Free Web NovelChapter 1: Chapter 1: New Mission
I am who I am. Those should be words spoken only by Him, but He gave the right to say those words to His creation as well, especially in that particular part of the world where the starting point of everything began.
The Garden of Eden
Beasts of every kind, from simple mice to three-headed leviathans, all peaceful creatures, named by none other than Adam himself. The first among the first. The first being birthed from His breath.
But the Creator felt something was missing in this field of life, as Adam grew tired and alone with each passing millennium. So He finally figured something out.
He beckoned a brother.
The Creator spoke, and while Adam was asleep, He took out a piece of his spine, taking away a few inches of his height, and from that spine, He created another.
Amon.
Another man. A brother. Blood of his blood. While having a second chance at creation, God made Amon more beautiful, much smarter, and more understanding.
He bathed his head with golden hair and golden eyes, which drew the many animals even closer to him.
In time, both Adam and Amon grew close, true brothers. But once again, another error came to be. Darkness was forming inside Adam as he watched his own attention being taken by Amon.
When the Creator finally figured out a way to patch this mistake and stop Adam from falling into darkness, He gave Amon another task.
He would not rule the world with Adam. Instead, he was given something far more demanding, something only he could do.
"What will I do then, oh Father?" Amon spoke.
You shall guide them.
"Guide... them? You want me to guide Adam?" he replied.
No. You shall guide THEM, using my gift.
[System granted, user: Amon]
After a while, Amon finally understood. He saw the Creator take a rib from Adam and create the first female being to ever exist: Eve.
Amon nodded as he was pulled out of the Garden of Eden and left to watch both of them flourish from afar.
He guided them as instructed, but something felt amiss. The place where he should have been, the space where the Creator’s attention was constant, he finally realized that in that space called Eden, he was no longer welcome.
He knew those thoughts would lead him astray. He was smarter than he was given credit for. He already understood why he had been taken out: because of the sprouting darkness he had felt in Adam, the same darkness now sprouting inside him as well.
And in the nick of time, someone came to him from the aisle of that darkness.
Give this fruit to Eve and you will get what your deepest heart desires.
Amon didn’t like it at first, but the temptation was real. He went to the Garden of Eden, holding the fruit.
And as he saw Eve eating the apple, Something inside him screamed.
No.
No.
NOOOO!!!!!
"NOOOOOOO!!!" he bellowed, waking up.
Amon woke up, his body covered in snow, wearing a hefty thick white jacket. His golden hair and beard were covered with ice and snow. He looked around, searching for somebody.
"Nyima!" he shouted, calling her name.
But no answer came, only the silence of the mountains. "Guess she left, huh," he muttered.
He stood up, pushing all the snow away. The bottle of vodka was still in his hands. Seeing a slight amount left, he drank it right away and threw the bottle. It launched high into the snowy sky.
As he walked, the corpses of white yetis lay everywhere, eight-foot beasts, not one, not two, not three, but a mountain full of bleeding bodies.
He checked his watch. It was getting dark; he needed to reach the group quickly. The notifications kept popping up again and again.
[You have killed a mad yeti]
[You have gained +5 STR points]
[Error: All stats are maxed. Stats can no longer be added.]
[You have killed a sharp yeti]
[You have gained +5 AGI points]
[Error: All stats are maxed. Stats can no longer be added.]
[You have killed a hulk yeti]
[You have gained +5 STM points]
[Error: All stats are maxed. Stats can no longer be added.]
Amon scoffed at the notifications. It had become the norm. The so-called gift had now become a curse to him, the annoying pop-ups every time he did something.
What use was the gift when its job was done? Yes, he had done it all. Every mission, every leviathan beaten, the world saved a million times. Demons purged, angels whipped back into discipline. Nephilim purged to oblivion. He had destroyed the evil of humanity with Noah.
He saw smoke coming from afar, meaning his wife and the others were camping nearby after all. He crouched, pressing hard into the snow. Reality warped around his feet as the snow floated slightly higher.
BOOM!
The snow exploded along with the ground beneath him as he jumped high, higher than the mountain, seeing the beautiful red sunset. And there they were: his friends and family, sitting cozily before the fire without him.
He landed gently, so gently that when his feet touched down, the snow beneath him only compressed as if he had simply stepped on it.
"Oh look, finally. Someone decided to wake up," one of the men said with a smile.
Amon smiled. "Come on, you could have woken me up," he replied, as a gorgeous woman wearing a scruffy Sherpa hat walked over and hugged him tight.
"We tried. We even tried carrying you, but you were too drunk," she said.
"And heavy as hell. How much do you actually weigh, man?" the same guy asked, laughing.
Amon could only smile. That was an answer he didn’t even know himself. His body had already evolved to a point where he no longer knew what level he was at.
"Come on, stop it, you guys," Nyima said, glaring at the men. They shut up immediately.
"It’s okay, dear. It’s only cheering when you guys treat me normally. That’s more precious than anything I could ask for," Amon said, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "Do we still have drinks left?" he asked.
Everyone laughed.
"Haha... knew you would ask again," Cheering said, throwing a bottle of vodka at Amon as Nyima glared at both of them.
"So our cleaning duty is done, thanks to our dear guardian," another one said. "I think it’s time we go head back home."
"Yeah, there won’t be much after the breeding season. The beasts will calm down for a while," said Cheering.
But Amon remained silent. He knew what they didn’t. The beasts, the many so-called monsters, would never truly vanish from this earth. They would keep coming, forever and ever.
"Yeah..." Amon said. "I think it’s time to go home." He huffed in peace.
[New mission alert]
But after a few decades, that familiar pop-up came, ruining his mood. And it wasn’t just a simple blue or yellow notification. This was a bright red pop-up, the kind that appeared when the world was facing biblical-level danger.
What now?
[The world is reaching its end. Save the world once more.]
[Difficulty level: SSSSS+]
[Reward: A note from the Creator]
Difficulty level SSSSS+? That’s a first... I ain’t doing nothing. He thought, knowing damn well that heaven had blessed many heroes for these kinds of missions.
But he swiped it away. The pop-up came right back. Amon, irritated, slid it away again. Still, it came right back at his face.
Hmmm... This is new.
Nyima came closer, noticing his furrowed eyes. "What happened, dear?"
Amon slid it away one last time, focusing on her and her dark, beautiful eyes. "Nothing, just my eyes."
Nyima knew that wasn’t it. She always knew, but stayed quiet, letting him keep his many secrets, and poured him a glass of his favorite vodka.
While from afar, from the peak, something landed, something that had sprouted wings ever so large and wide, watching the golden-haired man freely drinking.
"Found you."
