As the light devoured me, I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was back in Loyd’s office. Loyd and Crimson were staring at me with worries. I don’t know if this is because of the dream I just had but Loyd and Crimson’s faces were overlapping with Armin and Ethan’s. Although they were worried about me, I was completely fine. I didn’t break any bones and I didn’t have a headache.

It was such a sweet dream. Nothing bad really happened. Although I had a bad headache, at least I got some of my memories back. I first thought that it was all just a dungeon with some setups but when I had a talk with Ethan, that was when I first started to waver. I first thought of just enjoying being in the flashback. After the crazy fight I had with Duk, I thought I deserved to take a little rest. It was all great until Armin’s singing. It helped me, quote on quote, “Escape Reality”. But right when I saw Ethan outside the house, I knew something was wrong. Like it was a gut feeling. He wasn’t the Ethan I previously knew. He felt odd… Well it doesn’t really matter anymore. What really matters is that…

“So how the hell are we gonna reach ?” Crimson questioned. I don’t understand why he was asking specifically to me since I literally arrived in this world like today. I mean I guess I am the right person to ask since I played this game for thousands of hours. Even though I had a comprehensive amount of knowledge about this world, I didn’t know how to go to .

Out of the 3 major kingdoms, the only one that actually exists in our dimension is . and are located outside of our dimension. In case you are confused, the dimension is like a planet. If anything is inside the same dimension as the one you are in, there is always a way to get there. But if a place is located in a separate dimension, you have to use a special portal to reach. Since is located above the town, it is the only kingdom we could go to for now.

“Hmm…” Loyd brought up a solution after thinking for a little bit. “I mean we could just fly there.”

“Yeah no dip sherlock.” Crimson answered. “But how are we going to get there? Like how are we going to FLY INTO A PLACE WHEN SOMETHING CALLED GRAVITY IS PULLING US DOWN.” Crimson was screaming right into Loyd’s face. Loyd moved Crimson’s face out of his sight and soon started to charge his mana.

When enough light was gathered, he released them at once. Then, wings started to form from his back. They were made out of black feathers. There was also a black ring on top of his head as if he was an angel. As Loyd transformed, Crimson complained to Loyd. “How do you still have that trait? I thought it fully disappeared when you became the sin of pride?” I also wanted to ask that. During the lore of the server, Loyd once became the king of and became their representative. But as he went through corruption and awakening, he lost the qualification as the representative of and earned the trait, [Fallen Angel]. The black wings and the black ring on his head is a sign of [Fallen Angel]. But I thought he lost the trait as he became the sin of pride.

“Well, I didn’t lose it all at once.” Loyd answered. “Instead of it just disappearing, the trait just weakened itself over time as if it was fading away.” Crimson gave Loyd a side eye. He didn’t trust Loyd. I mean there aren't any possible answers other than that. But I don’t understand why it was fading away instead of getting deleted. After showing his wings, Loyd disabled his [Fallen Angel]. “Ok well you can fly but how am I and Luke going to get there?” Crimson questioned Loyd. “I mean I could technically crack a portal to -...” Loyd laughingly responded. “Be realistic.” Crimson said in such a serious voice. “Ugh, I never want to go through that portal again. It felt like all my organs were switching places!” Loyd’s portal has side effects like that? I never experienced when I was teleported into the ruins.

We were stuck in the room for the next hour with no new solutions. We couldn’t find a way to get to . We just sat on our seats trying to think of a way (Except for Crimson he was just goofing around). While I was thinking deeply, I opened the quest tab to see if there were any hints.

+

[Catastrophes of redemption]

Quest type: Main/Urgent

Quest difficulty: A+

Clear conditions: There are 4 total catastrophes approaching the town.

Compensation: Rewards depending on the catastrophe you defeat..

Time limit: Until the last catastrophe wakes up. (New quest given if awakes)

Progress report: You have defeated 1 catastrophe out of the 3.

+

“Well we don’t really have to rush. We can solve the problems in the town first and then go up to .” My words got Loyd’s attention. “What do you mean by that?” He asked. “Well the quest tab says that the last catastrophe will appear when all 3 of the mini-bosses are defeated. So technically, we are safe until all the catastrophes are defeated.” Loyd was surprised by my sharp conjecture and inference.

“But we are going to have to go to sooner or later. Govind’s wounds are pretty deep and severe. We are going to need healing from the angels.” Loyd argued. He was right. Although we didn’t have to rush killing the catastrophes, we had to get to as soon as possible to save Govind.

Boom. Sid bursted through Loyd’s office door. He was catching breathes. It seems like he was coming here in a rush. “The… The underground city… There is a rebellion there…” Sid notified. Loyd sighed with a big breath and stood up from his chair. “Well… I guess we have even more problems now…”

*

We exited the capitol and headed towards the underground city that Sid was talking about. My heart started to beat quickly. I was nervous that I finally got to visit the underground city. The underground city was one of the “Un-Opened” places. The moderators and the admins of the server foreshadowed that the underground city would be the first major update after the [Deconstructed] war but soon after the war ended, many people quit the server. During the [Deconstructed] war, many people died and their property. land, and structure was destroyed. The worst part of the war is that the war was a civil war. The major battles of the town happened everywhere. The central town, North Town district, Paradise district, Flower Mound district, and many more. Everyone was part of the war and they were hurt.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

The Underground City was an area public to only a certain number of people. After noticing that the damage caused from the war was so severe, the moderators decided to move people who didn’t want to participate in the war to the Underground City. Not much information is revealed but according to the villagers in the Underground City, they claim that the condition is very harsh. Considering that the Underground City is just a temporary solution to the war, I wouldn’t be surprised if they started a revolution because they were forgotten even after the war. No one would want to live there.

While we were heading to the elevator that would take us to the city, I had a question that came up in my head.

How will the people in the Underground City be represented? I mean the people who were moved to the Underground City during the [Deconstructed] war were actual players. Will they be represented as NPCs? Are they even real human beings? There could be a chance that some players will come into this world in their original form just like me but I highly doubt it. My theory is that they will just be characters, or a personified version of the players. Although they aren’t the players that played the server, they will be humans who have the history and story of the players. That’s kind of complicated.

“We are here.” Loyd pointed at a small house on top of a mountain. This was a mountain that acted as a natural barrier. The mountain that is in the center of all the walls in the town. It was located behind the white house. I looked back and was able to see the entirety of the town. If someone lived here, they would have woken up to an amazing view. We soon after entered the house. The door was actually a gate to the elevator. After a small shake, the elevator started functioning with creepy squeaks. The elevator seemed very old. There was rust everywhere and the elevator smelled like a sewer.

Not so long after we started to descend, we were welcomed with a view of the Underground city. Because this was the type of elevator used in mines, there weren’t any physical doors or walls. The city was nothing but darkness. It was very dark and the only thing that kept things visible were torches that were attached to the lift. We landed with a bit of a shock on the elevator. Loyd picked up one of the torches and walked out the lift. When we actually entered the city, we got a better view of the town. The condition wasn’t actually that bad. Obviously, it wasn’t as good as the overworld (Means the ground level of the world) but it wasn’t uninhabitable. The city itself was actually way smaller than I thought. The size of the city was smaller than most districts in the town. How did the town fit so many people into this small city?

After walking through the neighborhood, we arrived at this building. On the entrance of the building, it said this.

[City Hall].

Just like how we had the Capitol and the White House in the overworld, there was a city hall. The interior of the Hall was like any ordinary office building. It had orange mood lamps and the floor was made out of wood. Right after we entered, we headed towards the stairs instead of the lobby where most people were located. We walked across a very long hallway. We stopped when we got halfway across the hall. It was the office of the mayor of the underground city. Loyd bursted the door and rushed inside. It was a big office. Everything was a mess. There were books on the floor everywhere and broken particles of the chandelier. On top of the mayor’s desk, there was a name plate that snapped in half. One fragment said “Hu” and the other said “ck”. Combined, it said Huck. He was one of the players on the server. He was full of ambition. I guess he was supposed to be the mayor but something went wrong and he ran away.

Loyd silently stared at the broken name plate. I couldn’t read his face but I knew he was filled with anger and rage right now. Loyd is the type of person that hates something not going as planned. Obviously, this Underground City Revolution wasn’t part of his plan. I think Huck running away from his office probably affected this revolution.

“Irresponsible bitch…” Loyd quietly whispered to himself. “How the hell was he going to become a ‘King’ when can’t even protect his spot as a mayor?” It seems that he was mad about the fact that Huck ran away from his problems and just let the revolution and the situation of the Underground City worse. With force, he dropped a hard punch on the table. The wooden table started to crack and split in half like a styrofoam. Crimson sighed and grabbed a chair near me as if he knew this shit would take a long time.

After a few minutes, Loyd calmed himself down. He grabbed a glass of water and gobbled it. He then sat on the mayor’s chair.

“So what happens now?” I asked. “I don’t see any signs of the revolution. The city itself isn’t even that bad. I mean I would definitely say it’s not as good as the overworld but it ain’t that bad.” Loyd then stood up and walked towards the window behind the office desk. He then moved the curtain away and signed me to come to him. When I saw the view from the window, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Hell. That was the best word to describe this place. How can I forget? The Underground City is made out of 3 levels. The top level, the one we are located in, is the most peaceful one. It is very close to ground zero and has important buildings like the city hall and other government buildings. The 2nd level is where people live. It has houses, apartments, and stores for people to visit. The problem was the last floor. The one located on the very bottom was a total chaos. There were dead corpses all around. The bottom floor was for the poor people who couldn’t afford any places to stay. They mined raw ores and worked like slaves. This was the result of conflict, war, and poverty.

“Holy shit…” I blurted. How are we going to stop all this?

*

A sound of a beautiful melody from a clarinet spread through the garden. A man in a suit with black feather wings was relaxing in a garden. When he was done playing, a girl with golden blonde hair wearing a black casual dress approached him.

“Adversary.” She spoke. “I have given the incarnation an ordeal.” The man in the suit didn’t even turn around when the girl talked to her. He just silently nodded. He walked away to a garden and started to water the flowers in the garden. Even after the man's reply, the girl didn’t just walk away. She asked him a question. “This is the 2nd time you have ever shown interest in an incarnation.” The man suddenly stopped giving water to the flowers. Nervously, the girl continued her question. “Are you planning to take him as your new incarnation? Do you not remember what happened the last time you tried to take an incarnation? He became corrupt and you were also damaged.” The man set the watering can on the floor and spoke.

“He is different, Uriel.” He finally answered. “He isn’t like the sin. I will never let the same incident repeat.” There was confidence in the man’s voice. Then, he finally turned around and revealed himself. He was a young man. Probably around the age of 14~15. He would’ve been a freshman in highschool. “I know him well. Very well. We were friends for a while. I will guide him to the correct path.” After hearing the man’s answer, the girl walked away.

The garden where the man was standing was actually a floating island. There were many other islands around him other than just the garden. He walked towards the edge and stared down to the infinite void filled with clouds. In the time of sunset where the sky was pink and orange, he spoke.

“Well, I guess it’s time I prepare to go home now.”