EPILOGUE
[NOTE: THIS IS THE END OF VOLUME ONE, NEXT VOLUME WILL BE SERIALISING SOON!]
"...red ninety eight. Nine hundred ninety nine. One... Thou...sand!"
Alex dropped down on the ground after a thousand leg pullups from a tree. His legs gave away and he lay there sprawled across the forest floor. He gasped in oxygen and tried to calm his heartbeat.
It had been two weeks since he separated from his friends. He had two months to train himself. He could level up and power up, but he couldn't get new Skills or Classes. But that didn't discourage him. He trained his body. He honed himself. He completed his Daily Quests. He ran around the forest twice a day. And worked his ass off during the day and went hunting at night to sharpen his senses. Luckily the animals didn't seem to be affected by the System.
He had bought a Firestarter from his friend and guardian Tyrone Lee. He used it to keep warm at night as he slept in a makeshift platform between two tall trees. Even getting up there was part of his training. He had to run up at high speed and maintain his trajectory to get to bed. He supposed all this would greatly enhance him in the field against the ominous Hazards.
Meanwhile in the city...
"...parry, shoulder roll... Huff! And a... UPPERCUT!"
Nolan swung a heavy uppercut at his sparring partner. The guy was pretty jacked, and was a professional boxer. The Director had insisted, that Nolan practice his fighting skills rather than his Abilities. Learning a fighting style like boxing would help him enhance his powers.
Nolan had no issues with that. He worked out during night and sparred with others during day. He had gained a lot of experience in fighting and learnt a lot about boxing. He learnt how to throw jabs and throws even. Combined with his Abilities, he could fight and take down even a Goblin Chief by himself now. He didn't use much weapons. He had a Gravity Carbine in this inventory though. He trained his aim on weekends.
The Gravity Carbine was like a normal Carbine. Except when he willed his Mana into it and fired. It fired a light blue flame with the bullet as it shit towards the target. And then exploded with a small force. Enough to knock down a small building.
Sparring and shooting was all he did these days. Tyrone Lee, was busy with the strongest Players. Fighting them and learning about their techniques. He fought himself to the death every day and used the daily quest rewards to heal himself. He leveled up greatly in this time. But he also had to spend a lot of Shards in the Shop.
He bought some Protection Tokens from the Shop, for their upcoming fights against Hazards. He had no idea what that was, maybe some natural disaster scenario, or some apocalypse scenario, but he did everything he could to keep himself and his team alive.
Finally, we go to the last member of the gang, Jenny. She was training in a top secret underground facility with a few chosen others. She learnt the art of stealth and disguise from her superiors. A Player had abilities that helped him to carry out missions covertly. Their team was called, The Shadow Nexus, an elite team of the best agents on the field. Or at least that is what it was supposed to be.
With people normalising the Quests, the world was slowly going back to normal, or as normal as it could be with the new powers. Super soldiers were no longer a dream now. Militaries recruited the strongest Players with an attractive salary.
There were certain Players who could convert monetary units to Shards. The entire World was now shifting to Shard currency. Shards could be transferred via the System. People could auction off their items in the Shop.
With the world going back to the way it was, with a stable new government system, and new laws being made everyday, it was hard to maintain law and order. New Players were recruited as police and military, based on their Abilities and aptitude. With the unstable chaos, many new terrorist organisations were running rampant. Wars looked impossible to stop now, between countries.
That is where the Shadow Nexus, came in. They were supposed to covertly gather intel or sabotage the enemies. Jenny was good at knocking out people with her Toxic skill, which she could control greatly now. She could also support her team by healing them with the Antidote.
So as Alex ran around, training everyday and every night by himself, Tyrone put his life on the line by fighting the toughest Players in the camp. Nolan was getting better at precisely using his Skills, and easier over his Gravity Carbine. And Jenny, trained in the secret arts of Shadow Nexus, and trained to serve her country in the next big War, which was supposedly coming soon.
But right now, all four of them had only one goal: Beat the Hazards! Level up and beat them before they can even realize what happened. With this goal in mind, they all trained every day and every night. They all leveled up a lot by the end of their given time. They got a lot of new Skills, and a huge amount of Shards.
With this backing them, there was no way anyone wouldn't feel confident about beating these Hazards. Soon their two months ended and it was time for a reunion!