An Unexpected Offer

Kai's eyes widened in surprise, as it was one of the few things he could still move at the moment.

"Excuse me?" He asked in a skeptical tone.

"I'd like to offer a deal instead of me killing you." Zero replied.

Kai glanced into Zero's eyes as he realized that he hadn't misheard him - but he sure as hell didn't understand him. Who wants to make a deal with someone that almost killed them? Kai thought. There has to be some trick to all this..

"No thanks." Kai responded. "I underestimated you once and have already paid the price. I won't be made an even bigger fool."

Zero winced at Kai's words. He expected a possible no, but it was clear that Kai had zero interest whatsoever when he hadn't even made the offer. He racked his brain for the right words and ultimately decided to just be blunt.

"This fight has shown me that to make it long term in this game, I'll need some assistance. Like someone who has played the game longer than me and understands the ins and outs. That also happens to be able to hold their own in a fight." Zero stated. "Team up with me and I'll let you live. That's my deal."

If Kai was capable of laughing, Zero thought it would be this very moment. Instead he used all his will power to lift his head up and angle it up toward Zero.

"Sorry, I'm not trying to be anyone's wise mentor. You sure it's not because of something else? Like the fact that you have no actual killing blow?" Kai challenged. Zero noticed that Kai's sword wielding hand flexed slightly and he knew that the effect had begun to wear off.

But he couldn't let Kai realize that.

Zero shrugged his shoulders. "Fine, have it your way. I just figured it would be more beneficial to travel as a team rather than by yourself. But suit yourself lone wolf. I'll just wait for the after effect to kick in and then I'll be on my way."

Kai's eyebrow raised. "After effect?"

Zero tried to suppress a smirk. "Yes - first it paralyzes you and then within a minutes time it releases a deadly toxin within your body that can melt your organs down to a nice puree. I do have an antidote, but it's okay."

Kai searched Zero's eyes for any sign of lies. Meanwhile, Zero turned around and began to walk away from him. Kai was right about one thing - Zero had no good way of finishing him off. He had decided to pick one of the first upgrades on the Debuff skill path of his system which allowed him to create a food item with a paralyzing side effect.

If Kai wasn't going to join him, Zero knew he was going to need to get out of dodge before the effect wore off really soon. 

"Wait!!" Zero heard, much to his satisfaction. He turned back toward the impaired Kai.

"Yes?"

Kai had a look of conflicted thoughts on his face as it appeared he weighed his options and didn't really care for the possibility of being melted from the inside out. "You know there's only one winner, right?"

"I know."

"So even if we DID team up, eventually...this would need to be settled."

"I'm aware." 

Well...if he wanted to kill me, he has his chance right now. So maybe this isn't all a charade then? Kai thought.

"....then I guess I'm in." Kai finally agreed.

Zero felt a wave of relief rush through him. "Smart choice." He said once his lie actually worked. 

"So? The antidote?" Kai asked quickly.

Zero held out his hand. "Create recipe: Revitalizing Chicken Soup."

*********************

The two of them sat across from each other around another fire Zero made. Meanwhile, Kai was ravishingly consuming the last bits of the chicken soup.

"This is possibly the best soup I've ever had. I can feel the effects of your muffin almost completely cleared." Kai said through mouthfuls of soup.

Zero nodded. 

A few moments of awkward silence passed between them before Zero finally broke it. "Protect my dreams..."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"You said that earlier before you started chasing me. Is that some kind of declaration you do before you fight or something?"

"No...?" Now Kai was looking at Zero as if he was the weird one. "Wait, you did read the rules, right?"

"Most of them." Zero confessed.

Kai sighed and swiped his hand to bring up his personal HUD. He then made an almost rotating swirl with his finger and the entire HUD flipped around to face Zero.

"Whoa. It can do that?"

Kai sighed once more, noticeably louder, and simply pointed towards a giant tab labeled 'RULES' on his HUD that had a star next to it. He pressed it and brought up the same list of rules that Zero had mostly skimmed already.

"If we're going to work together, we're going to need to be on the same page." Kai stated with a straight face. "And that means knowing the rules of the game. ALL of them. Now, where did you stop?"

This guy can be a bit much, Zero thought. "Rule 6. The one about the boss characters."

Kai scrolled down the page and then zoomed in on the bottom half by separating his fingers on the screen. 

"Huh." Zero mumbled. He rolled his eyes at Kai's insisted pointing at rule #7 but read out the loud the remaining rules of Final System:

"Final System Rules and Regulations"(cont'd):

7. Players are allowed to use any resources within the world(such as in the cities) and live out whatever life they please. They are not forced to level up systems or to fight. HOWEVER, if a player does not level up anything within a certain time frame(say a month), their general area will be presented to nearby players.

8. Players do not have visible health or energy bars - they will receive warnings when their health or energy is in danger of running out.

9. When a player dies, their body is evaporated into energy and a random system is left behind for the winner.

10. Non-players that reside in the world are allowed to freely interact with the players. 

11. In Final System, you will not age normally, but you still need to eat/drink/sleep regularly or your body will give out.

12. You must choose an invocation for your system to allow you to switch between them or to use a system utilizing manifestation. 

"Understand now?" Kai said when Zero was finished reading. "That was my invocation. I only have one system right now, but I manifest my energy sword so I have to say it when I need my weapon. I'm actually surprised you didn't need it when you summoned all those ingredients.."

"That's....I have no idea, actually." Zero replied. Now reading the rule for the first time he agreed it was weird since it was technically manifesting. "Maybe because it's because I'm calling out a specific recipe?"

"Hmm. Maybe. But that brings up a good point - we need to know about each other's abilities so we know what we're each capable of."

"Agreed." Zero nodded. He swiped his hand to bring up his HUD and copied the twirling finger move he saw Kai do to flip it around towards him. 

Kai kept his open so Zero could read his. However, as his eyes floated over Zero's ability tree, his eyes suddenly widened.

"Hold on....you've gotta be kidding me!" He exclaimed jumping up.

It quickly clicked in Zero's head what Kai had seen. "Shit."