Afterlife Dream

At 7 AM that morning, the game's mechanical voice announced the latest update.

"Dear Adventurers, five days have passed. The level 50 raid, the Fire Golem raid, is herewith deactivated."

"Dear Adventurers, the countdown for the level 60 and 70 raids has begun. The Queen Spider raid will be deactivated in five days. Please use the remaining time wisely."

I munched at a pear while gazing at the digital clock up in the sky. The countdown for the Fire Golem raid dispersed like smoke and was replaced with the countdown for the Queen Spider raid. It was now showing less than five days until the raid was deactivated.

A ding from my user interface screen drew my attention. Ingenious pinged everyone with an urgent message in the guild chat.

"Hi everyone, we just had a chat with HinoKun from Dominion. In light of the current event, it is not wise to keep the animosity going on between the two guilds. It has thus been decided that Twelve will take the 16.00 time slot for level 90 raid and the 10.00 time slot for the level 110 raid. Dominion will take the other time slots. It is not allowed to ambush, KS, or harass each other."

ArrowRain added another line, "Feel free to attend HinoKun's level-up party this morning."

I continued eating my pear while gazing at the two messages from our top-level players.

So it seemed that Twelve and Dominion were going to join hands to beat the Dimensional Master after all. I was happy about the outcome of this fight, but deep in my heart, I felt as if we had just tolerated HinoKun and Dominion one more time. It left me dissatisfied and rather petulant.

I agreed to meet up with DragonTalon, HellWitch, Lazarus, Livina, and ZhaoYun at the Ghost Ship port to travel together to the Frozen Tundra Land. My five friends were already there when I arrived, huddled together and whispering to each other in low voices. It was clear to me that they were discussing Ingenious' and ArrowRain's message in the guild chat.

As soon as they saw me, they dragged me to a corner and surrounded me like a bunch of school thugs who wanted to extort money out of a poor student. Everyone only had one burning question for me.

"Hey, Antares."

"Hey, guys."

"How was it going, dude? Did you talk to the Vice Leaders?"

I looked at my friends and answered with a "Yes", but I did not want to stop at that. I ended up telling them about the story from the early days. How BlackPuma, Ingenious, and HinoKun got acquainted, what guilds they were in, what HinoKun was really like back then, what Ingenious thought about him, and why these players ended up in different guilds afterward.

"Asshole!" DragonTalon shouted in rage as he punched at a nearby wall, sending some birds flying in a fit of panic. "I knew it! A bunch of bullies and thieves, all of them!"

"Wow." ZhaoYun pulled a disgusted face. "I never liked anyone from Dominion, but wow. Hearing about the past makes my skin crawl. HinoKun is such a disgusting, two-faced person."

Just then, the Ghost Ship docked at the port and all the other players moved to board the ship. It was especially crowded this time because all of them were heading over to attend HinoKun's level-up party.

None of us moved toward the Ghost Ship. We merely stared at the giant beast skull in a daze.

Lazarus broke the silence and asked, "Um, should we? The ship is leaving in five minutes."

DragonTalon wrinkled his face in displeasure.

Livina crossed her arms in front of her chest and sighed.

"Guys, I am sorry... I don't wanna go. I will go grind instead. Why don't you guys come to Chinatown and find me there later? I will get us an empty grinding area."

"I am coming with you," HellWitch said with a cold face. "Who wants to celebrate that asshole's level-up to 150?"

I exchanged glances with ZhaoYun, DragonTalon, and Lazarus. It was clear that none of us wanted to board the ship.

In the end, all of us headed to Chinatown to resume our quest to level up. Searching for a grinding map had never been easier. All the training fields in Chinatown were empty. Most players must have gone to Frozen Tundra Land to celebrate HinoKun's level-up to 150. My five friends picked their spots on the map and I went up and down from platform to platform to buff them up as usual.

At 8.30 AM, a bunch of congratulatory megaphones flashed across the sky one after another. A lot of them came from the Dominion players, of course. Ingenious, ArrowRain, and Aurendiria each used one megaphone, but I could see from their megaphone texts that they were not as excited as when BlackPuma hit 150. The congratulatory messages came off as impersonal and rigid.

Afterlife Dream finally had a second person who hit 150.

Ding. I looked at my screen.

"I can't believe it, Antares. You persuaded us to make up with HinoKun and then none of you showed up for the level-up celebration???"

ArrowRain sent me a private message. I laughed as I climbed up ropes to reach my party mates.

"Why are you laughing?" DragonTalon asked me when I climbed up behind him.

"ArrowRain is pissed that we didn't show up."

Livina said, "Meh. It is not such a tragedy, is it?"

I gave DragonTalon Heavenly Blessing and Divine Guard before I replied to ArrowRain's message.

"He won't miss it when six fewer people show up to his celebration party. So how is it going?"

ArrowRain no longer replied to me. She must have felt like I fooled them into attending a party that they did not want to attend at all.

We grinded for almost four hours before we decided to stop and call it a day. We opted to go back to Paradise Island right away to avoid bumping with the Dominion players. We especially were not interested in getting invited to the Red Lantern Tea House. Before we made our way back to Paradise Island, each of us went to grab a Bubble Tea and some crispy egg waffles.

Before we even reached the exit portal to leave Chinatown, the thundering voice of the Dimensional Master broke through the sky once again.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I have been waiting and waiting, but none of you has managed to defeat me so far. I knew it, you are all a bunch of losers."

This Dimensional Master sure sounded like a hooligan. I pursed my lips in annoyance as I sucked at my drink through the straw.

"Since it seems that you are not taking my threats seriously, today you shall see for yourself what I am capable of! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

I exchanged nervous glances with Livina who was standing next to me.

"What does he mean?" she asked me. I shrugged.

"Don't tell me that there will be more mini-bosses invading the land?" ZhaoYun muttered with a frown.

There was not much time left for speculation. The answer quickly came in form of another announcement.

"Dear Adventurers, a new event is taking place for five days starting from today. Three times a day during the event period from 07.00 to 09.00, 13.00 to 15.00, and 19.00 to 21.00, monsters from the Dimensional Sphere are going to invade all maps in Afterlife Dream. Monster levels will be adjusted to the average level of each area.

Upon successful annihilation of the monsters, players will accumulate Dimensional Points which can be traded against items at the Dimensional Fairy NPC.

The Dimensional Fairy NPC is accessible in each town. Please check the list of items carefully before you trade away your points!

Please pay attention that untraded Dimensional Points at the end of the fifth day will disappear and no longer be available for use at a later point of time."

An event!

The first event in the Afterlife Dream realm!

It was quite remarkable that all players automatically started to run all around the place, including Livina and I. We went around like lost chickens to search for the Dimensional Fairy NPC. Eventually, someone found her and shouted loudly.

"HERE! SHE IS HERE! IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TOWN!!"

Livina and I quickly headed toward the center of Chinatown. A lot of players already gathered around the NPC by the time we arrived. The Dimensional Fairy NPC was a beautiful woman with red hair, a red dress, and also red wings.

"Please participate in the new event," she said with a coquettish wink.

"Let me tell you what you can get by trading away Dimensional Points..."

"Adventurers, please come and take a look..."

She repeated the same sentences over and over again. A player had clicked on the NPC and the trade list appeared.

All players looked up at a long list that hovered above her head.

"No way," I heard a player next to me whisper.

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