Yan Country War Zone, Boulder Fortress.
On the city walls, the hundred-man elite squad from the Blazing Hearts guild had just finished a brutal defensive battle.
The players sat or lay against the cold battlements, gasping for breath as they recovered their stamina and mana.
"Damn it, these Abyssal Worms are getting harder and harder to kill. They can even burrow underground now." Da Shan Zhu Jiu, the team's chief Shield Guard, spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and removed his helmet, revealing a square face drenched in sweat.
"Can't be helped. As our levels rise, the monsters evolve too." A mage player downed a bottle of blue potion. "Once we're resupplied, we'll have to go down there and wipe them out. Otherwise, they'll hollow out the base of the walls by tonight."
A chorus of agreement rose from the surrounding players, mixed with the crisp clinks of colliding equipment.
This was the players' daily life after Apocalypse Descent.
Fight, grow stronger, protect.
Day after day, tedious yet fulfilling.
Just then, someone suddenly pointed at the sky, his voice trembling.
"Look... what is that?"
Everyone instinctively looked up.
After just one glance, the noisy city walls instantly fell into dead silence.
The once-clear sky had somehow been replaced by a boundless Star Map.
Galaxies flowed, light and darkness intertwined, and its vast depth made their souls tremble.
Then, a voice rang directly within their souls. It was majestic and vast, belonging to no known language, yet every living being instantly understood its meaning.
[The Main God announces to all of Apocalypse's People:] [The New God Era begins at this moment.] [The Eight Paths to Godhood are established for all living beings!]
Before the voice had faded, eight pillars of light shot up from the Star Map, transforming