GP

The golden knight watched as the elf drew the full aggro of the basilisk. Standing around him were all of Liam's soul minions, including the wyverns and the dragons.

The creature was clearly stronger than all of them put together, but it seemed as if they would be able to hold on for a while, at least for a few minutes, and definitely, until the game shut down, thereby buying the time that Liam desperately needed.

And this was exactly what he did not want to see happen.

"Do you know what you are doing?" He rushed forward, his voice bellowing and instantly interrupted the elf. He expected the old guy to start sweating and freeze in his tracks, but the other party unexpectedly continued as if he did not hear any of it.

"Sure. I am fighting this ugly snake here." The old elf casually replied and then further added, "What about you? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be an obedient lap dog and simply stay back within the divine temple? Why did you come running here?"

"Shut up! Elf! I order you to leave this place this instant. Else there will be dire consequences, and I will personally intervene."

"Oh! That's actually perfect. You see… I am not the only one here who doesn't belong here. Could you personally intervene and send this ugly snake back where it belongs?" The elf sneered mockingly.

His words made the vein on the golden knight's forehead twitch.

None of his threats was working, and it infuriated him. More importantly, the problem was he did not have the time. He needed to deal with this right now!

These insects were stirring up trouble at the last damn minute!

This was it. He was going to intervene. He would deal with everything else later.

And just as he was about to raise his hand and send the elf back to where he came from, suddenly, there was movement behind him.

The elf, Luna, Mia and the golden knight immediately turned to look at the person who was responsible for it. It was none other than Liam. He was out of his trance, and he stood up, letting out a groan.

The golden knight's eyes widened in shock. His prying gaze immediately scanned him from top to bottom, and the old elf also did the same thing.

But the next instant, the old elf bitterly smiled while the other guy sneered in happiness.

"BA HA HA HA HA! After everything, you still failed! What a waste!" The golden knight started laughing. He checked the timer, and now there were only 60 seconds left!

This was it! Game over! He was completely overjoyed! Now there was really nothing anyone could do.

"You want to fight? Go. Go ahead and fight. BA HA HA HA!" The golden knight maniacally laughed. He was usually a calm and composed person, but this was truly nerve-wreaking and had made him a mess, giving him several heart attacks.

But finally, it was over! All over!

He sighed in relief, and the next second, a system notification also chimed in.

Alex, Shen Yue, Mei Mei, Rey, and everyone were in terrible shock as they stared at this notification in utter dread. They all respawned in the nearest graveyard, and now it was too late for them to get back. Was Liam okay? What was happening back there?

Players all over the world also felt something in their gut. For some reason, this final notification was sending chills down their spine. Many people already started logging out, while others decided to stick it out to the end.

In the Southern empire, Kouske stood alongside a tall and lean man with gold-rimmed glasses. "I will log out now, brother." The other party nodded. He also then logged out the next second, but before he did, he looked toward the north.

"Why is my future showing signs of change?"

Meanwhile… in the far north…

Liam flashed his eyes open. He saw both familiar and unfamiliar faces in front of him, but he did not pay attention to anything that was happening around him. There was one thing and only one thing on his mind.

He needed to heal!

Contrary to what the golden knight was shouting at the top of his lungs, he wasn't actually done. He had run out of souls. So while he successfully subdued the sword and injured himself, the second half of his training, where he healed himself back, still remained.

However, he was still out of souls. That didn't change, and now there was no more time to hunt more beasts and absorb their souls.

Liam's gaze fell on the only thing that he could actually use at the moment. Immediately one of the barbarian souls rushed towards him as if he was a magnet. The soul then completely disappeared within him.

That was right! He was going to consume his own minions to heal himself back! That was the only path in front of him at the moment.

But the thing was… just one barbarian's soul was not nearly enough.

Liam had a feeling that it was going to come down to this. When he had first run out of souls, he was already prepared to do this.

And now, he unhesitantly did it.

He looked at the two dragon soul minions and lifted his hand, pulling them both towards himself. If that draconian princess could heal herself with these souls, then so could he!

Liam then took a deep breath and absorbed both the souls back into himself and, at the same time, reached for his mana core.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

His body shook.

Luna looked worried. The elf's face changed as a look of shock and awe washed over him. And naturally, the golden knight's face became twisted and contorted. He finally realized that perhaps it wasn't over after all.

No! That cannot happen! He immediately rushed towards Liam, but a thick mana barrier appeared between himself and his target.

"If you want to get to him, you need to go through me!" The old elf stood firmly. Even if it was just a second, he was going to buy it for Liam!

"Why are you risking everything for a random human being!!!!" The golden knight bellowed in rage. He glared at Mia, commanding her to move, but she was standing frozen, rooted to the spot. Her mind was somewhere else.

And in the midst of this…

ARGHHHHH! Liam let out a loud agonizing yell.

The mana in the air thrummed alive as every single wisp was drawn to Liam at the moment. He became a huge human vortex that just madly pulled everything to himself.

And another notification showed up.

Clash! The golden knight felt his heart pound loudly as he used an absolute skill. The mana barrier was instantly dispelled, and the old elf was also crushed.

"DIE!" He shouted and approached Liam when suddenly he was thrown back.

"DAMN IT ALL!" He had completely forgotten about the protective barrier.

Since there were only a few more seconds to go, every player had the protection barrier that helped them log out even if they were in combat at the moment. Unfortunately, even he was not capable of tampering with this.

But despite this…

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The golden knight continued to bang against the barrier, unable to accept what was happening. His whole face was twisted in rage and regret.

However, that didn't help at all. Right in front of his eyes, he watched the mana vortex become bigger as a huge mana storm formed.

Then, once again, Liam flashed his eyes open. His cold gaze fell on the golden knight as he ignored the several other notifications that were crazily popping out left and right.

Not caring about anything, he took out the PVP tower crystal from his inventory.

"Yes," Liam muttered. Immediately, a space appeared in front of him with several options, along with dozens of notifications. His mind spun rapidly, and he selected several random options.

As the eyes around him watched him in shock, his figure blurred and in one single movement, he grabbed the thing that was the most important to him and rushed into the roughly formed space with all the speed he could muster.

…

…

…

On the other side, the game capsule cracked open as Liam stood up from within it. Surprisingly, the capsule completely disintegrated and disappeared as light dust the next second.

But Liam did not pay attention to that as he had already witnessed this once before. Instead, he looked outside the window as an earth-shattering thunder roared alive. A blinding massive lightning bolt descended from the heavens above.

Multiple tornadoes started appearing out of nowhere all over the world, and before anyone could even take a breath, chaos and commotion completely descended in their full form.

Everything that happened in his previous life once again repeated. The tutorial was truly over. Now it was the real deal. "Come out," Liam said as his soul minions started appearing one after the other.

Immediately, a red system screen also flashed in front of him. On that, two words blinked brightly, catching his attention above all.

Name: Liam

User Level: 80

…

…

…

Meanwhile, in a corner of the world, on some frigid northern ice land, a young boy stepped out of his house without a single piece of winter wear on his body. It was as if the biting cold could do no harm to him.

More shockingly, when he opened his mouth, a female voice sounded as a thick evil aura dripped out of him. "I am finally out." He turned around to walk towards the ice-cold wilderness that the currently raging snowstorm had created.

On his back, there was a big dragon tattoo.

Coincidentally, around the same time, a weak, sickly old man also walked out of a house in Egypt. "What world am I in?" The old man grimaced. "It doesn't matter. I, Crawford, am free. I am no longer restricted by anything."

The old man then revealed a big grin as he inhaled a big breath of fresh air. "I am coming for you, you bastard. I am going to take back everything that belongs to me, and this time, there is nothing stopping me."

Level 80, huh?" Liam stared at his status screen, which was red in colour.

He was also able to summon and dismiss his soul minions without any issue. However, the thing that he truly wanted to confirm… was something else.

Taking a deep breath, he was about to start tapping his system interface when a loud noise interrupted him.

"Liam! Liam!" Alex almost broke the door open and barged in. With tear-stained eyes, she gasped as she looked at the person standing in front of her. The next second she dashed forward and hugged him tightly.

"I… sob… you are here… sob… you are okay… I was so worried… sob."

Liam could see that she was a complete mess. She was barely able to get any words out. "Wait. Calm down and tell me what happened."

"Mia is gone! She is not here. The game capsule broke down and disappeared, everyone got out of the game, but Mia is still not there. She is just completely gone. All her things are here. Her clothes, her money, everything but she is missing. Liam, what happened to her?"

Alex was shaking uncontrollably. Even though so many things had happened in the game, this had been her last hope.

Others might have dreaded this moment when the game shut down and everyone was kicked out, but she had been hopeful.

She desperately wished that at least now Mia would be within their reach. No matter what happened to her, they could always heal her slowly as long as she was with them. However… now…

"What happened to her? Where did she go?" Seeing her completely hysterical, Liam could only sigh. He had no answers for her.

He pulled her closer and hugged her, shushing her cries by burying her face into his chest. "I cannot give you an answer right now, but I promise I will bring her back. I think that the tutorial game world still exists. We can still bring Mia back."

Alex looked up with her teary eyes. She could see that Liam was serious. In reality, she herself had come to the same conclusion as that seemed to be the only logical possibility, considering everything happening around them.

"Can we really get her back?" She asked as her lips trembled, but before she could finish her words, a group of people rushed into Liam's room, barging through the open door.

Mei Mei dashed forward and hugged Liam tightly from the other side. "Brother, you are fine." She sighed in relief. Shen Yue and Rey, who were standing next to her, also looked very relieved.

None of them knew what happened after they died and respawned in the graveyard, but at least Liam looked fine. In fact, he looked more than fine.

Mei Mei was the first to notice as she felt the rock-hard abs on her brother. She took a step back and started circling Liam. Sure, he had changed a lot in recent days, but the person in front of her now was a completely different person.

It was almost as if… he had switched places with the in-game avatar? How could this be possible?

Watching Mei Mei ogle at her brother, the other two and Alex also noticed the changes and became shocked. They gaped as they eyed Liam from top to bottom. Just what happened after they died?

Karakaboom! Thunder roared loudly outside, interrupting everyone's thoughts.

"We have work to do," Liam spoke first. This was not the time for a happy reunion. The real event had only just begun. They needed to get on top of things right now, right from the start.

"Alex, fill Rey in on what we talked about." Liam looked at the brother-sister pair and nodded. "If you both need some time to gather yourself, stay here and talk for a few minutes, but I suggest that you get a grip quickly."

"Brother, what happened?" Mei Mei asked in confusion.

"Mia is missing. Even her body is missing." Liam explained. 𝗯𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗼𝘃𝐞𝐥.𝗰𝗼𝐦

He didn't bother hiding it, as this was something that was going to come out sooner or later. When the world around them was unravelling, what was the point of sugarcoating things?

"We don't know where she went or how to help her. But before you guys start to worry about her, first take a look around yourself, look at the world outside." It was cruel to say these things, but Liam couldn't afford to be anything else at the moment.

He then looked at Alex and Rey in particular and continued. "If you really want to help her at all, bring her back to us, you need to be strong enough for that. So focus on that first."

"In a minute, there is going to be complete chaos. The monsters that we saw inside the game are going to be running rampant on these streets. People are going to turn into mindless zombies that you see in horror movies. We need to start fighting, do you understand?"

Alex dully nodded. Rey also did the same. None of his usual playfulness was there on his face. He clenched in fists, his gaze filled with resolve.

"I still don't know how the others are doing, but you four need to be strong. Let's go. We need to go downstairs and start dealing with this." Liam pointed to his window. There were already some screams coming from outside.

As if this was not enough, the building that they were standing on was starting to shake. Earthquake! Not just that, but the skies thundered relentlessly. Everything felt as if it was going to crumble down any second now.

Everyone looked scared and worried, and their faces were etched with the uncertainties of the future. They knew this was coming but now that they were actually here, it was difficult to accept the reality.

"Come ON! We need to move!" Liam urged them again. "Don't forget. Your levels have all reset. You basically need to start over again. Think of your system prompt, and it will open up."

"Everything is just like in the game, but here, we only have one life!"

Everyone gulped. Liam did not linger any longer and rushed out of the apartment complex. If they delayed even for another minute, then their own team members might lose their lives.

He ran down the stairs as he loudly shouted. "Come out and assemble in the front!"

Mei Mei, Shen Yue, Rey and Alex also followed him downstairs as they knocked on everyone's door. There were at least six of their guild members staying in the building, including Derek's family. So the group started rounding up everyone.

Liam personally knocked on the apartment where Derek's family was staying as he had a bad feeling.

And just like he feared, Derek's sister, Lily, opened the door with a look of dread on her face. "My brother…" She opened her mouth, and Liam did not need her to finish her sentence to know what she was going to say. Like Mia, Derek was also missing.

But this time, Liam knew that the divine temple had nothing to do with him, so what happened to him? He quickly snapped out of it, seeing Derek's other sister, a little girl walking over to the door with tears streaming out of her eyes.

"Lily, I am so scared." The little girl rubbed her reddened eyes as she clutched a stuffed toy in her hands.

"Mr. Liam, what is happening? Where is my brother? I don't know what to do." Lily hugged her little sister, and the two of them looked at him for answers.

Faced with the same helpless stare once again, Liam shook his head. "Now is not the time to talk about it. Come out. We need to go to a safe location first."

He then once again started rushing down to take a look at the things happening downstairs. Behind him, Mei Mei, Shen Yue, Alex and Rey hurried along with everyone else and their families.

Within a couple of minutes, the group had already rounded up about twenty people, including their guild members and their families and friends.

Meanwhile, the other people staying in the same apartment complex and the nearby houses watched this random group of mixed-race people in bewilderment.

What were they all doing? They had weapons in their hands? Seeing the group holding all sorts of things like huge axes, kitchen knives, and hammers, the neighbours all became wary.

Everyone was already freaked out about the climate outside. One second it was thunder, and the next second, they could feel tremors, small tremors but still enough to scare the bejesus out of them.

To make matters worse, the phone lines, internet, electricity, everything was out. No one knew what they were supposed to do now.

Some looked outside the window, holed up inside their homes and waiting for the government to do something, while others rushed out and started gathering in the streets to see what everyone else was doing.

So in the midst of this confusion, seeing a bunch of people holding weapons made everyone scared, especially because there were a lot of foreigners in the group.

Were these all looters? Were they going to randomly start attacking and take advantage of this situation? If they could, they would have already called the police, but since that was not happening, the civilians in the street silently watched the strange scene.

Liam, on the other hand, did not care about all of these because he knew that in a minute, everything was going to change permanently.

Karakaboom! Another round of terrifying thunder rumbled when finally, the apocalypse officially arrived.

"There! To your left!" Liam was the first one to point out. A little further down on the street to their left, a strange blackish-purple aura started gathering.

This aura started becoming thicker and thicker, and then, without any warning, a massive bolt of lightning zapped this huge accumulated aura. The next second, the giant swirling ball of dark purple roared alive.

And from within it… strange beasts started appearing one after the other.

"Here we go. It has started!" Liam pointed to this thing. "Let's move."

Thump. Thump. Thump. Liam felt his heart race as he inhaled a breath of the city air, except that it was now no longer the familiar stale, polluted air but instead a whole new type of air, the kind mixed with mana.

Mana levels had finally reached the same concentration as the ones in the tutorial, perhaps even higher.

However, the most noticeable change was still the dark violet vortex that appeared out of nowhere. From within it, all sorts of beasts started pouring out without any warning.

"First things first." Liam wanted to do something else at the moment, but he couldn't focus on that just yet. He had to pay attention to the current situation. His eyes locked onto the beasts emerging from the portal.

These beasts were, in fact, nothing to him. After all, this was just the first wave, and he was not the weak, helpless person he was in his previous life, but the same couldn't be said for others.

Behind him, there were about 50 men and women of all different ages. Among them, there were even five small children.

And unlike him, they were all standing at level 0. They needed some help to avoid mishaps. Moreover, the sooner everyone gained a level, the better it was.

When a person reached Level 1, the chances of them turning into a mana zombie became considerably lesser. With every level gained, this probability became lower and lower, and it helped the human body get assimilated to mana a lot easier.

However, once the mana rejection starts, it would be way too difficult to treat it. So Liam did not think about anything else and focussed only on the situation in front of him.

Just like how his family was precious to him, everyone who had come here trusting him had their own families, and they were all precious. This time around, he did not want a single casualty.

Liam coldly gazed at the beasts pouring out by dozens and gave out swift orders.

"Everyone with combat experience, step forward. Others step back. Everyone who can sense mana and is capable of executing a skill, take another step forward."

While the group prepared themselves to follow these orders, Liam went ahead with the next plan of action. With a wave of his hand, he summoned his army of soul minions.

One after the other, the various soul minions also started appearing. Weird-looking chickens and rabbits, werewolves, human beings, elves, barbarians and lastly, even the wyverns.

Every single soul minion that was there inside the game was now standing outside in the real world! These minions were far scarier than even the ones charging out of the portal.

Immediately everyone became shocked. "What the heck!" Someone gasped loudly. Others stared at the soul minions in terror as the presence of these outside the game was more shocking to them when compared to the apocalypse itself.

By now, most of the team had taken a look at their status screen and saw their level once again reset back to zero. It was a brutal nerf.

However… their guild leader… was somehow an exception? How was he able to bring out these soul minions? No one understood what was happening.

But the initial shock soon turned to joy as they thanked their lucky stars for making the right decision and joining Crimson Abyss right from the beginning.

And Liam also was by no means stingy with them. Once the soul minions assembled, he gave out the next order.

"Everyone play man to man with the soul minions. They will mortally injure the beasts for you, but you will be dealing the final blow. Let's get some fast levelling up and running."

"Those who have family, help your family members also deal with this and gain at least 5 levels. This is very important."

"Everyone, whether you have combat ability or not, whether you are afraid or not, whether you want to fight or not, has to do this and gain at least 5 levels!"

This will be our territory from now on. We will claim this gate and use all the beasts coming out of this gate for our levelling. GO! NOW! Don't forget. Just like inside the game, this is also a race! Ready, get set, go!"

With Liam shouting orders one after the other calmly and steadily, and the soul minions taking out whatever came in their path, the initial chaos was quickly brought under control.

Every single beast that stepped out of the gate was also swiftly taken care of. As if athletes waiting for the balls from the automatic ball dispenser, the group of people now eagerly waited for the next beast to step out.

The beasts charging ahead were also not some weaklings. Though most of the beasts were around Level 5, there was plenty that was Level 10 to 20. To people who were just starting from Level 0, this was nothing but a death sentence.

In his last life, there had been several casualties before some sort of order finally began to form. However, this time around. There wasn't even a single casualty until now. With Liam present, everything had completely changed.

The soul minions treated this endless beast wave like a snack as they crushed each and every beast without much effort. And the others used this chance to level up fast and make themselves strong.

At the same time, with each level gained, everyone was slowly and steadily getting used to mana in the real world as well. Coincidentally after a few minutes, they didn't even find any difference between the game world and the real world.

They finally understood what Liam had been telling them about. Without any clear-cut skills to activate and no skill books dropping, they kind of had to rely on their muscle memory. But this was easier said than done.

It was difficult to understand the nuances of their class innately and cast the magic. For something like this, they needed to be well-versed in their class from A to Z.

However, just as many people were thinking about this, Alex stepped forward to the front of the group with a big leap.

A strong divine aura seeped out of her, and mana surrounded her slender figure from top to bottom, making her look extremely beautiful, like a goddess.

But the next second, this goddess directly punched a Level 20 spiked wolf that charged at her, smashing the poor beast into a pulp. The wolf lost all of its threateningly huge canines and groaned in pain before collapsing to its death.

Everyone who watched her gulped nervously. And Alex was not the only one. Right behind Alex, Shen Yue and Rey were also excelling equally.

But the most notable person was still Judah, one of the mages. It was relatively easier for the pure close-combat types to transfer their skills, but for a mage, it required a deeper understanding.

And Judah managed to achieve this feat. He was casting ice spears and ice bullets one after the other and taking out the beasts easily. This first line of fighters was awe-inspiring to others as they stood as an example for everyone to see.

This was the difference between normal players and true experts. Everyone else as well wanted to achieve this feat and slowly started pushing themselves.

The initial fear and panic by now were completely gone. There was a structure, and everyone had clear goals. The situation quickly became extremely stable.

Meanwhile, the civilians stared outside from the safety of their respective houses and gawked at this scene with their jaws on the ground. They felt as if they had gone completely crazy because they couldn't believe their eyes.

What they did not know was that they were able to observe everything peacefully and calmly only because of Liam. This scene might be playing out in their city, but the situation everywhere else was completely different.

Several purple vortexes had appeared all over the world, and beasts poured out endlessly from each and every single one of these vortexes. In just the first few minutes, casualties skyrocketed.

And things were only starting. There was worse yet to come.

Liam, on the other hand, calmly watched the group quickly learn to handle the beasts by themselves. Since everything was stabilised, for now, he finally had a chance to take a step back.

For others, today was about levelling, but for him, these beasts were pretty much useless.

He had something far more important to do. He needed to examine what exactly happened in the last 5 minutes of the game shut down as everything was a blur in his mind.

It would be accurate to say that he was in some sort of trance and did everything instinctively without thinking it through. Now finally, he had the chance to take a look at things carefully.

More importantly, it was also time to get the answer to something he had been dreading since the game shut down. Luna… what happened to her?

Liam walked away from the gate and to the park that was right next to the street. He looked around at the flat ground and nodded. "This should do it."

This was typically a busy spot, but today it was completely deserted. So this was a perfect place to do what he needed to do.

Ideally, he would have liked to have more privacy as he had no idea what was about to happen next, but for now, this small park had to suffice.

Liam then took a deep breath and summoned his system interface. Immediately, a red screen flashed in front of him, followed by numerous notifications.

…

…

Liam directly ignored these updates and looked around for the one thing that mattered to him right now. A few seconds later, his eyes widened as he finally found what he was looking for.

Status: Bound

Structure: Simple Tower

Stage: Level 1 unlocked

Liam's eyes widened as he took a deep breath and prepared to enter this space once again.

This wasn't the complicated part. All he had to do was will it, and he would be able to enter the artifact again, but the thing that made him nervous was… what he was going to find inside or, rather what he was not going to find inside.

Liam took another deep breath and finally entered the space. But before he could even get a glimpse of where he was, a small furry figure pounced on him furiously, knocking him back with the impact.

Kyuuu! Master!

Liam's face was suddenly dripping wet as a white fox clung firmly to him and started licking the heck out of him.

"Heh." Liam sighed in relief. He did nothing to stop the fox and simply laid back and closed his eyes with a smile. "You are alright. That's good." At this moment, it was as if a huge pressure had been lifted off of his shoulders.

He was not completely aware of what happened in the last few minutes, but he clearly remembered seeing a giant snake and this little fox standing between him and the snake, determined to protect him with everything she had once again.

"That reminds me. Luna, can you tell me what happened?" Liam finally pulled the fox off of him and asked her. He wanted to know what exactly went down. He wanted to know everything the divine temple did to make him fail.

Seeing that his warm and loving gaze had turned cold, Luna became serious and started filling him on everything that transpired. But the more she started describing, the frostier Liam became.

"Master… Grandpa…" Luna's voice trembled.

As an 'NPC', he was definitely not supposed to interfere and expose more information than what could be exposed. But the elf had gone one step further and actually did more than that. He had protected Liam.

"He risked everything for us." Liam mouthed. Now that he thought about it, he did not even know the old elf's name. He clenched his fist and stared at the ground.

He had indeed won. He managed to awaken his mana core fully, bind the tower and secure his soul minions and Luna at the last minute, but at what cost?

The old elf had sacrificed himself for his sake. He couldn't even imagine what hell he was going through now, considering he broke a huge rule. Perhaps he was also chained up like that draconian princess?

What about the blacksmith grandmaster Acalan? He was also missing when Liam had looked for him earlier. It was as if he had completely vanished. Was he also imprisoned somewhere?

What would become of Mia?

He had come out victoriously, but he also paid a huge price for it. No, the people who had supported him and helped him had paid a price for it.

Liam took a deep breath and calmed down his turbulent emotions. He was cold and calculative but never to his own.

"Luna… how badly do you want those divine temple freaks to pay?" He silently muttered. He still did not understand all of it and what exactly the tutorial was, but he understood one thing.

The divine-affinity beings were the ones behind everything. They were pulling strings as administrators treating everyone like puppets and using them as fodder for their own purposes.

Liam knew that the path ahead was going to be incredibly perilous. The enemy this time was too formidable, someone he couldn't even comprehend. On top of this, they first had to survive the apocalypse.

But he was also now stronger than he had ever been. Though his enemies wanted him to lose, he was still standing here, and he had already taken the first step to repay this debt he owed them.

Liam smiled as the face of the high priestess flashed past his mind. He vividly remembered those eyes that looked at him as if he was just an insect that would amount to nothing no matter how hard he tried.

He was meant to live and die a meaningless short life, struggling for survival. That was all that he was supposed to be. Nothing more and nothing less.

"We will see." He closed his eyes, and his smile widened, even scaring Luna away. The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes when Liam finally jolted to stand up.

"Ok, it is time to head out." He leaned forward to lend a hand to the little fox, who was more than happy to jump on his back and curl around his neck as she always did.

Kyuuu! Luna cocked her head to the side and curiously asked. "Master, where are we?"

She had been wanting to ask this for a while as she could sense that the world she was in right now was a different one than the world she had been in before.

Or rather, the fox had only known one world all her life, so she was very interested in what had happened and where exactly they were now.

Liam patted the little thing and asked her to wait. "I will show you once we head out, but we should first take a look around here."

He turned his attention to the spatial artifact inside which he was currently standing. There were many things he did not understand about this place.

When he first bound with this artifact, a bunch of notifications had popped up, which he barely remembered now as he had randomly selected the options for the set-up.

In short, he made it look like the PVP tower back in the game with the default, reset to the last structure format, and right now, that seemed to be the case as he craned his neck and observed the space from floor to ceiling.

Everything was indeed just like the PVP tower, except that there were no NPCs around or no mana arrays set up. The thing was literally just a space, as the name of the artifact suggested.

"I guess this is it then?" Liam was not disappointed. This was already good enough. After all, it allowed him to bring Luna out. "Ok, let's head back out. There is a lot of work left to be done."

He did not have to monitor the beast wave as he was pretty sure his soul minions and the guild members should be more than enough to handle them, at least from this gate, but there were other things that need to be taken care of.

All the beasts that were slaughtered need to be properly skinned, cut and stored for consumption. The entire world was at a standstill right now, so it was only a matter of days before the food supply runs out.

There was also the task of consolidation of territory. Since only this part of the city was probably safe and cleared of beasts at the moment, there would be several eyes on the land.

Unfortunately for them, Liam was not planning on simply handing over anything to anyone, even if it was the government, so certain precautions needed to be taken.

As he was contemplating these things and the next steps of action and was preparing to log out, suddenly, a huge shadow fell on him.

Liam immediately became alert and turned around. What was happening?

He couldn't even sense the presence of this creature up until now. How did he miss it? There wasn't a single whiff of killing intent coming from whatever it was. This could only mean that this was a very powerful being.

Just what else did he end up inadvertently bringing from the damned tutorial to the outside world? Fuck!

As his gaze rapidly flickered to take a look at the monstrosity that had somehow slipped in, a small squeak sounded from the big creature, and Liam's eyes landed on the familiar culprit.

"You?"

However, his shock did not end there.

The next second…

Hic…

An item fell out from the mouth of the creature.