57-70

57 CHAPTER 56- RAMPAGE

Zach whipped the fire chain on the ground and provoked the chimera.

The spot where Zach whipped the fire chain cracked by the impact, but Zach didn't notice it. He was planning dozens of ways to deal with the chimera. He was thinking of what and how he would attack if his one attack failed.

The chimera dashed at Zach, but instead of dodging or jumping, Zach simply stood there and kept swinging the chain in the air.

The chimera flapped its wings to push Zach back and jump to crush him. However, Zach swung the fire chain at the chimera and caught its leg.

"Gotcha!" Zach used all his strength and swung the chain and chimera with it.

The chimera's leg was tied with the chain, and its body was hitting all over the places; mountains, rocks, trees, ground. Zach swung it as long as he could and pulled the chain.

The chimera's leg was cut off by force, and its body was sent flying far away on the other side of the forest.

Zach retracted the chain and turned it into a fire spear.

"Here goes nothing…!"

Zach started running and threw the spear in the direction where the chimera was sent flying.

Meanwhile, the chimera stood up on its three legs and tried to run, but it couldn't even walk properly.

Then, it saw a shooting star in the sky, but it soon realized it was a fire spear.

The chimera desperately flapped its wings to fly, even a little so it could dodge the spear. After flapping its wings a couple of times, it finally managed to fly away before the spear could hit it.

However, just as the spear was about to land on the ground, Zach appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the spear. He swung his body in a circle and threw the spear at the flying chimera.

The chimera yelled in pain as the spear penetrated and passed through its body.

HP- [4375000/5000000]

"You should have asked me to kill you nicely when I was asking." Zach summoned the spear back and turned it into a sword before jumping at the chimera and cutting its goat head off.

"Now die a death you deserve."

HP- [3575000/5000000]

'It has been 1 minute. I can only use my gloves for about five more minutes before I run out of MP.'

Without wasting his time, Zach turned the sword into the fire chain and grabbed the chimera's dragon head with it.

"Tch!" Zach clicked his tongue and thought, 'The scales are hard to cut through. I should have aimed for the lion's head.'

This weapon crafting ability had one more special skill. Zach could release a certain amount of mana into the weapon to deal higher damage. It was similar to his DT skill, but the damage here was different; it was multiplied by the ATK and MP used.

Zach used the chain as a rope and pulled himself in the air. The chain was still wrapped around the dragon's head, and it was dealing constant damage.

"Now!"

Zach used the special skill of the ability and released 1000 MP into the fire chain.

The chimera grunted in pain as its dragon head was chopped off.

HP- [2575000/5000000]

'Three more minutes.' Zach looked at the chimera's HP and muttered, "It's doable if I do it right. Failure is not an option.'

If Zach ran out of MP, it was pretty much impossible for him to deal high DMG to the chimera using only his martial arts skills and no weapon.

Luckily, he still had MP potions to save him.

Zach was still in the air from his previous jump, and the only thing he could land on was the chimera's body. He quickly turned the fire chain into a spear and forced himself down to penetrate the chimera's body.

However, before he could land, the chimera's fourth head, its tail, the venomous snake attacked Zach and bit him on the leg.

The snake's bite had a similar effect as the cursed dagger. Zach's HP was slowly decreasing.

"No time to worry about that. I am sure it will stop if I kill the snake… the chimera to be exact."

Zach placed the spear on his leg where the snake bit him and muttered, "I have to remember this mistake."

Zach wanted to go near the chimera, but now that it had only one head and one tail left, it was furious.

'Its speed has also increased because it has lost weight..'

Zach turned the spear into a bow and aimed the arrow at the snake's head. However, the snake caught the arrow with his sharp fangs and ate it.

Zach turned the bow into a sword and dashed at the chimera. But, he didn't attack it.

He ran past it and climbed the nearby mountain.

"One more minute…"

Zach had no time to waste, but he could decide what plan to use.

He turned the sword into a chain-sickle and swung it at the chimera. He aimed one side of the -chain-sickle to the snake's head and jumped down.

Zach knew that the snake would grab the sickle, and he used that opportunity to attack the chimera's body.

He landed on the chimera's body and plunged the other side of the chain-sickle into its body.

Upon experiencing pain, the snake let go of the sickle and launched itself to attack Zach.

Zach grabbed the snake with his bare hands and crushed it before plucking it out of the chimera's body.

HP- [1375000/5000000]

Then, he retracted the sickle and increased the size of the spear to penetrate it further into the chimera's body. He jumped into the air and kicked the spear for it to pass through the chimera's body.

Zach landed on the ground and cleaved the remaining legs of the chimera, leaving it helpless with nothing but one head and a limbless body.

HP- [875000/5000000]

"It still has this much HP even in this state?" Zach uttered in disbelief.

Zach heard a flapping sound and noticed he had forgotten about the chimera wings.

"Right…" Zach swung the chain at the wings and severed them.

HP- [575000/5000000]

"Now then…" Zach walked to the chimera's lion head and looked into its eyes. "Where is your punchline?"

****

Total players in the game 454969

0 new players logged in.

432 players died.

=====

[Weekly Quest.]

===

Author's Note- Do you guys prefer long fight scenes or short ones?

Also, I know this might be late, but happy thanksgiving to everyone!

58 CHAPTER 57- IMMINENT THREA

[You… who are… you?] the chimera asked in a faint voice.

"You tell me." Zach placed the fire sword on his shoulders and asked with a vicious smirk on his face: "Who do you think I am?"

The chimera looked into Zach's eyes, and something reflected within them. It saw something that couldn't be described.

[I see… so you are 'her' kin… you have a god's blood inside you...]

Zach released all his remaining mana into the sword and slashed the chimera's lion head.

[0/5000000]

"What a letdown…"

The sword disappeared from Zach's hand as he used up all his mana. He looked at his HP and saw the poison effect had also stopped.

"I don't want to say it was an easy battle considering I lost my HP and all of my MP…" Zach let out a weary sigh and stumbled on his feet as he struggled to stand still.

He defeated a level 100 secret boss who had 5000000 HP, without breaking a sweat. It was indeed a tough battle. Even Zach couldn't have defeated the chimera if he didn't have the advantage of infinite MP.

However, the main reason he was able to defeat a level 100 monster was his strict childhood training. His knowledge and experience of martial arts of the battlefield helped him.

[Congratulations! Quest 'Slay level 80 monster.' has been completed!]

[Congratulations! You have received the reward of completing the Quest. Reward- 50000 coins.]

[Received 200000 EXP!]

The chimera's body vanished, and two things appeared in front of Zach. One was a crimson sword, and another was a red core.

'Isn't red core essential for cultivating physique? It's pretty much useless for me unless I sell it to someone…'

Zach stopped when he saw [Non-transferable] on the screen.

"What should I do with it?" Zach pondered. "I can eat it. Wait… it's the chimera's core, so can't I revive it and use the chimera as my pet?"

That was indeed possible. But Zach currently had no abilities or any knowledge on that.

'I couldn't use magic in the real world, so I didn't bother learning anything that contained magic…'

"I will keep the core in my inventory, for now."

Zach then held the sword in his hand and read its stats.

[Mythical rank sword.]

[+300 ATK]

"Ooo~" Zach was excited after seeing the first benefit of the sword.

[1.5x XP gain]

"Cool!"

[Gives one physique point on each kill]

"Noice! That means, as long as Aurora kills enough monsters, she is guaranteed to cultivate her physique points."

[Special skill- Locked]

(Note- This sword can only be equipped by a level 25 player. Once this sword is equipped, it will become soul-bound to the player.)

"At least I can gift it to Aurora…" Zach sighed in relief and muttered, "Imagine if I couldn't transfer this sword too."

Zach had used up all his adrenaline, and now he needed a little rest. He dropped to his knees and later laid down on the ground. He looked at the sky and uttered, "So beautiful."

However, he didn't look at his surroundings; He had destroyed everything.

Zach closed his eyes for a while and decided to take a little nap.

—

-

.

Meanwhile, in the heavens.

[Attention! Attention!] an angel yelled in the hall of the heavens.

[What is it?] a god asked.

[Can't you see we are busy planning more schemes and monsters for our online world?] The second god asserted.

[The abomination! Someone has slain it!] the angel announced.

[What?!] the first god exclaimed.

[Impossible!] -Second god

[How?!] - Third God

[Who dares?!] -Fourth god.

[Preposterous!] -Fifth god.

[Blasphemy!] - Sixth God.

[How could someone do that?!]- Seventh god.

[How did someone manage to slay the abomination?!] -Eight god.

[We had locked it inside a gate that the gods could only open!] -Ninth God.

[Whodunit?!] -Tenth god.

[Even if someone managed to enter the gate, how in the heavens did they manage to slay the abomination?!] -Eleventh God.

[There is a traitor among us!] - Twelfth God.

The entire hall of heaven, which was filled with the 12 gods and their respective angels, became hostile towards each other.

[Who was it? Who is the traitor?! ]the first god yelled as the cloud thundered.

[Why would any of us do that?]

[This is impossible. Everyone knows that if any of us betray, the heavens will go on a war. The higher gods would be angered, and they would get rid of us.]

[Stop this nonsense. No one has betrayed anyone.]

[Then how did someone manage to slay the abomination? It was one of our best weapons. We were going to use it to surprise the humans.]

[It doesn't matter. We shall create something more powerful. We are bored anyways.]

[Also, find who slayed the abomination. We have to get rid of that human as soon as possible!]

[Indeed. Whoever it was must be eradicated. It can become a threat to us.]

[Who are you kidding? A threat to us, the almighty gods?] the seventh god laughed out loud.

[We can crush anything just by our presence. We can blow away everything just by a soft sigh. We can obliterate anything with a simple snap. What can possibly endanger us?]

[Gabriel. I hereby assign you as the world boss of the first realm. Exterminate any player who comes to challenge you. Failures will not be tolerated.]

[Your words are my commands.] Gabriel bowed down to all the gods and said, [I shall show my worth to be a god.]

—

-

.

Meanwhile, Zach heard a faint voice calling his name.

"Zach. Zach. Wake up." It was a sweet female voice.

Zach felt as though someone was repeatedly patting on his cheek. He opened his eyes and closed them a second later.

Zach was sleeping on a soft, warm bed.

"Hey, wake up. My parents will be home soon," the voice said.

Zach opened his eyes and saw a girl sleeping naked beside him. She was looking at him with a slight smile on her face.

"Hmm… What time is it?" Zach asked with his eyes still closed. He was still feeling sleepy.

"It's almost midnight," the girl answered.

Zach was wide awake after hearing that.

He opened his eyes and saw the sky.

"..." He sighed and sat up.

"Why am I having dreams about her? Am I missing her?" Zach asked himself after having a dream about his ex-girlfriend.

****

Total players in the game 454632

0 new players logged in.

337 players died.

=====

[Weekly Quest.]

===

Author's Note- I was getting my hopes high by expecting to hit 500 powerstone.

Many thanks to those who vote every day. Thanks for reading!

59 BONUS CHAPTER CHAPTER 58- KISS

"Why am I missing her, though? I mean, my first relationship was with her, but it's not like she was my first love. I have had plenty of crushes, but I didn't miss them like I am missing her." Zach uttered to himself.

"Is it because we never had a proper breakup?" Zach wondered. "We didn't talk after our last fight, and then she never came to school. The last thing I heard was that the ship to mars had departed."

Zach and his girlfriend never officially broke up. But it wasn't as though they were going to meet again, or so Zach had thought.

As he was pondering about that, Zach remembered something.

"Wait a damn minute…" Zach raised his brows and uttered, "How did that party in the inn know that this chimera would spawn a mythical weapon?"

"It wasn't mentioned anywhere, and the monster itself was a secret boss. Plus, there is no way an ordinary human was able to pass through the gate."

Zach initially thought that Eren was the one who told the party to spread the rumors, but that wasn't the case.

"I guess there is only one way to find out," Zach asserted. He cracked his fingers and said, "I will need to have a 'nice' chat with the party."

Zach opened his menu and looked at his stats.

Level 21.

HP- 10500/135000

ATK- 440 (x2)

Physical Strength- 440 (x2)

Mental Strength- 800

Soul Strength- 0

Physical DEF- 410 (x2)

Mental DEF- 730

Soul DEF- 0

AGILITY- 545 (x2)

MP- 200/∞

EXP- 240500/250000 (to level up.)

Physique- Celestial- Max.

Class- Cultivator. (Maxed)

Secondary class- Mage

Guild- Not joined.

Affiliation- None (Not worshipping a god.)

Karma points- 0

(Karma points are blessings and favors of gods. They can be used to pray to the gods and ask anything in return.) (Terms and conditions applied.)

Marital status- Single.

Title- 1) Forbidden Existence. 2) Child of Atrocity. 3) Sign of Impurity. 4) The Last Survivor

Skill- 1) Martial Warrior. 2) Dominator's Touch

"They added some new things…" Zach muttered.

After that, Zach stood up and patted on clothes to clear the dirt from them. He stretched his hands and yawned loudly.

"That was a nice nap," he said with his eyes closed. Then, he raised his brows and opened his eyes before saying, "That was a nice nap."

"How long have I been here?!" Zach exclaimed.

He looked at the time in his menu and saw it was 4:32 AM in the morning.

Zach was feeling more tense than he felt when he was fighting the level 100 chimera.

"What if Aurora had woken up?" he asked himself.

Zach immediately rushed back to the inn.

It took him more than an hour to get to the boss' door from the inn, but it only took him 10 minutes to get back.

Zach entered the room and slowly walked to the bed.

Aurora was facing her back to the door, so Zach couldn't see whether she was awake or not.

Zach peeked on the side and saw Aurora was fast asleep.

SIGH!

Zach sighed in relief and lay on the other side of the bed with his back facing Aurora.

'I need to find a good opportunity to give the sword to Aurora. She said her birthday was in three months, but that will be six months in this game.'

'Well, I will think about that later. Even if I give her the sword now, she won't be able to use it until she reaches level 25.'

Zach closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Aurora opened her eyes and glanced at Zach without turning back.

'Where was he all night?' she asked herself. 'Was he with some other girl?'

'Or maybe… he went to the brothel?' Aurora wondered.

Indeed. There were brothels in every town, but Zach wasn't even aware of it. He had no idea that brothels existed in Gods' impact. However, even if he knew, he wouldn't go to a place like that.

'Well… even if he did. I have no right to get angry. We are only traveling companions. He said we are friends, but I want us to be more than that.'

Aurora let out a deep sigh and turned around without thinking, and she bumped her nose on Zach's head.

'Ouch!' Aurora covered her mouth with her head to stop herself from yelling.

After a while, she fell asleep too.

—

-

.

Four hours later.

Aurora slowly opened her eyes after having a nice sleep. But her heart stopped when she saw Zach's face was right in front of her.

There was little to no space between their faces, and their lips were almost touching each other. If any of them moved, even a little, they would end up kissing.

However, Zach was still asleep, and Aurora had a perfect chance to kiss Zach without getting in trouble. Even if Zach woke up, she could simply say it was by mistake as it was a reasonable excuse.

Aurora looked at Zach's lips and wondered, 'Should I do it?'

'Only our lips will touch. It won't be the deep kiss like they do in the movies, but a kiss is still a kiss, right?' Aurora asked herself.

She slowly puckered her lips and moved them forward, but just as her lips were about to touch Zach's lips, she stopped and thought, 'This will be our first kiss.'

'Do I want my first kiss and our first kiss to be like this? I always thought my first skill would be special and romantic. If I kiss him now, not only will I miss the special feelings, but I will lose my first kiss too.'

'It's as though I am taking advantage of him sleeping.'

After thinking for a while, Aurora decided not to kiss Zach.

She slowly backed off and tried to move, but Zach accidentally moved forward and ended up kissing Aurora— although only their lips touched, a kiss was a kiss.

Aurora's face flushed as her eyes widened in surprise. Even when she was saving her first kiss for a special occasion, it ended up like this. But regardless, she was happy.

****

Total players in the game 454202

0 new players logged in.

430 players died.

=====

[Weekly Quest.]

«Week ended»

===

I am feeling a little depressed for some reason, and I don't want the quality of this book to suffer because of my mood.

PS- Suggest a good name for Zach's ex-girlfriend.

60 CHAPTER 59- WEIRD INTERROGATION

When Zach woke, he saw Auror wasn't in the room. He glanced around to confirm that she wasn't there.

'Where did she go?' Zach got up from the bed and stretched his hands. He looked at the bed and uttered. "Sleeping on the small bed was so uncomfortable. But at least Aurora had a proper sleep."

Zach left the room and saw Aurora talking with party members of a female party.

'What is she doing?' Zach looked at them from a distance, and after watching them for a minute, Zach was certain that they were trying to recruit Aurora to their party.

Zach approached Aurora and stood in front of the party members.

"Excuse me. We are having a personal talk. Would you mind standing somewhere else?" one of the girls said.

Zach furrowed her brows and grabbed Aurora's hand. He pulled her close to him and said, "Excuse me, this girl belongs to me. Would you mind fucking off from here?" Zach uttered with a fierce glare in his eyes.

The girls walked away after muttering something about Zach.

Zach turned to Aurora and asked with a concerned look on his face: "Are you okay?"

Aurora nodded in response and looked at Zach's hand that was grabbing her.

"Oh…" Zach let go of Aurora's hand and said, "Let's eat breakfast."

After eating breakfast, they decided to take a stroll around the town before leaving for the capital.

However, Aurora said she wanted some time to get ready, so she went upstairs to their room, and Zach stayed downstairs.

'Now then… I saw them renting rooms last night, so they must be staying at this inn too.'

Zach was looking for the party who were talking/ spreading rumors about the secret boss.

'They have to be around here somewhere.' Zach glanced around and saw a player who belonged to that party— leaving the inn.

Zach quickly followed the player and reached the fountain of the town where the other four party members were waiting for the player.

"Hey, wait!" Zach shouted from a distance and stopped them.

Zach was confirming whether the party was guilty or not.

'If they run, that means they knew about Eren. But if they don't run, that means they are as oblivious as others.'

Surprisingly for Zach, the party didn't run and waited for Zach.

"Yes? Can we help you?" the female party leader asked.

"Why are you guys spreading rumors about the secret boss in the town?" Zach asked impatiently. He wanted to deal with them soon as possible and go back to the inn, where Aurora was waiting for him.

"How do you… wait!" another party member yelled, "Were you eavesdropping on us?!"

"No. You all were loud enough for anyone to hear. Now spit it!" Zach equipped his default sword in his hand and said, "Or you will have to face the consequences."

'I am wearing gloves right now, so this sword won't do any damage or harm anyone. But at least, it will scare them,' Zach uttered inwardly.

The party members glanced at the sword in Zach's hand and laughed out loud.

"Haha!" -first (male) party member.

"Pfft!" -second (male) party member.

"Are you kidding me?!" -third (female) party member.

"He is using a default sword! Ahaha!" -fourth (female) party member/leader.

"What level are you? 10?! Haha!" - fifth (male) party member.

Zach frowned his face and conjured a fire sword in his other hand. Then, he swung it in the air at the fountain behind them that was cut into two.

All the party members stopped laughing when they looked at the fire sword in Zach's hand and then at the fountain behind them— with a baffled expression on their faces.

"Next, swing chop off your heads," Zach asserted in a solemn voice.

"Whoa! Calm down, dude!" -first (male) party member.

"Why so angry?" -second (male) party member.

"You can't just kill us for that reason." -third (female) party member.

"I know, right?" - fourth (male) party member.

"Talk about death threats." -fifth (female) party member/leader.

"Just spit it already!" Zach yelled and sighed. 'Teeangers.'

"We don't know why you are so angry, but we were simply talking about the stuff the masked man was talking about," the female party leader answered.

Zach raised his brows and asked, "What masked man?"

"We don't know." they shrugged their shoulders all together and said, "Just as you heard our conversation, we heard his. We have no idea there was a rumor going around."

'Was this masked man with Eren?' Zach wondered. 'Why do I have a bad feeling about this?'

Zach asked some more questions to the party and returned to the inn. Fortunately, Aurora still hadn't come downstairs.

'I am pretty sure there ain't no make-up in this world, so what's taking her so long?' Zach asked himself.

Aurora still couldn't look into Zach's face without remembering the kiss from the morning.

After some minutes, Aurora came down wearing similar clothes. They spent two hours in the town and left for the capital.

After 6 hours of walking, they reached the capital and went straight to the inn to eat and rent a room.

"How much time has left for the cooldown again?" Zach asked Aurora.

"There are still two days left before I can buy or exchange a house here. How long are we going to stay in the capital?" Aurora asked with a curious look on her face.

"Not sure. But we need to reach level 25 to ascend. So…" Zach shrugged his shoulders and continued eating.

Everything was going well. However, Zach felt something was off.

'Something is wrong with Aurora. She has been acting strange today.' Zach thought. 'I mean, she is not her usual self.'

Aurora was squirming and avoiding eye contact with Zach.

'I wonder if something happened to her… wait, I think I know why she is acting like that.'

Zach facepalmed himself and uttered inwardly: 'It is because we slept on the same bed. Now she is feeling conscious of me.'

Zach wasn't entirely wrong. But the main reason she was acting like that was that Zach accidentally kissed Aurora on the lips in his sleep. While Zach wasn't aware of it because he was sleepy, Aurora couldn't forget the feeling of being kissed.

'Well, at least she has learned her lesson now.'

****

Total players in the game 453449

0 new players logged in.

753 players died.

====

[Weekly Quest.]

===

Author's Note- I wonder how Aurora will react when she discovers that Zach never officially broke up with his girlfriend.

61 CHAPTER 60- MAGIC WEAPON

After eating food, they went to the reception to rent a room.

"We would like to rent one room," Aurora said to the receptionist.

"...!" Zach was baffled after hearing that. 'She still wants to stay in one room?'

"Double bed or single bed?" the receptionist asked.

"Double bed," Aurora replied.

Zach sighed in relief and thought, 'At least we are not sleeping on one bed.'

Aurora took the key and headed upstairs before Zach.

It was Zach's turn to pay the bills, so he was negotiating the rent with the receptionist. But as they were in the capital, the price of everything was high.

After paying the rent, Zach went upstairs while muttering, "I can't believe I paid 2000 for a room. But well, it's for two nights, so I guess 1000 coins per night is not that bad."

He opened the door and said, "We still have some time left before the night. Let' go—"

Zach stopped when he glanced around the room and saw there was only one bed.

"I thought we rented a double-bed room…" Zach uttered while looking at Aurora.

"Yes, and this is a double bed," Aurora answered. "Are you mistaking a two-bed room with a double-bed room?"

"Right…"

Aurora jumped on the bed and patted on the empty space beside her before saying, "Come."

'I am getting flashbacks already…' Zach sat on the bed, and he was surprised by its softness.

"Hey, did you know that we can buy horses for travel?" Aurora asserted.

"We don't need one," Zach replied without looking at Aurora.

"Why not? We can travel a lot faster if we have horses, no?" Aurora asked with a curious and puzzled look on her face.

"Let's say we bought a horse. Then we have to take care of it, its food, its lodging. That's expenses, or should I say useless expenses," Zach asserted in a solemn voice.

"I think renting carriages is worth it. We can save a lot of money."

Aurora squinted her eyes at Zach and said, "What major are you on?"

"Um... I am still in high school, you know?"

"Seriously?!" Aurora exclaimed. "You are tall and act mature all the time... well, sometimes. So I was sure you are older than me."

"I am older than you, though."

"How old are you?"

Zach shrugged his shoulders and said, "My parents refuse to tell me my birth year, but my birthdate is 29 February."

"That was… a month ago. Or if I count it in real-world time, then only two weeks ago!" Aurora felt both angry and disappointed.

'I can't believe it! If we had met some days earlier…!'

'Why is she acting like that?' Zach wondered. 'And I thought she already knew my birthdate since Shay mentioned it in front of her.'

Indeed. But Aurora didn't pay attention to that. Her mind had stopped working after she heard that Zach had a girlfriend.

"Anyway.." Zach got up from the bed and said, "Let's head downstairs. We will gather some information about this capital and get back to grinding tomorrow."

====

(This happens during the ten-day skip after Zach starts living with Aurora.)

It was a regular day for Zach and Aurora. They woke up, ate breakfast, sat in the living room, and talked for a while.

Aurora went to the market while Zach stayed home.

Zach went to his room and sat on his bed with a deep sigh.

"I feel like we are a married couple living together. Aurora has a job, and I am the house husband who stays at home," Zach scoffed.

It had been some days, and Zach hadn't made any progress in anything.

"Yesterday, I made ten potions but wasted around 1000 MP."

Zach was reading the journal of the Gods' Impact to know more about the game. However, it was too big, and as always, he was bored after reading three pages.

'Reading is too boring. Couldn't they create something interesting? Like a pixie or something which answers all the questions and guides the player?'

Almost 90% of the players, including Zach, hadn't read the entire journal.

"And I think they should create a different journal for me because most of the things don't apply to me," Zach scoffed.

Zach needed a break from crafting. It was making him insane because crafting needed deep concentration and precise handling. Besides, he had never done something like that before in his life.

"I will take a day off from crafting and fool around with my witcher class."

Zach opened his class menu and changed his crafter class to witcher using Aria's blessings.

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the special skills of the weapon!]

"Hmm?" Zach looked at his gloves' stats and saw there was now a 'Special skill' section.

"So the weapons utility changes based on the classes?" Zach wondered.

There were three empty slots in the special skill sections.

"So… why are they empty? Do I have to get anything or finish quests or something? Or perhaps, I need to acquire scrolls since I can't use weapons with these gloves on?"

After messing with the gloves for a while, Zach tried to use magic with his gloves on, and suddenly, one slot was filled with a skill' magic weapon' written on it.

"I see. These gloves are not part of the game, nor were they meant to be equipped by a player. So I can choose the special skill according to my use."

Zach imagined a fire sword in his hand, and it appeared. Then, he imagined a spear, and the fire sword turned into a spear. Then, he imagined it to be a dagger, and it turned into a dagger.

"Cool~!" Zach was satisfied with the gloves.

'I still have two empty slots left. I will have to think carefully because I can't remove or change these special skills once I have sent them."

****

Total players in the game 453094

0 new players logged in.

355 players died.

====

[Weekly Quest.]

===

Author's Note- The second half was necessary to explain the skill system of the gloves. I hope all the doubts are cleared.

62 CHAPTER 61- THIRD PARTY MEMBER

Zach and Aurora strolled around the city after getting information from the players around— although they didn't get any helpful information.

Both Zach and Aurora considered that as a date, but neither of them said it out loud.

After that, they went to the inn and ate more than usual. Aurora wanted to celebrate Zach's birthday, so they had a small party in the room.

Fortunately, neither of them drank any alcoholic drink, or it would have undoubtedly triggered a cliche event where they mistakenly slept with each other and didn't remember any of that.

After waking up, they ate breakfast and went straight to the guildhall.

Guildhall was a place where most of the players stayed for business purposes. All the guilds gathered there and conducted a meeting.

Zach wasn't interested in that, but Aurora insisted on going there because they could meet strong players there who could provide information. Zach and Aurora had a major disadvantage in collecting information because there was a party of only two people. Their knowledge of the game was limited compared to the parties of 10 players and guilds of over 50 players.

After reaching the guildhall, Aurora and Zach split up so they could ask more people.

Zach's main plan was to get Aurora to reach level 25 as soon as possible, so he could give her the sword. However, as a player leveled up, the leveling up got harder.

Zach approached a beefy player and politely asked for information, but the player asked for money in exchange.

Then, Zach went to a nerd-looking player and asked for the information, but that player turned out to be a douchebag who asked for not only money but also his items.

Zach had it enough, but he went for the last try and asked the player standing by the door, but it turned out to be an NPC who only had knowledge about the guild-related stuff.

"This is why sociability is dead…"

Zach opened his menu and messaged Aurora to meet him at the backside of the guildhall.

'I guess we will go to clear dungeons. It's not like we have anything else to do.'

After a while, Zach wondered, "Could there be a secret dungeon in the capital too?"

'I remember Aurora mentioning there are hidden areas that aren't mentioned in the maps. I wonder what else the gods are hiding. But… why are they hiding?'

"Zach!" Aurora called him from behind.

Zach looked back to see Aurora approaching him with another girl.

Zach looked at the girl and asked, "Who is this?"

"Her name is Ameria. And… she is a healer," Aurora introduced Ameria.

Ameria was a little taller than Aurora— she was about the same height as Zach. She had long black hair that was coming to her waist. She had black eyes, and she was wearing a normal healer outfit.

She looked shy and meek. She was looking down at the floor and hiding behind Aurora.

Zach found it hard to deal with a girl like that,

"Oh. Is she here to give us information?" Zach asked with a curious and excited look on his face.

"No. She is on the same boat as us," Aurora replied.

Zach raised his brows and asked, "So.. why did you bring her here?"

"She wants to join our party."

"..."

Aurora and Zach stared at each other in silence for a while.

"She wants to join our party," Aurora repeated herself.

"I heard you the first time," Zach groaned. "Why does she want to join our party?"

"And I thought we were supposed to gather information, not party members," he added with a remark.

"She is a healer. Do you know how rare the healers are in this game? They are on-demand right now! Every party wants a healer," Aurora asserted.

"Yeah, but I already have you, and you are enough for me," Zach uttered nonchalantly. Of course, he was referring to her healer class.

Aurora's face flushed as she got lost in her thoughts, but Ameria pulled Aurora's sleeves and gripped her tightly.

"Right.." Aurora nodded and said, "Listen to her story first."

Aurora turned to Ameria and said in a gentle voice: "You have to speak for yourself."

Ameria walked forward and stared at Zach for a while before saying, "My name is… Ameria…"

"My name is magic-man."

"I… was…"

"Speak loudly."

"My first class is bowman; it has now evolved to ranger class. My secondary class is healer; it has now evolved to priest," Ameria uttered meekly in a low voice.

'Ranger and priest… so she is level 25 or more…'

"I was a solo player until I was recruited by a party to join them. At first, it was fun; we went to the dungeons and towers and fought monsters. But after some days, they noticed that I was getting a lot of attention because of my healer class," Ameria asserted.

"In my free time, I healed players for free because I felt bad for charging money from players." After hearing that, Zach shot a glance at Aurora and knitted his brows as though he was mocking her because she charged money to heal layers. However, the only player Aurora had healed so far was Zach.

"But when my party found out that I heal players for free, they forced me to charge them. I thought maybe charging a little money wouldn't be bad as it would help me financially. However, I was mistaken."

"Your party took all your money and didn't give you anything?" Zach guessed.

Ameria nodded and continued, "I was tired of it. And when I confronted them, they threatened me that they would kill me."

"And then you somehow managed to run away and ended up here?" Zach guessed more.

'She can live a good life as a healer, but her personality will get her in trouble. And her primary class is ranger, so unless she has some OP skills, she can't survive alone.' Zach pondered for a while and nodded.

"You can join us, I guess…" Zach groaned. "Having two healers by my side will keep me reassured."

Ameria smiled widely and said, "Thank you! I will try my best."

'Wait…' Aurora's face turned pale after she realized something.

'Ameria is a healer, and she is higher level than me. Isn't her character basically replacing me?' Aurora thought to herself.

'And most importantly, she is a girl.' Aurora glanced at Ameria and saw her smiling at Zach.

'Did I just… dig my own grave?'

****

Total players in the game 452863

0 new players logged in.

231 players died.

63 BONUS CHAPTER CHAPTER 62- GETTING CHILLS

After Ameria joined their party, they decided to head directly to the dungeon.

"This game doesn't have anything else to do," Zach uttered. He turned to Aurora and asked, "Say, you have played a lot of VR games before this, right?"

"Not a lot, but I have played quite a few," Aurora answered. "What about it?"

"What would players usually do?" Zach asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

"Well, first of all, the situation is a lot different here. But in other VR games, there would be weekly, monthly, and festive events to keep players engaged with their games," Aurora stated.

"Well, the gods don't need to entertain us since we can't leave their game anyway," Zach snorted. He then turned to Ameria and asked, "What about you? Have you played VR games before?"

"Umm…" Ameria squirmed with a flushed face.

'Why did I even bother asking her?' Zach sighed inwardly.

After walking for a few more minutes, they reached the entrance of the dungeon.

"So, what are the monsters in this dungeon again?" Zach asked.

"They said it's random. We can get any monsters, but it will be from low difficulty to high," Aurora answered. "Also, the monsters will be hybrid, mutated, evolved, and apparently with intelligence."

"As long as they don't talk, I am fine," Zach scoffed.

Zach turned to Aurora and said, "Kill as many monsters as you can. I will back you up."

Then, Zach looked at Ameria and asked, "What do you want to do?"

"I will heal…"

"Then, do that." Zach didn't fully trust Ameria's abilities.

'Just because she is at a higher level than us doesn't necessarily mean she will be strong.' Zach thought as he remembered Eren.

'Who knows, what are the other hidden ways to level up?'

They entered the mixed dungeon and started chopping monsters.

—

-

.

After six hours.

Zach leveled up by one, and Aurora needed 20000 more EXP to reach level 21.

Zach and Aurora looked at the portal for the 20th floor and nodded at each other. They both were out of breath, but they still wanted to clear the first 20th floor at least.

"Wait…" Aurora turned to Ameria and asked, "What about you, Ameria?

"Huh?"

"Are you okay? Are you not tired? Do you want to take a break? How much of your MP has left?"

'So many questions at once…' Zach glanced at Ameria to hear her answer.

"... yes," America replied.

'Yes to what?!' Zach and Aurora thought the same thing.

"I can still go on."

"How much MP do you have?" Zach asked.

"I have enough…"

'What's with her vague answers?' Zach wondered. 'I get it that her personality is like this, but… how did her previous party manage to tolerate her?'

'According to her story, to me, her previous party seemed like a bunch of edgy teenagers. They even went as far as threatening to kill her.'

Zach was acting as though he forgot he did the same thing not long ago. Although he wasn't serious, his actions were the same.

'And if she was the same as she is now, I doubt her party was tolerable enough to stay calm.' Zach raised his brows and thought, 'Either she is hiding something, or she hasn't told us the full story yet.'

As Zach was wondering, Aurora nudged her elbow to Zach and whispered, "Why are you staring at her?"

She looked a little agitated and jealous.

"Nothing. Let's go."

Zach, Aurora, and Ameria entered the blue portal and proceeded on the 20th floor.

"This floor should have a level 80 boss, considering the last boss floor had a level 50 boss," Zach asserted. "You have a quest to slay a level 80 monster, right?" he asked Aurora.

Aurora nodded and uttered, "But don't you have the same quest?"

"Don't worry about me." Zach had already finished that quest.

'My current quests are boring.'

"The reward is 500Magic shop points," Aurora stated.

"..." Zach furrowed his brows and uttered inwardly: 'And I got 50000 coins.'

For the first time in his life, Zach wasn't happy about getting money.

'If I had gotten magic shop points, I would have used them to summon the magic shop and see how far the bidding has gone,' Zach let out a weary sigh and waited for the boss to spawn.

The boss monster was a skeletal spider. Its height was tall, similar to the chimera Zach fought before. However, the main parts of the spider, its legs, were long and sharp.

Zach felt chills down his spine after seeing the skeletal spider, not because he was scared, but he was disgusted. He found the monster ugly.

Level 80- [Skeletal Spider]

'Well… talk about a simple name. But still better than the chimera,' Zach scoffed.

HP- [3000000]

'I have enough MP to deal 2000000 DMG to the monster. I am sure Aurora can deal with the rest.'

Zach turned to Aurora to look at her, but she gave him a thumbs-up sign and said, "How about you take this one?"

"What, are you scared?" Zach tried to make fun of Aurora to give her incentive.

"Yes." Aurora nodded and said, "There is no way I can take this on."

"I said I will back you up, didn't I?" Zach pushed Aurora forward and walked along with her after saying, "Let's go."

****

Total players in the game 452530

0 new players logged in.

333 players died.

====

[Weekly Quest.]

===

~~~

[End of the month special shoutouts!]

«Honorable Mentions»

1)tim_liberatore

2)HANDEL_14

3)dynisor

(Top three golden ticket contributors.)

4)PissedOff_Nation

5)Pointbreak

(Top gifts giver.) (I know, that sounds weird.)

(Honorable Mentions will be made once at the end of every month.)

Thanks for reading!

64 CHAPTER 63- INCOHERENT SUSPICION

Aurora was walking cautiously forward with a sword in her hands. While Zach was casually walking behind Aurora while yawning.

"Can't you be a little more serious about this?" Aurora said in a loud voice. "We are up against a level 80 boss with 3000000 HP."

"I am serious, though," Zach uttered.

"Did you forget what happened the last time we fought the boss on the 50th floor of the beginner's realm?" Aurora remarked.

"Relax. That was ages ago. We have leveled up quite a few times after that. And why are you scared?" Zach asked. "I don't understand. We have been in many near-death battles, but never have you acted like this."

Aurora pointed her sword at the skeletal spider and said, "Look at that thing. I am going to have nightmares tonight!"

"Oh? Maybe I will sing you a lullaby then," Zach scoffed.

Aurora's face flushed after hearing that as she kept walking forward without paying attention to her surroundings.

Suddenly, Zach grabbed her from behind and jumped back.

The skeletal spider shot its venom web at Zach and Aurora, which melted the ground on impact.

"Looks like this monster also wants to hear my lullaby," Zach sneered as he conjured a lightning sword in his hand.

Aurora was surprised to see that, but for some reason, Ameria didn't show any reaction.

Zach glanced at Aurora and asked with a concerned look on his face, "Are you okay?"

Aurora didn't reply and stared at Zach with an excited look on her face.

"...what?"

"If I defeat this monster, will you… will you sing me a lullaby?" Aurora asked with a flushed face while fidgeting.

'What the hell is wrong with this girl?!' Zach face-palmed himself and muttered, "You are truly an idiot."

"Will you?" Aurora asked again, this time in a loud voice.

"Okay, okay. Now let's focus on that monster." Zach looked at Ameria, who was staring at Zach and Aurora with her squinted eyes.

"Hey! If either of us gets hit, heal us as soon as possible!" Zach shouted.

"Okay," Ameria nodded meekly. She was back to her usual self.

The skeletal monster kept shooting its venom at Zach and Aurora.

They looked at each other and nodded before running in the opposite direction. They thought the monster would not shoot at either of them.

However, the spider had another head on the back. It crawled around in a circle at the same spot and shot its venom.

It was as though they had enraged the boss.

Aurora tried to dash in to attack one of the spider's legs, but Zach stopped her and said, "Don't! Wait for my signal."

Zach dashed at the monster, or so he acted like he was going to, but he stopped and kicked a soccer ball-sized rock at the monster.

However, the rock was penetrated and shattered by the spider's other leg.

'I knew it! It is purposely showing us an opening to make it look like its guard is down, so we would attack, and then it would stab up with its other legs.'

"Say, Aurora!" Zach called Aurora in a loud voice. "How many times can you swing your sword in one second?" Zach asked while dodging the spider's attack.

"I could do eight before, but I have been training hard, so now I can manage ten strikes in one second!" Aurora replied in a loud voice.

'Aurora's sword art skill- Lyda strike deals 100000 DMG in one strike, and her skill lasts only for one second. So that's 1000000 DMG. And I can deal 2000000 HP DMG.'

'But… I have to go near the spider to attack it, while Aurora can attack from a distance. Maybe I can…'

"Aurora, use your sword art skill when I ask you to, okay?!"

Zach held the lightning sword with both of his hands and raised it in the air.

Zach's magic weapon skill was dependent on his imagination. He could create any weapon as long as he had used them before.

Zach took a deep breath and released all his Mana in the lightning sword.

'Get rekt, bitch!' The lightning sword's size increased, and it became 5 meters long.

Zach struck the sword down and slashed the monster.

"Now!"

Aurora activated her sword art skill and swung her sword ten times in one second.

[Congratulations! Floor 20 has been cleared!]

[Proceed through the blue portal to enter the 21st floor!]

[Proceed through the yellow portal to retreat!]

"Yes! We did it!" Aurora jumped in joy and dashed at Zach to hug him, but Zach seemed angry for some reason, so Aurora stopped and didn't try her luck.

'What happened to him? Why is he angry all of a sudden?" Aurora wondered.

Zach raised his brows at Ameria and uttered inwardly: 'Something is wrong. My attack only dealt 1950000 DMG to the monster. And Aurora only struck ten times, so she couldn't have dealt more than 1000000 DMG.'

'However, the monster's HP was 3000000. The monster still should have 50000 HP left, but it died.'

Zach frowned his face at Ameria and thought, 'She did something, didn't she?'

Of course, it wasn't weird even if Ameria did something. She was a ranger whose main expertise was ranged attacks. However, there was less than 1 second time between Zach's and Aurora's attack. Still, Ameria managed to attack at the right time.

'Moreover, how did she know that I was 50000 DMG low on my attack?'

Zach had doubts on Ameria before, but now his doubts had turned into suspicion.

'What are you hiding under your innocent face, Ameria?'

Was Ameria truly hiding something? Was her innocent personality a sham? Was her meek behavior acting? Why did she join Zach's party, and what are her intentions? Is she an alley or an enemy?

Zach had too many questions, but he didn't want Ameria to notice he was suspicious of her. If she knew, then she wouldn't let her guard down.

****

Total players in the game 452461

0 new players logged in.

69 players died.

====

[Weekly Quest.]

===

Author's Note- Who is Ameria?

Hint- She is someone you all know.

65 CHAPTER 64- TEMPTATION| LULLABY

"Did you level up?" Zach asked Aurora.

"Yes…" Aurora nodded. She wanted to ask Zach why he was angry a while ago, but now that he was back to normal, she didn't want to ruin the mood again.

Zach, Aurora, and Ameria were on their way back from the dungeon.

"What about you? Did you level up?" Aurora asked.

"Yeah." Zach nudged Aurora and said, "Show me your stats."

Aurora opened her menu and showed him her stats.

Name- Aurora Edens.

Level- 21.

HP- 13500/13500

ATK- 450.

Physical Strength- 300.

Physical DEF- 400.

AGILITY- 350.

MP- 350/485

EXP- 130000/250000 (to level up.)

Physique- Awakened (early)- 80/2500 (to evolve.)

Class- Warrior

Secondary class- Healer

Guild- Not joined.

Affiliation- None (Not worshipping a god.)

Karma points- 0

Marital status- Single.

Title- 1) Holy Maiden.

Skill- 1) Lyda Strike. 2) Super Healing

"You already assigned the accessible points you got from leveling up, huh?" Zach uttered in a low voice and further inspected Aurora's stats.

'If I remember correctly, the first awakened cultivation stage is all about building the base. Even though I couldn't cultivate in the real world, I do have limited knowledge about it. Maybe I can help Aurora increase her physique faster than other players?'

'However, there is no point in being hasty. We can play at our own pace.' Zach let out a deep sigh and thought, 'Even when we ascended to the first realm after many players, we didn't get any information. Imagine if we were one of the first to ascend to the higher realms. We will get close to zero information.'

"What's wrong?" Aurora asked with a puzzled look on her face. "Why are you staring at my stats like that?"

"I was wondering if you got any new skills or something. It looks like you didn't."

"Getting new skills is hard, you know?"

Zach shrugged his shoulders in response and kept walking alongside Aurora.

Zach had two skills, both of them which he got because of his real-world talent and knowledge.

Zach glanced at Ameria and asked, "What are your stats, Ameria?"

"Oh, they are normal," Ameria replied without looking at Zach or Aurora.

'If I pressure her to show me her stats, she will notice I am onto her.'

"Where do you live, Ameria?" Aurora quipped into their conversation. Totally not because she was feeling left out or jealous.

'Nice one, Aurora!'

"Uhh... I live where everyone lives; In the inn," Ameria replied.

"Which inn?" Zach asked.

"The one at the other gate."

"Oh, that's quite far from our inn," Aurora asserted.

Aurora sent a friend request to Ameria and said, "Hey, Ameria. Accept my friend request."

Ameria accepted Aurora's friend request and turned to Zach with an eager look on her face, as though she was waiting for Zach to send her a friend request too.

Zach shook his hand and said, "Nah, I am good."

"Oh… alright…" Ameria looked a little disappointed.

"Ameria, I will message you in the morning," Aurora said to Ameria. And even if I don't, let's meet at the guildhall at 9… no, 10 AM, okay?"

"Okay. I will see you there." After that, Ameria left.

Aurora glanced at Zach and said with a mischievous smile on her face: "I can't wait to hear my lullaby."

"Well, to be honest…" Zach shrugged his shoulders and said, "I am the one who dealt the most damage to that monster, you know?"

Aurora squinted her eyes at Zach and said, "Are you backing off on your promise?"

Zach raised his brows and said, "Lullaby it is, then."

Zach and Aurora went to the inn and ate dinner. After that, they went to their room and relaxed for a while.

"Are we going to clear the dungeons tomorrow too?" Aurora asked Zach with a curious look on her face.

"We might as well clear the dungeon till the floor 50," Zach replied while checking his gloves.

"I wonder what type of boss would be on floor 50," Aurora wondered and glanced at Zach to hear his response.

"I honestly don't care about that. But as long as it's not some ugly ass monster like it was on floor 20, I think we will manage it," Zach groaned.

Aurora jumped on the bed and looked at Zah with an alluring gaze in her eyes after tapping on the bed.

Zach face-palmed himself and thought, 'Don't do that. Don't look at me like that, or I will mistake it as an invitation.'

'Damn, I never knew living with a girl could be this hard. It's so tempting and frustrating. Especially when the girl is like Aurora.'

Zach sat on the bed beside Aurora and recalled one of the lullabies in his mind.

Aurora lay down on the bed and placed her head on Zach's lap.

'Yoooooooo!' Zach clenched his fists and took a deep breath.

'I don't know if she is doing this on purpose or not. But I am going to teach her a lesson one day.'

Aurora closed her eyes and said, "I am waiting for my lullaby."

"Yeah, yeah. Give me a second."

After recalling the entire lullaby, Zach sang it to Aurora.

When Zach was halfway, Aurora opened her eyes and said, "To be honest, I was expecting you would be bad at this. But it's so good. I never knew your voice was so ethereal."

"Now you know."

"How do you know this lullaby? Someone must have sung it for you before, right?" Aurora asked curiously.

"Yeah…" Zach replied with a distant smile on his face.

"Was it your mother?"

"Nope."

"Your father, then?"

"Nay."

"Was it… your ex-girlfriend?" Aurora asked with a pause.

"No."

"Then, who was it?"

"Someone important," Zach replied vaguely.

"And… what is your relationship with that someone important?"

"My master. She used to train me when my father was busy with otherworldly stuff," Zach replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aurora scoffed.

After that, Zach sang her the lullaby until they both fell asleep.

****

Total players in the game 451833.

0 new players logged in.

628 players died.

====

[Weekly Quest.]

===

Author's Note- If you had a chance to choose a lullaby, what would it be?

66 CHAPTER 65- BLACK FIRE

It was nighttime.

A figure was walking in the forest. It was walking back and forth in all the directions as though it was searching for something.

After some minutes, the figure found an opening of the secret dungeon inside a tree.

The figure walked in and glanced around the hot atmosphere.

The figure was wearing black clothes, black armor, black gloves, black shoes, and a black mask on the face. Everything was black, and no part of its body was visible, not even its eyes.

"Finally…" a sinister male voice uttered. "Finally, I found this secret dungeon."

The masked man walked forward and came across thousands of lava slimes. However, instead of fighting them, the man simply kept walking forward and crushed the slime under his feet.

After that, he reached the bridge and saw a huge door on the other side.

"There it is."

The man crossed the bridge and stood in front of the closed door that had inscriptions on it.

He sighed and uttered, "Yet another petty puzzle."

The man placed his hand on the door, and it shattered into pieces.

"Now then…" Then, he cracked his fingers and walked inside.

The man walked and walked, but he didn't encounter any monsters.

"Where is the boss?" the man uttered.

The man tapped his feet on the ground and flew in the air. However, instead of landing, he kept hovering in the sky as though he had the ability to fly.

He inspected the entire area from the air and muttered in a disdainful tone: "It's not here."

"Where is it?! Where is the boss?!"

The masked person was the same player who was spreading rumors about that mythical rank weapon.

For some reason, he had knowledge of all the secrets and hidden information of the Gods' impact. However, he didn't know the exact location of the secret hidings. That's why, he always spread rumors about them so other players would search for it and eventually find it.

It was the same case with the secret boss dungeon and mythical rank weapon, but Zach found it before the masked man.

The masked man was always confident that only he would be able to clear the secret dungeons and defeat secret bosses because they were extremely tough to beat.

"Who was it?! Who dared to take my reward!" the man yelled on top of his lungs.

He took out a black sword from his black sheath and asserted, "I was going to acquire all the hidden weapons, rewards, and powers to create all the gods and become a new god!"

"Who dared to take one of my weapons from me?!" he shouted as though the weapon belonged to him.

"Whoever it was… I will find that player and end them myself," the man uttered as his sword started emitting a black aura.

The man pointed the sword at the ground and asserted, "No matter what happens… I will be the one above all."

The man landed on the ground with intense force and plunged his sword on the ground.

The moment later, the entire dungeon collapsed. The forest was caught on black fire, and the town near the forest, where nearly 40000 players were residing, was obliterated.

The man walked out of the fire and placed his sword back in his sheath.

"Time to find a new secret location."

His nametag wasn't purple because he killed the NPCs, nor was it red because he killed the players, and it obviously wasn't green. His name tag was black, and his name was 'Overlord'.

Zach had unknowingly angered many powerful beings who were after his head. However, he was currently singing lullabies to Aurora.

—

-

.

Zach woke up ten hours later and found Aurora sleeping on his lap.

"..." he raised his brows and thought, 'Don't tell me she didn't move in her sleep?'

Zach had fallen asleep while sleeping when he was singing lullabies to Aurora. He was used to falling asleep in harsh conditions due to his strict training in his childhood.

Zach's face turned pale when he realized he was experiencing a problem that most of the males do when waking up in the morning.

'This is bad. If Aurora sees this, she would feel a tad more uncomfortable around me. In order to not let her see me in this condition, I need to move. But if I move, she will wake up. And if she wakes up, she will see me.'

Zach was facing a major dilemma in his life. Sure he was used to dealing with any situation and adapting to it. However, it was his first time getting into this situation.

'I am seriously going to lose my control one day…'

Zach had only one option, and that was to wait for his little brother to calm down.

While doing that, Zach's gaze fell on Aurora's juicy red lips. Then, his gaze moved down to Aurora's chest, which was uncovered by the blanket. Zach could almost see Aurora's cleavage, but he shook his head and thought, 'You will get a chance to see them one day.'

'Hopefully,' he added.

Zach moved his hand to cover Aurora's chest with the blanket, but he accidentally ended up touching them.

'So soft! Just like— no, I shouldn't compare.' Zach tried to compare the softness of Aurora's breasts with his ex-girlfriend's breasts.

After covering Aurora's chest with the blanket, Zach moved his hand to Aurora's lips and rubbed them with his thumb.

'I don't even know what I am doing!'

Zach inserted his finger into Aurora's mouth, and much to his surprise, Aurora started sucking it.

'What is she, a kid?!'

Zach pulled his finger out from Aurora's mouth and let out a weary sigh.

He stood up and carefully placed Aurora's head on the bed without waking her up.

Zach left the room after muttering, "I should go order breakfast in the meantime."

Yesterday, Zach and Aurora had to stand and wait for the tables to get empty; it was that crowded. And then their order took half an hour to arrive.

Zach didn't want the same thing to happen again, so he went downstairs, booked the table, and ordered breakfast on his and Aurora's behalf.

However, when he was coming back upstairs, he heard a familiar voice calling his name.

The tavern was crowded, so it took a while for Zach to find the source of the voice.

After glancing around for some seconds, Zach saw two familiar faces waving their hands at him.

****

Total players in the game 411701.

0 new players logged in.

40132 players died.

====

[Weekly Quest.]

===

Author's Note- Any guess on who they could be? (It's pretty obvious tbh.)

67 CHAPTER 66- BREAKFAST CHA

Zach saw two familiar faces waving at him from the crowd. They were Kayden and Shay.

After seeing them, Zach immediately rushed to them and hugged them both at once with a smile on his face.

"When did you guys arrive here? You should have told me," Zach uttered with a grin.

"We ascended last night in the town nearly 5 hours from here. Then we immediately made our way here at the capital as you have asked us to," Kayden replied.

Zach stayed in touch with Shay and Kayden even after he ascended. He had told them to meet him at the capital, and that's the first thing they did after ascending.

Kayden and Shay were reported to the town, which was obliterated by the Overload.

Fortunately, they left before the Overload annihilated it. Had they been ten minutes late, they would have died without Zach ever knowing the cause of their death.

"Have you guys booked a room yet?" Zach asked and said, "It's hard to get an empty room here. We were lucky that we got one."

"Wait a minute…" Shay raised his brows and asked with a curious look on his face: "What do you mean by 'we'?"

"Of course, it's the healer girl," Kayden replied to Shay. "What was her name again…"

"Aurora," Zach answered.

"Wait… so are you guys staying in the same room?!" Shay asked with a more curious look on his face.

"Yeah?"

"Wow. Tell me everything in detail," Shay insisted.

"What do you mean? We are just staying in the same room to save money. Nothing is going on between us," Zach asserted.

Shay clicked his tongue and said, "I expected more from you, Zach. Grow some balls and woo her."

Zach furrowed his brows and uttered, "Mind your language, Shay. How many times do I have to remind you and you and I, we both have different mentalities."

"Relax. Chill bro. Why do you always get upset whenever it's something related to relationships?" Shay asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"Anyway." Zach turned to Kayden and asked, "Have you guys eaten breakfast yet?"

"Nope. We have been standing in the line for like 20 minutes now, but the tables are getting booked. And they are prioritizing the guests at the inn," Kayden replied.

"I have an empty table booked. Come." Zach pointed his finger at the table and said, "It's enough for four people."

Zach, Kayden, and Shay went to the table and ordered the food. Zach had already ordered for himself and Aurora, so his order was in the queue. Now, they all were waiting for the order to arrive.

In the meantime, Zach messaged Aurora to come downstairs when she woke up.

Shay broke the silence and said, "We even checked on the other nearby inns, and they all are booked."

"I guess we will be sleeping on the streets for some days," Kayden scoffed.

"Actually… we are checking out tonight, so you can get our room. I will talk to the receptionist and sort things out," Zach reassured.

"Wait… you are already ascending to the upper realm?!" Shay and Kayden asked with surprised looks on their faces.

"I wish." Zach shrugged his shoulders and said, "Aurora has bought a house, so I am moving in with her."

Kayden raised his brows and asked, "Are you sure nothing is going on between you two? Because it looks like something is definitely up. I mean, the Zach I knew would never live together with a girl."

Zach sighed and uttered, "What, are you two switching roles now?"

"Say, in this game, the smallest house has the capacity of four players to live in at the same time." Shay placed his hand on Kayden's shoulder and said, "How about Kayden and I also join you two?"

After thinking for a while, Zach shrugged his shoulders and replied, "It's honestly not my say to answer that. She owns the house, so you have got to ask her."

"Shay…" Kayden nudged his elbow to Shay and shook his head at him.

"I know, I know." Shay looked at Zach and said, "I was kidding about that. We have no intention to invade your lovenest."

After some minutes of talking, Zach asked, "So, what level are you guys on now?"

"I am 13," Kayden replied.

"I am 13 too," Shay replied.

"What are you guys planning to do today?"

"Nothing, to be honest. I want to look around the capital and enjoy this beautiful world," Kayden replied.

"I am thinking of going to the brothel," Shay replied.

Zach knitted his brows with a confused look on his face and asked, "There are brothels in this game?"

"Not just this. Almost all popular VR games have brothels; of course, the age restriction is also a thing, so minors are not allowed to use them," Shay explained.

"Do you want to come?" Shay asked Zach.

"Nope."

Shay then turned to Kayden and asked, "What about you, Kayden?"

"You already know I have a fiance now," Kayden replied.

"But it's a game. So technically, it's not cheating, you know? And you are not going to have sex with a real girl or player; it's an NPC AI."

"Still, my answer is no."

"NPC AI?" Zach's interest piqued, not in the brothels, but in the term.

"Basically, the brothels in the game have features to create and fully customize an avatar of the girl you want to have sex with. You can choose the color of their eyes, hair. You can choose their body features. You can even select what type of personality and voice you want from that avatar," Shay explained.

"Now, here is a question for you, Zach. What do you think will happen if a player can create a sex doll as per his choice?"

"They will probably model it after someone they know or have a crush on," Zach replied.

"Exactly! And that's why, all the VR games started adding this feature. However, they soon made it a pay-to-use feature and started charging real-world money."

"That's… I don't know what to say…" Zach sighed.

"That's not it. Now comes the most interesting part," Shay asserted.

'What can be more interesting than that?' Zach thought to himself.

"You see, there is one tech company which has signed an exclusive deal with all the games. So this is how it works: A player creates an avatar to have sex, but of course, the player needs to pay to create the avatar. So after creating the avatar and having sex with it once, the player gets an option to order a premium class sex doll in the real world. That tech company creates them and delivers them to the players. Of course, they need to pay for it too."

"That's…" Zach was speechless.

"And can you guess what the name of the tech company is?" Shay asked Zach.

"How would I know?" Zach scoffed.

"It's a co-brand of Russel industries," Shay answered.

"Wait…" Zach turned his gaze to Kayden and said, "Your family runs it?"

Kayden shrugged his shoulders and uttered, "I had the same reaction as you when I found out about it."

"Now, here the misuse of the brothels," Shay continued, "First is, of course, cheating couples. The second is… well, creating an avatar based on real-life models. And the third is— which is not a problem anymore— creating an avatar based on the celebrities."

"Right… many players would do that…" Zach uttered while stuttering.

"But the games introduced a tracking system where whenever a player-created an avatar based on the celebrities, they would be banned from all the VR games for three months and penalized 250000$."

"I can see a major backlash," Zach scoffed.

"That's the surprising part. No one did anything," Shay chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Zach asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"The players found a loop. Since they weren't allowed to create exact replicas of the celebrities, they simply changed a few things; like eyes or hair color, size of breasts, and such."

"Wow!" Zach face-palmed himself and muttered, "What a world I live in."

"You know…" Shay lowered his voice and whispered, "I once created an avatar based on my sister. It was the best virtual sex of my life. I wanted to order a real sex doll, but if my parents or sister had caught me, I would be homeless by now."

"You probably deserve to be kicked out from your house, dude," Kayden commented.

"Oh?" Shay smirked at Kayden and said, "So it's okay when you are dating your sister?"

"Step! She is my step-sister!" Kayden whispered violently.

"Did you know that whenever Zach and I came over to your house for our school projects or to play games, Misha— you step-sister, always flirted with Zach."

Kayden immediately glared at Zach and said, "Zach, what is this about?"

"Oh, come on, Kayden. You know I treat Misha as my sister." Zach stated. "And you know how touchy Misha gets sometimes."

"Right…" Kayden glanced at Shay and found him laughing.

Kayden then smirked and said, "Did you know that your sister Siesta always flirts with Zach whenever he is around?"

"Heh!" Shay chuckled and said, "You can't use my own trick on me."

"I am not. I am telling the truth. In fact, I have seen Zach and Siesta together outside a couple of times."

Shay glanced at Zach from the corner of his and uttered, "Zach? Is Kayden telling the truth?"

Zach raised his hands in the air as though he was trying to surrender, and said, "He is telling the truth, but nothing is going on between us. You know I never lie."

Shay sighed and said, "I believe you. But it's not like I care even if something is going on between you two. We are not that close anyway, and we rarely talk."

After a few minutes, Aurora came downstairs and sat beside Zach.

Aurora talked with Kayden and Zach but ignored Shay.

After a few minutes, their order arrived, and they ate breakfast together.

****

Total players in the game 411322.

0 new players logged in.

369 players died.

====

[Weekly Quest.]

===

68 CHAPTER 67- MAGIC POWER

After eating breakfast, Zach, Aurora, Kayden, and Shay went to the guildhall.

Aurora had messaged Ameria to meet them at the guild, so she was on her way too.

Zach and Aurora were walking side by side, and Shay and Kayden were walking right behind them.

Kayden watched Zach and Aurora as they walked and thought after raising his brows: 'Not going to lie, Aurora does look cute. She gives a 'Don't come near me' vibe. I don't know about her personality, but she is arrogant, and her behavior is rude. That's exactly the type of girl Zach likes.'

'It's clear that Aurora has a thing for Zach, but I wonder if Zach has noticed it.' Kayden wondered. 'He probably has. I mean, he managed to land a hit of our school's prettiest girl, so Aurora is nothing.'

Kayden didn't know that Aurora was a princess whose standard alone was higher than all the other players of the game.

'Does Zach like her back?" Kayden thought. 'It would be problematic if he likes her, though. Well, it's Zach we are talking about, he will manage it.'

As Kayden was thinking about Zach and Aurora's relationship, Shay nudged him and whispered, "So, why are we going with them?"

"Because we should learn from Zach?" Kayden replied with a whisper.

"Learn from Zach?" Shay scoffed and said, "Did you forget it's his first time playing a VR game. What can he possibly teach us?"

"Don't forget that he is at a higher level than us," Kayden remarked.

"That's because I haven't been taking this game seriously."

Kayden and Shay were talking in a low voice that wasn't louder than a whisper.

After reaching the guildhall, they met Ameria and went directly to the dungeon.

"Now then…." Zach glanced at Aurora and said, "Since Shay and Kayden are here, we will have to clear the dungeon from floor one. What do you want to do?"

Zach wanted to hear Aurora's response before deciding anything.

"It's okay, I guess?" Aurora replied. "We will level up either way."

"Okay then, let's go."

"Wait…" Aurora turned to Ameria and asked, "What about you, Ameria? Are you okay with it?"

Ameria nodded and said, "You two can go directly to floor 21 if you want to. I will carry your friends."

"Oh?" Zach raised his brows and remarked, "You are being quite bold for a girl who was too shy to speak yesterday."

"I was simply…" Ameria lowered her voice and said, "..trying to help you."

Aurora frowned her face at Zach and shook her head.

Zach sighed at Ameria and thought, 'I have a faint idea of who you are, but I have to make sure before exposing you."

Zach didn't trust Ameria, and he definitely did not want to leave Shay and Kayden with her.

"Let's clear from floor one then," Zach decided.

They entered the first floor, and 20 four-legged monsters spawned.

Zach glanced at Shay and Kayden and nodded, "Go. We will watch your back."

Shay and Kayden dashed at the monsters and started slashing them one by one. However, they weren't paying attention to their surroundings. Both of them were focused on one monster at a time.

As expected, a monster jumped and tried to attack Kayden from behind. Upon seeing that, Zach immediately dashed at the monster, but that monster was slain by someone else.

It was Ameria.

She had a wand in her hand that could turn into a bow and shoot the enemies. It was a classic weapon for all the rangers.

'Oh? So she is not trying to hide now?' Zach thought.

Once Shay and Kayden had slain all the monsters, they gathered up and formed a circle.

"What are your secondary classes?" Zach asked Shay and Kayden.

"Mine is Witcher," Kayden replied.

"Same."

"So why aren't you guys using it while fighting?" Zach asked with a confused look on his face.

"How are we supposed to use it when we are busy fighting?" Kayden asked with the same expression as Zach.

"What do you mean? You simply need to fire some magic attacks," Zach stated.

Shay quipped in and said, "It's easy for you to say. Your secondary class is a healer, so you wouldn't know. But it's hard to use magic attacks."

"How… is it hard?" Zach couldn't comprehend what Kayden and Shay were trying to say.

"You need a deep concentration to do a proper magic attack," Kayden answered.

"..." Zach knitted his brows and uttered inwardly: 'I can do it without even thinking about it.'

Shay and Kayden were telling the truth. Using magic attacks indeed took a deep concentration, but it was different for Zach.

Of course, Zach couldn't use magic in the real world, so he didn't study, but he trained his body to use magic. He wanted to use magic in the real world, which was the only thing stopping him from becoming like his father.

Since he couldn't use magic in the real world, he tried and tried, only to fail again and again.

However, After losing his father, Zach stopped everything. But his body remembered the training, and it was capable of rendering any magic without problems.

Not only that, other players couldn't use the intense magic attacks like Zach used when he was trying to save Aurora. They couldn't simply mix two elements to create a new element or a greater power. Only Zach could do that.

After clearing ten floors, Shay snapped and left the dungeon to go to the brothel. Kayden cleared 15 floors and retreated because he was exhausted.

After that, Zach, Aurora, and Ameria cleared the dungeon until floor 40 and retreated.

It was already night time, so Zach and Aurora went to the inn, or they would have, but Aurora could exchange a house now, so they went to buy a new home instead. While Shay and Kayden checked into Zach and Aurora's room at the inn.

Ameria was with Zach and Aurora because 'apparently' her inn was in the same direction.

After buying the house, Zach turned to Ameria and said, "How about you move in with us?"

****

Total players in the game 410551.

0 new players logged in.

771 players died.

====

[Weekly Quest.]

===

Author's Note- Zach is finally going to expose Ameria's identity.

69 CHAPTER 68- SHEEP CORNERED BY THE WOLF

"How about you move in with us?"

"Huh?" Ameria was genuinely surprised by Zach's offer.

However, Aurora was more surprised.

"You are in our party, so it's fair that you live with us, right?" Zach asked Ameria and turned to Aurora.

Aurora didn't have any problem with it, so she nodded and said, "Agreed."

However, she was a little anxious. And it was natural for her to feel like that.

It's not as though she didn't trust Ameria, but it had only been two days since she met her, and she felt insecure about having a stranger live in her house.

But, she didn't want to be a jerk and reject Ameria. It was true that they were at the same party so they should live together. It was time adequate, and they could plan out their expedition at any time.

Living together also strengthened their trust between each other, and they could get to know each other well. However, it could also help others show their true colors.

For Zach, it was similar to keeping a close eye on the enemy.

"Okay then…" Ameria smirked inwardly and uttered in a meek manner. "I will move in."

They entered the house together and looked around.

"It's truly the same as it was in the other town," Zach uttered with a surprised look on his face.

Zach took the room closest to the door, and Aurora took the one beside it. While Ameria took the one in front of Zach's room.

"What should we do for dinner?" Aurora asked. "I can cook. Or maybe we can eat out?"

"I want to eat your handmade cooking," Zach answered with a smile on his face.

Aurora's face flushed after hearing that. She went to the kitchen and said, "What would you like to eat?"

They ate dinner together and went to sleep.

After an hour or so, Zach came out of his room and glanced around. Then, he slowly walked to Ameria's door and placed his ear to listen, but he was met with silence.

Zach tried to open her door, but it was locked. He quietly knocked on the door and waited for Ameria to open it.

After some seconds, Ameria opened the door and looked at Zach from the creak. She was wearing a light purple nightdress.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Can I come in?"

"Umm… okay…"

Ameria opened the door fully, and Zach went in.

"So… why are you… here?" Ameria asked with a flushed face.

Zach sat on Ameria's bed in a comfortable position and said, "Why do you think a boy would come into a girl's room late at night?"

Ameria's face flushed as she said, "I don't know."

"Oh, don't play dumb." Zach stood up and walked to Ameria before saying, "You know what I am here for."

Ameria walked backward while keeping her distance from Zach and said, "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Oh, really?" Zach kept walking and said, "An innocent and meek girl, alone in a room with a boy at night. Just like a sheep and a wolf."

Ameria hugged her body and said, "You… you shouldn't do this."

"Oh, I will." Zach cornered Ameria and uttered, "Besides, what will you do? How will you stop me?"

"You already have Aurora for that. Why are you here?" Ameria asked meekly.

Zach raised his brows and asked with a confused look on his face: "What are you talking about?"

"You are here to… assault me, right?" Ameria asserted.

"No, what the hell? What gave you that idea?!" Zach exclaimed.

Ameria glanced at Zach's hands that were cornering her and said, "Do I even need to say anything?"

Zach wasn't aware of what he was doing, and he needed work on his word choices.

"I am scared…" Ameria sniffed and looked at Zach with teary eyes.

"Will you drop this act already?" Zach said with a furious look on his face.

"I have no idea what you are talking about. And can you please… stay away. I don't like when people come too close to me."

"Then why did you come here in the first place?"

"Because… you invited me…"

Zach's face twitched in anger and frustration. He took a deep breath to calm himself down, but it didn't work.

"Listen, I am asking you for the last time. Drop this act and reveal yourself, otherwise—"

Ameria interrupted Zach and said, "I am also telling you for the last time. I am not who you think I am. Please leave me alone."

"Three seconds. I am giving you three seconds. If you don't reveal yourself in three seconds, then I will do something unspeakable to you," Zach warned Ameria with a fierce glare in his eyes.

"If you don't leave my room in three seconds, then I will…"

"You will what?" Zach asked impatiently.

"Then I will scream," Ameria replied.

"What will happen if you scream?"

"Aurora will wake up, and she will come into this room. Then I will tell her you tried to take advantage of me by forcing yourself on me," Ameria threatened Zach.

"...!"

Ameria's threat was indeed formidable. Zach didn't want Ameria to do that. However, he had something else planned. He ran out of patience.

Zach conjured the fire sword in his hand and said, "Not if I kill you first."

Ameria face turned pale as she said, "Are you seriously going to kill me just because you think that I am someone you think?"

"Yes. What about it?"

"What if I am not that person? You will be killing an innocent girl," Ameria remarked.

Without flinching, Zach stabbed the fire sword in Ameria's chest, and it came out from the other side.

Ameria looked at Zach with a disappointed look on her face and tried to say something, but her body fell to the floor as soon as Zach pulled his sword back.

"Don't worry. We all will die someday," Zach asserted in a solemn voice and walked to the bed.

He sat on the bed and stared at Ameria's lifeless body with an anxious and concerned look on his face.

****

Total players in the game 410530.

0 new players logged in.

21 players died.

====

[Weekly Quest.]

===

Author's Note- Hit or miss?

70 CHAPTER 69- SOUL PAC

Zach watched Ameria's lifeless body with an anxious and concerned look on his face.

He took a deep breath and held it in. As the time passed by, Zach's face turned more and more pale.

After five minutes, Ameria's body shined, and it turned into a familiar figure with white hair, crimson eyes, and crystal-like wings.

It was Aria.

"You are barbaric as always," she said with an evil grin on her face.

"I knew it!" Zach yelled and stood up. He finally released his held breath and gasped for the air.

"I freaking knew it!"

Aria shook her head in disbelief after seeing Zach rejoicing, and said, "Would you mind not being so happy after you killed me.? Although I didn't die."

"Shaddup!"

Zach was scared. He was feeling anxious because he had killed Ameria. He was afraid of the worst.

What if that girl wasn't Aria and Zach had killed an innocent girl only to prove his point?

Zach wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

Of course, Zach didn't care if players died in Gods' Impact; He had no control over it. However, if a player was dying in front of him, Zach would definitely save them because he had control over it.

Similarly, Zach had no remorse in killing other players if they messed with him, but he would never kill an innocent for no reason.

Zach didn't like being afraid and anxious because they made him look weak. And once again, Aria was the cause of it.

"Tch!" Aria clicked her tongue and said, "I thought my acting was perfect."

"Oh, it was. And didn't you find it cringe to act like that?" Zach rolled his eyes and said, "Ameria's personality was so innocent and shy. And you are a total opposite of that."

Zach clapped his hands and said, "I am genuinely surprised by your acting. But now, I feel extremely cringe."

"How did you find out it was me?" Aria asked. "I didn't give in even when you stabbed me."

"I just had a hunch," Zach replied in a low voice.

"So you were ready to kill an innocent girl because of a hunch?" Aria asked with a surprised look on her face.

"I did have a little bit of my suspicion on you. Like your name for some example," Zach scoffed. "Whenever I called your name, I always thought of Aria. But of course, that wasn't the only reason."

"Well, reasons don't matter." Zach frowned his face at Aria and said, "Why are you here?"

"I have been alone for millions of years until I met you. I thought, I would finally be able to take my revenge to usurp the heavens. That's why, I gave you my blessings so you can get strong. I gave you my domain where you could cultivate twice. But.. But…"

Aria clenched her fists and glared at Zach with a fierce gaze in her eyes. She gritted her teeth and said with a furious look on her face: "But you never once came into my domain."

"Come on. You can't be that stupid." Zach remarked. "I didn't come because I did not want to come."

"But why?"

"What do you mean why? Listen, let me make it clear." Zach cleared his throat and said, "I. Do. Not. Trust. You."

"Wow." Aria retracted her wings and clapped her hands with a face full of dissatisfaction.

"That's a great way to show your gratitude for all the things I gave you," Aria asserted in a disdainful tone.

"Hey, I didn't say that. Honestly, I am truly grateful for everything you have done for me. Without you, I wouldn't have made this far." Zach showed his sincerity to Aria.

It was true that Aria's blessings helped Zach many times. If he didn't have her blessings, he wouldn't be able to change his classes.

Zach once changed his class from witcher to healer to heal Aurora when she was low on HP. Then, he found out he could also change his class to NPC exclusive classes and changed his class to crafter class.

Without Aria's blessings, Zach wouldn't be able to craft EXP potions that were soon going to bring revolution to the Gods' impact.

Zach was honestly grateful to Aria. But that was a different thing.

"Okay, back to the main topic again." Zach stared at Aria and asked, "Why did you come here?"

Aria averted her gaze and answered, "I was bored."

Zach raised his brows and asked, "I thought you couldn't enter this game. So… are you here as an NPC or something?"

"No. I am here as a player, and everything I told you about my class is true," Aria answered.

"What about that backstory? Was it also true?" Zach asked with a curious yet calm look on his face.

"The story is true, but it didn't happen in this game," Aria replied.

"So… in short." Zach knitted his brows and asked, "You are here as a player to play this game?"

"You can say that, yes," Aria nodded.

Zach face-palmed himself and said, "You are the only one who willingly entered this death game. Did you forget that if you die here, you will die in the real world… or wherever you are from."

"Oh!" Aria shook her head and said, "I won't die."

"Why? Have you made some kind of contract or deal with the gods? If yes, then I should really kill you," Zach sneered. "I don't want a god's dog near me."

"The players in this game have their souls trapped here. While 90% of my soul is in my world, while only 10% of my soul fragment is here. So even if I die here— which is impossible, by the way— nothing would happen to me in the real world," Aria explained.

"..." Zach let out a sigh and thought, 'Why was I worried about her?'

"Hey, mortal…. I mean, Zach…" Aria walked to Zach and stood in front of him before saying, "How about 'we' make a deal?"

"Is this the same deal you proposed before? The one where you asked me to join you to kill the gods?"

"No. I want us to make a contract."

"..." Zach didn't understand what Aria was trying to say, so he simply stared at her with a puzzled look on his face.

"I remember you said you would help me defeat the gods if I give you something in return, and I did; I gave you my blessings," Aria asserted. "But I am sure it's not enough for you, so let's form a pact."

"What type of pact?"

"A soul pact."

****

Total players in the game 410501.

0 new players logged in.

29 players died.

====

[Weekly Quest.]

===

Spoiler: It will happen after his ex-girlfriend is introduced, which is not far away.