“URGH.” Was all I can groan as I flopped down onto the bed gently after I scrubbed my body for the fifth time to get rid of the sweat and who knows what from the garbage truck and other stuff I had to go through. I lay down there, just groaning into the mattress. My muscles were all sore from running and jumping all day, dodging the main streets, and going over fences and whatnots. For a minute, I was in bliss as I finally managed to relax in the safety of my apartment. Then my stomach rumbled like a plane taking off.

                I groaned again as I sat up and glared at the ramen pack that had caused me so much trouble. I grabbed it roughly and walked over to the kitchen, where I smashed it down onto the countertop, which I turned on, and grabbed a pot, filled it with water, and slammed it down on the heated metal, spilling a bit of the water and causing it to hiss on the heated water. I turned to the ramen package and ripped it open.

                “Now let’s see if the damn trouble was worth it, shall we?” I growled as I grabbed one of the packs out. But as I pulled it out, something small also fell out.

                CLACK!

                I stared at the little black object that had just fallen out of the plastic. At first, I thought it was a large cockroach, and almost stamped on it in a panic, before just halting my foot above the little thing when I got a better look at it. Picking it up, I recognized it as a small little Orb of Worlds Item Transferer. Or O.W.I.T for short. I held it up to my hand and just stared at it, wondering how it got there when I noticed something written on the side of it.

                ‘This belongs to M…’ The rest was smudged, and the rest was faded as if it’s been used for a few years now. I turned it around, trying to look for any markings when I noticed a small, tiny button near the bottom. The more expensive ones had these buttons that showed you if there was something in them, and if there was, what rarity.

                Gray for no items, white for common, green for uncommon, blue for rare, purple for epic, orange for legendary, black for demonic, yellow for angelic, the last two were the same quality, FYI. It’s just that those items can only be used by either people with a history of bad or good reputation with NPC’s. What else… Oh right. There was another rarity, but no one has it. They couldn’t. It was impossible to obtain. At least, for now.

And while I was lost, deep in my thoughts, I clicked it. Right next to my eyes. Like an actual, braindead, stupid, idiot.

                Cue to me having my eyes blinded by the bright shine of red light that the damn little thing should not have the capacity of. I stumbled around, tripping on something, before flopping onto the floor in a panic, becoming a kicking, slightly crying, panicking mess on the kitchen floor, miraculously missing smacking my head against the kitchen drawers as I writhed in pain.

                “ARGHHHH! WHY, WHY, WHY!?” Damn it! I should have known! Those things had frequent complaints about the light being way too strong! Hell, even some lawsuits for permanent eye damage had popped up over the years! I crawled over to the sink, and washed my eyes in a desperate attempt to get rid of the pain, and after a moment, the pain was gone, and I stood up, rubbing my face with a towel before collapsing back, my stamina now gone.

                For a second, I just lay there just staring at the kitchen’s ceiling, contemplating if I should just end my stupidity right there and then, when I sat up in realization at the color. I scrambled to my feet and rushed to the OWIT; noise complaints be damned.

                I had only seen that color once in all the years of research and playing I have done in the past years.

                Rushing at the computer, OWIT in hand as I quickly turned it on, fingers were flying across my keyboards as I rushed through the internet, desperately trying to remember what that color was. After several tense minutes went by as I scrolled through countless forums and wikis and the like. Just when I gave up, I found it! The result I found, however?

                Well, uh. It’s complicated to say the very least.

                You see, Orb of Worlds did indeed have red items. But they aren’t obtainable. At least, not in any possible known way. The OWIT I clenched in my fist seemed to be the first Godly item ever held by a player. A. Freaking. GODLY. These things were usually owned by Gods and were so powerful that they can blow apart literal towns away and make it so there was nothing left to even indicate a town once existed there.

                The first time a God appeared was on a beachside city, an event was triggered, and an army of Leviathans appeared on the nearby beach. In a desperate move to try and stall the attack so the backup from his guild could arrive, the highest-level priest in the game, who had happened to be in the city to eat virtual seafood, tried out their new skill. That skill was the first-ever skill to summon the user’s patron god.

                Their patron god, unfortunately, turned out to be Apollo, one of the Greek Gods. His famous Godly rarity bow took out the water monster army in one shot... but the shockwave also took out the entire city. The blast was so powerful that it completely nuked the whole beach, stretching out a holy nuclear wasteland for a literal thirty-mile radius in every direction.

                And I was, if it wasn’t a glitch or glitch, holding one of these. I stared at it for a second, completely unbelievable what I had just read. Then I freaked out, jumping up and down like a kid that had gotten something they wanted for Christmas. This was a miracle! This Item was literally priceless! How did a poor idiot like me get it? The last thought sobered me up, stopping me from trying to calculate how much this will go on the market.

How... did I get this? I wasn’t lucky at all. And I doubted some rich person would drop it into a ramen package, even if they weren't a bumbling idiot. And why hadn’t this exploded over the news earlier? An item with this rarity that hasn’t been unobtainable for fifteen years would’ve let any news outlet milk it for at least a month! Then… there was the matter of the girl. Was this why she was trying so hard to chase me down?

                Then it hit me. Something that was nagging at the back of my mind. That girl had to be chasing me because of this. Somehow, she knew where this was and was trying to get it, only to be intercepted when I, the dumb, bumbling tall nerd I was, swooped in and grabbed it. And if this was truly a Godly Item... let’s just say people have been killed for much, much less than this.

                I shook my head, trying to clear the thoughts. I walked over to my capsule, and plugged it in. I knew that the faster I sold it, the less heat I had on me. The girl was probably hunting all over for me, and if she truly was the owner of the item... let’s just say I was in a lot of trouble if I didn’t do something. With that in mind I quickly clambered in and laid in the pod comfortably, trying to calm myself. Plugging the OWIT into the pod and making sure nothing was out of place or was dangerous, I breathed out, trying to calm myself, and said the magical word.

                “Login.”

                After a brief spectacular show chock full of special effects, I eventually landed on my feet in my private room as I spawned in. I yawned as I walked over to the door, habits making me about to go on with my usual routine, when I froze, remembering why I was here. I quickly opened my inventory and gasped in awe at first, then confusion as I stared at its icon. It was there, yes, but it was… locked?

                “… Identify.” I whispered as I tapped on it.

                Name: ???

                Status: Locked, Soulbound to Axel Keenan

                Condition to unlock: ???

                Rarity: Godly

                Stats: ???

                Durability: ???

                I mentally cursed at myself as I saw the Soulbound status, but I couldn’t do anything about it. Then it struck me as I was rereading the description. How did someone get the item and put it into an OWIT, but not get it Soulbound to them? Suddenly, everything clicked, and I paled as I finally connected the dots that were shoved up against my face.

                You couldn’t, not unless you were one of the top three clans. At the start of Orb, there was a special reward for the top three clans on its first anniversary. Each clan got various rewards, but the main thing they all got was a one-of-a-kind scroll.

Bond Crusher.

                This scroll was, on the surface, one of the most mundane items as it only had one effect. But it was still considered one of the greatest items of all time. Why? Because these scrolls allowed the user to break the Soulbound status on items once per, for an unknown number of times. And if this item was indeed B. Crushed, as known to the community, then there is a good chance that the girl was at least a high-ranking officer in one of these clans.

                I shook my head as I thought about this and walked outside. I decided to go somewhere to clear my head, as I figured I could take a day off. Breaks were productive. I strapped on a backpack with supplies, walked to the end of the cave, past all the buildings, and stood in front of a tiny little Blackstone podium. After a few seconds, I was gone.

                I found myself landing in a random place, with another Blackstone podium behind me. I looked around, relaxing because these teleport zones were always safe no matter what. Stopping for just a moment, I quickly went over a mental checklist. Let’s see... Ok, I packed my virtual sandwich, too bad it wasn’t real, a picnic blanket, and an umbrella that a friend had given to me a long time ago. All of them were in my inventory, and I smiled as I made sure I had everything I needed, now I just needed a good spot to eat peacefully at.

                I shifted the backpack on my back and dashed off. You know, I realized I haven’t looked at my stats for a long time, not having a level up in quite some time. I quickly opened my menu while dashing and stared in surprise at my stats that I could’ve sworn were lower. My memory must be on the fritz.

                Name: Axel Keenan

                Race: Human (Male)

                Class: Fighter/Miner

                Level: 20

                Title: Efficient Miner (20% extra mining speed)

                Titles: (Click to see all options)

                HP: 2250

                Mana: 100

                Mana Per Second: 0.1

                Stamina: 1125

                Skills: (Click to see all of them)

                Stats:

                Strength: 50

                Dexterity: 35

                Constitution: 45

                Intelligence: 10

                Wisdom: 10

                Free Stat Points: 0

                I dashed across a line as I read my stats, which prompted a notice that informed me that I was leaving the safe zone. I ignored it as I spotted a lone tree where it would be perfect for me to eat. I stopped, sending up grass everywhere. Within a few minutes, I had set up everything. Picnic blanket I bought for only a few gold coins. Check. Sandwiches I bought? Check. Nice sunny days with only a few clouds in the sky? Check. I lay against the tree with one of the cheap sandwiches in one hand and the other behind my head. I brought it up to my lips, and almost bit into it as I enjoyed the virtual sunlight.

                Then, of course the game demanded action from me, a lonesome picnic dude.

                “AHHH!” I heard a loud scream, and within a second, I got onto my feet, and already sprinting towards the scream, dropping the sandwich without a second thought.

                I screeched to a halt right in front of a battle between a player and a massive, gigantic orc. I was trying to figure out what was going on, what was going on, when I saw two things that made me pale. One, there was a ton of dead bodies, which means that this was a full party wipe besides a kid that was just barely hanging on.

                Two, the boss was a freaking field boss, judging by how big the health bar that appeared at the top edge of my vision. It seemed to only have twenty-five percent of its health gone, which was rapidly regenerating. And as I joined the fight to help the player, I saw that the bodies had decent armor, and a few items that screamed at least level fifty and above. We were screwed, but I could at least protect the last survivor.

                I barely equipped my battle gloves I got when I was level ten when the orc swung his huge fist towards the player kid. I barely intercepted before the orc managed to land a hit, hitting its humongous fist with enough force to barely make it miss to the left. Holy crap! My fists were sore just trying to force it to the side! I jumped away, shaking my hands to loosen up the nerves that were crying in pain.

                I quickly looked at the kid, hoping he might be useful. Nope. Absolutely freaking not, at least in this time and place. The kid was a priest, or a healer in RPG speak, judging by his staff and all his random knick-knacks and talismans. To top it off, he looked like he was out of mana, and only had a quarter of his HP left in him judging by all the wounds as he looked in wide-eyed terror. I quietly murmured a curse and spoke out to the kid while the orc looked at me confused, tilting its head at the random stranger that had intercepted his attack.

                “Kid,” I spoke in a low voice. “Run, I’ll hold him off.” The kid looked young and having gone through something just like this, I knew what he was going through as well. I also knew that because of that he was in no condition to fight. At least I had a chance to escape with my decent Dexterity stat. I turned to watch the Orc boss, who seemed bored as he picked his teeth with a bone. With a shudder, I realized it was a human pinkie bone.

                The kid looked at me with fear and hope in his eyes as he nodded and dashed off. I sighed a breath of relief as I heard him run off, until the Orc decided that standing still was too boring and that he wanted to go after a running target. He passed me with surprising speed for a big guy, and before I knew it, he already had a fist descending towards the kid.

                Something in me snapped as my body reacted on its own.

                Before I knew it, I was in front of the kid, pushing him hard away from the boss, ready to take the death blow. I closed my eyes, praying my constitution would be enough to tank the blow. I waited for the death screen to appear behind my eyelids, hoping the kid would make it.