Staring up at the empty sky, then to the village around. I leaned down and picked up some dirt from the ground, rubbing my fingers together and watched as the dirt fell to the ground.

Seems real enough, although I’m honestly not sure how to even tell properly.

Regardless, I guess I’m back here.

The Second Zone.

I have no idea why I was teleported back into the tutorial, though. Maybe a safety mechanism from the system? More information is needed to come to a conclusion.

Looking throughout the novice village, it was still in the same abandoned state as before. Tons of empty huts and abandoned buildings, some made with differing materials. Stone, wood, and various plants made up the main composite of each building.

Checking the surrounding mana. I nodded in assurance. Less than 1% corrupted mana. A more normal percentage.

Although to be honest, there too little mana in the surroundings. It made it... I don’t know difficult to breathe? No, that’s not exactly an accurate comparison. It’s more like the lower oxygen at higher altitudes. You get used to it, but until then it feels terrible.

Oh? There’s an array? And it’s already active?

I tilted my head in surprise and reexamined the village.

Don’t remember there a magical ward around the starting village before? Then again, I don’t think I would’ve noticed it before… Or I’ve simply forgotten its existence.

The entire array seemed to incorporating concepts and principles that I didn’t understand. Sending out a magical interference, I told the array to shut down and I felt the array deactivate.

Who even makes these things? There wasn’t even the slightest protection or encryption on it. Even the guild arrays at least had some default protections.

This one… was just open? Like a computer or smartphone without no lock on it.

While I had no idea what it was doing, shutting it down might provide some useful information. Looking at the array, I felt oddly disappointed. Nothing seemed to have happened from deactivating it.

Taking a while to study its principles, I realized what it did and felt oddly disappointed. It simply sent the mana in the immediate surroundings away. It was boringly simple in principle.

That explains why the creator didn’t bother to put protections on the array, though. It could be easily remade at anytime and had no offensive effects.

Mana was slowly returning into the village as I’d shut off the array. The feeling of altitude sickness weakened.

Anyway, I don’t plan to stick around.

Considering at least seven years have passed by, I need to head to the Residential Zone and check out the situation. To be honest, it’s probably been closer to ten or fifteen years I only stopped keeping track some time after seven year.

Regardless, the protections of the system have probably long collapsed by now. Meaning the Residential zone is almost certainly a mess, still that’s the location Rin is mostly at.

Reactivating the array that siphoned mana away from the village, I quickly left the village behind.

The array does explain why monsters never took residence in the village. Even people that are used to living in a mana dense environment would find it uncomfortable to live in a low mana environment. Monsters are particularly sensitive to the changes in mana density as it affects their growth rate and would never settle in a low mana location.

I never really thought about the reason that no monsters had taken up residence in the village before. Instinctively, I just accepted it because it part of the plot I’d written.

As I began setting off into the jungle, I quickly realized a problem. I’d didn’t know the path to the teleportation beacon… Falling into thought, I remembered that we set off from the heritage site last time.

I’d at least know the general direction from that heritage site.

To the heritage site, then!

I haven’t been there in awhile, might as well take a look at it in the process. This part of the jungle I knew well enough to navigate around. I managed to get my bearings and begin the journey to the heritage site.

Within approximately fifteen minutes, I’d traveled to the hidden valley approximate location. I quickly realized the valley wasn’t empty as I thought it’d be. There had been clear signs of life in the surroundings. The smell of cooking food, and smoke was rising from the valley.

Peering into the valley from a safe distance, I paused as I realized that it was Rin was within the valley.

She was leaning over the campfire cooking meat with various plants seasoned atop it within the valley. Except Rin looked different. Rin was smaller… younger. She looked the same as when we first arrived here.

Time travel?

Then… Rin must’ve reloaded back to the beginning? Did it actually take her ten to fifteen years to do that?

If she reloaded, why can I remember it? Why did I keep my belongings and old body? Isn’t that a paradox?

Maybe… the time shard?

Grabbing the time shard out of my pocket, I examined the smooth green stone and twirled it around in my hand. It looked the same as always. Whilst I twirled it, I accidentally dropped it and the stone fell to the ground.

When the green stone fell from my hands, a massive sense of crisis overfilled my senses. It felt like the universe itself was rejecting my existence. As though the universe itself wanted me dead.

Swiftly picking back up the time stone. The sense of crisis disappeared, but the danger lingered in the background of my heart confirming my suspicions that it hadn’t disappeared permanently.

Leaving me very worried.

Apparently the time stone was supporting my existence in this timeline or hiding my existence from the universe… and if lost contact with it, a fatal crisis would befall me. That’s what my instincts told me.

That feeling of crisis combined with Rin’s age… it seems time travel is the most like situation. With that in mind, I could guess the situation. That barrier of Gromrit’s was likely far more powerful than I gave it credit for. It prevented the universe’s reset from Rin’s ability from affected those inside it.

Once it was broken? I got sent to the location I would’ve been if the reload had worked properly. If Day 13 was the day Rin reloaded to? That was when I was still inside the tutorial, right?

Pure speculation, but it was slightly logical…

Regardless, I should meet up with Rin and have a discussion with her. I need to know what’s going on.

“Rin!” I suppressed my anxieties about meeting her and stepped forward.

Standing up whilst jumping backward in a smooth motion, Rin grabbed her sword and pointed in my direction. She glanced rapidly back and forth in my direction, but her eyes didn’t lock onto me.

Waving, I tried to attract her attention as I walked forward. “Right here.”

Finally locked onto my position, Rin’s eyes made contact with mine. Furrowing her brow, she lowered her weapon and returned to the campfire. Rin still gazed in my direction, but ultimately she refrained from speaking.

“So… you can see me, right? That’s good.” I sat down cross-legged across from her, gazing at her meal cooking on the fire with a slightly salivating mouth.

Seeing that Rin had kept quiet, I tried to prod her into speaking. “So, can you… uh, talk to me?”

Rin unerringly staring into the fire. Not providing any response to my request to speak.

“Right, you don’t exactly speak English.” I realized that my attempt to communicate with her was destined to be in vain and decided to simply monologue to her, and explaining what happened over this period of time. “Well… anyway, I ended up getting teleported to the Third Zone and there was like this massive dragon and he kidnapped me. I was taken to this weird uncultivated garden with a cave system underneath… and it had like, this insanely powerful barrier so I couldn’t leave.”

Rin’s eyes diverted momentarily to me before returning to her cooking. She didn’t seem interest in what I was saying.

I stalled my speech upon the realization she wasn’t exactly paying attention to what I was saying and decided to just summarize. “Err… well… long story short, I managed to reduce the strength of the barrier and create a crack in it. When breaking through it, somehow I got teleported back into the tutorial zone. I have some theories about that, but I’m not entirely convinced about their accuracy.”

Well done, me. Ten to fifteen years worth of life summed up in five to six-ish sentences. Using enough generalizations and summarizations can apparently make any biography extremely short.

Rin’s wolf ears pointed in my direction to hear me speak, yet she didn’t seem inclined to respond.

Even after several seconds of silence.

“So can you… say something? Uhh… Conus tu?” Once again trying to prod her into action by utilizing the common language.

“It is 'Tu conus ko taman'.” Rin corrected while watching the meat continue cooking.

“Right.” I didn’t really understand what that meant and just nodded absentmindedly at her automatic correction, and leaned backward. Letting stretching my legs out. “This valley brings back memories. Training everyday, getting chased around. Fighting.”

“You never learned to disguise your scent.” Rin stated.

Ah… that’s how she always found me? I thought it was her hearing or that I messed up in covering my trail.

Backing away slightly, I felt self-conscious before realizing something, “Wait, you learned English?”

Lowering her gaze, Rin’s grimaced and she quietly responded. “I’ve had free time.”

“That’s what you’ve been doing whilst I’ve been escaping Alcatraz? Learning English?” I gazed at her with surprise.

Without providing a response, Rin merely gazed into the fire. Seemingly ignoring my half-question in its entirety.

“I presume you reloaded to the first save file?” I asked.

Quietly nodding, Rin poked at the cooking food.

Thinking about it, I leaned forward and stared into her jewel-like dark brown eyes. “Is there another version of me running around, then?”

A brief sadness appeared on Rin’s face as she shook her head.

To be honest, the news sent a wave of relief through me. That officially answers that old question about whether I’m the same person.

Upon avoided the timeline reset, since it cannot duplicate their younger self, it means you’re still essentially the same person or at least component of older you are needed to recreate the younger version. So actually maybe it means nothing.

Still, I don't have to worry about another version of myself wondering about.

“Good.” I relaxed.

“Tera ketrum, sava konlo!” Rin stood up, her eyes filled with anger and she raised her voice. After yelling, Rin sat back down with a snort and continued ignoring me.

Taken aback by her sudden anger and change in personality, I sat there in silent shock. I didn’t know what she’d said, but her voice had clearly portrayed her anger.

“Sorry…” I have no idea why that angered her or what she is angry about, but the correct response in this situation is to apologize.

She silently stared forward, refusing to acknowledge my presence.

“Hello?” I waved my hand in front of her face. Without getting any further response from her, I just sighed and sat down. Covering my nose with my hand, I stared quietly at her gloomy expression. “So, why are you still here? In the Second Zone?”

If my understanding is correct, ten to fifteen years have also passed for Rin as well.

It just that Rin’s reloading during the process lowered the amount of time the rest of the universe actually spent moving forward. That leads to a massive question.

Why is she still in the second zone? Presumably Rin reloaded a long time ago. I mean, I doubt she waited ten years before doing the reset.

“Wait… Have you just been waiting around for me?” I stared at her with a quizzically expression.

That cannot be right?

Sitting there without providing a verbal or nonverbal response, Rin continued looking ahead toward the fire.

However, I could tell something was wrong.

Continuing to push forward, I inquired more forcefully. “How long has it been here, Rin? How long has it been since you left this place?”

Rin buried her head in her arms and mumbled out. “Shut up.”

“How many time have you reloaded?”

“SHUT UP!” Rin yelled out from beneath her arms. She apparently really didn’t want to talk about this topic.

I was taken aback by the forcefulness of her voice.

“Alright.” I fell into silent thought.

Rin was acting strangely.

We merely sat across from each other.

Soon I broke out of my thought process, and came to a sudden realization. “You think I’m a hallucination… or a mental attack? A fake created by some enemy or monster to trick you.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

From her perspective, I was a dead person. If Rin has been reloading and despite that I never appeared. From her perspective, I’d literally stopped existing in this universe. When she reloaded, no longer did I exist.

Far as she is concerned, even if Tobias had appeared, obviously I wouldn’t be the same as before. I’d be wearing different clothing and not have any memories of our past interactions. I would’ve returned to the ignorant state that I first arrived in.

The only explanation for me existed and still retaining my memories, as far as Rin was concerned, is that it’s part of some mental attack or hallucination. That explained her attitude of ignoring me, and the subtle hostility.

I was at a loss for words.

How do I explain that I wasn’t an illusion or fake? Any explanation would be taken as evidence of the inverse being true.

It’s the age old dilemma, you never prove anything with absolute certainty.

‘You are a robot.’ An online netizen claims.

You reply, ‘I am not a robot.’

‘That is what a bot would say!’ Another netizen replies.

It’s a loaded question. Similar to 'How does it feel to beat your wife?'

Regardless of how you reply, whether you decide to deny, ignore, or agree with the statement, all of it can be taken as evidence of the accusation’s truth.