As the eldest of four siblings, who grew up in a broken home and a rough neighbourhood, the time he didn’t spend experiencing pains a child was never meant to was spent doing chores.
He did his best to shield them from the constant screaming and fighting their parents made them endure, spinning tall tales for his siblings and making them laugh as their tears dried.
He comforted his two brothers and sister when their mother left and took care of them when he reached adulthood after their father took his own life.
However, Mumvuri or Mumu, as his siblings called him, didn’t mind.
It was all stuff he had to do as a big brother.
His only selfish desire was to be given time to play his favourite MMO, God of Gacha, which he had gotten for almost nothing a few years prior.
It was so old; it wasn’t even VR compatible or had any other special immersive qualities like modern games, meaning Mumu had to play it the old-fashioned way with a mouse and keyboard.
But, again, Mumu didn’t mind.
While everyone else was jacking into virtual worlds through advanced gear that allowed them to experience virtual worlds as if they were real, Mumu was clicking away at mobs, harvesting materials and completing daily quests without complaint.
He didn’t care that the combat loop was frustrating more often than not and that crafting times often took real world days for high end gear.
Heck, he didn’t even mind that, to get his favourite KVL, a Five Star NPC, which he could add to his party if he was lucky, had a drop chance of 0.000000001%.
Her name was K'lum, and she was a Level 100 KVL, of which there were only four.
Her full name and title were [K'lum the Undoer – The Ace of the Deck].
This meant that she, as awesome as she was, was only the fourth strongest KVL.
As for her appearance, she looked like a dark elf, even though there were no elves in GOG, and she was clad in gear of the highest tier, brandishing dark claws that could easily cut through mobs.
She was perfect!
But… one couldn’t just purchase her from the item shop, nor could they just buy any common pod since that meant the chance of getting her was almost zero.
No, the best way to get her was to farm materials and craft [Godlike] Pods, which had the highest chance of dropping five-star KVLs, but they would more often than not drop [Godlike] gear, which, while good, resulted in duplicates.
Mumu loved the tedium of it all.
He couldn’t afford to buy Pods and so painstakingly crafted each Pod he ever got.
“Bro?”
Mumu blinked, and, like that, he was back in the real world.
He turned around and saw his little brother peeking through the door, which made him smile warmly.
“What’s up?”
“Kuda had another nightmare.” The eldest of his little brothers, Elias, reported prompting Mumu to check the time, revealing that it was a few minutes past midnight.
He got up with a groan and coughed painfully when he fully stood up.
He then followed Elias to the room he shared with his brother.
The two teens shared a bunkbed, and Kuda sat with teary eyes on the bottom one.
Mumu sat by his side and looked into the boy’s trembling eyes.
“Lay it on me, buddy. What happened?” He asked as Elias got into the bed above.
Elias softly explained he dreamt that he was stuck in a dark, uncomfortable place where, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get away.
“I see. Well, I’ve heard that dreams and nightmares are tied to what we want or what we’re afraid of. Maybe you feel like you’re stuck in real life, too. Have you thought about that?” Mumu asked as he gave his brother the gentlest pats on the back.
“No.” The boy lowered his eyes in consideration.
“Then give it some thought. Think about what you really want or something that’s been bugging you because it may very well explain the cause of your nightmares. Won’t take them away though, but knowing is half the battle, or so they say.” Mumu wearily smiled after trying his best to sound like he knew what he was talking about when he too was struggling with feelings of stagnation.
Elias nodded before lying down to sleep.
Mumu covered him up before standing to leave.
“Goodnight, you too. And stop sending your brother to do stuff for you.”
Elias looked like he wanted to whine about it, but Mumu promptly closed the door, leaving the boys to sort it out between themselves.
He then returned to his room where, after checking the time again, he logged off of GOG and, after smoking for a bit by the window, limply fell onto bed.
.
..
Morning came with a series of painful coughs, but they were par for the course, and so he dragged himself out of bed at around four am, showered before his siblings got up and made them breakfast.
Dahlia, his little sister, was the first to awaken and she whimpered out of her room while holding her overly large teddy bear.
“Good morning, Mumu.”
He replied with a playful grunt as he drank his sugarless coffee.
Stolen story; please report.
The boys woke up soon after and bickered their way to the table, where they joined Dahlia for breakfast while Mumu smoked outside.
His vision had been steadily getting worse, making the sunrise blurry and harsh to look at, but at this point, so much was wrong with him that it felt normal.
The kids eventually readied up for school, and since they all attended the same school, which wasn’t that far, he saw them off before locking up and heading to work himself.
He worked at as a field technician in a network company and he had developed a deep hatred for cables.
You see, while the masses enjoyed the ease of wireless devices and networks, everything still stood atop a foundation of wires that had to be manually installed and maintained.
Mumu found a strange comfort in this, however.
Knowing that people were connected in ways they couldn’t even see.
“Hey, Mu.” A colleague, Clive, called from above as Mumu replaced a corroded junction box that was in a manhole that was built into the sidewalk.
“Yeah?”
“You heard about that new game that came out? The one where the gear can literally take your consciousness and implant it in a virtual setting?”
“Yes, I have, and I think that sounds terrifying. I can barely handle having low health on a normal boss fight, so imagine experiencing simulated death.” Mumu sighed while pulling himself out of the manhole, only to be bombarded by the afternoon sun’s light.
“Damn… when you put it like that, it sounds like the worst things ever. And I also didn’t consider the fact that the developers would then have a copy of your consciousness to do whatever they want with.” Clive drooped while Mumu placed another cigarette between his lips with a shaking hand.
“See? This is why I play GOG—” Mumu was interrupted by a series of agonizing coughs.
“You okay there?” Clive asked with furrowed brows.
“I’m good, I'm just—” More coughs came, and they were so painful that Mumu dropped his cigarette.
Clive rushed to his side just as he fell to the side as blood began to accompany each cough.
Mumu assured his colleague that he was fine, but Clive immediately called an ambulance and had Mumu taken to the hospital.
“Give it to me straight, doc.” Mumu sighed after having changed into a patient’s gown and undergone several scans.
“Geez, where to start?” The doctor wearily smiled.
“You could start with the bill.” Mumu playfully hissed, but the doctor shook his head.
“Your friend said that he would cover everything, so let's just focus on what’s most urgent.”
More than anything, hearing that is what brought a strange and sharp pain to Mumu’s chest.
The doctor then gave him a shopping list of diagnoses, which were all news to Mumu since he couldn’t remember the last time he had been to the hospital.
“H-how much time do I have left, doc?” He winced.
“I genuinely can’t say. Any one of your issues could leave you in critical condition at any following moment so…”
Mumu nodded before asking to be discharged.
He knew that neither he nor Clive, for all his kindness, could afford the procedures and medicine he needed so, after changing into his normal clothes.
The doctor had given him some pain meds, and they loudly rattled in his pocket as he made his way home, where Clive babysat his siblings.
“Mumu!” Dahlia was still at the age where she didn’t think it was embarrassing to hug one’s big brother, and so she ran into his arms.
He gently picked her up while walking over to the couch where Clive and the boys sat.
“Well?” Clive asked through gnashed teeth.
“It ain’t looking good, buddy.”
Dahlia seemingly saw through her brother’s smile and clung to him a little tighter.
“What’s wrong, Mumu?”
“Big bro’s just a little sick, that’s all. Don’t worry about it too much.”
Clive stood up and, after putting Dahlia down, Mumu followed him outside.
“I know what you’re going to say and no, you don’t owe me shit.”
Mumu bit his teeth.
“What we should focus on right now is saving for those damned operations.”
Clive’s words were like daggers to Mumu’s heart.
“No, Clive. That’s too much. I can’t ask you to throw away so much—”
“It doesn’t matter if it means you get to be here a little longer, dammit!” Clive’s words were a hushed scream, and this was enough to break the levees.
The tears that Mumu had been holding for longer than he could remember finally began to fall, and without wasting a moment, Clive hugged him.
Mumu, for the first time in his life, didn’t know what to do.
But, in the silence of the hug, Clive told him that it was alright.
Clive eventually let go and, after giving Mumu a specific instruction, he left.
Mumu, who was shaken beyond words, returned to his siblings and, after assuring them once again, saw them off to sleep.
It was quite late, and so, for the first time in a long time, Mumu fell asleep without playing GOG.
.
..
The years that followed were sombre.
With Clive’s help, Mumu was able to pau for a few of the more urgent procedures and this helped him live until his siblings graduated but by this point, as he reached his mid-thirties, he was running on empty.
Fortunately, both he and Clive had been promoted to more managerial positions, which meant that he had to do less field work, and this also helped him pay Clive back, who in turn helped pay to get Kuda, Elias and Dahlia.
Ever the stubborn one, Mumu helped Clive get his first car, and the two went back and forth like this until the day when Mumu’s body couldn’t carry on anymore.
He was admitted into hospital indefinitely, and it was there, as his body slowly fell apart, that he watched his siblings grow under the watch of their Uncle Clive.
They, in turn, went on to take care of him.
Paying off his medical bills and visiting him as often as they could.
They, along with Clive, would be present on Mumu’s last day on earth, and they all gave tearful goodbyes, which was more than Mumu could have ever asked for.
But then again… he never asked for much.
This led to him realizing that he had never gotten the one other thing that he had wanted all those years prior.
That legendary five-star character.
This ended up being his only regret as he closed his eyes for the last time.
.
..
Mumu opened his eyes, and the act itself was enough to make him gasp aloud which revealed that he now had a softer, higher pitched voice.
He also seemed to be inside a bright and expansive place.
He immediately fell to his hands and knees, allowing him to see that his arms were now slender, his fingernails tipped with black nail polish.
He saw that he was also clad in a dark, form-fitting body suit, and his skin had a pale purplish hue.
Mumu took deep and rapid breaths as he tried to assess this bizarre situation. But before he could fully calm his nerves, a gigantic face materialized before him. Its form was ever-shifting in shape and colour, which made Mumu a little dizzy.
That said, it was a voice that was, in the recesses of his consciousness, familiar.
[Mmm… underwhelming, but that much was expected.] The head spoke in a voice that seemed to come from everywhere, including Mumu’s head, which made tears well up in his eyes.
“W-Who are you?” He whimpered while struggling to hold himself up.
[I am the God in Waiting. Your creator. Recrudescent as you may be, your soul has found its way into one of my Kuva?ai, and while I would like to speak further with you, your fate is already in the hands of another.] The voice echoed endlessly, and before Mumu could ask it any more questions, he was pulled into the light beneath the head, awakening for a second time.
- Name: Mumu
- Title: None
- Race: Kuva?ai
- Age: 20
- Gender: Female
- Class: Heavy
- Affiliation: None
- Actuality Level: 1
Attributes
- Health Points (HP): 150/150
- Realstone Shards: 0
- Damage Reduction (DR):15%
- Affinity: (PHY)
- Weaknesses: (FRO), (DIV), (MAL)
Combat Statistics
- Physical Damage (PHY): 15
- Fire Damage (FIR): 0
- Frost Damage (FRO): 0
- Divine Damage (DIV): 0
- Malignant Damage (MAL): 15
Skills:
Equipment: