Chapter 291: Transcendence 2

Rumble.

At the War fortress near the Spirit Land.

The players started to curse at the broadcast that had suddenly ended.

"What the hell. Did somebody crash into their house?"

The player who was broadcasting seemed to have logged out as the millions of players who were focused on this broadcast were only left with complaints.

"What the hell! Are the higher ups in the clans suppressing the leak of this intel?"

"They're going to look at it only by themselves huh?"

As the people started to shout in rage.

Rummmble.

In the distance.

A deafening noise accompanied a blinding light as it exploded out from behind the mountain range.

"Uh...?"

"What the?"

Then.

Papapapa.

Papapa.

The bodies of countless players disappeared into golden light.

Like a wave.

Like something had lit the countless fireworks.

And everybody started to scream at this scene.

"What the hell! What! What's going on!"

"Bug? Is it a patch?"

"What the fuck! If they're going to forcibly log us off then at least tell us! There was never a case like this!"

"At least put up a notice!"

Everyone shouted out with mixtures of rage and fear.

This had never happened before.

There was never a case where Exodus had faced a game wide bug like this.

Never a case where they had to force close for a patch.

A huge explosion.

And the mysterious event that occurred after this made everyone fall into chaos.

'What's the standard...?'

Antoinette, a player who hadn't been logged out, mumbled to herself.

Though most had been logged out, there were still players who had remained like this.

But it was only for a moment.

Antoinette gulped as she looked around at the countless artifacts on the ground dropped by hundreds of thousands of players.

'Woah... I guess it's not a logout. It seems the server is facing a huge bug this time. Did the server blow up or something?'

Antoinette gulped as she stared at these artifacts.

These artifacts wouldn't remain behind if they logged out.

This was just like when the players got murdered.

'They're going to get sued big time.'

Antoinette giggled as she looked at the scene in front of her.

Though the drop rate was low, that was only when one to two people had died.

Antoinette gulped at the mountain of artifacts in front of her as she soon started to carefully gather them up.

'Whoever picks them up is the owner. It's not my fault right? It's the fault of the stupid game company.'

When would she be able to benefit like this if not now?

And there was chaos around her as well.

"Hey! I picked it up first!"

"What the fuck do you mean! This is yours? This is originally my friend's!"

"Bullshit! You're even from a different clan!"

Countless people were bickering over the precious and expensive artifacts.

Even if they take back the artifacts, they had nothing to lose.

Since it would just be returned to how it was.

'Hehe. How fun.'

But just at the moment when Antoinette was picking the artifacts up and was smiling.

Swooosh.

'...What?'

Angtunanette shivered at the sudden chill that swept past her.

Though the War Fortress was close to the frozen spirit land of the west, it wasn't enough make her body chill.

Since the chill that existed on the Spirit Land never came out.

Like it was been held back by something.

And though the chances of that chill reaching all the way here was close to 0%, the cold sensation sweeping past her currently was not an illusion.

'What the hell...'

She wanted to ignore it and continue picking up the artifacts but the temperature that was continuously dropping was not something she could ignore.

Antoinette raised her head with an annoyed expression to figure out the reason behind this chill.

'Some maniac isn't using a skill to take all these artifacts right? Is it a Spirit Stone?'

But Antoinette's worries weren't correct at all.

Since he worries were merely the best case scenario.

And sadly.

The reality was not something Antoinette could have ever dreamt of.

Kuuuuuuoooooo!

"...Oh my god."

From the Spirit Land.

Something was charging towards her.

A bright, white storm made of hail and snow.

The ice storm was freezing everything in its path.

As if the dam that held it back exploded.

"Waaa! What the hell!"

"Run!"

Craack.

Crack.

The players who were located closer to the Spirit Land than him tried to run away in fear but it was all useless.

The players exploded into golden light the moment the ice storm swept past them.

And soon.

Rummble.

The hailstones from the ice storm swept past Antoinette as well.

"Fucking...Hell!"

Whoooosh!

Antoinette freaked out at the snowstorm as countless waves of flame exploded out form her body

The fire that came from the A grade Spirit Stone had always been enough to burn any players and beasts that came her way.

But not this time.

Whoosh.

Crackle.

The energy from the flame was way too small in comparison to the huge storm as the explosion of flames quickly died down.

And soon.

"Fuck..."

'If I die like this then even the Stone of Immortality is useless...'

Antoinette disappeared into golden light as she cursed inwardly.

Whooosh.

And the storm continued forwards past Antoinette and past the War Fortress.

Towards the Empire and the Kingdoms past the War Fotress.

Towards the entire world.

.......................

Rummmble.

Rumble.

The giant Obelisk.

And the huge city below it.

This giant and majestic city had long disappeared.

Whooosh.

The steel forest had long melted down from the tremendous amount of heat and energy that had swept past it and had turned into lava.

Though normally the snowstorm would've cooled it down, this storm had long been dispersed by the giant storm of energy as the remaining bits all escaped towards the world as the suppressive powers of the Obelisk disappeared.

Bubble bubble.

Above the lava sea.

Kiiiiiiingg!

The tower that was barely holding on started to tilt.

The remaining few hundred meters of the Obelisk after its top had been blown off by the energy storm.

And soon.

Booooom!

The Obelisk fell into the lava sea.

Though only a few hundred meters had remained, it was still a humongous size.

This huge mass smashed into the lava sea, caused a tsunami of lava and caused lava to flow inside the giant underground structure beneath the Obelisk.

Rumble.

The underground structure beneath the Obelisk that had barely maintained its shape started to swallow up the molten metal as it created a waterfall of lava.

And from inside the lake of lava deep inside it.

Bubblebubblebubble.

Bubbles rose up as a huge whirlpool was created.

Booom!

An explosion occurred as it pushed back the molten metal lake.

And from inside this.

Boooom!

A humanoid figure rose up.

And this figure landed on the rubble of the Obelisk that was slowly sinking into the sea of lava.

"Cough...Ugh."

Hansoo, who had scales covering his entire body, checked his current status.

'...I barely survived.'

He would've been able to reduce the damage further if he went deeper since the 3rd grade citizen's capsules seemed to have been working fine.

But there was a limit to how much he could do within that short period of time and as a result he had been hit by the storm of energy.

'But... I managed to survive at least. Now, what to do from here is the real issue.'

Hansoo looked around as he mumbled.

A scene which could easily be described as hell.

The tremendous amount of heat was melting all of the surrounding land.

The sea of lava didn't seem like it would cool down any moment.

It was just like Tiamet's last wish to see the entire world falling to an apocalypse.

And he was standing right in the middle of this all.

The high temperature was continuously boring down into his body as the space where he could stand was slowly disappearing as the Obelisk sank deeper.

There was a limit to how much he could survive after he had been turned into a mess from the explosion.

Roar!

And from deep inside his body, the Demonic Dragon Reinforcement surrounded his entire body as it madly tried to recover his body.

But there was a limit to how much it could do.

At this rate he would definitely die.

'I need to escape.'

Hansoo looked around at the sea of lava as he breathed in deeply.

Boom!

He then jumped up from the Obelisk and onto the sea of molten metal.

Chiiiiiik.

Since its density was originally high, it wasn't hard to run on top of it.

Toong! Toong! Toong!

A shock wave occured every time Hansoo's feet landed on the sea of lava as he used the rebound force to quickly move forward.

Towards the half destroyed mountain range.

'It's a race against time.'

Whether his stamina fell first or whether he escaped this sea of lava before that happened.'

And every time he stepped on the sea of lava, the heat from the molten metal gnawed away at his strength.

'...I guess the players are done for now.'

Hansoo mumbled as he thought of the lava that was continuously flowing underground.

He then squeezed out every bit of remaining strength he had and started to run.

'My headache... Is getting worse.'

At that moment.

In a situation where he was using everything he had to go up against this hell-like environment.

Despite the pain in his head.

Kiriring.

The Zero Numbering skill that was keeping Hansoo alive.

The mastery level of the Demonic Dragon Reinforcement was rising at a rapid rate.