The players left alive started running for their lives. As instructed, they headed to the various places they had first found themselves in the realm, where a portal waited for each team.
"C'mon Max! We have to go!" Avery shouted but Max ignored her as he was engrossed in destroying every egg he found.
"We have to get out of here! Forget about him. He's crazy," Van said as he pulled her along and moved to join the others in front.
"I must get you all down! This system does know my style," Max laughed maniacally, diving further into the place in search of eggs when his screen opened.
[ Game duration: 5:30:02...]
[ Game duration has frozen]
[ Evacuate the realm ] or [ Complete the mission]
"Complete the mission of course," Max spoke out his thoughts.
[ You can complete missions in the inverted realm in and out of the game duration and earn rewards ].
The further Max moved into the realm, destroying eggs, the closer the darkness traveled in his direction.
.
.
.
Within a few more minutes, all the players had made their way back to the boundary except one.
"What is Monthenia doing? It has lost control upon seeing beasts," Nisha said to herself. She shook her head. Was the special one just going to die so easily?
"No."
She heard a sharp whisper in her head.
_ _ _
[ 2 eggs left ]
[ Evade the darkness fast spreading throughout the realm as soon as the mission is completed ].
[ 1 egg left ]
The darkness had traveled too fast that there was a little gap between it and the last egg.
"I can't just lose all my achievements at the dine minute," Max hissed and threw his lava-covered sword through the air. The sword pierced right through the egg, exploding it into a million pieces before returning to Max's hand and suddenly the effect of Monthenia faded.
"Evacuate the realm!"
These were the first words he heard.
The darkness swiftly swallowed the space where the egg had just been and was already sweeping toward Max.
His flame aura intensified and his speed had somewhat increased, he speedily flew away from the darkness with a thought opting to his mind.
' Portal activate. Location, the boundary between the inverted realm and the other side.'
[ Portal activated ]
[ Destination: World boundary ]
.
.
.
"The whole of the realm has blacked out," Nisha said to the hearing of the players.
"He was still in there," Flynn spoke to the rest of his team, referring to Max.
"May his soul rest in peace."
The other of his teammates said in unison. They were all aware due to Avery's theory that players who died in the realm didn't have a chance to respawn. It was a glitch that didn't comply with the game settings.
"Ahhh!!"
Screams came from above and everyone lifted their heads. A boy was seen falling from the sky.
"It's him!" Haruka's eyes widened in disbelief. "How?"
One of the tattoos on Flynn's body lit up in a golden glow before a large bird came out from his body and made it to the falling boy. The bird swooped him onto its back and gently returned to the smoke-clouded ground. As its feet touched the ground, its body burst into gold lights that traveled back into Flynn's body.
"You made it out," Nisha was the first to speak as her white eyes went from his head to his feet. She looked the least surprised as if she had expected him to survive.
"Yes, I did," Max replied.
*. *. *.
[ 500 gems have been rewarded to your account ]
[ You have gained 50XP ]
[ You have successfully leveled up ]
[ Lv.0 ---- Lv.1]
' I've been in level zero the whole time. How is that even possible?' Max felt like the system was underrating his abilities.
[ Due to level up, all stats will be increased by +2 ]
[ Strength 27 ]
[ Speed 27 ]
[ Agility 26 ]
[ Stamina 25 ]
[ Intelligence 31]
[ Endurance 23 ]
[ Mana 400 ]
[ HP 27/27 ]
[ XP 15/250 ]
[ Earn 240XP more to enter Lv.2 ]
"I mean, look at my stats. I know it's not to be considered strong but I should be at a higher level by now," Max said to himself as he moved around in search of players to kill. The urge to kill more players had risen in him. Every ounce of his being was eager to level up.
Now, he understood what Blain had meant. He had made it his goal to find Blain after he had gotten stronger because he had so many questions to ask. He looked at the Panther seal at the back of his palm. He needed to go to the pyramid jungle soon.
His attention later returned to the screen before his eyes. His mana points had drastically reduced due to the number of times he had equipped the Beast Slayer. When he had the time, he would try replenishing it naturally but for now, he would have to depend on the effect of the Essence corolla.
' Storage space open.'
A tab displayed the items he had stored, with the Essence Corolla being the only thing. He selected two of the crystal flowers and they appeared in his hand.
From the system analysis, one had 500 mana points while the other had 200 mana points. Taking both would only cause an exceed in his mana absorption limit, so he decided to store the one that contained 200 points and then absorbed the other.
[ Mana 900 ]
Unlike when he had first absorbed the flowers on the crystal islands, It had given him additional stat points but nothing like that happened now. He didn't think much about it though.
Afterward, he closed his screen and continued his search for players.
Due to the unprecedented incident that had taken place in the inverted realm, there was another game round for players of every ranking to partake in.
[ Game has begun ]
[ Game duration: 3:00:00 ]
This time, the location he had found himself in was a lot different from the others he had ever been assigned to. He had been transported to a place he would refer to as a village. The village was strangely quiet as if it had been abandoned. Most of the houses and stalls around were not in good condition. Some were on the verge of collapsing, some had already crumbled to particles of fine sand leaving a few walls in sight while others seemed to be built with low-quality materials making them look nothing close to different from the old houses.
The starry night sky where the moon resided allowed its light to fall on the place, making it look worse than it already appeared to be.
"What happened here?" Max could not help but let out a question born from his curiosity. He had long equipped the Lunar blades as the night would be to his advantage.
He had yet to explore the depths of the village he assumed to have been raided when the need for the display of his fighting prowess came up. His swords swung through the air and went through flesh at every area they were spotted.
The same action continued for over a long period and both Lunar blades were drowned in a familiar red liquid. His eyes told of how desperate he was to level up. If there was anything that made Max go the extra mile, it was the zeal to improve on something. If he had his mind set on getting better at something he believed he deserved to be good at, he did all within his power just to achieve that. There were some players he had come across and the system would reward him little experience points for defeating such opponents while when he defeated some he wasn't rewarded any experience points. With this, he took into consideration that the system considered some stronger than others.
Once again the silence from earlier returned and he continued looking for more players.
*. *. *.
On hearing the tinkling sound made whenever the door of his store was opened, a young guy slid out from under the car he was working on. His work clothes were covered in grease.
"Larry I need your help."
"What's it this time, Kayla? Are you so obsessed with illegal kinds of stuff?"
Kayla ignored his last question.
"Do you have the VR game? The trending one," She inquired.
"Harbingers Of Death?" Larry raised an eyebrow in question.
She rolled her eyes and nodded.
"I don't," He simply replied.
"What do you mean you don't?" Kayla looked like she was ready to go into a fistfight with him. "Even if other illegal stores don't have certain illegal stuff, you always have everything illegal."
Larry laughed.
"Do you think this is a joke?" Kayla eyed him.
"I'm sorry, Kayla but that illegal game is way too illegal for me to handle. I did sell it a week ago until my little cousin got trapped in the game too. He's just 13, can you imagine that?" Larry sighed.
Kayla stared at him uninterestedly.
"I don't even want to imagine any of the nonsense you're saying."
"You see, I was just like you a week ago. I felt the government was just being unreasonable and just wanted to find entertainment in the people's anxiety but after giving my cousin the game I realized I had done more than what a murderer could," Larry smiled bitterly.
"Seriously, you couldn't come up with a better story?" Kayla had the ' You can't fool me ' look on her face.
"Believe me or not but I don't have the game," Larry said before going back under the car he had been working on.
"And here I was thinking you were my only hope," Kayla barged out of the store afterward, feeling unaccomplished. Perhaps there wasn't anything she could do to help her brother out of the game. Maybe if she was in a novel, it would have made things easier. She could have fictional superpowers that could have been used to rescue Max but then this was real life, not fantasy.
*. *. *.
"Help."
Whispers carried by the wind grabbed the attention of his hearing. At first, he didn't pay attention to the voices with the thought that he was imagining things.
"Help."
To no avail did the voices stop.
[ You have sensed the energy leak in another area ]
Even the system didn't make it up to clear the confusion in his head.
After a few seconds of pondering on what to do, Max finally decided to follow in the direction of the voices.
"Help."
The voices were getting louder.
' Computer, what's going on? Where are those voices coming from?'
[ An isolated area is attempting to link to the game location and as such has leaked a portion of its energy to be able to grab someone's attention ]
"I see..."
Max's mind instantly went blank. The voices had finally led him to the end of a road at a corner of the village. At the center of this road stood a black door bound in long black chains.
[ You have discovered the entry into the Backlands of the Vagrants ].