Afterlife Dream

ZhaoYun laughed.

"And how was the player perspective working out for you? It must be nice to start playing with all the benefits you can get."

The Dimensional Master clicked with his tongue.

"How dare you," he slowly said. "I did not start with any benefits!"

"Oh really!" ZhaoYun shouted.

His spear hit the Longinus Holy Spear with a loud clang.

"No game voucher? No gold coins? No diamonds???"

"You can buy diamonds with real-life money."

"But you got it for free, didn't you!!!"

"So what!" The Dimensional Master said in irritation.

"You talk too much. Dance of A Thousand Spears!" The Dimensional Master cast a spell with a cry.

ZhaoYun held an arm up and the Black Chimera Shield manifested itself, sucking in the spears that threatened to put holes into ZhaoYun's body.

"Oho."

The Dimensional Master proceeded to attack ZhaoYun.

"You also played my game," he decided. "And you went as far as earning yourself a Black Chimera Shield. Not bad at all."

"Thanks," ZhaoYun answered through gritted teeth as he blocked yet another of the Dimensional Master's attacks. "Do you want to hear a player's review?"

The Dimensional Master pulled a smirk.

"Hahaha, what do you have to tell me?"

"Your. Game. SUCKS!!! DRAGON WHIRLWIND!!!"

A magical array of two-meter width manifested itself under ZhaoYun's feet. A strong gust of wind emerged from the array and blew everything on the ground into the air.

"Pfft," the Dimensional Master snorted. Before he was blown away by ZhaoYun's attack, he stabbed the Longinus Holy Spear into the ground and cast his own spell.

"Gravity Enhancement!"

Another array formed under the Dimensional Master's feet. While the array under ZhaoYun's feet was silver and golden in color, the one under the Dimensional Master's feet was entirely black in color. The effect of the spell was the opposite of ZhaoYun's, and the range was also bigger. The gust of wind that blew from the ground immediately inverted its direction and slammed at us indiscriminately. It felt as if a huge hand was pressing on our shoulders and back with immeasurable force.

"Ugh!" ZhaoYun grunted when he was forced to crouch on the ground.

"You have guts, I like it," the Dimensional Master commented while pulling his spear out of the ground and aiming at ZhaoYun's head. "Do you want to have a quick death or a prolonged death?"

"WAIT!" I screamed, drawing his attention toward me.

"Hm? Oh, a bishop. Do you also have anything to say about the game?"

"Yes, I do."

I gave ZhaoYun a quick look. He immediately understood that I merely wanted to distract the Dimensional Master while he got back to his feet.

"I liked the game a lot," I said, rising to my feet after the effect of the Gravity Enhancement wore off. "Until you come to mess up the game dynamics."

The Dimensional Master frowned.

"What are you talking about? I am here to bring the game to a new height. You guys are the ones who are trying to foil my plans."

He pointed at us one by one.

"If I do not destroy you here and now, Afterlife Dream will end up as just one of many MMORPGs. Those with dreams will have their dreams crushed and be forced to return to the so-called real life."

The Dimensional Master lowered his head slightly, seemingly deep in thought. Only for a second, because then he quickly recovered.

"I am not going to let you disturb my plans!"

A pair of black metallic wings that matched the Dimensional Master's armor spread on the latter's back. Not long after, the final boss stepped off his feet and shot toward the sky. Once he was up there, he raised the Longinus Holy Spear up his head and shouted, "My minions! Rise and fight for your belief!"

What minions?

The Longinus Holy Spear glowed as brightly as the sun. Lightning bolts shot from the holy weapon to the far end sides of the hall.

At this point, it was no longer possible to see what was there because the hall had been destroyed by the many attacks. Grotesque holes were punched into the floor and debris piled up in form of small hills while dust hung in the air like mist.

I squinted my eyes and captured some movements from far away.

Livina screamed in horror once she recognized the things that were moving.

There were at least hundreds of convention participants that moved in our direction. Unfortunately, they were no longer their previous selves. Having been victims of the various attacks that were exchanged between the Dimensional Master and us, they clearly died in a tragic manner.

The Dimensional Master had used his power to reanimate the dead bodies. Despite their sluggish movement, they were moving in our direction with a considerable speed.

"What the hell are you doing!" I spat at the Dimensional Master. "These people are dead!"

"Only in real life," the Dimensional Master quipped. "They will be alive forever in the new Afterlife Dream."

"You are insane!" HellWitch flipped her sword and stabbed at the Dimensional Master. There was a loud clang when the sword met the Black Chimera Shield that the Dimensional Master summoned in time.

Meanwhile, the undeads quickly reached to where we were.

"Take them down!!!" The Dimensional Master ordered, upon which the undeads roared loudly and pounced at us.

"Apocalypse!" I shouted. It was not enough to obliterate all of them at once. Those who did not get caught by Apocalypse lunged at my friends like wild beasts.

Lazarus got bitten and the bitten spot quickly turned green and blue.

"They are poisonous!" he screamed in terror.

The ranged attackers were quickly overwhelmed by the undeads. They were unable to repel them.

"Purification!" I shouted.

The purification dome spread around me.

"Get in!" I howled at my friends who got bitten all over and suffered from heavy poisoning.

Cecilia made it into the dome. HellWitch had to drag Lazarus inside. Meanwhile, ZhaoYun and Livina were still outside of the dome.

"Where are they???" I asked, panic filling my heart.

The undeads were unable to enter the dome. When they clawed at the dome surface, they got purified and the end of their fingers emit black smoke that dissipated into thin air.

"LIVINA! ZHAOYUN! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS???" Cecilia shouted while summoning Arrow Rain upon the undeads who were not crowding around the dome.

The one who found Livina and ZhaoYun first was the Dimensional Master.

He dived from where he was up in the sky and stabbed into the crowd with his spear.

There was a disgusting sound of bodies being impaled by a sharp weapon, followed by Livina's and ZhaoYun's gurgling sounds.

"NOOOOOO!!!" I shouted and ran toward where Livina and ZhaoYun were.

The dome moved with me and pushed all the undeads away.

The Dimensional Master calmly pulled the Longinus Spear out of their bodies. Blood spurted out, and they no longer moved.

ZhaoYun's lifeless body lay on top of Livina's. Their skin was blue and green all over, but what ended up killing them was the final stab by the Dimensional Master.

HellWitch grabbed Livina and shook her around.

"Livina! Wake up! Wake up!!!"

Lazarus approached ZhaoYun and shook at his shoulders but the latter did not respond. His eyes were open as if he was stunned in the last moments of his death.

The Dimensional Master calmly shouldered his spear.

"It is not as if you have never died even once," he mused. "If you change your mind, you can retreat from the raid and I will act as if you never came. Take it as my generosity for your foolishness."

I gritted my teeth.

"Generosity? You just killed someone and you did not feel the slightest remorse!"

The Dimensional Master scoffed. "Remorse? It is you who disturbed me first. But no worries," he added with a creepy smile.

"The time is ticking. One hour is already gone. Within another hour, this raid will be declared as failed and every each of you will perish."

The Dimensional Master tapped at the broken floor with the end of his spear.

"After I am done with you guys, I will continue working on Afterlife Dream. I will make the game great again. Everyone gets to live forever!!!"

This guy was nuts. He had no qualms about killing anyone because he believed that he could revive anyone inside the game anyway.

I slipped a hand at my back and grabbed the first person I managed to touch. The slight gasp told me that it was HellWitch's hand.

I quickly wrote three letters on the back of HellWitch's hand.

RES.

Please, HellWitch... I prayed. Please understand what I was trying to ask you to do...

Behind me, HellWitch rose to her feet and launched herself at the Dimensional Master with a roar. Following her lead, Lazarus and Cecilia also started shooting at the Dimensional Master.

Meanwhile, I grabbed both Livina and ZhaoYun and cast, "Resurrection!"