Mirror City

City of Kings.

Only after confirming that there were no more strange lights and the lightning had completely disappeared did Shen Long's taut throat suddenly relax, and he almost collapsed to the ground.

He slowly raised his head.

The sight before him made him catch his breath.

The city was ravaged, as if it had just been bombed by a nuclear weapon.

No! Those millions of lightning bolts striking down in succession were more terrifying than nuclear bombs.

Houses collapsed in patches, streets were cracked like a spider web, and wisps of smoke still rose from the charred ruins.

Shen Long's eyes were bloodshot, his throat bobbed, but he couldn't utter a sound.

This was the city he had painstakingly built, which had just reached level five. Before he could even show off for a few days, it was destroyed by Xiao Fan and his terrifying giant bird enveloped in lightning!

All that remained were broken tiles and a deathly silence throughout the city.

Shen Long's heart was bleeding, not to mention that his favorite son, Shen Beiwen, had also died in this disaster.

"Nine--Chen--"

Shen Long gritted his teeth, his anger soaring, wishing he could tear Xiao Fan to pieces.

Shen Beiwu, covered in dust and dirt, was slumped on the ground in despair when he heard his father's roar. He was so frightened that he quickly stepped forward and covered his father's mouth.

"Dad! Stop shouting! What if Jiu Chen and that bird are still here? We'll be finished if you call them here!"

Waaah~ He was really scared! He almost went to see his great-grandmother yesterday!

"Ni... zi!"

Shen Long forcefully pushed Shen Beiwu to the ground. He wanted to curse loudly, but when he thought of Xiao Fan and that huge bird that blotted out the sky, a sense of despair instantly enveloped him.

What's even more devastating is that this son in front of him is now his only child, and he can no longer beat him recklessly.

Three of Shen Long's four trusted confidants were dead, and the remaining one was terrified, only slowly reacting when he heard Shen Long's voice.

"City Lord, why can't we quit the game?" his only trusted confidant asked.

Knowing that Xiao Fan could become invisible, Shen Long didn't utter a single word, and his confidant was unaware that Quan Zhong had used the Disconnector.

The confidant was inexplicably unable to exit the game at a crucial moment, which greatly alarmed him.

Shen Long gets furious whenever this is mentioned.

"It's all that old bastard Quan Zhong! He used the Disconnector to capture Jiu Chen, preventing players in City of Kings from logging out of the game!" Shen Long cursed in a low voice.

If only the city is destroyed, he can rebuild it; it will just require some materials, and the materials in the Trading House aren't expensive these days.

But with so many players injured or killed, their reputation as a Level 5 City is ruined. If security can't be guaranteed, who would want to join their City of Kings?

Thinking about this, Shen Long suddenly felt that something was wrong.

"Aren't level 5 cities supposed to be able to withstand game creatures of level 250 and below? Why was that bird-beast able to attack the City of Kings?"

"Could it be!!!!"

"A city can only defend against creatures outside the city, not those that have already entered it?"

Shen Long suddenly realized.

"It seems we need to be more careful in the future. We can't let players capture high-level Fierce Beast and bring them into the city to participate in gladiatorial combat. It wouldn't be good if something unexpected happened."

As for the Zijin being a creature above level 250, Shen Long had never even considered it.

Are you kidding me? How could there possibly be creatures above level 200 here? There aren't even any level 100!

Only after hearing Shen Long's explanation did his confidant understand, and he was secretly speechless. Had they somehow tricked him?

However... that big bird from yesterday looked familiar, like I'd heard of it somewhere before.

His confidant frowned and thought carefully, then his eyes suddenly lit up.

"I remember now!"

Hearing the shout, Shen Long and Shen Beiwu both turned around to look at him.

"Keep your voice down." Shen Beiwu carefully looked around, and only whispered when he saw no one else, "What are you thinking about?"

"That bird! I know where that bird appeared!"

"Where?" Shen Long asked.

"The World's End Gathering Point!" The confidant swallowed hard. "Back then, when Young Master Shen Tao... died, wasn't he killed by a giant bird- Magic Beast that broke into the gathering place? Many people saw that bird- Magic Beast back then; it had purple feathers and golden wings, and its features were exactly the same as the one above our heads just now!"

Hearing his confidant say this, Shen Long finally remembered the matter.

When Shen Tao died, he felt that something was amiss.

A Magic Beast broke into a player settlement, and instead of killing a bunch of players, it killed Shen Tao and several of his trusted followers. Is this reasonable?

Unreasonable!

If this Magic Beast is a player's pet, then everything makes sense!

"Nine--Chen--"

Shen Long's face was ashen, and his fists were clenched tightly!

Only now did he realize the depth of his hatred for Xiao Fan.

All three of his sons died at Xiao Fan's hands!

"One day, I, Shen Long, will make you pay for your crimes in blood!"

"Dad, what do we do now?" Shen Beiwu's voice came through the phone.

Shen Long took a deep breath.

"First, find that old bastard with the Quan Zhong and restore the game exit function."

After this devastating lightning strike, very few players survived in the City of Kings. Even those who did survive are now huddled in the wreckage, trembling with fear.

They need to quit the game and calm down until they are sure that Xiao Fan and the big bird have left the City of Kings.

Dragon City.

Zhou He spoke slowly.

"The Jun Family is no ordinary family; they are a truly great family with a history spanning thousands of years. Throughout history, they have produced many monarchs, scholars, and military generals."

Before the game's invasion, the Jun Family, along with other prominent families with similar histories spanning millennia, lived in an independent city called Mirror City. These families were also known as the Hermit Families.

"Each family has only a few branches living in different countries. Like Quan Zhong, who belongs to the Jun Family, but lives in our Dragon Nation."

"After the game invasion, Mirror City formed an independent server, and this server had already arrived in Mirror City before the Black Fog invaded Blue Star."

Xiao Fan hadn't expected that Blue Star had such an independent server.

"What is this? A beta tester? If there was a beta test, Blue Star should have been prepared. How did they end up like this?"

Xiao Fan voiced his question.

"This special server is different from ordinary servers," Zhou He explained.

"For players who enter this server, the requirements to return to the Real World are extremely stringent. It can take players at least five years to complete this requirement, and there is no upper limit. Unlike our three major servers, where you can log off simply by spending Core Power."

"So you basically don't see any Mirror City players in the Real World now. We only learned about this server five years ago..."

After Zhou He's explanation, Xiao Fan learned that the launcher technology was actually developed by players on the Mirror City Server.

"No wonder the Quan Zhong has items to prevent players from quitting the game."

As for the specific situation inside the Mirror City Server, Zhou He didn't know much either.

They couldn't find this server, couldn't locate it, and couldn't log in.