--- It turns out he's not offline at all

[You entered Ancestral Labyrinths...]

[Special Dungeon, Corrupted Glades will close in 1 hour...]

After temporarily leaving the special dungeon, Chris returned back to the grassland surrounded by trees. He didn't waste any time and swam to the lake. His destination is on the other side of the labyrinth, about 10 miles away.

*Splash!*

"Huff...1 hour..."

[Haste]! [Camouflage]!

'Huh? There are so many monsters here... Are they here to slow me down? It's a good thing I have invisibility.'

After casting his movement speed skill, he turned directly invisible. Although the monsters are surprisingly more plentiful than they were the first time he explored the labyrinth, he wasn't tempted to kill them and just passed them by, avoiding to at least bump into them or his invisibility might be dispelled.

*******

Meanwhile, outside the labyrinth entrance where Chris first entered, hundreds of thousands of players above level 100 can be seen camping around. There are so many high-level players in the area that you might think that a world boss is going to spawn soon.

Their only target was a single player, though, but the reward is on the same level or even higher, and dealing with a single player is easier than dealing with a world boss, or so they thought...

Many more players flood the area, increasing their numbers as time passes—so much so that it's too cramped now. Each faction builds their own perimeter lines and barriers that surround the area, ensuring that the target will never be able to escape.

This is quite brutal for a single player. But they knew they weren't dealing with just an ordinary player. It is truly a spectacle that even the media is covering it. Who asked that stupid player to be so bold? Now he will suffer the consequence.

Just a few meters from the cave entrance, hundreds of people, fully equipped with epic and one or two legendary pieces of equipment each, can be seen having a conversation.

"Are you sure you lost him here?" A burly man asked the ordinary-looking female, fully dressed in white robes, impatiently.

"I'm 100% sure!, The mirror never lies." The woman in white robes answered the burly man with a cold look in her eyes.

"No need to look at me like that miss Nelia, it's just that, I paid a high price just to know the location of that man. I don't want to go home empty handed you know...?" Said the burly man with a smile.

"Hmph! So as everyone!"

"Please calm down! As Miss Nelia said, everyone paid the same price as you, Anthony, so there's no need to act like an ass."

A black-haired man chimed in to defend the woman. He had a mocking smile on his face while looking at the burly man making the tension raise even more.

"What did you say, Jeric? You want to die!?" The burly man named Anthony had an angry face and unsheathed his huge two-handed sword and pointed it at the man named Jeric.

"Oi, stop clowning around! We're not here to kill each other; we're here for that player named Despair. The very fact that he suddenly went missing here means he probably logged out, so we can only wait here."

A man in glasses stepped up to stop the fight and told everyone his assumption, to which they all nodded in agreement. Their only option is to wait in silence.

These hundreds of people near the cave entrance are either guild leaders or seated officers of the top guilds and organizations in Gaia. After seeing the stats of the god-ranked item, they immediately mobilized their elite troops to hunt him down. The greed in their eyes is on full display.

They even had a meeting first, deciding how they would share the highly ranked items among themselves, as if the person of interest's fate had already been decided by them.

Most guilds, especially the top ones, have some items, equipment, artifacts, spells, and skills that can reduce the cooldown of anything that has one. So they'll be able to use the said item many times. If they can actually take that from Chris, that is.

All the players had no idea that heavenly-ranked and above equipment and items inside the inventory automatically bind to the user once equipped or used, so snatching them from Chris is almost impossible. They haven't even touched one before, so how would they know?

If Chris were to know what's going on here right now and know of their plans and arrangements, he might go on a rampage and kill them all systematically. Too bad he was occupied right now with more important matters and didn't know what was going on above.

Chris also lucked out somehow as the formation reactivated after he entered the cave, so no one saw the cave entrance and no one even bothered to use any detection skill as they already assumed that he just logged out. At least, the cave will be known only to him for a while.

*******

Just tens of kilometers away from the massive amount of players camping around the place where Chris "logged out", two players can be seen standing on top of a protruding rock that was on higher ground, checking out the unbelievable amount of players.

One is a fat blonde guy, and the other is a slightly chubby blonde girl with an above-average face. They were holding hands right now, or rather, it's the fat guy who's taking advantage of the girl. It's Darryl! If Chris and Peter were to see this, they might beat him up for his shamelessness.

Earlier, the blonde girl was being besieged by a group of monsters after she was trapped by some nasty players. Darryl saw this and immediately helped. Afterwards, they just party up and chat a lot. As they have a lot in common, they clicked instantly, and here we are.

"This is no good! Will your brother be fine? Seriously, why even do such a bold thing? He's practically inviting disaster. And disaster really struck." The blonde girl asked Darryl. She was slightly pale after seeing the unbelievable sight.

"Heh! This much? He has a lot of skills that will help him in this kind of predicament, so he'll be fine. And besides, we're tired of hiding anymore. If we continue to act low-key, we might go crazy..."

Darryl said those words with confidence, as if this kind of thing didn't worry him at all. The last two sentences were said in a murmur, so the blonde girl didn't hear them.

"Y-You know? There are probably millions of players out there already. Not just some players, but elite players of top guilds! Why are you so confident?"

"Like I said, no need to worry. You'll see it later. Let's go and level up; we can just check out the live broadcast from time to time while grinding. I'd like to see how these idiots will make a fool of themselves later. Hehe!"

"This... Alright."

'Haaah...forget it! These people are crazy, so there's no need to worry too much, Letty.'

"Ah! Let me message him about this thing so he can know what's happening on the surface..."

"..."

Afterwards, they move as far away as possible from the place. Darryl is a wanted person too, after all, so he should avoid being seen by others.

"By the way..."

"Hm?"

"When are you going to let go of my hand!?"

*Bam!*

"Ahhh!!! S-sorry, it's too soft, so I can't help it."

"Hmph!"

The blonde couple then started their murder spree, destroying any monsters that got in their way. In the future, they'll be regarded as one of the most powerful couples in the world, but right now, their adventures have just started.

A few minutes later, two consecutive world announcements resounded in the world of Gaia. One is from a group of female players, and the other is from the world's most wanted man, who was supposed to be offline.

[DING!]

[Congratulations to Team 'Divas', led by Player 'Strident Ruptures', for slaying the Legendary Garzu, The Ruins Executioner Lvl.100 for the first time and was rewarded with 1,000 Fame, 1,000 Platinum Coins and 10 Spirit Stones. Along with Player Latte, Sandy Time..... their names will be recorded in the annals of history!]

[Congratulations to Player 'Despair' for slaying the Supreme Legendary Boyyg, The Dark Troll King Lvl.50 for the first time and was rewarded with 1,500 Fame, 1,500 Platinum Coins and 15 Spirit Coins. His name will be recorded in the annals of history!]

The world was shocked as two appeared just at the start of the day. Especially the second one, as they thought the person who did it was currently offline. It turns out he's not offline at all.

All of the guild leaders who are currently waiting for him tried to use their detection abilities to see if there was some kind of hidden entrance to the place where he was last seen. There is really one, and they immediately start dispelling the formation.

To their dismay, it was an epic rank, and the highest dispelling they had achieved was an advanced rank, two realms apart. Increasing its proficiency is very costly and too slow all in all. It will probably take a month just to dispel it.

Chris was on a different level though, as his was a legendary rank and his wisdom stat is pretty high, so it won't even take a second for him to dispel it.

Now, these leaders were in a dilemma, thinking whether they should stay or not, as the very first world event would start in less than 24 hours. In the end, they decided to stay.

They made the wrong choice, and they will realize that in a few hours...