Chapter 155 - Return
"What am I supposed to do now? I really don't have anything to do here. There's not much a child could could in here. That's only if there are children living here. I can't imagine what life would be like for someone who would have to grow up and spend their entire life here. Well that would be the theory at least. That would only occur if I were to remain in this kingdom as a prisoner which won't happen so that it is at least good. However, under that scenario, if I didn't have One and Zero at my side, my existence alone would've been enough to ruin the lives of hundreds of people. Thinking about it now, it wouldn't be too harsh to assume that my captures also planned for this. They might have wanted me to resent myself and blame myself for the way that the lives of these people have ended and in turn end my life so that these people may be set free. While it would've been effective on almost everyone, I really don't see it working on me," Yuki said to himself.
"For it to have any effectiveness, I would need to have the ideology that the lives of hundreds of others is better than mine, which most people do have, however, I don't see it that way. It might be because I know that every human isn't actually important and is only a fragment of another entity which created humans to entertain itself or because One can change and augment my emotions and beliefs. Either way, I could care less about the lives of these people. Life is a game of luck, from the moment you're born, you can only blame yourself for what happens to you," Yuki continued.
After walking through the screechy kingdom for what seemed like hours, Yuki found a narrow gap within the array of houses. Seeing that, Yuki quickly went inside in hopes of breaking the necklace which made him as weak as a level 1 player. There were only two way Yuki could break it. However, Yuki would have prefered to only have to resort to the first method.
"One, switch with me and break this necklace thing off of me," said Yuki. Since One had access to everything which Yuki had, he knew why Yuki asked this of him. While One was Yuki's emotions if they were personified and pushed to the extreme, he also had control over said emotions which allowed him to have great control over Yuki's presence. If One were in some way directing Yuki's presence into the necklace and breaking it from the inside out, then Yuki could move on with his day. The only problem was that One was limited due to the capabilities of Yuki's body. Using presence to a person's desire took an astronomical amount of stamina. The only reason Yuki was able to manipulate him so well was because of how efficiently One worked. Seeing as Yuki's body was that of a level 1 player along with the unknown strength of the necklace which depended on the creator of if, it would be a very difficult task to break the limiter necklace.
"Let's see...," One said before reaching for the necklace with Yuki's arms and pulled away at it with all his might. For a split second as he did this, he let his presence leak out and allowed everyone around the kingdom to feel it. Due to it being an accident, it only lasted a split second, but during that short moment, everyone felt fear. It wasn't the type of presence such as Meurig which inflicted the feeling of death itself upon its enemies. Instead, One's presence was that which poured the feeling of desperation upon others.
"Sorry to tell you but I don't think I can do anything about it. It would drain your body of all your stamina and still might not work," One said before switching back to Yuki.
"I guess the level difference between a level 1 version of me and the creator of the necklace is just too large for me to handle. Well, that only leaves me with one option," Yuki said to himself as he realized what he must do to overcome his current obstacle. While he would've preferred to not call on him that often so he won't seem annoying, Yuki had no other choice but to rely on him.
"Hey, Zero... could you remove this necklace thing off of me and teleport me to the 3rd dungeon which this world has to offer?" Yuki asked.
"With pleasure," Zero replied. Within a blink of an eye, Yuki was somewhere else entirely, it was completely different from where he was before. Unlike the previous dungeon gates, the one which Yuki was at didn't have any hills or mountains around it. The dungeon gate was in an open grassy field which went on as far as the eye could see. It was mesmerizing to look at to the point where it was almost scary.
"Just like that? I'm in a totally different place than I was a second ago. Zero's powers are just amazing. The best part is that I can utilize them whenever I want," Yuki said to himself in joy. However, deep down, he hated having to call on Zero. It made him feel cheap and like a cheater. Even if he derived pleasure out of abusing Zero's powers, it didn't feel real to him because he didn't earn it on his own.
"Wait... Zero, teleport me back and place the necklace on me again. I think that I should only hunt at night," Yuki said in his head as he came to a realization. Of course, without even having to reply back, Zero did as he was told.
Yuki had realized that his captures probably weren't that stupid to leave him with just a limiter necklace. The necklace itself probably had a tracker in it. While having the necklace taken off might make it so that they won't find Yuki, the problem was that they would realize Yuki was gone if the necklace didn't move for a long period of time. As such, they would probably force someone to change their ability and track Yuki down and recapture him.