I Am The Player, The Road to Eternity

[Attention, every earthling not capable of self-defence was transmitted into a time freezing chamber near the Core of the Earth. If you are victorious they shall return and celebrate your victory.]

Humans, one by one returned to Earth. For most it should have been a cause for celebration, however Earth wasn the same anymore.

Nature engulfed every city, even the most dangerous areas, creating hazardous zones.

Only a few capitals stood the test of time as they held on. Seeing an animal larger in size than the ones they had been used to dispelled their deepest doubts.

Even if there was no evil being wishing to invade with an army, the current state alone would be a motivator for humans to establish their civilizations anew.

The system had rolled out a bunch of brand-new features as well, including a global communication chat which had a price depending on the scale which was, of course paid in mana stones.

There are even two ranking systems, those with positive karma. A list of people, should you kill, would automatically throw you into the negative karma ranking, granting huge amounts of resources to anyone who had slain them back.

This works vice versa. A neutral man or a person not too deep in the negative karma ranking could kill someone above him to negate his negative karma.

Of course, unbeknownst to most people, the top 10 of the karma rankings both had their special functions.

Both of the rankings gave the top 10 a boost +0.5x up to +1x mana capacity boost. And these were just the general boosts that everyone in the top 10 received…

…

As a leader of the largest organisation and the number 1 on the positive karma ranking. Which was a tiny bit rigged so no one would get number one either in negative or positive karma.

Magnus felt a bit weird as he thought about people trying to surpass him in a game they could never win…

Oh well, Ill just tweak it a bit once I
etire. Magnus thought as he looked at his disciples.

Originally he wished to give them the
eal bootcamp on Earth where they could actually die. However, Oliver and Caroline received a message to return to their respective families, so they could contribute to rebuilding the civilization.

This made Magnus think and he decided to send Han and Aki to establish a branch in Asia which would have a spanning influence over the entire continent.

Sophia begrudgingly left too, to establish a branch in the South American content where the remnants of the Nahautl confederation once stood.

He didn yet know the plans of the Stonefeller family, one of the top 5 ex-overlords of the North American continent nor did he know what the royal and noble families of the Roman Empire thought.

If they agreed to total unity once again, he would not establish his branches which had power and influence in them.

Now, he had two choices. To visit the African confederation which had the most technologically advanced cities capable of flying through the deserts. Or, to visit the Australian continent which had managed to create its own Atlantis.

In the end he decided to take a look at the Atlantis city. Magnus destroyed most of the remnants of the old civilization for a reason.

It was a constant reminder of the hatred each nation had for each other. Although still not flawless, he hoped that Earth would be one step closer to true unity.

The ones left intact were unique in one particular way. They somehow possesed artifacts creating mana out of normal fuel sources like light and heat.

Although their conversion rate was so terrible that even a goblin could regenerate more mana than the artifacts could create, it was still a massive surprise.

And Atlantis was one of those cities, a city encased in a bubble with a hint of magic repelling qualities.

The system gave everyone a choice of which continent they would rather appear on, and Magnus used it to gather everyone. With the news that he was still injured. A solid fifth of the higher ups were missing.

Even one or two spies, however most of the spies remained to probably report his location at all times. He didn expose them as he used his wound to travel with only a select few.

His disciples were already recognized as some of the most powerful humans around, so their status as branch leaders was already a given.

Once Magnus redistributed most of his personnel to follow his disciples, he grabbed a handful of his rusted aides as they barely broke the sound barrier.

As they travelled above the water surface a huge tsunami appeared. Magnus Fjalls face became grim as he stopped. With a wave of his hand, he summoned a small sun and evaporated it all.

A huge pit in the ocean tens of meters deep emerged as it was soon engulfed by water once again.

Now, there were hundreds of people all wearing different insignias. One of the more popular ways to distinguish an organisation from each other.

”May I ask why do leaders of one of the largest organisations including the Sun Templar order which is considered the sixth most righteous organisation trying to kill me? With someone in top 10 of the negative karma ranking even. ” Magnus said as he looked the leaders in the eyes.

”It is because you have stood too tall. Your position as number 1 can only be used by the Lords who have walked this Earth for thousands of years, not some uneducated fool like you! ” Said a leader of the second largest organisation present.

Magnus looked at them and gave his trusted aides a couple of commands to distract them, so everyone could escape.

As he turned around, the smiles of the enemy leaders became strange.

Before he could grasp what was going on, multiple blades stabbed through his chest and one almost decapitated him, if he didn tilt his head just in time.

”How does it feel to be betrayed? ” The Apostle of Light, the leader of the Sun Templar order asked.

Magnus chose not to respond as he summoned a weapon and quickly killed the etrayers. Leaving only one who did not act and instead killed one of the betrayers.

”Jeremy, you will be promoted if we leave this place alive! ” Magnus shouted as a broad smile appeared on his face.

Jeremy murmured a few inaudible words before summoning a water elemental to hold a few of them off.

While Jeremy had bought him a few seconds of time, Magnus healed most of those wounds except a large one left behind by an elite.

Jeremy knew that he could find an easy way out of this. He was even contacted multiple times throughout this trip about stabbing Magnus in the back.

However he was not swayed. A part of him prayed and wished for him to gamble, to trust his leader that he had seen from afar so many times.

He had even managed to sneak a message to Magnus about the mutiny happening, except that he smiled and nodded at him when no one was paying attention.

This gave him hope, so he bet all of his chips. There was no turning back, as he realised that this was no longer purgatory, but the real world.

He couldn respawn and the potential to reach the peak was now in the hands of others.

As he looked at the myriad of flashy but deadly spells being aimed at him, he couldn help but have a trace of doubt.

All of that doubt was wiped off in a split second.

These spells and the abundant mana he felt all around him were simply gone. As if he had taken oxygen from the fire to put it out, every spell had crumbled in an instant.

Even the levitating spells and magic gear they got. Even the rare ones from merchant M all failed.

The once victorious smiles were nowhere to be seen as they all fell down like helpless ducklings.

From the beginning all the way to the end, Magnus barely used any moves. Hell, it looked like he used more effort to get rid of his betrayers than to get rid of his adversaries.

Even the man on the dark leaderboard ranking was hopeless as his mana was sealed.

During the tsunami, the monsters waiting for their meals emerged as shivers of megalodon-like sharks.

They shredded the humans apart like they were paper and their locked mana soon turned into premium nourishment.

As the dark ranker was about to experience the same sad fate a mana hand grabbed his body and forcefully lifted him up.

Maybe, just maybe he thought that he would be used as a bait for more dark rankers and Gaias Will.

”Jeremy, you have passed now take this sword and claim the reward you deserve for your unyieldingness. ”

Magnus said as he summoned a large 4 meter greatsword. Its black sheen reflected the searing sun and its presence alone deterred those sharks even though they were dozens of meters up in the air.

…

[Jeremy]

Jeremy looked at Magnus hands that held a greatsword artifact. Its sheer presence made his body shiver.

And yet such mighty beast was a reward for a foolish gamble?

”Is this really just for not betraying you? ” Jeremy asked as he looked at Magnus with a quivering voice.

”No, it was your strength to realise your doubts and yet not be controlled by them. ” Magnus then threw the greatsword at Jeremy as he caught it.

His entire body was filled with euphoria as he felt like he was forging a bond with the weapon.

A tool of an unknown metal that had no sentience now held more kinship than his own family.

It was weird and yet liberating.

”Now, your rights of passage is to slay 5 sharks before dawn, my dear disciple. ” Magnus interrupted his day dreaming as he vanished.

However before he vanished he threw something into the ocean and into Jeremys mouth.

The once docile sharks which feared his new partner now began looking him up like a fat piece of meat.

For Jeremy it wouldn be so bad except that the object he digested forced his mana to reinforce his entire body leaving none to spare.

He acted quick as he was falling through the sky.

One of the sharks jumped high into the air as it opened its mouth to welcome its delicious meal.

And yet it was met with a metal toothpick.

Jeremy clogged its mouth as they both fell into the water. To his surprise and delight he could now breathe underwater.

Not caring how long he could retain that function he punched the insides of the shark as it sent a slight shock through its body.

Normally it would have blown it apart, but the water pressure was already taking a huge toll on him and he wasn even that deep.

He used this to retrieve his sword as he sharply pierced right through its brain.

He couldn properly swim upwards as the weight and harassment of the sharks forced him to block at all times.

His muscles screamed with all of its power in order to fight the ocean itself as well as the sharks.

Sometimes he managed to get a clean pierce or slice. But the amount of hits he dished out compared to the hits he received was way out of balance.

And yet, despite this peril, he entered a flow state. The water didn hinder him as much or rather he didn feel it.

His body became more fluid as he kept exchanging blows with sharks.

As he had slain two more sharks one of them took advantage of his exhaustion and brought him out of the flow like state with a vicious bite.

He lost his left leg as the ocean was dyed with more and more of his blood. Panic and doubt began to surface deep within him.

The sharks didn care if he felt despair, rather they were even joyful as their prey had seemingly given up.

Their huge mouths of abyss soon charged at him.

3 meters and his body shook

2 meters and the sword began to shed its black sheen.

1 meter and he knew what this sword could do.

Its black body was now replaced by pure silver as it danced through the water.

His entire body became light as a feather. The ocean was now his second home.

He realised that it was not the object Magnus had given him that was the reason behind his underwater breathing.

It was his sword, no. Partner.

…

”I wonder if he can bring out the full potential of it. I could have made only a few of them after all… ” said Magnus while enjoying the picturesque scenery.

When a message alert popped up, Jeremy replied with a simple word. ”Done. ”

”I didn choose wrong after all… ” Magnus thought as he threw out a bunch of gifts to humanity all found in different continents, their barren areas.

Their new owner was now subject to Fates will and to her eyes of absolute truth.