POV Swap – Hansoo

[Hell Difficulty - Third Zone; Year 2, Day 100]

Underneath three blazing suns, a Korean man walked forth in a desert, which seemed to go on forever. The man showed no inclination that the desert bothered him.

Armed with only a spear, Hansoo had walked through this desert for nearly a month after dealing with the problems of the Residential Zone.

Solving those problems had taken several instances of blackmail, intimidation, and bribery to convince the leaders to switch the current system.

At a seemingly random point, Hansoo abruptly stopped walking and retrieved a large artificial metal eye from his bag. Holding up the eye, the light of the three suns reflected perfectly onto its iris creating a beam of light.

Wherever the beam landed a sizzling noise sputtered. Hansoo turned the beam toward a small and barely noticeable black triangle on the ground. When the light hit the triangle, a tower, massive in size, rose from the ground reaching hundreds of feet into the air.

Time was running out. The cultist, enemy of the universe itself, would certainly intervene at all costs in the Fourth Zone.

Hansoo needed to be reborn with enough strength to survive their counterattack.

The tower existed long before the apocalypse. A trial created by the gods, if rumors are to be believed. Few people enter. Fewer leave.

Hansoo didn't know what to expect inside. What he knew is that, according to historical records, people who left the tower alive became drastically more powerful.

The tower would either cause his rebirth, providing the strength to ensure the survival of the universe, or cause his death, dooming the universe along with him.

When the tower settled, Hansoo silently grasped his spear and passed through a blue glowing force-field, which turned red after passing through.

The trial begins.

POV Swap – Stanley

[Normal Difficulty – Third Zone; The Fake Capital]

Stanley was within a massive city, surrounded by walls that stretched far into the air. People were constantly flowing past him, merchants were shouting out their products, and armored guards were patrolling the nearby streets.

After doing a quick reconnaissance of the area, Stanley began to assess his current situation. Yet, the narrator interrupted his thoughts.

[Stanley stood amidst the crowd of people unsure of his location, which direction to head, or even the current time.]

[Fortunately, Stanley wasn’t intelligent enough to understand any of those concepts. Instead, Stanley senselessly stood stationary amidst this constantly changing crowd, waiting for someone to break him from his stupor. Completely and blissfully unaware of the dangerous doppelgangers plaguing this domain.]

Narrator… If you weren’t so snide, I would say it’s nice to hear your voice again.

So, this is the Third Zone of Normal Mode? Somewhere called ‘The Fake Capital’?

Why did the portal take me here?

… and, apparently, dangerous doppelgangers exist here.

Anything else you want to add, Narrator? I’m more than happy to listen.

No? Okay…

Someone ran into Stanley, interrupting his thought process.

“Sorry!” The young girl yelled as she continued running, only turning her head briefly to apologize.

[Stanley ran after Tanya, who had stolen his belt of electrical pulse grenades.]

My electrical pulse grenades?

Feeling the empty spot in his bag, Stanley sprung into action barely catching a glimpse of the girl as she disappeared into an alley.

Following the girl into the alley, she wasn’t anywhere to be seen and searching more carefully didn’t have any results.

Luckily, the Narrator spoke up.

[Stanley pulled open the lid to the nearby basement and found the thief.]

Looking around the alley, Stanley found the basement cover. In here?

The basement’s metal cover was sealed in place with a lock.

Can I even pull this off?

Reaching down and yanking on the handle of the cover.

The metal lid easily came off its hinges, answering Stanley's question. Tossing the cover to the side, Stanley stepped into the dark basement.

Water droplets pelted the floor. Candles lit up a small area, illuminating a bedroll that lay nearby. A beggar’s or thief’s home, uncomfortable and impoverish.

The teenage thief was barely illuminated by the candles as she stared wide-eyed at Stanley. Belt of grenades on the floor beside her.

Stanley stood there awkwardly, before speaking. “Hello…”

“Hi…” The young thief quietly responded.

Gesturing toward the grenades, Stanley requested. “…Can I have those back, please?”

The young thief glanced between Stanley and the grenades before slowly nodding. Receiving the grenades back, Stanley carefully put them back in his bag.

The kid clearly wasn’t in a good situation to be stealing from random strangers and hiding out in such a place.

Somewhat sympathetic, Stanley crouched down to the kid's eye level and softly asked. “Mind providing information about the area in exchange for food?”

The thief stared back into Stanley’s eyes. Doubt clouded her eyes. She didn’t fully trust him, but eventually nodded and cautiously asked. “What do you want to know?”

Sitting down across from her, Stanley inquired, “What do you know about doppelgangers?”

[Easy Difficulty – Bai Xiaobao’s Village; Year 2, Day 100]

POV Swap – Bai Xiaobao

Leaves fluttered and rain poured down from the heavens. Lightning could be seen off in the distance.

A storm had arrived. Massive in range, spreading across nearly the entire planet.

Meanwhile, in a village surrounded by forest for miles, hundreds of people sheltered from the rain in their homes. People of all ages huddled together for warmth.

Bai Xiaobao traveled alone through the storm, water pelting him as he headed toward his hut near the edge of the village.

Reaching his own hut, he took shelter from the rain.

The hut was small, filled with various trinkets and every artifact Bai Xiaobao could get his hands on.

The hut lacked a table, shelf, or a bed. Thus, the trinkets and artifacts were resting on the floor. The only piece of proper furniture was a brown carpet, which Bai Xiaobao slept on.

Bai Xiaobao was home.

Removing his wet clothes, he lifted up a floorboard revealing a hidden underground pathway, which traveled the length of the village toward the twin-tailed chicken coop and several other secret locations.

Hanging his wet clothes on a warm clothing line underground, he closed up the floorboard again.

Taking out the enchanted rock Tobias had given him, Bai Xiaobao carefully rested it beside the rest of his trinkets.

Standing above his collection of trinkets, Bai Xiaobao’s heart swelled with pride. This was his village. His collection. His home.

The village was a minuscule compared to the vastness of the planet and compared to the universe. Yet, it was the only place Bai Xiaobao knew.

He had stayed here since arriving, only briefly exploring the surrounding area before returning.

Bai Xiaobao had arrived outside the village without any memories a year ago. He only knew his name.

Despite amnesia, Bai Xiaobao understood this place was different.

People called the energy surrounding them Mana instead of Qi.

Spells instead of techniques.

Sbilities instead of physiques.

Wherever Bai Xiaobao had originated worked differently.

Perhaps that's why he can’t use mana or magic in the same way as everyone else.

Worse still, when accumulating mana, Bai Xiaobao hit a bottleneck. His body wouldn’t accept anymore mana. Bai Xiaobao vaguely recalled needing a specific method to break past the bottleneck, yet he can’t remember how.

The only solution Bai Xiaobao’s found was eating monsters, including twin-tailed chickens. Eating allowed him to slightly increase his maximum mana and, hopefully, will allow him to eventually break his bottleneck.

His stealing habit started slowly. A slice here, a chicken there. He didn’t take enough to be noticed. Eventually, though, Bai Xiaobao's body demanded more. He began to feel starved and started taking more and more.

People started noticing. Bai Xiaobao was forced to become more secretive. For a period of time, it worked.

Then, the guard patrols were created. Determined to catch the thief, people began patrolling the streets.

Bai Xiaobao, at the time, planned to stop stealing. To prove his innocence, Bai Xiaobao led the charge becoming the most vocal critic of the phantom thief. For awhile he focused on hunting for food, he went out and acquired his own… but, his body always demanded more.

Starved and desperate, the underground passage came into existence. Built over several weeks. It was the perfect way to obtain his dietary requirements without having anyone learning his identity.

Thus, a year passed and, unknowingly, Bai Xiaobao had almost passed his bottleneck.

The heavy downpour throughout the planet was about to showcase a flaw in his plan. Underground, the passage was slowly filling with water. The dirt was loosening from the rain and the structural integrity of the passage was quietly becoming compromised.

The tunnel traveled underneath many buildings. If it collapsed, the entire village would be affected.

Lying down on his carpet, Bai Xiaobao listened to the pounding of the rain outside and closed his eyes.

The rain filling the tunnel. Bai Xiaobao fell asleep, in his home surrounded by his trinkets, whilst a storm raged outside.

POV Swap – Rin

[Easy Difficulty – Temporary Campsite]

A sudden storm arrived several hours ago. Rin and Tobias decided to take shelter. Tobias, using magic, created a weak barrier to prevent the rain from affecting them while they rested.

Afterward, they cleared the small area within the barrier by chopping down the nearby trees. After creating a warm campfire in the center, Tobias moved toward a tree stump and searched through his various notes, occasionally writing down information.

Meanwhile, Rin was beginning to get impatient.

It's been a year since we’ve gotten engaged… Yet, he hasn’t done anything.

We haven’t even kissed.

Tobias said he didn't want to get properly married until later... but, how much longer is he going to wait?

Kara isn't nearby anymore. Tobias not wanting to do anything embarrassing in front of Kara, I can accept.

But, Kara isn’t around. While that's slightly slightly panic inducing in it of itself, it isn't much of a problem.

No, the problem is Tobias clearly isn't planning on becoming more intimate with me over this period of time. Yet, he's also completely missing the signals I keep sending to get closer.

How can someone be so oblivious?

Sighing softly to herself, Rin stood up and walked toward Tobias. Hugging him from behind, she rested her head on his shoulder. Looking over the strange script he'd written down, she asked. “What are you looking at?”

Tobias awkwardly adjusted himself in my hug, before replying. “Simply my notes, search to see if there's something I missed.”

Resting against Tobias’ head, Rin disputed. “You’ve obsessed over these notes for months. There’s nothing else to think about it.”

“I know, it’s just… Bai Xiaobao. He’s different. Feels as though I’m missing something.” Tobias responded, holding papers in both his hands.

Rin speculated, “You want to talk with him again.”

Tobias placed his papers back into his bag, leaning back into my arms, he said, “Maybe… He’s interesting. I’m thinking about training him.”

Rin whispered into his ear. “If you want to, we can. We’re not in a rush.” Taking advantage of the opportunity to kiss him on the cheek, which caused him to squirm in her grasp.

Ignoring the dazed expression on Tobias’ face, Rin let him go and setup her bedroll. Preparing to sleep through the storm.

After lying in her bedroll, Rin thought back to the interactions. Blushing, Rin hid her face beneath the blankets.

Was I too forward?

Should I have waited for him to make the first move?

It’s too late now. I don’t want to reload for such a silly thing. It’s his own fault for taking so long.

Heart beating rapidly, Rin attempted to calm herself down and failed spectacularly. Tobias apparently decided to move to her side and began gently stoking the top of Rin’s head.

How can he do something this intimate so casually?

Quietly, Rin adjusted herself into a more comfortable position. Rin couldn’t calm down, or fall asleep, until Tobias stopped awhile later.

Rin didn’t particularly want him to stop, but... felt too embarrassed to ask him to continue.