[00:00…1,2,3]
Satoru took off the helmet and returned back to his lightness room. His body was very tired and struggled to rise on his feet. The man now felt very empty as he went to grab food from the fridge.
"It's over…"
The food did not taste good at all, but he had to eat it and go to bed. He was sad because the next days will become even more tiring. Every day that came back home, he played his favorite game called YGGDRASIL.
But some moment ago, YGGDRASIL's server was shut down forever. The game was the only piece of happiness that Satoru enjoyed greatly. Now that happiness faded away leaving the young man in this dark room alone.
All that work, all those efforts that he and his friends spent in this game disappeared in the blink of an eye. That burned Satoru's heart so much that wanted to scream but it was no use.
"Good times do not last forever, they say..."
Satoru has accepted this unlucky end because there was nothing he can do to change this. Even his friend had abandoned the game long ago because of their own problems. He was lucky that he had at least a high-paying job or else he would be dead a long time ago.
Remembering this, Satoru did not fully finish his food and went straight to bed. Yet, he was not able to sleep and just kept rolling on his bed.
"This… damn it, why? Why, why did they have to end it? Don't those bastards understand that YGGDRASIL was a life-saving game?!"
These thoughts did not let him rest. There were tears falling from his eyes, he felt absolutely lonely looking at the ceiling.
"I can't…"
Satoru raise from his bed and grabbed from the drawer a rope. The day that he feared so much has arrived. Many young men that had terrible jobs with evil bosses that used them as slaves tend to buy a rope for only one reason… To commit suicide.
And Satoru has had enough. YGGDRASIL was the string that held together life and death and it was the only thing that gave him happiness, but now it was over for him.
The young man tied the rope in a place where it will not fall from the weight of his body. Satoru thought for a moment if this was the right decision but he had no nobody to worry about and nobody will ever care about him disappearing.
"Fuck this world!"
This man had nothing to lose in this toxic world. With this, all his everyday problems will be gone and only a corpse will be left.
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Satoru was forced to open his eyes again by some strong light all of a sudden. His vision became very clear instantly. The young man that left an old world, was amazed by the new view in front of him.
"What the?! Is this…"
This place he was standing was completely different from his house or any other place on Earth. "Is this what heaven looks like?!"
Right now he was standing in the middle of some colosseum that was probably very ancient because a lot of its former might have fallen but still it looked very fantastic. Also, he was amazed by the beautiful nature that has taken over the surroundings of this colosseum.
"Wow, how come this place appeared right after I killed myself."
Satoru wanted to explore this place but at the moment he took his first step, something appeared in the colosseum
"Huh?! What is that thing?!"
Some strange droid machine has noticed Satoru's presence here and it was coming toward him.
"Hey, this is heaven, right? There can't be evil machines here, right?"
Satoru raised his arms and walked backward but that monster had no intention to stop his advance. But the young man saw another strange thing but this time it was his own body.
"Hold on a second!"
He noticed that his hands were fleshless and every finger had a ring. Satoru's mind was blown away by what he was witnessing.
"No way man?! No way!"
His body, his rings, his gear. He knew them very well. Satoru was inside his skeletal avatar again after his death. He was so surprised at his new body that he forgot about the approaching enemy.
The weird droid made a metallic noise and got into position to target the skeleton monster that has appeared in his territory out of thin air.
This finally took Satoru's attention and he saw a circle on his body. The droid was targeting him and unleashed a number of missiles out of his back. All of them went in a disorderly direction but their only target was the skeleton.
But the attack was not successful at all, because all of them exploded when they hit the magic shield, and Satoru did not even move an inch. The droid monster got up again and continued to walk toward his enemy.
"Interesting, my shield activated on its own from such weak attacks just like in the game. Guess it's time to give it a try too."
[Dragon Lightning]
Almost the entire area got dark and then a shiny thunder was unleashed. In a blink of an eye, the thunder hit what was supposed to be the eye of the droid and it blasted his entire body into millions of pieces.
"So weak… but a good guinea pig to test my spell."
And now he was free to remember all the things that happened in such a short time.
"So I died and now I have turned into my avatar from YGGDRASIL. Man, I hope this is not a dream because that would really suck."
It was impossible to be a dream. He felt the terrible quick pain on the rope and how his vision faded slowly from that world. It was real and not a dream. Satoru was dead and did not exist anymore but only his memory in the body of this extremely powerful death god.
Satoru was checking everything in his inventory and that he had thousands of items from his guild.
"I have the legendary gear and weapons?! How? This should not be possible!" There were also the world-items.
This avatar was all geared up but it would be too dangerous to flex these items on people that might have ill intentions. Also, he remembered that players with world items are the first target and he did not want that.
"Nice very nice!" he nodded happily
He looked around to know if this was YGGDRASIL but it was too alien. He knows the worlds of YGGDRASIL with his eyes closed because he has gone grinding every world so much for his avatar to grow stronger.
This place reminded him of the human world of Midgard but it was still unfamiliar to be sure.
"Hmm, I wonder where am I…"
[Fly]
The skeleton mage loses from the ground up in the wide sky to see the area that surrounds him more clearly.
"Woah, I can fly for real now, so cool… Hold on… Damn, this place is huge."
The place was similar to the human and elf worlds of YGGDRASIL in some way with huge forests, seas, huge mountains, and high cliffs. It was pretty beautiful to see such a real wide panorama for someone like Satoru that has never seen real nature but the concrete monstrosities of his old world.
"Hmm, maybe I should walk."
Everything is unknown to him now so he has to be careful. Flying might be dangerous and it might rise the attention of the inhabitants of this realm.
Also, there was a problem with his appearance so he had to change his gear. After looking at his inventory, he decided to put on a gear that resembled that of an assassin. He had armor that protected his wrists and also a black mask to hide his skeletal face.
"Alright, let's move…"
He covered his head with a hoodie and started his adventure in this New World.
Like a player, Satoru walked through fields, hills, and forests. The only living beings he encountered were some slims and animals. As expected, the small slims were very weak just like in YGGDRASIL or any other game.
He was also curious about the ancient ruins that he came across but some of them were occupied by strange pitch-dark creatures and he decided to leave them alone for now.
He sent a ghost-type undead there to observe them and hear their language. He did not understand anything of the language they spoke and was worried that the intelligent inhabitants of this world won't be able to understand him either.
Satoru continued his journey until he saw a small island in the middle of a lake. He was not interested about this island but the thing that was built on top of that island.
"Well, check this out."
He jump high from the hill and landed on the island. Upon this island was built a very high statue of a person with wings. It looked like those statues of angels inside the catholic churches.
"Huh…"
Satoru touched the statue out of curiosity but some strange light covered the statue and after three seconds, that light was absorbed by his body.
"What the hell just happened?!"
He felt a wind going around his body and then it disappeared. Then Satoru saw that a new power has showed up, he could feel it.
"What can this be?"
Satoru moved his hand towards the water. A powerful wind was unleashed from his hand, blasting the water high and making feel like rain was falling.
"Interesting…"
It was not a special power but he was surprised at how suddenly this happened. This magic was not of the YGGDRASIL system and it would be impossible for him to gain this power.
"What is this statue?"
Satoru wanted to study it more but he heard some cries for help not far away from the lake.
"Help?"
It was a word that he can understand so he rushed to find the location of the person that needed help. He was not far away, the person was a middle-aged man with black hair and mustaches wearing a long grey coat.
The man was trying to protect his carriage while being surrounded by the same wild black creatures that Satoru had seen before.
Before they could harm the man, Satoru used his new power to defeat the monsters. Three of them that were caught by the wind were turned into ashes while the three others turned to attack Satoru. For these three, Satoru pulled the sword and cut their heads in one swing of the sword surprising the man.
"Are you alright sir?"
"Oh thank you!"
The man sweating and breathing heavily from panic and exhaustion.
"Oh thank you, adventurer! I thought I was done for."
"Nice, I can understand him."
He was relieved that he was able to understand him clearly.
"Don't worry sir, everything is under control for now."
"Those damn Knights of Favonius are useless to leave the roads unprotected."
"Knight of Favonius?"
"Hm, are you not from Mondstadt, young man?"
"No… no I'm not."
Knight of Favonius or Mondstadt, it was the first time he heard those. Satoru fully accepted that he was in a totally different reality.
"Actually, I'm not from this land sir. And I'm lost, trying to find a town or a city."
"I see… well I'm going to the city of Mondstadt, come hop on the carriage, young man."
"Can I?"
"You saved my life and my carriage so I will help you too, let's go."
The journey with the man was pleasant. He also was not from Mondstandt but from a northern cold nation called Snezhnaya. His name was Tsarevich and he was a successful merchant.
He never stopped talking ill about the authorities of this realm, calling them useless and drunkards and how they did not have any ruler to put some heavy laws upon the people.
"So, your country Snezhnaya… is ruled by a goddess?"
"That's right, she is the almighty powerful Archon of Cryo Tsarica and no one would ever dear to oppose her authority."
Gods ruling nations was interesting but also troublesome at the same time. He doesn't know if the undead exists in this world and they may see him as a threat. Satoru started to worry if it was a good idea to enter the city. If someone has the power to see through this mask, he would be in great danger.
"There it is, the city of Mondstadt."
Satoru saw the huge walls of the city and also the windmills. The city was built on top of this huge island connected by a bridge.
"Would the guards allow me to enter the city?"
"Worry not, I will deal with those useless knights."
"Man, he hates them a lot."
The carriage approached the city gates and the knights had suspicious eyes toward Satoru. But since the knights knew who Tsarevich was, they thought he was just another bodyguard and also they did not want to hear Tsarevich starting another of his speeches against the knights.
With full of luck, Satoru entered the city without a problem.
"Great, thank you, sir!"
"Not a problem, please accept these."
Tsarevich handed him a pouch full o Mora, the main currency of this world.
"Sir, isn't this a bit too much, you did a lot for me?"
"Young man, you saved my life so of course, I have to pay you."
Satoru did not want to accept them but the problem was that he did not have any money but YGGDRASIL gold which it was useless here.
"I'll accept them, please be careful next time."
Like, he farewelled Tsarevich and went to study the city. Mondsandt was a very relaxing city with people being very happy. This resembles a medieval western European city. But since he had entered the city, a lot of those happy faces were staring at him.
His outfit and mask looked very menacing to such a peaceful population. Even the cats hissed at him and ran away. "I think I will be in trouble soon."
"Let me introduce to you the city of wind, dandelions, and freedom."
Satoru heard the voice of a female. She was speaking to a boy and a strange fairy-like creature.
"Welcome to Mondsandt!"
"Huh, she's a knight, and the boy is new here like me. Hm, he also has strange clothes but I guess he is from a different nation."
Then he heard from the young knight about the dragon called Stormterror that has been attacking the city. Any of these pieces of information were important to Satoru for his next step.
As she talked about the incident, the sky started to get covered by thick grey clouds. Satoru and the others noticed the sudden change and through the grey clouds came out the large dragon.
The peaceful day ended and the citizens started to wildly run like crazy for their lives. Huge tornados started to take form pulling everything in their path.
"Aether!"
The young female knight screamed and Satoru saw the young boy in the sky. He opened a pair of wings out of nowhere and started to chase the dragon.
"Is he crazy?!" again the girl screamed.
Suddenly she saw another person flying after the dragon. Her only surprise was that he was not using the wind glider.
"Who…"
Satoru reached the boy who was shooting the dragon with countless of spells.
"Need help?"
The boy saw him and nodded in approval.
"Good, I take the left side and you the right side." Again the boy nodded.
Satoru reached the dragon's left side and waited for the boy to catch up to the right side.
They were ready, the boy shot the dragon with many of his spells causing the dragon to lose a bit of control.
[Chain Dragon Lighning]
A huge thunder with the form of a dragon was unleashed toward Stormterror. The thunder hit the huge body causing the dragon to scream in pain. The sky turned into dark blue because of the impact.
Unable to fight against such force, Stormterror vanished through the clouds and left. Slowly, the clouds started to disappear, and the city turned normal again with a few damages.
Both of them landed at the area where the cathedral was. The young female knight immediately rushed to the body.
"Are you hurt?!" she screamed.
No, I'm okay."
Aether then looked at the tall person that helped him.
"Thanks." he said.
"It's nothing, the city was in danger so I had to help too."
They both respectfully shook hands. Satoru turned to leave them in peace but…
"Wait, who are you?"
The fairy-like creature suddenly asked him.
"Indeed."
Another person was walking toward the group while slowly clapping his hands.
"Kaeya, good thing you arrived, the Stormterror is attacking Mondstadt itself!"
"Hold on, Amber. Are you perhaps forgetting to introduce us?"
"Oh… right. This is Kaeya, our Cavalry Captain. These two are travelers from afar, Aether, Paimon, and…"
Amber remember that she had never met this person before. From the first time she saw him, he looked very suspicious, like those agents from Snezhnaya.
"You can call me… Momon"
"Aether and Momon, I won't ask any further questions right now but on behalf of the Knight of Favonius, I would like to extend our thanks to both of you for your help just now.
"Well, we couldn't leave the dragon to go on a rampage and put the lives of the citizens in grave danger." said Aether.
"Yes, many of the citizens saw the battle, the bards will have a lot of inspiration to sing about you two. Also, the Acting Grand Master of the Knight of Favonius is very interested in meeting both of you and formally invites you to our headquarters."
And like that, the group went straight to the headquarters. Momon was worried when asking him about his origin or if they ask him to remove his mask. "This will be very troublesome."
They entered the headquarters and walked to a room. The inside of the room was very luxurious and two beautiful women were waiting.
"Jean, I brought them.
One of them was a tall athletic blonde with fair skin and blue eyes. She was wearing a white, blue, black, and red strapless shirt with a long blue tailcoat attached to it. The other one has fair skin, green eyes, and wavy, light honey-brown hair, which is tied in a loose side ponytail. She wears a purple and white dress with open slits at the sides and gold embroidery, along with black gloves with pale purple trim, a large witch's hat, black lace stockings, and black high heels, and an earring is visible on one ear.
They waited for the group with bright faces.
"Mondstadt welcomes you, travelers. I am Jean, Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius. This is Lisa, our resident Librarian."
"Thank you sweeties for helping us. You're so adorable." Both of them had those sweet female voices.
"We have had so much trouble these days because of Stormterror and new faces are very rare now."
"This is Aether, I meet him and Paimon outside the city when I was on my patrol duty. He also helped clear a hilichurl camp. He is on a mission to rescue his sister from an unknown god that took her from him."
"That's so terrible!"
"Poor sweetie…"
"Unknown God? Well, that's weird and they believe his story so easily… Does this mean that beings like gods roam in these land?" That reminded him of what Tsarevich said about his country being ruled by a god.
Then, they turned to Momon and they were more serious now. Should he tell them the truth?!
"Before I answer, I want to know something?"
"Hm?"
"Are the people of Mondstadt hostile towards non-humans?"
Jean lifted an eyebrow in confusion.
"That depends, there are bad non-humans and good ones. Same with humans as well, there are bad apples in every race. So you are non-human right, I guess you must have had a bad experience."
"Yeah, that's why I have never removed my mask."
Jean thought of this as some trauma that must have happened to him a long time ago when he encountered humans so she decided not to ask more but his name.
"My name is Momon, great to meet you all."
"What are your intentions in Mondstadt, mister Momon?" asked Kaeya as he was the only one who was very suspicious of Momon.
"Hm, I'm not sure either but I heard there is an adventurer guild in the city. Maybe I'll join them to travel freely."
"Hey Aether, you should also join the adventure guild. The other nations might accept an adventurer first, rather than a total stranger. What do you think?" suggested Paimon.
"Indeed you are right, being an adventurer gives a passage everywhere you travel." said Jean.
Aether nodded in agreement but the matter with Stromterror was problematic and might give trouble in his mission to find his sister.
"Right, I will also help in resolving the Stormterror problem, and I hope I reveal some clue about my missing sister."
"May the wind lead you to your dear sister, Aether."
They were people with good hearts and wished for everyone to be happy but Momon dislike these ways. They were so naive thinking they will stop that dragon together. For Momon, Stormterror was an easy monster and nothing special but for these people, he will be a nightmare.
Also, the boy was even worse, trying to find his sister while hunting a dragon but who knows, in the end, something might come out of this mission.
"I will help too and I'll also help Aether find his sister."
"The-There is no need to trouble yourself, mister Momon. My journey might be a very long one."
"It"s okay Aether, I myself do not have a personal objective for now... My parents died when I was just a kid and all my friends disappeared a long time ago. It's really heartbreaking to lose friends and family members."
"Momon… thanks, you will be a great help."
"Welcome, aboard Momon! Call me Paimon! We will be a great team!" said Paimon with great joy.
It was true that Momon did not have a goal but to wander around this new world so he was trying to turn things more interesting for himself.
"Alright, we have a plan. Lisa has revealed sources of Stormterror's power with her detection magic." said Jean.
"They are located in the abandoned Four Winds Temples."
"Our objective is to deal with three of the four temples. We need to act before the situation escalates."