Mario stood motionless in the middle of his apartment.
The World Gate stood quietly against the living room wall, as if it had always belonged there.
No light.
No magical aura.
Just an old wooden door.
Anyone seeing it would probably assume it came from an antique shop.
“…”
Mario slowly looked around his apartment.
The same worn sofa.
The same small dining table.
The same cheap electric fan rotating lazily in one corner.
Nothing had changed.
Except…
Everything had changed.
A chuckle escaped his lips.
He dropped onto the sofa, leaned his head against the backrest, and closed his eyes.
For nearly a minute…
He simply breathed.
No planning.
No analyzing.
No calculating.
Just…
Resting.
“I needed that.”
His throat suddenly felt dry.
Mario stood and walked into the tiny kitchen.
He opened the refrigerator.
Almost empty.
Only a bottle of cold water remained.
He picked it up and drank nearly half of it in one long gulp.
“…Ah.”
He let out a satisfied sigh.
“That hits the spot.”
After everything that had happened today…
Cold water somehow tasted better than any expensive drink.
He returned to the living room and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.
Then…
He frowned.
His wristwatch.
The wall clock.
His smartphone.
All three showed exactly the same time.
Mario blinked.
“…No way.”
He grabbed his phone.
The seconds continued ticking normally.
Yet…
According to every clock around him…
Not even a second had passed since he had activated his World Travel.
He remembered spending well over an hour in another world.
Breaking into Yuuya’s house.
Finding the basement.
Crossing the mysterious door.
Exploring the farmhouse.
Claiming ownership.
Returning home.
That should have taken at least an hour.
Yet Earth…
Had remained frozen.
Mario slowly sat down.
“So that’s another difference.”
He reached for the notebook lying inside one of his drawers.
Opening to a blank page, he wrote neatly.
Asset Audit
Rule #1
World Travel
Time Ratio: 0 : 1
No matter how long I stay in another world, my Earth’s timeline remains suspended.
He underlined the final sentence.
“This…”
“…is unbelievably useful.”
Training.
Research.
Planning.
He could spend months elsewhere and still return to the exact second he had left.
A frightening advantage.
“But…”
Mario looked toward the World Gate.
“I shouldn’t assume.”
He stood.
Walked over.
Turned the handle.
The familiar breeze carrying the scent of fresh grass greeted him.
He stepped through.
The farmhouse looked exactly as he had left it.
Peaceful.
Quiet.
The magical garden swayed gently beneath the afternoon breeze.
Mario decided not to rush.
Instead…
He walked around the property once more.
Harvested one glowing tomato.
Within seconds…
Another fruit began growing from the same vine.
Less than a minute later…
It had fully ripened.
“…Infinite.”
He harvested a magical apple next.
Then a strange blue vegetable resembling cabbage.
Both regenerated.
Exactly as before.
“No maintenance.”
“No replanting.”
He smiled.
“This place prints food.”
He walked toward the kitchen.
Everything remained spotless.
Nothing had moved.
The farmhouse appeared capable of maintaining itself indefinitely.
One less concern.
Mario then opened his Dimensional Vault.
One by one, he removed the legendary relics.
The sword.
The spear.
The scythe.
The bow.
The gauntlet.
He carefully laid them across the dining table.
Not to test them.
Only to inspect them properly.
His appraisal ability activated automatically.
Each weapon carried craftsmanship beyond anything modern civilization could produce.
Not a single scratch.
Not a single imperfection.
“…I’ll leave weapon testing for another day.”
Breaking his own farmhouse with an experimental swing sounded incredibly foolish.
Back into the Vault they went.
His attention shifted toward another experiment.
Asset Exchange.
Mario picked up one of the magical apples.
“This should answer another question.”
He focused.
“Exchange.”
The fruit vanished.
A soft chime echoed inside his mind.
A translucent message appeared.
Exchange Complete
Funds successfully transferred.
₱5,380
Mario immediately unlocked his smartphone.
His banking application loaded.
Balance…
Increased by exactly five thousand three hundred eighty pesos.
“…”
He stared for several seconds.
Then laughed.
“It deposits directly.”
No cash.
No suspicious transactions.
No money changers.
No explaining rare foreign currency.
Just…
A perfectly ordinary bank deposit.
“This system really thought everything through.”
He looked toward the orchard.
Rows upon rows of magical fruits quietly waited beneath the sunlight.
For a brief moment…
Greed whispered.
Harvest everything.
Exchange everything.
Become rich today.
Mario remained silent.
Then he shook his head.
“No.”
Too much.
Too fast.
Money attracted attention.
Attention created questions.
Questions created problems.
He had no intention of repeating the mistakes of people who became drunk on sudden power.
He wrote another line inside his notebook.
Rule #2
Never become greedy.
Wealth is a tool.
Not the goal.
Satisfied, he closed the notebook.
One experiment remained.
Mario walked back through the World Gate.
He immediately looked toward the wall clock.
Then his wristwatch.
Finally…
His phone.
Exactly ten minutes had passed.
He smiled.
“So that’s confirmed.”
He opened the notebook once again.
World Gate
Time Ratio: 1 : 1
Time flows equally on both sides.
The farmhouse does not suspend Earth’s timeline.
He tapped the page thoughtfully.
“So…”
“These are two completely different abilities.”
World Travel.
The gift from the Random Omnipotent Being.
World Gate.
The inheritance of the Sage.
Separate.
Independent.
Neither replaced the other.
Each possessed strengths the other lacked.
Mario couldn’t help appreciating the elegance of it.
He turned to a fresh page.
At the top, he wrote:
Long-Term Objectives
Below it, he carefully listed:
Financial Independence.Increase Personal Strength.Study Magic and the Estate.Secure Multiple Safe Houses.Choose the Second World Visit Carefully.
He stared at the list for several moments.
Then…
He added one final sentence beneath everything else.
Never allow power to decide who I become.
His eyes lingered on those words.
Power.
Money.
Opportunity.
He had seen people destroyed by all three.
He refused to become one of them.
Closing the notebook, Mario stood and stretched.
“I’ve earned a proper break.”
An hour later…
He found himself sitting on the farmhouse porch with another bottle of water in hand.
The breeze carried the scent of magical crops.
Beyond the fence, the ancient forest remained eerily quiet.
It was peaceful.
Too peaceful.
Mario leaned back against one of the wooden pillars.
“…I could get used to this.”
The words had barely left his mouth.
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!!
The earth shook.
His bottle slipped from his hand.
Water splashed across the porch.
Birds burst into the sky above the forest in a frantic cloud.
Mario shot to his feet.
His instincts screamed at him to move.
To prepare.
To survive.
His eyes locked onto the tree line beyond the wooden fence.
Silence.
Then…
Two enormous crimson eyes slowly emerged between the ancient trunks.
Watching him.
Watching the farmhouse.
Watching…
Everything.
The invisible barrier remained perfectly still.
The creature made no attempt to cross it.
Instead…
Another low growl rolled through the forest.
Deep.
Ancient.
Patient.
Mario swallowed once.
Then slowly exhaled.
“…So.”
A faint smile appeared despite the pressure weighing on his chest.
“…That’s one of my neighbors.”
The crimson eyes remained fixed on him for several long seconds.
Then…
Without a sound…
They disappeared back into the endless darkness of the forest.
The silence returned.
Mario looked toward the invisible barrier.
For the first time…
He truly understood why the Sage had chosen to build his home in the middle of the world’s most dangerous forest.
Because no matter what horrors lurked outside…
Nothing…
Had ever gotten in.
End of Chapter 12