Authors note: Is anyone surprised about the title? It was only a matter of time. Null is no toaster. Even he has a boiling point, so I guess that makes him a pot of water instead.

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“Thank you you brave, selfless soul!” Loretalon says to Null happily.

This causes Null to give Loretalon a look of disdain.

“I will send a message to the capital. Now that we have someone who can counter Plague's disease, he should be easily dealt with. They should send around a hundred people or more to deal with him. Plague's power is in his poisons, so we don't need as many people for this C-rank now that we have you. All you have to do when we find his lair is stay back and make us antidotes. It should take around a month and a half for that force to get here.” Loretalon says positively.

Loretalon makes a message. It works a lot like the messaging system players use.

“Hold on.” When Loretalon was about to send the message, Null stops him.

“What?” Loretalon asks.

“Since I'm being forced into this quest, I'm going to do it on my terms. I'll do this by myself.”

Loretalon and Cici look at Null like he has lost his mind.

“Are you daft!? This quest is a C-rank! It requires at least a hundred players that average to 200, and it looks like you haven't even reached the level 200 milestone!” Loretalon yells at Null.

“Sorry, but I don't intend to stay here for a month and a half twiddling my fingers, and I also don't work well with others. Like I said, if I'm going to do this quest, I'm going to do this on my terms.” Null says with no emotion.

Loretalon squints at Null, then he closes his eyes and sighs saying, “You foreigners, always thinking you're invincible. Well since you're a foreigner, you can't truly die here. Very well. I will give you a month and a half to let you attempt to finish the dungeon on your own. That's the time it will take for the force from Qasburg Kingdom to arrive. Whether you beat the dungeon by that time or not, we'll be coming to back you up.”

Null nods and heads out the door. Cici runs after him. When Null makes it outside, Cici runs in front of him and blocks his path.

“Null, don't be stupid! There is no way a level 167 alchemist can beat a C-rank dungeon by himself!” Cici yells at him.

“It's your fault that I have to do this quest in the first place, and you said the same thing about me finding the cure.” Null tells Cici coldly.

“This and that are totally different things! You're only an alchemist! You don't even have decent weapon! Those gauntlets don't have any reach! You're only marching towards your death!”

“For the record, I'm not an alchemist. I'm a librarian. Now stand aside.”

“...What? A librarian?"

Cici knew the chances of him beating the dungeon by himself were low, but now that she heard Null's class, she thought the chances of Null beating the dungeon were zero.

"Null this is for your own good. If you don't want to wait on the Qasburg force, how about I call up people from our school? You know them right? I'm friends with at least half our grade in this game. I'll call them here. We could get a decent number of people to come by week's end.”

“You will do no such thing!” Null yells at her.

“You'll be thanking me later!” Cici yells back.

Null gets a look of anger on his face that Cici has never seen on him. When she's about to send a message, Null grabs her arm and squeezes it. Cici is surprised.

“What are you doing?” Cici says to Null angrily.

“Follow me.” Null says to Cici coldly with a look of anger.

She obliges and follows him. They walk until they are in the middle of the forest. It's the same area that Null went to to find the cure.

“Why are we here?” Cici asks, pretty sure of the reason Null brought her here.

Null takes a deep breath, then says, “You know, throughout my entire life, I've been mistreated by people, all the time. My parents have always treated me like a nuisance, because I'm not talented like my siblings. My big brother physically and psychologically tortured me just because he could, and my little sister, looking at everyone else in the house, also treated me like my very existence was a sin.

At school, it wasn't any better. I was constantly beat up and made fun of. The person who was my best friend, who was my only supporting pillar in this life, Keimi, betrayed me because she wanted to go out with some guy.”

Cici's eyes opened wide thinking, 'No way! It couldn't be him! There's no way!'

Null continues saying, “So I decided from then on out that I would be by myself, that I would always do things by myself, and that I would always seek solitude. I also strove to become stronger and smarter so that no one would pick on me again. It was working. People who used to beat me up, I adequately defended myself against them, so the fights eventually slowed down to a crawl. I got a hobby learning about math and science, so I was never bored. Eventually, most forgot about me, just like I had planned. Now people struggle to even remember me, just like I had planned.”

He then turns to Cici and gives her a look of disdain. “Then you came along.”

Cici eyes opens wide again, then she closes them with a look of sadness.

“I just wanted to live my days in obscurity, but you kept giving me attention. I just wanted to be left alone, but you kept on bothering me. No matter how many times I asked, no matter how many times I pleaded, you refused to leave me alone.

I had wanted to play this game solely because I wanted to be in a place where there was no people. I'm not playing this game to gain levels, go on adventures, or compete with other people. I don't like people. New Reality is vast, so I could easily find places where there would be no people. Not having to hear or see other people whenever I wanted, this place was like a dream come true for me. Now, here you are, trying to take that all away from me.”

Null puts up his needle launchers and aims them at Cici. She sees them, but her look doesn't change.

Null then says, “The annoying at school? I can forgive. The annoying in the game? Whatever. The forcing me to accept a mission? Sure. Why not? However, what you are doing now is forcing me to lose the purpose for which I am playing the game in the first place. You even threatened to call people from our school, the very same people who I was trying to escape from in the first place. I will kill you. I will keep killing you. My last shred of patience is gone. I won't let you bully me anymore!”

Null then launches his needle launchers. She doesn't even attempt to dodge them. When they hit, her cloth armor blocks most of the damage, but it still manages to damage her. She heals herself at a frightening speed and the needles get pushed out by her healed skin. The poison looks like it can't keep pace with her rapid healing.

Cici looks at Null and tears start falling thinking, 'It's you. It really is you.'

Null knew that the needles wouldn't work. He fired the needles to estimate how much time she needs to heal.

He thinks to himself, 'She's too powerful. I only have one shot at killing her. Once that window closes, I can do nothing. Time to put my plan into action.'

Null manipulates his mana for dexterity and rushes towards her. He knows that even though she's level 238, that she is still a cleric, and would therefore be weak at hand to hand combat. Null rushes towards her and kicks while manipulating his mana for strength. It creates a powerful shock wave that comes out her back, making her fall backwards. When she hits the ground, she realizes that it was actually disguising a pit with multiple spires coming out the bottom of the pit. She falls and impales herself on them. She coughs up blood. Throughout her body, are spires sticking out. Null looks at his results.

'This bitch is as tough as I thought. Why isn't she fighting back?' Null thinks while squinting and throws multiple bombs down the hole.

He gets back. Multiple blasts come out the hole, and Null even feels the heat. When the explosions die down, smoke comes out the hole.

'My stats aren't even being reduced. What is she doing?' Null wonders.

Cici wall jumps out the pit trap Null made, and stands right across from Null, staff in her hands. When Null sees her, she looks like a mess. Her clothes have burn marks all over the front. There are blood stains with holes where she was impaled. She also has a huge blood stain on her chest from when she coughed up blood. Other than that, she looks like she hasn't even fought. Her body looks good as new. There aren't even scars where the holes are. What surprised Null the most though is her sad smile with tears in her eyes.

Let's take this moment to talk about the cleric class. When compared to other professions of the same level, their strength and dexterity are low. They also have low vitality and are penalized for wearing armor. They also aren't allowed bladed weapons, so they are usually stuck with staffs, which are relatively weaker weapons. Since they have the lowest health and armor, they are the easiest to take out in one hit.

However, there is something that clerics have that the other classes don't apart from: The ability to rapidly heal themselves and buffs. They have an advantage over someone who needs to take out a health potion and drink it. If a person is fighting a cleric, they have to either make sure that they can be dealt with in one blow, or make sure that the cleric's healing speed can't keep up with the damage their outputting. Even on the same level, it is pretty hard to kill a cleric. What makes it worse is that they usually fight with someone protecting them.

Null's problem is even worse than that. Clerics have a stat called morality. It goes up the more good deeds you perform. What that stat does is increase your healing speed. Cici is a person who likes to help others a lot not asking for anything in return, so her morality stat is abnormally high, even when compared with clerics of the same level.

Even if Null was facing a normal cleric of level 238, he would stand little chance, but Cici is a cleric with abnormally high stats, and has intermediate in clerical mastery. Null's chances of beating her are almost zero.

Of course, Null went into battle knowing all this, but he has an ace up his sleeve. There is something that can kill a cleric quickly: Beheading. If you can quickly behead a cleric, you can instantly kill her without worrying about tricky healing techniques. That's what Null is waiting for, the right opportunity to do it.

Null knows that his poisons won't have any effect on her, so he's forgoing them. He throws down a smoke bomb. It quickly fills up the area. Cici can't see Null, but Null can see her perfectly due to his Essence of Mana. He throws multiple bolas out at Cici. She is caught in the middle of them. When the smoke clears, she looks like she is stuck and can't move. Null calculated how many heavy bolas it would take to keep her down, then he added a few more just to make sure.

Null then throws a throwing knife in a seemingly random direction. It cuts a string, which releases a trap of multiple throwing knives that were hidden. Cici sees them coming and braces herself seeing as she can't move. She is hit multiple times, and her wounds are bleeding profusely. She doesn't say a sound while she is being hit. Null has to admit that she is a lot tougher than he thought. Her face is in pain, and she starts healing the wounds as Null expects. She is then surprised, as Null comes by extremely quickly, with his blades extended, aiming for her neck.

Null swipes. Putting all the mana he could in his arm for strength. He was waiting for this moment. When he does, her cloth armor blocks most of the damage, but it still manages to pierce her neck pretty deep. She rapidly heals the wound. Null grinds his teeth.

'Dammit!' Null thinks to himself.

Null didn't take into account her cloth armor. He thought it would be normal cloth armor, but he once again had underestimated Cici. Cici not only has her morality stat, but her faith stat. The more the Church of Ianuaria looks favorably upon you, the more your faith stat goes up, the more you can get from them. Her cloth armor isn't ordinary cloth armor. It covers her neck, and provides ample protection, even from warriors of the same level.

At the same time, her staff is special. If her health falls below 5%, the staff will immediately replenish 10% of her mana. Null couldn't even push her to the brink of using the staff's effect.

He now knows he cannot kill her.

'Dammit!'

He knows that now he can never be free from her.

'DAMMIT!'

Null just starts beating her. He keeps manipulating his mana for strength and dexterity interchangeably and starts beating her like a rag doll. He punches her in the face and sends her flying. He chases after her. He then punches her in the stomach and sends her flying again. He keeps landing blows on her. The bolas eventually unravel from her being repeatedly sent flying, yet she still doesn't fight back.

***********

Null is laying on the ground. He's tired. He had just lain a blow on her that sent her several meters away. Right now, he's physically and mentally exhausted. He had to admit though, even though all of that was pointless, it felt good. He doesn't want to think about that anymore. He knows that she will make good on her promise to call the people from their school.

'I hope there's not a barrier surrounding this area so that I cannot leave. I don't have much room for another quest, but seeing as how she's about to call them I need to leave this area immediately.'

Null is about to walk away.

“Null.” Cici calls out.

He stops and turns around. His look of disdain still has not left his face.

Null says to her, “I'm not going to apologize for what I did. I meant every word, and I don't regret my actions.”

“That's fine. I deserved it.”

Cici looks down sad, not sure of what to say.

“I'm sorry.” Cici says quietly with tears in her eyes.

“What? I can't hear you.” Null says.

“I'm sorry! I- I didn't know! I always thought you were looking down on me! I've caused you so much trouble!” She says crying.

Null looks at this surprised, not expecting that this would happen.

He says, “*sigh* It's fine. If you just leave me alone from now on, then all will be forgiven.”

She wipes her tears and makes a face of resolution saying, “I'm sorry, but I can't do that either.”

Null squints saying, “What do you mean you can't do that?”

“I know what you've been through, though you looked a lot different back then. I was always watching you. You used to be a lot kinder back then. I guess even you could only take so much.” Cici said with a sad smile.

“Back then, I was such an idiot. Since I considered you beneath me, I never bothered trying to be your friend. Since I was friends with Keimi, and she was friends with you, I thought it would be fine. That day she betrayed you, I never forgave her.

We had a falling out and she then went to a different high school. I haven't spoken to her since. It was you who gave me the views of not look down on anyone. When I tried looking for you after Keimi betrayed you, I saw that I was too late. The look in your eyes changed. I never looked for you since, and I eventually forgot about you. Imagine my surprise when you and him were the same person.”

Null says, “I don't need nor want your pity.”

Cici then walks to Null and puts her hand on his shoulder. “You came back from the brink, despite everyone looking down on you, you've surpassed me in 3 subjects, and you easily found the cure that I couldn't. How could I ever look down on my rival?” Cici smiles.

“Okay, about the subject of not being able to leave me alone. You still haven't answered my question.”

“Right. Null, I don't know if you've ever been in a dungeon or not, but each dungeon is given by levels, the lowest dungeon being rank E, and the highest probably is S or SS. No one has ever found one that high yet. E-ranks can easily be done by a single person who is level 100. D-ranks can be done by a group of 30-40 people of level 150. C-ranks can be done by hundreds of people of level 200. Sometimes, it takes even a thousand. B-ranks can only be done by the top guilds who number in the hundreds of thousands. A-ranks are so hard, that even the top guilds have a low chance of beating it. S-ranks and above go without saying. Null, you couldn't even beat me. How do you think you're going to beat the dungeon?”

Null frowns, knowing that she has a point.

“How about this? I'll offer a choice for you.” Cici says.

“I'm listening.” Null replies.

“You can do the mission by yourself, fail repeatedly, then have to intermingle with the Qasburg force, or you can take me and only me. I promise not to call anyone.”

Null looks at her. He knows even with her, the chances of the two of them beating the dungeon is still abysmal.

“Why would you try going with only me even though the chance you could lose levels are so high? Gaining levels past 200 is difficult.”

She smiles again saying, “Because I don't only want to be your rival anymore. I want to be your friend.”

Null frowns and says, “Sorry, but no. I'm never going to have another friend in this lifetime. However, being forced to go with the Qasburg force, I would feel I was being forced into going in Loretalon's pace. How about this? We'll go conquer the dungeon, and once it is over we will go our separate ways. Also, if you call anyone, I will immediately leave.”

Cici smiles. “Sure. One step at a time. I'll become your friend eventually.”

Null sighs.

You have formed a party with Cici.

Null then walks off with Cici.

Cici hesitates to say something, but then says, “Null, this is supposed to be common knowledge, but I know you don't read the forums or watch New Reality News, so I'll tell you.”

“What?”

“You remember Keimi right?”

“How could I forget?”

“Heheh right. Well Keimi in this game is a ranker, a ranker that puts most other rankers to shame. She's called the Wicked Witch of the West. She's even more powerful than Scarlettflame. Not only is she a ranker, but she owns the 9th most powerful guild in the world, Witch's Broom. If you want, I can help you take revenge against her.”

Null doesn't know why, but he's starting to hate Cici a lot less.

He says, “I don't want revenge. I just want peace of mind. I wont attack her first, but if she attacks me, I will show no mercy. I appreciate the thought.”

Cici nods.

They're walking away from the area that was damaged to a great degree because of Null. Cici is walking behind Null, but this time with Null not thinking of plans to escape.

She looks at Null thinking sadly, 'You have become an amazing person. Your stats are far above that of a level 167 person. You wouldn't lie about this sort of thing, because you have no reason to. This means you found a way to greatly inflate your stats. So why? Why is your self confidence so low? Why do you still only think of yourself as someone who has not talent? Well, I'm going to help you. I'll give you your confidence, and save you from your solitude.'

Cici gets a look of determination.

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Author's Note: Cici was impaled by multiple spires, so I guess you can say she was... Inspired? Right? Right?