New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Aravelle was about to start explaining how he would help Astaroth with this when he suddenly heard her voice.

He frowned, mentally asking her what she meant, but no answer came back.

Seeing he wasn't paying attention, Aravelle was about to smack the back of his head, but as he swung, Astaroth suddenly vanished.

And he wasn't the only one.

Across the world of New Eden, every single player present, whether they were busy or just enjoying some food in a cozy restaurant, vanished simultaneously.

Opening his eyes in his pod, taking a deep breath from the abrupt disconnect, Alexander pushed open the top of his pod.

He heard Kary in her pod awaken similarly raggedly and called out to her.

"You alright?"

Kary pushed open the top of her pod, feeling like she had woken up from a nightmare.

"I'm fine. What the hell just happened? I was going to talk to Alena when I suddenly got booted out of the game…"

Alex looked at her with narrowing eyes.

"Yeah, same for me. There was no warning or anything. What the fuck is happening?"

"I don't know either. Did David tell you this would be happening?" Kary asked.

"No. He w—"

*Dvvt Dvvt*

Alex paused his phrase, looking into the air, as his new neuro-phone opened a screen only he could see. And on it, David's name and face, with the words *Incoming call*.

"He's calling me. Maybe he forgot to tell me. I'll answer."

Kary nodded, waiting for him to put the call on speaker. And Alex did just that as he answered it.

"Hey, David. You call to tell me something you forgot, man?"

"What the fuck did you do this time?!" David's voice came, sounding angry.

"Huh? What the hell do you mean? I was kicked out, just like everyone."

"Then tell me what you did, Alex. I looked online, and EG is saying their servers crashed. What did you do? Every time something happens, you are at the center of it," David replied.

"Hey, listen, man. I was hoping you could tell me what was happening. Isn't this supposed to happen?" Alex asked, confused.

"No! This has never happened before! Something caused this, Alex. We need to figure out what. Every moment we spend outside of New Eden this close to the scheduled update is that much more chance that my plan goes down the drain!"

Alex could hear the panic in his voice, and he could tell David wasn't lying. Novel Fire - novelfire.net

"I doubt it will be too long before we can head back inside, David. Let's not devolve into panic just yet," Alex tried calming him.

"Alex, you don't understand! I can't feel the rifts anymore! If mana doesn't keep leaking into our world, we'll never be ready when the demons invade!"

Hearing him say this, Alex quickly activated his mana vision, looking around him. And his face paled.

David was right.

Even the leak that was in his room was gone. Only residual mana floated around in the air.

"What could cause this?" he asked David.

"How the fuck would I know?! I told you this never happened before!" David shouted into the phone.

"Let's calm down a notch," Kary intervened.

Her face was now stoic, with her eyes narrowed and calculative.

"There has to be a reason. If EG was hacked, then it's only a matter of time before they regain control, no?" she asked, hoping David would know more.

"EG wasn't hacked. That; I've seen before. We would still be inside. Hell, we would be stuck there until they regain control. This isn't the same," David answered, returning to a more normal tone.

"Then maybe a glitch in the pods and helmets? Something that made all of them lose connection at once?" Alex asked.

"No. That's impossible. The pods are practically individual nodes in EG's system. You can't disable a group of them at once. Way too much trouble," David answered.

"Then what the heck could have kicked us out?" Alex asked.

But before David could reply, Alex's phone rang again.

He frowned, seeing the number appear.

"It's Killi. Why is he calling me?"

"Doesn't matter. Put him in a conference. Maybe he knows something," David replied.

"Alright."

Swiping the accept button mentally, Alex slid Killi's call into a conference with David and himself.

"Hey, Killi. Listen, man, I put you on speaker and conference; Khalor and Phoenix are there, too."

"Killi, did something happen near you before you got disconnected?" David immediately asked, not letting him say hi.

"Hello to you too, Khalor. Are you guys disconnected over there, too?"

"Yes," Kary replied.

"Hmm. Strange. I don't believe EG is telling the truth about their hacking thing. It wouldn't have kicked everyone out. After all, we aren't all on the same servers," Killi said, sounding intrigued.

"That doesn't matter right now!" David interrupted.

"Tell me if something happened near your location before you got kicked out!"

They heard Killi sigh, and Alex and Kary wanted to do the same.

"There was something. But I doubt it changes anything to our situation. Also, I didn't get to see everything, as I died before we got logged out."

"Tell me what happened!" David rushed him.

"Pipe down, man. You are blowing out my ear."

"Just tell me already!"

*Sigh*

"Some dude just popped up in the sky, screaming a name, and we all started to lose health. Some of my players just outright blew up. Whoever he was, he wasn't some weak trash mob."

Alex frowned.

"That sounds like something that happened to me earlier today. It was a god, though. I doubt he could come back down that fast. What's the name he called out?" Alex asked, wondering why the gods were suddenly so proactive in the mortal realm.

"I barely caught it before collapsing," Killi replied.

"Something that starts with Psy. I fell unconscious before I could hear the rest of the name."

"Psy? I don't know any monsters or beings whose name starts with Psy. Also, I doubt a god would land in New Eden just seeking someone. There are limitations in place. Only one god has free rein on where he goes, and he wouldn't go to the mortal realm.

"He hates the place. Considers the inhabitants' maggots and would rather step in shit than step on the same ground as us," David scoffed.

But Alex's face had already whitened to deathly hues, the blood raining out of it.

"That was Gaius…" he mumbled.

"Wait, how do you know about Gaius?" David asked.

"Because he's the one who came at me earlier today… And I know the name he called out. Now her message makes sense…"

"The hell are you talking about, man? Gaius wouldn't give two squirts of piss about any of us. Not yet, at least. And whose message?" David asked, his tone confused.

"Psyche… Gaius was after Psyche… And I think she might be dead…"