Soulless Players

Chapter 4: Birthday

Eight years have passed since Philip was reborn into a new world.

At first, he was distressed about the new environment and the upcoming fight, however as he continued living, he found out that this world was quite similar to his old world and surprisingly adjusted very well.

He anticipated that once he arrived here, he would then be bombarded with mysterious incidents and die. However, contrary to his expectations, the world seemed to be void of any magic.

In fact, in his eight years of living, not even once did he experience anything supernatural nor did he meet any of his 99 enemies.

The new world seemed to be more peaceful and advanced compared to his old world. If his old world were at war, the new world appeared to have already overcome a series of wars and was in the developmental stage in both arts and science.

On streets, paintings depicting realism could be seen anywhere, and inventions of much more advanced technology seemed to be the norm in this time period.

When Philip recalled his first encounter with the scary black metallic vehicle that runs on rails, he could not help but laugh in embarrassment. As a joke, he even called it an incarnation of the devil as it was as loud as a rumble of thunder. In addition, every time it moved, thick black smoke came out from its head like an angry volcano.

Currently, Philip\'s life is comfortable and fun. And at the moment, he was not in any danger. However, his life in the new world was not always happy. In fact, he fought his way for his life to become like this.

The new world is not as malicious as in his past anymore, but strangely, the beginning of his life, specifically his childhood, was like a copy of his past life.

A year after his mother gave birth to him, he was abandoned and sold to the hidden forces of the government.

Philip reminisced about the moment when his small body left the arms of his mother. He thought he could finally have a family on his own, yet the world didn\'t even give him the chance to enjoy it.

For three years, the government instilled brainwashing in every child they got. If he was a normal child, he would surely give in like in his past. Good thing he had already experienced it and was knowledgeable enough to escape while their preparation was still at the infancy stage.

He refused to live like in his past and committed one of the proudest moments of his life: destroying that inhumane facility.

None of the adults in the facility would ever expect a four-year-old child to over-smart them. From building an escape path to manipulating and informing the common people and lastly poisoning them to death.

Not in the history of mankind had this ever happened. Only now, through Philip as the mastermind, could this be brought out to the masses.

The citizens were angry and even the two-faced nobles and church intervened, rescuing other children.

Philip left and escaped alone, leaving nothing of his presence. He traveled through towns and mountains and finally arrived in a small village where he met his adoptive parents.

For the next four years, Philip was happy. Living in this isolated area with his new loving parents brought nothing but joy to him.

Philip always knew the true purpose of his coming to this world but after not seeing any of his rivals, he chose to be greedy and live his life to the fullest.

Of course, he was ashamed of himself for not listening to Osuda and ended up not knowing the game\'s specifics. All he knew was that they would fight to death and the last remaining person would win a soul and identity.

It was eight years and with all the incidents that happened to him, he had later forgotten about it.

Philip stopped bothering about this and thought that as long as he remained hidden and didn\'t join the fray, maybe he could survive until the end.

\'Let them compete with each other, I\'ll rest \'till old age.\' Philip thought amusingly, his heart was full.

Philip sprinted excitedly around the forest. Today is his birthday and he has always treasured this day as he had never experienced it in his past life.

Of course, that\'s a given, with the government backing and controlling his life, all he could do was act like a dog and do their bidding. In addition, with the author\'s sadistic trait of making his life hard, he grew up without experiencing what other people usually do.

Now that he has grown up in his dream normal environment, he will try to live more merrily with his caring and loving parents.

While he knew that this environment was just a simulation, probably created for the purpose of the game, he was still upfront in his decision.

\'What\'s wrong with fake? As long as I am happy, reality doesn\'t matter anymore.\'

\'Why do people do drugs and drink liquors? Why do people read fiction novels? Isn\'t it to escape reality?\'

While he knew it was wrong, he didn\'t care. He was already addicted to this life.

In a short while, Philip arrived at a bungalow cottage with a variety of flowers planted on the garden.

"Auntie Marissa, here\'s your firewood!" Philip shouted while knocking on her door.

A middle-aged woman unlocked the door, "Oh my! Thank you, Philip, and please deliver my thanks to your father for me."

Philip\'s father cuts wood for a living and Philip is usually tasked to deliver the timber to their customers, especially to the nearby village.

Philip lived deep inside the forest, an hour\'s walk away from the village. He was slightly curious about why his parents chose to live in isolation and sometimes wondered if his parents had huge secrets like him too.

However, while he was curious, he never asked them or bothered to investigate as he respects their privacy.

He has always been thankful for their help, especially in adopting him. So, what\'s with a little secret? If it weren\'t for them, he would never find a family and a home for himself.

"I\'ll deliver your words to my father, Auntie Marissa." Philip noticed her bringing her luggage outside and asked, "Auntie, are you perhaps going somewhere?"

Marissa answered, "Yes, I\'ll be leaving for a trip. Oh before I forgot."

She rummaged through her things and took a bottle filled with a green and sticky substance inside, "Here, my gift for you. Happy Birthday, Philip."

Philip took it and thanked her, "Thank you, Auntie. May I ask what is this for?"

"It\'s nothing, just a medicine for healing critical wounds," Marissa answered lightly and continued, "Maybe one day you\'ll be needing it."

She looked straight into Philip\'s eyes as if reading something within him. Philip felt goosebumps in his arms and quickly avoided eye contact.

While scratching his arms, he responded, "I hope I don\'t have any use for this, Auntie."

"I also hope so, Philip." She smiled.

Feeling foreboding, Philip immediately left her abode. Her Auntie Marissa also lived deep inside the forest, a five-minute walk away from his house.

He always knew she wasn\'t normal, with her great proficiency in the pharmaceutical field, she should have lived in the big city and not stuck in this remote forest.

At first, he was vigilant against her but for four years, she offered nothing but goodwill not just to him but also to his parents. Then soon, after several encounters, his heart opened, and treated her as an elder.

However, today\'s meeting awakened his cautiousness. He ran off from her house and once he arrived a distance away he stopped and walked normally.

Philip let out a long deep breath and thought that maybe he was just being paranoid. Why would she wait for four years when she could have done something to him the first time they met?

Philip felt guilty for suspecting her. He glanced at her gift, sighed, and put it inside his pocket.

\'Let\'s set things aside for now and focus on my birthday,\' decided Philip. The reason he was sent out to deliver the woods today was for his parents to prepare a surprise.

Philip was perceptive enough to know about their little surprise as his parents had always been terrible at acting. Still, every year, he pretended not to know and let them prepare their things.

Together with the birds\' chirpings and the gentle swishing sounds of grasses, he whistled and hopped excitedly towards his home.

As he opened the gate and stepped inside, Philip felt an insane amount of nervousness. He smiled slightly thinking that even after four years of living with his parents, he was still not adept at their kindness.

Philip prepared himself and finally opened the door with a wide smile.

After opening the front door, a voice resounded deeply inside the house.

"Happy Birthday to you."

Philip\'s heart beat uncontrollably fast when he heard someone singing a Birthday song.

"Happy Birthday to you."

As he continued to listen, the smile on his face curved downwards, his eyes became wet, and his legs began to shake.

"Happy Birthday."

When the song was close to its ending, Philip found himself looking at the table. On it, there was a cake with a lit candle on top, a knitted scarf, a bracelet, and lastly…

"Happy Birthday."

His very own father\'s head.

And then his world turned dark when he finally heard the last verse of the song.

"Happy Birthday to us!"