Different Zones

Drax had made it clear as to what Max needed to do to gain his support and had set a time limit for him to achieve it.

This meant that he had to dump the idea of selling his goods for money for the moment and first focus on completing Drax's mission.

After doing a quick mental calculation Max realized he could still make it in time to the university admissions if he tried hard enough, however it would definitely put a strain on his schedule. 

Max did not particularly like the test devised for him by the old A.I. however he also knew that it was a part of the destiny shown to him by the Angel Hazriel which meant that he needed to tame its power anyhow in order to change his destiny. 

' Why is fate so cruel to me? Hazriel? I'm not a killer nor aspire to be one! ' Max asked in exasperation, however, he did not linger on that thought for too long as time was now of the essence. 

Quickly abandoning the quest he was on from his system screen menu, he quit the mining quest mid-way as the system notified him that he had violated the signed contract and needed to pay 2 silver coins as contract indemnity. 

Max not having 2 silver coins in liquid cash on himself could not pay the fine for work-contract violation and was given a 50% strength debuff as a result of contract violation and failure of breaching fee payment for the next 2 days. 

Max felt a significant portion of his strength being sapped as a result, as his mind became numb and he felt like he was a toddler trying to move an adult's body all of a sudden, as his own body weight felt too much for him to handle. 

' Stupid, stupid Max! How are you going to kill Sophie when you will be as weak as a toddler? A stupid woman will overpower you in the weak state that you are at the moment. ' Max cursed himself for not thinking this through and canceling the ongoing work quest without a second thought.

While two silver coins were not a huge wealth, Max did not have that kind of cash at hand although he was hoarding hundreds of thousands of gold worth of products in his inventory

Although Max was angry at himself he decided to not cry over spilled condiments as he focused on the job he needed to do ahead. 

Quickly starting to make his way back towards the city, Max strained his body and taxed his stamina while simply walking. 

He needed to get back-to-the safe zone to log out of Sigma as logging out inside the wild zone was not permitted at tier 0. 

It was a brutal 16-hour walk for him back to the city, and although he had taken revenge on the chickens on his energetic entry into the forest, on his way out he had to actively avoid them so as to not die a tragic death outside the safe zone. 

In Sigma, the universe was divided into 3 main zones. 

Safe-Zones, Wild-Zones, and Battle-Zones. 

Safe-Zones were areas governed by the universal queen and had an active soul barrier around the region which meant that no items were dropped upon death and there was no loss of life/ experience.

An area was only considered as a Safe Zone when it was a part of the Universal Game Sigma, as while soul barriers could be purchased by private organizations, unless they had a god of life like Beniogre perform Resurrection magic for them, perfectly resurrecting the dead without any memory/ Attribute loss was an art only mastered by the Universal queen. 

The safety of an individual inside a safe zone was guaranteed by the universal queen herself which is why if one died in a safe zone they were resurrected for free and the cause of their death was investigated by the local authorities. 

Wild-Zones on the other hand were areas that had no universal queen jurisdiction. These areas still had an active soul barrier to prevent dead souls from the corruption of the elements but had no active arbitration.

If one died inside a wild zone they needed to pay a fee to the universal queen to be resurrected, there was a loss of life and experience and there was also a possibility to drop equipment upon death. 

Theoretically one could die infinite deaths inside a wild zone and a Safe-Zone and still be the same individual because the universal queen performed the perfect resurrection. 

One could not drop below level 0 and in that sense all players were immortals. 

However, there was a third zone in the universe called the Battle-Zones a.k.a reality. 

Private planets, space stations, and everything that was not a part of the Sigma infrastructure were considered a Battle-Zone. 

Deaths in battle zones were real and permanent and although a priest/ healer capable of performing resurrection magic could resurrect an individual if their soul has not dissipated yet, a resurrected individual was never the same person as parts of their life memory and personality were always lost upon resurrecting. 

Although theoretically resurrecting could be done an infinite number of times the limit for battle-zone resurrecting had been noticed at 3 for all individuals across all races.

No matter how hard anyone tried, nobody could be resurrected for the fourth time. 

Earth was a planet that had no active soul barrier, which meant that at least at the moment resurrection magic was altogether impossible to be done on the planet. 

Max reached the safe zone after a grueling 16 hours of walking, and a system notification informed him of this. 

[ System Notification ] - You have entered the safe zone BlackLake City. 

[ System Remark ] - Back so fast? Chicken! 

Once inside Max quickly spoke the magic words " Log Out Of Sigma ". 

Space instantly started to warp around Max as he was taken back the same way he arrived at Morning Star Planet. 

As Max returned to Earth, he heard the familiar system notification. 

[ System Notification ] - You have entered the ' Battle-Zone ' Planet #H2047. 

Note - Death will be permanent on the planet. 

[ System Remark ] - Although you are a burden on the universe, try not to die.

Max was back on Earth! Earlier than he had expected to be back, but back for his revenge.