บท 166: Let the games begin

(A.N. Added the updated statuses to the end of last chapter)

After he read the first notice, Alex swiftly started looking through the rest.

[NOTICE, friend function has been reopened]

[NOTICE, title function has been unlocked]

[NOTICE, world portal had been unlocked]

When Alex finished looking through the new notifications, he then saw the last one was different, it was a message from a friend.

-Hey, it's Anne.

He was quite surprised when he saw he had a new message, but he didn't recognize the name. He did have that one girl that was there when he died as his friend, but he didn't recall her name being Anne. Suddenly Lauren spoke up to explain,

'She is the girl from that time, but she wanted a full start over and didn't keep her original name, unlike you.' With her explanation Alex recalled he could've changed his name if he wanted, but chose not to. What surprised him was that she was apparently looking forward to meeting up again, when they only ever had the one conversation together twenty years ago. He sent back a reply asking how as was doing, then started asking Lauren about his new functions.

'Well the general idea behind the titles is that as you travel between worlds you'll become well known, and the image you make in each world would affect how you're treated in the next. It's the same as the titles in the "Death Mage" world, just not part of your job system, but a function on everyone's system. It was decided to leave it until you turned twenty so that you wouldn't spend the first world using it to try to get good titles to use later.' With her explanation Alex understood the ideas behind the titles, and the reason they waited until later to give them access to them. In the "Death Mage" world, it was said nobles would try to take advantage of the titles system to help their children gain advantages for the future. He then looked at the "world portal", but saw something that surprised him.

'It has a year long cool down?' Lauren once more swiftly explained,

'This is to keep each of you from abusing the ability to get more power, for example jumping to the Dragon Ball world to get a wish, then to Naruto to get a tailed beast, then to One Piece to get a devils fruit, you get the idea.' Alex nodded at her explanation, knowing that with the system shop only being occasionally available when they reached the hundred level mark, everyone would be looking for other outlets of power instead. At that moment he got another message from Anne saying,

-I've been good, we can talk more in person so would you like to meet up?

Alex knew that if he told her where he was she'd now be able to come to his side almost instantly, but hesitated on telling her he wanted to meet up. They did seem to get along during the brief time they talked after dying, but they didn't really know anything about each other. Plus twenty years was a long time, the fact she still apparently wanted to meet up was really surprising. Suddenly he heard Lauren's voice once more,

'She can't do anything against you, the friend function was designed specifically to prevent those types of situations. And I'll personally vouch that she genuinely wants to see you again, to the point she's basically been counting down the days until she could.' When he heard this even more questions flooded Alex's mind, as he didn't recall doing anything to warrant that kind of attachment.

'You did technically die for her, even if it wasn't your intention.' Hearing that from Lauren reminded Alex that what happened could technically be seen that way, making him think once more. He then sent back another message saying he would let her know when he changed worlds so she could join him. When he felt the girls next to him stirring(Koneko, Ravel, and Rossweise) Alex put his thoughts aside, and started getting ready for the day. While he was he took a look at his new titles, causing his eye to start twitching when he did.

TITLES

[Dragon Emperor, Womanizer, Super Sadist, Monstrosity]

While he expected the 'Dragon Emperor' title, the other three were just outrageous, though he could understand them somewhat grudgingly. The 'Womanizer' title was more than likely from how many women he had, and the 'Super Sadist' was due to Akeno and Barakiel's fight in Rias's match against him. The one that truly caught him off guard was the 'Monstrosity' title, but after a few moments reasoned it because he actually turned into a monster at one point in the games, plus his "monstrous" strength he's displayed.

He decided to just let it go for the moment, and went to enjoy his breakfast while being greeted with birthday wishes every few steps. By this point everyone had moved to the Manor or Asora, some not even bothering to attend school for the last couple months since they wouldn't finish anyways. All of them started gathering in the dining room where an entire table of food made by Rias and Akeno awaited them. The two decided to spend the morning making breakfast to greet Alex and everyone, which was greatly enjoyed by all of one present. While everyone was eating, Xenovia asked,

"So what's going on today?" Causing everyone to look up, as they were still ignorant of Alex's intentions now that he could leave the world. Alex cleared his throat, and started explaining what he decided.

"Though I haven't decided what world I'm going to go to first, I am going to wait two or three days before leaving in case any others try traveling here. Today will just be the day everyone gets together while we keep an eye on the world, as the others could arrive at any moment." As far as his thoughts for his next world, Alex was tempted to go to worlds like 'Dragon Ball' or 'One Piece', but knew that as they were the more mainstream world's it was most likely going to be a cluster fuck of other travelers there. His main thoughts were to find a world that would benefit everyone with him as far as getting stronger, and finding more citizens for Asora. He planned to spend the next couple days before actually leaving to think about it.

After breakfast they all went to the dorms for a party, during which he received reports from both Sun Wukong and Barakiel, that they picked him up on the new machines as soon as he left Asora. This was good, as if they picked him up even after he'd been in the world for twenty years, they would pick up anyone new. After they discussed that, they then started the birthday/going away party. For everyone this was essentially them saying goodbye to everything and everyone they grew up with, even though they couldn't say it in person. The reason for this was that they had to keep the information about Asora secret, and as Rias, Sona, and Seekvaira were all the future heads of their houses, there was no way their parents would agree with them joining Alex so they were all essentially running away temporarily.

They all then spent the day just talking with each other and eating, with the biggest event being a giant cake the girls worked together to make for Alex. All least that was the case until he received another report towards the end of the day, stating that an additional three points were picked up on the machines, heading for what seemed to be the school. When he heard this a profound excitement started filling Alex, as he started preparing to intercept them. The games had began.