Humans

Phew!

Zero was somewhat relieved. He had survived the first boss fight and gained the best early weapon.

Surviving the beginning is the hardest, now he can head back to the cave. He also leveled up twice, which boosted his strength a bit.

This game doesn't have a stats system from the very beginning, so levels don't matter too much. The only thing that matters in the early stage is equipment.

Zero looked around, he now was able to freely take these weapons, however, he didn't need them. He already had the scythe, so why would he need them?

He took out the grimoire and opened it, now that the boss was dead he could use it more freely, it wouldn't suck his mana dry anymore.

This grimoire was in fact useful only in this area, it could control everything in this building and the area around it. This was a base building artifact!

There weren't many places where the player could build a base, this one was the smallest, yet the best, thanks to the grimoire.

With a simple thought Zero remodeled the basement, he removed all the unnecessary weapons and buried the Katana. It was a unique item, so it couldn't be simply destroyed.

This basement would be his storage for the time being. He went upstairs and made himself a bed, now that the game is his life, he couldn't go without one.

After some tinkering this shabby place started to look quite nice, the house was renovated and everything was up to standard. This only required him to recharge his mana twice.

He looked at his work with a proud face, for now the goal was to ensure comfort and beat the final boss.

He couldn't just risk going down there though, no matter how good he was, there was always a chance to die to something random and absurd, and he didn't know whether he could respawn just like in game.

He cast a glance at the scythe near his bed, he had used that scythe thousands of times before. It was a great weapon but all in all it was just an anti-magic artifact, this item had its limits.

He looked out the window, suddenly he was baffled. What? Humans?

In the game humans were only found in very specific regions, and they would never roam around, what is this?

Did something change? Sure it did! But why? Zero couldn't understand it, wasn't this supposed to be a perfect replica of the game? Suddenly he had 2 thoughts, one worse than the other. He had to check it out.

He opened the door and went to confront the humans, in a not so friendly manner.

Two humans were walking around the forest looking around cautiously, a girl and a boy. Both had only old rusty swords. They noticed the house in perfect shape and were surprised, that's not how they remembered it...

All of a sudden a scythe appeared right in front of their faces, scared the girl tried to block the scythe but failed miserably.

She was severely wounded.

The boy stood with fear frozen on his face, what was that? He didn't know monsters with scythes walked around this area! He wanted to abandon the girl and run for his life, but the moment he tried he fell down.

One of his legs was gone. He looked at his severed limb and trembled in horror, isn't this supposed to be a newbie location? What happened??

Only after this did they manage to see the one wielding the scythe. It was a young man with a cold look on his face, a face void of any emotion, they were shocked, glad, and scared at the same time.

Another human! They thought, but then they suddenly remembered that it was him who had wounded them so severely.

"B-brother why would you attack us? Can't you see we are humans too?" the boy asked.

Zero looked at him blankly, really, they are indeed humans, he thought. But why were there humans here? "What are you doing here and who are you?" he asked indifferently, he didn't really care about why they were here, since the main setting didn't change up until now, and he got the scythe, he was not afraid of some unexpected turns.

The boys look became even worse, he was losing blood and this young guy didn't seem to show any mercy. "W-we are from earth, we played this game a couple years ago when it was popular..."

This... was troublesome, Zero thought. There were other players here? More importantly they played this game a couple years back, not recently, so more people could be here? And some insightful people too... He didn't change his expression however he had complex feelings right now.

There were people who knew a thing or two about this game, especially those that wrote guides back in the day, they might remember something.

As much as he played the game, he didn't write a single guide for anyone else, who knew how many people like that there were.

"Where did you come from? I didn't see anyone else at the cave." he asked, how come he was the only one at the cave?

The boy was surprised, that cave? How is this guy still alive!? "All the other ones awoke at the Starlight city. The goddess was saying something about saving the world..." he rambled on but Zero didn't listen anymore. He couldn't give less of a shit to be honest.

He made quick work with his scythe and cut off the boys rambling spree, the girl was still in shock but couldn't do anything, she quietly accepted her fate.

Starlight city was quite far away from here, did these guys walk here? It doesn't matter.

He believed he could make easy work of any other player as long as they didn't get their hands on the Katana.

Progressing would be very hard without the cave that leads to the final boss, so he didn't see other players as a threat to his plans.

However there was one thing near Starlight city that was easy to take if you know how, and he planned to get that thing later but it seemed like that couldn't be postponed.

He took the grimoire and sealed off the basement and the house, he would go to the first layer right away to level up and to get "that" thing.

On the way to the cave he gathered some berries and water, so he could sustain himself for some time, since he won't return to the hut, he will head straight to Starlight city once he gets the item he wants.

Some time later he arrived at the cave once again, the sign still standing there, wishing him good luck.

He took a deep breath and headed in slowly.