Afterlife Dream

And then it happened.

The number zero became one, and it stayed. We all stared at the number 1317001 like idiots for the longest time until someone broke the silence.

"We did it," Cecilia whispered. "Guys, we did it!"

It did not feel real. We gaped at the screen with our mouths slightly open, unsure what to say.

"Let's try donating one by one?" the level 55 mage spoke. It was clear that he remained skeptical. "We do not want to dump our points to have them disappear again."

Each of us went to do the same as Kitty, trading 10 Dimensional Points for one Brick that we donated to the bridge of our choice. In the end, we stood there before the screen that showed 1317003 Bricks for Spring Blossom Bridge and 1437804 Bricks for Enchanted Beauty Bridge. It was not until then that we were finally convinced that we had fixed the bug once and for all.

"Yeah..!" I shouted.

"YEAHHHHH!!!" The others shouted in unison. We jumped up and down on the ground like small children who just got candies. Candies, bridges... not that much of a difference.

We had not even sent any messages to the world chat to announce our success yet when we saw the numbers rapidly increase. Everyone, both in beginner maps as well as advanced maps had been keeping tabs on the Brick count. We stared in amazement at the donation screen as the numbers quickly climbed up. There was still one more invasion to do before the event was officially over, but we could not help but hope that the bridges could be completed as soon as possible.

Spring Blossom Bridge ended up with 1368904 Bricks and the Enchanted Beauty Bridge with 1454035 Bricks.

"So close," Kitty whispered. "Only 10 more Bricks to complete the Spring Blossom Bridge."

She hastily wrote into the world chat.

"Everyone, please, those who have not donated all of their bricks, will you please donate to the Spring Blossom Bridge? Only 10 more Bricks were needed!"

We waited there with our hearts pounding hard against our ribcages. We did not know who donated, but the number for the Spring Blossom Bridge slowly crept up.

1368907.

1368912.

1368914.
A celebratory BGM played in the background, followed by the game's mechanical voice.

"Dear Adventurers, congratulation on your combined effort to achieve the completion of the Spring Blossom Bridge. Fairy Forest map is herewith again open for visitations from the preceding maps."

"We did it," Kitty whispered. She pulled me for a hug. "Antares, we did it! We all did it, everyone!"

One by one, players from the beginner maps poured into Fairy Forest. They were all laughing and crying at the same time.

"I see the hut for the second job advancement!"

"Finally! I finally can do the second job advancement!"

The six of us had to step aside in order to prevent ourselves from being run over by eager players.


"Soooo, at least one bridge has been built successfully. Let's hope that the second bridge can be completed soon after the last invasion is done," Cecilia said.

I was unable to address the happy crowd that lined up in front of the Balloon NPC to get to the second job advancement hut, so I wrote what I had to say in the world chat instead.

"Guys, we found out that the bridges failed to build because of the Undead Tree Stumps. Now that Fairy Forest is open again, please make sure to kill the mini-bosses regularly or trap them so they don't run amok and destroy the map and the bridges again."

The level 55 mage cleared his throat. "Don't worry, we won't make the same mistake. Besides, the beginner maps are all so crowded. Fairy Forest will not go empty just because we have completed the second job advancement."

He extended his hand and shook everyone's hands.

"It was a magnificent experience, going through the barrier like that. Thank you for the wonderful trip. And great job Antares and Cecilia for taking care of the mini-bosses."

"You too."

"Thanks, everyone."

"It was great, thanks..."

Other than Cecilia and me, everyone decided to stay back at the Fairy Forest to do their second job advancement. "It is high time," Kitty told me with a wink.

Cecilia and I crossed the barrier with our Angel Wings again. Indeed, the Spring Blossom Bridge successfully connected the two maps. Only one more bridge to attend to.

"Antares, over here."

I took my eyes off the unfinished Enchanted Beauty Bridge and flew toward Cecilia. She already found the portal that led to Paradise Island. We crossed the portal together and landed on Paradise Island. It was only one hour away before the third and last invasion of the event started. As soon as everyone was done, they rushed to the Dimensional Fairy NPC and the Brick Donation Box right away to trade off their Dimensional Points.

Similar to the Spring Blossom Bridge, the Brick number for the Enchanted Beauty Bridge was slowly climbing up until it reached the maximum amount and we had another congratulatory message from the game.

"Dear Adventurers, congratulation on your combined effort to achieve the completion of the Enchanted Beauty Bridge. Fairy Forest map is herewith again open for visitations from the succeeding maps."

Thanks to the combined effort of everyone, low-level players and high-level players, beginner map players and advanced map players, we were able to go beyond the target. Both bridges had been completed but players still had some more points to spare. I did not have enough for a Skill Reset Scroll but I also did not need one. I opted to get a mysterious tree seed instead. With good luck, it might turn out to be a second peach tree on my humble farm.

It was such a tiring day. After I finished planting the mysterious tree seed and gazed at my now fruitless peach tree while sitting on the porch. Having nothing to do for the moment, I leaned back and scrolled at the chats on my user interface screen. Ingenious was writing something into the guild chat.

"Everyone, I will hit level 150 tomorrow, but I am not going to turn it into a special event. We already had two, it is going to be boring to do it again and again."

"Nonsense," I wrote in response. "Of course we have to celebrate. Where do you plan to level? At least let your guildmates be present for the occasion."

The other guildmates quickly agreed with me. Ingenious ended up giving in and telling us that he planned to level up at Paradise Island by killing the mini-bosses that raid the map. In order to make things interesting, Cecilia came up with an idea. Why not trap three different mini-bosses and then release them from the traps so Ingenious could show us his skills? The idea quickly gained approval from everyone but Ingenious.

"Cecilia, I thought we are friends," Ingenious complained. "Are you planning to kill me? I will have General Aardvark, Lieutenant Gorilla, and Sergeant Ostrich at my neck at the same time! Who the hell can handle all of them at the same time???"

"You, of course. Guildmates, please come tomorrow to Paradise Island to help me build the second and third trap to get the other two mini-bosses ready for Ingenious!"

I did not even know that it was possible to get all three mini-bosses side by side on Paradise Island. I thought that one had to die in order for any of the three to respawn. It looked like Paradise Island was special on its own.

The funny thing was that Twelve really did not mean to spread the news about Ingenious' plan to level up to 150 outside of the guild, but players eventually found out because we had to tell them to please not kill the mini-bosses that we trapped in Paradise Island. And also because so many Twelve guildmates were busy building traps according to Cecilia's instruction right there where the mini-bosses were supposed to spawn.

By the time we had all three mini-bosses ready for the show, it was already 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Ingenious stood like a brave young man he was in front of three cages full of vicious mini-bosses, and he was surrounded by a lot of spectators who watched from a safe distance. They formed a huge circle around Ingenious and the three mini-bosses.

​ Behind the three cages stood Aurendiria, Cecilia, and ArrowRain. They all held a rope each in their hands. Each rope was connected to a cage.

"Ready, Ingenious???" Cecilia asked cheerfully. What she got as an answer was a scowl.

"Ready."

The three girls exchanged smiles before they slowly counted backward. "Three... two... one..."

"GOOOOO..!!!"

All three girls pulled at the ropes in their hands with all their might. The traps sprung open at almost the same time and all three mini-bosses lunged at Ingenious like hungry beasts.