Versatile: Alternate World

After the prompt for the quest was accepted by everyone, they also log themselves out of the game to do final preparations and get their body for a long gaming time. It is necessary for prolonged periods of being inside the Alternate World.

The first to go out of his cabin is none other than Janus and the moment he opened the Reality Verse, the coldness of the temperature around his room started to permeate his skin, he instinctively hug himself to warm his cold body up.

"What the f*ck? Why is it so cold?! Did I leave the aircon turned on before I went to play? That shouldn't be the case and it shouldn't be this cold since I only put the temperature of that to the minimum."

Janus grabs his winter coat hanging just on the wall and wears it on his shivering body and yet despite the thick coat draped on his body, it's barely doing anything worthwhile at all. He still feel the coldness and the coat didn't help as it was also exposed to the cold weather.

Since it wasn't the worst kind of cold weather where everyone will freeze in just a slight movement, he decided to check on the others whether the temperature was just this cold in his room or it was this cold everywhere.

When he opened his door, the cold air wafted through his face like he was opening the door of the fridge, not only that but particles of ice already appeared on the floor, it looks like the floor is being covered by an ice carpet or the snow managed to get inside and piled up on the floor.

"Damn, this freezing cold phenomenon is indeed getting worse. The news is not even joking. It's not even winter time so why?"

He then noticed that the doors of the others started to open and behind those doors are the shivering people who just discovered the phenomenon all of a sudden.

"Bro! Sister Rika! You guys are alright? Be careful, it's literally freezing out here!" Akira is helping his sister move.

Rika is also shivering from the cold. She is draped with multiple blankets on her body. Without her clothes, she has to make do with just the blanket to cover herself from the cold.

"What is going on? Why is it so cold all of a sudden?" shivering, everyone huddled together to go downstairs. Using everyone's warmth, they tried to mitigate the coldness but it seems to be barely working.

When they made it downstairs, the siblings turned on the idle fireplace and they huddled there together until the cold weather will slowly disappear now that the fireplace has finally been lit. Everyone is thankful that Bladeheart's mansion comes with a fireplace. With it, even if the power runs out, they can still have heat that will warm up the whole place slowly but surely.

With the fireplace turned on, the heat gradually returned and although it is still cold, it is enough for their bodies to stop shivering completely. Janus swipe the curtain away from the window and discovered that the window is now completely shut due to how the handles have been frozen and opening it was close to impossible.

"Sh*t. This was worse than I thought. I thought we will only be dealing with the cold weather back in the game but even, in reality, we have to suffer from that? Tch," Janus clicked his tongue and turned on the television to check for the news.

And as he expected, the news channel is already covering the current situation. Even the broadcasters are covered with their coats like they were visiting the ski resorts on Hokkaido. It was the first time he saw the broadcasters wear something else aside from the usual formal clothes they usually wear but he didn't care about it as he listened to the current news.

"[The situation of the current temperature is no longer something the scientists can explain with science as things seem to gradually worsen. The previous assumption that it might just be some little abnormal phenomenon that will disappear gradually these past few days has gone totally haywire. People are advised to remain inside their homes unless it is necessary to venture outside. Currently, this is happening everywhere in the world and people are now panicking due to some fake news spreading about the world ending soon.

Please avoid believing hoaxes and only believing in reliable sources of the news. We will further update the situation so stay tuned.]"

"I can't blame the people believing the world is about to end especially with the situation of the world right now. It isn't normal and doomsayers are now taking advantage of the panic and chaos to add fuel to the fire," Rika shook her head in disappointment.

"It's pretty annoying indeed but we have no choice on the matter. With everything happening right now, it is indeed the right thing to remain inside the house. Oh well, now that we have warmed up quite a bit, let's go have some good rest and eat our fill too. We should get ourselves properly prepared as we will have to go do the game in a lengthy period of time."

Since he didn't see Manato anywhere at all, he already knew that he is still inside the game and is still playing, Janus went to the kitchen to cook food for everyone. Even though he is not as good as a cook as Manato, he can still create decent food and he is still proud of it that he does not burn the food he is cooking.

He was about to open the fridge to check for any ingredients to use when he saw a piece of paper on the fridge, pinned by a magnet and attached to the front, it is easy to spot when you are about to open the fridge's door. Janus can instinctively recognize the handwriting of Manato especially since it was a messy one. Since Manato send a letter instead of meeting with everybody, it must be somewhat urgent and the fact that they can't contact him means there must be some sort of special circumstances he was in.

Janus reads the letter and soon understood why he was gone and he can't be contacted by Dolly. He shook his head and sighed.

"Damn, if he didn't help the two queens to survey, perhaps we still have some reliable backup in this uncertain quest we have here but now we have no choice but to proceed without him."

The quest is big on uncertainty and knowing the danger, it would have been indeed reliable with him there. However, something else came up in his mind while thinking of those things.

'We have been relying on Manato's skills and have been stagnant and useless in some battles. I think it is also time to be independent of his guidance and prowess. He is indeed good at the game and he knows how to do things efficiently but we won't grow if we just keep on relying on him without any sort of training to do. I don't think the recent dungeon runs without him would help but now that it is going to be a big challenge, perhaps it is our time to actually contribute things without Manato's intervention.'

Janus clenches his fist and strengthens his resolve on improving. He can't just keep on staring and following the shadow of Manato. As they say, the chicks will eventually leave the nest. Those things don't just involve the birds but this also applies to humans.

...

...

The worldwide phenomenon of freezing weather has been causing too much panic in the crowd nowadays. No one knows what it really does or what is the circumstances that made things happen like this. However, there is one thing that is for sure. The longer this persists, the faster things will get really bad for everyone.

Somewhere out in the world, a small crack has appeared that no one has seen before. This kind of crack exists all around the world and despite being a small crack, it is big enough to leak something. For some unknown reason, the crack has been leaking a blue-colored wind that seems to slowly show its might. No one knows where the crack leads to, but it is quite clear what the little crack has to do with the changing weather of the world.

Even if people will discover these cracks, no one would know how to close them or destroy them permanently. An otherworldly crack that seems to come from another world. Perhaps it has something to do with a parallel world that co-exist with the world that the current humans resides. Perhaps it was something else, or maybe it was just that way designed until the effects have started to show the toll to everyone who experienced it. But it was clear that this is just the beginning and it is just some prelude to something more bigger.