MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

'So I died my first death in this new life and was out for twenty minutes, meaning the event should have ended,' Alex thought as he regained his senses and was greeted with the sight of his team.

"Brother, we won," Andrei said, and at the same time, Alex was greeted with a congratulatory notification from the system, followed by a long list of notifications, making him squint his eyes in annoyance.

"Brother, you should take a moment to gather your thoughts," Venedikt said as he tapped Andrei on his arm.

The team was present in the transparent space chamber above the mythical island, everyone carrying a look of concern because they had seen what Alex had gone through to pull off the victory.

"I am fine, so don't wear these gloomy faces when we should be celebrating our victory," Alex said to ease the build-up tension before he opened the live stream that was now available to him.

There was no formal end ceremony featuring player interviews or reward distribution. Instead, the event's outcome was instantly announced to the viewers and teams, and rewards were distributed to the teams as soon as the final player exited the battleground.

While Zero would give a final speech to end the event, the teams were not forced to listen to it, and they were given an entire day to recollect their thoughts and a choice to either stay in the Ancient World or return to the real world.

After one day, the teams will need to return to the Ancient world to participate in a private auction where they would spend their earned event points to bid for the available things or simply ask Zero for anything they wanted, and if they had enough points, they could acquire it.

"Brother, you looked incredible out there, and from what I can see on the internet, you have become the biggest star on earth," Andrei said as he sat beside Alex.

Andrei opened multiple transparent screens showing various social media platforms flooding with posts about the event, and in all of them, Ruler was at the top of the trend, even higher than the shadow Oblivion.

"I am sure you guys also gain a large crowd of fans," Alex said, feeling a bit giddy at his success but not really affected by it, knowing it was irrelevant in the end.

While some believed that without Alex, the Shadow Oblivion team would not even be in the top five, the large majority defended the rest of the team as highlights of what Venedikt, Andrei, Saahira, and Ravyn did in the event flooded the internet.

Comparisons were made between the best-performing players, as an unofficial ranking was drafted by the vote of viewers worldwide.

Among the five hundred players who participated, the team was in the top sixty, with Alex at the top, Andrei at the tenth, Venedikt at the nineteenth, Ravyn at the thirty-seventh, and Saahira at the fifty-ninth.

The ranking spoke volumes of their talent, knowing that none of the members besides Alex had experienced the Ancient world for longer than a year and three months.

'Let's see what I missed,' Alex thought, as he opened the game's official forum to get the most of the important news but mainly to watch the end of the event.

The final attack made by Fulgor was a thing of beauty, as the eleven lightning hydra heads seamlessly merged, coalescing into a radiant white sphere of lightning before the vast essence of lightning coursing through the clouds began to integrate with the globe that grew to tens of meters in diameter.

Fulgor stood in the sky, his figure veiled in crackling lightning, his eyes fixed on the pillar of darkness. The moment he saw Alex being flung out of the darkness, he lowered his hand, and like a dragon rudely awoken from its slumber, the sphere expanded in size as it released a beam of pristine lightning that poured down.

The beam of lightning covered close to a hundred meters, devouring the pillar of darkness in its entirety, and beneath its wrath, the ground was torn open with tendrils of residual lightning gushing out hundreds of meters away from the impact area.

The entire island was shocked under the wrath of the lightning, and seeing it, Alex felt a bit of loss, knowing he missed on such a remarkable and mysterious permanent summon, but he did not develop of it, knowing there was a big world out there.

The attack took 9.4% of Quetzalcoatl's health, putting the team back at the top, and exhausted from the exertion of the attack, Fulgor was killed moments later.

'Well, that was incredible and incredibly exhausting, but the outcome was worth it,' Alex thought as he began observing the large list of system notifications.

Alex was suffering from a 50% physical debuff that would last 24 hours and a 30% elemental debuff lasting 72 hours, and on top of that, he felt the mental fatigue weighing on him, making every movement feel like pushing through thick water.

'Not bad,' Alex thought as he looked at the final number of event points his team earned, a staggering 448 million points. 

Two hundred fifty million were the champion rewards, 72 million were for battling against the Quetzalcoatl, and the rest were their earnings from the first three rounds.

"Brother, Did you check the list of auction items? It is generous, to say the least," Venedikt said, seeing Alex close the system window.

"I will check it after some rest, and you guys should also log out, and when you are fresh, look for items you like,"

"Each of you will have a budget of 30 million, so make sure you pick things that best benefit you," Alex said, already having the items he desired in mind.

"Thanks for your generosity," Ravyn said as he logged out, and Saahira did followed his lead, leaving the boys alone.

-------------------

(Twenty-Four Hours Later)

"Well, this is one cruel way to honor the rankings," Andrei said as he appeared next to Alex atop a platform suspended mid-

air.

There were one hundred raised platforms, organized meticulously in a crescent pyramid shape, with the peak being a single platform that commanded attention.

Below it, two platforms flanked with their majesty being noticeably less than the first, and with each level, the number progressively grew, with there being a grand total of one hundred platforms.

The entire structure was suspended above the mythical beast island, and the stark difference in the appearance of the one hundred platforms made the hierarchy very clear.

"They are all elites and wouldn't be disturbed by such minor things," Venedikt said as he sat on the right seat beside Alex.

"The organization members are quite lively after getting access to the new items," Alex said as they checked the organization chat that was bustling with activity.

"You should read the wild theories some of them have come up with, explaining the stash of the Ruler treasury," Venedikt said, with a vary smile.

To celebrate winning the event, Alex decided to finally open the majority of the second section of the Ruler treasury, only keeping the restricted and truly broken things, the likes of War ships, private.

Once Saahira and Ravyn arrived, they began sharing with each other the items they decided to pick, and Alex was quick to make a few suggestions based on his knowledge.

Alex only wanted four items: the set of life knives to complete the set of his six knives of Doom, any and all remaining hearts of the Beast Monarch, a legacy item that would be present in the auction, and another item available for auction called golden eyes.

There were other items, like various ingredients, potion recipes, ancient ruin maps, locations of instant and permanent dungeons, and legacies and various other items, but the main four held the most priority.

The auction initiated after the twenty-four hours came to an end, and Alex quickly asked for the last set of knives but was disappointed to hear they were in possession of a player, and by a small price of four million, he was given the various clues about his profile, like appearance, his class, the area he hunted in, his line of work, which should make it very easy to find him.

Alex received good news from the Beast Monarch hearts as Zero gave him the sixth heart for a price of 25 million, which was quite steep but still worth it.

However, Zero did not confirm if there was a seventh or onward heart, but it was trouble for the future, and Alex knew that with just four hearts, the death timer was previously at a few decades, and with a sixth, it should surpass a century.

The bidding continued, and Alex was able to acquire the legacy of the Monarch of Silver Light, the legacy of an archer, and he was also able to acquire the golden eyes, a set of eyes that could observe through illusions and even had other unique abilities that he was not privy to but was a great item.

The team acquired everything they wanted, as hardly anyone desired to go on a bidding war with them when they had close to twice as many points as the second-ranked Asgardian guild.