Afterlife Dream

Being a High Priest, gaining experience was not an easy feat, especially at level 90+.

Although Ingenious encouraged me to level up to 110 as soon as possible to loot an Ice Dragon Cloak without even contributing anything, I was unable to do so within five days. Heartbreaking as it might be, but it was simply impossible.

My friends thankfully all managed to loot the Ice Dragon Cloak. By the time the last raid finished, I had merely been able to reach level 107.

Spurned by the latest disappearance cases, the high-level players worked even harder to level up.

Within the five days, more and more players reached level 150. Megaphones shot up the sky, announcing their achievements one by one.

We now had 20 players at level 150, including BlackPuma. That was the good news. The bad news was that only one of these 20 people was a Bishop, and it was KikiSan from Dominion.

In our guild, Hime was level 148, very close to 150. Aurendiria at level 144 came right after. The third highest level Healer in Twelve was ironically me, who was still trying hard to level up as fast as possible.

Three Bishops were not going to cut it when we ran against the Dimensional Master, so Ingenious and HinoKun decided.

All the High Priests in the game were thus encouraged to level up as soon as possible. The nineteen level 150 players meanwhile met up regularly to discuss the latest plan to defeat the Dimensional Master.

We were close to ending the crisis in Afterlife Dream. I could feel it. Everyone was also very excited.

"The Woe of The Ice Dragon" raid was the last raid to be deactivated. Almost a month had passed since the Dimensional Master appeared in the Afterlife Dream. The morning that the deactivation happened, I was in Paradise Island with everyone else from Twelve, preparing to hear the newest updates to the game.

All kinds of speculation went around as we tried to guess what was going to happen next.

Some of us speculated that the next group of raids would be deactivated soon. That would mean the level 120+ raids. Leaving maybe only the level 150 raids, which would mean that that was our only way out of the game.

Anticipating this possibility, a lot of high-level players had been working their asses off to level and loot as many end-game equipment as they could.

Some others believed that Afterlife Dream had already prepared another sinister plan to kidnap innocent players. We still did not know what was happening to BlackPuma and the other seven players, but we were pretty sure that the Dimensional Master was not done yet.

We were all holding our breaths, waiting for the revelation as the digital clock slowly ticked toward 7 AM.

The game truly did not disappoint. As soon as the clock hit 7 AM, it began.

"Dear Adventurers, five days have passed. The level 110 raid, "The Woe of The Ice Dragon" raid, is herewith deactivated."

After a while, circus music was heard playing in the background as a cheery mechanical voice announced the next event.

"Dear Adventurers, the circus is coming to town! To celebrate the occasion, the game will be hosting a fifteen-day carnival for your entertainment!

Every day, each player will receive a mysterious card in their mailbox.

Please bring the card to NPC Judy to enter the carnival map.

Within the carnival map, players are required to complete one game after another. After completing each game, players will be rewarded with Life Points and are then required to pick a new card. The more games players could complete in a day, the more Life Points the players can get.

The list of benefits that players can get using Life Points has been amended for the duration of the event.

Good luck, Adventurers!!!"

I blinked at the digital clock up in the sky.

Fifteen days.

Circus?

Carnival?

I exchanged glances with Aurendiria and Livina who were both standing next to me. They gave me equally puzzled looks. We were not the only ones. All around us, players were very confused.

At the same time, collective ding sounds were heard. We all opened our user interface screen almost simultaneously and saw a mail hovering in the middle of the screen. I clicked on it and a card accompanied by a message spun out of the mail.

"Congratulations! You have earned the High Priestess card!"

I frowned.

Next to me, Aurendiria drew the Lovers card and Livina drew the Death card. We showed our cards to each other. "Tarot cards?"

"What does it mean?"

"Why are there many different ones if we are entering the same carnival map?"

"Wait. These are tarot cards. There are altogether 78 tarot cards if I remember correctly!" a player nearby us shouted in excitement.

78?

Wasn't that too much?

"Let's just go to NPC Judy. Maybe we will find some answers," Livina suggested. "Better than just stand here and speculate."

Aurendiria and I both agreed. We thus started to look around in search for the event NPC.

It did not take long until we located the said NPC. She was a tall woman shrouded in a black tight-fit leather onesie from top to bottom. Other than the uberlarge witch hat over her head, she also wore a pair of high heel shoes. The heels were at least 20 cms but she moved so naturally in them as if she had worn them her whole life.

The NPC was walking around with a whip in her hand. She occasionally smacked her own palm with the whip lightly while muttering, "Welcome to the carnival, land of all wonders... Do not fear the unknown, as the unknown shall be your greatest strength...

Hovering above NPC Judy was a huge screen with the title "Carnival's Visitor Guide". The players that were surrounding her all had their heads tilted up as they read the content carefully from top to bottom.

The guide was relatively long.

There were altogether 22 tarot cards that players could receive, each of them representing a boss stage. The order along with the corresponding bosses was shown in a list :

0. The Fool - Red Bubble

1. The Magician - Giant Mushroom

2. The High Priestess - Undead Tree Stump

3. The Empress - Red Asura

4. The Emperor - Betty Hayes

5. The Hierophant - Evil Mantis Lord

6. The Lovers - Sergeant Ostrich

7. The Chariot - Lieutenant Gorilla

8. The Strength - General Aardvark

9. The Hermit - Snow Wolf

10. The Wheel Of Fortune - Dark Pegasus

11. The Justice - The Honorable Judge

12. The Hanged Man - Fire Golem

13. The Death - Queen Spider

14. The Temperance - Dark Fairy

15. The Devil - Ice Dragon

16. The Tower - Black Chimera

17. The Star - Heretic Priest

18. The Moon - Genius Archer

19. The Sun - Swift Assassin

20. The Judgement - War Lord

21. The World - The Dimensional Master

The Dimensional Master was also on the list.

The game was really impatient. It could not wait for us to meet the Dimensional Master as soon as possible.

Then again the news of the eight people's disappearances had reached the ears of everyone within the Afterlife Dream realm. Who would be so dumb to fall for this trick?

"Hey, guys."

Ingenious and ArrowRain showed up behind us. Ingenious had his eyes trained on the big screen. He chuckled and muttered the same thing that went on my mind.

"So impatient to swallow all of us whole?"

"What to do? Should we refrain from entering the game?" Livina asked, looking at Ingenious and ArrowRain expectantly.

"Oh no, we should enter," ArrowRain said. "The Life Points are too precious. Plus, have you seen the modified trade list?"

All of us but Ingenious shook our heads.

"It's really good. Too good. Take a look. Also, there's a second page to this visitor guide."

Just as ArrowRain spoke, the huge screen lit up and the content refreshed itself.

Some excellent tipps and tricks to make the best of your stay in the carnival map :

1. Six players in a party can enter the same stage at the same time.

2. If the players that enter together have different cards, then all of them will enter the boss stage that corresponds to the highest card.

3. If a player forfeits a stage, the player can only re-enter the next day.

"Aha."

"We can enter in parties. Not bad."

"There is an option to forfeit. So if anyone draws The World card, they can just forfeit and get out safely."

"Yup, really not bad."

"Sooo, it is relatively safe?" I drawled, looking at my guildmates one by one.

"Yup," Ingenious answered. "Good luck, everyone. Let's see how it goes."

Ingenious and ArrowRain left, and the rest of us went to check the Life Points NPC. Equally many players were there to look at the modified trade list. Indeed, a few other items had been added. I widened my eyes when I saw what extra items were listed there.

Fire Golem Helmet - 50 Life Points.

Queen Spider Boots - 100 Life Points.

Dark Fairy Gloves - 200 Life Points.

Ice Dragon Cloak - 400 Life Points.

All the end-game equipment of deactivated raids were listed there and they cost a lot.