a Hero's pride or a Villain's ego

Beau is lying on the ground looking at the sun. he can feel the fresh breeze of a new day while he thinks about the tasks he needs to do.

the day before everyone got a notification letting them know that to finish chapter 5 they need to complete first 50 tasks and then they would received the final task which in this case would not require for them to kill any monster. to finish this tasks faster Joaquin divided the guild in groups of two and he order them to finish 10 tasks for duo.

Beau is at the moment in the ground taking a break after finishing three tasks with his partner (Self-Bet was chosen to be his partner) she is in the bathroom at the moment while Beau is thinking about all his life.

he thinks that a normal person would have reacted different from the way he reacted when he was told that he was trapped in this virtual world. but the difference between him and most people is that most people had something or someone holding them on the real world but Beau doesn't have anything worth living for or fighting for, so in his case it might be normal for him to not react in a common way.

Beau laughs while he thinks that he could easily erased any moment in his life and nothing would be messing or he could disappear and no one would care nor notice.... probably that is why he kept a closed friendship with Hunter, because he was the only person who genuinely cared for him and even tried to help him every single damn time that Beau needed of someone.

Self-Bet walks in front of him and she smiles after noticing that he is back to normal, he isn't the bravest nor smartest guy but he is a decent guy who is worth saving. Self-Bet looks at him for a while thinking in the relationship that she could had with him if she had met him in other circumstances, she even thinks that maybe in the real world they might had walked in front of each other more than ones without recognizing each other nor speaking a single word to each other. she thinks in different scenarios in which they could had met without knowing each other.

Beau looks at Self-Bet. he stands up and walks slowly towards her. Beau smiles before he talks to Self-Bet who is at the moment thinking about their future, about the future of every person in their guild. Beau notice that she doesn't seem to be well so he whispers in her ear that he would do anything in his power to protect her and that at his side she doesn't have to fear.

"we can do two more tasks today and we can try to finish the rest tomorrow, I mean is not like we are forced to finish every damn task in a single day, that is too much work and I am not the type of person who works extra hours if there is no extra money involved... also I doubt that any of them would finish their tasks in less than two days."

"okay, did you know that you are really a complicate person to understand. at times you try really hard to look good on the eyes of everyone and at times you don't care about what others think of you. I don't know if my explanation is good enough but the point is that you contradict yourself a lot, it seems like you don't even know what you want."

"yeah, I had been told before that I don't even understand myself, but you know what? I am fine like this. I don't need to understand myself or of others to understand me, if I know what I want then there is no problem."

"and what do you want Beau? do you actually know yourself? or are you just trying to add more lies to the ones that you had already told yourself? is anything in the real world or in the virtual world that you can say that is precious to you? or are you still trying to find a reason to live?"

"I want to... I want... I do want.... what I want.... you, you are what I want, I want to be with you, I want to love you till the end of times and to be love back by you, I want to spend the rest of my days at your side talking about pointless things with silly smiles or touching each other, not in a erotic way, but in an emotional way in which we can feel connected to heaven."

"thanks Beau, thanks for you honesty..... but I am not sure if I am right for you, now you might think that I am a perfect person, but you don't know my past. I am not as innocent as you believed me to be."

Chicken Wrath is in a lake with Joaquin Fernandez. they are fishing (one of the tasks was to fished 100 fish, there were others tasks which also include fishing) Chicken Wrath is tired and he gets out of the lake holding two sticks. so far they had captured forty fishes together. Joaquin is furious (he had never fished before so he thought it would be easy and now he is desperate to finish this task.)

Chicken Wrath falls on the ground, Joaquin tells him that he needs to keep fishing. Chicken Wrath yields letting him know that he is not going to move a single muscle for a while. Joaquin also gives up and he falls on the ground next to Chicken Wrath. Joaquin is looking at the sky and he feels peace thinking in all the things that he has done to be here now, there is not a single thing that he regrets in this world.

Chicken Wrath starts to asks him questions about his previous experience before this game. Joaquin is usually avoiding any conversation that includes his past in the real world or his experience in the game in which he died. Joaquin is not the type of person who talks about himself but for the first time he feels like this is a good opportunity to talk a little bit about himself with a friend.

Joaquin explains that when he first become an "Offering" he was absolutely scared and in the game that he got trapped he had to complete the twelve tasks that were given to Hercules. he explains that those who were chosen to be "Offerings" were those who in the past committed an offense against their family and the twelve tasks were their redemption in the same way those twelve tasks were Hercules' redemption.

Chicken Wrath can feel the sorrow in the words of his friend and he asks him what kind of offense can be so severe for him to be chosen for a redemption. Joaquin sits in the ground and he looks at the lake while he tries to hold his tears. you can feel his rage and sorrow at the same time.

"I was driving drunk with my wife and son..... my vision wasn't good at all neither was my reaction when. when I had a car crash in which my wife and son died and I survived. I practically killed my family for my own stupidity."

yields Joaquin with so much strength that he could feel a pain in his lungs.

"sorry it wasn't appropriate for me to asks something so personal."

said Chicken Wrath trying to understand the kind of pain that has been consuming Joaquin slowly from inside.

"no, it is okay. I heard somewhere that the reason why Hercules took those tasks was because he was tricked into killing his own family and to be forgiven for his sins he was given the twelve tasks. aren't I in the same position of a Greek god with the difference that he completed the tasks and I died midway unworthy of redemption."

whispers Joaquin with a fake smile trying to hide his own pain.

"you are not trying to recover your life, but to obtain redemption for your past mistakes. I don't think that is how life works."

said Chicken Wrath thinking about his own mistakes and his life in the real world.

Chicken Wrath stands up and he keeps fishing. Joaquin stands up and he looks up at the sky thinking that somewhere up there might be his son and wife looking at him. Joaquin gets inside of the lake with a stick ready to get as many fish as possible. Chicken Wrath remembers a joke about fish and he tells the joke to Joaquin. both of them are laughing ignoring what happen a few minutes ago.

Chicken Wrath tells him that once they are outside of the game he is going to invite him to eat the best chicken wings of the world. he explains that there is this place in which they have the most delicious chicken wings he has ever ate and he even tells him in detail about all the flavors that they have. Joaquin laughs and he accepts Chicken Wrath's invitation.

after almost three hours fishing they were able to capture the rest of the hundred fish they needed. they put all the fish in a cart. in their way back to the town Chicken Wrath tells many bad jokes to Joaquin who at first was laughing and later he was so tired that he really wanted to punch Chicken Wrath in the face.

in the meanwhile Alpha Purple Warrior and Doctor Middle Finger are on a cave trying to find different types of rocks to complete their tasks. they had find some but that is not enough. Alpha Purple Warrior haven't completely heal but he couldn't wait, he felt the need to do something to not feel useless. but that is not enough he is still feeling like he haven't done enough.

Doctor Middle Finger is tired because he haven't sleep well this past week. he thinks about drinking some coffee or some alcohol. Doctor Middle Finger tells to Alpha Purple Warrior that they had done enough and that is time for them to go back to the settlement before it is too late. Doctor Middle Finger coughs while he gets out of the cave with some rocks on his pockets.

Doctor Middle Finger is looking at some wolves in front of the cave. Doctor Middle Finger yields and Alpha Purple Warrior gets out of the cave. they are looking at the wolves and they notice that there are more wolves coming. it seems like the cave belongs to the pack of wolves.

Doctor Middle Finger takes a lighter and a can of gasoline out of his inventory. he throws gasoline around of him making half of a circle. Alpha Purple Warrior takes an crossbow and five arrows out of his inventory. one of the wolves jumps towards them at the same time that Doctor Middle Finger turns on the lighter. the wolf scratch Doctor's arm while he releases the lighter on top of the gasoline. a circle of fire burns the wolf that attacked him.

information about Son of Sun: the inventory is turn off until the "Offering" reaches chapter 5. that rule was created because the point of Chapter O to Chapter 4 are proving the worth of the "Offering" and the inventory is something like a reward after proving themselves worthy of being "Offerings" by surviving.

disclaimer: Zeus thought that allowing an "Offering" in any of the Greek Games to used an inventory before chapter 5 would make them lazy and stupid when the purpose of all the games is to be hard so only those who are worthy can pass and he knows that after chapter 5 things would get more complicated and for that reason he allows them to use the inventory after and not before.

after a long night Doctor Middle Finger wakes up next to Alpha Purple Warrior. they couldn't leave last night because of the pack of wolves, so they stayed all the night on the cave. Doctor Middle Finger stands up and he stretches his body. Alpha Purple Warrior leads the way back to the settlement.

at the moment Master of Lies (former member of Unit Zero) is having breakfast with his teammates the members of Skull Breaking Silence. the Mad-Matician is looking at him suspicious of him (he is actually afraid that Master of Lies might try to avenge his acts of violence against his former teammates) Sweet Linda sits next to Master of Lies and she looks at him with suspicion.

"I think I need to make something clear, I didn't enter in this game to make friends. the reason why I am in here is to stay at Pandora's side, so I don't care if you killed those who I used to get where I am standing. but if you try anything against me or my lady, Pandora. then let me warn you that I don't believe in mercy."

said Master of Lies looking at his food with a smirk that is enough to warned them of the risk that would be messing with someone like him.