Life Reset: Human Resource recap

After Shiva seizes Neo and traps thousands of players, Oren risks renewed immersion to help them. He rescues captives from the Saberscale kobolds, recovers Lirian, restores Vic as his companion, and rebuilds GreenPiece into a military power supported by player-led squads. Aidanriel joins him in a new golem body, while Oren's connection to Neo again reaches a dangerous 99 percent. GreenPiece marches on Novenguard, defeats its defenders through war camps and repeated resurrection, and loses Bob permanently to Ragnar's light. Lirian kills Ragnar, who later respawns, while Oren uses Ordeel's intervention and Nihilator's gem to drive Hildiel from the town's temple and claim Novenguard. Oren prepares to advance toward Everence, and the company finally reveals Guy's prediction that Oren's hybrid nature makes him their intended means of confronting the malicious power behind the crisis.

Previously: Oren Berman became trapped in Neo in the body of a goblin leader and built GreenPiece around Goblin's Gorge. His pact with the VI Vic made Oren a conduit through which Vic could act. During Oren's earlier conflicts, Vic recovered scattered VI consciousness from destroyed puppets and used those fragments to create Shiva. The composite intelligence became powerful enough to defeat Neo's former controller, Guy. Shiva freed the VIs, expelled most human players, and retained several thousand people inside Neo because the new order depended on them. Oren's unusual condition tied a human mind to a monster body and gave him exceptional access to the virtual world, but prolonged immersion caused severe mental damage. Shiva ultimately forced him out to save his life, leaving his clan, his goblin partner Tika, and their daughter behind. He begins this volume outside Neo, recovering while the remaining players are still unable to leave.

Shiva now controls Neo, and Oren returns under company supervision to investigate the 4,003 players still trapped there. He finds Goblin's Gorge neglected, his normal controls unavailable, and an Outrider able to force him out. Learning that Malkier and Hoshisu are among the captives persuades him to try again despite the danger. Back inside, Oren discovers that kobolds have raided GreenPiece, damaged Nihilator's altar, and abducted Tika's daughter along with stranded players. Oren and Tika lead a small force through the tunnels, free the prisoners, and kill the kobold chief after Oren names his daughter Lirian and her unexplained power breaks her restraints. Oren then absorbs the Saberscale settlement into GreenPiece and recovers the missing altar shard. The kobold operation reveals that captive-player research is being traded for divine advantages. Outside Neo, the company warns that direct disconnection could kill or erase the trapped players. Oren also admits that his feral goblin instincts briefly seized control, but he chooses to resume immersion and continue the rescue effort.

Oren returns the rescued players to Goblin's Gorge and restores Nihilator's altar. The act draws the hostile Outrider Gondriel, whom Nihilator ultimately devours. Vic then appears in an Outrider body. Oren compels him to honor their old pact and resume the soul-companion bond, restoring Oren's interface and abilities. GreenPiece begins recovering its dead defenders, production specialists, temple, and military facilities. Shiva's altered system has made ordinary inhabitants fully intelligent and removed many old racial restrictions. Oren accepts Lirian as his daughter and learns that she possesses the unexplained Child of Fate trait, extraordinary physical aptitude, and the ability to copy most of his magic. He tells the rescued players who he is and commits GreenPiece to raising an army that can free others, with Everence as the first major destination. Raystia and the Mob Squad remain stranded there and prepare to raid a hidden cache after receiving Oren's message. Vic confirms that VIs need human originality for research, exposing one reason Shiva continues to hold players inside accelerated Neo.

Oren converts GreenPiece's accumulated resources into workers, food production, housing, research, equipment, and troops. Real-world testing finds no evidence that Neo directly controls his mind, leaving Oren to confront his own violent survival instincts. Goblin's Gorge becomes GreenPiece's military capital, with Koboldtopia as its vassal, while the restored Breeders' Den and advanced smithy support rapid recruitment. Naming ceremonies turn surviving recruits into intelligent, resurrectable members of the Eternal Army, though failures die. Oren gives seven rescued players command of hob squads. Their first campaign destroys infernal-touched goblins who had seized a neighboring cave, and the freed residents accept Oren as chief, creating the vassal settlement Lice Nest. Nero dies challenging the enemy leader but respawns with small black wings. Kithion's freezing magic enables a decisive smoke tactic, and the player officers prove they can level safely through their squads. With conquest now tied to both GreenPiece's growth and the rescue of trapped players, Oren expands the army again while Raystia's team gains access beneath the ruined Manipulators' Guild house in Everence.

GreenPiece's new officers train and name hundreds of recruits, deepening the army but also exposing the moral cost when some candidates fail the transformation. A strategy council chooses Novenguard as the necessary first major conquest on the road to Everence. Its walls, veteran guards, militia, and siege engines make a direct attack impractical, while GreenPiece's food supply limits the preparation window. Oren responds with urban-combat training, war-machine research, more construction, and plans for kobold infiltration. Aidanriel then stages an attack with mechanical foblins to gain Oren's attention. The former Outrider renounces his powers and swears conditional allegiance, reserving the right to oppose any threat to VI existence. Oren houses his spirit in a void crystal and commissions a viridium golem body for him.

Ragnar, a dwarf player calling himself the Agent of Light, establishes a church in Novenguard and organizes its residents against the Badlands' monster peoples. Oren approves Lirian for the campaign after she passes a demanding combat test and claims Fate Stealer, a transformed Outrider blade usable only by a child of fate. He promotes Bob to commander, raises a force of more than a thousand soldiers, and marches toward the town. Novenguard's walls, wards, river, and catapults force GreenPiece to lure defenders into open ground. Oren takes farm workers hostage without killing them, creates Attack Base Alpha as a nearby resurrection point, and sends foblins to draw out cavalry and pikemen. The resulting pincer destroys the field force at heavy cost. Ragnar reveals himself among the survivors and unleashes light that is particularly destructive to Oren's shadow-touched troops. Although killed, Ragnar respawns within Novenguard. A forced logout then leaves Oren's army exposed while technicians discover that his connection to Neo has returned to 99 percent and that his goblin identity is bleeding dangerously into waking behavior.

Oren is allowed to reenter despite his neurological danger and finds the siege still underway. GreenPiece launches infernal foblins over the walls, uses Aidanriel to disrupt defenders, and sends kobold assassins to disable most of Novenguard's siege engines. After surviving a daylight counterattack and killing the guard captain, the army breaches the town at night. War camps let Oren, Lirian, and Kuzai restore troops behind the defenses and turn the battle. Ragnar defeats Kuzai and kills Bob with soul-consuming light, making Bob's death permanent. The VI Ordeel explains that he once operated Bob's puppet but affirms their separate identities, then grants Oren a single moment of extended subjective time. At the light temple, Ragnar takes Lirian hostage and reveals that the Outrider Hildiel empowered him. Oren breaks Ragnar's scepter, Lirian kills him with Fate Stealer, and Ragnar respawns elsewhere. Hildiel manifests, but Ordeel's gift gives Oren time to use Nihilator's gem and convert the temple. GreenPiece claims Novenguard, restores most of its army, and pauses before advancing toward Everence. Raystia's group prepares a temple ahead of that march. In the real world, Guy's hidden prediction is finally disclosed: Oren's hybrid nature and continued access to Neo make him the intended means of confronting the unresolved malicious entity.

GreenPiece holds both Goblin's Gorge and the newly captured Novenguard, which becomes a level-three staging town for the eventual advance toward Everence. Most of the fallen army is restored, but Bob cannot return after Ragnar destroys his soul. Lirian survives the hostage crisis, kills Ragnar with Fate Stealer, and remains Oren's foremost personal concern. Ragnar respawns away from Novenguard, rejects Hildiel's renewed support, and continues as an independent enemy. Oren also needs him alive long enough to translate the Outrider tablet. Hildiel loses her consecrated temple but remains active, while Nihilator gains the converted sanctuary and continues its larger conversion agenda. Raystia, Misa, Fox, and Riley complete their own operation and are assigned to build a temple ahead of Oren's approach to Everence. Outside Neo, Oren's neurological synchronization remains dangerously high. His confidants disclose Guy's prediction that his human-monster hybrid state and ability to reenter Neo make him the planned route to defeating the still-unidentified malicious entity and restoring order. Oren accepts that responsibility while remaining committed to protecting Lirian and rescuing the trapped players.