A Suspicious Earthquake

The system's words just silenced Aroon, in couple with many darts thrown fast at his face.

"I can't disagree with that," Aroon landed on the ground after a couple jumps, "it's time to kill those bastards."

Aroon didn't hesitate to put an arrow and look closely at the glasses in the midsection. The view became closer and the shot became clearer for him.

"And… die," he released the arrow before jumping again. "Did it hit?" he hurriedly asked instead of celebrating the cloud of dust left by his arrow.

<Ding! Direct hit, bravo> the system answer made him smile.

"Then let's hit others."

"Rumble!"

Just as he was about to release the next arrow, unexplained trembling of the surface of the earth occurred. "Am I being attacked from the underground?" he didn't hesitate to jump the moment he felt the shaking.

<Ding! No, it's an earthquake>

"Now?!" Aroon was shocked but what happened next shocked him more. "What's happening to the dungeon? Why is it sinking to the ground?"

In front of him and at the place where the current cave lay, a gigantic cloud of dust appeared and started rising high in the air.

For him this was something unordinary, something he had never spotted before.

"What's happening out there?" he pressed over for more info, yet the system kept his silence for a long minute before the shaking vanished.

And with it there was no dungeon at all up front.

Or even the previous bunch of elite monsters and hunters.

"Talk to me," Aroon glanced all around. Things started to grow calm now and the distant town seemed not to be much affected by what happened here.

<Ding! Go and see for yourself>

Aroon found the tone and words of the system quite exotic. Yet he moved.

The distance to the place where the dungeon was wasn't long. In a few minutes he reached there and found absolutely nothing.

The ground looked normal, there was no evidence of any monster whatsoever. "This is… weird," he stood there all alone while glancing all around.

"What happened here exactly?" he started to feel that the earthquake wasn't something normal.

<Ding! This is called termination> the system said, <Ding! The leaders of the monster invasion saw this point as a lost case and decided to sacrifice their dungeon and remaining monster>

Aroon felt more weird after hearing this. "They can… control natural disasters here? On planet Earth?"

<Ding! They can simulate some indeed>

"But… I never heard of something like that before."

<Ding! This was common at the early days of war> the system slowly said, <Ding! The lost zones were created this way>

"By attacking and abandoning dungeons?"

<Ding! By redistributing resources on places seemed fit to be conquered faster and easier>

"That means…" Aroon wasn't stupid and got what the system meant by these words.

<Ding! They are going to attack fiercely at other places> the system said, <Ding! Hopefully your presence would force them to leave this area alone… For now>

Aroon took a good look around. "So each week the people living here and other towns will have to face such attacks. It seems I'll be quite busy the next few weeks then."

<Ding! Despite the plan is to kill monsters and destroy dungeons, but you can't stick yourself here for long time>

"Why is that?" Aroon paused, "people around don't have anything to stop the monsters but me."

<Ding! The monsters are known to be relentless. You can only defend up to five towns around, but what about others?>

"…" Aroon remained silent while the system kept speaking:

<Ding! Assume you defended the five towns successfully, what about the rest of the continent? In less than a month the entire area around will join the lost zone nearby. Your five towns will only be isolated from the rest of the world. Eventually you'll fall>

Aroon's face turned gloomy while his mind agreed on this line of thoughts. "So I have to abandon them and run?"

<Ding! You owe them nothing, and your help won't bring anything but misery for you and humanity>

"You gave me this chance to change things!"

<Ding! Then do it right, do it where it really hurts. Staying and acting in this barren place won't bode well in the end. You are destined for something far important than this>

"So I'll run like a coward and leave all the people here to be slaughtered!" Aroon shouted in faint anger. He knew he owed nothing to the people here, but he also knew the disastrous effects of such a move. Hundreds of thousands of people would die and he didn't want such blood to stain his hands.

<Ding! You aren't the leader of this world… Yet> the system's vague answer alerted him to something.

"You want me to be the leader of the world?" Aroon was surprised to hear that.

<Ding! In time, you'll get to that point in time> the system slowly said, <Ding! But for now you have to retreat and rest. There is nothing else you can do here. I'll scan the entire area and see when the nearest dungeon will appear>

Aroon didn't have any option but to turn his back to this place and move back to his town. "What about my reward?" he said before hurriedly adding, "It's not my fault that the dungeon was destroyed by their leader."

<Ding! Sounds fair to get the rewards I promised> the system said, <Ding! you got them now. Check them while I check the towns around>

Aroon's mission granted him access to the leveling option. He gained a level and his grade was elevated from the lowest F-V into the slightly better F-IV.

"So I got two more points in each stat by leveling up… quite interesting," he muttered when he checked his stats. He now had fourteen points in each one, bringing him closer to grade three human in the eyes of the current ranking system.

But he knew he was far stronger than any normal grade three human.

<Ding! When you breakthrough the F grade and enters the E grade you'll get a skill>

"That's intriguing," Aroon smiled in excitement, "I can't wait for more missions."

He paused for a moment there before suddenly asking, "What about the other town you spoke about?"