Marlon drifted gently on the gigantic lake, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the absolute tranquility. His mind was now decompensating, and he felt drained of all energy. His boat was causing slight ripples on the clear water.

The previous day's massacre had been relentless, and he felt absolutely no regret for what he had done. A certain pleasure even took possession of him when he thought about it, seeing in his mind the flames devouring everything and the man he had literally cut in two. Revenge had been a perfect outlet for all the frustration he had felt over the past few days and he was now at peace, his mind at rest. Part of him was aware that this reaction was abnormal, but the other part didn't care. If he hesitated, he would be beaten. If he didn't fight back, he would be killed.

This world loved the law of the strongest? Well then, it would become the strongest and cruelest ever.

The lapping of the water against the hull rocked him, and Luna, his chimera, was curled up against him, sleeping soundly, purring in her sleep. It seemed to him that she had taken a few centimeters of size but it was only a vague impression.

He was a few hundred meters from the shore where the hamlet he had devastated was located, and a cloud of dark smoke was still rising above it. In the distance he could see a few people going back and forth, probably to extinguish the reminders of the nighttime blaze. Seeing this scene lit a comforting, gratifying warmth in his heart.

In the sky, some birds flew, sometimes diving like missiles into the water before emerging, a nice size fish trapped in their beaks. Others viciously tried to steal their catch, often only to be met with violent pawing from their fellow-creatures. He loved the spectacle which was offered to him and would have almost wanted that this moment lasts a little, a moment of calm in the chaos which was his existence for a few weeks...

He smelled hints of smoke in the air from the carnage, and as one of the birds dived and emerged with its prey very close to him, a fleeting aroma of fish was caught in his nostrils.

From time to time, he would let his hand soak in the water and then run it over his face, enjoying the coolness on his skin and the purity of the water as he took a few sips.

A few boats were not far from him, and a man even greeted him with a friendly gesture as he stretched. Not wanting to raise suspicions about the fire, he responded to the greeting.

He regretted his gesture when he saw that the man began to row in his direction with energetic gestures, bridging the distance that separated them in just a few minutes, something that Marlon absolutely could not do with his current physical strength.

When he arrived at his height, Marlon could stare at the man. He must have been around fifty, his dark skin tanned by the sun and the years. His black eyes sparkled under his thick eyebrows and a big, toothy smile lit up his face. He had a muscular but slender body, every muscle braided as if every last milligram of fat had been removed from his body. His square face gave off a raw impression, with a hint of kindness coming mostly from his eyes that softened those abrupt features.

Marlon clearly didn't want to provoke this character who could probably take his head off his shoulders in one move, so he gave him his best smile.

"Hello, are you okay?"

"I'm doing just fine, young man, thanks for your concern! I saw you as a lost soul on your boat, I thought I'd come and see you. What are you doing here, aren't you fishing?"

The young man invented a plausible story, the solution coming to him instinctively as he looked at the ruined hamlet on the shore, having no trouble understanding the relatively strong accent of his interlocutor.

"I ran away from the fire last night," he began, giving his voice a slight tremor, "and I didn't have time to do anything but run. I didn't have time to get my fishing pole or my stuff. So I'm waiting for everything to get back to normal and I'll go home if my house hasn't burned down with everything else. But for sure I would have preferred to fish and feed myself properly..."

The more he spoke, the more emotion he allowed to flow through his sentences, and by the time he was done, he had almost brought a tear to the old man's eye, a disturbing thing considering his stature.

"Vindieux, I saw that monstrous fire! I'm from Lekpos, the hamlet next door, and we were all shocked to see it this morning! But then again, Takpos wasn't very well maintained either, was it? Something like that had to happen sooner or later... not for lack of telling him, to Turion, eh. Hey, if you want, I've got an extra cane. It's not the best quality stuff, but you can keep it and feed yourself with it, it'll still be good.

The beast had been shod, Marlon only had to reel it in slowly and surely.

"Yeah, that's...that's really nice of you. At least I could eat my fill, just if you have a bait or two to leave me, that would be great. And I think I'm going to go see my family in the capital before I go back to shore. It's not reassuring, you know? Only it's been a long time since I've been there and I don't remember the road too well... "

He was so much in character that he had even reused that accent he had been hearing for several days now. Successfully, apparently, because his interlocutor nodded and gave him a small container of bait as he answered his question.

"I'll tell you what, boy. It's as simple as that. You just keep going along the shoreline in the direction of the mountains over there," he said, pointing to the mountains northeast of Takpos, the hamlet he had burned. "I don't recommend cutting through the middle of the lake, there are big bugs that find us appetizing in that area. You need anything else, boy?"

"That's very kind, but you've done a lot, sir. I'm going to go fishing for a while and then I'm going to take it easy on the way to the capital. Thanks again, and may the Gods bless you."

The fisherman nodded and thanked Marlon for his blessing, slowly pulling away from his boat and giving the young man one last sad look.

He blessed himself inwardly with his ability to adapt to his interlocutors. And fortunately for him, the man seemed to be an honest person. Or was it because he thought he was from Takpes? Marlon did feel a shiver of hatred when he heard the name Turion, the man who had tried to frame him yesterday, but he hoped that guy had burned up with the rest of his village.

With a shrug, Marlon lost interest in the subject and with powerful strokes of his oars moved away towards the opposite shore to get closer to the capital.

He had wanted to swim, but the man's warning about the creatures in the center of the lake had dampened his spirits. It would be really stupid to have survived this far and end up as a snack for the fish. It was supposed to be the other way around, right?

He couldn't help but glance warily at the depths of the lake, stopping after a few seconds as his fertile imagination already saw a gigantic Kraken rising from the blue waters and taking him along as a snack.

He quickly began to sweat from the effort and the heat of the sun but figured that the closer he got to Delia, the less he would have to do later.

Two hours later, the sun had dropped considerably in the sky as the temperature became milder, and Marlon rinsed his face with water from the lake, ignoring the strong smell of rancid perspiration he gave off. He could hardly see the hamlets he had come from anymore, and that was very good news for him. He stopped rowing and in perfect synchronization, his stomach began to rumble, and Luna to meow insistently.

He made up his mind and took the fishing rod the other man had given him. The young man had of course never fished in his life, although he understood that the bait, some kind of fine pink worms, had to be hung on the metal spike at the end of the line.

On Earth, fishing had not existed for decades, the fish having been exterminated because of overfishing a long time ago. Only specimens raised in hydroponic farms existed, and they were of course horribly expensive.

There followed a long moment of loneliness and distress as his baits disappeared one after the other without him understanding what to do.

He could have sworn that his chimera was also laughing at him but having no tangible proof he had to curb his urge to be violent towards her. Luna was very lucky to be so cute, otherwise, he might have made a snack out of her.

It was only after a long and arduous hour that he finally managed to catch something. When he pulled it out of the water, the fish splashed water everywhere with its tail beating the surface. Bringing it back into the boat, the young man quickly stuck his knife in the fish's eye to finish it off and breathed a sigh of relief as his first meal of the day was before him.

It wasn't going to be a pantagruelian meal, but it was something. The animal was about twenty centimeters long, and scales, oscillating between red and orange, covered most of its body. Some kind of whiskers were present on the side of its mouth and made almost think of cat's whiskers, the look of the young man alternating between the fish and its chimera.

Luna seemed to understand what the young man was thinking and turned around with a blaze of disdain, indignant that he had dared to make such a comparison.

Emboldened by his first successful catch of the day, Marlon continued on and within the next hour managed to pull three more of the same fish out of the water. He now had more than enough for a meal, and the smell of fish emanating from the bottom of the boat was beginning to bother him a little, while Luna was getting more and more impatient, even trying to steal one discreetly when Marlon wasn't paying attention.

So he moved closer to the shore, making sure no one was around. He wasn't really in a social mood today and was only looking forward to cleaning up and eating.

He gave one last big row to beach his ship on the pebbles and then went down with his catch of the day, the cat on his heels. He pulled the ship a little further up the coast, not wanting to have any unpleasant surprises later, then he put his pack on his back before looking for a suitable place to settle down.

It was only a matter of minutes before a fire blazed on the shore and the fish were speared on pieces of wood found here and there. Marlon had left one for Luna, which she was dutifully devouring in her corner.

The young man plunged headfirst into the water and scrubbed himself intensely to remove the smell of sweat and fish that had permeated him, regretting only that he had no soap to make it all more effective. He didn't move away from the shore, constantly remembering the fisherman's words about the creatures of the lake, even glancing nervously at the surface of the water when he saw splashing.

He quickly went back upstairs and devoured the improvised skewers of fresh fish, enjoying the fresh food and making a change from the meat he had been eating for several days without stopping.

The camp was set up before nightfall, and the air was cool, perhaps because of the fatigue he felt and all the events of the previous day. The smooth pebbles were not the most comfortable, but he made do with a thick blanket given to him by Selia before he left. He blessed the Huntress without whom his journey would have been far less comfortable.

He absentmindedly stroked his chimera, wondering what it could be used for besides warning him of danger and lightly scratching his enemies, and how he could make it grow faster. As he did so, he looked up at the starry sky and swooned at the view he had. No one on Earth could see such a sight anymore. Light pollution and clouds of fine particles gave a permanently gray sky there, through which no stars were visible anymore.

There he could see whole constellations shining in front of him, and even a few shooting stars. One of them particularly intrigued him. Of a yellow color, shining more and more, it seemed to approach and fall towards Marlon, like a meteor.

Worry gripped him as he realized that this was really the case. He stood up and tried to throw himself to the side, but the lightning ball hit him before he could do anything. The impact sent the young man tumbling a few feet away and just before he lost consciousness he heard a disturbing sound.

Ding

Priority message from one of the fifty Gods.

Then it was total darkness.

A few minutes later, or a few hours, he wasn't sure, his consciousness returned and he sat up, seeing that it was still night and the campfire he had lit was still burning brightly. Luna was next to him, meowing her concern, but when she saw him open his eyes again, she sniffed him once or twice and then went to settle back down by the fireplace, nice and warm.

"Hey, hi Marlon! Good to see you! I thought I was going to pass this one!"

The young man jumped and turned around, drawing his sword in the process, as a voice saying something seemed to come from behind him.

But no one was there. His nervous tension was about to explode when the voice came again.

"Relax, kid, it's me, Loki! I just integrated myself into your consciousness so don't freak out like that!"

Marlon did not feel reassured, especially considering the implication of what the voice had just said. But indeed, it had the intonation and the tone of the robot he had met in the Virtu world. He just wondered what the AI was doing in his consciousness.

"There have been some...complicated developments, about the bet I made, and I wanted to secure the win. So I decided to come to Neo-Life to guide you more effectively. Ha, and you don't need to verbalize your questions. I've grafted myself to your consciousness, so it's like I'm your consciousness, hahaha!"

"Damn, Loki, that's super creepy...you're going to have to give me more information than that."

"I figured you wouldn't just let me squat on your mind like that...you don't trust me, haha?!?"

Without giving Marlon time to react, he continued with a long monologue that would leave Marlon stunned and very thoughtful.

"In any case, for the sake of our joint venture, I need to tell you more. Please understand that my previous position, which was to hide certain information from you, was for your own good. Only...some players have decided to break the rules, and since I've always been the strongest at this game, here I am!"

First, the AI explained to him his real position in the Empire's hierarchy and the fact that the bet concerned only the highest authorities, including the Emperor. The young man felt dizzy when he heard this, and Loki gave him a few seconds to think before continuing.

"Before we start, I have to tell you something important. Neo-Life is in no way a video game! I think you already instinctively understood that, right?"

The young man nodded. He had strongly suspected it for some time but had never been able to put his finger on it. Like a word you have on the tip of your tongue but don't want to get out of your mouth. Still, he couldn't help but feel deep unease at the implication.

"Fifty years ago, our technologies allowed access to the Neo-Life dimension, or at least the sending of virtual consciousnesses into this world that has completely different laws from ours. I'm talking of course about magic, classes, various creatures. The Imperator wanted to take it over and monopolize its resources, but we AIs opposed him and ended up making this bet. The winner will unilaterally decide the fate of Neo-Life."

There was another long moment of silence, and Marlon was trying his best to assimilate what he had just heard, or rather thought, as the voice seemed to really come from inside his head.

"The Imperator cheated, and we had to put a measure in place to prevent him from continuing. This measure is unavoidable and will be put in place in a few minutes. We all, as 'Gods', have been given the right to send a message to our players before any interaction is prohibited."

"So does that mean there are really only fifty other players?" the young man asked, totally overwhelmed by what he was learning.

"Haha, no, that would be too easy. There are about fifty thousand players who have been connected, but only fifty are the 'favorites'! These ones have definitely been given special treatment like you, and should not be treated lightly. They will be much less easy to execute than your previous prey, haha!"

Marlon could almost see the AI's cold smile in his head and he couldn't help but shake it to get the image out of his mind.

"So you have to understand one thing. Your famous 'interface' that makes this whole world look like a game is just window dressing. It interprets your progress and gives you global information, but only your efforts have value in this world. That and the way you approach things, but I think you already understood that. That's how you'll increase your stats and become a powerful person."

Marlon nodded. He had indeed understood since Akranio that the important thing was his own efforts and his diligence in training. Fortunately, he had not rested on his laurels and every day had had its share of efforts, which had paid off. However, he didn't quite agree with Loki on one point. His Interface was very useful, even if it didn't change anything. His map, the access to the codex that was filled in during his adventure, could one day save his life or at least save him a lot of useless efforts.

"The good thing about this is that I managed to cheat and come to you before the dimensional firewall was set up. I'll skip the details, I think you've got enough to digest for now. I could guide you a little bit because we've been watching this world for fifty years and we've learned a lot about it. And since I have...let's say interfered in your choice of class, I know a few things about how this world works. But first, you need to visit Delia."

"Yes, I have to meet Jacob, the master swordsman there! Considering all that you tell me, I will not neglect any way to strengthen myself...

"That, and more importantly you need to learn more runes. And that's good, there are plenty of non-essential players in the capital and in the region. And if you happen to come across any favorites...all the better. So you'll be able to fill up, haha. And I think you're starting to like it, the massacres, aren't you?"

Marlon's icy smile returned, and anyone who saw him at that moment would have frozen like a trapped prey living its last moments.

"Let's just say I wouldn't let it happen again, not like in my old life, those who pick on me will suffer...and if in the process I can reduce the competition...!!"

"Always be careful, you've been pretty lucky so far, but it will only take one time to get screwed over and lose your life...never let your guard down!"

Marlon fully understood Loki's warning, having come close to death several times, his survival being due solely to luck and lucky reflexes. And the one time he didn't listen to the advice he had been given, he had almost died and been cheated. However, he answered the AI with a shrug:

"In the worst-case scenario, we have two lives to use yet, right? I guess this universe allows us to reset our consciousnesses or something, right?"

The laughter that echoed in Marlon's head was frank, and very mocking.

"I already told you that this world is real. Zeus, who is none other than the Emperor himself, thought he would make a good joke by announcing that each player had three lives, and probably eliminate a lot of unwary players in the process. But you have to understand one thing: even though there are various ways in this world through magic to save someone or turn them into the Necros, which is a very special people, if you die, it's over for you. You only have one life. You lose it, it's over, hahahaha!!!"

Marlon suspected the implications of everything Loki had said up to that point, but a small part of his subconscious still hoped that, somewhere, he would get a second chance if he screwed up.

But all that had just fallen apart in front of the last tirade of the AI that was now part of him.

He was in a real world. If he screwed up, he would die. It was as simple as that.