Somewhere around Europe, a certain bluish-purple hair girl is dreaming something she had not dreamt for a long time.

Year xxx, Date xx, Previous Era

The bluish-purple hair girl is walking alone through the corridor. It was two days ago when the organization sent a group of soldiers led by the two MANTIS to confront the 9th Herrscher, also known as the Herrscher of Stars. But she was not included in the group for this mission as she was on another mission.

Just now, the report came in that Herrscher was slain by KEVIN and URIEN. Now, the group came back without losing a single member. The group leader KEVIN and vice-leader URIEN are now inside the briefing room together with Dr. MEI and one of the higher-ups of the organization to give the report of the battle.

Hearing about URIEN makes her heart swell with many feelings. But mostly with anger and regret. Anger because he killed the person she admired and regret because she shouldn't have said those hurtful words to him on that day, the day when the 7th Herrscher was slain. She wanted to apologize to him but she was hesitant because the current URIEN is completely different from the one she knew before.

Just as she kept walking through the corridor, she noticed the higher up came out of the briefing room with a satisfied smile. She shrugged her shoulders. Whether they are satisfied or not is not her job. Dr. MEI will handle those kinds of stuff.

She walked past the door as whatever happened inside the room is not related to her. But she stopped going further because she heard the sound of a slap within the room. The room is a soundproof one. But the man from before was too happy to close the door properly and she could hear what was happening inside the room.

Curiosity got the better of her and she peeked through the slightly ajar door. What greeted her was the sight of Dr. MEI slapped URIEN on his cheek.

"Why did you use the 0th power of Abyss Flower even when your body can't handle the risk?!" the girl could hear Dr. MEI yelling at URIEN.

"I can use the 0th Judgment of Shamash without any backlash, you know? I think that will be able to kill Herrscher with a single strike. And MEI, please don't slap URIEN. Let's talk this through without any violence," KEVIN told URIEN while cooling down Dr. MEI.

URIEN sighed. His collar was still being grabbed by Dr. MEI. "KEVIN, do you know the damage that your 0th power can cause?" he asked the other white head.

"Big…?" KEVIN answered with a question.

"That's why I want you to read the reports, KEVIN. Your 0th power can easily wipe out a city," Dr. MEI answered instead of URIEN but her hands are still grabbing on his collar.

"That much?" KEVIN sheepishly rubbed his head.

"Do you know? If you were to use your 0th power, your slash will without doubt damage the sea behind the Herrscher," URIEN said.

"But do you think the sea can replace you, URIEN? You are one of the 3 available MANTIS soldiers. It will be a huge loss for us, " Dr. MEI asked her friend.

"It can't but the products produced from there can. It produces 46% of seafood. If the sea was damaged, we don't know what will happen to humanity. Although it was nothing much, humans cannot live without fish as they are a good source of healthy fat and protein and that will lead to a shortage of food. Shortage of food is not something we want to deal with right now, correct?" URIEN asked back at his two friends without any emotion in his voice.

"That…," Dr. MEI can't refute anything. The shortage of food has indeed become a huge problem after the 8th Herrscher as Honkai Beasts are becoming more daring and have invaded most of the human settlements. Humanity was able to defend most of them but lost the many cities nonetheless.

"So, you thought that it is better to sacrifice yourself? We can think of other ways to defeat the 9th Herrscher. Now, look at you. Honkai energy is starting to affect you," KEVIN still doesn't give up. He can't watch his friend keep on sacrificing himself like that.

"And let many more people die in the process? I can risk it if the casualty rate is under tens but I am sure Herrscher will make it over thousands if we didn't finish her off when we had our chance," URIEN replied.

The young man is willing to sacrifice if the casualty rate is low. Heck, he even sacrificed the love of his life because he can't risk letting her live unless he wants the blood of many more casualties on his hand. So, between his love and thousands of humans, he chose to sacrifice the woman he fell in love with since young.

"And don't take lightly the food shortage, KEVIN. Many people are willing to kill for a single loaf of bread. We don't want that unless we want to create more chaos in current civilization," URIEN sighed and explained to his friend.

Now, between choosing himself and thousands of people, his answer was obvious. He chose to sacrifice himself. It is not that he has a hero complex but he just doesn't want any casualties.

"Now, now, what's done is done. We should—," without listening any further, the girl at the door left quietly.

The year 2013, Month June, Date 20, Current Era

The dream ended right there and the girl woke up from her sleep with cold sweat covering her body. The name she is using currently is Fu Hua, the survivor from the previous era.

"After thousands of years, why did I suddenly dream about him?" she muttered.

Urien POV

"Cola, check! Energy drinks, check! Chips, check! Pizza, check! You are ready to go!" Kyuushou said while placing the snacks on the table near the sofa where I am sitting.

"Miss Kyuushou… I don't think these are healthy," Luna commented from beside and I completely agree with her.

"What are you talking about, Luna? These are perfectly healthy for gamers like us," she replied and the look she gave us is like she was looking at the two idiots.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" she exclaimed and quickly walked out of my room. After a while, she came back with a box of tissues. "You might need this. You are a healthy young man after all," she gave me a wink and a thumbs up.

"Why you little," I gritted my teeth but accepted the box nonetheless.

Kyuushou then proceeded to give me the game disc. I looked at the cover and it was named "Homu Star Online 2". Okay… from the name, I can say that it contains sci-fi elements in it.

"You know how to make your own character, right?" she asked, to which I answered with a nod. Did she think that I am some kind of caveman who hasn't played any games? In my previous life, I had played "Lane Brawler V" together with KEVIN and SU in an arcade just fine.

And there are some VN(s) for me to play too. I guess this is the reason why she gave me a tissue box.

"Great! This is my in-game ID and IGN. You can add me after making a character," she gave me a slip of paper. Hmm? IGN: Savior… Well, exactly what I had expected from Kyuushou.

After both Kyuushou and Luna walked out of my room, I ran the disc in Homu Station 4. Let's start by making my in-game character.

There are four races for me to choose from. You know what? I will just go with advanced humans. I don't know how they come into being but they are created from the human race. So, as an ex-modified human myself, I decided to choose it. Ok… they want me to choose a different eye color for each side. Let's go with green and blue. Each color from my Father and Mother. And like usual, my hair will be white.

Wait… they are making me choose from Hunter, Fighter, Ranger, Gunner, Force, Techer, Braver, Bouncer, and Summoner. According to the wiki, Advanced Humans are compatible with Hunter, Ranger, Force, or Braver. I'll go with Braver as it will let me fight both close- and long-range combat depending on the situation.

As for my name… let's go with my real name, Urien. And… finish!

*After some annoying tutorials later*

The game mechanic is pretty simple. Now, I should add Kyuushou. I typed in the game ID and oh, I saw her account. And… added!

She accepted immediately. Guess she is already playing this, huh? She is a Human race Bouncer class. I didn't think that she would be using that class. I thought she would be Hunter or Fighter.

"Oh, Urien! You are here! Braver class Advanced Human, eh? That's so Urien," I heard the voice of her from the other side of the headphone. What do you mean by "that's so Urien"? That's so rude.

"Let's go to AlloyBron! I bet she is waiting for us at the plaza," she said before leading me toward the plaza.

This is my first time playing MMO and it still blew me away with this huge player base. I looked around as I followed Kyuushou from behind.

"Oh! There she is!" I look at the place where Kyuushou is pointing. There stands an awesome white robot. Wait… why does it have bunny ears on top of its head?

Author's Note;

Sorry, I fell asleep while writing this yesterday. Well, half of this chapter is about the previous era and the other half is Urien doing absolutely nothing. I based Homu Star Online 2 on a game I used to play long ago.

Thank you White for the illustration of the shota version of Otome game world Urien. You can check their Instagram account here.