Reaper's Resurgence: A System Reset

Alexia

After dealing with that mess, I lie down up against a tree facing the lake as everyone goes about their own business, having put the construction on hold while the Tutorial comes to an end. And it doesn't take long before Astrid comes back from dealing with the tied up prince and joins me up against the tree.

Several seconds pass as I watch the countdown tick down before she mutters, "I wonder why their bodies still remain here after dying instead of vanishing or something?"

I glance at her before looking at the lake again.

"I didn't sense any magical energy coming from their bodies, so they truly looked dead," I comment, pointing out my observation. "The only guess I can think of is that the System probably made a copy of their body with quantum energy right before their death and are keeping that in stasis instead." A smirk comes to my face. "Also wouldn't be surprised if they have no equipment after that since it would just be their body copied, but that's just an amusing theory. Nothing more."

Astrid snorts at that in amusement.

It would be karma for the prince and his followers if they arrived completely barren of any sort of clothes, armor, or weapons at all. Although it would be awkward for any of the others. Like Rob.

I lean my head up against the tree with a sigh while turning my gaze on the two suns in the sky. Something I'm really not used to seeing.

The suns also seem to be starting to go down, which makes sense. It should be about eight in the evening right now.

Silence fills the area around us as Astrid leans her head onto my shoulder – a habit she picked up while we were at that abusive orphanage. Something she does when we're alone.

Because it would ruin her stoic image if she did it in front of others.

That thought has me chuckling, but Astrid just ignores me and continues staring at the lake as birds chirp all over the jungle, with various other noises such as tiger growls and other wild animals and monster noises. Mostly monster noises though. There are a lot of monsters around this clearing, even if none of them are willing to come near me.

Guess it's the quantum energy I'm putting off that's intimidating them. Probably.

Certainly makes keeping pests out of my clearing easy.

Time passes and soon I find myself waking up Astrid with just a single minute left on the countdown since she had dozed off over an hour ago. And as expected, she wakes up right away before looking around a second and then standing up after likely noticing the countdown.

I do the same with a light stretch, briefly glancing towards the base that I can barely see from the hill we're on, through the trees in between this clearing and the base.

Looks like they're all ready for whatever is about to happen as well.

I face the lake again while watching the countdown drop until it finally reaches zero and a loud explosion of fireworks echoes out, making me look up to find purple explosions obviously made of quantum energy going off in the air above the island and just in the sky itself. But then I find myself teleporting. Only this time I don't end up in a white room.

Instead I end up on a fancy platform floating above another, more basic platform located high in the middle of some sort of pitch black void with hints of deep violet visible on the edges of the place. And for some reason, I'm sitting on a throne at the very top of the fancy platform. One surrounded by nine other fancy seats that aren't quite thrones.

Then a System Notification appears in my vision. One where the System's robotic voice is echoing throughout the entire platform and the one beneath us.