A year later, as the "Hell's Invasion" version opened in the Virtual World, large numbers of demons from Hell began to erode the entire Virtual World.
Many people had actually known about this in advance, but knowing about it and watching it happen before their eyes were two very different things.
Hell's Invasion still dealt a tremendous blow to everyone, especially when those native NPCs who had once gotten along well with them, and who had already confused the Virtual World with reality, died in battle! Some of them might only then have realized that although this was merely an update to them, to the living beings in the real Virtual World, it was a disaster.
According to the Virtual World's program-recycling rules, once a native virtual character was confirmed dead, that segment of code would be completely destroyed.
However, its memories would remain, preserved in the server's synchronization logs.
Many factions temporarily set aside their conflicts with one another and began fighting the forces of Hell together.
The Holy Light Church played an extremely important role in this. Holy Light could dispel darkness and weaken the power of Hell's demons, granting the surface races a certain boost in battle.
At the same time, people experienced the terror and brutality of a war between races—or rather, a war between civilizations—for the first time.
The forces of Hell would never take any surface creatures prisoner. They brought only destruction, wiping out everything in their path.
The places once occupied by the forces of Hell all became scorched lands filled with the stench of sulfur, with not the slightest trace of life remaining.
Even if some plant seeds were sown, they had great difficulty sprouting. Most withered and died the moment they were planted.
In real life, only four months might have