Chapter 214 – WARNING (2)
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There were two choices given to the users: terminate the connection or ignore it. Most users chose the latter.
“All of a sudden, they’re telling us to stop the connection? Are they crazy?”
“They are forcing us. Elsaco is crazy.”
“Have they been hacked? This is too much.”
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All the users in Appalachia’s user market were nervous. Elder Lord was a virtual reality game that functioned using the human brain as a control medium, but there had never been an in-game incident resulting in injury or death.
Furthermore, the core system ‘Albino’ that maintained the game was perfect. They believed that there were no problems. At most, they believed that the connection would be forcibly terminated.
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So once there were 30 seconds left, people started talking about what would happen if the timer reached ‘0.’
“Hey, are they going to give us compensation when it’s over?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Something like this… In fact, this is a test of courage. Those who last until the end will receive a special reward. That might be the case.”
“Puhahaha, how ridiculous.”
“It’s plausible.”
The users had no worries.
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***
Crockta also watched the timer as it approached ‘0’. His heart started pounding; something was going on. He ignored the orcs cheering for him and the defeated war god.
The thoughts of Orc Warrior Crockta and Cafe Owner Jung Ian clashed. The grey god was trying to do something.
The war god asked as he saw Crockta’s shaky eyes, “Did something happen? You won, Crockta.”
“War God, I want to ask you one thing.” Crockta looked at the decreasing timer and asked. “Does the grey god really want to destroy this world?”
“That’s right.”
“Why?”
“That…I can’t tell you.”
“War God.” Crockta stared at him. “I met the grey god and her apostles, the demons who followed her. I heard about the truth of this world.”
“……!”
“The stars in the night sky are fake. All the stars have died a long time ago. The star god died. The sun god is asleep and the grey god is trying to destroy the world. I want to stop her, but I don’t know the truth.”
The war god’s face stiffened. Crockta gritted his teeth as he spoke, “Tell me the truth.”
The timer was steadily counting down towards ‘0’. He looked beyond the face of the war god, beyond the expedition army and the other gods, and beyond the orcs praising him. Everything blurred.
“What does she want to do?”
“She…” The flames around the war god shook as he said. “She wants to restart the world.”
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“Restart the world?”
“The forces maintaining this world are exhausted. It is a slow and gentle progression, but its destruction is inevitable. The sun we have is literally the last thing remaining in the universe. That is why she wants to do this.”
The war god formed a fist.
“She intends to take everything existing in this world and return the universe to its beginning state.”
Crockta thought about it. Crockta turned around, his heart furiously pounding. He saw Tiyo shouting at him and Anor laughing. Hoyt was celebrating the victory by laughing with Tashaquil and the orc warriors. Even the expedition members were relieved to end the terrible war.
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The logout window was in front of him. Beyond that, the war god said, “We will stop her.”
***
A crowd was watching Crockta’s victory.
“He really won.”
“Amazing.”
They were users watching the battle of the orcs from a distant place. It wasn’t long after they started Elder Lord, but they enjoyed the world of Elder Lord while cooperating together. They watched the war between the expedition and the orcs from far away.
“I want to sign up for ‘He’s an Orc, yet still Praiseworthy’.”
“I’m thinking about restarting as an orc.”
“Hey, that doesn’t suit you.”
“I don’t suit the macho style?”
“Brother is a magician.”
They were talking loudly when they suddenly stopped. A system message had surfaced. All of the users were looking at thin air. At first, they didn’t know what it meant but then they frowned. They looked at each other with bewildered faces.
“What does this mean? It’s prompting us to exit?”
“I think so. There is a timer…”
“What is happening all of a sudden? The game is shutting down its service? Does this make sense? This is absurd.”
“It sounds like a system error.”
“Let’s just watch. It is probably to fix the problem.”
“Really?”
They fell into confusion. The timer was gradually counting down. Suddenly, they saw someone.
“……?”
“Eh?”
They hadn’t felt it, but a man in a robe was sitting in a place not far away. Their gazes fell on the man. The man looked into the air before getting up from his seat and walking towards them.
“Uh…?”
He was holding a sword in his hand. Their bodies flinched as they stepped back. The man was just walking, but he quickly narrowed the distance. The users reflexively raised their weapons.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
A user at the front wielded his weapon. However, the man easily avoided it and stabbed the user’s neck. Blood splattered and he collapsed to the floor. A pool of blood covered the ground.
The other users shrieked, “Aaaaaaack! What are you doing?”
The man glanced at them before swinging his sword again. They tried to resist, but it was useless. The man’s sword moved a few times, causing blood to fall to the ground. The users became grim as people were sliced to death.
The users in the back tried to run away, but the man caught them quickly and stabbed them in the back. Users died one by one, and the crowd that gathered to watch the war were all bleeding on the ground.
The man looked at the scene with emotionless eyes. Gradually, the users’ bodies turned into white particles. It was a beautiful sight, as if it was snowing. The man looked at it and closed his eyes.
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He muttered, “In the end, it is like this…”
Then he opened his arms.
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***
“Hey, fix your positions!”
“Boss! The timer is gone. What should we do? Don’t we have to disconnect now?”
“We are currently fighting! Just fight! There is no problem! The timer was probably a vaccine to take care of the problem!”
“Understood!”
The users were fighting with a group of goblins. They were a small clan and were in the process of defeating the goblins for a quest. They struggled due to the large number of goblins, but they effectively dealt with the enemies.
The warrior classes rushed towards the goblins with their shields. After blocking the attack of the goblins, they stabbed with their spears and swords. The magician classes supported them from behind.
“Good! Keep going…keheok!”
However, the goblins were tough. There was a goblin shaman among them. A fireball burst out and the warriors were caught in an explosion. The goblins rushed to strike with their weapons. The warriors bled out and died.
“You guys…!”
The clan master in charge of the fight was enraged and rushed with the elite users. The goblins were frightened by the charge and started to retreat. The users didn’t show any mercy to the goblins. Magic arrows pierced the backs of the retreating goblins. They screamed and collapsed. The warriors chased them to the end and killed them.
The quest was successful.
“Phew…it is over.”
“Everyone worked hard. The profit will be distributed when the dead members connect again.”
The clan gathered in one place. They confirmed their injuries. Some were killed by the goblin shaman, but most of them were unharmed.
“Everyone worked hard. There was a strange message so let’s end it here. We don’t want there to be any problems. We will regroup later.”
“Yes!”
“I understand.”
“Thanks for the good work!”
“Thanks for the hard work.”
They tried to shut down access to Elder Lord.
However.
“…Eh?”
“Eh?”
“What is this?”
Everyone was puzzled. They couldn’t logout. They fell into confusion. They smiled at each other and tried again several more times. However, they couldn’t log out.
The Elder Lord logout method was simple.
When they thought about the logout button in the status window, the message, ‘Do you want to log out?’ would appear in the air. If they thought about logging out at that time, they would, usually, slowly return to the real world as the screen turned white.
However, this time, the logout window didn’t pop up. Everyone’s face gradually stiffened. They were unable to terminate the connection to Elder Lord. Something was wrong. They wondered if there was a relationship to the message window.
“Excuse me…Brother Culma.”
“Huh?”
“That…isn’t that a little…strange?”
“What?”
The clan master frowned and turned his head. A clan member was pointing with a speculative face. His gaze followed the direction of the hand. It was the dead clan members.
“What about it?”
“Brother. They are dead.”
“That’s right. So..uh…huh?”
The other clan members froze as they realized what he was saying. Users disappeared into white particles. Their connection was forcibly terminated, and they would be able to reconnect after a short delay. The ‘aftereffects of death’ lasted for a while, but there wasn’t a big penalty.
However, these bodies didn’t disappear and remained in the world. It was like they really died.
“…Hey, hey.” The clan master spoke in a loud voice, “You saw it before. It might be because of an error. The server is strange right now.”
He chuckled.
“Those Elsaco guys aren’t doing their work properly. Isn’t that right? Hahat, something like this…”
“Yes. Haha…”
“It seems like it.”
They tried to diffuse the situation with a laugh. However, they currently couldn’t log out and the bodies seemed dead. The same was true for the goblin bodies. This was a game, but they really did seem dead.
“…Hey, I feel bad. Let’s get rid of them.”
The clan master said as he turned his gaze away. The clan members picked up the bodies and threw them into the bushes.
During the quest, the timer was gone and four users were killed. They were the first victims.
***
Kim Chulmin, the owner of an Elder Lord capsule room, detected abnormalities in the capsule management window.
The Elder Lord capsules were driven by modern science. In order to ensure the safety of the connected person, his/her bio-signal would be stopped immediately if there were health problems. As the capsule manager of the capsule room, he could monitor the whole situation.
The man’s eyes widened.
Two customers. They died. It was displayed that they were dead.
“Hey. Call 119! Quickly! Shit!”
He jumped up from his seat and shouted at the part-time worker.
***
Crockta.
He was standing there.