Spending My Retirement In A Game

"Injured people...?" Tony repeated with a worried expression, "What exactly happened?"

Andrew turned toward him, giving Tony a quick rundown of the situation as he understood it. Of course, he didn't have a huge amount of context for the specifics, but he at least knew why Eisen was there in the first place. Tony just listened as his face got more and more pale, "And so... what did my father do to make him... you know..."

Confused, Andrew turned toward Benjamin, "What's he talking about?"

"...The mana overuse completely ripped apart my body from the inside out. And that translated, to some degree, over here," the old man explained, and Andrew frowned, "Hold on, so the damage is translating?"

"No, I don't think so. It's probably just because of the mana? We'll have to talk to Xenia about it later, she should have a better understanding of it," Benjamin pointed out, "It wasn't much either, I wasn't really hurt all that much just... a bit weak."

Tony stared at his father as though he was having auditory hallucinations, "A bit weak? Are you serious? Dad, you-" Tony quickly stopped himself, taking some deep breaths, "That was more than just 'a bit weak'..."

Benjamin smiled at him and shook his head, "No, really. It looked a lot worse than it actually was. By the time I got myself cleaned up, I was already feeling great. I was more anxious than anything, because I couldn't do anything from over here."

Andrew crossed his legs and leaned back, "That reminds me... what actually happened? What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," Benjamin replied with a wry smile, "I got the Chieftains to agree to prevent the war, and then Samuel got pissy and undid the Giants' Curse on Silber."

"...Silber?" Andrew repeated.

"Ah, right. My little brother."

"Your..." trying to make sure that he heard right, Andrew leaned forward, "Your 'little' brother? Was that some pun or something?"

"I'm sorry, but that's what you're stuck on?" Tony asked with a shocked expression, "Your brother? My... my uncle? What's going on right now?"

Benjamin smiled, "I have a handful of half-siblings in that other world. Though, I'm sure most of them have passed on. But Silber survived somehow, clinging onto life while his body was petrified for... a hundred thousand years."

"Huh," Andrew let out, "I was wondering why he looked familiar."

"...We don't really look alike, though. His mother was an elf, mine a dwarf."

"No, no, you definitely share some features. The shape of your eyes, your mouth, that kinda thing. It's mostly a vibe, I guess?"

Benjamin sighed loudly, "Most importantly... Yes, Tony, it's your uncle. Not by blood, but he's family nonetheless. If you ever choose to enter that world on your own, I'll introduce you to your whole new extended family, alright?"

Tony slowly nodded his head, "Yeah... sure."

---

Eisen opened his eyes, lifting himself up from the ground. His body had recovered practically perfectly while he was logged out, as usual, so that wasn't anything to worry about right now. He looked around, seeing just walls of rubble around him. The ground was covered in a bed of mushrooms, so he figured Caria had been here earlier, even if just to check on him.

The old man jumped up and spread his wings out. Numerous giants were moving around rubble, massive roots and monsters were doing the same thing. Some building-sized chunks were just floating around as well. And most importantly, a man-shaped pillar of frozen blood, wrapped in plants and thread spread around all over the place, was now holding up the mountain.

It had large patterns engraved onto the side, so it seemed like Xenia had stabilized things for the time being, so Eisen should be able to get started on the replacement soon.

As the old man looked around, he noticed something in the corner of his eye. Confused, he stared at the system message.

[Co§g&at(=\\?ons" %o} !a/e l]a%ned *+e <XXXXXXX> S%i!l!]

It was still there...? That proved it. This wasn't an error. It was something far, far weirder. Something that Eisen couldn't explain.

"What're you doing up there? Countin' your wrinkles or something?" someone laughed from behind Eisen. He turned around with shivers all over his body. The old man dropped to the ground a few steps away, completely shrunken down and having released his transformation. His clothes had basically molten away, so he was making do with the first shirt and pants he could grab from his item storage.

In front of him stood a middle-aged man with short black hair, sprinkled with strands of white. He was tall and muscular, and his ears were pointy but rounded out more than those of a full-blood. His skin was a pale gray. Eisen scoffed, "You're one to talk. You look like you could use some sun."

The man looked at his arms and shrugged, "Yeah, I guess that's what happens when you stand in the shade for too long, huh?"

The two looked at each other, as large smiles formed on their faces. Without any other words they ran at each other, practically racing to figure out who would pull the other into a hug first.

"You been keepin' well, Eisen?" Silber asked, his voice unable to hide the broad grin plastered on his face.

"I thought so, but clearly not as well as you. You haven't aged a day... you actually might have gotten younger," Eisen replied with a loud laugh, pulling back to get a closer look at his brother, "I seriously can't believe it. You held out for that long? Were you conscious the whole time?"

"Oh, no, luckily not," Silber replied, "That would have been hell, right? But speaking of, I can see that... well, a lot happened while I was out, but how long has it actually been? Two, maybe three hundred years?"

Eisen let go of his brother's arm, "I... no, Silber. It's... it's been..."

"Ah, just fuckin' with ya, that Evalia kid's already told me it's been a hundred thousand years," with a laugh, Silber hit Eisen's shoulder, "She said there'd be a lot for us to talk about."

Eisen was a bit taken aback for a couple of seconds, but soon joined his brother's laugh, "Seriously, still making those kinds of jokes? You're the second oldest man alive, you know?"

"And here I don't feel a day over a thousand," Silber replied, starting to look around himself. His smile was slowly becoming weaker, "But seriously... what happened? I... I remember that I headed out to fight a Transcended monster that was causing trouble. This Mountain Gobbler.

But I was in the middle of the fight when... everything just went black. The Mountain Gobbler used its hibernation ability, so I guess I reflectively did as well... Every once in a while, I would wake back up for a few days, or weeks, but never a lot. It was like... blinking, and then every time I opened my eyes, this city grew."

Eisen walked over to some debree laying nearby, sitting down on it. Silber sat down next to him.

"There's... a lot to catch you up on. I don't know what I did and didn't tell you in the past, but..." Eisen started talking. And Silber listened. He listened to everything that Eisen could think of, as he spoke about everything that had happened to him in this world so far. Everything that he could, at least, "And then...

he removed your curse. And here we are. And judging from the fact you're still here, I guess he just sort of... cured you?"

Silber ground his teeth together, clenching his fists, "You did tell me about him. Rather, you told me everything. About your plans, about your old world... and that guy. Fucking hell..."

Eisen looked at his brother apologetically, "I also have to admit... I don't remember everything about you yet. I remember the most important things, but for example... how did you grow that large? Just... how strong did you get?"

Surprised, Silber raised a brow, "Oh, I figured you knew, but... Erm, so first, you remember that I'm different to you, right? That I'm not... you know."

"That you're not a person, yes I remember. You had more of our father's blood, and turned out as a monster according to the system," Eisen replied, and Silber nodded, "Mhm. And so, after you peaked... you helped me out a bit, and..."

Eisen let out a laugh. He knew where this was going, "Seriously? Gods, how stupid can Samuel get? He did this to stick one to me, but he took the risk of letting you free?"

"Well, I'm severely weakened, so I'm not as strong as I used to be..." Silber replied with a click of his tongue, and Eisen nodded, "Yeah, I figured. Samuel added, and had us add, a lot of ways for him to control the flow and 'difficulty' of the game.

Things to let him restrict sections of the world as he wanted to, so that he could create large 'expansions' later on, with whatever story he wanted," the old man pointed out, "So it's not a huge surprise. But come on..." Eisen placed his hand on Silber's shoulder, "You can't blame me for feeling kind of happy either way. My brother is the one and only Transcended Giant in existence."