Pain throbbed all over Len’s body. Beaten black and blue with a hint of blood smeared all over his body, Phy sighed.

“You’ve still got a long way to go kiddo.”

“...”

Len dropped on the ground as the sunlight gave him a pleasant sensation. His chest goes up and down as he gasped.

“I thought you were an immortal? Why are you gasping and bleeding like a pig?”

“I told you I’m not immortal. I just can’t die. Not yet.”

“What’s the difference anyway…? And why are you not healing yourself?”

“...The pain that I’m feeling is important. It will serve as reminders for the hard time I’ve spent training in the future.”

“...I didn’t know you are such a masochist.”

“Stop blabbering and teach me properly!”

Phy sighed again. Despite how she treated him, Phy was observing his movements intensely.

‘He clearly has zero experience in fighting. He doesn’t even know a basic stance or how to hold a sword properly. He can’t read the flow of a fight, how to read enemy’s movement and most importantly... ‘

“Sigh.”

“What are you sighing about? Are you quitting?”

“Training you from zero will take a really long time. I doubt you even have the potential. I would be a granny before you can even reach my level.”

“...”

Len admitted it himself that he has no talent in fighting. He couldn’t imagine himself being adept at fighting, much less killing an Empyrean.

“Why do you want to kill an Empyrean?”

“What? We just barely started and you want to take your words back?”

“Can you not answer a question with a question, please?”

“...What does it matter to you?”

“Nothing. But you know why I’m doing this, and I don’t know yours. It’s not fair to me.”

Phy turned around and walked back into the house. She waved her hand and said.

“Maybe if you managed to defeat me, I will tell you.”

Len jolted awake. He stared her back until she went inside the house.

“That was a flag, wasn’t it?

…

‘A new pattern showed itself. The question is how do I tackle this?’

Empyrean, an existence beyond a mortal. Strength and ability that could reform the earth itself, keeper of the world and at the same time, the destroyer. Clashes among themselves on deciding the one true Empyrean have got the earth as their battleground.

Wherever they go, chaos and death follows. This caused people of the land to lose their faith on them and their strength dropped. They realized the war they are having will only benefit those who are standing on the side. To combat this predicament, they made a pact.

“An Empyrean shall choose an apostle to fight in their stead.”

Thus, the apostles came and roamed the earth.

People of different origin fought for their factions, some fought for honor, some for others, and some for themselves.

‘Apostles, they are pretty much people like me. Someone who came from another world and forced to fight in some deities’ bidding for a throne. But to what end?’

Len reminisced about the past where he spent most of his free time reading books. There were many tales and one of them is about people who were transported to a different world to fight for world peace.

‘But this case is a bit more complicated.’

The pattern is all over the place. Real life is more volatile when there are many enigmatic factors involved.

‘There are people with abilities back there, but not magic or system.’

Len lied back on the dry ground and thought.

‘The Empyreans. They must know something about a method of travels between worlds.’

The possibility was in Len’s favour.

‘The question is, how do I reach them?’

Len let out a thin smile and stood up. The blood and bruises on his body disappeared leaving him completely healed.

‘First, I have to clear this flag.’

Len opened his status window and saw the EXP bar increased 10%. A progress was made. Although small, the time spent was not wasted.

“...”

….

“What is the system?”

“Don’t know.”

“Is it just you that doesn’t know or-”

“You think I’m an idiot!? It’s already been there since ancient time! People say it exist even before human and Empyreans appear.”

“Who are these people you are talking about?”

“People of Rozenwald. They do science and engineering… I think.”

“Science… and engineering?”

“Did I say something odd?”

“No, no… nothing…”

Not even in his wildest dream Len would expect to hear science and engineering ever mentioned in a world with an RPG system and magic.

‘But it sort of makes sense… building houses, utensils and other tools to make life more convenient keeps progressing. But... ‘

Len asked.

“So they are building things with technology?”

“How am I supposed to know? They make all sort of things from conventional things to unconventional things. I don’t use them. I don’t them need.”

“What sort of things?”

“Enchanted swords, enchanted axes, enchanted shields, things that goes boom and what not.”

Len felt disappointment. Is that all they are doing? How is that engineering and science?

‘No, maybe it’s just Phy’s oblivious. Maybe there’s something more about them? Not that it matters anyway.’

Len realized he got sidetracked and went back on topic.

“So, the Empyreans also uses the same system?”

“That I’m not sure. By how things are, I’m almost certain they do, but there’s no concrete proof. Some said they are the one who created the system themselves and they are the one controls it.”

“That makes no sense. If they are the one controlling it, doesn’t that mean they can control everyone like a puppet?”

“As I said, there’s nothing concrete. It’s just a speculation.”

Len felt a sense of foreboding crept on his back.

‘The system belongs to the Empyreans? Then… granting the system permission to me was a mistake? No, I have to make sure.’

Len went back to his sofa and lied down with eyes closed.

‘What’s wrong with him?’

Phy gave him an odd look for ending the conversation mid way. But it didn’t really matter to her as she was about to leave the house.

Len focused and opened his eyes. The status window opened showing his name, level, race and empty stats.

‘Technically speaking, the system would require a storage to store information. Could it be that my information is being transmitted to a server somewhere?’

Len contemplated to himself and thought, ‘Is the system invincible? Is there a way to find out?’

‘I don’t understand how the system works. How can it only appear in front of me? Only I can see it but not others, why? It is connected with me in a way where only I can interact with it somehow. It is the same like Phy and the others. The system is connected to everyone but interaction is limited to individuals… almost like a strand connecting… to their… soul?’

Len felt a shiver down his spine and completely blocked the system access.

The system made him felt exposed akin to being naked in public. Len could feel cold sweat on forming on his temple.

‘I cannot depend on the system… not like this. At least until I find out something about it. But what do I do then? What can I rely on?’

Then a voice echoed in his mind. A familiar voice that he heard a few times. Somewhat annoying and haughty, but soft and oddly reassuring.

“You are the fateless one. Bound by no one, die by no one, Fate cannot get ahold of you. Your soul is free, no celestial beings or god almighty can tell you what to do. You are on your own. Those who are trying to hurt you, cannot hurt you and vice versa.”

It was something the blue-haired girl told him. He forgot about them, but now he remembered.

Len is the fateless one.

No god almighty can control his fate.

Nothing can hurt him and he can hurt nothing.

‘If that is correct, then the system… and…’

Len stood up from his sofa and went outside the house. He looked around and found an ant drifted alone far from its colony. Without a shred of hesitation, Len stepped on the ant.

‘She’s wrong. People cannot kill me, but I can kill them.’

The ant was crushed under his feet and died.

‘Also… there’s another thing I want to try.’

Len went back inside the house and took a piece of bread on the table. He chomped it down and gulped it greedily.

“...??? A-are you that hungry?”

Len didn’t answer her question and simply stared at his palm after he finished eating the bread.

“What are you looking at?”

“Huhuhu…”

“???”

Phy felt even more weirded out by him.

‘Did I hit him a bit too hard and a screw went loose inside his head?’

But then Phy noticed something on his palm. A piece of his skin moved and peeled off, it condensed itself and became a small bead the size of a nail.

Phy became even more confused. It was surreal and a bizarre phenomenon. How and why did Len do it?

While Phy was busy getting confused, Len was one step closer to completing the pattern.

‘This is it. This might be the key to use the system.’

Searching for a way home back to his world seems like a fleeting dream to him. But with as a fateless one, there is hope. It was small and seems impossible at the moment, but Len was determined to do it. He needed to become strong enough to venture the world and possible meet one of the Empyrean.

Is it possible to do it without the system?

Perhaps.

‘But if there’s a method to use the system without being exposed, then…’

Len might not be talented in combat or possess high intelligence, but he believed in his ability as the fateless one.

‘I’ll try once again.’

And so Len lied down on the sofa with his eyes closed.

“...”

Phy who witnessed this bizarre event could not comment anything.

‘It’s best to leave him alone for a while I guess.’