The virtual game "World," the Third Main City.
The sky was gloomy. Ever since the commanders of Teams One, Two, and Three had left the Third Main City, strange changes seemed to have come over it.
The commander of Team Four sat in his house and brewed a fragrant cup of clear green tea. He gulped it down, feeling refreshed, as though his mind had become much clearer.
In an old house a hundred meters across from his, a player sat on the balcony with another player, playing on a stone game board they had made themselves, placing their pieces one by one.
They appeared to be playing, but neither player had their mind on the game. Their attention was on the commander of Team Four instead.
The two players exchanged a glance. The flash of fanaticism in their eyes hinted that they were anything but ordinary.
Around them, other secretly stationed lookouts were keeping a close watch on the commanders of the other teams.
It was precisely because of this surveillance that certain fanatical players had dared to hold a sacrifice in the city.
After all, they had already gathered enough spacetime stone powder. Rare and difficult to collect as it was, with enough players gathering it and each contributing a little, they could meet the minimum requirement for one ritual.
Just then, the commander of Team Four, who was drinking his tea, suddenly felt a terror deep in his soul, as though some grotesque entity was being born within the city.
No, "being born" was not quite right. "Descending" better matched what he felt.
"What's going on?"
"What happened?"
The Fourth Commander rose and looked toward the sky.
The sky had already been gloomy, but now it went completely dark, as though something terrifying was descending.
Yet he