Chapter 55: God’s Nectar

Orson sighed as he walked down toward his ward, thinking about the conversation between him and the doctor. Sure, what the doctor said was right, but still—there is no justification for what Lenora did. Even if Orson wanted to understand her, that was never going to happen.

She tried to have me killed.

Just then, his comms beeped. He opened it to look.

Wow. Corvin kept his side of the deal. Weird, he thought, looking at his new balance. Four hundred thousand credits. Orson smiled at his new balance.

This should be enough for a while.

And as he was about to continue, he stopped. He saw something that his mind was trying not to believe, and weirdly, it was like his body was saying no, and his soul was saying yes at the same time. Because in front of him was something called a coffee sprout machine.

Orson looked at it with a smile on his face. If anyone had seen the so-called God of War grinning like a fool because of a coffee maker, they would not have believed it. Some would even claim it was a fragment of their imagination.

As Orson walked up to the machine, he was reminded of the day he arrived. It was late, and it was the next day that he had tasted this god-sent nectar. So a guy who did not believe in god was starting to have doubts. And now that nectar was right in front of him.

Orson had wanted to go back, but after all the recent things that had happened, he forgot. And worst of all, all the things that happened to him happened in just two days of him being in this new world. But then again, he forgives the world for putting him through all that, since at the end he gets to have his nectar.

Weird, he thought. I would have forgiven Lenora if she gave me these. But it’s better she never knows, he thought as he picked a small cup.

The coffee maker was a tall, large dispenser. But to Orson, it looked like a god’s light touching him from head to toe and washing away everything bad that had happened.

Just as Orson looked at the coffee maker, his body reacted with his emotion of happiness as his pathways opened. Although the energy in the air was a bit thinning all around, his body was still able to absorb the energy.

Like the saying—a happy mind, a happy body. Or was it life? Orson did not know.

He kept the cup and used his comms to activate it. His body rejected the darkish-brown, warm liquid as it fell out of the machine onto the cup. Orson looked at it with a strange glow in his closed eyes as the drink fell into his cup.

He raised the fragile porcelain cup—an absurdly delicate vessel in his hand—and brought the dark, steaming liquid to his lips.

The moment the warm brew touched his tongue, his senses ignited. It wasn’t the cloying sweetness of ambrosia or the heavy, iron-rich sting of battle-mead. This was something entirely raw, earthly, and potent.

First came a fierce, velvet bitterness—a sharp, uncompromising punch that tasted like charred oak, rich soil, and smoke. It reminded him of the solemn stillness that settles over a battlefield at dusk.

Then, as the warmth washed over his palate, the bitterness gave way to an extraordinary complexity. Deep undertones of dark cocoa, roasted nuts, and a subtle, fruit-like acidity bloomed across his tongue, balancing the bold edge with an unexpected, elegant richness.

As he swallowed, a lightning-fast surge of clarity crackled through his veins. It was as if his ancient, battle-weary soul had been struck by a bolt of pure sunlight. His pulse hummed with a renewed, sharpened focus. Every sense heightened—the air felt crisp, the ambient hum of the world grew vivid, and a deep, comforting heat radiated from his chest outward to his fingertips.

He lowered the cup, staring at the swirling mahogany liquid with a rare, quiet awe.

Wow. What a long way to say you drank coffee.

But anyway, he was breathless as he looked at the swirling mahogany liquid. And took another drink. Again, this time he drank it all.

After that, he wanted another, but he chose not to. Something like this needed to be treated with care, not just drunk like there was no tomorrow. Or maybe it was the side effect that Orson was feeling—that was why he did not want to try that drink again for now anyway.

After a while, he had to go back to the hospital to confront Lenora.

But as he reached his room, a nurse was cleaning the place. He entered and asked, "Where is my wife?"

The nurse looked up. "Oh, she left. She said she had something to do."

Orson sighed and looked out the window. The snow was still falling. He nodded at the nurse and stepped out.

He wanted to clear the air with his wife. But where could she be? He did not really trust her, but since he had to live with her, they had to talk about it.

Orson sighed as he walked out. The afternoon air was warm even with the snow.

Just then, he felt it as he was about to walk a bit—a bottleneck. He just needed a little energy to break through to the peak stage of Qi Gathering.

Lenora could wait. This was a moment to gain power, and maybe enough to be on par with Corvin and protect his wife—and also try to stop her from killing him. And he was not about to pass it off.

He opened his comms and entered the world web. According to his memories, it was a place where you could ask any question, and it would answer you. So Orson wanted any breach that was close.

And to his shock, there were multiple breaches just sitting around the city. There was even a breach near where he was. But as he tapped on it—

Wait, what? I need to pay before I can access the breach? What the hell. It’s a breach full of monsters. You all should be begging me, not the other way around.

But as he tapped on the information, it was an open Crimson gate—the low of the low. Oh, it was more of a training breach for Awakened who chose not to enter the Astral Plane.

Orson’s body froze in shock as he read the words Astral Plane.

Weird. Even his memories were aware of the Astral Plane, but that nightmare of his past reminded him of a being in that plane. He wanted to kill that fucking so-called Demon of Enmity.

It was weird that place was a nightmare to Orson, but people in this world just entered that plane like it was nothing. He shook his head.

This was why he needed to get stronger.

As he walked through the city, trying to remove that bastard from his mind, he searched his comms. After searching the whole thing, there were District 7 and 12. They were the only two with both having an Eternal Breach in the city.

Based on Orson’s memories, District 7’s breach was just a cold landscape. So the choice was 12, with its five suns.

As he looked up, the realm was called the Golden Sun Realm, and it was even at the top of viral trends. A lot of Awakened and rank two and three were going there. So the place was going to be crowded.

He sighed to himself. Well, this was better than a freezing breach.

So he took a public transporter to the train station heading for District 12. He looked down at his hands. There was a ring on it—with that cursed blade. He needed to buy some resources before heading out, so he did a bit of digging. District 12 looked like the cheapest place to get gear.

When he arrived, he bought a blindfold and noise-cancelling piece before entering the train.

The train moved like a blur towards District 12. As they moved, the light in the train turned red. Orson and all the other passengers did the same and put the blindfold on as the train moved.

The aura washed over the train as Orson swallowed the blood that he was about to cough out. And then he heard a lot of bangs around the train, like bodies falling. After a while, when he did not feel the aura, he removed the mask.

He looked around. Some people had not removed theirs. And some were on the floor—not breathing.

The train ride felt like a long ride before Orson reached District 12. And as he stepped out of the train station, the breach—an open wound in the world—looked back at him.

First, he needed some equipment before moving. So he followed his comms to the shop he had seen.

The place looked more like a rundown shack than a shop. Orson entered as the door chime rang up. He saw a young woman cleaning a long blade. She did not look back and said, "Sorry, we are closed."

Orson looked all around. There were weapons all around the shop. Weird enough, almost all of it looked dusty, as if it had been here for a long time.

The woman looked back and saw that the customer had ignored her and was already looking around the shop with sharp eyes.

The woman just sighed. "Why did it have to be a man?"