Meanwhile …
At the Last Shelter Online’s main office, Dr. Jeff Johnson gathered all his workers in the great hall, especially those who worked in the game development department. This was the first time they had simultaneously left the game surveillance room because the game they used to supervise was now out of control.
“Tell me, what do you all know? Just one small clue would be very precious,” said Dr. Jeff Johnson on the podium, sweat dripping down his body even though there was AC in the room. His face looked very exhausted because the recent incident made him unable to remain calm even for a minute.
Even so, with the same question over and over again, there was no answer. Everyone remained silent and lowered their heads. Mostly inside their heads right now was probably the fear of losing their jobs as a result of the game that had been stolen by someone.
All the efforts made by Dr. Jeff Johnson hadn’t come up with anything so far.
The hall door opened again, and three people joined in this very important meeting. They were people who were fully tasked with investigating how the game could get its data and servers stolen.
“Dr. Johnson, I have tried to recover the data, and it worked well. However, I need more new storage data to keep it when it finishes.” The one who was talking was Gary. He had just returned with two other young men who served as his right and left hands. Gary, the 28-year-old genius, spoke from the other end of the room, raising his hand to get Dr. Johnson’s attention.
Dr. Jeff Johnson glanced at him then nodded his head. The information he had just received made him feel a little relieved, even though it had actually been said by Gary three times and failed in the end. But this time, at least the man said something that he needed to steal back the game.
“You can talk to my secretary about that, Mr. Mitnick.” said Dr. Jeff Johnson regained his composure. “Are you available right now?”
“Thank you, Doctor. For now, until the next 30 minutes, I am available. Do you need my help?” Gary walked over to the podium at the front of the great hall, approaching Dr. Jeff Johnson who just nodded slightly.
The meeting continued, and within 15 minutes, the questions raised by Dr. Jeff Johnson remained unanswered, so he ended the meeting because he felt it was useless.
Meanwhile, in the great hall, there was only Dr. Jeff, his secretary, and Gary.
“I need you to go with me to the Heaven,” whispered Dr. Jeff Johnson, who seemed afraid his voice would be heard by prying eyes. Gary looked a little surprised, but he regained his composure.
“Only me?” he asked.
“Three of us. We have lost many souls in instance due to the hackers or whatever their name is. I need you to check the security system there and upgrade it.”
Gary smiled before nodding briefly, “Yes, Sir.”
…
“Hiro, watch out! More coming!” Liberty shouted from a distance while she kept shooting the Abyss Wolves that tried to stop them.
Since the girl had shot before Hiro did anything, the wolves instantly marked the girl as their first enemy. Without a tank and their special provoke skill, it was hard to steal the aggro from the monsters.
However, Hiro quickly ran towards the wolves with Monica before they got close to Liberty. The two of them managed to block the wolves from coming close. The Abyss Wolf had a higher level than Hiro’s level, so it took quite some time to finish them off.
Even though the damage generated by the wolves was quite large when they penetrated Hiro’s armor, the wolf’s armor was still balanced with the damage, so they were difficult to kill in a short time.
Hiro and his spontaneous party had already spent over ten minutes battling the seven monsters, and they had only managed to kill three of them so far.
Splat!
And the dead wolf immediately came back alive with full HP, making the monster seem endless.
Ding!
[Base level up!]
Hiro wasn’t planning on grinding, but being stuck in that place made him level up. He used the sword combo skill so many times that his potion’s energy consumption was high. Hiro wasn’t sure if he could buy the potion in the current system marketplace.
“We have to escape!” he shouted, suddenly giving an unexpected suggestion.
“Why?!” Liberty was still eager to show off her weapon that had just managed to kill a wolf to Nicholaesz. Meanwhile, the ranger girl had already pulled out a curved-bow to attack the wolves with little damage of hers. However, at least it helped.
Everyone was busy fighting the seven wolves that kept respawning when Hiro suddenly ordered them to run away. It seemed that the monsters would only stay in certain areas, so when they were out of the Abyssal Wolf monster’s area, the monsters would stop attacking. That was what Hiro hoped, because he knew that the grinding system was still in effect in the ruined game world.
“Libe, Nicho, both of you can run first. There!” Hiro raised his sword for a second to point in the direction the girls should go.
“How about you?”
“After you!”
Liberty and Nicholaesz immediately ran in the direction Hiro had pointed, while next… Hiro, along with Spyro and Monica, ran after them.
“Run!”
Hiro did not know to what extent the wolves were able to chase them. However, after running for 200 meters at high speed, like they were doing a sprint, the monsters finally stopped and turned around. They ignored Hiro and his party who were exhausted from the sprint.
“That’s a good thing. We better not waste the potions before we know how to get them,” Hiro explained, then checked his inventory. There were no drop notifications even though he managed to finish off the monsters, as if the reward for defeating monsters was only limited to EXP.
However, when he checked his inventory, items that didn’t exist before had already been gathered there. Some new items that Hiro had never even seen in the sale list of NPC merchants.
“What’s wrong, Hiro? Why are we stopping here?” asked Liberty curiously.
“Wait, I want to check something.”
Hiro checked the potion-shaped items with the same purple color as the Abyss Wolf.
[Item Name: Abyssal extract potion]
[Quality: medium]
[Description: Can be consumed inside the deadly tower only to get buff attack from darkness type. It is efficient to fight against holy targeted monsters]
[Price: (Not for sale)]
The next item that succeeded in making Hiro curious was an item in the form of a coin like LSC coin, but it was black and shiny.
[Item Name: distorted Last Shelter Coin]
[Total amount: 150 dLSC]
[Quality: Normal]
[Description: Can be used for transaction with monsters]
[Price: (Not for sale)]
“Transaction with monsters?” Hiro repeated, unable to believe what he had just read.
“What happened, Hiro?”
“Did they just create new money for this game?” Hiro asked Spyro who just shook its head briefly.
“I really don’t know, but it could be.”
Hiro explained what he had just found to everyone, and they were immediately interested in checking their inventories. Liberty and Nicholaesz get some dLSC too from fighting the wolf, but it wasn’t much.
Hiro still didn’t know how to deal with the monsters in the game unless the monsters were tame or used to act as quest givers like an NPC. However, now, he couldn’t possibly try it with the Abyssal Wolf that would attack him first before he even said anything.
“All right, we continue walking.”
They went back on their way until finally they began to see something enormous towering above the half-destroyed ground in front of them.
The three towers in the Underworld City seemed to be standing firmly in front of them even though the other buildings around them had been turned into ruins.
“What happened? How could those three towers stay like that?” asked Liberty, still flabbergasted at the destroyed sight before her.
“It’s strange, even though we couldn’t see everything before, but… those gigantic towers should be visible from where we were before.” Hiro muttered, then continued walking towards the remaining ruins of the Underworld City.
Strange, there wasn’t a single NPC in that place. The place was as quiet as a cemetery. There was no sound, only the wind blowing lazily.
“Be careful,” said Hiro, feeling the need to raise his level of vigilance.
“Libe, any news from my friends?” asked Ace. Actually, he had repeated the question more than ten times now, and the answer he got was the same. There wasn’t any information from them.
“I hope they’re okay,” Ace said worriedly. His voice sounded more like a grandmother’s right now.
Hiro was silent. He was also worried about his two closest friends in the game. Jacob and Noah. There was still no word from them. And if they were okay right now, the two of them definitely wouldn’t have ignored Hiro this long, especially after that world-shattering incident.
Even so, just like what Ace did, Hiro could only wish they were safe and sound.
Finally, Hiro and the others entered the area that could previously be called the Underworld City. He was standing on the ruins that he had previously believed were the gigantic wall that divided the very sturdy city. Everything was level with the ground.
“Where did the NPCs go? Are they reprogrammed? Or were they just deleted?”
Updat𝒆d fr𝑜m fr𝒆ewebnove(l).com