124 A Great Light

"All right... the first step is to increase the efficiency of the machine," one hooded figure said to another. The other was sitting in front of a machine working on it.

"Hmm... we don't have enough souls for a safe increase," the hooded figure sitting in front of the machine said.

"Well, how much power does the machine have."

"Enough to destroy one tier one city. White Star City would survive the machine."

"Launch the machine at Pyaka City." the hooded figure walked away as he ordered.

"Yes, sir!"

The man worked on the machine even more. After a few minutes of tinkering, he activated the machine. The machine bloomed out like a flower. A large shiny beam of light appeared in the machine and shot out into the sky.

They shot the large beam into the open sky with coordinates of Pyaka City. The beam of light flew to the city and landed in the middle.

It exploded into a large flash of light that covered the entire city. The light disappeared after a few moments.

All that was left was a giant gaping hole without a single survivor.

___

Emile woke up. The previous day was a hectic day for him. Emile trained his body in the morning, so he wouldn't be out of shape. He didn't know about the popular discussions that were occurring in the game.

After his training, he logged into Nirvana.

"Emile!" Flower Queen messaged him as soon as he logged in.

"What?" Emile asked with surprise.

"Last night, while we were sleeping, an entire city was destroyed," Flower Queen said.

"What about the people and players inside the city?" Emile asked.

"The city had no players inside, causing it to be an only NPC city. We don't know if there are any survivors amongst the NPC's," Flower Queen said.

"Someone took a video of the how the destruction occurred," Flower Queen said as she gave Emile a video.

It started off by showing the night sky. It was a beautiful sight to behold. The man who was recording planned to record the night sky before ending the video.

But as he turning around with the camera, a shiny light flew past him and continued moving farther away. In the distance, the light landed. The man continued to record the light.

After the light disappeared, there was a giant hole in the middle of nowhere. The video ended.

"I don't think the plan about city destruction will be PvP," Emile said after a minute of shock and silence.

"Yeah. Someone or something can launch that light and destroy any city," Flower Queen said as she shook her head.

"How are we supposed to prevent that," Emile said. The group chat would become useless for this endeavor.

"We could track the light back," Flower Queen said with a shrug.

"Let's ask the mayor," Emile said. Other cities were working on the same thing. They were trying to track the light back to its source.

In the mayor's office, the mayor had an enormous amount of work. The elevator opened and Emile walked out.

"Do you have any solution to the light," Emile asked the mayor who was freaking out in the office.

"No, I'm so stressed out by the city destruction," the mayor said as he continued to write without looking at Emile.

"Do you how many severe consequences there are due to the destruction of Pyaka city," the mayor said with anger. He used Emile as a way of relieving the anger buried deep inside of him that burned like a fire.

"No, I don't know," Emile said.

"Tension is high in the city, the people are scared," the mayor said.

"I need to find ways to reassure the people," the mayor continued.

"Anything I can help with," Emile asked.

"The first thing you could do is explore the hole and see if you could find something," the mayor said.

[Quest: Explore the Debris]

[Objective: Look around the hole to spot anything out of the ordinary]

{Difficulty: C]

[Comment: There's more than what meets the eye]

[Progress: Not explored]

[Time Limit: 4 days 18 Hours 42 minutes and 13 seconds]

[Penalty: Another City Destroyed]

[Reward: ???]

"All right, I'll explore the hole," Emile said.

"Thank you," the mayor said. He continued to work on fixing the issues as Emile left his office.

Emile walked out of his office and shared the quest with his party. They had information about the next city being destroyed. It was going to happen in four days which gave them plenty of time.

Handsomest Crab pulled an all-nighter to manage the group chat. He was efficient with his ways. He asked Flowing Dream to moderate with him. Flowing Dream accepted. They became the moderators of the group chat.

Emile and his party began walking to Pyaka City. There were no teleporters for the city since someone destroyed it.

They had a great time as they walked in the plain. The goblins didn't attack them, so they weren't worried about them.

As they walked, they noticed new enemies appear. These enemies were Plain Vultures which would swoop down from the sky and attack them. They were all level 15 or higher.

The party didn't have much trouble with the Vultures since they could shoot down them down with their spells.

They soon arrived at a safe distance away from the giant hole.

"That huge area was once a city," Emile said as he scanned the surroundings.

The hole was a few square miles long. It was a strange sight to see. Nothingness.

"We should split up," Flower Queen said.

"All right, message us if you find something," Emile said as he walked into the hole. The floor was brown dirt instead of the grass and weeds they walked through before. It rained after in the middle of the night causing the ground to be soft and mushy.

He continued to walk and explore. Nothing interesting appeared in his surroundings. Just a whole load of dirt.

Emile had the bright idea to visit the center of the hole. If there was something to find then they could find it in the center.

'The surroundings are so empty,' Emile thought as he walked. If he didn't have a compass, he might have gotten lost.

Finding the center would be more difficult than he imagined. The emptiness gave no visible landmarks to associate it to different locations.

Emile used the compass to travel in one direction without getting lost. After walking for a few dozens of minutes, he reached the end of the hole.

He had to turn around and take another guess for the middle. During his walk into nothingness, Time Walker discovered something.

"Guys, there's something you need to see to believe," Time Walker wrote in the party chat.

"What is it," Emile asked.

"An... Amalgamation, I think," Time Walker said.

"What's an amalgamation," Nimble Rod asked.

"A group of things joined into one being," Scarlet Sunset said.

"Send us your coordinates," Emile asked.

Time Walker replied by sending coordinates. The party walked in his direction.