Afterlife Dream

Other than me, there were a few other players who were walking sluggishly to the end of the tunnel. Just with one look, I could see that these players had never run a raid before. They must be one of those who just ran with the intention to exit the game.

Good for them.

"Umm, excuse me," a girl spoke to me. She looked fairly nervous.

"You are a Bishop," she stated.

"Yes, I am?"

"Umm. Umm... we are lacking some healers for the run... Do you... do you mind helping...?"

"..."

If the girl had checked my equipment beyond just my level and class, she would have noticed that I did not carry a Black Chimera Shield. Or better said Black Chimera Orb, because all mages carried orbs instead of shields.

With no experience in the Black Chimera raid, how did she expect me to help?

While I was still wondering what to say to both make her understand and at the same time not make me appear like a newbie, someone else was already answering in my stead.

"Hahaha. How can you ask him to be your heal slave? He is more than just that."

I could not help but grin before I even turned my head to face the source of the voice.

ZhaoYun was standing there with a wide grin spread across his face. Livina was next to him. She looked like she could not decide between crying or laughing.

When she saw the grin on my face, she launched herself at me and sobbed.

"Antares!! Long time no see... Oh, look at you!"

"Hey, Livina," I greeted the girl and patted her back.

"We are so worried about you! But we do not dare to message you. We don't want you to hate us further!"

I gave them a weak smile. Had I been such an insufferable asshole?

"I thought you guys already left," I pointed out.

Did they not join Survivors for that sole purpose?

ZhaoYun and Livina exchanged glances.

"Well, we wanted to, to be honest. But we changed our mind at the last moment."

"What happened?" I furrowed my brows. There better be no more glitches or ridiculous events to make exiting the game even harder than it already was.

"We are worried about you," ZhaoYun admitted. "We have been fighting side-by-side for a while now. It doesn't feel the same if we don't leave together. Especially when I know how you feel about us leaving."

How silly.

"I was dumb," I said. "You should all leave whenever you want to. This game is becoming more and more dangerous."

I just didn't want to see any of them dying in front of me like SakuraChan did. They should go and get reborn on earth as soon as possible.

"Are you planning to leave then, Antares?" Livina asked.

I shook my head.

"I still want to solve the mystery and save the missing players, but I don't think that you all have to accompany me and take the same dangerous path."

A snort from another side of the cave made us turn our heads.

It was HellWitch with Lazarus in tow. Lazarus' face was crumpled. For some reason, he looked upset.

"Do you think that you can beat the Dimensional Master on your own, Antares?" HellWitch narrowed her eyes at me.

"Of course not. I just..."

"Then stop asking everyone to get the hell out of this game. You still need players to come with you to the Dimensional Sphere."

A week ago, I would be offended to hear HellWitch's words. Now I was just grateful. Grateful that she was feisty and that she lived to continue being feisty.

Lazarus' face became sourer and sourer.

"Laz, what is wrong with you?" I asked.

HellWitch glanced at Lazarus and answered in his stead. "Oh, don't worry about him. I am making him leave the game after this run."

Lazarus looked beyond pitiful.

"Lara," he called out to his elder sister. "Lara, I still want to play."

So Lara was HellWitch's real name.

HellWitch pursed her lips. "We already talked about this for days, Theo. Give it up. You are going to be reborn today."

"But I don't want to leave!" Lazarus raised his voice. "You are not leaving, anyway!"

I was baffled, but Livina and ZhaoYun did not look surprised at all. On the contrary, they looked as if they heard the same conversation many times before.

"I can always die during the raid," Lazarus grumbled, resentment flashing across his eyes.

"Don't you dare," HellWitch pointed out.

"Is... everything okay?" I asked, unsure.

My question was answered with a "Yes" by HellWitch and a "No" by Lazarus.

ZhaoYun put one of his arms around me. "Antares, do you want to watch more of the drama? Why don't you join us for the raid? We are lacking Bishops badly, you know."

I agreed.

It had been a while since I last ran a raid. I would be lying if I said that I was not nervous. ZhaoYun and Livina were the raid organizers in Survivors. I happily reminisced about the past, back when they were still trying to organize amateur Fire Golem raids. We met because Livina saw that I was a Healer and she needed a Healer in the squad.

At that time, the Fire Golem Helmets were extremely valuable. The next end-game equipment was even more valuable. And the next one after that. Who would have thought that in months people would be instead scrambling to get out of the game?

Although Survivors ran the level 120 raids regularly, they did not always succeed in their runs. The reason was quite obvious. A lot of experienced players exited the game after they successfully completed a run. The next run would be full of inexperienced players who had to work hard to get better in the raids before they could even dream about exiting the game.

When I joined the raid today, it was exactly the case. Survivors had been failing the run for a week straight. Too many people died too quickly and there were not many bishops around. Even when there were bishops, then the bishops were, again, not experienced in running raids.

The Black Chimera's lair was an arena that was characterized by a huge mountain of skeletal remains.

I was put in the same party as HellWitch and four other first-time raiders. Among them, there was one Ice Immortal by the ID of Garron. Garron was terrified to be there. He thanked God loudly when he got to be in the same party as me. Not because he was such a great fan of mine, as you might have guessed. It was because I was a Bishop.

As soon as he joined, his first words were, "Antares, I beg you. Please keep me alive, alright? I really just wanna exit this game and be done with it."

I merely gave him a polite laugh. If he died too quickly, maybe I should just resurrect him near the end of the raid. Else it would be a waste of resurrection, and the raid might fail. Again.

As per ZhaoYun's instruction, party members stayed together and the six parties were spread in a circle around the Black Chimera's spawning point. There was no time to explain the raid to me, so my friends told me that they would give me some tips as the raid went on.

After we all took our positions, the mountain of bones crumbled in the middle and the Black Chimera shot out violently, sending remains flying in all directions. All of us but HellWitch instinctively ducked. Initially, I thought that HellWitch was being too brave, but it turned out that she used Black Chimera Shield to block the attack!

The flying bones automatically changed their direction in face of the Black Chimera Shield. The transition was so smooth that you would think that they wanted to hit the center of the shield deliberately.

"Wow," Garron whispered, pure admiration sparkling in his eyes.

I grinned.

"That must have been a pain before you got the shield," I remarked to HellWitch.

For the first time in a while, she grinned back at me. Relief filled my heart. She did not hate me that much after all.

"Back then, we had to grit our teeth and endure the shower of bones," she told me. "This is why the first thing we need in this raid is to have at least one Black Chimera Shield in every party."

Ah.

Now I got it.

I had been wondering why ZhaoYun scattered us. We all used to be in the same party back then.

After the initial bone shower that last for a few minutes, the Black Chimera appeared on the mountain of bones, that had miraculously recovered itself to form a solid footing for the Black Chimera to stand on.

The creature was a giant lion with a goat's thick silver fleece. At its back was the upper half of a humanoid creature. It was completely bald with a pair of a ram's mighty, curled horns. A double-headed cobra snake formed its tail.