Afterlife Dream

The area that bore the name of "Dimensional Sphere" was open for those who managed to achieve level 150 and above. There was no means of transportation to reach the area. In order to go there, players must walk from Frozen Tundra Land all the way to Dimensional Sphere.

Frozen Tundra Land maps were covered in eternal ice with skeleton monsters that wandered around like restless undeads. The farther we went, the fewer monsters there were until there were truly no more. At the end of the last Frozen Tundra Land map, there was a cliff with a huge ravine underneath. We were unable to see the bottom of the ravine as it was covered by a gigantic, white vortex that emitted soft bluish light.

Although the size was definitely bigger than what I was used to, I knew directly where I once saw it. Cecilia also remembered.

"It looks like the portals in the universe," Cecilia commented.

"The universe?" Livina and ZhaoYun asked full of curiosity. "What universe?"

"Remember when Antares once fell over the edge of the map?" Cecilia gave them some hints, after which they immediately came to remember.

"OHHHH, that universe!"

"Yes, that one."

It was the universe that I accidentally fell into when we were researching the glitched bridges that led to Fairy Forest. The last time I went there, I was with Aurendiria and Cecilia. We were busy tagging the portals. In the end, it was all for naught because we never returned to investigate further.


Livina pursed her lips. "Antares, you are so lucky. I also want to have a pair of Angel Wings."

I merely laughed. With power came responsibilities. Sometimes I wondered if I would have been happier if I had not delved into the great mystery that Afterlife Dream had to offer. It might be much more fun to just wait for others to fix something for me because they had wings while I did not.

Was it not so much better to be able to wait and not do anything at all?

"Sooo...." HellWitch gestured toward the giant vortex. "Should we just throw ourselves in?"

Cecilia nodded. "Yup. There is no mistake about this and it is also fairly harmless. As soon as we go through the vortex, we will land in the Dimensional Sphere."

Dimensional Sphere, the level 150+ area.

I swallowed my anxiety but it did not help. The lump in my throat kept reforming no matter how many times I tried to get rid of it.

"Okay then."

ZhaoYun, bless his heart, had enough courage to look at the three girls and asked, "Ladies first?"

None of the girls answered. HellWitch and Cecilia gave ZhaoYun deadpanned looks while Livina took some action. She cold-bloodedly pushed ZhaoYun off the cliff.

"AAAAHHHHHH!!!!" ZhaoYun's scream was cut off when he disappeared behind the vortex.

Cecilia whistled. "Off he goes. Now, which one of the two of you will go next?"
She naturally referred to the remaining boys.

Lazarus and I did not need anyone to push us. We willingly jumped into the vortex. I panicked for a while when my body accelerated toward the vortex. I thought that I was going to slam against a solid object so I instinctively closed my eyes and held both arms in front of my face.

The collision, thankfully, never happened. Instead, I found myself miraculously standing upright inside the map.

"Yooo, finally. I thought you guys would never come," ZhaoYun's naggy voice was heard coming from my right side.

We were standing on a glass bridge with no railing. I said that it was a glass bridge, but for some reason, the pattern within the glass bridge was moving. There was a wisp of silver, then a wisp of gold. Occasionally I even saw fishes swimming inside the glass.

"What the heck is that?" I asked, pointing at a goldfish that was swimming away from me, inside the glass bridge that I was standing at.

​ ZhaoYun dismissed my question with a wave. "Oh, it's nothing. Decoration, Antares. Decoration."

"Oh."

The Dimensional Sphere map was an intricate one. The map was built on glass platforms of various sizes. The bigger ones were as large as tiny islands, with tall buildings standing on top of them. The smaller ones often only had NPCs or some random stalls or nothing at all.

The islands were connected by glass bridges.

Other than that, we were practically in outer space. If I did not know better, I would have thought that the game exiled us. In the background, I could see glimmering stars as well as a few galaxies in the background.

I even saw some meteors shooting across the sky beautifully.

After all three boys made it through the vortex, the girls finally appeared.

"Wowwww, what is this place," Livina mumbled in admiration once she went through.

HellWitch was completely speechless. She turned her head left and right many times to make sure that she was not dreaming.

Cecilia, our oldest player, looked around. She was clearly looking for something but she could not find it. In the end, she switched on her user interface screen and clicked on the map.

The map lit up and showed a miniature version of the Dimensional Sphere, complete with the NPCs and the locations of portals that led to the next maps.

"Okayyy, Dimensional Portal is right over there," she said while pointing in a certain direction.

I looked in the direction and saw that it was far from the high-rise buildings on the bigger islands. In fact, it looked like there was only one empty platform there.

"There is nothing there," I commented.

"Nothing but the portal," Cecilia corrected. She showed me the map on her screen to convince me. "Look, I am not wrong, am I?"

Indeed, the Dimensional Portal was located in the exact direction that Cecilia was pointing. She was not wrong.

In order to go through to the empty and deserted platform, we had to go through the big islands. Every each of us was fascinated with the marvelous design of the map.

At the center of the map was a huge glass palace. Some NPCs mumbled when we passed through, telling the story of the place in one or two sentences that they repeated over and over again.

"Once upon a time, disaster loomed over the Afterlife Dream realm."

"The innocent people were constantly in fear of the impending doom."

"But now, the Dimensional Master is here. He will bring back the peace over the Afterlife Dream realm."

"Those who opposed him must repent and return to the right path."

HellWitch shook her head as she listened to the NPCs.

"For some reason, we are here the villains, the ones who must repent and return to the right path. This evil Dimensional Master is the hero here."

I chuckled.

"Yeah, can you imagine that?"

After we passed through the crowded island, we crossed another bridge and arrived at our destination.

On top of the lone platform, there was only a single portal over a golden platter and nothing else. It bobbed up and down gently, emanating warm air from its glowing center.

"Enter?" I asked the others.

They nodded one by one, albeit hesitantly now that we were in front of the portal that led to the Dimensional Portal. It was the last map where the thirty players before us were before they vanished into thin air.

I was the first person to climb through the portal. It did not feel any different than entering the other light portals. Even the map itself was quite similar to the Dimensional Sphere, just a lot simpler.

We were all standing on a long glass bridge that was heading toward a magnificent gate. In front of the gate, an NPC stood with her back straight, acting like a gatekeeper. Her hair was dark green and it reached to the floor. Her long robe pooled down at her feet, and she had a pair of fluttering translucent wings.

"Welcome, Adventurers," she solemnly spoke as soon as we approached her. "Welcome to the level 150 raid, 'The Judgment of Dimensional Master'. As soon as you enter, you will discard your current life and enter another. Are you ready to do that?"

Upon hearing the NPC's words, we all had to think for a while.

"Wait, did she just...?" Livina covered her mouth with both of her hands.

"I think yes," ZhaoYun confirmed.

"The NPC just spoke about discarding the current life and entering another life."

HellWitch and I looked at each other. This only meant one thing. BlackPuma and the previous squad that consisted of thirty people did not disappear because they were kidnapped by the Dimensional Master or anything. They disappeared because it was part of the raid.

They willingly left the current realm to enter another, to face the Dimensional Master.

But then it also meant that the first raid was still ongoing. So was the second raid. BlackPuma and the others were within the portal.