Prologue

"It looks like we're the last humans on Earth." A weakened voice murmured beside her, full of bitterness and resignation. Or was it relief?

Angelica had no energy to spare to think about it. The last thing she remembered was jumping out of the self-propelled artillery right before it exploded.

Looking at the sky, she saw her own reflection. Her face was blurred out when something flew towards it, creating small ripples that disturbed the crimson stillness of the sky. A sense of wrongness nagged at the back of her mind. It's as though the gravity had flipped.

She soon realized that she was not looking at the sky, but at the lake reflecting it. The once tranquil blue waters turned red from the blood of countless beings that fell victim to the war.

"You said your name was Angelica?" The weakened voice asked.

It soon registered to her that the voice was familiar yet foreign at the same time. At this point, she could no longer trust her senses.

Opening her bloody lips, she struggled to say a word. All that came out was a gargle. Yet, the weakened voice recognized it as a reply.

"You probably knew about me. I was pretty famous. They call me the strongest Player to have ever existed..."

Another gargling sound came out of Angelica's lips. She would have been starstrucked if they were in a different situation.

She had seen him in countless billboards, television shows and even on the walls of her roommates back in the military. The very symbol of hope himself. Player Vero. She had never met him in real life.

Angelica was so far below to ever reach someone like him. But now, at the face of death, they are equal.

It was a ridiculous and useless thought.

She stared at the lake blankly. Her face was unrecognizable. Her left cheek was nothing but mangled flesh, and passing through her stomach was a pole. She was impaled in it, her innards helplessly dangling like some sort of a morbid decoration.

"In the end, it's all for nothing."

It was the last thing she heard before all her senses left her one by one. Fragmented memories played on her mind and she knew instinctively that there is no escaping her impending fate anymore.

'He's right. It's all for nothing.'

---

A slap threw her face to the side.

"You knew! You knew he has a family!"

'Huh?'

Her vision spun and she saw a woman's ugly face contorted in a disturbing way. Rivers of tears and snot cascaded down her chin.

"So, why? Why did you seduce my husband?"

Another slap with inhuman force landed on her other cheek, making her feel as though she had a concussion.

'What is this?'

She looked around the office and saw another woman shouting at a rectangular device.

"She had done it again! I am so tired of dealing with her misconducts. If you won't come this instant, I will end this bitch myself!"

Angelica took several steps back, holding her cheeks in pain. Strangely enough, it was less painful than she had expected.

The hysterical woman was now bawling on the floor like a spoiled child. Her cries reverberated across the walls and hurt her ears.

She felt as though she's forgetting something extremely important.

Right at that moment, her gaze landed on a familiar poster on the wall. An image of a young man holding a greatsword, standing valiantly atop of a monster's skull.

'... It's all for nothing.'

Memories of humanity's last stand against the monsters came flooding on her mind. She remembered everything. How the war started and ended tragically.

Considering all of this, something doesn't seem to add up.

'Why am I here?'

Pulling her out of her reverie, the door blasted open and a group of uniformed men entered the office. The shouting woman perk up from her seat, her facial expression instantly turned welcoming and pleasant, as if she hadn't been shouting a few seconds before.

"Yes? To what do I owe this pleasure?" She asked in a melodious voice.

One of the uniformed men stepped forward and bowed his head slightly. "We are sent by Lord Fleur to deal with the situation and to take Lady Angelica back home."

"Yes, take that woman to prison! She had no morals! People like her are the true monsters of this world!" The hysterical woman was now back on her feet. Her thick mascara left a dark trace of tears on her face.

"Fleur? Angelo Fleur?"

The uniformed man turned to Angelica. "Yes, Lady Angelica."

Her name was pretty common. It couldn't be. What is Angelo Fleur's security personnel doing here?

That man. His only memories of him was that their family went bankrupt when his only daughter, Angelica Marie Fleur died. She was raped and murdered brutally. Her body was found chopped and hidden beneath piles of frozen products inside the refrigerator of a convenience store. Her death was a huge scandal, causing a stir in the world of the elites. The suspect was caught and enslaved by the military.

He saw him a couple of times during her training. She had no idea what happened to him after that. He probably died in the war just like all the others.

'But, Angelica Fleur died twelve years ago.'

A shiver ran down her spine.

"I am... Angelica Marie Fleur?"

"Yes, my lady."