Opening his eyes, Kazi saw a smooth grey ceiling. The popcorn ceiling he was acquainted with for most of his life was gone. Smoothness implied wealth but that wasn't the case here.
He was in his own personal dinsion. A place described by Azrael as being in the middle of nothingness.
He got up and instinctively had the desire to wash his face.
"Oh shoot." Kazi face-pald. "No bathroom or shower."
As much as he wanted to snag the equipnt and parts necessary for a full bathroom, he didn't have the points. His Prize Point count had drained down to a asly one hundred. Furniture, food plus the Touch of Thunder, and he was out of money.
He slled himself. "It's not that bad. Buuut I should probably take one anyway. Don't wanna stink up the place."
That begged the question on what exactly this new body was. Was it purely the soul? Did that an souls had slls? So weird, but also impossible to figure out.
"Open party status."
[ Na: Kazi Hossain
Level: 8
HP: 50
MP: 72 ]
[ Na: Yoon Sun-young
Level: 8
HP: 40
MP: 64 ]
[ Na: William Martin
Level: 7
HP: 40
MP: 61 ]
Kazi, William, and Sun-young fard for a solid three hours and managed to gain a level. There were increases to all their stats (a one point increase to everything) and they were given three distributive points. William was pretty open about it and so was Sun-young, surprisingly. She was quiet yet forthcoming when it ca to aspects of the Ga System.
On the side bar was an option to create a group chat.
[ > Kazi Hossain: hey you guys up? ]
A ssage imdiately arrived from Sun-young.
[ > Yoon Sun-young: here
> Kazi Hossain: I hope you got so sleep!
> Yoon Sun-young: I did.
> Kazi Hossain: Nice! Let's et up soon!
> Yoon Sun-young: sure
> William Martin: My bad! Just woke up! I'll be there too! et at the Tower in an hour?
> Kazi Hossain: Agreed!
> Yoon Sun-young: yeah ]
"I should grab sothing for them to eat too."
A quick jog would be a great way to get the blood flowing.
"Exit ho."
***
He took a shower at the Recreation Sector, brushed his teeth, and headed over to a random café. Having actual servers, it took ti for his tea to be readied. The points were transferred in advance. The ambience was very similar to Arican cafes.
Kazi sat by the window, his fingers wrapped around a warm cup of chamomile tea. The cozy atmosphere was further heightened by the soft chatter of other patrons and the gentle clinking of cups and saucers. With his unruly hair and perpetual smile and the world beyond, he couldn't help but get giddy.
'I still can't believe it. I'm in the next world, the afterlife. It's crazy.'
Kazi never considered himself the most faithful man in the world. He read namaz when he could but he never pursued it as deeply as other people did. Going to Arica opened his eyes and granted him so many opportunities that he never had the ti. It was, well, liberating. Transformative. He learned to build, help, and guide people. Nothing was out of reach. Nothing lay beyond the horizon of his thought process.
Stores, farms, houses, roads, highways, no aspect of land went unchecked. He could do it all. He could build it all. He could FIX it all. He had beco a one-man army capable of terraforming an entire city.
But life refused to bend to the whims of one man.
His lips almost tugged into a frown.
'I should have prayed more. Maybe life would have gone better for . Maybe Allah would have done sothing.' He sipped on his tea and licked his lips. 'I wonder...if I was an imam, would I have gotten a bonus or sothing? So sort of holy advantage against monsters? I assu priests and monks get it, so in principle imams should also get it. Then again, there's no use crying about rotten milk.'
He received the Mage Class in the battle against the Sli Jack. The Class Skills might have been checked but he had yet to see what the skill tree offered.
'Open skill tree.'
The hexagonal icons appeared and he selected the last, an open palm wielding a fiery blue ball of magic. The Amateur Player Class' tree had been straightforward. It went up and up with no divergence. The Amateur Swordsman and the Mage Class distinctly spread out like tree roots. There were seven straight paths representing the seven basic elents.
'Fire Starter, Fire Ball, Fla Whip, Fire Dart, Ember Control...' Kazi's fingers hovered over the fire elental skills, his other hand occupied with his mug. 'Ember Control, a passive skill that increases your understanding and attack power by ten percent. Interesting.'
He went over to the lightning branch. 'Static Charge is the lightning equivalent of Fire Starter—the basic control of an elent. After that, it goes Lightning Bolt, Lightning Arc, Shockwave Pulse...ooh, that's slightly different. Rather than passive, it's a General Skill that increases lightning attacks by twenty percent for a duration of ti.'
What Kazi sought were techniques that would stay relevant even as he evolved and grew stronger. The Heavenly Gas would last two whole years. Ninety nine gas. Planning ahead was the best way to stay alive and gain strides in power.
Each skill cost three distributive points, with the exception of the final skills of the branch. For the lightning elent, it was Lightning Infusion and it cost five points.
He went over to his Amateur Swordsman Class. Spark Strike, Thunder Slash, Lightning Lunge, Shockwave Slice, Volt Parry, and, at the top of the thunder cloud costing seven distributive points, Static Swipe. The description worded it as an attack that exponentially increased the chance of a critical hit.
So far, in Kazi's hours of grinding, he hadn't hit a single critical hit. He wondered when it would happen.
He sipped his tea, humming, when a distinct burst of excited chatter reached his ears. His curiosity piqued, he turned his attention to a nearby table where a trio of young won were engrossed in conversation with a single man.
"Like, can I just say? It is an HONOUR to et you!" one of the girls exclaid, her eyes shining with starry admiration.
Kazi watched as the sole male of the group, hidden behind oversized sunglasses and a casual outfit, leaned back in his chair and offered a humble smile.
The second girl gushed, her words tumbling over the other in a race to be heard, "I used to watch all your videos!"
The young man must have been a celebrity given his body type and cool smirk. "I do my best, that's all. And without phones and social dia, I gotta just be an ordinary guy."
"You're definitely not so ordinary guy," the third girl replied in a snap. "You work out, I'm sure you'll do well in this."
"Maybe," the celebrity replied. "Maybe."
Kazi chuckled softly, finding himself inexplicably drawn into their excitent. It was as if he had stumbled upon a secret world where the lines between fan and idol blurred into genuine camaraderie. His ears were too well-trained to not hear them either. The girls talked, they gossiped, and they gushed over this man that didn't seem to care about them.
A party of four entered the café. Middle-aged white n that were giddy from their conversation. His eyes continued wandering. In the corner sat a young skinny man with glasses and a shaky disposition.
Most players wore the black Garbs of Death, the default outfit. Long sleeved and perfectly tailored to every body type.
So many reactions to this world. So much potential. He wondered how things would end up after ninety or so gates.
The celebrity and three girls left a couple minutes left, marked by a chorus of giggles and hushed squeals from the girls. Kazi watched them for a mont longer before turning his attention back to his tea.
'Man, I wonder if I'll ever see anyone from my old life. If it's every twenty years, then maybe...'
He smiled. There was nothing to lose if he raised his hopes, right? Right! He downed the remainder of his tea and went to join his party at the Heavenly Tower.
He kicked himself off, ready for another thrilling day of farming. He couldn't wait to see the faces of his new friends!
***
"Er...what happened to you guys?"
The shopping bags dangling from his fingers slipped lower. He blinked twice but reality didn't change. William forced a smile while Sun-young looked away, embarrassed.
In the group chat, they seed fine. Right now, standing in front of him, both William and Sun-young looked like walking corpses. William's back slouched over and his bed hair went wild. Sun-young's eyes were red from the sides.
"Well, this isn't good." Kazi's lips curled upwards and broke into a chuckle. He could feel the embarrassnt oozing from them. "You know, if you guys were so tired, you could have just told ."
"We—I'm fine," William protested.
"Alright, alright, enough of that." Kazi approached Sun-young and extended the bags towards her. Tentatively, she took them. "You two, go and get so rest. I should have figured that you guys weren't used to exercising at that level. No worries, we can continue tomorrow."
"But—"
Kazi cut William off, "No buts and no ifs. Go ho. Go for a bath. You guys are kids. Let the adult handle it, alright?"
He could see William softening. Sun-young's shoulders, however, were still tense. She licked the inside of her cheeks. She must have been thirsty.
"C'mon, Ms. Sun-young. Don't work yourself to death. We're already dead." He flashed her a smile. "I'll put in triple the effort, promise. I'll transfer the points to you guys afterwards."
Sun-young raised a hand, shifting the white bag to her wrist. "No need. I get it. Thank you." She lowered her head slightly.
"Chin up," Kazi encouraged. "You'll be better in no ti."
She pursed her lips and agreed.
The looming gate that led to the Heavenly Tower wasn't busy. Sprawls of people went in. Parties and what seed to be advisors from guilds discussing what they should do. Kazi rolled his shoulders. The tir above the gate was accompanied by another bigger, bolder tir. The original indicated the ti till the opening of the next gate, 150:50, while the second tir by process of elimination had to be the ti for Anjaneya's respawn—83:00.
Kazi tapped the grips of his two swords.
With the Touch of Thunder and the attack stat of forty-eight, farming was going to be easy peasy lemon squeezy.
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