Re: The System's Harvester Chapter 2 : Home

Chapter 2 - Ho

Optional Music to Accompany the Chapter: Rok Nardin & Garrett Weyenberg - Stranger (feat. Madalen Duke)

syoutu.be/cHZNi1ltSAY

Late Evening - Unknown Season : Year 0 | Month 0 : The Forgotten Altar

World: Dracoria | Rank: ERROR | Population: Error Code C.725

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"Uwaaah..." Letting out a carefree yawn, I stretched out on a bed of tallic grass, enjoying the gentle stimulation through my tight black gambeson—my thoughts calm as the warm, iron-rich breeze rolling over the top of the cliff behind .

It was the scent of blood from a vast ocean down below—contaminated, littered with corpses the size of islands.

In the past, the scent alone would have been enough to make vomit.. a scent so thick you could taste the grasp of death and the coming of rot.

But, I didn't even acknowledge it. After about five and a half centuries, I had actually grown accustod to it—to hell. The longer I lived and jumped through worlds completing missions, the farther the line determining what a paradise was, sank into the abyss.

"Mhh..." Yet as I stared into the sky of saffron, watching pink and red clouds clash as if to mimic the dance of the two distant, hazy stars behind them.. I found enjoynt.

Even if it was bound to be interrupted. *Ding!-Ding!-Ding!-Di...* Hearing thousands of system pings, the sky was blotted out with panels, their vibrant blue hue slicing through the orange haze like nothing else could: 'You have killed a Level -1... Recieved...'

"Nnngh..." I groaned with a stretch. -I was wondering when the drones would find that last nest...- *fwip* -'Mute kill notifications'.- Waving away the panels with a casual swipe, my thought echoed like a command, yet with a responsive beep, the ringing of kill panels ceased, and blissful silence returned. inhale "Haah..."

Or so I thought.

*Thump-Splash...* Thump-Splash... Feeling the cliffside quake with a steady rhythm, I was dragged out of my illusory cradle, lethargically sitting up, dragging myself from the verge of sleep to look over my shoulder at a distant figure: a colossal, nearly two-hundred-ter-tall lizard barreling towards , streaming enough drool from its maw to fill up entire lakes. -One slipped through the drones, huh...-

Vwoop Opening my notifications panel with my arm propped on my knee, I found that the last kill from my drones was almost half an hour ago. aning... -This must be the last one.-

"Uwaah..." Letting out another yawn, I finally started standing up, brushing off my white and gold leggings with my skin-tight black gloves ant to be tucked into gauntlets before straightening up. -I guess I'll stretch a bit before the next mission...- Looking down at a lump around the base of my finger, a montary flash escaped before an axe as large as appeared in my grasp. Vwoop

It was my axe, a living weapon nad Klímaka Drákou—black, single-bladed axe with a long staff and a rather srizing, pulsating purple glow, moving and flowing like a liquid with a mind of its own.

It was my baby.. my only companion to stick with through the hell I had co to call ho.

But just as it was a companion, it was a tool that had grown with for centuries and beco sothing I could consider an extension of myself.

And that was sothing truly frightening.

Woom Lifting it up with a gentle hum, I looked out at the slobbering lizard, unable to muster anything more than a yawn before activating dozens of skills through the system, and swinging.

Shik-WOOOM Hearing space itself warp, everything beyond the arc of my swing vanished—the ocean cavitated, the planets crust splintered, and the sky split all the way to the horizon, leaving the two halves of the charging monster to go limp, and fall separately. SPLAAASH

An instantaneous death. And an acceptable display.

"Uwaah..." -Good enough...- Letting one final yawn slip, Draco vanished back into the equipnt ring, and my gaze settled on the panels populating before :

'Excessive Planetary Damage Detected! Penalty will be...'

'All Hostile Life Exterminated... Recieved...'

Fwip-Fwip-Fwip Most of them I closed without a second thought.

However, as I shifted gears, ntally preparing to jump to a new world and start the next mission, I found myself staring into a ssage I had never seen before:

'Critical Error Occurred. No Further Missions Available.'

'Activating Failsafe.'

-H..Huh?- The panel gently flickered, faded, and glitched as I stared at it, almost appearing like an illusion.

Up until then, I had never not had a quest imdiately granted to . The mont I completed one, I would be granted another, dragged to a new world, and forced to follow the System's bidding, whether that ant I was to do sothing simple, or be forced to fight for my life against sothing I was never ant to face.

All just to stay alive.

But after a certain point, death was no longer a risk. I had so many skills that flicking a pebble could blow holes through mountains, so much gold it would fluctuate between positive and negative with every kill, and items like my axe that let cleave entire planets in half.

My strength was my pride.. the culmination of my life's effort to survive...

...The culmination of my life's effort to reach this point...

Beep Finally mustering the courage to tap the panel, everything else vanished instantaneously:

'Override Enabled: User can now return to any world previously visited.'

My breath caught sharply, the words lingering, floating in the air as if weightless...

After supposedly five hundred years.. tens of thousands of different worlds.. millions of different quests...

I had finally reached the end.

In that mont, my heart thumped dully—uncertainty and worry threading through every thought, until my stomach itself churned.

Anxiety... It was a sensation I had almost forgotten.

By then, I knew nothing other than killing... After being dragged through worlds, forced to assassinate kings and researchers, told to cleave kingdoms and civilizations, and asked to level entire continents of creatures rely wishing to live peacefully.. all to survive.. I was reduced a mindless machine that knew nothing beyond following the orders of the System...

A mindless slave that had given up on the thought of freedom...

And yet, slowly reaching out once more, I found my eyes on the list of worlds I had traversed over the years. Tens of thousands of nas, each stirring different mories, glowing, flickering as if they'd vanish if I breathed wrong.

I didn't believe it.. a part of didn't want to...

But after scrolling through that endless list.. I reached the bottom:

'World #0 | Earth'

The sight of that na alone made my pulse quicken—a blend of emotions buried beneath centuries of numbness stirring for the first ti in eons. I was afraid to touch it... Afraid the mont I extended my hand, the illusion would break.

This was what I did it all for... The result of my efforts to stay alive no matter how much I suffered...

It stirred a flicker of hope—a glimr of an ember just bright enough to make extend my hand...

...And touch that forgotten na.

*Tap* Beep Hearing the system beep as the panels disappeared, my heart twitched, but just a mont later, another appeared:

'Teleporting to World #0 | Earth'

And before I could react, my surroundings were swallowed by the void. Vwoop

My mind stuttered, descending into a fog from shock that took ti to settle—ti I didn't know could flow inside a gate...

Having jumped through hundreds of thousands of them in my travels through the System, I had never had one last more than the teeniest fraction of a second—a mont so brief it could truly be considered instantaneous, but this ti, it couldn't have felt slower. -Is this.. really happening..?-

Ding-Ding Hearing the pinging of panels I couldn't see, I raised my arm to mute it like I normally would before my stomach twisting into a knot. -Maybe.. not this ti...- "System," I started hesitantly. "Turn on audio-only mode." My voice was strained—my body locked in place by an unfathomable force.

But regardless, the System heard . Beep "Setting Changed..." The voice spoke straight into my head, seemingly ignoring the dium of my eardrums. "Attempting Connection to Server 141-A81-B5, colloquial na, Earth."

-Huh? Did Earth beco a server world?- It was a concept I rembered, albiet only distantly—worlds with intelligent life granted special System access to act akin to gathering hubs for System Users.

But even with that privilege, during my travels over the last two centuries, even those worlds were nothing but husks. Kingdoms that once spanned continents were left to rot, their streets filled with the decayed skeletons of families, royalty and peasants alike, all torn limb from limb and reclaid by nature. -If Earth followed that fate...- My face darkened at the thought.

But I didn't even get that far.

Beep "Connection Attempt 49,999 Failed. System Versions Incompatible.

*Beep* "Attempting Connection to Main Server... Server out of reach... Reconnecting Via Closest Relay... Connected... Attempting Synchronization."

The silence that followed every word was excruciating. No matter how hard I tried to find it, peace never settled—even for a breath.

Until finally, the system rang my skull like it was a massive bell. BEEP "Outdated System detected. Beginning Update and Verification..."

-W..what?-

BEEP "SYSTEM CORRUPTION DETECTED! Attempting Ergency REPAIR."

Wincing with every deafening beep, I could hardly keep up with the rapid cycling of ssages—until...

BEEP-BEEP "System-Critical Error Occurred. Forcefully wiping System."

Those words reached with clarity I could never explain. -S-SYSTEM WIPE?!- It made my heart stop. "S-SHIT! SYSTEM CANCEL!" Panic tore through .

But the lifeless voice didn't care. "Force-Wipe Repair cannot be cancelled... System Overload detected. Reallocating System Resources." I couldn't stop it...

"I DESTROYED WORLDS FOR THAT SHIT! LIKE HELL I'LL LET YOU TAKE IT AWAY!" Knowing what was coming, I thrashed, forcing myself through the unfathomably crushing pressure locking in place in hopes of breaking out and stopping it.

But it was futile.

All I could do was listen in horror as the trophies I gained from centuries of blood, pain, and grit were taken away from ...

Beep "49,729,125,437 items removed from Gear and Inventory..." As if everything I bled for was nothing more than a gift.. an investnt.. it was taking everything. "Proceeding to Skills and Upgrades..."

And no matter how much I wanted to resist.. I was completely powerless. No matter where I reached—where I swatted—I couldn't find the walls of that trapped .

...I couldn't find a place to tear myself out...

But that was when it happened.

Beep "Releasing User's Reserved Mana... Restrictions Undone."

VWOOOOOOOM Before I could blink, energy erupted from within as if a balloon was popped, flooding my body, perating my cells and skin before filling the surrounding space like a burst of water that extended my own perception.

For that mont, it felt as if my mind had ascended, seeing everything from the twitching of my own muscle fibers to the flow of individual molecules vibrating in the air around —all at once.

It was so jarring it even quelled the rage that was ready to rip myself out of the gate.

But that anger was needless anyway.

BEEP "CRITICAL WARNING. Teleportation Gate Unstable. Searching for local non-obstructed space... Found."

CRACK-VWOOOOM The sphere shattered a mont later as if bursting from pressure before a cool, humid air kissed my face, and a ray of warm light graced my eyes.

Wooosh It was a cool, steady breeze that seed to blow away the surrounding void as if it was made of nothing more than idle thoughts.

And before I knew it, I found myself looking out from atop a mountain, over an endless green forest with the chirp of song birds, the rustle of leaves, and the scent of oak overloading my mind.

Everything was heightened more than it ever had before... I could count feathers on birds kiloters away, pinpoint the crunch of leaves beneath a squirrel's paw hundreds of ters away, and sll the countless different flowers and trees blooming in the eve of spring, all while the ocean of energy erupting from painted a blurry image of my surroundings in my mind.

It was overwhelming to the point it was suffocating.. but as if my mind had simply overloaded from it all, I was calm.

I was finally back...

Standing there from atop that rock outcrop, the long-forgotten mories of holding my father's hand, laying in a field to gaze at clouds with my mom, and waking to the chirp of dove every morning ca back with a clarity I never knew them to have.

And for a mont.. my anger settled...

-Am I really.. ho..?-

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