The young girl named Eve

"Hii! My name ish Eve!" the silver-haired vampire said adorably, stumbling over her words. She accidentally bit her tongue and winced in pain. "Thank you for saving my life, strong mister! From now on, you will be my big brother until we find my parents!"

Jason chuckled at her incoherent logic and pat her head in return. Though her words confused him, much like the rest of "The Farmer that rules the world," a soft smile formed across his face at the compliment of strength, and he swore to take care of her until she was safe with her parents.

"My name is Jason," he quickly introduced. "I was born with the power of lightning, and I don't know much about this world."

Nemesis, who was happily napping in heaven, almost spat blood as she heard Jason's blatant lies. Unfortunately for the Goddess of Retribution however, there was little she could do to retaliate since she was now placed under house arrest.

Given that many of the gods' disciples lived and trained on the Isles, direct intervention was often frowned upon as the gods didn't want the lives of others to serve as proxies for disputes. The protocol required a ten-step proposal submitted to Zeus regarding the pros, the cons, and the unintended effects to stakeholders, and Nemesis had simply gotten too emotional to remember to do that at the time.

As a result, Zeus punished the minor god and restricted her from accessing the Isles and Jason over the next three-month period. Nemesis silently cursed the black-haired teenager and vowed to get her revenge when she regained freedom.

Thunder rumbled in the sky, and Jason scratched his chin obliviously, thinking back to his hectic day.

"I appreciate you cheering me up earlier, and I will keep you safe until you find your parents. After all, how could I still call myself a human if I let such a cute little sister be bullied every day," he said, deciding to play along with the big brother / little sister dynamic.

Eve blushed a little and sat down on the pile of rubble before bursting into tears. She had tried to maintain a brave face in front of her new "big brother" for as long as she could but she just couldn't seem to hold it in anymore. She sobbed uncontrollably, and tears rolled down her face.

Her eyes puffed, and her throat closed up, but her shoulders continued to tremble. Eve was a strong girl, who had been raised with care and respect, but as she traveled through the various towns, she had always been the subject of bullying for her vampiric features, suffering through the pain and isolation alone. Her late mother had told her that the central town of Butterpond was safer given the stronger vampire population, but her experience with the trio of ski-masked magicians said otherwise.

Now, under the soft gaze of Jason, she finally felt safe. The black-haired teenager was strong, capable, and reliable, and he had promised to help her with caring eyes. Her heart warmed, and a tingling sensation ran across her chest as she felt at peace for the first time in a while. Security and serenity replaced her survival instinct, and the silver-haired girl curled into a tiny ball.

Several townsfolk shot death stares toward the hate reader when they heard the wailing girl beside him but averted their gazes the second they laid eyes on him.

Eve's murderous red eyes faded to an azure blue, and her eyelids fluttered gently as a wave of fatigue fell over her. Though she had been a terrifying vampire only minutes before, capable of taking many lives — twenty of his own in fact — now, she was simply a young girl with a tragic past, prosecuted across the Isles for who she was born as.

Jason watched the girl fall asleep with an empathetic gaze and fondly remembered his mother's famous saying.

"Get off your ass, and actually do something with your life," she used to always lecture. "You never care about anyone but yourself!"

He took her words to heart and lifted his chest. Though his mother loved to nag, he knew that this was a precious chance for him to positively impact someone's life in the new world.

Jason took a deep breath and mustered his courage.

'I need to get stronger,' he thought to himself. 'I can't keep spewing empty promises forever.'

He glanced back at the azure blue eyed vampire who chose to stay by his side when he needed a friend the most, and he swore to protect her when the occasion arose.

Lifting a nearby shard of metal, he braced himself mentally for the excruciating pain ahead and stabbed himself in the stomach. The hate reader had many unanswered questions about the world and his hate counter, but only the liminal boundary between life and death could tell him what he needed to know.

—

Jason sliced and diced his body with the metal shard he had found in the rubble. Hours of pain passed slowly for the hate reader as he stabbed the shard repeatedly into his vitals and tore his skin. He wanted to better understand what his "power" was, and after twenty notifications rang consecutively in his ear, Jason came to three elementary conclusions.

First, if he lost a limb or was injured in any way, he would not heal at all until he died. However, when he died, his body returned as a healthy human to the same spot he was last in.

Second, he really was weak. He had practiced tripping and falling and had even died a few times to the rubble around him. In addition, Jason's years of novel reading had finally caught up to him, and he quickly understood that his physical strength was lacking.

He could barely do twenty pushups in a row, and he ran significantly slower than the youngest kids in the town. This, he learned while playing tag with the children that had come to the alley to mess around. He placed his hand on his heart and promised then and there to improve his physical condition so that he could run in case his thunder bluff stopped working.

Third, his respawn rate was almost instantaneous. This meant that others could not see Jason die even if they were staring right at him. For example, if he died from the stab of a spear, he would instantly respawn in the same spot, holding the spear with no apparent injuries.

Eve began to stir, and Jason halted his experimentation as he woke the sleeping girl with tender eyes. Though he had wanted to ask the girl about her past and her abilities, he decided to wait until she felt comfortable enough to tell him. After all, he had many secrets of his own, and he had no plans to reveal them to anyone.

For now, his only plan was survival and revenge, and he would follow through with his promise to protect the girl until his lives ran out.

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