Afterlife Dream

I could barely remember what happened afterward. The whole Afterlife Dream realm was thrown into chaos when everyone found out that the thirty highest-level players in the game had disappeared from the game.

I went into my home right after HellWitch and I finished handing SakuraChan over to her worried guildmates. As soon as I arrived, I threw myself onto the bed and stared at the wall in disbelief.

BlackPuma disappeared when he attempted to face the Dimensional Master alone.

Suzuran, MaiseyChi, and Rankichi were swallowed by Lava County.

TerryWalker, 7eetMage, and GoldenBow vanished at Summer Rainforest.

DragonTalon burst into pieces in the hands of an unknown entity that could only be the Dimensional Master.

And then, just now, 30 players disappeared all at once.

It simply did not make sense to me. Why? Why would they disappear? How could they just disappear? Where did they go off to?

There was some sense of relief knowing that they were still registered inside the game, but then there was also some anxiety because we did not know what happened to them.

What should we do now?

Should we all just deliver ourselves, one squad after another, to the Dimensional Master's lair?

Should we just cower in fear while living in Afterlife Dream? Waiting for the day when we too would be swallowed by the game?

Ding.

"Antares."

Ding.

"Antares. Yo, man, are you alright?"

Ding.

"Antares, are you sleeping...? Get out of your home, we need to talk."

Ding...

Ding...

Ding...

I did not know when, but eventually, the sounds stopped and my eyelids fell shut. I slept for who knew how long. When I woke up again, the time was showing 5 PM.

...

I had slept around 7 hours straight.

When I looked at my user interface screen again, I saw a load of messages.

I closed all the messages and merely wrote a sentence in the guild chat, "I am up, what is it?"

HellWitch wrote back, "Come to the Global Market. We are having a meeting."

Meeting so soon? I wasn't ready. I wished I could just escape, but it was too late now. I exited my home and dragged my pathetic ass to the Global Market.

Just like the last time when we had the bridge event, the Global Market was full of players from all over Afterlife Dream. The only difference was that this time they all looked as if they had long abandoned hope and just gathered there to have a good cry.

The remaining Twelve members winked me over as soon as they saw me.

Cecilia, HellWitch, Livina, Lazarus, and ZhaoYun were among them.

"Antares, how are you?"

"You look pale."

"Yeah, I... I am fine," I lied. How could anyone be fine after such a shocking turn of events?

Livina spoke to me earnestly, "Antares, we have been talking about it... It is now apparent that the Dimensional Master raid is a trap. The game is not going to get better. It is best if we start evicting players out of the game by taking them through the raids."

"Evicting players?" I repeated.

"Yes. Look. Thanks to the last carnival event, everyone is ready to be reborn on earth. Most players already got the life benefits that they wanted and even traded the remaining Life Points with Lucky Stars. We are good. We should just pass the level 120 raid and then leave the game."

"But..." I was having difficulties digesting Livina's words. "What about them?"

"Who?"

"Our friends! Our friends who disappeared!" I almost shouted at Livina. I could not believe that she forgot about DragonTalon and the rest.

Livina opened her mouth. She seemed to want to say something, but she quickly clamped her mouth shut when she saw the look on my face. I did not know what I looked like. Must be quite horrible if it scared Livina shitless.

ZhaoYun put a hand on my shoulder. A gesture he hoped to placate me with.

"Antares, calm down. Livina does not mean anything bad. If we know how to save them, we will definitely go for it."

I glared at ZhaoYun. "And when are you planning to do that? Before or after you escape from Afterlife Dream?"

ZhaoYun shut up immediately.

Being consumed by rage, I glared at HellWitch. "What about you? Are you also going to let them rot wherever they are and escape on your own?"

I saw HellWitch's eyes flash with anger. The next moment she already strode in my direction and slapped me so hard that my head spun and I saw stars.

"You jerk," she said, tears came down streaming her face. I had never seen HellWitch cry before. "I was also there with you, tracking every single one of them up to the moment they disappeared! Stop acting like you are the only one who suffers from the loss!"

I pressed a hand against my stinging cheek while gaping at HellWitch.

"Sorry," I mumbled, feeling a lot like a jerk she accused me to be. "I got carried away, I..."

"The emotions are running high. Why don't we... just take the time off today to think about the next step?" Cecilia offered.

We took her suggestion with thanks and dispersed to do whatever we wanted to do. I wanted to do nothing. I just wanted to sit there and be miserable.

Not sure how I was supposed to take it, but the rest of Afterlife Dream quickly decided what to do.

There were players who insisted on dying with the game because they did not think that being reborn on earth would be a better alternative, such as Kitty and Wolfhound.

There were players who adopted Livina's idea and were now struggling to get to 120+ as soon as possible and beat the raid to escape Afterlife Dream with whatever life benefits and Lucky Stars that they already got in their inventories.

And then there were players like me who still wanted to save Afterlife Dream. Or at least I hoped so.

Because I felt so alone.

One by one, players left Twelve.

I later found out that players also left Dominion.

Another guild was on the rise, bearing the name Survivors.

Those who joined Survivors only had one goal in mind : to escape Afterlife Dream as quickly as possible.

To my greatest consternation, Livina and ZhaoYun also ended up leaving for Survivors. They both sent me private messages before they left. Basically, they apologized for leaving and that they hoped we could still stay friends.

I didn't reply.

I didn't know what to say.

For me, friends should be loyal to each other.

We should be racking our brains to help our friends who were now floating in an unknown void. A big black hole that we were unable to see.

Days of solitude allowed me to think about what I wanted to do next to solve the mystery that surrounded the Afterlife Dream. I remember that Aurendiria wanted to check the infinite darkness at the bottom of the Afterlife Dream universe.

It would be a good start, I thought.

With Aurendiria out of the picture, I decided to ask Cecilia whether she would like to accompany me.

As usual, I found Cecilia at Oakstone Tavern. She happened to not be alone that day. She was sitting together with HellWitch, drinking glasses and glasses of grape juice.

"Hey, Antares," Cecilia waved at me when I appeared at Oakstone Tavern.

I waved back, and met HellWitch's eyes by chance. She looked away from me right away. It had been several days since then, and she still had not forgiven me. I could not really blame her. I was really a jerk that day.

"Where have you been going, Antares?" Cecilia asked with a grin. "I haven't seen you much around."

I had been diligently farming in my home to pass the time, but I did not want to tell Cecilia that. I merely cleared my throat and said, "Oh, just... traveling around. You know."

"Soo, what brought you here?"

"I uh..."

I stole a surreptitious glance at HellWitch. She turned to look at me right away, her gaze as cold as the thickest layer of ice that covered a lake during wintertime.

"Do you need me to leave?" she asked pointedly.

"No, not at all," I quickly answered.

I truly regretted offending HellWitch. She was one of my closest friends. Having lost a lot recently, I came to cherish those who I had left.

I turned to Cecilia and told her what I had in mind. "Cecil, do you remember about our plan to go and investigate the dark pit at the bottom of the universe?"

Cecilia raised both eyebrows upon hearing my words. I knew that she remembered.

"Yeeees?" she drawled, prompting me to continue.

"Are you interested to investigate now? It might give us some clues," I said.

Cecilia hummed, tapping her cheek with one finger as she pondered about my idea.

"That is a bad, bad idea," HellWitch said from the side.