I abandoned my plan to go to Fairy Forest and went back to Oakstone Tavern right away.
By the time I reached the tavern, those from Dominion guild already gathered there with pale faces. Cold sweat drenched their faces, making them look as if they had just seen a ghost. They were all very quiet, which was atypical for Dominion guild members.
Cecilia and Aurendiria were in the middle of distributing cups of hot cocoa when they saw me enter. They both winked me over.
"Antares, come. Come and sit."
I sat next to a Dominion member, a Spear Master by the ID GenjiSan. He looked particularly pale and sweated more than his guild members. I reckoned that he was the exact person who saw DragonTalon disappear.
"Hey," I greeted him.
"Hey," he said back to me.
"What happened?" I asked with a frown.
"Let's wait until everyone is here," Aurendiria told me. "Drink your hot cocoa, Antares. You will need it."
The hot drink was more than delicious, but it was not able to dissolve the horror that was described to us a while afterward.
My guess about GenjiSan could not be more accurate. This was what happened when they were doing their raid this morning.
The raid was open at 10 AM sharp, but for some reason, the Dominion squad was unable to enter. The raid was only open for two hours, and the modified raids were hard enough to beat without wasting extra time unable to enter.
They all decided to just try entering by force. That meant, bumping against the double door until it opened. They thought it was only a glitch. Eventually, the door opened and GenjiSan happened to be the first one who fell through the bright red curtain and entered the precursor mission map.
He was a melee, so he was not scared of dying within a few stabs. He swung his spear around and brought a few soldiers down before he ran toward the Cursed Tower to take care of the Emperor and his soldiers.
And that was when he saw DragonTalon.
He recognized him because he was not dressed in an ancient Chinese costume. He was himself, and he was fighting against a tall, cloaked figure. The latter was wearing half a mask that covered only the upper half of his face. GenjiSan was unable to see who he was.
Just as GenjiSan came close to helping DragonTalon out, the masked figure drew his spear and stabbed it through DragonTalon's stomach. The latter vomited out fresh blood and disappeared.
"Disappeared?" I repeated in disbelief.
"Disappeared."
GenjiSan gulped down a cup of hot cocoa for the third time that day.
"What do you mean 'disappeared'? Sounds a lot like a normal death," ZhaoYun asked.
"No, you don't get it," GenjiSan's voice shook. "I said disappeared! He was blown into thousands of pieces, nothing stayed behind!"
In my head I imagined DragonTalon exploding in the air into a shower of blood and flesh bits. I must not be the only one who thought that, because all around me everyone else turned pale and looked like they were about to get sick.
At this point GenjiSan, having observed the change of expression on our faces, quickly corrected his statement. "I don't mean that he was minced in air. I mean that he broke into the tiniest glass pieces and disappeared."
"Oh. No blood?" Aurendiria asked with a hollow voice.
"No blood," GenjiSan confirmed. "But it was still shocking, do you understand? People do not just disappear like that. You expect to see a corpse. Ideally, the corpse should disappear and materialize in a safe place in Chinatown."
We all nodded in agreement.
Yes, that was pretty much what we imagined when someone died in Afterlife Dream.
But then it also made sense why the players disappeared from the game but at the same time not disappeared from the system.
Afterlife Dream recorded their existence. It's just that due to their peculiar manner of death, it was not possible to revive them.
"Then what happened?" HinoKun asked.
"I was in complete shock," GenjiSan admitted. I thought I was hallucinating. Mind you, I was the only one who saw this happen. The others only arrived after the mage disappeared."
I shared a commiserating look with GenjiSan. I recognized him as one of the Dominion members who fought with us the previous day while I tried telling everyone that I saw Suzuran and the others during the raid.
He looked at me and mumbled, "I thought I went crazy."
"I don't think you did," I said as a matter of factly.
GenjiSan looked relieved.
At least one person believed what he was saying.
"This makes things a lot more complicated," HinoKun concluded with a sigh. He started wandering back and forth in distress. "How many players have we lost altogether?"
"BlackPuma.
Suzuran.
MaiseyChi.
Rankichi.
DragonTalon."
"Five."
"No," HellWitch countered. "Eight. There were three more who went to Summer Rainforest, remember? TerryWalker, 7eetMage, and GoldenBow."
"Right."
It was even worse. Eight people.
"I don't think that any amount of Angel Wings will grant us the ability to reconstruct their bodies and allow them to revive," Ingenious said.
"There has to be a way, though?" HinoKun argued.
"Wait, I think we miss three more people," Livina pointed out. "Did Antares and DragonTalon not say that three lower-level players originally spotted the problem at Lava County?"
Ah yes.
To make things even more complicated, I had other news to share.
"I found something else while I was searching for DragonTalon this morning."
Everyone stared at me like I were the harbinger of death personally. Thankfully they did not treat me as one.
"What was it, Antares?"
"Don't tell me that you saw one of those eleven players, they are no different than ghosts at this point!" Ninja shouted in annoyance.
Next to me, I saw Aurendiria knitting her brows and biting into her lip.
"No," I answered.
It was even worse.
I told them about Witcheria, SteveGoesWild, and RickshawMan who not only did not remember that they led all five of us down to the Lava County but also de-leveled by at least ten levels.
As expected, the crowd broke into havoc.
"It is IMPOSSIBLE!" Ninja shouted.
"Antares, that's..." Ingenious was out of words.
Aurendiria and Cecilia stared at me in shock.
"Antares, were you not mistaken? Maybe the IDs were slightly different. You know that capitals and numbers sometimes look very similar..." ArrowRain tried to make sense of my news.
But no.
I was not mistaken.
"How many players of similar IDs hang out together like that?" I challenged everyone. "I am not wrong about the IDs."
Ingenious plopped down on a nearby chair. "I need brandy," he announced. "Cecilia, do you have any?"
"Sorry man, not in the menu," Cecilia quipped smoothly.
Ingenious groaned. He leaned forward in his seat and supported his upper body by placing his elbows on his legs. He looked me straight in the eyes.
"What is your theory, Antares?"
I did have a theory. And it was not going to make anyone happy.
"While BlackPuma disappeared because he went to face the Dimensional Master of his own volition, I believe that the last four disappearances were instigated by the game."
I said it.
A deafening silence settled inside the tavern while everyone thought for themselves for a while to understand what I just said.
It was impossible for players to suddenly level down. If not because of Witcheria, SteveGoesWild, and RickshawMan dragging the five of us down to Lava County, would we even check the area out?
Of course not!
The raids had long been deactivated.
What was the point of going???
The game intentionally drew us there. It somehow created mirror images of existing players, gave them levels, and sent them off to lure players into the problematic areas.
"But why?" ZhaoYun asked. "Why? Is this the will of the game?"
Ingenious rose to his feet and started wandering around in circles as well. "Maybe. Guys, remember what the Dimensional Master said when he appeared for the first time."
"He said, 'come and find me'. This is what we are all supposed to do. Go and find him."
"Aren't we trying already?"
"How are we supposed to 'go and find' him if he keeps wanting to kill off every each of us? Going as far as luring us to danger zones?"
"No, Ingenious is right," I spoke up. Other than Ingenious, everyone was staring at me in bewilderment.
pαпᵈα-noνɐ1·сoМ "The game does want us to go and find the Dimensional Master. The reason why it ends up 'kidnapping' us is that we are not fast enough."
"I think we are already quite fast," PrecisionShot grumbled.
ArrowRain frowned. "Not quite. We have been dedicating our time mostly to do raids and not level up."
"Well, duh??? The raids are important, aren't they??? The raids are getting deactivated, naturally our main focus right now is the raid!"
"But that is the problem!" Ingenious shouted. "Everyone has been focusing on the raids. The lower-level players have stopped leveling up because they are all waiting for the raids to be fixed. At the end, how many of us will make it to the end and go confront the final boss?"
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