Cemetery District

The roads were a muddy mess after the rain.

The Slums were forever filled with muddy roads. One step would send mud and filth splashing everywhere. Now and then, rainwater would wash feces and garbage out from the corners of alleys, leaving a constant stench in the air. Amid the densely packed low shacks, many numb-faced people hurried about. They had to repair their homes before rushing to the docks to find hard labor. Whenever the season of heavy rains came, many houses leaked, and occasional collapses brought tragedy.

Soren carried Old Dog's already-cold corpse along the muddy, stinking road. Vivian held his hand with a sorrowful expression, silently following behind him.

Hiss was dead!

The old dog that had stayed by her side ever since she was born had finally reached the end of its life.

They were going to bury it as they would a human.

It deserved that much!

"Soren!..."

"That's Soren!... He's awake!..."

"Now this will be interesting."

The people in the Slums began whispering among themselves, their eyes holding a trace of awe. The youth before them was a formidable thief who could easily beat three or five grown men. It was said that he had once pinned a flying fly with a dagger. There were two thugs near this street named Baras and Canopo. Ever since Soren had fallen unconscious, they had been eyeing Vivian. Rumor had it that they had even taken part of Sosia's deposit and had spent this time warning others not to meddle!

The Slums were a land of sin.

No one was willing to stand up for this pitiful little girl. They feared those thugs and lacked the ability to fight them.

"Brother."

"Where are we going?"

Vivian wore a tattered dress, a cheap garment sewn from linen. Both its workmanship and fabric were inferior, something only people from the Slums would wear. Although Soren had once been an excellent thief, there was an even more formidable thieves' boss above him. Most of what he stole had to be handed over, leaving only enough for their basic survival.

There were rules of survival for those on the margins!

No matter how outstanding a newly initiated thief was, there was no way they could challenge such rules.

"To the cemetery."

"Hiss should be buried there."

As Soren looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar scene before him, memories began overlapping with reality. Amber City felt somewhat familiar because he had heard that name in the game before. But by then, the epic storyline had already begun. A terrifying force had erupted from the Chaotic Time-Space, causing the gods to temporarily lose their divine power and descend upon the world as Saints. It was an exceptionally chaotic era. Every so often, a deity would return to their Divine Realm, while mortals also succeeded in slaying gods. Players were merely part of it, perhaps not even a particularly noticeable part.

Because in the "War of the Gods," players only had three lives.

After every death and resurrection, their Constitution attribute would permanently decrease by three points. In the end, they had no choice but to return their souls to the Underworld and reincarnate.

Many powerful players rose during that time, only to fall soon afterward!

This stage belonged to everyone.

Only when the turbulent era ended and the gods returned to the Pantheon was that epic catastrophe brought to an end.

A third of the gods within the Pantheon had fallen!

Even powerful deities such as the Goddess of Magic, the Lord of Order, the Lady of Night, the Master of Shadows, and the Demon Lord of Fear had perished in that chaotic catastrophe.

Then an even more magnificent storyline began.

The thrones of the gods fell from the Celestial Realm. The realms of countless deities collapsed and descended into the mortal world, becoming special planes of existence.

Those were—the realms of the gods.

After enduring a long and arduous period, only the small number of players who survived were qualified to enter and explore them.

As for those fallen experts, they had to start over. At the very least, they needed to raise their Professional Level to an advanced rank before they were qualified to explore even the Divine Realm treasury of Glosas, the weakest God of Kobolds.

Many chaotic memories surfaced.

The somewhat familiar scenes before him told Soren just how turbulent this world would become in the future.

The Saints incarnated by the gods tore apart the earth, completely transforming more than twelve continental shelf plates of the Lower Planes. Three of those Lower Planes became lands of fire, ice, and death. Projections of devils from the Nine Hells spread everywhere, beguiling people and inciting massacre after massacre. Even players were not spared from being ** by them. Abyss Demons tore open the sky and descended amid an endless sea of blood. On the very first day the Abyss awakened, twelve cities with populations exceeding one hundred thousand were slaughtered clean!

That was what players called the Twilight Era.

It was the twilight of the gods, their twilight, and the twilight of everyone.

In the upheaval that swept across all planes of the universe, everyone died at least once. Even Soren had fallen completely, his soul forced to reincarnate in the Underworld.

No one could escape that catastrophe!

Even players born with heroic Professional templates could be erased as easily as ants crushed beneath someone's foot!

This was the era of Saints.

It was also an era that belonged to the gods!

And it was the final carnival of the gods of the Celestial Realm!

When the catastrophe ended,

the age of mortals would begin. Countless Divine Kingdoms awaited their exploration, and the treasuries of the gods contained everything they desired.

Whether it was immense power, boundless wealth, or the immortality everyone craved!

The Cemetery District was not in the Slums.

The Slums only had a Mass Grave. Every so often, corpses would be thrown there, then destitute scavengers would strip them bare while waiting for wild dogs to appear at night. Some bodies would also vanish into thin air, taken away by evil spellcasters. As for what they eventually became, no one wanted to know.

Hiss could not be buried in the Mass Grave.

Because Soren had already seen the greed in many people's eyes. What they saw was a pile of delicious dog meat.

He believed that if he buried Hiss there, someone would dig it up that very night, skin it, chop it into pieces, and cook it into a huge pot of dog meat.

This was the Slums!

Most people living here hovered on the edge of starvation.

They wanted meat.

If eating human flesh did not condemn one to the abyss of the Nine Hells, some starving vagrants would likely commit acts too horrifying to contemplate!

Soren still remembered when he had first entered the game!

At that time, neither he nor the others could have imagined that the game's environment would be so harsh and difficult.

There was no dazzling equipment, no breathtaking scenery, and no easy battles for venting frustration. There were only desperate fights where life and death were decided in an instant. There were only filthy, chaotic Slums, garbage and feces everywhere, and sin and darkness lurking in every corner. Even for a decent meal or an ordinary weapon, many people had to risk losing their heads.

Many who had just entered the game were deeply shaken by its darkness, sin, and depravity. For a time, many paladins even appeared among the players.

They swore great vows to change this sinful, fallen game world!

But in the end,

they were the ones changed, because they did not have the power to challenge the rules of an entire world.

The world would not change easily for you!

Every player who entered the "War of the Gods" went through a period of difficult choices. In that dark age beyond the imagination of modern civilization, they would witness and experience many things they had never dared even think about!

They might be evil and cruel, or sacred and great.

In this virtual world, everyone had to choose their own path, whether they wished to or not.

And it was precisely because of this

that for many people, the "War of the Gods" was almost another realm in their lives.

Cemetery District.

This was a quiet and peaceful land.

Because the temple of the Daughter of the Underworld stood here, this was a resting place for the dead. Priests and Temple Guards protected it, ensuring that the souls resting here would not be disturbed. Yet not everyone was qualified to rest here, because it required payment. The Goddess of Wealth had once said that everything in this world could be measured with money.

This was an age of rampant greed and sin!

Soren silently stood before the temple with Hiss's body in his arms. When an elderly priest appeared before him, he and Vivian slowly lowered their heads in respect. At first, he had suspected that he was still in the game world. But after seeing living people with independent consciousness for himself, he knew that he had truly come to a real world.

Besides, from Vivian, Soren learned that they had never known what attributes were!

Though he did not know why,

Soren inexplicably recalled the Magic Circle beneath the Game Pod, which looked like nothing more than decoration.

Because it seemed rather eerie, many people removed it after buying one.

Soren had been bolder, so he kept it. Later, however, the Game Company seemed to heed player feedback. Apart from the first batch of Game Pods, that strange decoration was never added again.

"Are you sure you want it to enter the cemetery?"

The old priest had seen many nobles bring pets that had died of old age to rest in the Cemetery District, but he had never seen a poor commoner like Soren.

Their clothes and the mud on their feet proved that they were merely the lowest of the poor.

Soren bowed slightly. "Yes."

"This is the offering to the temple for its burial."

He took out a Silver Daler and respectfully handed it over. As a natural thief, he had already earned his first income along the way.

As long as no one noticed!

It was a gleaming Silver Daler, currency minted by followers of the Goddess of Wealth. It could even circulate in the Nine Hells!

The old priest studied him deeply, then raised a hand and pointed to a box nearby. "Perhaps it was a loyal hunting dog."

"That is why it was worth your doing this."

"Child."

"Come with me. It will be given a place to rest."

Soren placed the Silver Daler into the box by the temple entrance, then carried Hiss's body into the cemetery behind it.

A small, inconspicuous corner.

When the two had dug a pit in the Cemetery District and buried Hiss, Vivian, who had been staring blankly in silence, shed tears again.

"Hiss!..."

The little girl crouched before the unremarkable grave and quietly said a few words. Then she stood with a resolute expression, her small hand gripping one of Soren's fingers.

Hiss was only an inconspicuous old dog.

It was not qualified to have a tombstone, so it had only a small grave.

In the farthest corner of the cemetery.