Chapter 6 (1/2)

“I don’t understand,” Vremya said. “Why isn’t anyone accepting my system? The guide said users were easy to find.”

Karta rolled her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? The name of your system is trash.” She patted her own personal computer, causing a display to pop up. “Look at my system names.”

“Ultimate Cooking System. Ultimate Entrepreneur System. Ultimate Leveling System.” Vremya rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes. He snorted. “Such plain system names, there’s no way your system users are any good!”

“They’re not the best, but they’re certainly better than that Smith guy you tried to recruit,” Karta said with her nose pointing towards the sky. She glanced at Vremya through the corner of her eyes. “At least I have three users … unlike someone.”

Vremya snorted again. “What’s wrong with Smith?”

Karta lowered her head and raised an eyebrow. “Is that a serious question?”

“I’m always serious.”

Karta stared at the naked old man with a red fanny pack blocking his crotch. For some reason, she doubted his words. “Well, did you take a look at Smith’s attributes before selecting him?”

“What good are attributes?” Vremya asked. “It’s all about attitude. I watched him for quite some time before selecting him, and I found he behaves quite similarly to me; he’s capable of daydreaming whilst staring at the sky for hours at a time. Someone who’s appreciates life in the same way as me, will he not be successful?”

“Old man,” Karta said, “if you weren’t a god, you’d be a nobody in life.”

“Hmm?” Vremya’s eyes narrowed, and his knuckles cracked. “Do you want to try saying that again?”

“What’s up with the threatening posture?” Karta sat on her haunches and yawned. “You know you can’t hurt me.” She flopped onto her belly, stretching her front paws out before resting her chin on them. She glanced up at Vremya by rolling her eyes. “If you think I’m wrong, how about you send down a mortal avatar of yourself to a lower dimension? If you’re capable of reaching the peak, I’ll apologize and wholeheartedly serve you until you’re bored of me.”

Vremya crossed his arms. “That sounds easy enough.”

Karta sneered. “However, if you lose, you’ll address me as Master from now on.”

“It’s a deal,” Vremya said. “I was planning on descending to understand the lower dimensions better anyway. While I’m there, I might as well reach the peak.”

“Livestream it,” Karta said, pointing at an app on the display. “The two of us will watch your avatar down below. Of course, you won’t be able to communicate with your avatar.”

Vremya snorted and opened the app. There was an option to link an avatar’s senses with the personal computer, allowing the viewers to witness everything the avatar did. “That’s awfully convenient. All I have to do is create an avatar and it’ll automatically link?”

“Yep,” Karta said. “Lots of gods livestream their experiences in the lower dimension for some extra money on the side. The whole livestreaming app is pretty fleshed out since it’s been used and improved for the past three hundred eons. This stream is personal, so only the two of us will witness your failure.”

Vremya snorted again. “How hard can it possibly be to reach the peak as a lower lifeform?” He closed his eyes, and an image appeared on the display. It was of a river, and within the river, a humanoid shape was taking form. “A river-spirit avatar, good enough for you?”

Karta blinked, and Vremya swore he saw pity within her eyes. “Did you do any research before you sent that avatar down there?” the Labrador Retriever asked.

Vremya frowned. “No. Why?”

“That’s why,” Karta said, jabbing at the screen with her paw.

Three peasants were standing by the river bed, fishing, and one of them saw Vremya’s avatar climb out of the water. “River demon!” the oldest one shouted. He tossed his fishing pole aside and scrambled away. The other two peasants reacted in similar manners, ditching their equipment to escape.

“That was quite an overreaction,” Vremya said and furrowed his brows. “Humans are scared of river spirits?”

Karta half-snorted, half-chuckled. “Humans don’t like things that aren’t human. Heck, some of them don’t even like other humans.”