After A Billion-Year Torture, I Returned As A Transcendent Player

Chapter 67: Next Objective

Aidan woke to the sound of running water and the smell of something burning.

He blinked up at a canopy of unfamiliar leaves, sunlight breaking through in warm gold patches, and for a moment he just lay there, cataloguing the fact that every single part of him ached in a new and different way.

’Half a day, give or take.’ He judged it by the angle of the light. ’Worth it.’

He sat up slowly and took in the camp someone had built around him.

A waterfall fed into a wide, clear river a stone’s throw away, and the bank had been turned into something almost embarrassingly cozy. A ring of smooth stones held a low fire. Furs and folded cloth made a proper bed out of what had probably started as a patch of dirt.

Solenne sat cross-legged near the water’s edge, eyes closed, faint threads of shadow and heat curling lazily around her in slow, controlled loops. Arthur crouched by the fire, turning a spit of something that smelled distinctly worse than it looked, while Jovan and Tom sat nearby, watching him fail at it with open amusement.

"You’re up," Jovan said, without turning his head. "Fortune said you’d wake hungry."

"Fortune’s not wrong." Aidan rolled his neck, wincing at the click it gave. "What is that smell?"

"Breakfast," Arthur said, deeply proud, holding up the spit. "I caught it myself. I seasoned it myself."

"You seasoned it with what?"

"Confidence."

Aidan reached into his inventory before Arthur could argue his case any further, and pulled out the storage ring Jiran had pressed into his hands what felt like a lifetime ago.

The scent that rolled out of it when he opened it made Arthur’s whole body go still.

"Oh," Arthur said, staring at the neat rows of properly seasoned, properly cooked Epic-rank meat. Then, with zero hesitation, he flung his own spit straight into the river. "That’s garbage. We’re eating that instead."

"Rude, but accurate," Tom said, already crawling toward the ring.

They ate together on the riverbank, Solenne cracking one eye open long enough to accept her share before sinking back into her meditation between bites, and for a while nobody said anything that mattered at all. Just good food, warm sun, and four exhausted people chilling near the river, with the sound of waterfall filling the background.

Aidan finished his portion, cracked his neck one more time, and let out a long breath.

’Peak Epic-rank.’ He flexed a hand, watching the aspects settle easy and familiar under his skin. ’Next stop, Legendary. And that means ten thousand Legendary-rank Spirit Stones.’

[Breakthrough Quest: Legendary-rank.]

The quest was already sitting there.

And the rewards for the two quests that were completed upon clearing the Terror Raid were also sitting in his Inventory.

He got 1000 Transcendent Points and one Mystery Box by completing the main quest. And one Golden Treasure Chest (Epic/Legendary/Divine) by completing the daily quest.

’One problem at a time.’ He stood, dusting himself off. ’First, I finish what I started here.’

He left the crew to their food and walked to the quiet clearing where he always went to speak with the Eidos, settling in and letting his consciousness sink down into that small, tired, flickering thing that kept his whole world running.

It took the better part of an hour. He worked slow and careful, the way the system had taught him, scrubbing the last threads of Terroreign’s rot out of its core one careful pass at a time, until the corruption had nowhere left to hide.

[Eidos fully purified.]

[Terrorized Dimension stabilization check in progress...]

Aidan held his breath without quite meaning to.

[Stabilization successful. This dimension has become permanent.]

He then called the Earth camp together that same afternoon, both Blazeworth and Thorn Guard gathered loosely around him, Jiran standing near the back with a bandage still wrapped around his ribs.

"I’ve got an offer," Aidan said. "This dimension is mine, permanent, fully purified, sitting on more resources than one guy can farm alone." He shrugged, easy. "I’m giving it to Blazeworth."

Isolde Marr’s eyebrows shot up. "You’re what?"

"Giving it to you. Free and clear." He glanced past her, toward Jiran. "One condition. Mister Jiran keeps cooking for me whenever I’m around."

A stunned silence settled over the camp.

"Garen, that’s a permanent Epic-rank dimension," someone finally said. "Do you understand what that’s worth?"

"I understand exactly what it’s worth." Aidan grinned, cheeky and unbothered. "Why do you think I’m giving it away?"

"Then why," Isolde asked slowly, "would you give it up?"

"Because I’ve already squeezed everything out of it that I need." He rolled his shoulders. "Now I need a Legendary-rank Terrorized Dimension, so I’m gonna go take one."

Nobody quite knew what to say to that.

Jiran, for his part, just gave a slow, grateful nod, and Aidan considered that payment enough.

...

He pulled up his Digicard once he was back on open ground, tapping through the tournament listings until he found what he was looking for.

[Nearest Legendary-rank Terrorized Dimension Contest: Ridgehollow Basin. Registration open.]

’Perfect.’ He pocketed the card.

Ridgehollow Basin was smaller than the tournament grounds he’d fought on before, but the pressure in the air was heavier, every Hunter milling around it sitting solidly at Legendary-rank.

Aidan walked toward the registration pillar without hurrying, and he’d barely gotten within ten meters of it when two figures stepped directly into his path.

Both early-stage Legendary-rank, both dressed like their tailors had been paid extra to make sure everyone knew it, and both wearing the exact particular sneer of people who had never once been told no.

The surrounding people immediatly started whispering as if they knew what was going to happen.

"Here we go. These two don’t like it when people of lower-rank try to use higher-rank competion for their time pass."

"Haha, both of them are from the Redtide family who has three Divine-rank powerhouses. The arrogance comes inbuilt in their Redtide Bloodline."

The duo stopped before Aidan.

"This isn’t a practice place for Epic-rank kids," the taller one said, looking Aidan up and down like something he’d found on his boot. "Get lost."

The second one didn’t even bother hiding his laugh. "Seriously. Go back to your little Epic-rank sandbox before you embarrass yourself."

Aidan looked between the two of them, unbothered, a slow grin starting to spread.

"Funny," he said, cracking his finger. "I was about to say the exact same thing to you. Why are retards not in the mental hospital, but roaming around here? It’s dangerous, you know?"

Aidan woke up, and chose violence with words.

Phssssss.....the silence that took over the place as Aidan finished speaking was extraodinary.

Then one person whispered.

"It’s over."