"What happened?"
When Fang Zheng arrived, the first thing he saw was Argo's anxious face, along with several bedraggled players.
"You finally made it, Fang Zheng."
Argo sighed in relief when she saw Fang Zheng appear.
"The situation isn't looking good. Let him explain it to you."
As she spoke, Argo gestured to one of the players beside her. Fang Zheng watched the player walk over. He looked to be a young man of twenty-six or twenty-seven, with short hair and the appearance of someone who had not slept in days. The moment he saw Fang Zheng, he hurriedly greeted him.
"Hello, I'm Hori Teikichi from the Red Knight Order. Here's the situation. Today, the Red Knight Order arranged to act together with Dark Nebula and explore the abandoned Steel City Dungeon on the twenty-fifth floor. Everything went fairly smoothly, but just as we finished the Dungeon and were preparing to leave, an elite monster suddenly appeared..."
"An elite monster? A world boss?"
"Yes!"
Hori Teikichi, the young man who looked much like a corporate slave, nodded.
"At first, we were shocked. We thought it was some kind of follow-up event for the Dungeon, but that world boss was far beyond anything we expected! It was more than twenty levels higher than us! On top of that, when the boss appeared, communications throughout the entire area were cut off, and we couldn't use Teleport Crystals to return to the city either!"
"You couldn't use Teleport Crystals or contact anyone?"
Fang Zheng's expression darkened slightly upon hearing that, and he silently took note of that trait.
"Yes. Not just us—the entire Steel City was sealed off. Besides us, there were also players gathering materials and doing quests trapped inside. There were several hundred people in all. The guild leader gathered them