Central City

Jiho was terrified by a deafening crash, louder than any bomb. He looked up at the mountain but nothing could be found there. 

With caution paramount, he climbed, digging the silver dagger deep into the mountain, securing his grip on his daggers and ensuring they wouldn't fall. 

He then slowly climbed up, taking one dagger out at a time and digging above his head level.

He slowly climbed up again and then dug the other dagger further up in the mountain.

This process continued for an hour before he was finally standing on the top of the mountain.

This was a hellish feat to achieve, the hot temperature made his body sweat all the way and the ichiness was making him lose his focus, which could result in death.

He sighed heavily and sat down on a sturdy rock.

He looked at the world on the other side of the mountain and noticed something unbelievable.

"A c-city!?" He was shocked by looking at the amazing sight before his eyes.

It was a beautiful city full of large buildings which were more like castles and at the center of the city stood the largest castle of all, which was most likely the king's palace.

"How is this even possible!?" Issac still had a shocked expression. In such a barren place, there was a glowing and lively city, full of human-like residents, but they were not exactly humans.

He couldn't even imagine how this was possible, there was no water to drink, no greenery, yet the residents lived happily, without any problem. He also found a few purplish trees all around the city, making it look better as the trees had a slight glow on their leaves.

The city was like an oasis in a desert. Jiho got up and patted the dust off his clothes.

His eyes were fixed on the beautiful city, which could be said to be the city of hell.

He was still far away from the city but the path was clear, without any hard challenges which he had to overcome to get there.

But in the end, he decided to only go close enough to get a good view but not enter the city as he knew that those beings were not humans and he didn't know if they welcomed humans to the city.

He had managed to come this far, not to give his life away so easily.

He soon continued his journey, descending from the mountain. It was a fairly easy task this time, as the mountain was not like a slope, but it had many sturdy rocks that he could use to get down easily.

In a matter of minutes, he was standing on the vast ground, his eyes locked on to the pathway that led to the city.

He was determined to complete this task that the game had given him. Or at least he thought so.

After 1 hour of walking, he finally saw signs of the city being near. He decided to stop for the moment and take a good look at the place.

He hid behind a large boulder which was a good cover for him. 

The city entrance had a large board hanging on two metallic poles. "Central Hell City" was written on the board in large words.

Jiho finally knew that this was hell, the real hell! He was a little shocked but now it all made sense, the barren land, the lava river, the large black mountains, all of it was normal in hell.

He looked at the guards standing at the entrance, they were not slacking off at all.

The guards had two horns on their foreheads, they were wearing high-level Armor that Jiho had never seen before in the game, not even top-level players had such an Armor.

The next moment, the details of the guards popped up in front of his eyes.

[Lower Demon Guard]

[Level: 100]

[HP: 10000/10000]

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[Lower Demon Guard]

[Level: 100]

[HP: 10000/10000]

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Jijo's eyes almost popped out of their sockets as soon as he saw the monstrously high stats of the demon guards, and they were only lower demons at that.

He couldn't even imagine the stats of the higher demons if there were any in this city.

He decided not to get inside the city as he wouldn't survive if he entered the city, and he didn't even know if he could enter or not.

He wasn't a match for any of the demons in the city, making him look like a puppy in a pack of ferocious wolves.

He didn't have any idea on how he was going to leave this place and go back to his own world. He had a fear that he couldn't leave this place and would have to stay here forever, or maybe he won't even survive long if he didn't get out of here because lack of food, and the strong demons would kill him.

He couldn't think of anything at this moment. His only way to survive was to collect intel by getting inside the city but that was like going into the dragon's mouth.

He knew that he would die with just one attack from the demons, his level was too low to withstand the power of the incredibly high levelled demons.

At this moment, he was thinking of all the possible ways he had to enter into the city.

"Disguise?" He thought in his mind but then, he had to push the thought away as he knew that disguising was impossible, he didn't have any way of disguising as a demon, and he had a fear that he would still get caught.

He kept thinking for a few minutes, but then, a thought appeared in his mind, "If this is the central city, Then...", He instantly left the place and walked towards his right in hopes of finding another settlement which was weaker than the central city.

The chances were high as if there was a central city, there must be other cities too, and there were chances that the other cities were not as protected as the central city, meaning that he still had a chance to enter one of those weaker cities and get more information about hell.

He kept walking, not stopping at all because he knew that he had to find another city before dying of hunger in real life.

An urgent thought suddenly appeared in his mind, making him worry, "What if I get stuck here for months? Won't my real life body be inactive for months then?", This thought worried him a lot, his parents would probably think that something happened to him, while he would still be breathing, he won't be moving even a little.

But another thout appeared in his mind, making him at a ease, "Wait... If my parents remove the headset from my head, won't I be logged out, or should I say, I would be back to real life again?", He was sure that this would happen, very soon at that.

His parents would eventually get worried by him playing for hours and they will try waking him up, when he doesn't wake up to their call, they would try removing the headset and then, he would be back to the real world.

He instantly jumped in happiness, now he didn't have to worry about being stuck in the game.

But then, he remembered that he would still be in the hell when he tries to log in to the game.

He couldn't stop playing now, he was aware of the profits that the game could bring him. He was sure that he could earn a lot with his skills in the game. He was well aware of his powers that he possessed inside the game. Ordinary players were not a match for him at this point as he was already level 10 and his stats were higher than others because of his status as the blessed one.

With this, he decided that he had to escape the hell and get back to the world of Ascension.

He didn't want to lose his progress and most importantly, he didn't have enough money to buy another headset.

*************

After walking for 3 hours straight, Jiho finally noticed small castle like buildings which were similar but not as good as the castles in the central hell city. 

He walked for another 10 minute and went closer and closer to the city entrance.

He decided to hide behind a large rock as he did outside the central city. He wanted to observe the situation in the city first.

A board was hanging on the entrace, "Crimson City" was written on it in black.

Jiho turned his head toward the two demonic guards which were standing at the entrance.

[Lower Demon Guard]

[Level: 60]

[HP: 4000/4000]

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[Lower Demon Guard]

[Level: 60]

[HP: 4000/4000]

These guards were not a bit like the central city guards. They were chatting with each other, slacking off their duties, not caring a bit about who was entering and who was not.

"Perfect~" a wide grind appeared on Jiho's face.