Chapter 4

Watching the flicker of the fire, Theo tapped his trembling legs against the ground. With a groan, he pushed himself up and trudged to the Storage Keeper. He wanted to tidy things up quickly and get some rest. When he opened a dialogue, the usage fee demanded made his head spin. He swallowed back a string of curses and reluctantly paid. The storage finally opened.

As he sorted through his inventory—junk and piles of Steel of Raia—he started to wonder if staying in the sanctuary was really worth it, or if it was just a loss. Maybe he should give up on storage altogether and only aim for potion ingredients and an Eternal Item. But if he failed to get one, he really would leave empty-handed.

He felt trapped in a deadlock, unable to go forward or back. A sigh escaped him. Maybe the other players who’d been through sanctuaries had felt the same way. Would he end up like his guildmates joked—never finding an Eternal Item, just a pile of bones discovered later?

Sorting mindlessly, Theo’s hands paused when he noticed cooking ingredients in the storage. His stomach wasn’t growling, but he rubbed his belly and smacked his lips anyway. He didn’t want food for hunger—he just wanted something delicious. It had been days since he’d eaten anything but pills.

“…Should’ve brought cooking instead of Heal.”

In reality, food no longer existed. One pill a day was enough for all nourishment, so meals had long since fallen from necessity to mere indulgence. Eventually, prices of ingredients skyrocketed until food became a luxury good, driving people even further from it. In the end, cooking disappeared altogether. But people still longed for the taste and texture, and so food was recreated in virtual reality.

Inside VR, you could eat and drink as much as you wanted without gaining weight or harming your body. The same applied to alcohol and cigarettes. With a Virtual Capsule or as a Borg, the taste and feel were replicated even more perfectly. Borgs were bodies themselves optimized for VR and AR—they didn’t need food pills or Virtual Capsules. Since surgery could customize a body’s appearance, the procedure drew great interest, but the cost was astronomical, reserved for the elite.

Compared to that, it was natural that people flocked to the cheaper Virtual Capsules.

“Guild, I want something tasty to eat.”

[Guild] [Holanghee: ?]

[Guild] [Holanghee: Oh sweetie, you’re still in the sanctuary, right?]

“Guild, yeah…”

[Guild] [Bastard Kid: Wait, bro, you’ve been on nothing but pills for days?]

[Guild] [Noquia: That’s not living…]

[Guild] [Marco: Found anything worthwhile?]

“Guild, you think I did? The storage fees are ballooning like crazy.”

[Guild] [Marco: Haha, that’s the Theo I know.]

[Guild] [Father: Be glad you can even use it at all.]

[Guild] [Leather Flute Hip Song: Bro, what if you walk out broke instead?>]

“Guild, honestly, I’m worried about that too…”

[Guild] [Red Snapper: Why not just give up and come back?]

“Guild, after all I’ve sunk into this? I’ll give it a little more.”

[Guild] [Father: Oh right, Aslan’s been looking for you nonstop.]

“Guild, tell him to shove it.”

[Guild] [Father: Lol, I heard you even blocked him. He’s furious, running around trying to find you IRL and even showing up at guilds.]

[Guild] [Noquia: Guess he doesn’t know you’re in the sanctuary? Didn’t you tell him?]

“Guild, I did, but he didn’t believe me and kept pestering me, so I blocked him.”

Dragging his words lazily, Theo wandered back to his tent, kicked off his boots, and flopped onto the cot.

[Guild] [Holanghee: Lmao, so it’s not that he didn’t know, he just didn’t believe you!]

[Guild] [Father: Since you’re not around, he keeps hanging around our guild, saying he has no one to play with.]

[Guild] [Noquia: That bastard’s persistent… Getting blocked should’ve been the end of it, but instead he’s barging into your house and guild, stirring things up.]

[Guild] [Father: If he ever believes you’re in the sanctuary, he’s the type who’d actually try to go there too.]

The three once again teamed up to tease him about Aslan. And it was all thanks to that clingy bastard sticking to him like gum. If Theo wasn’t around, couldn’t he just play alone or hang out with someone else? Why bother storming into his guild and his house, making a mess?

“…Not a friend, an enemy.”

Sleep tugged at Theo’s eyes. The chat window before him flickered with endless messages, but he was used to it. He shut his eyes and let himself drift off.

Days passed again. The storage fee had climbed beyond what he could handle. With the storage locked away, any items he picked up were useless. He had no choice but to throw away everything except herbs for potion ingredients.

“Haa…”

He sighed deeply after landing the last hit on a Resha. The creature burst into loot, and shiny items glittered all around him—but he couldn’t pick them up.

“This is killing me…”

It felt like bleeding from his eyes to watch. He even thought about just leaving the sanctuary, but no—he’d used up a lifetime’s worth of luck just getting here. He couldn’t abandon it so easily. This kind of chance would never come again.

His eyes lingered on the loot scattered across the ground, reluctant to let go, when he spotted another Resha ahead. He drew back his bowstring and whispered like a prayer.

“I’ll trade even my luck in the next life—just give me one Eternal.”

Sparks flared from the arrow’s tip, and in the next moment, a lightning-charged shot streaked toward the Resha.

But even if, by some miracle, his wish came true, there was no guarantee the Eternal Item would match his class. Eternal Items came in all forms—weapon, armor, even consumables.

He felt foolish, clinging to hope for an impossible stroke of luck. His clenched jaw tasted bitter. Maybe it would be healthier for his mind and body to just be satisfied with reaching the sanctuary at all.

Home sounded tempting—eating something delicious, showering in clean water, sprawling on a soft bed, then heading out to fish at sea. Those thoughts slowly crowded his mind.

Yet, he couldn’t give up so easily. Just one more. Just one more.

Maybe this one would drop an Eternal?

Fueled by that desperate hope, his final attack landed squarely on the Resha. And then, the air around him seemed to freeze. Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. Was it Deadly Time? No, it wasn’t. A strong wind roared above his head, and a massive shadow engulfed him.

It was a suffocating, chilling pressure—like being crushed under something immense. Theo slowly raised his head and looked up at the sky. Raia, who should have been curled up at the peak of the mountain in the center of the island, was floating directly above him.

Their eyes met. Theo and Raia stared at each other.

A massive flap of wings sent a powerful gust sweeping through the area. Sand and dust whirled into the air in thick clouds.

“Cough, cough! Wh-what…?!”

The wind kicked up by Raia’s wings pelted him with stinging sand. Instinctively, Theo raised his arm to shield his face. Then came a piercing, thunderous cry that felt like it could split the sky. His entire body shivered from the sheer force. Theo curled up and covered his ears.

The next moment, the cry stopped. The wind died down. When he cautiously opened his eyes, the sand cloud that had risen was slowly settling back to the ground. Confused, he looked up—and noticed something strange right in front of him.

A massive egg, glowing with a dark, swirling hue.

“…?”

Theo furrowed his brow and stared at the egg. Then he looked up at the sky. Raia was gone. He looked around wildly and even turned toward the mountain in the center of the island—but Raia wasn’t there either.

He had no idea what had just happened. A strange, almost eerie calm began to bloom inside his chest—along with a spark of hope. Carefully, he approached the egg. A pickup interaction icon appeared, and when he allowed it, a status window popped up in front of his eyes.

No words came out. Theo just stared blankly at the info window hovering in front of him. And stared some more.

Then, he made up his mind.

‘If I really used up all my luck from the next life, I guess I shouldn’t reincarnate.’

With the Eternal Fog now in his hands, Theo left the sanctuary. Using a return skill, he warped back to the spot where he’d picked up the Feather of Raia. The wide beach, which he had visited only a few days ago, now looked entirely different.

First, he headed for the nearby village of Ratteon. There, he cleaned up his inventory and took a proper look at the Eternal Fog’s description—which he had only skimmed earlier.

As he read through the text carefully, one line jumped out at him.

“+35% Melee Attack.”

“…Ah.”

A sigh escaped his lips.

The Eternal Fog—the cloak he’d earned—was a melee-class item.

Disappointment hit hard. So that’s how it ends, huh? After all that luck, it still ends with crap.

If he were a Hybrid, maybe he could’ve made it work. But as an Origin-class character, his weapon couldn’t be changed. Plus, Eternal Tale only allowed one avatar to be created, so making a new character wasn’t an option either.

Theo just stared at the Eternal Fog’s info window for what felt like forever. He could sell it, sure—but giving up a once-in-a-lifetime Eternal Item he’d worked so hard for… didn’t sit right with him. There had to be another way.

He needed someone to talk to. Someone who came to mind easily.

His father—the guild master.

Guess it was time to head to Lucilvania, where the guild house was.