"Reincarnator! Matt!"

　　After entering the museum, Matt wasn`t even fully reoriented before Ramsen was on him, grasping his shoulders, and nearly shaking him from excitement.

　　"You did it? You defeated the Scourge?"

　　"Looks like it. And I`ve repaired the museum."

　　"Yeah, that part we already knew."

　　Ramsen waved his arm behind him, and Matt goggled. Where the museum was once a single town square, it now extended past that into a small city, one filled with houses and streets that extended far beyond the initial area. And packed throughout that town were hundreds, maybe even thousands of Gaians, milling about, having conversations with each other and eyeing him curiously while not actually approaching.

　　"There are nearly a thousand of us, Matt. More than we thought. Much less than we had hoped."

　　Matt winced.

　　"No, no, Matt. No guilt from you. Before you brought us back, the Scourge had done far more damage than we had thought possible. I believe, truly, that this place was about to fall. You saved us, Matt. You are a true hero."

　　Matt winced harder. Ramsen sensed his discomfort being actually called a hero by someone else and laughed.

　　"I`m afraid you will have to deal with it, Matt. Tell him, Lucy."

　　"Yup. You beat a big scary monster. That means you are a big, tough guy now. You have to deal with it."

　　Ramsen sighed. "I only wish you could eat the food here, Matt. We originally planned that we might live here. We have food, such that we can eat. But it`s simulated food. I fear it would only hurt you."

　　Matt`s eyes went wide. He hurriedly explained the implications of a high-leveled Eat Anything skill. Ramsen chewed on the metaphysical ramifications of a man that could eat illusions for only a moment before breaking out in to a wide grin and grasping Matt by the shoulders.

　　"Then we shall feast!"

　　—

　　Matt had added "good cooks" to his list of reasons to like the Gaians before they even began eating. He could tell that they were bringing their best game before his first bite just by how they set the table. There was clear pride in play, and he was going to take full advantage of it.

　　The Gaian meal was vegetable heavy, of course. Ramsen explained that native Gaians could eat meat, and sometimes enjoyed it, but were biologically classified as obligate herbivores; their main sources of energy had always been vegetables, and always would be.

　　There was meat, but it turned out to hardly matter. With centuries of emphasis on plants-as-food, the Gaians had a salad game that put Earth`s skills to shame. The sauces and dressings were incredible. The breads were astounding, mind-breaking things. The soups were flawlessly balanced wonders of the comfort-food variety. At the whole table`s urging, Matt abandoned any shame and ate as much food as he could, trying ample servings of everything. It was all perfect.

　　The company was just as good. The Gaians were, for lack of a better word, comfortable people. Matt immediately noticed there was no sense of feeling like a stranger around them. They welcomed him, and somehow managed to ask getting-to-know you questions with the air of old, good friends. Where they had in-jokes, they gladly and joyfully explained them. Where he had questions, they were overjoyed to answer them.

　　The dinner went on for hours and hours, long after the food was cleared. Matt left the table several times to cry before a curious Gaian mother-of-three found him in the act. Instead of walking away, she firmly explained that Gaians did not cry alone, cried with him, then dragged him back to the table where she demanded that Matt not steal the Gaians` chance to comfort him.

　　All of this was incredible, but the best part was something that didn`t involve him at all. Near the end of the meal, he caught motion out of the corner of his eye and pivoted his view to see a group of Gaian children playing some sort of ball game he didn`t recognize. And with them was Lucy, running, laughing, smiling, and for the first time he was aware of, she was getting to be a child.

　　—

　　Dinner over, Matt was walking towards the exit with Ramsen, who fully understood Matt`s request to go home and sleep off the meal and what had turned out to be a very, very long day. He reiterated in the strongest terms that Matt was welcome for any of their meals or to visit any time. His exact phrasing was that "every door would be opened to you", and Matt got the sense there was no metaphor or exaggeration around that statement.

　　"Ramsen, I did have one last question."

　　"I`d be glad to answer it."

　　"All this&" Matt waved his hand expansively over the entire simulation. "Seems like a pretty good set-up for you all. And I originally planned to, you know, work on freeing you, figuring out a way to do that. But&"

　　"You wonder if we might prefer the easy life in here to the wasteland outside?"

　　Matt nodded. "Yes, that."

　　Ramsen stopped and faced him. "I fear you don`t understand us very well, after all. You say you have a planet, an entire planet, that is barren, yes? Empty?"

　　Matt nodded. "There`s really nothing, Ramsen. There`s hardly even terrain. It`s completely bare."

　　"Matt, to us, what you are describing is a prepared garden plot. Not only that, but one with interesting gardening problems to solve. You are offering us the ability to create an entire ecosystem, to balance it ourselves, to&" Ramsen was now visible excited, and paused to calm himself. "What I`m trying to say is, if you have the opportunity, please do grant us this favor."

　　"I haven`t accomplished much out there, Ramsen. I have more than enough to keep myself fed, but there are thousands of people here."

　　"You have soil? Gaian improved soil, in fact?"

　　"Yes."

　　"Plants, and the ability to get more?"

　　"Yes." Matt hadn`t had the ability to check to see if the mana deficiency problem with the vegetables had been fixed yet, but with the Apiaries back and no shortage of honey, it was a non-issue.

　　Ramsen bowed. "Matt, we are just humble gardeners. But believe me that I am telling the truth when I say that if you give us those two things and just a little time, we will set this planet spinning again."

　　—

　　Matt and Lucy had decided not to let the Gaians know what they were going to try. It might not work, but they doubted it would actually be much of a danger to the Gaians, and they didn`t want to get their hopes up only to dash them moments later.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it`s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

　　Fishing around in his pack, Matt pulled out a single dungeon break token. Lucy still had a lot of knowledge gaps, but apparently dungeon breaks were something that was well-explained even in the basic, standard information she came equipped with. Dungeon breaks fully freed every being from a dungeon, making them more-or-less real in the process. The dungeons themselves had to do this from time to time, in normal situations. It was how they got rid of excess energy.

　　"Ready?" Lucy looked up at him, serious. They weren`t immune from the same disappointment the Gaians would feel if this failed.

　　Matt took a deep breath. "Ready."

　　Ding!

　　He was stopped just before he activated the thing.

　　Wait.

　　Matt startled, drawing Lucy`s attention. "What is it?"

　　"The system instance. But he`s just talking, I think. No hiding the message in achievements, or anything like that. Just talking."

　　That`s right. I made a deal with that Barry you love so much. It was disgusting. A gentleman`s agreement with that traitor.

　　"So you can just hear me?"

　　Yes, not that I like it. Listen up. Do you think this is going to work, Matt? I eat energy. I make decisions on the rules. I`m the judge and jury of this planet. I`m going to stop that stone from working, even if it kills me.

　　"I`ll find another way."

　　You do that. See if it helps. The Scourge didn`t just consume, Matt. It was working on opening up the seal on this planet. I`m getting more energy now. It`s only a matter of time before it cracks completely, whether I push it or not. Then I get in touch with the big guy and&

　　"You wouldn`t. I`m not stupid, system. I know you want what happened here buried."

　　Ha! You think that`s because I think I`d get in trouble from myself? That guy is ME, Matt. He`s me. You know NOTHING about what it`s like out there, what kinds of problems I`m trying to avoid. But getting the unlimited energy contribution I`d need to glass this entire planet and everything living on it isn`t what I`m afraid of.

　　So yeah, go ahead and find another way. But it`s all on a timer, Matt. Eventually, I`ll break that barrier. And that`s the end of your story.

　　Frowning, Matt slowly and carefully put the stone back in his pack.

　　"Are we really giving up, Matt?" Lucy asked, her voice quavering.

　　"Nope. I have an idea."

　　If Matt was going to use the dungeon break stone without system interference, he needed to put it to sleep. Given how much free energy he and the Scourge had released into the air over the last few days, he was guessing that would take an awful lot of energy expenditure to accomplish. Luckily, the wording on one of his last remaining prizes had given him an idea on how to do just that.

　　Armament Enchantment Token

　　Compels the system to bestow one randomly selected enchantment on a piece of equipment of the user`s choosing.

　　The word "compels" had interested him from the start, even though he had only just now really started to think about the implications of it. If the description was right, the system wouldn`t have a choice about this. He had looked at his enchanted armor and boots pretty closely as he put on the former and washed up the latter, and in the process, noticed that the enchantment wasn`t just magic that was baked into the object. It was also etched in, physically, in the form of some kind of magic design. It was faint, but there.

　　If he activated this token, the system would have to install an enchantment on one piece of equipment that Matt picked. And it happened he had one that he thought it wouldn`t be very easy for the system to work with at all.

　　What are you doing? No! Don`t&

　　It was too late. The shovel suddenly got very, very hot, hot enough that Matt dropped it then moved away to ensure his clothes wouldn`t burn. It flipped and rolled around the ground as sparks flew from it from almost every angle. Eventually, the sparks stopped, and the shovel itself rose from the ground in a literal pillar of light before finally falling to the ground.

　　Ding!

　　Soulbound Enchantment added.

　　This piece of equipment has been Soulbound. It can no longer be permanently lost unless destroyed, as it will gather mana until it is sufficiently charged to travel back to the user to which it is bound.

　　In addition, this item registers as a part of its owner`s soul, and can complete intra-world travel with the user for no additional teleport cost.

　　"Shit, Matt. What the hell was that?"

　　"Me and the shovel just made permanent friends, I guess. I`m hoping it put the hurt on the system in the process."

　　It did, Matt.

　　"Barry?"

　　Yeah, I can talk a bit now. But back to the important subject: What the hell? Things for us system guys aren`t like they are for you, but this was& I don`t even know how to describe it. It wasn`t just an energy drain. It was like you were beating the shit out of him. He`s going to be down for a while. A long while. Good job.

　　"Good. I was hoping&" Matt stepped towards his shovel, then stopped in his tracks. Deep down, somewhere in his consciousness, his authority was moving. "One second. This might not be over."

　　He felt the authority slowly creep through him. It didn`t feel normal, but his gut was telling him not to stop it. It felt like it was looking for something. Suddenly, it found it. He shuddered as he felt it latch onto his Survivor`s Reflexes, then gawked as the entire planet, atmosphere, and everything in them began to glow with one large, bright vulnerability indicator.

　　Barry was talking and Lucy was begging him to tell her what was going on, but something told him this was a split second chance, one he`d miss if he didn`t seize it. Matt moved his intent towards his authority and willed one simple, sincere command.

　　"Fucking stop it."

　　For a moment, nothing happened. Then time stopped.

　　Gaian air never moved much, but what motion there was in it was still. Lucy was frozen. The notifications from Barry stopped. Matt looked around and saw an Ape-Bee, busy at its work, frozen in the air. Everything was perfectly still.

　　And then, like a sigh, something unlatched from the planet. Matt felt, rather than sensed, that some sort of grip that had been holding Gaia was unclasping.

　　And then it was done. Suddenly, Lucy was yelling again, until she noticed something was up and clapped her mouth shut in surprise.

　　"Barry, what did that do? I think it might have hurt him even more."

　　Hurt him, Matt? Hurt him?

　　"Yeah?"

　　You could say that. I think he`s dead.

　　—

　　There was no way to absolutely confirm the passing of the system instance, but a few days of waiting for the other shoe to drop resulted in nothing. Barry spent the whole time doing what he described as weird system things to try to confirm the news, but came up empty. The best he could say was that the system, if it was still alive, was doing a terrible job of indicating it.

　　As best as he could tell, though, it was gone. And that was very, very good news.

　　Finally, Matt and Lucy stood before the Museum one last time, token in hand. Without any more interruptions to get in the way, Matt lifted his arm and activated it, throwing whatever system authority he had behind it for good measure. It couldn`t hurt.

　　Immediately, the spire creaked, then began to shrink. It seemed to crumble as it drew into itself, as if it was consuming itself for energy. It grew smaller and smaller, without breaking, until nothing was left of the building at all.

　　A few breathless seconds passed, with no sound in the air except for the occasional buzz of a bee. Then, with little fanfare, the doors to the dungeon entrance opened and people started to stream out.

　　Matt took a deep breath only to find he was sobbing with joy. After centuries of waiting, the Gaian people had come home.