Simple indeed, Isaac thought, his gaze lingering on the long notification. Shouldn’t be hard to complete this one… hopefully.

  If there were any limits to the first task—like, for example, having to kill monsters close to one’s own level—he would be more worried. But as it was? With nothing stopping the stronger Hosts from just slaughtering hordes of weak monsters? This should be a walk in the park.

  Guess the name fits. He chuckled.

  Over thirty-five hours of relative peace, at least on Earth. As for the Battleworld… Isaac’s eyes drifted back to the thirty Warp Portals floating not that far away. Two possible destinations, and no way to choose the one he wanted.

  Truth be told, he both liked it and didn’t.

  Why?

  The randomness eliminated any possibility of mass invasions on either Earth or the Battleworld. At the same time, however, it made the Warp Portals nearly useless to him. The risk, compared to the reward, was much, much higher, especially when there were no points to earn, or a versus task active.

  So yeah, he didn’t really see the point of invasions. Simply going through to cause some chaos in the enemy world didn’t seem worth his time. And if he got unlucky and landed on Oblivis’ Battleworld? He was strong, but not strong enough to face over twenty Pioneers alone.

  That would be a suicide. Which was why, for now, he decided to shelve the idea of using the Portals. It was just common sense, in his honest and unbiased opinion.

  Maybe the others will have some ideas on how to use them this round, Isaac mused, though he doubted it. Still… all this raises another question. Why have the Overlords agreed to let the portals work like this?

  To him, it felt downright counterproductive. Aside from Rakin, they all wanted him dead. So why make their jobs harder by randomizing the destination of the Portals? He couldn’t quite wrap his head around it.

  Had the Overlords messed up somewhere, or was this part of some plan he couldn’t even begin to imagine?

  Or maybe that’s Rakin’s work? Sounds like something he would do to mess with the others.

  Curious, Isaac opened the communication menu and wrote a quick message to his Patron. The alien had given him the name, so he might as well use it.

  About a minute later, a reply came through.

  “Nah, kid. I had no part in that,” Rakin wrote. “My bet? The Overseer forced this rule to even out the odds after all the manipulations. That’s what usually happens in cases like this. But I will look into it anyway. Just to be safe.”

  Isaac nodded to himself and answered with a quick thanks. To his surprise, the Overlord sent him one more message after a moment.

  “Oh, and kid? I might have some very good news for you soon. If I pull this off, your life should become much easier.”

  Isaac’s eyebrows rose at that. Without hesitation, he asked the Overlord just what he was planning. What he didn’t expect, though, was to receive a winking emoji as an answer.

  Wait what? There are emojis in this thing?

  As if responding to his confusion, the Interface opened a small window in front of him. It was filled with emoticons, some of which he recognized, others not so much. He promptly closed it and decided his friends could never learn about this.

  Or rather, one friend in particular.

  Isaac shuddered. Some of James’ texts were bad enough without emojis thrown into the mix.

  Yeah. I am taking this secret to the grave.

  Shaking his head, Isaac rose to his feet and turned away from the field of Warp Portals. He had wasted enough time here, and he was still no closer to deciding what to do now that invasions were possible.

  Stay on the Battleworld, or return to Earth for the time being?

  Staying seemed like the obvious answer. He could always remain out of sight and join up when another attack on the Titan began. At the same time, though, randomly jumping between Earth and the Battleworld would make things harder for anyone still trying to kill him. And that applied both to other Humans and Salirians.

  He let out a sigh.

  Nothing can ever be easy, eh?

  For now, the Battleworld was peaceful, so if he wanted, he could probably go back to Earth and maybe help out with the task. Getting some more practice with Origin Fusion couldn’t help either. Or… he could do something else entirely.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  A smile tugged at his lips.

  Ah, why the hell not?

  Once again, Isaac opened the group chat with his friends and typed out a short message.

  “I will be unavailable for the next few hours. Gonna check what is waiting at the end of the first territory.”

  For over a minute, he waited for a response. When none came, he frowned and decided to check if his message had even gone through. It had.

  So why are you—

  Isaac didn’t get to finish the thought. The group chat pinged in his head, revealing a single new message from Carmela.

  “Good idea. Also, while you’re already at it, see if you can locate the source of the swarms. I sent some people into the forest, but they came up empty. Hidden Dark Pits further out, perhaps?”

  Huh… Isaac hummed to himself. Now that he thought about it, Carmela was right. The entire forest territory was oddly empty when there was no swarm active. So where were all the monsters coming from?

  “Will see what I can do,” he replied. “Message me if anything happens or you need me back.”

  After receiving a quick affirmative from Carmela, he closed the group chat and transformed. On the map, the forest territory seemed huge, maybe even larger than the first Peaceful Plain he had traveled through with his team. But that was weeks ago. He was much faster now.

  Let’s see if I can make it back before the first day is over.

  Isaac passed over the Titan and the small army of Hosts in the area not even twenty minutes after he left the Battleworld Safe Zone. If not for seeing it with his own two eyes, he would have never believed that a creature so massive could move so slowly.

  Alas, that was just how things worked this round. At least for now.

  After leaving the Titan behind, Isaac stayed above the Victory Road at all times. Even though he had promised Carmela to look for the source of the monsters, he could always do that on the way back. Right now, he wanted to see whether the road remained the same throughout the entire first territory.

  Spoiler: it didn’t.

  About halfway through his journey, the land ahead of him began to change. The trees became darker and taller, while the Victory Road was no longer empty.

  It started with just some thick roots here and there blocking the path. Nothing too problematic. Isaac destroyed them with a few well-placed blood spears.

  Yet, as he flew farther, those lone roots grew in number. Worse, they also began to combine into thick wooden walls that blocked the entire path. Now, this again wouldn’t have been a problem for any reasonably powerful Host. The issue, though?

  The sheer amount of those walls.

  In the span of ten minutes, Isaac destroyed over twenty of them, each one requiring more Viron than the last. He had to stop when he realized his reserves were already half empty.

  And if that wasn’t enough, in the final quarter of the Victory Road, he encountered yet another obstacle.

  Potholes—each one the size of a car.

  There’s no way the Titan can just go around these, Isaac thought, scanning the path ahead of him. It had more holes than an honest-to-god Swiss cheese. So we also need to fix the road… Great.

  Yet again, he opened the group chat and explained the situation to Carmela. She hadn’t been happy to learn about the root walls, and he could only imagine her reaction once she read this update.

  Hopefully that’s the end of it, he mused, taking another look at the map. He should be close now. Maybe another hour or so of flight at full speed. No time to waste.

  Okay, color me impressed… and confused.

  Almost correct in his prediction, it took Isaac a little less than an hour to reach the end of the forest territory. Or rather, to get close enough to see its edge. And what awaited him there, he could have never predicted.

  A wall.

  In one place, there was the forest territory, and in the next, a massive, gray, misty wall. There was no seeing beyond it. Isaac had already tried flying higher and farther along it to find its end, but there was no such thing.

  The wall was endless.

  Still, Isaac wasn’t willing to give up just yet.

  Hovering a safe distance away from the gray barrier, he summoned a couple of blades formed from his imperfect Origin Fusion. With a mental tug, he let them fly.

  Nothing.

  The projectiles vanished the instant they touched the mist. He tried to detonate them manually, but his connection to them was also long gone.

  Isaac clicked his tongue.

  No idea what I expected, honestly…

  He glided back to ground and landed a couple of feet away from the wall. He didn’t dare to go any closer, though.

  “What now?” Isaac muttered to himself.

  Throwing stuff didn’t work, and he definitely wasn’t about to touch the wall with his own hands. He wasn’t suicidal. That left only one option, especially since the Interface refused to tell him anything about the barrier.

  “Anything you can tell me about this thing?” he sent to Rakin. “Any way to get past it, or should we just ignore it for the time being?”

  “Ignore,” the Overlord replied almost instantly. “There’s nothing beyond it right now. The Overseer is still preparing the next territory. And before you ask, no, I don’t know what it is yet.”

  Isaac nodded. One less problem to worry about for now.

  Job done, he was about to turn around and begin the trip back when another message from Rakin arrived.

  “Also, kid. I appreciate you trust me enough to ask these questions, but please try to keep them to a minimum unless it’s something really important. I got some leeway with the Overseer right now, thanks to what the others pulled, and I would rather save it for things you can’t figure out on your own. Don’t take the easy way out.”

  Isaac grimaced.

  Fair enough. Growing too dependent on him should be the last thing I want anyway.

  He closed the chat and spared the gray wall one final look. Hopefully, the territory waiting behind it wouldn’t be much worse than the forest. Knowing the Overseer, though? It probably would.

  Whatever. Gotta find where the monsters are coming from. Carrion Sense, your time to shine.

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