Afterlife Dream

"The looting plan should be done according to raid contribution," HinoKun pointed out, his eyes moved slowly from the lower-level players in Twelve to Ingenious. The latter looked like he would rather die than agree with HinoKun, but he eventually swallowed his indignation and nodded curtly to every Twelve member's dismay. Particularly those who had yet to loot Dark Fairy Gloves. Lazarus, Livina, DragonTalon, me, and XiXYukiXiX, an Ice Elemental Mage. I was supposed to get looting priority. After we failed one run, the offer was definitely off the table. Now that we also needed to redo the looting list altogether by including some of those from Dominion, I doubted that I would even make it on the list.

I almost congratulated myself on my hunch, because the list that Ingenious and HinoKun came up with looked like this :

1. Kratos, level 127 - Dominion

2. SakuraChan, level 125 - Dominion

3. Gwency, level 120 - Dominion

4. Lazarus, level 110 - Twelve

5. Livina, level 110 - Twelve

6. Suzuran, level 115 - Dominion

7. MaiseyChi, level 113 - Dominion

8. Rankichi, level 110 - Dominion

9. Antares, level 96 - Twelve

10. DragonTalon, level 97 - Twelve

11. BellaWarrior, level 94 - Dominion

12. XiXYukiXiX, level 92 - Twelve

We all lifted our heads from the list at the same time, some with deep creases between our brows.

"Excuse me but this is unfair," DragonTalon protested. "Why do we have three Dominion players on top of the looting list?? Twelve players are basically pushed down the looting list in favor of Dominion players!"

"No offense but have you checked the player levels? To be honest, Suzuran and MaiseyChi should have looted as the fourth and fifth player instead of sixth and seventh," PrecisionShot said.
I cringed before I even heard DragonTalon's reply. DragonTalon disliked PrecisionShot ever since the latter looted his Skill Reset Scroll at our first Love Dungeon run.

"You just shut up, you thief!" DragonTalon spat out. "Do you want Twelve players to work their asses off to get all of you Dominion players gloves before any of us is allowed to loot??? Dream on!"

I stared at my number on the looting list. Number 9. If I were lucky, I could still loot ahead of the others. Provided that those on top of me died during the run. But then my hopes were quickly dashed when I heard what Ingenious said next.

"Look, it is not only about looting list. Other than three people on top of the looting list, the others cannot participate in the raid."

"WHY????" Everyone broke into a roar.

How outrageous. If the three people who were supposed to loot died, then no matter how many gloves dropped, they were all for naught!

"Why can't we ALL participate???"

"Everyone, calm down! Calm down!!!"

"HOW CAN WE CALM DOWN? THIS IS SO UNFAIR!"

Aurendiria who had not said anything at all from the very beginning spoke up. "It is to guarantee the success of the run. Think about it. There are only four runs left for the Dark Fairy raid. How far did Twelve get just now?"

The Twelve players who just had a failed run immediately shut up. They lost seven people when entering the raid. They needed a full hour to complete the precursor mission. And then once they got to fight the Dark Fairy, they couldn't even get the HP down to 50%. Even if they could do faster the next time, how fast could it be? Fifteen minutes faster? Half an hour faster? Would they be able to defeat the Dark Fairy then?

A sigh escaped HinoKun's lips. "We need to think long term. Let's make sure that the next four runs were a success, give as many players as possible Dark Fairy gloves."

"Oh, quit the sugarcoating," Ingenious said in an annoyed tone. "We choose to equip the highest level players first. There. The only reason why Lazarus and Livina are in third and fourth place is the fact that the first three places have already been occupied by Dominion players and we know that all of you will scream injustice."

A lot more players shouted their dissatisfaction. I could not say a single word. Truth to be told, I would also like to complain like the others but this was unfortunately my own fault for failing to catch up with the leveling. How many times did people around me tell me to level up quickly? BlackPuma told me that when we met the first time. He said it again when the Dimensional Master showed up. Ingenious told me many times to do the same after BlackPuma disappeared.

Even if I was allowed to loot the Dark Fairy Gloves this time, what about the next raid? The countdown for the level 110 raid would begin in no time. And it had been nerfed as well. Could I gain 15 levels in less than seven days? No, less than four to be able to contribute? I didn't think so. Not without any special grinding event that gave loads of experience like the Dimensional Point Event.

I looked at the players who were present in Oakstone Tavern. While some fought for their places to loot, some were silent. These were the people who made the level to loot the Fire Golem's helmet but did not make it in time to loot the Queen Spider's boots. Then also those who made it past level 70 but not yet achieved level 90 so they could not participate in the Dark Fairy raid. They kept silent, they didn't protest. They knew that it was their own fault for not being able to keep up.

Livina and DragonTalon were still protesting loudly side-by-side, but Ingenious and HinoKun remained adamant. I put each of my arms on top of my friends' shoulders and pulled at their shoulders.

"Guys," I said. "Listen to me. We all have one huge enemy to defeat. It is thus normal to give priority to those who are higher level. We expect them to go against the Dimensional Master as soon as possible. Once the Dimensional Master is defeated, all raids will be unlocked. It won't be too late to earn our gloves!"

While Livina went silent and thought about my words, DragonTalon gave me a look full of defiance.

"Should we all stop leveling until 129 then? Because you know, if we go higher then we can no longer participate in the level 90 raid. By then it doesn't matter whether the raid is unlocked or not, we will have forever lost our chance to loot!"

Of course that was also not a good plan. After all, it was not enough to have only 30 people reach 150 while the others stayed behind waiting for the first squad to defeat the Dimensional Master. There was a hidden fear in everyone's mind that no one wanted to say out loud.

What if BlackPuma disappeared just like that when he went against the Dimensional Master?

Was this not the reason why HinoKun did not try to do the same when he hit 150?

And Ingenious?

Reaching 150 used to be an achievement. Now it was akin to a death sentence.

Despite the protests that came one after another, the leaders remained adamant in their decision. The meeting soon concluded, and we all went back to our places for the night.

I opened my user interface screen and looked at the Life Points that I already collected throughout the many raid runs that I completed. I only had 147 points. I didn't even have enough Life Points to trade against the cheapest benefit.

I stood before the Life Points NPC and looked at the list of benefits. Just what did I want to trade the Life Points against? The goal would determine how long I planned to stay in the Afterlife Dream realm, and when I wanted to exit the game.


"It is infuriating," I heard someone speak next to me. Initially, I thought that he was speaking to me, but then I saw that he was chatting with his friend.

"We are brought into this game against our will. Initially, I thought that it was awesome to be able to customize my next life but when I enter, the game is in a chaotic state. It is like being forced to buy a broken product."

The friend laughed.

"And we cannot even leave!"

Dark clouds rolled over the first person's face.

"I don't think it's funny. Watch, things will only get more and more messed up. I heard that the raids got nerfed. The high-level players must be on their toes now."

The friend gasped in disbelief. "Are you sure? But the raids are already on the countdown!"

"Only the ones below 120. And yes. Today's raids were complete failures. I heard from my friend in Dominion."

"Yikes..."

All three of us glanced at the countdown timer high up in the sky. It was showing less than 72 hours for the Dark Fairy raid.

"Too bad we cannot join the raid. I wish we could."

"Oh, you never know," the first person said mysteriously. "This game is full of surprises after all."