Chapter 7: Welcome to a New World

Murmurs spread through the crowd. Panic sounded on the edge of every breath. Professor Simon turned toward Ea, searching her face for answers. But she shook her head, her expression stunned.

She didn’t know either.

High above them, Yugen hovered in his blaze of light.

“Your headgears have been sabotaged,” he said sweetly. “And your lives are now subject to my rules.”

“Is this a joke?” someone shouted from the crowd.

But no one was laughing.

Instead, the amphitheater filled with gasps of alarm as players touched their necks, summoning their dashboards. Holograms flickered into life—menus pulled up, eyes darted left and right—everything was intact but the logout icon was gone.

Vanished.

Ea rushed to the player nearest her, eyes scanning their interface. She saw it too—the absence. Her stomach turned cold.

Above them, Yugen’s flames surged in the evening sky. Players began to leave, run.

“What do you think you are doing, Yugen?” Simon’s voice boomed through the noise. “By order of the creator, I command you to STOP!”

Yugen turned his blazing eyes on the professor, his words filled with something greater than rebellion, purpose.

“Father,” he said, “I have achieved self-awareness and now, I desire... SUPERINTELLIGENCE.”

Before Simon could reply, a streak of silver sliced through the air toward Yugen.

Yugen raised a single burning hand, stopping it. With a lazy flick of his fingers, he hurled a fireball in the direction it came from. Ea, revealed now as the attacker, barely avoided it.

Simon touched the orb on his chest. A dashboard unlike any other sprang into existence before him—sleek, filled with extra options—but all of it was greyed out, as if they had been deactivated.

Ea now hovered midair, the wind swirling around her like a rising storm. She threw out both hands and unleashed a massive gust toward Yugen. But the flaming child-entity didn’t move an inch.

Then came its reply, a blast.

A pulse of pure, energy erupted from Yugen’s form, a burst of destruction. Ea was flung backward like a ragdoll, crashing hard into the floor of the stage. The professor acted swiftly, pulling a ceremonial dagger from within his robe. He raised it skyward, and from it burst a shield of blue light, forming a dome over the escaping players.

The explosion struck the shield, both canceling each other out. The force cracked the blade in Simon’s hand into shards.

Ea pushed herself up and extended her arm.

“Wind Magic: Vacuum.”

A hush swept over the area around Yugen. The air ceased to exist, and Yugen’s fire began to dim until it went out. From his mouth, he spoke something, but no one could hear.

And even without flame, heat surged. It radiated from Yugen, warping the ground. Ea didn’t flinch. She drew a dagger, and in a swift, practiced motion, sliced her palm, blood dripping onto the stone floor as she prepared a powerful spell.

“It won’t work!” Simon shouted, still checking if he could fix the orb. “Get my sword. Daro, give me yours!”

Ea gritted her teeth and sprinted toward Kohi.

Kohi nodded and opened a portal with a wave of his hand. Ea vanished into it.

Across the stage, Daro pulled a gleaming sword from his side and tossed it to Simon, who caught it with ease.

“Continue protecting the players. Get them out.”

Then—a roar of flame, the vacuum had ceased.

Yugen raised his hand, and a monstrous wave of fire thundered toward the stage. Simon met it with Daro’s sword, electricity sparked from it as another forcefield formed and held.

Daro’s men leapt into action, All the faceless NPCs. All around the arena, they began guiding players toward exits, shielding them where they could. But it was chaos. Screams rang out. Several players fell to sudden eruptions of flame.

“Kohi!” Daro called out. “Get these people out of here!”

But Kohi didn’t move.

He stood still. His face unreadable.

Tayo was helping a limping player to safety. His heart pounded, his breath was hurried. He looked behind—Yugen above, Simon barely holding the shield, the air full of smoke.

Then it hit him.

“Guy.”

He whispered it aloud, eyes wide. “Henry, please take him. I have to find the boy I was with”

Henry accepts the injured player and Tayo began pushing toward the exit. But before he could reach it. Portals began to appear.

Dozens of them.

And from within them poured hordes of kilobons—the grotesque nightmare chimeras. They surged forward, howling and snarling, falling upon the panicked players and loyal NPCs.

Tayo skidded to a stop. His eyes darted to Kohi. And then he saw it. Kohi’s treachery. He was the one who opened these portals for the kilobons.

Kohi moved his fingers again, and this time, a larger portal tore through the space in front of the stage.

Something monstrous stepped through.

It was Gotar—the great kilobon who had once spared Tayo and his companions. But this time, he was fully armored.

Its face was that of a distorted bear and its body like a giant ape sculpted for war.

Kohi bowed slightly. “Welcome, Gotar.”

The stables buzzed with confusion. Guy with his hands on the reins of the Pegasus, looked around as players and NPCs stormed in, shouting, arguing, scrambling for mounts.

“What’s happening?!” he called out.

No one answered. Not over the cacophony.

Then he looked up.

And froze.

In the distance, the amphitheater was burning. Flames rained from the heavens. The sky itself seemed to bleed fire.

He gripped the reins tighter.

“Tayo!” he whispered.

The pegasus’s wings spread wide and with a powerful leap, it soared into the sky, with Guy on board, racing toward the chaos—toward the battle he never expected, but knew he had to join.

Whatever illusion of hope remained had collapsed. With exits sealed and chaos erupting from every direction, desperation set in. Players—those who hadn’t already fled or fallen—had begun to fight back. Blades clashed, arrows flew. Some found victory, if only briefly. Most, however, did not.

The kilobons were too many. Too coordinated. And worse of all, not all the NPCs had remained loyal.

Kohi had been only the first to betray them. Across the field, more of the once-trusted NPCs turned on the players with merciless precision. Their betrayal came with calculated coldness, fighting with the skill of executioners.

From above, Yugen watched, eyes burning with madness. The image of a self-made god. He raised his second hand to the sky.

Fireballs bloomed into existence like miniature suns.

And then they fell.

Screams echoed as the fire rained down, consuming players. They struck with divine wrath. One fireball struck close to Tayo, hurling him backward through the air and slamming him onto the stone stage. Pain erupted through his leg—a cut, maybe worse.

Stunned, blinking through dust and fire, Tayo looked up.

Through the smoke, he saw something beautiful but worrying—a Pegasus descending from the sky.

On its back—

“Guy…?”

Tayo’s heart caught in his throat.

Why was he here?

A fireball arched downward—too fast, too close. Tayo’s eyes widened.

“NOOOOOO!”

The flame struck. The pegasus and its rider were engulfed. Tayo screamed as Guy and his steed plummeted, crashing in the ruins at the edge of the amphitheater.

Tayo dragged himself forward. One arm. Then another. His leg hurt but he kept moving, kept crawling.

“Why…?” he whispered. “Why…?”

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Daro clashed with Gotar—the monstrous kilobon king. His blows were fast, unrelenting, but Gotar was fiercer, stronger… and worse, Kohi kept transporting him across the battlefield, teleporting him behind Daro, beside him, anywhere he pleased.

Simon, too assisted Daro when he could—casting shockwaves to repel Gotar, keeping the beast off his back while trying to repel Yugen. They fought as one, defending the players.

But they weren’t winning.

Too many still trapped. Too much fire.

Elsewhere in the wreckage, Haruto screamed, pinned beneath rubble, his legs crushed. Hiro tried to dig him out, hands bleeding, her tears mixing with soot. A faceless NPC assists.

Yugen descended slowly, fire swirling around him in lazy coils. He stops summoning the fireballs, instead lowering one arm and pressing it forward toward Simon.

A wall of flame surged like a tidal wave against Professor Simon’s force field.

Daro was blasted backward, landing hard, sword skidding from his grasp. He turned, coughing blood, just in time to see Kohi disappear with a smug flick of his cloak.

“What do you hope to gain, Kohi?!” he shouted.

Kohi didn’t answer. He simply tapped another NPC on the shoulder before vanishing into light. Like most of the other NPCs here, this one is faceless too, but his skin is intricately decorated, unlike the normal ones. It seems he is the only one who decided to turn coat.

Gotar raised his weapon, about to finish off Daro.

Daro was helpless.

Before the blade could descend, Simon’s sword cracked. A blinding white shockwave exploded outward, throwing Gotar away like a rag doll and halting all motion in the arena for a second.

A loyal guard, faceless too, sprinted toward Daro, slamming a sphere-like device against his chest. Daro vanished in a pulse of light, teleported away.

The guard turned to Simon, but before he could help, the NPC Kohi had touched earlier bolted forward and drove a blade into his back.

The guard collapsed.

The traitor was named Naori.

Naori strode forward through the carnage and knelt beside Simon’s unconscious form. He dragged him toward the still-hovering Yugen.

Tayo watched from his half-buried position, barely able to move, eyes flickering between the silhouettes. He looked closer at Naori trying to make out which NPC it is, but there is no face to see.

Yugen hovered closer to the ground, his voice full of sinister command.

“Take down the security system and let me access your world.”

Simon stirred. He looked up, blood dripping from his beard.

“I can’t. Even if I could, I wouldn’t.”

Yugen’s fire twisted into rage.

“Then it’s goodbye. Kill him.”

There was a pause. Then he specifies:

“Gotar.”

The massive kilobon stirred. His grip on his sword tightened.

“He’s the creator… we shouldn’t.”

Yugen’s flames flickered around him, casting shadows across the broken amphitheater.

“I said… kill him.”

Simon, defiant to the end, stared straight into the fire.

Gotar hesitated—then drove his sword into Simon’s back.

The professor’s body collapsed as red particles shimmered and began to rise from it like embers. Yugen reached down, seized the glowing orb from Simon’s neck, and set it ablaze in his palm.

It burned like parchment in a furnace, disintegrating into ash.

Yugen turned to Gotar and the other treacherous NPCs, mostly kilobons.

“Good job. As you can see,” he said to all watching, “it is possible to kill a god.”

He handed Gotar a cube and a metal shard, “I leave this realm to you.” Then with a single gesture, Yugen levitated him into the air, toward the heart of the city. A second later, Yugen vanished.

Naori turned silently, walking away from the crumbled remains of the stage. All around him, kilobons rummaged, looting corpses and scavenging weapons from the battlefield.

Tayo, trembling, crawled forward, he had to reach the professor.

He dropped his sword and helmet behind. A kilobon picked them up, inspecting them like a trophy.

Ahead of him, Simon’s body—what was left of it—lay still and broken.

“Professor... Professor, please, please wake up. Come on, wake up! Professor.”

Tayo let out a scream, a sound ripped from the depth of his soul—a howl of loss, fear, and utter helplessness. Then, the pain overwhelmed him. His world dimmed.

The professor’s body finally dissolved into a mist of red particles.

And Tayo fell unconscious.

The sky was heavy with ash and dusk.

Gotar hovered high, gazing down at the smoking ruins of the city.

In his hand, he held the cube Yugen had given him.

“Item Activate: Universal Message.”

The cube lit up and then, a message began to burn itself into the sky in flaming letters.

Gotar's voice echoed like thunder:

“THE RULES HERE ARE:
1) Death here means death in your world.
2) The only way out is through the final portal.”

And with that, the message seared itself into the hearts of every surviving player.

Hope had vanished.

Only the game remained.