He made it almost thirty whole steps through the forest when he encountered his first major problem.

He hit his head.

Not only did he hit his head on an overhanging branch, but he then proceeded to trip and fall!

This was bigger than a major problem.

It was huge! It was a catastrophe!

He realized it then, as he lay sprawled out in the dirt, his pistol covered in brush a few feet away.

He had gone about this all wrong, again!

One of his greatest strengths, his carefulness and meticulousness, had been completely ignored! How could he have already forgotten that he was currently inside an entirely new body.

He was two inches taller than his past self! He was more muscular and thus more heavy!

David Apollo was a fool!

He hurriedly snatched up his pistol before shakily stumbling back to his starting point, leaning once more on the now familiar tree. ‘I’m going to get myself killed. Again!’ He was sure of it. One misstep in this forest could result in him being eaten by some beast. An objectively worse death than his last one. He did not want to experience that. Not again. He had to live.

'The ‘dependableness’ of David Apollo.' He almost laughed at himself. 'What a joke!'

He took deep breaths as he sat against the tree, the gnarled bark uncomfortable against his back, while he considered what had happened.

If he looked at this objectively, there were a few possible explanations for his actions.

Firstly, it could be that he was just too excited over the fact that he had survived. Perhaps he had been distracted by how realistic this world felt. Maybe… maybe he had been caught up too strongly in his idea that David Apollo was a fearless adventurer.

He had to be realistic here, David Apollo was level 1.

‘No...that might play a part…’ He thought, ‘but that’s not it.’ He might be in a new body, he might have a new identity, but carefulness and meticulousness had been a core part of who he was as Leon Richardson. ‘Perhaps this new body had some effect on my thought process?’ He couldn’t discount this possibility. He didn’t know exactly how far in depth this game truly went. Perhaps the structural makeup of this body affected his brain differently? ‘No…that shouldn’t be the problem. The PMU should’ve entirely replicated my personality into this body…’

Once again his train of thoughts came full circle.

He had arrived once more at the conclusion that there was a failure of some kind with the PMU.

He had left a part of himself behind.

A part of himself, deep down, considered if this was actually a blessing.

He knew that was wrong, losing a part of who he was wasn't the answer to making himself more dependable. He would have to work at it, to consciously make the decision to better himself. He knew that.

But a few minutes ago, he had been able to get up out of the dirt, brush himself off, and walk into the forest…

It was almost scary, how different that one simple action was from what he would normally do.

He began to consider what exactly it was that he would do, if he was still Leon Richardson.

He would stay where he was. That was obvious.

And if he wasn’t besieged by the fog? What then would he do?

‘Well… He would practice.’

‘He would train.’

‘He would learn everything there was to know about his abilities. Then he would make a move.’

David sat and contemplated these actions. Were they in line with his new persona?

Could he perhaps make use of his new rashness? Combine it with his own meticulousness?

He had to remember that he wasn’t on Earth anymore. Living in the fog would kill him, ending his second chance. If he was too cautious, too careful, he would revert back to his old self, he would once more be Leon Richardson, helpless in an unforgiving world. That was unacceptable.

Yet David Apollo had been too bold, too brash. Like a candle that burned too brightly, he would definitely be extinguished first.

He came to a decision then, one that would affect him for many days to come. He would combine the two traits, forcing himself to stop and consider things carefully, just as Leon Richardson would. In turn, he would use the fact that he had lost whatever it was that previously held him back so strongly to carry out his plans boldly.

To act.

That was the key.

He wasn’t David Apollo entirely, not yet. But if he consciously acted like what he wanted him to be, eventually Leon Richardson and David Apollo, two separate personalities, would merge. He would keep the best qualities of both of them, and discard the rest.

The idea resonated with him. After come to this conclusion, he felt more complete. Better.

He felt that this was the correct path towards a new him.

So, he sat up straight, his back no longer resting against the tree, and he considered what he knew.

He would start with the timeline - which he knew up until the game extended towards the galaxy.

The trend of the times was relatively peaceful, right now. It would stay that way until the first major event, which was the introduction of the players to the game. This would cause a major upheaval for the NPCs around the world, as they have been programmed to believe that those players are their long-lost ancestors, returning to the world with ‘new strength’ which was actually the help of the system. There was no way to hide this, either, as all of the incoming players would undergo a tutorial stage inside the ‘Ancestor Towers.’ These towers were impenetrable and the doors had never been opened, so when the players come flooding out it will cause an international uproar among the NPCs. Furthermore, the players would learn ahead of time that Luglain is the land of warriors, few who intended to be magic users would choose to spawn at the Entis tower. This meant that, so long as he could get ahead of the players, he would be a sought after commodity among groups needing a mage. He needed to be stronger than them because there was a key difference between himself and the players - they did not care if they died.

He would need to always remember. To them, this was just a game.

In order to get that strength, well, he had already planned it out!

He would have to level, of course, which meant he would have to take the lives of others…This was something he was apprehensive about, but he felt that the new him, David Apollo, might be able to handle it, so long as it was just. He already knew what his ability tree would be, thanks to knowledge gained from testing other dev accounts, and he knew the requirements for unlocking his class. This meant that, with all this advanced knowledge, he also knew how he would distribute his stats. These were all things he had covered before ever entering the game.

If he sought power and performed actions that would allow him to get stronger, he could interact with the players from a position of strength, or at the very least, equal footing. From there, he would make it a goal to have positive interactions with as many players as he could. This would fulfill two goals, first, it would make him, the ‘NPC,’ less of a threat to Alexy Rodette. He wouldn’t delete a character who was loved by the players.

Probably.

The second goal was that, through positive interactions, he would make friends.

This was something he had not had in a very long time, and he was a little unsure as to how he would go about doing such a thing, hopefully it was something that he would be able to handle as he slowly became David Apollo.

The next major event would be a war between two countries.

This one he felt truly nervous about.

Much of the world would be affected by this war, and even worse, the places that were not affected would be even more dangerous due to the high level beasts and monsters that lived in the far off wildernesses.

His original plan, during a moment of rare motivational spirit, was to use this war as a testing ground for his new self. If he could in some small way participate in this war, he would know that he was no longer a person ruled by fear. He had foreknowledge of the games events, this was something he could use to minimize the risks involved, but again, if he wanted to do this, to truly test himself, he would have to work hard. He would have to be both at a high level and mentally capable of doing such a thing. To get there would take time.

He didn’t even want to think about the next major event. It would be the last major event before the game entered space, and it was by the far the most dangerous for an NPC such as him.

The ‘aggression plague,’ as it was so happily referred to by his coworkers at E-World, would be a planet-wide event caused by the strongest engineer on the planet, Bernard Alcott. It stemmed from the fact that, in the middle of tier IV, at level 74, one must achieve a ‘breakthrough’ or a ‘challenge’ in order to advance one's level and class to 75 and 15 respectively. For Bernard Alcott, who specialized in Logic Pattern Analysis, this meant creating Ezuno’s first AI, and then using it to fulfill the requirement that he needed to collect 10 million EXP…using machines.

Needless to say, when this event kicked off, no one on the planet would truly be safe. Even the habitable zones and militarily protected areas that were predicted to survive the event would then be filled with desperate people who would kill anyone weaker than them if it meant that they would live another day. It was, by every account, a strong motivation to become powerful.

He had to survive if he was going to make his second chance meaningful.

David took a deep breath, his lungs expanding to their full size, his new muscles moving under his shirt. In order to complete the big goals, he would have to finish many smaller tasks.

The first would be to familiarize himself with this body, with his powers, with his equipment.

This was a logical and reasonable solution, one that was influenced by Leon Richardson but performed by David Apollo.

It made perfect sense.

So he stood up, brushed off the dirt and a few small bugs that had found him, and began to stretch.

A few hours later David stood next to his tree, his ‘base.’ He felt more confident now. More sure. After stretching he had carefully considered every preparation he could make for the forest, which had led to him practicing his magic spells until his mana ran dry, then equipping his pistol, unloading and reloading it multiple times until his mana returned, and then practicing his spells again. He could fire three Minor Force Balls before he ran out of mana, or one Minor Force Shield with another being ready to cast about ten seconds later.

It was slow, much too slow.

It was, however, the best he could expect at a measly level 1.

This was the reason why he immediately began to place more attention on his pistol, practicing different firearm drills without expending any ammo. It would level the playing field if he encountered any hostile creatures, and hopefully allow him to survive in a dangerous situation.

These actions served to unlock something that would serve him well for the rest of his time in the game, skills!

New Skill Unlocked:

Identification/Identify - passively allows the user to inspect their surroundings and gain information from their observations. Focus intently on an object to activate and learn its characteristics.

Skill level - 1

He had learned this skill when studying his pistol, familiarizing himself with how it functioned. Next he unlocked another skill:

Firearm Handling - passively allows the user to enjoy increased control over firearms. Effects handling, accuracy, control, reload speed, etc.

Skill level - 1

The last skill he would need to get would be stealth as it was essential towards the type of build he hoped to achieve. He would work on it while he prowled the forest, hoping to find something as weak as he was to hunt.

To hunt.

He almost swallowed painfully. He found the very idea of it daunting. That he would actively consider putting himself in harm's way.

It was something he needed to do though, and with the acquisition of his latest skills and the full recharge of his mana, he was as ready as he would ever be. It was something he needed to do.

For his second chance, he would need to be strong.

This time, he stepped in the forest with both caution and confidence. This was all part of the plan.

—----------

Only an hour later David found himself on a small game trail meandering eastwards through the woods. He had gained the stealth skill after only ten minutes of attempted ‘stalking,’ or trying to walk as quietly as possible in a forest filled with deadfall, dried leaves, and small twigs. He was taking it slow, his pistol in his waistband, (‘how could I forget to give myself a holster?’) his knife attached to his belt. He remained in a half crouch, always walking slowly, keeping stealth activated and making sure he didn’t make too much noise.

This preparedness is what saved his life.

Suddenly he froze, his foot stopping in mid-air, just before it touched the ground. Something felt off about the air here. He could feel it.

It was the feeling that prey gets, when it knows a predator has locked onto it. He knew this feeling intuitively, though he had never experienced it in a dev testing account. It was his perception stat, a measly 5 points, telling him that something was wrong.

He strained his ears, flicking his eyes left and right, but all he saw was the trees and bushes around him, the trail to his front. He almost relaxed, almost continued, convinced that he was imagining things, but on a hunch he activated Mana Echo.

Two things happened, then.

The first was that a huge object lit up in red just ahead of him off the side of the trail.

The second was that object releasing a deep, vicious roar before it charged out of the bushes - heading straight at him!

He didn’t even think about it, he knew exactly what to do.

With complete and utter confidence in himself, he turned and ran away.

‘That thing is just too huge!’ He swore in his head, sprinting through the trees for all he was worth. ‘That thing wants to eat me! What the f-’ He yanked his pistol out from where it bounced around in his waistline, too afraid it would fall and leave him defenseless. He heard it crashing through the forest behind him, it was gaining on him! He wasn’t fast enough!

He almost fired blindly over his shoulder, hoping for a lucky shot as he ran, but his cautiousness won him over, remembering that he only had twenty four shots. That seemed an awfully small number when facing a creature as large as this one. Next he considered summoning his Minor Force Shield knowing it would float in front of him and, when he turned, position itself between him and the charging beast. This too he decided against, knowing that it would take half his mana and had a duration of only 15 seconds. Instead he continued to run, crashing through the forest faster than he had ever ran in his life. It wasn’t fast enough.

‘Come on, come on!’ He screamed in his head, his fear causing time to slow. He needed Mana Echo. He needed that thirty second cooldown to end. He crashed straight through low hanging branches, twisting around trees and jumping over logs as he ran back the way he had come, to the west. Behind him, the creature roared again, its hulking mass easily snapping tree branches as it chased him, closing the distance by the second.

Finally, with the creature a mere twenty meters behind him, the cooldown ended. David activated it immediately, knowing he needed as much distance between the creature and himself as possible. As soon as his surroundings lit up in his consciousness, the ability telling him exactly where everything was around him, exactly where the creature was, he jerked his body to a stop and turned.

He raised his pistol up with both hands, aimed it exactly where he knew the head of the creature would be, and fired.

He fired in such a panic, he emptied his entire magazine in just two seconds, not even feeling the recoil, striking the…bear? In the face. ‘This monstrosity is a bear!?’ He screamed in his heart as he quickly dumped his magazine, jamming his second one into the weapon as fast as he could and charging the weapon. As soon as he finished reloading he cast his Minor Force Shield, desperate to put something between him and the charging, one eyed bear.

Cyclops Bear (young)

LVL 6, Warrior.

(Dangerous)

The instant the shield formed, drawing his mana out in a surge and filling the air in front of him, it shattered. The bear slammed into him, bowling him over with the force of a truck, knocking the wind from his lungs and sending him sprawling. Somehow he had miraculously kept his grip on the pistol, not allowing it to fly from his hands, and he raised it once more as he screamed in the face of the hulking bear, which now stood over top of him, its paw slashing down. He yanked the trigger again, dumping all twelve of his bullets into the throat and upper torso of the bear as its claws raked through his leather jacket, lacerating his skin deeply and breaking several ribs. He gasped in shock as he was thrown once again, lifted from the air and tossed like a ragdoll from the blow. The now empty pistol fell from his shaking hands as he scrambled desperately to yank his knife out of its sheath, sitting up and thrusting it with the full might of his body towards where he could hear the bear huffing in pain, yowling as it continued to charge him.

He felt an enormous force crush his wrist and fingers just as he heard a wet squelching sound. Something soft and wet covered his hand as the bear crashed into him again, this time collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut as it slid nose first across the forest floor, smashing the weight of its body against him and knocking him over again. ‘Holy shi-’ he started to think to himself before stopping as he heard a noise. It was a deep, shaking noise coming from the bear.

A death rattle.

He pushed himself painfully up off the ground with one hand, his other clearly broken. He turned carefully towards the beast, wincing at the incredible pain in his chest. The pain was awful. Almost on the level of what he had felt during his last days on Earth, before the transmigration. Each laceration was long and deep, cutting straight across his ribs and searing with a deep, hot pain. He focused his attention outwards, towards the bear.

Its legs had collapsed underneath it, its nose almost buried in the dirt beneath it. His dagger was jutting out from its large, singular eye, a milky white and red orb leaking a clear fluid slowly. Its saliva and blood mixed together into a red foam, which hissed and sputtered from its mouth as its body shook with its last breath.

Suddenly, his vision turned a hazy gold as an immensely refreshing jolt of energy washed through him at inhuman speeds, snapping his ribs and wrist bone into place and healing him instantly.

Congratulations, you have leveled up! x4