"Saint Realm? What? No," Emily said. She was a little exasperated from the absurd guess. "No, I- I actually just died in the game after I reached True realm. I am starting once more, but it's hard since like everyone, I don't have the same talents as my previous self. They are all mortal grade now," Emily said.
"Oh. That sounds quite unfortunate. Would you mind telling me how you died?" he asked.
"Um… I was out on a mission from the sect, a-and I was attacked by a monster who caught me by surprise. I was logged out before I even realized I had died," she said. "After that, the next time I joined, I was made to create a new character and sent elsewhere in the same continent, and that was about a week ago."
"Since I'm not as good as before, I can't earn much money from the game," she said.
"I see." He then thought of something and asked," by the way, what time do your classes end?"
"Around 3 pm," Emily said.
"Oh, the same as me. Would you walk the way back with me as well? I would rather not walk back alone," Alex said.
"S-Sure. I can do that," Emily said timidly.
"Would you mind adding your number to my phone?" Alex took out his phone and asked.
"Of course not," Emily said and timidly took the phone from him and added her number onto his name. She then looked at the clock and said, "umm… My classes are this way. I should hurry up now."
"Oh, my classes are that way. Thank you for showing me the way today," Alex said.
"It was nothing. Don't worry about it. See you later," Emily said and walked towards her classes.
Alex was left standing there feeling something deep within him make him feel weird. "Am I?… no way." He walked to his class.
After the classes were over, he messaged Emily for a place to meet, and together they walked back home. Alex walked a little further to take her to her apartment and returned back to his own.
He got up the elevator to his apartment and entered.
"Oh, you're back already? What time is it?" Hannah was in the living room using her phone.
"It's half past 3. What are you doing sister?" he asked.
"Oh, just browsing the EC forums, looking through the responses to the interview yesterday. Hehe, look at this, so many people are calling me cute and pretty. I might just have to go become a model at this rate," Hannah said jokingly.
"Go change your clothes. I'll prepare some food," Hannah said.
"Alright, sister." Alex went to his room and freshened up. He walked to the kitchen to see Hannah shaking her head as if she had just read something very sad.
"What's the wrong sister?" he asked.
"It's this guy named Connor. You probably don't know him, but this guy came out a month ago as one of the strongest players at the time," Hannah said.
Alex remembered the person. He was the one with the interview from back when he was only a week into the game. "I saw his interview. What about him?" Alex asked.
"Oh, you did? It's just that people were constantly asking in the forums why this guy wasn't invited to the show or why he didn't want to show up, and he finally made a post on his own."
Alex was a little curious about this as well, so he asked, "What about him? Did he not want to come?"
"No, it seems he did. But it turns out, his character died while fighting a relatively stronger monster in the forest. He says, the monster wasn't necessarily stronger than him, but it was more poisonous and he got caught up in the poison."
"Tsk Tsk. Poor guy had to restart all over again, and also lost all of his amazing body and talent. He says he respawned as trash now. He is barely at Bone Tempering realm after 2 weeks of cultivating and constant usage of spirit stones. If this keeps up, he will end up using his entire fortune on the game."
Hannah kept on shaking her head.
"That's quite a coincidence," Alex said a little surprised by the news.
"Hmm… coincidence? How?" Hannah asked.
"Emily said that after her character died, she too got really bad talent and body. She is restarting her climb once again, but with mortal grade talent and body, it will probably take a long time," Alex said.
"Oh, that is actually not a coincidence at all," Hannah said, which confused Alex a lot.
"It's not?" he asked.
"Yeah, there have been many other people who have died and gone back to the game only to find that their new body was unbelievably worse than their first one. It's like the game is punishing them for dying or something," Hannah said.
"Woah, I'm glad I didn't die a month ago. I was damn near close to as well," Alex said.
"You were?" Hannah asked in surprise. "What happened?"
Alex proceeded to tell her about how he fought against the wolf to protect Pearl and his mother.
Hannah cringed when she heard that the wolf bit his skull and left him bloodied. "Ouch, that sounds like it hurt a lot. Well, at least you didn't die from it. And hey, you also got a beast companion from it. I wanted to get one as well, but the monster cubs take too long to grow up," Hannah said.
"Yeah, my cat is quite cute and very strong too," Alex said. They stopped talking and finished their food. Alex helped with the dishes and only returned to his room at around 4 pm.
He logged back into the game and checked his communication talisman, but there was no message. So he messaged his master to ask where she was and if she had the time to meet him. He got a message back.
"I'm in my home. You can come right now."
