John couldn’t sleep.

It was the middle of the night. He was still lying in bed, cradling Nanaella in his arms. She was tucked into his embrace, still the little spoon, softly snoring away. Her ears, once rigid, hung loosely on top of her head. They would occasionally twitch and flop around, sometimes laying on his face. When they did, he resisted a weird urge to nibble on them.

The effects of the Substance X were slowly wearing off, and the aches and pains he had become so familiar with returned. This wasn’t something that would stop him from sleeping normally. As long as he didn’t move much, his body would let him sleep through pretty much anything. 

Tonight though, he wasn’t even tired. Maybe the energy boost from the drink was keeping him up? Or maybe it was the soft bundle of joy in his arms making him nervous, keeping him awake.

Should I even do experiments with that drink? It has to be that right? Other than having a beautiful woman in my arms again, nothing else has changed so it must be one of the two.

I should return to DEN. I am pretty sure Alec said he would answer any questions I had, and to come back often to get…what was I supposed to go back for? 

He sighed. He didn’t remember.

Thinking of DEN did jog his memory of the quest status thingy that popped up last night before Nanaella gave him that divine massage though. With his mind somewhat clear now, he decided to see what the quest was.

Umm…I thought about closing it and it worked so…Quest Open?

A screen popped up in front of him.

[DEN Quest Received]

[The Cross-Worlds NoFap Challenge (repeatable)]

[Don’t Fap. No matter the world, only others may take care of your needs.]

[Rewards]

[25 Gatcha Token per completion.]

[After receiving a certain number of completions without Fapping, you will be awarded with One Item from any world you can bring with you. If you Fap, the number resets to zero,]

[Current Item]

[World – The Great Cleric – Bottomless Flask of Substance X (Special Tier Equipment)]

[Challenge Level 1 – 1/10]

[Difficultly increases as level are completed] 

Hun?

“What is NoFap? What is ‘Fapping’?” He said to himself quietly. Apparently he did it once already so that is good, whatever it was.

The rewards for the  extra Gatcha tokens are nice, and I get an item for doing it ten times. I still need to find out more about this Substance X though. I can’t imagine they would give me a reward that would kill me, but still.

With that he closed the quest window and made a decision. Leaving here now would work out well. He was in a safe spot with a beautiful girl in his arms. If he ever needed a break, he could come back here and relax, as there didn’t seem to be anything pressing happening in this world.

Giving Nanaella a quick kiss on top of her head, he spoke “DEN Return” and the world shifted, turned fuzzy and disappeared.

*Poof*

White smoke this time and flashing lights announced his arrival back at the DEN studio. That loud announcers voice echoing throughout the room again.

“Let’s welcome back with a round of applause our oldest contestant, John Wayne!”

Why do they bother pointing that part out every time?

Once again, Alec was sitting across from him, wearing his usual attire, a giant smile on his face. Another bottle of something resembling water was beside him. John was wearing the white bathrobe again from the first time he was here.

“Welcome back John. How did you find your trip to the world of ‘The Great Cleric?’ “

Just then, John’s mind gained some clarity. The events of the past two weeks came rushing through his mind in an instant. He paused for a moment to compose his thoughts before answering.

“That was amazing. Using magic was enjoyable, I made some new friends, and I was able to help a lot of people who were suffering. Got myself setup with a respectable job, and even seemed to somehow get close to a wonderful young woman, albeit inadvertently. Despite the initial scare from that flying dinosaur, I hadn’t been that happy and relaxed in years. I really wish I had been given some backstory though, and was told what I am actually supposed to be doing there.”

“The backstory thing was our fault, not that the original protagonist was given much either. Next time you enter that world, we will provide you with some more general information about the world you are living in now. As for what you are supposed to be doing, just keep on doing what you are doing. Some of these worlds are fast paced, others are more laid back to start before events start moving forward.

I will say, from our perspective, you and that worlds canon were having an epic battle to try and resume control of the Lore. Unlike Highschool of the Dead, The Great Cleric world has a long, fully fleshed out Lore, and the Canon will be difficult to break. Did you like the bonus you were given for that world?”

“Umm…not sure what the bonus was.”

“The title ‘Protection of the Omni’ of course. It basically reduces skill point cost by fifty percent. Say you needed one-thousand points for a skill to go from level one to level two, now it only needed five hundred. It was the main reason you acquired the ability to cast heal so quickly when you spent half the day napping or lusting after Nina.”

“I was appreciating her from afar, not lusting. Don’t make me seem like some crazy homewrecker.” John said, defending himself. He only spent a couple afternoons in the inns common room while giving his brain a break. She just happened to be in there too.

“Right, right. Are you ready to go over your progression in that world?” Alec said, his tone sounding like he didn’t believe a word of it.

“Sure let’s do it Alec.”

In a moment, a window popped up in front of him.

[World – The Great Cleric]

[Canon Completion (By Manga) – 9%]

[Anomalies]

[Minor – Replaced Main Character – 1%]

[Minor – Introduced himself to Lumina – 0.5%]

[Minor – Did not get intimidated by Baazan – 1%]

[Minor – Figured out what country and city you were in without asking – 0.5%]

[Minor – Learned about the tensions between the Healers and Doctors guild early – 0.5%]

[Minor – Learned why people have status screens early – 0.5%]

[Major – Rejected Luminas training proposals – 10%]

[Critical – Canon Acceleration – Gained attention of the Healers Guild HQ Early – 15%]

[Minor – Called Lumina cute – 1%]

[Major – Started Healing in the Slums for experience – 5%]

[Minor – Made friends with The Linage of the White Wolf early – 0.5%]

[Major – Did not get martial training from Brod – 10%]

[Major – Canon Acceleration – Hired as the guilds healer – 10%]

[Minor – Had a drink with Brod early – 0.5%]

[Minor – Met Monica late – 0.5%]

[Minor – Took F Class promotion – 0.5%]

[Minor – Canon Acceleration – Had the party for joining the Adventure’s Guild – 2%]

[Minor – Mixing alcohol with Substance X and receiving different side effects than canon – 2%]

[Minor – Body massage with extras from Nanaella – 0.5%]

[Minor – Sleeping with Nanaella – 0.5%]

[Diversion from Canon – 62%]

[Canon Snapback – 50%]

[Total Change – 12%]

[Canon Integrity – 88%] 

[Rewards]

[Gatcha Tokens – 1500 + 25]

[New World Bonus – Confirmed]

[Stat Points – +3]

[World – The Great Cleric – Open]

[World – High School of the Dead – Closed]

[Calculations Complete]

[Would you like to allocate stat points now?  Y/N]

This is good…I guess…I don’t really know. More stat points to save my heart probably isn’t a bad thing.

“You did well John, though the canon kept drawing you back to where it wanted you to be, you still managed to make some significant changes to the original story.”

“I didn’t get as many tokens this time though.”

“Of course you didn’t. There is a ton more Lore over a period of several years already written in ‘The Great Cleric’ compared to ‘Highschool of the Dead’ and you were there for what, two weeks? I think you managed fairly well. Plus our viewers took a particular interest in a certain bunny girls actions last night and you gained another bonus for whatever world you head to next.” Alec said. “Now distribute your points and we can continue.”

John was about to do that when he noticed something.

“Hey, why is Highschool of the Dead still closed?”

“You would die before being able to return again from the zombie bite.”

“I thought the Cure spell would fix that problem.”

Alec didn’t reply right away, apparently pondering something, his elbows on the arms of his chair, hands grasped while tapping his index fingers together. After a few moments he nodded to himself then spoke. “While the spell can fix your problem there, you are missing a key component to that plan. In that world, you do not have any mana, the energy you need to cast spells. You would need to gain the ability to hold and produce mana through your stat point allocations here to gain magic in non-magical worlds.”

“Well crap…that is going to make things difficult. Dealing with all this new stuff is terribly exhausting. I was so immersed in the last world I had almost forgot that I was on a show for you people.”

“If this was all going to be easy John, we wouldn’t find entertainment in it. Always remember that John, you are here for our entertainment, nothing more, nothing less. However, you are not a slave, just a soul who was already on the verge of death. If you want, we can end this now and release you to back to the life stream. I’ll even let you say goodbye to your children before we release you. ” Alec said, his tone conveying his belief that he was being magnanimous.

John seriously considered it for a moment, but then dismissed the offer. When was he ever going to be given the chance to live out ten additional lives again? Fucking never, that’s when. A few weeks ago he probably would have accepted death instead of dealing with this nonsense, but now, now he was willing to keep doing this for as long as possible. Death was too final to consider until he had no further options.

“Glad you see it that way John. We are growing fond of you here, and would hate to see you leave early. Now, are you ready to look at your stats?”

Is he reading my mind…wait I knew he could do that. Focus dummy.

“Yes, please.”

[Status – John Suzy Wayne]

[Age – 83 ]

[Mana – NIL – +]

[Stats – Human Average 20]

[Free Points – 3]

[STRENGTH – 30 -> 22 (Compromised Internal Structure)]

[REFLEX – 22 -> 7 (Compromised Internal Structure)]

[SPEED – 20 -> 10 (Compromised Internal Structure)]

[ENDURANCE – 25 -> 7 (Critical Heart Failure Imminent, DEN System Maintaining Reincarnator from expiring.)]

[INTELLIGENCE – 25->12 (Early stages of Alzheimer’s. DEN System Maintaining Reincarnator. Exhaustion degrades condition significantly)]

[WISDOM – 35->14 (Early stages of Alzheimer’s. DEN System Maintaining Reincarnator. Exhaustion degrades condition significantly)] 

[LUCK – 42] 

[DEN Achievements – None]

[Skills]

[DEN Return (24 hr cooldown)]

[General Magic – Adept]

[Known Magic]

[Heal]

[Cure]

[Quest]

[The Cross-Worlds NoFap Challenge (repeatable)]

John looked over his status screen. It had a few small changes since last time, mainly the known magic was new. His broken body and mind was still prominently displayed, reminding him that the system was the only thing keeping him alive. Seeing that quest in front of him though, prompted him to ask something.

“Hey, Alec. What is this NoFap Challenge quest about? What is fapping?” he asked.

He raised an eyebrow, looking incredulously at John “Seriously? You don’t…of course you don’t otherwise you wouldn’t ask.” he paused for a moment. “NoFap or fapping means masturbation.  So to complete this quest, you cannot jerk off by yourself, someone else has to do it for you.”

John leaned over and massaged his temples. Just when he thought this experience couldn’t get any weirder, now they were watching to see if he had a bit of a wank at night before bed. 

“I did tell you we are voyeurs did I not John? We like to watch, everything.” Alec said, his smile almost looking sadistic for a moment.

“Jesus, I didn’t realize I was going to be the star of your…porno of all things. Does watching an old guy do stuff to women turn people on or something? Is that some weird fetish?”

“It is John, it really is. Rule thirty-four covered that one long ago.”

“Rule thirty-four?”

“Ahh…never mind, it’s not important. The only important thing right now is for you to decide how to use your points. You will also notice there is a plus symbol next to your mana now. You will need five points to unlock your mana circuit.

John dropped the sex topic. If they were going to give him these stats and chances to improve his health, they were welcome to watch him make babies with some woman if they wanted to. It wasn’t like he could stop them from watching anyways.

Now do I want to save up? or just continue to fix my current problem with my heart?

For some reason, this reminded him of his shop back on Earth. Littered around the place were half finished things, a project car, a doll house, a bicycle that he was going to replace the derailer on. A lot of things. He had a habit of starting a project and not finishing it, so with determination to break that habit, he made his choice.

“Add three points to Endurance please.”

[STATUS CHANGED]

[ENDURANCE – 25 -> 10 (Moderate Risk of Heart Failure, DEN System Maintaining Reincarnator from degrading further.)]

A tight feeling that he hadn’t noticed before inside his chest relaxed. He could almost feel his blood pressure dropping. He let out a small groan, feeling like he just woke up and had a good stretch.

Well that is an improvement at least.

He looked over at Alec, that same smug smile on the mans face. He shook his head, banishing his thoughts of wiping it off his face before they fully formed. Anger would get him nothing here.

“Very good John. Keep it up and you will be fairly healthy again. Now, would you like to spin the gatcha? Remember the Eroge wheel has possible upgrades for your health as well.”

“You are such a tease, dangling that carrot in front of me. Let me think about it for a moment.” John said, sitting back up again. After his wonderful time with Nanaella, he wanted to have even more control of his…sexual abilities then he had when he was on Earth.

Something inside him wanted to become some sort of sex god, which wasn’t anything he had considered before. Maybe it was something the DEN did to him, but he wanted to be able to pleasure and be pleased by a lot of women, becoming a harem king!

No wait that seems too childish of a wish. He did want to have a few more boons and tools in his repertoire if he could get them though. He wanted any woman he was with to never even think of another man. His thoughts started drifting again.

Was it cheating if I was in literally a different world? 

While they hadn’t defined their relationship yet, he didn’t want to break his poor bunny girls heart. Shizuka seemed interested in him as well, but they hadn’t done anything yet either. Wait, was he some sort of player?

Alec sighed loudly, bringing John out of his contemplation.

“John, I am going to drop some knowledge onto you here. Firstly, unless you win the contest, none of your girls in the other worlds will find out the other girls exist unless you tell them. Even if you win, you are free to stay in one world until you ‘die’ of old age so to speak, and be faithful to one woman the whole time, then move to another world and start again.

Time is the one commodity we have in abundance here at DEN. For you, two weeks have passed, for us barely a moment. If your conscience is bothering you that much, you can choose to stay in one world for as long as you want and romance a single woman. Nothing is stopping you.

Now I know, many of the people from your world have difficulties with the notion of polygamy, but in most other worlds, where war is rampant and men die on the front lines by the tens of thousands or even millions, the ones remaining have little choice but to have multiple wives to maintain the population. It is one of the defining differences between modern Earth and these other worlds that are a product of your peoples imaginations.

For example, while you haven’t seen it yet, the world of The Great Cleric has many dangers, monsters are everywhere, dungeons are threatening to break and overrun cities, human nations are at war, and the demon kingdom is ready to run over them all. The vast majority of adventures, soldiers and mercenaries are men, and they die every single day. Your Nanaella was one of the minority female adventures, and she retired when she was only eighteen. She didn’t do it just because her party members had a child and retired, but because the extreme death rate for adventures is about ten times higher than any other occupation in that world, and she was too smart to stay in such an occupation for long.

Do you think anyone there really cares if you have even a dozen wives? As long as you can sire children with those women, then no one will bat an eye.  More children means more manpower to defend the nation later on. You might not want your children to go to war, but war is inevitable in every single world you will go to. Sometimes you will be fighting those wars, sometimes others will. In the end, war is the one constant across the omni-verse. Death is inevitable.”

Alec ended his speech with that sobering thought.

Death is the constant in these worlds. Don’t sweat the little things.

That was the gist of his dialogue that John retained.

“I need a damn drink Alec.”

“Of course my friend, of course.” 

John was trying and failing, to relax in the back room, contemplating what Alec said, eating snacks and availing himself to the food and the Westria drink that Alec had home brewed. Maybe a little too much of the drink. Enough so that most logic had failed him at this point. He wasn’t processing things properly and ended up in a death spiral of negative thoughts.

He had no time limit before he was required to jump back in to another world this time, so he availed himself to as many of the interesting foods and drinks that were provided as he could. It was a great gastro adventure that he would have loved to share with someone else, but he was alone, no one but his own thoughts to keep him company at this time.

He was angry, and he had no way to go and vent his frustrations.

Actually, anger wasn’t exactly the emotion he was feeling. He was lulled into a false sense of security in the last world, and after Alec’s words, his naiveite was shattered. He was just…frustrated.  

He was frustrated he couldn’t return to Highschool of the Dead to kill zombies and see Shizuka and the girls. He was frustrated he had nothing to lash out at in The Great Cleric. He was frustrated his body was still broken. He was frustrated he could not contact his children without clearing one of these worlds. He was frustrated he was part of a game show to entertain fucking gods and that his only other choice was death by heart attack.

He couldn’t destroy anything here, so he drank.

There was no one to talk to here, so he drank.

He drank.

Aww fuck it. Let just fucking go! 

John stormed out of the room, not waiting for Alec, wherever he disappeared to, and walked right up to the blue door and entered it.

He disappeared and the sign above the door changed from World Randomizer to <StarCraft – The Great War>

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep