Afterlife Dream

When I started my stalking activity, HellWitch was at a training spot at Frozen Tundra Land. I casually took the ghost ship from Paradise Island to head there. Once I arrived at said training spot, HellWitch was gone.

"HellWitch? Oh, she was done with training so she left," those who were still there claimed.

I raised an eyebrow. Done? It was 10 AM.

Never mind. I tracked her again. She was on the ghost ship, heading to Paradise Island. What a coincidence. How did we not run into each other on our ways?

I thus walked back to the ghost ship port and went back to Paradise Island. Once I arrived, I tracked HellWitch again. She was on her way to Chinatown.

Chinatown?

Chinatown became the Survivors' base after Dominion disbanded, so that was not too strange.

I followed HellWitch to Chinatown. Once I arrived, I tracked her again.

She was on her way back to Paradise Island.

Again, how come we did not run into each other?

And what a coincidence???

From Paradise Island, she took the ship to Fairy Forest. It was then that I realized that she was avoiding me. When did HellWitch last visit Fairy Forest? Eighty levels ago???

The good news was that the maps between Daisyville and Fairy Forest were linked to each other in series. We would end up running into each other if she turned around again.

I tracked her every ten minutes while trying to get to where she was. Eventually, after a lot of effort, I managed to get within the same map as she was. She was sitting gloomily on a bench in Marsh City when I finally caught her.

"HellWitch!" I called out to her as soon as I saw her.

She flinched when she heard her name. When she lifted her head to look at me, all I could see on her face was a mix of astonishment and panic.

"Oh, Antares. Hai."

"Hai?"

I furrowed my brows at her.

"You have been moving a lot today," I said while approaching her. "What were you doing, going back and forth like that?"

HellWitch pursed her lips. "And how is that any of your business?"

I took my seat on the bench and stared at her. "I just want to talk to you. Is it too much asked?"

The girl looked away for a second, then she confidently raised her chin and faced me.

"What do you need?"

"I want to talk about your feelings for me."

I knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as her face changed color into purplish red. Her whole body shook as she glared at me.

"I... I... who said that I have feelings for you!"

"Do you really not?" I probed further. "You have been acting weirdly these days, HellWitch. You are acting all jealous and..."

Before I finished my sentence, HellWitch already grabbed an apple from the ground and threw it at me.

"I AM NOT JEALOUS!"

I lifted my arm and easily blocked the apple with my brand new Black Chimera Orb.

"It is not my business if you want to date Aurendiria or anything. Not at all! I do NOT care!"

HellWitch huffed and looked away from me.

I could not help but gape at her in amazement. She was actually acting like a girl for once. If you all had to know, HellWitch was by no means not attractive. It's just that she wore so many layers of armor that her features were completely hidden. Besides, her swinging around heavy and long swords did not exactly scream girllike.

That being said, I had always seen HellWitch as one of my male friends. Like DragonTalon and ZhaoYun. Heck, she was more masculine than DragonTalon who complained and raged day in and day out.

"I just... if you really do have feelings for me, I want to know."

I really did want to know. It was the first time someone ever, ever, had feelings for me and I wanted to cherish those feelings.

The corner of HellWitch's mouth twitched a few times before she slowly said, "Why do you want to know? You like Aurendiria anyway."

"Fine. I had a crush on her once. But that was when we met for the first time. Before I knew that she was married to BlackPuma. After that, I only treated her as a good friend. Nothing more," I explained.

HellWitch stared at me. "Really?"

"Yes, really. I swear, there is nothing between me and her." I put a hand on my chest. "May the Dimensional Master kidnap me if I spoke a word of lie."

HellWitch burst into laughter.

"I think that will happen sooner or later to all of us."

The girl leaned back on the bench and stared at the blue, cloudless sky.

"What is your plan next, Antares?"

"I haven't thought about it. You?"

HellWitch shook her head. "I have no idea. Now after we stop doing raids, there is only one way forward."

"Leveling up," I said.

"Correct. Leveling up."

That would take us to level 150. And then what? Another raid against the Dimensional Master?

HellWitch was also thinking in the same direction as me.

"When we get to 150, there is only one more thing to do," HellWitch spoke in a low voice. "Another raid attempt against the Dimensional Master."

We exchanged worried looks.

Was that what we wanted? Another try?

"Honestly I don't think that we would be nearly anything as good as the previous squad."

I was naturally referring to the last 30 people who went missing. They were the best players in the whole Afterlife Dream realm.

If they ended up failing the raid, who were we to say that we would succeed?

"I don't know." HellWitch rested her face on both of her palms. "Honestly if the last squad couldn't do it, no other squad could do it."

I groaned into my palms.

"Unless..."

I took my hands off my face and turned to HellWitch.

"Unless what?"

HellWitch stood up from the bench and started walking around with both hands clasped behind her back.

"What if. Just what if it is not about strength?"

We were still talking about Afterlife Dream, so naturally everything revolved around strength.

"What else if not strength?" I queried.

"Anything. Luck? Maybe?" she suggested.

Luck.

I was not sure.

"We will never find out," I decided. "Not unless we go there to find out."

HellWitch stopped walking around and looked at me. A look of understanding passed between us.

"Should we try then, Antares?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Let's get to level 150," I said.

After we both agreed on the next thing to do, we tried to recruit through various channels. I asked around in the Twelve guild for willing participants. It was not surprising that only Cecilia and Lazarus agreed to go with us. The others kept quiet and pretended to be away from the computer.

Only that they could not be away from the computer. Of the Survivors, only ZhaoYun and Livina expressed their willingness to join us for the hell ride. Altogether we only had 6 people. We still had to get 24 people from outside the guilds, and it was not an easy task at all.

For recruitment purposes, we shot megaphones into the sky and spammed in the world chat box for the whole morning.

The message was simple.

"ALL 110+ PLAYERS ARE EXPECTED TO COME TO GLOBAL MARKET AT 3 PM FOR A DISCUSSION. I REPEAT, ALL 110+ PLAYERS..."

The last time the players were drummed together like this was when Survivors offered the level 120+ players a way out of the game by joining the raids, so people were interested to come. I believe that they were expecting to be drafted for the next Black Chimera run.

They were thus in awe when we talked about the level 150 raid instead.

"Huh? The Dimensional Master?"

"Why?"

When we mentioned getting another squad of 30 people together to face the Dimensional Master, they looked at us as if we just told them that we planned to commit suicide together in the near future.

When we told them that we needed them to continue leveling past level 120 to join us in said suicide mission, the players launched into a protest.

​ "What the hell! I don't wanna die yet!"

"Yeah! If you guys want to go, you guys go! I don't want to be stuck in the game!"

"Why don't you all just exit the game via the level 120 raid?"

"You guys are just looking for trouble in my opinion..."

"It is the worst idea I heard ever since I stepped a foot into this game..."

In short, we failed dramatically.

Unwilling to listen more to our persuasion, the players left Global Market one by one. Only six of us remained, our faces gloomy.

"What to do?"

"Well, you guys, I have a crazy idea," I slowly said.

"If what HellWitch said is right and strength is not important to beat the Dimensional Master, then why don't we just go as a party?"