Afterlife Dream

THUMP

THUMP

THUMP

Something heavy was bouncing on the ground in a regular rhythm. The force of the impact sent everything off the ground for a split second only to land back on the ground. The small lamp on the nightstand inched closer and closer to the edge with every bounce. In the end, it was shattered to pieces when it hit the floor.

I opened my eyes in alarm. I sat up on the bed and threw a glance outside of the window warily. What time was it? The giant digital clock at the sky showed 3 AM.

"Anty? Are you okay?"

Kitty's voice rang out from outside of my bedroom.

"Yes," I quickly replied. "What is happening?"

"We also don't know. Come out. It feels like an earthquake..."

I climbed off the bed and marched outside immediately. Kitty, Wolfhound, and DragonTalon were already awake and fully alert. They stood at the house entrance. The door was open wide, and the moonlight shone against their faces, casting long shadows on the wall behind them.

I stepped toward my friends and turned my head toward the door as well. The thing that they were looking at was too obvious. A gigantic house was bouncing and drawing near on the road outside of the farmhouse. At least I thought it was a gigantic house. Then I discovered a pair of beady eyes and a dotted, red cap on top.

It was the Giant Mushroom, one of the mini-bosses in Afterlife Dream.

We were very quiet while staring at it with dread, but it saw us anyway. The beady eyes twinkled from delight and it started bouncing our way.

"GWAAAAA...!!!" The Giant Mushroom screamed as it approached us like an overeager house dog.

"Oh no no no!!!" Kitty screamed in panic. "He is going to destroy our house!!!"

"Out, out, out! Lure it somewhere safe!!!" DragonTalon screamed.

We all rushed out of the house as fast as the lightning. Wolfhound led the way to an empty area while the rest of us poked at the Giant Mushroom to make it follow us.

"Why the hell is the Giant Mushroom even here?" I asked, panting as I ran with the others.

The Giant Mushroom map was indeed one or two maps away from Marsh City, but it was not supposed to be able to cross portals and land in a safe zone.

"No idea!" Kitty shouted. "This has never happened before!"

Then what exactly was happening at the very moment?

We led the Giant Mushroom to an empty, verdant field and then we started attacking it. A group of level 73 High Priest, level 73 Fire Elemental Mage, and two level 50 Bowwoman and Spearman could easily overcome the Giant Mushroom. It was no threat at all.

The Giant Mushroom was the same one that could be found in its map, both in appearance and skill. When it died, a bag of gold dropped on the ground. We all stared at the bag of gold in confusion for a while. Wolfhound took the bag and opened it. It was a regular bag of gold.

"I don't get it," Kitty said slowly. "What was happening?"

"Why don't we go around a little bit?" I suggested.

My three friends nodded in assent. At 3.30 AM in the morning, we slowly walked along the road and arrived at the center of Marsh City. Most of the buildings still stood, but some trees had been knocked down. A few players were lying on the road, writhing in pain.

We quickly rushed toward them and helped them up.

"What happened?" I questioned a level 23 archer. The girl immediately burst into tears.

"I was... I was sleeping peacefully inside my home and then suddenly... Suddenly my home started to shake so I... I exited and then there was..."

Her lips trembled and beads of tears dropped from her eyes.

"A Giant Mushroom came?" I queried. She nodded and started to sob.

"I mean... I was just here for fun. I did not expect to be killed so suddenly. Why is Marsh City so violent? Wahhhhh...!!!"

I clenched my jaw. Marsh City was not violent. Something was happening to the game that allowed the Giant Mushroom to step into a safe zone map.

We proceeded to walk all around Marsh City to ensure that no more Giant Mushrooms were wandering around.

"Something is fishy. Why don't we take a look at the Giant Mushroom map?" Wolfhound suggested.

"Let's make a party and then split? Antares and I go to the Giant Mushroom map while the two of you continue checking for any more threats inside the Marsh City?" DragonTalon suggested.

We all quickly agreed. Should anything happen, party chat should be used.

DragonTalon and I went through the portal to exit Marsh City. We climbed up a few platforms and steep hills to reach the Giant Mushroom map. I eyed the askew warning board that was pasted next to the entry portal. DragonTalon stepped into the shiny portal.

"..."

"..."

"What happened?"

"I cannot go in," DragonTalon said with a frown. "Antares, why don't you try?"

DragonTalon stepped out of the portal and I stepped in.

"..."

Nothing happened.

We could not enter at all.

"This doesn't make sense," I said.

I opened my user interface screen to tell Kitty and Wolfhound about our discovery. DragonTalon did the same. We did not even get to read the party chat because our chats were swamped. Everyone was talking at once. Guild chat, peer chat, world chat...

The content was more or less the same.

"HELP! SNOW WOLF WANDERING AROUND CHINATOWN!"

"CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP! DARK PEGASUS IS GOING RAMPAGE AT FROZEN TUNDRA LAND!!"

"BLACKPUMA PLEASE HELP. THE TOP TEN PLAYERS PLEASE COME TO HELP!!!"

"UNDEAD TREE STUMP WREAKING HAVOC AT FAIRY FOREST, KILLING THE PLAYERS! HELP HELP HELP!!!"

Blood drained from my face. I looked up at DragonTalon, who was equally pale.

"Antares, what is happening to Afterlife Dream?"

I wish I could answer. Everything was just fine the previous day. I could not even start to think about what could have gone wrong.

"Shit. What should we do?"

"Hold on. DragonTalon, Kitty wrote something."

I disabled the other spamming chats and read what Kitty typed into the chatbox.

"Antares, DragonTalon, the Giant Mushroom is back. We just killed it again. How are things going over at your side?"

I quickly typed my reply, "None of us was able to enter the Giant Mushroom map. Guys, we are coming back to Marsh City now."

I turned to DragonTalon as we hasted back to Marsh City.

"The Giant Mushroom was supposed to spawn every thirty minutes after it was killed. So it still followed this rule."

"Yes, only that it no longer spawned inside its original map because it is locked."

"So do you think it is a glitch?"

DragonTalon pulled a grimace.

"A glitch in one map is normal but in the whole world? I fear that the problem is more complicated than we think."

I sent a few messages to my friends as well to find out how things were going on their sides. The other maps were not doing well at all. All party quests had been locked and the final bosses spawned in the safe zone area to torment the players in addition to the mini-bosses that were already running rampage in the area.

This meant that the Red Bubble monster from Dai City Party Quest was currently running rampage in Dai City.

The various final bosses from the Paradise Island Party Quest spawned alternately in Paradise Island.

Thundering laughter suddenly broke through the Afterlife Dream realm, as the culprit presented himself.

"Dear Adventurers of Afterlife Dream, you have led an extremely boring existence in this land. I am sick of the peace. I am here to bring you some chaos.

Throughout the Afterlife Dream realm right now, mini-bosses had been released upon all players who were hiding under the protection of the gods.

I spit on the cowards. Only the strong ones shall prevail. Weak ones will die under my boots and perish from the face of the Afterlife Dream world.

This is only the beginning. More chaos will be unleashed upon this world unless you are able to defeat me. Once you have made up your mind, come and find me at Dimensional Portal! Hwahahahahahahahah!!!"

After the domineering voice disappeared, the usual mechanical voice announced the newest game update.

"Dear Adventurers, the new map [Dimensional Sphere] has been unlocked. It is advisable to access the map starting from level 150 above.

The new raid for level 150 above, [The Judgment of Dimensional Master] has been unlocked. The map is accessible through the [Dimensional Portal]."

"Level 50 raid, [The Wrath of The Fire Golem] will be deactivated in five days. The next level raid will be deactivated five days after the previous level raid is deactivated. After the completion of the raid, it is no longer possible to exit the game. This applies to all raid levels below 120.

The raid levels of 120 and above will still be accessible as usual.

The countdown for deactivation of each aforementioned raid will be shown next to the world's digital clock."