In a quiet room.
Zypher is still in the bed. Although he is a bit okay now, as his body is adapting, his energy is waning.
His whole body is holding on to the two remaining Mental Fortitude points. These are the only reason that Zypher is not giving up yet, as these two points are making his mind silent.
But, it was a curse because he can feel the pain, but his body is not reacting to it. He is being ground into a paste, and all he can think of is how to escape, which always hits him at dead ends, making his thoughts go awry.
But, again, his Mental Fortitude is keeping him calm and collected.
This cycle went on for a few moments, cycles and all, until a notification rang.
[Mental Fortitude -1]
Panic set in. His mind went wild as he lost one of the only things keeping him alive.
Zypher, almost instantly, tried to create another way where he can survive this.
His first, and foremost, the surefire method, was to at least access the title screen and turn down this setting, yet, he can't right now as he needed to clear the 45th Clear Chain.
That means he has to daw 42 more cards from Mr. Celess.
Remembering Celess, he could've changed the setting back then, but he was so mad that he forgot, and now, he is suffering.
Plus the warning Zyvier gave him, which made him doubt a bit of what Mr. Celess wants.
But, now's not the time for that.
He has one Mental Fortitude point, and equipping his summons made him increase it, but, will it work? Or it will just add another stack of burden to his mind?
That was another plan he was trying.
And the third plan, was to try to die and reset.
Death.
In the game, the concept of death is a bit complex.
There are five modes of playing the game:
Easy - means 1x the drop rate, 1x EXP rate when defeating enemies, and normal hardness.
Hard - 2x drop and EXP rates, 2x hardness and higher chances to drop rare and above items.
Nightmare - 3x the fun, and higher chance to drop unique tier equipments, but when you die, you also drop more items than needed.
Hell - 5x the drops, exp, and hardness, and higher chances to drop epic tier equipments, bosses drops more equipments and materials, but twice as much is the drop rate if killed. If Nightmare drops 3, Hell drops 6.
And the last one is Abyss - the only difficulty that gives 100% Epic equipment every boss battle, 1000% drop rate, that even one monster can drop 10 items, but, if they die, their accounts are deleted forever.
This was one of the speculations at first by everyone when Zyvier's name suddenly vanished in the game. He was an Abyssal Player that died.
And, remembering it when he came back, Zypher always being one shave away from being killed is his way of trying to know which difficulty is he in.
But, he failed a few times. His way of knowing is killing a monster, and right now, he cannot do so.
Unless a small monster at one health appeared in front of him right now, with low stats and many debuffs, he can know.
Oh, there is one. He himself. But he cannot kill himself because it may be game over once he does.
And, he doesn't want to gamble again.
If he dies as an Abyssal Player, what will happen to him? Will Mr. Celess save him again?
These words stopped his mind from working.
But, it did not take away the final point of Mental Fortitude.
{Finally, some quiet and peace.}
[Affirmative. Host is too noisy thinking.]
Two distinct voices appeared on his mind.
But, these voices are not too loud that it destroys him.
In fact, it invites comfort and alleviation.
"Who?"
Zypher asked.
But, nobody answered.
"Who are you?"
He asked again, now shouting.
"Is somebody there?"
Asking for the third time, Zypher's nerves went on full mode, as he tried to sense everything in his vicinity.
"Sylva? Adelaide?"
He shouted, but, the Silence Rune works both ways.
He cannot hear anything from the outside, and the outside can't hear anything from him.
He asked more, but was not able to meet an answer.
His heightened senses helped him, except for his sight that is all blurry now because of being too high defined.
'Sigh, that was close.'
{Close to what?}
[Question. What is close?]
As he heard it again, he jumped up, but this time, he did not shout.
'Who are you?'
He asked in his mind.
{Relax, you're being too cautious.}
'A wise man is a cautious one.'
[Negative. A wise man risks everything, and grows from what they failed to do.]
Zypher went blank after hearing this.
'So? Who are you?'
He asked in his mind, trying to relax for a bit.
{Welcome, Master, or should I say, Host.}
[Greetings, Host. I am UO-17, also known as Unknown One.]
{And I am the Mighty Sovereign, Supreme One, All-Knowing, All-Doing,--}
'All-Father.'
Zypher said in his mind as he cut off the introduction of the old man's voice.
{Ehem. I think you didn't understand. I am the Mighty--}
'All- Father.'
He repeated in his mind as he tried to look for them in his Information Panel.
{You dare cut me off twi-}
[Question. Host, why is All-Father like that?]
{Because I have a name, and all of my titles go with that name!}
[Affirmative. So you are just a loser who wants to flaunt.]
'Exactly.'
{You dare? How about you? You sound like someone would say when they want their kids to dump their stomach loads in the lavatory! UO? What even is that.}
[Answer. UO stands for Unknown One, for our maker is--]
{Shut up!}
[Agree. Grumpy Old-Father.]
{IT'S ALL-FATHER! NOT OLD-FATHER!}
The bickering continued, while Zypher was left laughing in his own world.
Little did he know that danger approaches him.