The Global Realm Station was insanely massive.
The construct was situated somewhere in the universe. It wasn't connected to any realm. Therefore, to get there from Romance Realm, one had to use another spatial tunnel that took there. The structure was circularly shaped, as if it were an enormous disc flying through space.
The walls spiraled upward, with each floor having its own spatial tunnels. In total, there were ten floors, each the size of Human City. There were spatial tunnels for thousands of different realms; Jason hadn't even heard of some of them.
The walls, which circled around the Global Realm Station, had clean, three-meter-high windows. The windows showed starry space with faraway planets coated in some kind of soap bubble. The sight was mesmerizing, causing many of the visitors to just stand there and watch in amazement.
Many came here just for that view.
Jason stopped near the windows as he realized just how vast the universe was. It made him feel small, like he was a dust particle. The scene took his breath away as he stood there for several minutes without moving a muscle.
At last, he turned away and walked towards the ticket receptionists. The ticket receptionists were at the center of the first floor. They sat inside a pillar-like building, which had wide, square-shaped windows that allowed them to talk to the visitors. The pillar-like building was connected to the Global Realm Station's ceiling, which was at least a kilometer high, maybe much more.
As Jason headed to buy a ticket, the ground suddenly shook as a shadow loomed over him. He looked above and saw a massive foot falling towards him!
With quick reflexes, he rolled to the side, barely dodging the foot of a giant. His face paled as he was almost stomped to death as if he were some kind of ant. Even the Global Realm Station was dangerous.
He could only wonder how dangerous those S-ranked Realms were. The realms were also ranked from F to S. There weren't SS or SSS-ranked realms because S-ranked was already a place where living was nigh-impossible.
For mortals, S-ranked realms were death traps. Maybe only False Gods may live there, but it would be dangerous even for them.
Horror Realm was a C-ranked realm. It was only rated C because of the existence of Horror City, where dangerous creatures lay. Human Realm and Romance Realm were F-ranked realms. Forsaken Realm was unranked because of a lack of knowledge about it.
"Watch it!" The Giant that almost stomped Jason to death growled. "If you want to die so much, die somewhere else. You almost dirtied my boots, hmph."
'Maybe if you kept your eyes on the ground and not at your height, you may be able to prevent useless deaths. Unless you want to stomp someone and blame them.' Jason mocked the Giant internally. He didn't dare say it out loud in case the Giant turned angry.
Jason joined the line, and after half an hour, he bought a translucent ticket that entered his system. He was told that the Horror Realm's spatial tunnel was on the second floor. There weren't any in the first one. Thus, instead of taking the elevator, he took the human-sized stairs.
He saw the tall back of the Giant taking much larger steps as he walked up his own-sized stairs. There were only six steps of stairs for Giant stairs while for human stairs, there were over a thousand much smaller steps.
As Jason walked the stairs in a casual manner, he cast his gaze across the Global Realm Station's first floor. He saw creatures he'd never seen before, races of unknown origins, and silly-looking creatures.
There were bizarre-looking creatures that had legs replacing the hands. Horned creatures that had some resemblance to goatmen from mythological books. Fish creatures that had bowls around their faces, filled with water so they could breathe.
At that moment, Jason caught sight of someone very special. A golden-haired woman stepped out of a door-shaped portal. Her eyes were a beautiful ocean blue, as if sea gods had blessed them. A long white cloak draped over her figure, hiding what was underneath as if she were afraid of the temptation it could incur.
Two beautiful white-feathered wings were on her back. They were so pure and holy that they made people subconsciously pray. Wherever she walked, an empty path appeared. No one dared walk ahead of her as she walked to the ticket receptionist.
'She is an Angel.' Jason thought inwardly with a clear shock. The reason was clear. The Angels since they were born, have been at Angel-rank. They didn't have to climb from System Apprentice all the way to Angel. They were already stronger than most humans, ever since their birth!
The Inner Circle's strongest adventurer was only at System Champion. It was one rank below Angel. Thus, even Angel babies could defeat the strongest adventurer with ease. That simple truth had made many previously aspiring adventurers fall into depression.
"Sigh." Jason reached the top of the stairs and soon found the spatial tunnel that led to Horror Realm. As he walked into the bright light, he thought. 'I wonder how Angel Realm looks like. It is a forbidden place for everyone who isn't at least Angel-rank. Maybe if I reach that rank one day, I will go visit it.'
The light engulfed him as the strange skull, ghoul, zombie, and wraith engravings started to come alive. Soon, the light swallowed him entirely.
...
Horror Realm, at the contact point.
Jason opened his eyes and saw the familiar crimson moon with a dark, cloudless sky surrounding it. The trees swayed side-to-side as the leaves and branches clicked.
He caressed the side of his revolver and narrowed his eyes as he looked around the dark, empty forests. 'Now, where was the infamous graveyard? The rumor said that near the contact point, there was an ancient mansion with a graveyard in the backyard. That sounds like the perfect place for zombies. I hope the rumor is true...'
...
Workers Street. Golden Lion, inside Percy's study.
Percy massaged his temples as the pile of letters was piled right in front of him. There were hundreds of letters sent to him daily, coming from his allies and from other territories. The most urgent situation was the lack of funds and medicine. The war was draining his financial reserves.
Even though he was robbed three weeks ago, it was still a small part of his guild's entire wealth. However, the war cost him daily over 10,000 gold coins. It couldn't continue like this, or all Seven Guilds would be sooner or later replaced after their funds ran out.
He knew Red and Rook weren't fools. They lost more money every day as they had to recruit more adventurers and mercenaries. However, they were persistent and wanted to fight until their last breaths.
'Why are they risking so much?' Percy couldn't understand it. 'Even if they wholeheartedly believed that we killed Rosa and Ryan, they shouldn't risk losing everything. They should have known that there are always disagreements and fights that can cause deaths.
'But they are treating us like we killed their whole family. This is surreal.'
Creak... the door opened as Russell entered the study room. He nodded at Percy and said. "We have discovered something about the day when the war broke out."
"I am listening." Percy leaned on the chair.
"That day, Jason Grandhart suddenly vanished." Russell got seated and interlaced his fingers. "We all thought that he died that day. However, the streets have now been cleared of bodies, and he was nowhere to be seen. I doubt they took him to Outer Circle and dumped him in some river.
"So, he suddenly disappeared, Perseus died, and the vault was robbed. I think all roads lead to Jason."
"You are saying that my brother..." Percy's veins protruded at his neck. "Died to a fucking cleaner. Are you saying that?"
"U-Umm..." Russell gulped down his saliva as his back suddenly drenched with cold sweat.
"My brother won't be disrespected like that." Percy laughed with hidden anger. "He might have been weak, but not that weak. If I hear rumors floating that my brother might have died to a fucking cleaner, I will blame you."
"O-of course not, sir." Russell shook his head in a hurry. "H-he might have been helped."
"Are you done acting detective?" Percy narrowed his eyes coldly. "The whole idea of you thinking that some lowly cleaner managed to trick us all and rob us makes me very angry."
"B-Boss..." Russell wiped his sweat and forced a smile. "I found out that Jason has another home address. In the Outer Circle. Let me take a few men with me, and we will find out the truth."
"Fine, get out of my sight." Percy dismissed him with an angry wave. After the door closed, he scoffed. He thought that the whole idea of Jason robbing them was nothing but a rotten joke. That single thought made his blood boil.
He never even thought about the possibility of someone so weak robbing him or being capable of even doing so. This was the arrogance and pride of one of the seven guild masters.
...
Horror Realm, a short walking distance away from the contact point.
"..." After venturing across the forest, he left the woods and stepped onto the private road. There was a metal gate blocking the path. There were rusted sign with faded letters. There were only the letters "T", "E" and "M", remaining. The word originally seemed to have eight letters.
Jason pushed open the creaky and loud gate. The road led to the fenced yard of a creepy-looking mansion. It seemed to have three floors and an attic. The windows showed a pitch-black interior, with dust covering most of it. Overgrown weeds covered the yard, and the metal fence had signs of rust.
The front door was shut tight. It had seemed to be painted with a red that would suit the rest of the brownish walls, but now the paint had already faded away as if it were being slowly erased away. Now, it had dull wooden texture left.
Jason stepped into the yard and warily looked at the mansion through the dusty windows. He turned over to the corner and headed to the backyard. In the backyard, there was a small forest in the middle of a fenced graveyard. There were easily over 80 graves.
The graves didn't have any words. There were only dull gray tombstones with a small hill in front of them, where the corpses were buried. The hill was as small as a 50cm tall baby, but it was clear that something was buried inside.
Jason drew his revolver and rummaged through his chest pocket. He picked up several purple-colored bullets and stuffed them inside the chamber. They were Purification bullets. He then pushed the hammer down and placed his finger on the trigger as he moved deeper into the graveyard.
He kept his eye on the tombstones and on the small hills. The zombies often jumped from graves, taking the form of the deceased. There were also instances when the corpses turned into zombies because of corruption. The Horror Realm's soil was full of corrupted energy. Therefore, if possible, one wouldn't bury their companions here unless they wanted to turn them into zombies.
After circling around the graveyard, Jason frowned in confusion. He should have attacked by now. However, the graveyard was eerily quiet, as if there weren't any corpses present.
He then cast his gaze over to the creepy mansion. There were also moments when the zombie would remember its life before dying. Thus, they might live like normal people, repeating their lives over and over. As such, they might brew coffee in the morning, make food for their husband that no longer exists, do some gardening, return home to watch TV, and then go to sleep. They would repeat that thousands of times.
Jason lifted his revolver and gulped. The creepy mansion wasn't a very welcoming place.
'With my amplified senses, I should see the zombie coming.' He thought as he looked at the crimson moon. His senses were being amplified as a result of the Horror Realm only having night time!
And, for some unknown reason, the crimson moon caused his night vision to be even stronger, and his other senses. He couldn't see as well during the daytime, but it was close, and he was certain that he could see a zombie coming from a mile away!