to find so many to kill or to have sex with? I have not even have sex with a human…

Chrono stared daggers at the screen, as he felt that it was mocking him that he was still a virgin with this kind of requirement.

With nothing else left to do in The Arena, Chrono bade Fei goodbye and went back to Earth.

-----

Lying down on his bed after washing up, Chrono closed his eyes and started to organise his thoughts on what had happened since the day he got struck by lightning.

*My love is on fire~ Now burn baby burn~ Playing with fire~ My love is on fire~ So don’t play with me boy~ Playing with fire~*

Chrono woke up as his phone started to ring.

“Hello?”

“Good evening, can I speak to Mr. Feldman?”

“Yes, speaking.”

-----

1 hour later.

Chrono sat comfortably in his Grancobrio as he cruised down the streets. With such a magnificent car, he attracted many envious look when the convertible roared past them.

When he had his fill of driving his new convertible around, Chrono went to look for more customers after he had dinner with his family.

This time round, he targeted the teenage hooligans that hanged around his estate. After giving the hooligans “free money”, Chrono managed to obtain a decent amount of years.

[+52 years]

[Lifespan] 60 years

After he was done, together with his parents, who were still suspicious over where he got his money from, Chrono brought them to a real estate agency to look for a new house to live in. As real estate is a good way to invest his money, he decided to spend a big portion on it and rent the houses out after he purchase them. In addition, if he ever run low on money, he can target the families in the estate. To be able to live there, they would definitely be as rich or even richer than Chrono.

After purchasing the estates, Chrono brought his family to a nice restaurant for dinner.

-----

The next day.

With high anticipation for what his companion would be, Chrono met up with Fei to find out how to summon his companion if he have already awaken.

DRAW!!!

Chrono attempted to summon his companion after listening to Fei’s instructions. The card appeared on the back of his right hand and shattered. The fragments then started to form on the back of his right hand and finally materialised into an evil-looking skull. The skull then glowed crimson red and his companion materialized in front of him.

Looking at his companion, Chrono said, “Fei, my companion reminds me of the character in this anime I watched.”

“Anime?”

“Oh, anime is a style of Japanese film and television animation”

“What is Japanese film and television animation?”

Remembering that Fei was from another planet, he replied, “I’ll show you if you ever come to Earth. Well the anime, Attack on Titan, is about large skeletons that caused Human to be on the brink of extinction. Abaddon looks exactly like them, just that he has less muscles and flesh”.

Chrono’s companion have a human-like figure minus the skin and some muscles randomly missing from the body. Deathly white bones peeking out where the muscles are missing, crimson red orbs replaced the eyeballs in the skull. However he was only 100 cm tall, at around Chrono’s waist level.

“Newly summoned companions only understands simple commands like follow, attack, defend and retreat. Only when they evolve will they understand more complex commands and be able to think.” Fei explained.

Name: Abaddon

Level: 1 (Exp to next level: 1,000)

“Shall we go and level him? I am very interested in what is he capable of.” Chrono said excitedly after looking at the companion’s information under the “companion” tab that appeared after he summoned Abaddon on his status screen.

Chrono and Fei then proceeded towards the dungeons with Abaddon trailing them. Along the way, many players gave curious glances and stared at Abaddon due to his bizarre and scary appearance.

Ten minutes later.

“Here it is. The Arena dungeon.” Fei said.

It was a simple looking cave with a small screen situated at the side. There was a crowd gathered not far from the dungeon. Therefore even if someone is very bad with directions, they would not be able to miss it. Fei pulled Chrono to the screen and did the settings for the dungeon.

“Okay, you can enter now. I have set the dungeon at the lowest level. The monsters are just slimes, kobolds and goblins. Be careful not to get seriously injured. Artificial wounds and small injuries can still be treated at the Arena Medical Centre. There is a player dungeon too. But I would suggest you to increase in strength before you try.”

“What? I have to fight the monsters?” Chrono asked disbelievingly.

With a smile, Fei answered, “Of course. You will be fighting alongside your companion. To strengthen the bond between you and your companion, fighting side by side with him is the best way.”

“Am i supposed to fight the monsters bare handed?”

“You will understand everything once you enter the dungeon.” Fei replied as she gave him a gentle push.

Chrono then hesitantly walked towards the dungeon and stepped into it.