21 Spoiler - Title at the end

After everything that's happened, Axel managed to rent a small apartment for a month. Thanks to alot of bargaining and convincing, he managed to snag it for 8,000 yen.

Axel looked over his empty room and said, "I'll have to find a way to make money… I could do a sidewalk magic show..." Suddenly, he froze as he remembered something extremely important. He hasn't seen Stella since they came to this world.

Panicking, Axel screamed, "STELLA!!!" Not giving the slightest care about neighbours. Axel ran to the door, trying to leave and look for her, when he felt movement in his left pocket. A tiny snake head popped out as Stella's voice yawned, "Hahhh… Yes, master?"

Axel blinked as he pointed a shaking finger at the snake and muttered, "…Stella?"

The small snake nodded. Sighing in relief, Axel slowly walked to center of the room and with a wave of his hand, withdrew a chair and his sleeping bag from his inventory.

He took Stella out of his pocket and lay her gentle on the chair before collapsing on his sleeping bag. He looked at the crystal white, 2.5 meter long snake that was curled up sleeping, and mentally said, "System, what… happened to her?"

The system started acting like usual as it said, [It's a world law. In this world, animals are animals, humans are humans. Because of this, she was forcefully sealed into a form deemed acceptable. However, because you recognise that she can talk and have heard her speak before, she can still talk but only to you. Also, there is a way for her to use her human form in this world but it requires using a sort of… second dimension.]

Axel rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. With a short yawn, he muttered, "What dimension?"

The system stayed silent, giving Axel all the answers he didn't need. Wryly smiling, Axel said, "Ok, I won't ask. What about the function upgrades? What'll happen if I use them now?"

[Time dilation would be updated at midnight. The time for today would be counted as, '30 - 1', while it would continue on a scale of, '90 - 1'.]

Axel slightly smiled as he told the system to use the function upgrades. A large screen appeared, however, unlike usual, this screen was blank except the words, 'Update begins at midnight'. Axel was slightly surprised by this and said, "Is that normal?"

The system gave a short reply as it said, [Yes.]

A long yawned was released from Axel's mouth as he muttered, "…Goodnight, system." And shut his eyes, drifting off to sleep.

Before he fell asleep, he managed to hear the system quietly whisper, […Goodnight, host.]

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(POV Change)

In a world of blue and black, Axel found himself adrift in the void. His eyes remained shut as he twitched, as if he was having a bad dream.

Suddenly, the growl of a hoarse voice echoed, "Hohoh… What do we have here? Something outside the bonds of fate in this world. Interesting, very interesting. This actually may get in the way of mine and that long nose's bet."

A hand slowly reached towards Axel, only to phase right through him. The voice grew silent for a second before bursting into laughter. It said, "Even I cannot touch him and I'm a god. This fellow could be the key point in my little game. Now, it's up to him to pick his direction. Hell, I'll be surprised if he manages to come to the metaverse in the first place"

Axel's body stopped midair as he slowly began to float backwards. As he left, a fit of maniacal laughter rang out through the void. Right before Axel disappeared, the voice said, "I'll be waiting for the day we meet again, one who cannot be controlled."

However, Axel never heard any of this.

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(POV - Axel)

The next morning, Axel woke up feeling extremely weak and tired. He stumbled to his legs as he said, "Why am I so weak? Did I not sleep enough?"

With a yawn, Axel sat on his sleeping bag and stretched his hand towards the chair. He gently lifted Stella as he said, "Stella, wake up. Breakfast."

Stella slowly opened her eyes and yawned. She drowsily looked left and right before focusing on Axel. After a minute of staring at each other, Stella smiled as she slithered up Axel's arm and rubbed against his face.

Even though he wasn't used to this sort of attention, he shook his head as he softly patted her head. With a wave of his hand, a couple bowls of soup, some white bread and a couple strips of jerky appeared.

Axel looked at the soup questioningly and said, "System, isn't this soup from my first day at basecamp?"

[Yes, it is.]

"Then, is it safe to eat?" Said Axel as he let Stella eat the jerky.

It took a couple seconds before the system said, [Yes, it's ok to eat. The inventory function has alot of… extra features. It took me a couple seconds to read them all. Basically, time freezes on the item you store unless you don't want it to freeze.]

Axel became wide awake as a glint shone in his eyes. He said, "What are the other features."

[Host, I can say with certainty that you don't have any other options besides infinte storing space, range storing and time freeze. If you had of used a function upgrade on the inventory, you would have gain a feature but you already used them on dimensional travel.]

With a sigh, Axel bitterly smiled while drinking his warm soup. Stella, who finished all the jerky, ignored her soup and coiled herself around Axel's left arm.

Seeing this, Axel shrugged his shoulders and drank her soup as well. After using the bathroom to tidy up, he left to find Iwai about the gem.

Walking through the concrete jungle bought back alot of memories but at the same time, Axel felt unfamiliar here.

Before reincarnating, Axel was born into a simple family in New Zealand. He was an only child, adored by his loving parents. Everyday, he looked forward to his parents return. His mother and father never told Axel what they did for a living but he never cared. As long as they loved him, he never questioned them.

Shaking his head in an attempt to clear his head, Axel continued on his way to Iwai's shop. Honestly, Japan is huge, filled with a large amount of people to match. The train ride from where he lives to the city wasn't long but the train was cramped. Axel barely had space for himself as he was crushed between a group of people.

Bitterly smiling, Axel sighed and decided to suck it up and persevere until his destination.

A couple minutes later, Axel walked out of the station and was welcomed by the familiar sights from yesterday. He followed his memory and in a couple twists and turns, finally made it to the shady alley that lead to Iwai's shop.

Axel held his chest to brace himself before opening the door and walking inside. However, the first thing that greeted him was Iwai, who had a huge smile on his face. Axel shuddered from the sight and thought, 'This is much worse than him actually angry!' and decided to leave.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed his shoulder as Iwai said, "Hey, kid. Where you going? I got some really good news."

"What's up, Iwai-san?" Said Axel. Because he's in Japan, he decided to adapt to their customs, in hopes of not standing out.

Iwai waved his hands and said, "Stop, no need for the, '-san'. Just Iwai will do."

Axel felt Iwai let go. With a sigh, Axel said, "So, what's got you in a good mood?"

Iwai relaxed into his chair and rummaged under the register. After a couple seconds, Iwai pulled a bulging envelope out and threw it to Axel. He ignored Axel's confusion and said, "Yesterday, I went to an appraiser and had him appraise that gem. The results was that it was a ruby with 100% purtiy. When I told my buyer that, he offered me 3,000,000 yen. That right there is your share, 2,100,000 yen."

Axel was about to freak out when a screen suddenly appeared. Axel calmed himself down and excitedly read his first quest.

[First Ranking Quest!

Find a way to enroll in Shujin Academy before April 10th.

Reward: 20,000 system points, 20 Status points, ???.]

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Title - First Quest in a New World!