Lan Ze had never truly exercised since birth. He had studied diligently in middle and high school, then stayed home playing games every day after college. In short, he had basically been a shut-in his entire life.
"That won't do. Even if you don't improve your strength, you should at least have a healthy body." Speaking as a "teacher," Scathach's tone carried a hint of admonishment.
"Otherwise, if you run into trouble someday and have no ability to protect yourself, you'll regret it."
As Scathach spoke, she subconsciously reached out to pat Lan Ze's head. But before her hand could touch him, she pulled it back as though shocked.
"..."
Scathach lowered her head and stared at her palm, then looked Lan Ze over with a slightly astonished gaze.
Why did this boy have protective magic on him?
He clearly wasn't a mage...
And such intricate magic... perhaps only mages from the Divine Era could use it?
Someone had cast Divine Era Magic on him?
Just who was this boy?
"Master?" Lan Ze called out tentatively.
Scathach snapped out of her realization and smiled. "I had originally planned to find an opportunity to teach you, but it seems you already have a very impressive teacher."
Lan Ze: "???"
Where did he have a teacher?
Could it be... that he had triggered a hidden quest?
With that thought, Lan Ze said without hesitation, "Please be my teacher!"
Scathach's elegant brows rose slightly. "You want to become my disciple?"
Lan Ze nodded without hesitation.
Scathach pondered briefly and looked Lan Ze over a few more times before nodding slightly.
She rose to her feet with a smile. "I'll come find you tonight."
Lan Ze froze for a moment.
He wouldn't be playing games at night... How was she going to find him?
But before he could ask, Scathach had already vanished from sight.
Looking in the direction Scathach had disappeared, Lan Ze somehow had a faintly bad feeling.
"Why didn't becoming Master's disciple trigger any achievements?"
Lan Ze was somewhat puzzled. He opened the Achievement Book. Among the items listed there, only the Holy Grail had been activated, and he had obtained that when he first met Ereshkigal.
He would have to slowly explore the Achievement Manual.
Lan Ze shook his head, then asked, "System, how do I leave this space now?"
The system ignored him.
"System?!"
"System Mom?"
"Child, you've grown up. It's time to learn how to grow on your own." An icy, utterly emotionless voice suddenly rang beside his ear.
"The problem is, I wanted to see Ereshkigal just now, not Master! How am I supposed to contact her?" Lan Ze hurriedly asked.
"..."
Why was this system playing dead again? It was so unreliable.
Helpless, Lan Ze looked up and checked once more. The hall was empty. Only ten chairs stood there, with nothing else around them.
"Then at least tell me how to leave this space, will you?"
There was still no response.
Lan Ze stared blankly at the hall, thinking, Even if you won't tell me, at least let me leave this space, right? Am I supposed to just stand around here?
If there were a few sexy, mature big sisters in bikinis sitting on the table for me to admire, I could zone out for a while...
Lan Ze opened the menu and searched for an option to exit the instance.
There was no helping it. Since the system was playing dead, he could only figure it out himself.
However, after searching through the menu, Lan Ze found no option to leave this space.
After helplessly closing the menu, Lan Ze fell into brief confusion.
He was now nearly certain that this was an extremely open game world. Otherwise, he would not have ended up in this mysterious space without even completing a single quest.
But how exactly am I supposed to leave this space?
As Lan Ze was thinking, a layer of white mist suddenly covered his vision. Then, the scene before his eyes slowly began to fade.
The next moment, he was no longer in that mysterious space, but out in the wilderness of Uruk.
Lan Ze could not help but stare blankly.
"Could it be... that the space is controlled by my thoughts?"
Come to think of it, when Scathach had left, she had seemingly vanished without doing anything as well.
...Forget it. He would try again next time.
His top priority now should be finding a way to continue activating the cards in the Heroic Spirit Record, thereby increasing his strength...
This was Mesopotamia during Ancient Sumer, an age in which gods and humans coexisted.
Without a doubt, in a world like this, it would not be strange to die to some unexplained AOE at any moment if he lacked strength.
With that thought, Lan Ze opened the Heroic Spirit Record and considered whether there were any achievements suitable for him to activate.
Suddenly, an anxious and urgent voice came from afar:
"Lady Goddess, please stop!"
"Lady Goddess, those are extremely precious gems from the king's treasury. Please return them!"
"If the king finds out, he'll be furious. Please—"
Noisy cries faintly rang out in the distance. The scantily clad goddess Ishtar was speeding through the low sky aboard her weapon and flying vessel, Ma'anna. Hearing the Uruk soldiers shouting behind her, she turned around and pulled a face at them.
"You want me to return the gems? Dream on! Hahahahahaha—"
Letting out devilish laughter in her lovely voice, Ishtar sped toward the distance on Ma'anna. Looking down at the large sack of gems in her hands, her brows immediately relaxed as she muttered happily, "I hit the jackpot, I hit the jackpot! That Golden Flash's treasury really has so much stuff~"
Just looking at so many gems was enough to brighten her mood.
She would come again tomorrow and try to empty out the treasury, just to piss off that Golden Flash!
Thinking happily, Ishtar hummed a tune and increased Ma'anna's speed.
Just then, she suddenly spotted a human in her field of vision. Ishtar's eyes slowly widened, and her nerves instantly tensed. But by the time she tried to turn Ma'anna, it was already too late.
Having never expected a human to be "browsing Taobao" in the middle of nowhere, Ishtar rammed her flying vessel straight into Lan Ze.
A deafening explosion sounded in his ears. Lan Ze did not even have time to react. He could only vaguely see a girl with an incredible figure hurriedly jump down from Ma'anna, jog over, and crouch before him as though saying something.
...What was going on?
Lan Ze's consciousness blurred, and he could not even see Ishtar's face clearly.
Before he had nearly any time to think, his vision went completely dark.
"Hey... Why are you in the Underworld again? Hey~ Are you all right?"
Lan Ze's consciousness was hazy. He vaguely heard a lovely voice by his ear, and as he slowly opened his eyes, Ereshkigal's delicate face came into view, her beautiful eyes full of concern.
Lan Ze raised a hand in greeting. "Hi."
The way he greeted her made it seem as though he had already returned home.
"Why are you here again? What happened?" Ereshkigal reached out and gently brushed aside the hair on his forehead, apparently completely unaware that the gesture was overly intimate.
Lan Ze explained, "After entering the game, I searched everywhere for you, but I couldn't find you anywhere, and then..."
"And then you killed yourself to come down to the Underworld?" Ereshkigal's face was filled with disbelief as she held her head in both hands and shook it hard.
"What is going through that head of yours? Why don't you cherish your life at all?!"
Lan Ze paused. "No, then I got hit to death by an unidentified flying object."
Ereshkigal blinked, her charming eyes full of confusion.
"Hit to death by an unidentified flying object...?"
"Yeah. It suddenly rushed at me from behind, then with a 'bang,' it sent me flying." Lan Ze vividly described it.
Ereshkigal looked thoroughly bewildered.
What unidentified flying object in Uruk could run someone over and kill them?
After thinking for a moment, Ereshkigal seemed to remember something. She suddenly slapped her palm, and her eyes widened slightly. "I know!"
"You know who did it?" Lan Ze asked curiously.
"In Uruk, the only ones who can fly through the sky on flying objects seem to be that king and another careless goddess."
At this point, Ereshkigal gave the black-haired boy before her a sympathetic look. "It seems you ran into that goddess with the absolutely terrible personality."
Across the land of Mesopotamia, the only one who could fly around so recklessly was the goddess beloved by all the gods: Ishtar.
Lan Ze covered his forehead, thought for a moment, and said, "Come to think of it, before I passed out, I think I heard a woman's voice."
"Mm... Then it probably really was Ishtar."
At that, Ereshkigal sighed helplessly.
This boy was truly unlucky. He had only just entered Mesopotamia and had already encountered that goddess with the terrible personality.
Ereshkigal was internally sympathizing with Lan Ze's misfortune when she suddenly noticed him looking at her eagerly. She immediately became wary. "What are you doing?"
"Please, Eresh-a-mon." Lan Ze pleaded.
"Do you want me to let you out?" Ereshkigal instinctively took half a step back, her expression firm. "Don't even think about it. I'm a Goddess of the Underworld with principles. The rules of the Underworld cannot be changed so easily. The dead cannot return to life!"
"But I'm not a resident of Mesopotamia. Make an exception for me."
"Absolutely not!" Ereshkigal's attitude was unwavering.
"Do you want to keep me here to keep you company and chat?"
Noticing Lan Ze's blazing gaze, Ereshkigal shyly lowered her head.
After a moment of silence, she lifted her head again, seeming to rally herself as she folded her arms. "How could that be! I'm not the kind of girl who gets lonely so easily. How could I do something like that for my own selfish desires?!"
As she spoke, she glanced at Lan Ze again. After a brief silence, she said, "I can let you out, but on one condition."
Ereshkigal had a condition?
Given Ereshkigal's personality, she probably would not ask for anything too demanding... Lan Ze obediently nodded. "Tell me."
"It's simple. If you want to leave, become the Divine Messenger of the Goddess of the Underworld!" Ereshkigal raised a hand and pointed at Lan Ze, one hand on her hip. Although she looked full of confidence, her beautiful eyes clearly held a trace of probing anxiety, as though she feared Lan Ze would flatly refuse her.
"Sorry, I don't understand." Lan Ze scratched the back of his head. "What is this Divine Messenger you're talking about?"
"It means a messenger of the gods!"
Ereshkigal lightly tapped the floor with her Cage Gun, and the cages around them lit up with a captivating glow following her movement.
"I'll send you away from here, but in exchange, you must become my Divine Messenger." As she finished speaking, her bright eyes fixed tightly on Lan Ze's.
Become Ereshkigal's Divine Messenger?
Lan Ze's gaze flickered as he fell into brief thought.
Before you continue