Somewhere in an underground bunker that was once abandoned after the Super Phenomena happened.
"I-I did it!" shouted a nerdy looking man. His smile was glimmering as if it was a ray of sunshine.
"You really did? That's amazing." Miya was excited hearing what Duke had said.
"Yes! I did it! I really created a forum inside the System! This is a dream come true! I can't believe…" He was muttering a lot of things but Miya didn't pay attention to him anymore.
She slumped on the floor, her previous long black hair was now gone, replaced by a pixie cut hairstyle. She had it cut out with the help of a hairstylist in their group so it would be more practical to move around. Even her eyes change ever so slightly. There was cruelty and death inside her eyes. She had done things she could never take back. But still, her hope in finding her family didn't die down.
With Duke, Kali and Ross, they were able to gather a group of survivors and establish their underground bunker away from the prying eyes of the cruelest Dragon Riders and Dragons. It was also safe from other "monsters" who had lost their sanity and only wanted to cause massacre.
Just thinking about the grim murders that happened on a daily basis made Miya's stomach twist in pain. She wanted to find her family to make sure they won't suffer anything bad at the hands of those monsters.
She quickly connected in the System.
It has been a week since they've discovered that the System has a Customer Service Suggestion Box for the improvement of the System. It was a reward they got from clearing a Common Zone and only available for those high ranking.
They didn't know how it worked, but they decided to create a forum. It was just a suggestion at first, but once the System Approved their idea, they were given Project Quest. That Project Quest could also be shared. And the reward? They were given Pioneer accounts that could report things or give suggestions plus a bonus of God Points and Items fit for their survival.
But since only Duke knew his way of programming such things, Duke had been tasked to do most of the work. The rest were just up with discussion, suggestions and their experiences with forums.
And finally Duke succeeded.
Now, with Duke's signal they're testing the Alpha Version of the Forum. But the important thing was they were able to create a forum inside the System!
It was a thing they never thought would be possible. It was like how Duke bragged about the fantasy world that the authors created.
He also claimed that if they really did succeed with the forum, creating a World inside the System would be possible! Then, connecting with anyone who they had lost contact with would be possible!
Almost everyone wanted to find the people they cherished. Ross was constantly scouting outside just to find Mister Glum's group and also looking for Alpha and Sho.
But since they exited on different sides, they didn't know where the two groups were.
However, if the forum could be established, they would know how to find others. Unless of course the worst had happened.
Unless the people they were looking for were already dead.
It was not easy to find people. Even those in the same Zones, if they didn't exit at the same time, the probability of them seeing each other again was almost close to 20%. And ever since the Super Phenomena started, there was a lot of terrain that changed. The buildings that could serve as their landmark got destroyed either by the glitching of the System or by the Dragons.
Also, there were also random teleportations happening if they got inside an unstable land.
"Hm? What's this?" Miya was frowning when she saw the words on her screen.
"Ah? That? Are you seeing the Terms and Conditions? Well, since it's still in the Alpha testing phase, the System informed me that if the forum was implemented, we would need to spend God Points before we can register. Depending on the scale, the God Points would be different."
"W-why? Won't it be disadvantageous for anyone who doesn't have God Points?"
"Let's be honest. It's easy to get God Points. There are those Common Zones that could be grinded. They have easy Quests. People just have to be wary of encountering Dragon Riders or other hostile races. Aside from that, it could also be traded."
"True…"
"I really love the System! It's a very good program that let us be better! Ahh! I can't wait to suggest more things so that we can improve the System even more! Although I've suggested a lot of things, there are those who got rejected because it would be unfair! See, the System is trying to be fair! I don't know how the morals of System works but…"
***
Inhaling deeply before releasing it gently, Caelus opened his eyes slowly. His eyes silently glimmered with Qi Sight as he looked at the distant Wandering Soul who was struggling to get out of his Qi Aura Cloak–or at least tried.
The Wandering Soul was locked tightly as he moved towards it. Caelus could even feel the whimpering of the soul… or maybe swearing as it spew out black gas that didn't reach him.
"Stay still." He grinned with his own inner joke.
*Who in their right mind would stay still when they see me as a demon coming after them?*
However, no matter how much they struggled, that didn't stop him from what he wanted to do.
He had to ferry their souls.
He touched the Wandering Soul's smoky body with his Qi Energy. Upon his touch, the smoky figure stopped moving as a gas, it felt like it was as solid as any other body. And this soul has the shape of a humanoid. Except that it was pointed ears.
An elf.
When he first noticed the different races of the Wandering Souls, he was beyond shocked. He was stupefied. Although he saw murlocs and wolves, having seen an elf even as a ghost triggered something in the memories of the original Sho.
It was a dream of any otaku out there to see an elf.
It was that. A dream. It never would come true because elves don't really exist. Or so they thought. If the original Sho were the one standing there, he would surely be glad to be alive.
He shook his head, removing unnecessary thought as he took out a robot cleaner. It was as tiny as a rat. Its role was to clean places that no human or robots could reach. It was perfect because it was so small that it could almost fit at any place.
Holding the Wandering Soul in his right hand and the rat robot on his left, he placed the robot inside the source of the corruption.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" the familiar insane voice echoed. It was the voice of the corruption inside the Wandering Souls. He had touched so many Wandering Souls but they all say one thing. They wanted to kill. They lost all sanity and they only knew how to take other people's lives.
It felt slow when he did it as he carefully put layers after layers of Qi Protection in his whole body just so he would be sure not to get corrupted, but in actuality, it only took two seconds for him to complete putting the rat robot inside the Wandering Soul's body.
After doing that, he kept on holding the soul waiting for any unusual happening.
One minute.
Two minutes…
The clock in his mind kept on ticking, counting as time went by.
As the time went past five minutes, his heartbeat soon started to beat loudly.
He didn't want it to be a failure. The robots were the ones which had the strongest energy he had found. If Charon would still not appear after that, then he didn't really know where to look. He might get stuck in this Zone for at least a year.
Past seven minutes and the end of his hair started standing up. As if something dangerous was approaching.
He wanted to look, but his body was frozen. Even his heartbeat seemed to have stopped along with time.
~Tack, tack, tack~
He heard a weird sound coming from above. Was it the sound of footsteps? But it didn't sound like it. He really couldn't describe the sound. It felt surreal that he knew it couldn't be defined by human logic.
A voice echoed in the grim place. It was like a voice carried by the wind, however, Caelus knew it was one of those special beings. It could be just like Gabriel.
Before Caelus could think of anything, his grip towards the soul lightened. The soul he was holding vanished before his eyes even when everything was still frozen still. But as soon as his grip towards the soul loosened and the soul vanished, he was jolted awake as the time also started to move once more.
He was so shocked he felt his energy drain, he automatically canceled his Qi Sight while his Qi Aura Cloak was still maintained. It was a wonder how it was still activated when he was feeling weak.
But then, before he could question everything, he felt all his lost energy came back. As he blinked once more and looked around, he discovered that the elf Wandering Soul was really nowhere around even when he used his Qi Sight.
*I succeeded?!*
That was the only conclusion he could think of. All those surreal experiences felt like Charon really took the Wandering Soul. He ferried a soul!
"Hah… haha! Hahaha!"
He breathlessly laughed. It took him three weeks! Three long weeks and finally, he could see the hope of getting out of this Zone!