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“What about Mom and Dad?”

“They had a company gathering today. They’ll be back very late, so they told us to go out and eat on our own.”

“I see…”

“Bro, you’ve been really strange today.” Zina picked up her small bag, brushed her hair back, and pushed the door open as she spoke.

“Have I? Must be your imagination,” Zane replied, following behind her.

“…Forget it, I won’t dwell on that.” Zina let out a soft sigh. “There’s something I want to discuss with you.”

“What is it?”

“I want…” She paused, as if gathering a great deal of courage, before finally forcing the words out with difficulty. “Play… Dreamscape.”

“Mm, then let’s play.” Zane nodded without hesitation.

“…I’m not joking! I know about our situation at home, but… I still want to confirm it.”

Confirm?

“Then let’s go buy a gaming helmet tomorrow. I remember I transferred some money back before. If it’s not enough, I’ll withdraw more.”

“But… that’s all money you worked so hard to earn.”

Was that hard work…?

“That level of effort was nothing more than routine.”

“…” Although she was happy her brother agreed, for some reason Zina suddenly felt the urge to pinch him hard. Couldn’t he speak a little more properly?

***

After letting those people go, Zane left that place alone.

He still didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he understood one thing clearly, Starry had countless enemies. Most of her time was spent either resting or fighting. He couldn’t stay in one place for too long.

Following a narrow path up the mountain, Zane knew that once he passed through here, there would be a small eatery ahead. He decided to head there first and grab a meal.

As he walked, faint droplets tapped softly against his arm, drip, drip.

‘Rain?’

Zane instinctively looked up, but a gleaming dagger flashed before his eyes. If his body hadn’t instinctively taken half a step back, his face would have been slashed open.

“So the rumors were true… Froststar really did lose her memory.” A clear female voice sounded from behind. ‘Froststar’ was the title others used for her here. Most outsiders addressed Starry that way.

“You are…?” Zane quickly stepped forward a few paces, then turned around, his expression turning grave.

“There’s no need for you to know.” The woman shook her head and raised her dagger high. “Because very soon, you’ll be saying goodbye to this cruel world.” With her threat delivered, she surged forward aggressively.

At that moment, Zane was genuinely terrified. Seriously, when even an assassin dared to charge head-on at a warrior, how could he not be afraid?

The dagger closed in rapidly, danger looming right before her eyes. As if guided by instinct, Zane drew the Autumn Moon Sword. Just like in the game, his movements flowed smoothly, his blade carving through the air in one seamless motion as a burst of sword energy slashed out—Frenzied Blade!

A domineering arc of sword energy shot from the tip of his blade, blasting straight toward the assassin. The narrow path left little room to evade.

**Slash!**

The enemy stared in disbelief at the wound in her chest as blood gushed out like a fountain. Her body collapsed to the ground. Only then did Zane snap back to his senses. ‘What… was that just now? That was Frenzied Blade right!?’

“Froststar has actually… mastered such a terrifying martial technique…” The fallen woman muttered weakly. Her head tilted to the side, and she fell silent.

“…” Zane placed his hand beneath the woman’s nose and waited for a moment. Thankfully, she was still breathing.

“Hang in there, don’t die! I think you can still be saved!”

***

Student Street.

Zina began to feel that she might have misunderstood something. Perhaps her brother hadn’t been doing anything like that in his room after all. And the reason?

Zane was currently stroking a red dress with a look of pure fascination, rubbing the fabric back and forth with clear delight before naturally taking it off the rack and walking toward the fitting room.¹　

“Hey, hey! Bro!” Zina hurriedly grabbed him. “What are you doing?! That’s a dress, a dress!”

“Huh? What’s wrong with a dress?” What made it even more infuriating was how confident he sounded.

“No… I don’t care what your personal interests are, but at least don’t try it on so openly! If you do this, other customers won’t dare to wear it anymore!”

“Why not? I can just buy it directly.” He replied matter-of-factly. “Don’t worry, money is something that comes quickly if you really go out and earn it.”

“…” Zina no longer felt like speaking. With the surrounding customers already casting glances their way, she looked utterly defeated as she muttered, “Then just buy this one.”

“But I haven’t even tried it on yet.”

“Stop talking!!”

…

At a ramen shop, the siblings sat inside having dinner, with all sorts of shopping bags piled beside them.

Zina was on the verge of mental collapse. Her brother had definitely taken the wrong medicine today. Yet Zane seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself, which left her emotions in complete disarray.

“Hey, did you hear? Several guilds fought a huge battle in Wynwater City today! The scene was insane, tsk tsk. Too bad I was in Dusk City, didn’t make it in time to join the fun,” a young man at the neighboring table said animatedly.

“The Frostcrystal Mine?” another man asked.

“Yeah, that’s the one. Honestly, those guilds in Wynwater City are seriously fierce, especially the Brotherhood. They absolutely crushed Cloud Edge!” The young man waved his fist as if he had personally beaten them down.

“Cloud Edge is just rich, that’s all. Acting like they’re the top guild right now. Once the Guild Creation Tokens come out later, they’ll at best be a lower-tier top guild.”
“Isn’t gaming just about who has more money anyway?”
“Not necessarily. Have you heard of Wynwater City’s War God?”
“You mean… Stardust?”

At the mention of that name, both siblings felt their hearts skip a beat.

“Exactly, her. On the second day after launch, she solo-cleared Rainflower, and she’s been holding first place in Wynwater City’s level rankings ever since. And just yesterday, she teamed up with Windblossom to take down a level 30 Unique boss. That kind of movement and awareness isn’t something you can buy with money.”

“Sigh… With so many players, it’s not surprising for a monster like that to appear. Too bad I got wiped out during the first wave of the monster siege. A whole day of leveling completely wasted.”

“Heh, you could try your luck with that big guy, see if you can leech some experience.”

“That big guy? What are you talking about?”

“The Frostcrystal Mine, obviously! Look.”

Zane casually glanced toward the young man’s phone, pretending not to care. Fortunately, his eyesight was good enough to vaguely make out the contents on the screen.

In short, Cloud Edge had used the monsters inside the mine to ambush and wipe out the main force of Nether Dawn, along with members from several small and mid-sized guilds, plus a bunch of bystanders.

Then, they themselves were slaughtered by a giant boss that emerged from within.

Incidentally, some bosses couldn’t be defeated simply by overwhelming them with numbers. Once the number of players in the vicinity exceeded a certain threshold, the monster’s attributes would change, and this boss was precisely that kind of creature.

After several hours of bloody fighting, the mine was now littered with equipment dropped by players. In a way, it had turned into a treasure trove.

However… for the time being, no one dared to enter again. A Unique boss wasn’t something to joke about. One area attack was enough to wipe out an entire party. More importantly, no one could withstand the boss’ second hit. With aggro constantly shifting in chaos, there was simply no way to fight it properly.

***

Inside the Frostcrystal Mine, the boss stood guard at a bend in the cave, staring viciously at a narrow crevice.

On the other side of that crevice, a small hidden room was concealed. Dukeette’s hands roamed over Seraphine’s body as she trembled. “Seraphine, I’m so scared… it’s still staring at us…”

Slapping her wandering hands away, Seraphine frowned. “This can’t go on. We can’t drop aggro, and we can’t log out either. We can’t just be stuck here all night.”

“My dad’s already urging me to log off…” DumbCitrus said helplessly.

“Then… how about we go out and fight it?” Nangong suggested tentatively. “Endless Sea, what do you think?” He was the most experienced gamer among them.

“…” To be honest, Endless Sea wanted to wait for a variable. Encountering the mechanism to this hidden room was already absurdly lucky, and staying put might lead to a better outcome. But the others weren’t like him. They couldn’t stay up all night, and besides, none of them had even had dinner yet.

‘Damn it. If the mine didn’t disable Return Scrolls, it wouldn’t have come to this.’