Afterlife Dream

We were ready before 8.30 AM even arrived. Cecilia woke up the earliest. She took her role as the tavern owner very quickly. By the time the first players rolled into the tavern for some breakfast, they were greeted by the inviting smell of freshly-baked goods and the strong aroma that came from a huge pot of steaming coffee.

Those who came early had time to enjoy breakfast while chatting with each other animatedly. Those who came late did not have time for that, but Cecilia thankfully had arranged for coffee and baguettes to be packed neatly for everyone to enjoy during the trip to Dimensional Sphere.

Most people came early, but those who were supposed to run the raid that day could barely get anything down their throats. Everyone was nervous and scared. The good mood from yesterday's dinner seemed to be swept away at night, replaced with reality. A lot of them sat in their seats quietly without speaking to anyone. Each of them was busy with their own thoughts.

"Eat something," Cecilia tried to persuade Aurendiria who looked like she barely slept a wink the previous night. She pushed a plate of cheese and ham baguette in Aurendiria's direction.

"No, thank you," the girl pushed the plate back. "I can take a second cup of coffee, though."

Cecilia pursed her lips. "Second cup, fifteen minutes after the first cup? Auren, you are acting like a middle-aged salaryman in the middle of the week."

Auren cracked a smile for the first time that day. "You are speaking as if you knew how a middle-aged salaryman in the middle of the week behaved."

"I sure know," Cecilia said with a grin as she put a cup of steaming green tea in front of Aurendiria. "My Dad was one. Here, have some tea instead."

"Why tea?" Aurendiria grabbed the cup of tea anyway.

"It has the same load of caffeine but healthier," Cecilia quipped.

Hime winked me and HellWitch over as soon as she saw us.

"Look here."

She showed us her user interface screen and taught us how to track people.

"This is how you track players."

"Okay."

"Got it."

"Track as often as you can," Hime told us. "Just in case."

Just in case. Right.

At 8.30 AM sharp, Ingenious ushered us all out of the town. We took the ghost ship to Frozen Tundra Land, from where the raid runners would walk in the direction of the Dimensional Sphere.

HellWitch and I stayed at the safe map of Frozen Tundra Land, waiting to track the runners as soon as the raid started.

As soon as the raid participants left, HellWitch and I were left alone.

"Let's pick a good spot?" HellWitch suggested.

"Sure. Where should we go?"

"Over there we have some cushioned seats..."

"Oh?"

I never knew that there were some cushioned seats in the Frozen Tundra Land's base. Not that I spent a lot of time there after only advancing a day before.

HellWitch took me to a comfortable spot that looked a lot like a living room. There were two side-by-side egg-shaped chairs made of rattan with soft cream-colored cushions lining their interiors.

We took our seats and started to prepare ourselves.

"Who are you going to track?" she asked me.

"Aurendiria," I answered without skipping a beat. HellWitch did not respond, so I looked up at her and asked. "And you? Who are you going to track?"

"Ingenious and ArrowRain."

"Okay."

"..."

I finished making my preparation and went to track Aurendiria.

Tracking was fairly simple. I just needed to right-click on Aurendiria and there was the option to track her location. As soon as I clicked the button, a message appeared on my screen and showed her location information.

[Aurendiria is currently on the "Unknown Border" map.]

"She is in 'Unknown Border'," I informed HellWitch. "Quite fast. Three more maps and she will be in Dimensional Sphere."

"Mmm," came HellWitch's answer.

I blinked at HellWitch. "What is wrong? Why are you so quiet?"

HellWitch swallowed hard. She had a slight frown between her eyebrows when she looked at me.

"It's nothing."

I raised an eyebrow at HellWitch. "You aren't usually this quiet."

"I am not chatty by nature," HellWitch said.

"Yeah but you are also not a quiet person. I would have expected it from Laz but not you."

HellWitch pursed her lips. "Antares, I really don't want to talk about it. It is not my business whatsoever so..."

I leaned back in my seat and stared at HellWitch. I was not usually that curious either, but I felt that there was something that HellWitch wanted to tell me and I wanted to hear it.

"Ok, out with it. Stop playing riddles."

"I am not," she mumbled. "It's just..."

"Just what?"

HellWitch curled his fingers into fists. "Antares, you do know that Aurendiria and BlackPuma are dating, right?"

"Um, yes. I do."

The crease on HellWitch's forehead deepened upon hearing my casual answer. "Then, don't you think you are getting too close to her? Just because BlackPuma isn't here... I think it is..."

My jaw dropped open from surprise.

"... despicable," HellWitch ended her statement in a whisper.

"HellWitch, you are wrong. There is nothing between me and Aurendiria," I hurriedly said. This misunderstanding must be cleared as soon as possible. I could not believe that HellWitch of all people would think that.

HellWitch did not seem convinced at all.

"Are you sure? You two are very close," she remarked. "Especially after BlackPuma went missing."

"We are just friends. I feel obliged to console her in difficult times such as these. You know that BlackPuma's disappearance practically clipped off her wings."

HellWitch stared at me. "Okay."

"You don't believe me," I claimed. "Why don't you believe me?"

"It doesn't matter," HellWitch said. "It is none of my business anyway."

She said that it was not her business, but I could see that she was sulking.

We spent the remaining time in silence. Then 10 AM came and we finally had a reason to talk to each other again.

In order to make a point, I decide to track Hime instead of Aurendiria.

"Hime is in the Dimensional Portal," I told HellWitch. The latter looked up at me in surprise.

"Ingenious and ArrowRain too."

Dimensional Portal was the 150 raid map.

"It looks like they entered just fine," I commented.

"Yep..."

"How often are we supposed to track?"

"Just spam but track different person every time. Just in case spamming locations on one single player could cause lags. Which I don't believe, by the way."

HellWitch's tone became warmer. I smiled at her. "Okay."

I continued tracking every single person in our guild who participated in the raid, and so did HellWitch.

I would say that the tracking rate was quite fast. Maybe around one track every ten to fifteen seconds, depending on our typing speed.

Time ran very slowly when people were anxious.

And then, both of us tossed a cry at the same time.

[BabyMage's location is currently not trackable.]

HellWitch and I exchanged pale glances.

Before we even said anything to each other, we quickly went back to tracking other guildmates.

[Perennia's location is currently not trackable.]

[Hime's location is currently not trackable.]

[ArrowRain's location is currently not trackable.]

[Ingenious' location is currently not trackable.]

And finally...

My finger trembled when I hit the enter button for the next tracking command.

[Aurendiria's location is currently not trackable.]

We sat there, completely numb. Up until the moment when everyone vanished within an instant, the location never changed. It had always been Dimensional Portal!

Ding.

HellWitch and I looked up at the same time. The sound came from my user interface screen. There was a message from SakuraChan.

"Antares, you are the tracker for Twelve, right? Can we meet up at Frozen Tundra Land's gachapon machine? We need to talk."

I was still speechless from the shock. HellWitch was not doing better than me at all. I merely showed her SakuraChan's message and we got to our shaky feet and started to move toward the gachapon machine.

SakuraChan stood there with an Ice Elemental Mage by the ID of KanokoChan. I remembered her as the girl who came with Suzuran and HinoKun at that time. The one who fought against DragonTalon when Dominion ambushed us while we were grinding.

Both girls looked pale and were sitting on the ground in front of the gachapon machine.

"I can't believe it," KanokoChan murmured, tears streaming down her cheeks like rivulets. SakuraChan was very quiet. She merely hugged her knees to her chest and stared at the icy ground without any focus.

"Hey," I finally managed to get one word out of my throat when HellWitch and I arrived in front of the two girls.

As soon as she saw me, SakuraChan broke into tears.

"They disappeared," she said. "They all disappeared. Just like BlackPuma did."

And then, her eyes fluttered shut and she fell unconscious like a withering leaf.

"SakuraChan!!!"