Afterlife Dream

BlackPuma queried, "Was there not a Snow Wolf problem?"

Ninja, "Yes, but once we get to it we can handle it. Some level 90 players were just terrified to have a Snow Wolf suddenly spawning and wandering around in the area every three hours, hence the panic in the world chat."

"Ok. Good. Frozen Tundra Land?"

HinoKun was the one to represent the Frozen Tundra Land.

"There are no residents at the Frozen Tundra Land, but a lot of players stay there for grinding purposes. I do not recommend 130- people to stay alone in the safe zone anymore. The Dark Pegasus spawns every four hours. Best to face it with a party if you decide to kill it anyway. Unless your ID is BlackPuma, hahaha."

BlackPuma rolled his eyes at HinoKun who grinned at him in return.

BlackPuma, "Ok let's talk about the raid areas. Start with the level 50 raid. Lava County?"

ZhaoYun raised his hand.

"Nothing new in Lava County. No attempts made for Fire Golem raid yet so we don't know if it still works or not, or whether there are any abnormalities during the run."

Next to me, DragonTalon sightly tensed up. He still wanted the Fire Golem Helmet desperately. Sigh. I could say the same about the other equipment. I was not sure that I could get the remaining equipment from the future raids.

Hime came to report about the circumstances at the level 70 raid area, "No confirmation about level 70 raid, but level 60 raid was accessible as usual."

The precursor raids were done individually or in a party to gain admission to the next-level loot raids.

Perennia, "Same with level 90 raid."

Babymage, "Same with level 110 raid."

All eyes turned to BlackPuma, who shook his head as an answer.

"I also discovered no abnormalities with the 120+ raids."

ZhaoYun, "So it looks like the raids will just be deactivated when the time is up. Plus it is no longer possible to exit the game through the raids below level 120."

Next to the digital clock, the countdown for Fire Golem Raid's deactivation was already taking place. All those who had yet to earn their helmet felt a heart-wrenching pain.
HinoKun, "Let's talk about the plan to fix this problem. BP, you are the only one at level 150 in this realm. This is shameless of me to ask, but do you mind taking a look at the new map? Possibly take a good look at the final boss?"

All eyes shifted from HinoKun to BlackPuma. The latter acquiesced.

"Sure. I will take a look right after this meeting."

HinoKun, "Thanks, BP. Everyone, I believe in BlackPuma's strength but we can not expect him to solo a level 150 raid and win. How many Chocolate Cakes will that take? And how many hours? I thus implore you guys to please focus on leveling. The first 30 players to reach 150 will be taken to the level 150 raid."

Healie raised her hand to ask.

"Is there no preference for Bishops?"

HinoKun, "There should be, but only if we have more than 30 players who can run. Otherwise what is the point?"

Ingenious shook his head.

"I disagree. Bishops are crucial. In 120+ raids they are especially instrumental for mob control. If we don't have five Bishops at level 150, we should not go."

HinoKun, "How many High Priests are close to 150? Not even one. KikiSan is at 120 now, she has yet to pass the Fourth Job Advancement Test."

Ingenious, "If we waste resources without being sure that we can win, we will lack resources for the run that we can actually win!"

The high levels started to argue among themselves. Eventually, BlackPuma stopped the argument.

"Everyone please just level up as fast as possible, particularly High Priests. Starting from tomorrow, those who trained at Frozen Tundra Land should allow the lower-level players to leech some experience. I too, will do the same."

"Okay."

"Fine."

"One more thing," ZhaoYun said. "Will the high-level players please help the low-level players to get helmets and other items?"

Leprechaun who was strongly against this scheme spoke up, "It is impossible to give everyone helmets, boots, gloves, etc.."

"That is not what I meant," ZhaoYun said. "I am sure that more than 30 players have collected more than one end-game equipment. If you want to depend on these 30-something players to help with the 150 raid, then I thankfully wait in Paradise Island for the chaos to subside.

If, however, you extend the invitation to level up as quickly as possible and help out at the 150 raid to everyone including those who are not in the elite guilds, then I am willing to chip in. I just want to say that even after completing the fourth job advancement, I will not be worth much without a piece of single end-game equipment."

What ZhaoYun said struck a chord in everyone's heart. Some players were lucky enough to belong to the elite guilds, leaving the rest struggling to get into good raid groups. Naturally, no one could scream injustice to this phenomenon. People were free to befriend anyone they wanted and formed groups with people of like minds.

But now it was different. It was no longer a question about privilege and elitism. The appearance of the Dimensional Master affected every single player who existed within the realm. Were the high-level players confident that they could manage the Dimensional Master without help from the non-elite players?

BlackPuma, "Agree. The more people we have, the better. We must help those without end-game equipment to get stronger so they can contribute to the quest to defeat the Dimensional Master."

Relief was written all over ZhaoYun's face as if BlackPuma's words meant that he would get a helmet the next day.

"Within this day, all representatives must submit the names of those who would like to power level and help to defeat the Dimensional Master. I hope no one would lie just to get said equipment and then back off from leveling up," BlackPuma said, narrowing his eyes at all representatives inside the tavern. "There is no such thing as getting equipment for free. The elite players had also worked their asses off without help to earn their end-game equipment. There is no pay-to-play option in here."


ZhaoYun nodded.

"Thank you, BlackPuma. I will make sure to submit only the names of serious players."

"Do that," BlackPuma said. "If there is nothing else to talk about, let's make a point to meet here again tomorrow at 7 AM here to discuss the names and organize raids."

All representatives returned to their assigned areas to report the good news and bad news. BlackPuma turned to me and DragonTalon.

"You two, wait a second. Let's have an internal guild meeting in a bit. Don't leave yet."

We waited until the crowd dispersed before we sat together as a guild and looked at BlackPuma full of expectation.

"After today, the guild concept will be changed greatly. We can no longer limit our interaction to certain people only. I expect everyone to contribute to this cause. Nevertheless, I understand if there are some people who would rather not participate in the quest to defeat the Dimensional Master. I want to hear specifically from this group. Please do speak up."

We all knew who he was referring to. Even within the Twelve guild, there were people who did not ambitiously pursue greatness within the game and instead were satisfied with the life that Afterlife Dream had to offer. One of them was Cecilia. She was the highest-level resident in the game. The owner of the Oakstone Tavern smiled and replied, "I do not intend to level to 150. I would rather stay in Paradise Island and mitigate every problem that arises so that I can keep my tavern."

"Ok, what about the others?"

Encouraged by Cecilia's example, one by one the others also spoke up. These were the people who had stopped leveling up altogether and just lived their lives peacefully within the Afterlife Dream realm. They all spoke about similar plans. The bottom point was that they were not willing to advance further.

"Okay," BlackPuma said with a strained expression. "We have been friends for so long, so naturally I know about this before all of you even start to speak."

Cecilia had a question. It was mildly expressed, but it was a heartbreaking one. It was something that occurred in everyone's mind when BlackPuma started asking this specific group about what they planned to do in the future.

"BP, are you kicking us out of the guild?"

BlackPuma did not answer directly.

"I talked to the two other guilds and they also had the same problem. In light of easier cooperation in the future, we believe that there is an urgent need to restructure the existing guilds."

Cecilia pressed her lips together. There was a hint of sadness in her eyes when she pushed for an answer nonetheless.

"That doesn't answer my question, BP..."

BlackPuma sighed. He looked Cecilia in the eyes and said full of regret, "Yes. I will have to kick all of you out of the guild."