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Chaos Year 3, Day 110, 1:03 am.

[4 minutes 59 seconds left until the resurrection.]

[4 minutes 58 seconds left until the resurrection.]

...…..

...…..

I stared at the blue screen floating above my eyes. Until the countdown ended, I had to stay here in the white space, where I first met Riri, where everything began. There was nothing to do here, even commanding to open the menu window would not work. I could only interact with Riri.

"Why does Master look so dejected? It was bound to happen. She was too strong."

Riri's compassionate words could not faze me. I just kept lying there on the floor, spreading my limbs wide. Even muttering a sound felt too much of a drag.

"Master! Are you listening?" She shouted. Then after a pause, she mumbled, "Your sadness is affecting Riri too, you know."

I glanced at the screen floating midair on my right. Lowering her head, Riri stared at her feet, squeezing her off-white one-piece dress around the chest.

'She is feeling the sadness she should not feel. I wish I could free her from all this, from myself, from that stupid screen. But…sigh…I can't do anything.'

Tired of everything, I closed my eyes, and right then a voice seemed to ring inside my head, my own voice.

"Well, then do the things you can. Stop whimpering."

'Subconscious, eh? Damnit, you are cruel.'

I slowly opened my eyes and called out, "Riri."

"Yes?" She looked up, a bit surprised.

"What loot did we earn from this void run?"

"Eh, ah.." She was unprepared for the sudden out-of-context question. "247 undead bones, 86 undead teeth, 3 zodiac cores, 2 naked mole-rat king skins, and 1 naked mole-rat king core."

"Ugh! Who's gonna buy those mole skins off my hand? Should I just drop them? Wait, do they smell?"

"Huh?" She frowned at my absurd question. "How would Riri know? They are inside the inventory."

"Well, you are a part of the system. Can't you smell inside the system boxes?"

"Pfft… what does that even mean? Ahahaha…" Riri began giggling, almost tearing up from laughing too much.

Watching Riri laugh her belly out, my lips curved into a smile.

"Oww~ my tummy hurts." She finally stopped, rubbing around her belly button.

[Your resurrection has been completed.]

A system notification appeared before me. However, the 5 minutes cooldown was not over yet.

"What's going on?" I asked, staring at Riri.

"I don't…"

Before Riri could finish, she disappeared along with the white room. The surroundings turned deep dark. Then slowly it brightened up. And I was back where I died, lying in a pool of blood. I immediately sat up, clenching my chest. There was no wound whatsoever.

'Just what?'

Then my vision shifted to a notification interface floating before me. My eyes shuddered.

[You have become an undead!]

"Huh?!" I was stupefied, unable to make sense of that sentence.

"Master!" Riri screamed. "Look!"

Another blue screen titled 'Player Information' appeared. My mouth gaped, as I stared at the new information there.

[Race: Undead (human)]

"What the fuck?" I mumbled.

'My experience points also didn't decrease.'

Right then, A familiar voice greeted me from behind, "Welcome back."

My heart almost stopped, hearing the chilling voice again. I turned back instantly. There stood the gothic beauty that killed me just a few minutes ago. The eerie gaze of her blood-red eyes sent shivers waving down my spine. I quickly jumped up to my feet and braced myself.

Behind her a bit further away, my squadmates gathered together, also alive and confused just like me. But they were not all wary and ready for battle like me. I glared at the lady. Maybe this time, with the full team, we can defeat her.

The lady just smiled and took her step forward. "I know what you are thinking. However, I assure you, even with the whole team, you won't be able to touch me."

My icy glare meant nothing to her. Soon she reached me, only a hand's distance between us. But I could not move my body. I'm scared?

She stared into my eyes. Her hand shifted closer to my chin. Then her thumb brushed over my lips, wiping away the blood around the corner. For the first time, her gaze felt a little warm.

Then turning back, she faced the others and began, "Let me introduce myself." I stared at her from behind as she continued, "I am the dungeon master here. I was known as Nyx, the war-witch."

'Dungeon master, eh? I guess that makes sense.'

"Was?" Pika asked, tilting her head a bit. 

"Yes, I died 293 years ago." She replied with a straight face.

"Ehhh?" Pika gasped out, taking a few steps behind.

"So, you are a ghost?" I asked, meeting her eyes.

Nyx slightly smiled and said, "No, I'm a Lich, the King of the undead."

"Wait, that means…"

"Yes, I am the one who turned you guys into undead and resurrected you. From now on, I am your master." The way she looked at us as if we were too adorable.

"What does that even mean?"

"We permanently turned into undead?"

"How is that even possible?"

Everyone began spiraling, except Lynx. He asked an interesting question.

"Does that mean we can't die?"

"I don't know. I never turned any intellectual beings into undead before," said Nyx. "Let's find out, shall we?"

Right away, her hand stabbed into my heart, just like before. I had no time to react. My face pictured pure shock, being too surprised. But this time, it did not hurt at all.

"Senpaaii!"

"What the fuck did you just…"  

Their voices eventually hushed down, as they disappeared from my sight.

[You have suffered drastic damage!]

[You have died!]

I was back in the white space. Riri's screen floated in front.

"Ughh! She makes me so angry." Riri growled.

Watching her, for some reason, made me laugh. If she was here now for real, I would have probably patted her head, disheveling her messy red hair, perfecting her tomboyish look.

"Ah, master! Your resurrection time!"

[47 hours 37 seconds left before the auto resurrection.]

"What the fuck?!" I yelled out.

'No freaking way! It's because of the new race, ain't it?'

"By the way, what does it mean by 'auto'?" I asked, glancing at Riri.

"Maybe there's another way," she replied. "Like the last time, remember?"

"Ah, right. That lady said she resurrected us."

'So from now on, we need her to resurrect us, or else we gotta wait here, till 48 hours end? Wait…'

"What happens if we log out while this countdown goes on?" I asked, a little bit of hope rose inside.

But it diminished immediately, as she replied, "The countdown only works when you are logged in."

"Tch!"

I could no longer think straight, being too confused about all these new information. After a while, a much-awaited system notification showed up.

[Your resurrection has been completed.]

Opening my eyes, the first things that came to view were huge red mounds, and past them, there was a bit of Nyx's face. I was lying down on the hard ground, but the back of my head pressed against something soft.

"My head is on your lap, isn't it?" I asked.

"Yes," Nyx replied shortly.

"But you killed me a moment ago."

"Yes, I did."

"Yet here I am lying on your lap."

"Yes, you are."

'Sigh, I dunno what to feel about this anymore.'

I got up to my feet. Next to me, Nyx also stood up with the same confident smile plastered on her face. My teammates seemed to ignore us, minding their own business as if everything was normal.

'What the heck happened while I was gone?'

Frowning, I walked near to them and said, "So it looks like we can still die, but we don't lose exp or items. But I think that only works if she resurrects us."

"What do you mean?" Boss asked.

"Earlier when I died the resurrection cooldown was 48 hours."

"What?!" All of them shouted together.

"It is mentioned as Auto Resurrection. So I think between that time, if Nyx doesn't resurrect us, we will be resurrected as usual. But if she does, we won't lose exp and items."

"I see," Boss nodded.

"That means we need her to resurrect us from now on?" Hikari asked.

"I think there's more than that, let's just ask her." I switched back to Nyx, "What happens if we return to our world without you?"

"Oh, you catch up fast. I'm liking you more and more, hehe." Swaying her hips, she cat-walked toward us. Her smile widened. "If you leave this world without me, you will end up like a fish out of water."

"What does that mean?" Boss asked.

"You'll soon know when you get forced out of here." She replied with a smug.

'Wait, she knows that?'

"Why did you turn us to undead if you knew that?" I scowled at her.

"Because I need you of course." She said, ignoring my anger. "Well, let me explain from the beginning. A friend of mine from outside opened the portal that connected your world with ours. Using that, you guys entered the world and swooped into my dungeon. From the very beginning today, I have been testing your abilities. First, I split you all up to test your solo abilities and watched how fast you could group up. You guys did surprise me there. Then I summoned that ugly beast. And you guys killed it splendidly. I knew right away that you guys are the ones."

"Then you killed and turned us into undead. Yeah, we get that. But why?" I grew impatient. We did not have much time left here.

"I told you my name was Nyx, right? But that was only a handle name. My real name is Anastasia Van Eilfiel the 3rd. I was the only daughter of King Arthur Van Eilfiel the 2nd. My father was the ruler of the Eilfiel kingdom. For almost a millennia, my family ruled this country. When my father became old and senile, many countries plotted to attack us, but war never broke out, because of my existence. I was the strongest mage on the whole continent after all."

"Tch, look at her acting all smug," Shinji muttered from behind.

Thankfully Nyx did not notice that. She just continued. "Nobody dared to attack because they couldn't kill me. However, I was tricked to be sealed here in this dungeon. It is an ancient seal. Even I can not break it. And then without me, our millennia-old kingdom finally fell."

'That's quite the back story.'

"Then I turned myself into a Lich so that I could live on. I will take my revenge no matter what. And you guys will help me with that."

"Huh? Why the hell would we help you?"

'There's no way we are going against a whole kingdom for fucking sake.'

"Exactly," she smiled unexpectedly. "You would not help me. That's why I turned you guys into undead. Now you guys can't live without me. You have to get me out of this place one way or another. Our lives are now intertwined with each other."

'Ugh, she got us. We all heaved a deep sigh.'

"You guys will help me get out of here and take my revenge. After that, I'll go wherever you wish," She said.

Her pride as a princess and the strongest mage would not let her beg for help. So she figured out this forceful way of finding the aid she needed. And we got swept up in it.

"We will be forced out of this world soon. How will we find you later?" Boss asked.

"Don't worry about that. Once you enter this world, I'll summon you here." She replied. "Tomorrow, I'll explain the necessary details about what you need to do. I'll take my leave now. We will meet again tomorrow." With a final glance at me, she disappeared into the thin air. 

We stood in silence for a while, too overwhelmed with the sudden changes. We all knew we had no other way. We had to go along with Nyx no matter what. And to be honest, being undead was not that bad. As long as she was with us, we won't ever need to worry about losing experience points or items. But that comes with a huge cost too. We have to fight against a whole kingdom and win. It was no easy feat. But in reality, we were all too excited for what was to come in the future.

Soon, the timer was up and we were teleported back to the black wood forest. The same old dark and damp environment greeted us.

And what Nyx said about us being fish out of water proved to be true. We felt as if we were about to die, out of breath, and everything blurring up. Also, our HP was depleting rapidly.

"Shit!" Shinji cursed.

"Guys, log out fast!" Boss shouted. "We will meet here again, exactly after 8 hours."

"Alright!"

We logged out, after 6 long hours.