Quest? Rewards? Five gold? Ten stat points? The words swam in front of his eyes, meaningless neon graffiti over the nightmare unfolding just feet away. The coppery stench clogged his throat. Innocent life already lost.
Brutally.
'No. Nonono. Get out.'
His body reacted before his brain caught up. Survival instinct, honed over years of dodging threats far less monstrous but just as dangerous, screamed RUN.
He spun on his heel, moss squishing underfoot, and bolted back the way he came.
A wet tearing sound, followed by guttural chittering, stopped abruptly behind him. Then, sniffing noises. Snuffling, eager.
The world exploded into panicked motion. Twigs snapped, leaves flew. He risked a glance back.
Three pairs of hungry black eyes locked onto him. The creatures, abandoning their previous victim, scrambled upright on spindly legs, their wide mouths splitting into needle-toothed grins. Fresh meat. Easier prey.
'Oh, fuck.'
He ran. Ran like the noodle vendor was chasing him, ran like the cops were after him, ran harder than he'd ever run in his life. Branches clawed at his tunic, roots threatened to trip his bare feet. His lungs burned.
The new body wasn't used to this kind of terror-fueled sprint.
The [Accept] / [Decline] window still shimmered stubbornly at the edge of his vision, bumping along with his frantic pace. Accept what? Fight those things? Was it kidding? He didn't know how to fight! He had no weapon, not even a decent rock!
He dodged left, ducking under a low-hanging branch, praying they wouldn't follow. He heard them crashing through the undergrowth behind him, unnervingly fast. Their grunts were getting closer.
Panic clawed at his throat. He saw a dense thicket of ferns ahead, swerved sharply into it, pushing through the wet leaves, then immediately veered right again, hoping the sudden change would throw them off. He scrambled behind the massive trunk of an ancient-looking tree, pressing himself flat against the rough bark, heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.
He held his breath, listening.
The crashing sounds continued past his hiding spot, fading slightly into the distance. Did it work? Did they lose him? He didn't dare move, didn't dare breathe too loud.
Silence, except for the frantic thumping in his own chest and the buzzing in his ears.
He slid down the tree trunk, collapsing onto the damp ground. His legs trembled uncontrollably. Sweat plastered the simple tunic to his back. He buried his face in his knees, shaking.
This wasn't fun. This wasn't some second chance adventure. This was… terrifying. Way, way too scary. The image of the girl, the creatures… it wouldn't leave his mind. Bile rose again. He swallowed hard.
'Helpless. Again.' The familiar weight settled back onto his shoulders, heavy and suffocating. Different world, same story. Alone. Useless. About to be eaten by monsters this time instead of just fading away from hunger or cold.
Some upgrade.
Suddenly, the text box in front of him flickered, the quest prompt vanishing. New text appeared, formatted differently. Not the usual system info dump. It felt… pointed.
[Good grief. How can one person be so useless?]
Sunny blinked, startled. He looked around wildly. Did someone say that? Was someone else hiding nearby?
[Down here, genius. The glowing text you've been ignoring.]
He stared dumbly at the floating words. 'The System… is talking to me?'
[Look, normally I wouldn't interface directly. Protocol, you know? Strictly observational AI support. But watching you almost become goblin chow after tripping over your own feet… it triggers certain… pity protocols. Seriously pathetic.]
'It's… female? And sassy?' His terror momentarily gave way to utter bewilderment. An AI? With an attitude? Assigned to him?
[Yeah, yeah, female-coded vocalization routines and assigned support unit. Lucky me.] The text scrolled with distinct impatience. [Are you done having your breakdown? Because those things aren't going to politely wait for you to compose yourself before coming back for seconds.]
"What am I supposed to do?" he whispered aloud, his voice raspy. "Fight them? How?"
[Okay, basic tutorial time, apparently. See that coin the Goddess gave you? The one you miraculously haven't lost yet? In your pocket.]
His hand automatically went to his trousers, fingers closing around the warm, heavy coin. The Divine Coin.
[That's not just pocket change, idiot. It's basically a divine mana battery. Packed full of the Goddess's power. It's also your main link to her dwindling divinity and, incidentally, the power source for me.]
He pulled the coin out, holding it in his trembling palm. It gleamed softly, warm against his skin. Divine mana? Power? Okay…
He looked from the coin to the text box, then back to the coin. A vast, echoing silence stretched out, filled only by his own cluelessness.
"Okay," he asked, his voice small. "How do I… use it?"
The text box pulsed once, sharply.
[…You have got to be kidding me.]
A little bit more silence passed.
[Are you serious? Your INT score is 3, not negative infinity. It's mana. Think of it like… internal juice. The coin is full of premium, Goddess-grade juice. You need to use the juice.]
He frowned at the glowing text. 'Internal juice? Premium grade? What does that even mean?' He felt like he was trying to understand astrophysics explained by a particularly sarcastic toddler.
"Okay, but how?" he insisted, keeping his voice low. paranoia prickled at the back of his neck. Those things could still be nearby. "Do I… squeeze it? Talk to it? Throw it?"
[No, you don't throw the irreplaceable divine artifact, you moron! Gods above… Okay. Focus. Hold the coin. Feel that warmth? That's the mana.]
He tightened his grip. Yeah, it was warm. Definitely felt… different. Like holding a tiny, sleeping animal.
[Now, will some of that warmth to come out. Like… pushing it. Not physically, mentally. Point your hand at something you don't like – say, that ugly patch of fungus on the tree over there – and push the energy towards it. Try saying… hmm, let's go with 'Force'.]
'Force?' Sounded like something from a movie he half-remembered seeing flickering on a stolen tablet screen once. Seemed kind of dumb. But what did he have to lose? Except maybe getting laughed at by a disembodied text box.
He shifted nervously, pointing his coin-holding hand vaguely towards a slimy-looking mushroom clump about ten feet away. He took a shallow breath, feeling utterly ridiculous.
"Uh… Force?"
Nothing happened. The coin stayed warm. The fungus remained stubbornly fungal.
[Wow. Okay. Maybe try putting some feeling into it? Like you actually want it to do something? Remember those things chasing you? Imagine one was right there instead of the mushroom. Push it away!] The text pulsed with exaggerated urgency.
He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, picturing the goblins – the needle teeth, the dead eyes, the way they tore at the girl. A surge of nausea and cold fear washed over him. But mixed with it… a tiny spark of anger.
Helpless anger, maybe, but it was there. They hurt her. They tried to hurt him.
He opened his eyes, staring hard at the fungus. He gripped the coin tight, focusing on that feeling, that desperate need to make something stop, to push it back.
"Force!" he tried again, shoving the word out with more feeling.
FWOOMPH!
A barely visible ripple of energy, like heat haze shimmering off hot pavement, burst from his hand. It hit the tree trunk just beside the fungus patch with a soft thump. A few loose bits of bark flew off. The coin in his hand felt slightly cooler.
He stared, eyes wide. 'Woah.' It… it actually worked?
[Okay, not exactly pinpoint accuracy, but progress! See? You used the juice! That was maybe… point-zero-one percent of the coin's charge. Don't get trigger-happy, it's not infinite, especially since the Goddess is basically running on fumes herself.]
He flexed his fingers, looking at the coin, then back at the slightly damaged tree bark. A tiny spark of something that wasn't terror flickered inside him. It wasn't much, just a little push. But it was something.
He wasn't completely empty-handed.
[Right, playtime's over,] the text box snapped back into focus, sharp and demanding. [Those goblins. They smelled you. They know you're around. They probably doubled back or are circling. You going to hide behind this tree until they sniff you out, or are you going to deal with them?]
The quest window reappeared beneath Sys's text, the [Accept] / [Decline] options pulsing faintly.