Chapter 2: Starting Over
"Can you hear me?"
"Where am I…?"
"Hey, can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can hear you, Natas!"
"Oh great! I guess it was a success!"
"What do you mean a success?"
"Rather than explaining it to you, it's much better for you to see it for yourself,"
Hearing Natas' words, Kayn slowly opened his eyes and was soon immediately greeted by a bright light coming from the sun up above his head. He annoyingly raises his hand in front to block the bright light while at the same time blinking his eyes a few times to quickly adapt to it. The moment his sight became clear, what he saw next caused him to doubt something inwardly.
"How strange…"
At the moment, he is sitting on a wooden bench in the middle of a park where a huge fountain sprinkling water all over its basin could be seen in front of him. Needless to say, that clearly wasn't the main reason why he felt that way, instead, it was the sense of familiarity he is currently feeling while being in this place.
"Why does this park feel so familiar to me?" Kayn can't help asking himself while searching through his mind for any related memories of this place.
Strangely enough, even without needing to look around his surroundings, he still knew extremely well the placement of the trees and other types of greeneries around him, the number of trash bins and benches nearby, and how many crosswalks there are to get to his location.
"Eh, wait, wait!"
Shortly afterward, he finally realized why he was getting a sense of familiarity in this place.
"If my memory serves me correctly, this park was my favorite place to rest whenever I felt troubled during the times I was studying at a university as a student. The serenity I felt from this place was simply different and would always allow me to clear my mind, making me solve all the problems I have a lot easier than before,"
"But why am I here?"
As far as he could remember, this park had already been destroyed for more than a decade after a dungeon that was managed by a nearby small guild unexpectedly broke out. At that time, he felt quite sad for failing to protect this important place in his heart.
Although back then he has every means to rebuild this park, he knew deep inside of him that even then it wouldn't be the same park as before, but rather just a new park with the same layout as its predecessor.
"Wait, don't tell me that some people had rebuilt it without my knowledge?" This was the only reason Kayn could possibly think about that can explain why this place exists now. However, he suddenly thought of something really important.
"Didn't you just say that you cannot get outside the 'Tower', then why are you here right now?" Kayn can't help but ask Natas in confusion.
At the moment, Natas is sitting beside him on the bench while looking around the park with a look of curiosity on his face. He was like a cat that visited the park for the first time in his life.
"This is not as simple as simply getting outside the 'Tower'," Natas shook his head before looking at Kayn.
"We are literally outside the 'Tower'. So, what do you mean about that?" Kayn doesn't understand what Natas meant.
"I told you already, it's a lot easier for you to experience it rather than me explaining it to you. Once you look around your surroundings long enough, you will eventually be able to understand what I mean," Natas decided to stop explaining to Kayn and went back to observing the place, evidently mesmerized by its beauty and serenity.
"Okay…" Kayn could only helplessly follow Natas' instruction as he started looking around the park like the latter. But all of a sudden, "Oh, I almost forgot, everyone currently hates me,"
After abruptly remembering that fact, Kayn hastily jumped behind the bench where dense greenery was located and started hiding within it before continuing his observation of his surroundings.
This time, he became extremely cautious in fear that someone will recognize him and report it to the authorities. By then, he would have no other choice again but to run away.
"What you are doing right now is completely unnecessary," Natas chuckled at Kayn's action. But he soon noticed an arm grabbing onto his collar, and before he could even react, he was immediately pulled beside the latter as well.
"You…"
"You also need to hide. If I remembered correctly, everyone on Earth also recognized your face. More importantly, everyone hates you more than me," Kayn quickly cut what Natas was about to say.
"Wasn't that your fault to begin with?!" Natas rolled his eyes in annoyance. It was Kayn who showed everyone his face after he looted a detailed portrait of him from clearing the last dungeon on the 970th floor. He was so angry at that time because everyone turned him into a meme to make fun of and a way to express their anger. How dare these lowlife mortals, insult the perfect face of this God?!
"Oh, is that so? But according to one of the Gods I killed, it was you who secretly slipped your image in that dungeon, saying that everyone knows the faces of all the other Gods except for the almighty you, and you felt like it wasn't fair," Kayn scoffed.
"That…" Natas can't believe that one of the Gods had actually dared to reveal one of his darkest secrets.
"Hello, what are you doing?"
All of a sudden, a man wearing a set of running gear appeared in front of Kayn and Natas while showing a look of wonder on his face, evidently showing that he is curious about what exactly Kayn was doing hiding in the bush.
"And also, who are you talking to?" The man quickly added.
"Ummm…" Kayn looked at Natas in bewilderment.
"Only people I acknowledge can see me," Natas unhesitatingly stood up from the ground and returned to the bench again. Only a gush of wind could be felt as he made a move. After sitting down, he didn't bother helping Kayn after the latter had insulted him.
"Are you okay? You seemed like you have seen a ghost,"
"It's nothing, hehe… I just fell from the bench and was blaming myself for being so careless," Fortunately, he was able to quickly think of a reasonable excuse after that brief interruption from Natas.
"Oh, then make sure to be extra careful next time since I just saw a huge and sharp rock behind one of the benches I passed by not long ago. With the size of that rock, there's no doubt that it would cause a serious blunt injury to anyone's head if they fell onto it," The man reminded Kayn before finally walking away.
Seeing the man leaving, Kayn sighed heavily. He was very lucky this time that the man believed his excuse, otherwise that man would have mistaken him for a crazy person, or worst he would misunderstand him as a thief hiding in the bush and waiting for a victim. Regardless of how ridiculous the latter sounded, there's no doubt that the man just now would have called the police or the security of the park to confirm his identity. That would seriously bring him a lot of trouble…
However, Kayn's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as he asked himself, "But why did that man not recognize me?"
"Of course, he won't, since he doesn't know you, to begin with," This time Natas answered Kayn's question.
"Indeed…" As much as he hates to believe Natas' words, the expression he saw on that man's face indeed looked like he doesn't have any sort of clue about his identity. That man's expression was purely out of curiosity and concern. "Unless I was so unlucky that the person I met just now was some sort of professional actor that acted that way on the surface in order to hide what he really felt after seeing me,"
"Wait here," Kayn hastily stood up from the ground and chased after the man. He suddenly had a thought inside his head and he wanted to confirm it through that man just now.
On the other hand, Natas felt intrigued by what Kayn was about to do, so he turned his attention to the latter instead of continuing to observe the park.
Since the man hasn't gotten that far yet, it didn't take that long for Kayn to catch up. Along the way, he decided to pick up a sizeable rock to use as a weapon in case something goes wrong and hid it behind his back.
Kayn thought, "That man didn't seem to be strong enough to pose that much of a threat against me, so if it really comes to worst, this rock should probably be more than enough to make him lose consciousness and buy me sufficient time to run away,"
"Excuse me," Kayn called out to the man.
"Oh, it's you again! Is there something wrong?"
"I know that this might sound very strange to you, but do you really not recognize who I am?"
"Don't tell me…"
Kayn started feeling nervous. Out of caution, he tightened his grip on the rock he was hiding behind him to prepare himself to swing once this man shows any sort of threat.
"Did you hit your head so hard that you forgot who you are?"
Bang!
"I…" Because of disbelief, Kayn unconsciously let the rock that he was holding slip through his fingers, causing it to fall straight to the ground and create a muffled noise.
Even though the sound made by the rock the moment it hit the ground wasn't much, the man still heard it and instantly noticed the rock, thus making him look at Kayn strangely and suspiciously.
Realizing that he had just made a foolish mistake, Kayn quickly picked up the rock while acting like he was muttering to himself, "How careless of me. I was supposed to show this rock to you since you just mentioned something about suffering a serious injury after getting your head hit by a rock. I don't know much about rocks, so I was wondering if the size of this rock could also inflict the same as what you have mentioned?"
While saying that, Kayn didn't hesitate to openly show the rock to the man in order to defuse any sort of misunderstanding between the two of them.
Fortunately, the man was easily fooled and believed Kayn's excuse once again. Though the main reason for that was because of how harmless and young Kayn looked. If it wasn't for that, he would have long run away and called for help.
"Oh, so that's why. I thought you were planning to hit me with that rock or something," The man said jokingly, "Sorry about that,"
"I was," Kayn thought inwardly.
"Well, I don't see any blood around the rock, so I guess you're fine. But do you want me to call an ambulance just to make sure that you are really fine?"
"No need, I would just be causing trouble to the hospital. Instead, I have a better idea in mind. Can you tell me what time and date it is today? If it's the same as what I am currently thinking, then I believe there's nothing wrong with me," Kayn instead proposed another idea to dodge the man's proposal.
"Oh, what a smart idea! Let me check my phone," The man quickly took out a phone from his right pocket and turned it on to see the exact time and date.
"It's currently March 22, 2022, and the time is 1:31 PM). Did you happen to get it correctly?"
"Yeah," Kayn nodded his head.
"I guess you are fine then," The man said before bidding farewell to Kayn as he continued walking on his way.
"Ha!" Kayn sighed heavily once again. He's feeling really thankful for his past experiences in dealing with different types of people, problems, and situations. If it wasn't for that, then things would have developed entirely differently from what happened just now.
As soon as the man left, Kayn blankly returned to where Natas was sitting and sat beside the latter quietly.
"I guess you understood now," Natas muttered after noticing Kayn's expression.
Kayn might have acted like nothing was wrong after hearing the date and time from that man, but in reality, he was utterly shocked and confuse. And now that the man is gone, his emotions are now apparent just from his expression alone. Deep inside, he can't believe what he had just heard.
Kayn slightly nodded in response. "But how…?"
"It's a very long story, so I hope you will prepare yourself to listen well because I don't want to explain to you all over again,"