Chapter 3: Large Map

Just as Leon was about to rest, a strange light suddenly appeared on the other wall. Leon turned his head and saw a projection of a man about his age on the wall.

"Leon, come over quickly, there's a big mission."

Leon was stunned for a moment, then excitedly shouted, "Give me the coordinates, I'll be there right away."

"What coordinates? Just get to the school quickly. This is a big mission; the principal has called all the students over." The projection shouted loudly.

Hearing this, Leon was stunned again but immediately rushed toward the wall recording his data and slammed into it.

Strangely enough, the wall looked quite solid, but as soon as Leon ran into it, he passed through it like a water curtain, leaving the room and stepping onto the street.

This street was quite peculiar. There were no buildings; all along the street were identical wooden doors with no decorations, continuously moving. No one knew which door corresponded to which room.

At the end of the street was a giant disk about the size of a football field, and above the disk was a huge glowing orb.

Leon moved quickly, and in an instant, he arrived at the disk. Just as he stepped onto it, a beam of white light transformed into a human figure in front of him.

"Where are you headed?"

As Leon took out a card, he said, "I am a student of Sun City High School, class 42973, player ID DS-54370681-157. I just received a message that our principal has issued a summons. I need to return to the school as soon as possible."

The human figure scanned the card in Leon's hand with a beam of light from its eyes, then nodded and said, "Identity confirmed, and the principal of Sun City High School has indeed issued a summons. The emergency passage for you has been opened in area seven. You can go straight there."

With that, the human figure stepped aside to clear a path.

Leon thanked the figure and quickly headed in the direction it indicated. In his eyes, a certain spot on the disk was flashing with white light.

As soon as Leon stepped into that spot, he felt as though he was being sucked into another space. In an instant, he found himself transported to another location—a desolate wilderness bathed in blue light.

Looking up at the blue light curtain in the sky, Leon grew increasingly confused. This wasn't his first time entering the game world, but it was his first time encountering such a waiting light curtain.

He had heard that such light curtains only appeared when a new map was opening in the game world. So, was this desolate wilderness a new map that had appeared within the Sun City area?

As Leon pondered, more and more young people began to gather from all directions. These youths appeared to be in their twenties, but the traces of time were evident in their eyes.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Most of the youths standing beneath the light curtain had pale skin with a bluish tinge, and some even had dark circles under their eyes.

The majority of the youths were dressed in black robes, and some held bone or wooden staffs.

Leon glanced around and recognized most of them. The youths under this light curtain were all students from the Sun City High School who had an affinity for the shadow attribute.

While Leon was observing, the projection that had called him earlier reappeared. However, this time it was not a projection, but a young man who appeared to be a bit more mature than Leon.

"Leon, you finally made it. I was worried you wouldn’t catch up."

The young man greeted Leon and heavily patted his shoulder, saying, "Stick with me later. There are big rewards this time."

"Senior Victor, what’s going on? Even the seniors who are almost sixty have been called over."

The young man, known as Senior Victor, was named Victor Liu. He was a student of Sun City High School, class 42963, about ten years older than Leon. He was one of Leon’s closest friends in the entire school.

The reason their relationship was better than others was that Victor Liu's primary affinity, like Leon's, was for both shadow Attribute Magic/Force Affinity.

This type of affinity was rare, and in Sun City High School, only the two of them possessed it. On the path of magic and martial arts, Victor Liu had guided Leon far more than the instructors of the shadow attribute class.

When Leon asked him, Victor Liu proudly smiled and said, "Let me tell you, this new map is a large one. They say it has three villages, one main city, five five-man dungeons, one twenty-man raid, and one forty-man grand raid. If we secure this map, our school could be upgraded from rank 3 High School to rank 2 High School."

"Think about it; that’s why the principal called all the students back."

Leon nodded, his expression becoming serious. He knew the game world wasn't infinite. Each map had a limit on the number of players who could enter.

Moreover, the game world wasn't limitless in time either. Each map had a usage limit.

When the resources of a map were exhausted, it would no longer benefit the players and would eventually be discarded in a place known as the Boneyard Desert, left to decay on its own.

The place where Leon had acted as bait before was close to the Boneyard Desert.

Maps where players could safely level up were controlled by the city's major factions. Over the years, Sun City High School controlled only two large maps and three medium maps.

For this reason, to gain more resources, Leon had to risk being bait near the Boneyard Desert or complete tasks in other factions' large maps to earn money.

Now, with a new large map in front of them, it wasn’t just from the principal’s perspective; even from a student’s point of view, one more large map meant one more place to complete tasks and earn resources.

Compared to other factions that directly took half the resources, students who helped secure the new map would surely receive greater rewards from the school. There might even be a chance to try out a legendary dungeon before becoming an official player.

Seeing Leon's serious face, Victor Liu understood what Leon was thinking and whispered, "I’ve heard that this large map is an undead invasion map. You know what that means."

Leon nodded firmly at Victor Liu’s suggestive look.

At that moment, three men in black robes entered from outside the light curtain. As soon as they arrived, all the students gathered around them, saying, "Greetings, instructors."

Even Victor Liu, who had been talking to Leon, lowered his head in that direction.

These three men were the instructors of the shadow attribute affinity class at Sun City High School, each with a strength level of at least Lv1(8 stars).

After walking into the crowd, the three men stopped, and the one in the middle spoke directly, "Students, this time we must unite for the sake of Sun City High School."

"For the sake of Sun City High School."

"......"

The students shouted in unison.

After the students had shouted for a while, the instructor in the middle raised his hand slightly, signaling them to quiet down. "Students, this time we have secured the first opportunity to enter this new map. It has been determined that this map is called the Land of Desolation.

According to the information we’ve gathered, this map is the graveyard of Behemoths. All Behemoths come here when they grow old to await death.

The three villages and one main city on the map were built by the symbiotic species of the Behemoths to prevent outsiders from disturbing the Behemoths' rest.

We are still investigating the dungeon situation, but we have confirmed that the forty-man grand raid is located directly beneath the Behemoth Graveyard at the center of the map. Of course, this has nothing to do with us. Our shadow attribute affinity class needs to gather enough cannon fodder to secure the large map."

As he said this, the instructor glanced around at the students and, seeing their eyes filled with excitement, nodded with satisfaction before continuing.

"The principal has already stated that if we complete the mission well, every student will have a chance to enter one of the five-man dungeons."

Upon hearing this, all the students cheered, their voices almost breaking through the blue light curtain in the sky.

After the students calmed down, the instructor gave instructions, "All students with shadow Attribute Force Affinity, follow Professor Daniel to prepare. All students with shadow Attribute Magic Affinity, prepare the undead guiding magic circle. Victor Liu and, ah, Leon Reed, you two come with me."

Neither Victor Liu nor Leon expected to be called out individually, and they hurriedly squeezed through the crowd and ran to the instructor's side.

When they reached him, both lowered their heads respectfully and said, "Hello, Teacher Marcus."

Teacher Marcus looked the two of them up and down, then sighed, "There is a task, and it’s quite dangerous..."

Before Teacher Marcus could finish, Victor Liu and Leon spoke in unison, "We’ll take it."