Afterlife Dream

It was my first time dying in a raid. And it was a fairly quick death, too.

Death inside a raid did not cause the player to be teleported to a safe area by force. The player was instead allowed to stay dead inside the map for five minutes just in case the squadmates planned to resurrect the player. We were thus instructed before raids started to not leave the map immediately upon dying.

I waited five minutes, but no one came to resurrect me. I was instead grouped with other dead people. After the time was up, I respawned at the safe area together with my fellow dead squadmates. DragonTalon was among them. As soon as he revived, he turned to me with a dead-panned expression that spoke of immense displeasure.

"I am never again going to get close to any of you when the boss HP was about to hit 50%."

I roared in laughter.

Of 30 players who went inside to fight the Queen Spider, 15 died due to Puppeteer String. 3 of them were High Priests, including me.

"Yo, Antares," the other two greeted me cheerfully. Their IDs were JennyVee and ambrosia.

"What a run," I commented.

"I thought they would resurrect the dead High Priests first," JennyVee said. "Is that not how raids are usually done?"

"Well, she did resurrect me but then I died again," ambrosia said with a pouty face. "Do you know that resurrection brings you back alive but with only 1 HP and 1 MP? I ended up dying twice."

"Were you near a puppet?" DragonTalon asked.

"Yeah," ambrosia said with a crestfallen face. "I was. I was so dumbfounded at being suddenly resurrected that I neither potted nor cast Mana Guard on myself in time. That spider sure knows how to manipulate players to do its biddings..."

When the Queen Spider's HP hit 20%, it unleashed its AoE attack and eight unfortunate players died right away. Having lost more than half of their comrades, the remaining players had to work hard to make up for the lacking damage. Lazarus died at the 20% HP mark while HellWitch managed to hold on for a few minutes before she too died. Having failed more runs before, she took her death more casually than DragonTalon did.

The raid concluded close to two hours. Only ten players survived to the end, and only three of them did not have Queen Spider Boots yet. One of these lucky three was ZhaoYun. Coincidentally, the Queen Spider dropped exactly three pairs of boots. ZhaoYun thus managed to loot his Queen Spider Boots on his very first run. It was an achievement that most players dreamed about. By then not only DragonTalon, but even I was also burning with envy. Two end-game equipment in one day! That lucky son of a bitch, seriously...

Livina was among those who died. When she respawned at the safe area and spotted us some distance away, she quickly approached us. Sorry was written all over her face.

"GUYS. I am SO SO SO SO SO SORRY for killing you two."

DragonTalon pursed his lips, pretending to be pissed off, "Man, you totally let yourself be controlled by the Queen Spider. Next time please hold back with the throwing stars!"

Aggrieved, Livina answered pitifully, "If I was able to hold back, then I was not really under control, was I???"

DragonTalon snickered.

"There, there," I stepped between them to mediate. "We ran two raids today. Honestly? I am exhausted. Let's go back to Paradise Island first?"

DragonTalon yawned and stretched his body left and right.

"I could barely sleep last night. What with BlackPuma's disappearance and anticipating today's raids... Let's go back, I really need to sleep."

"Me too, I think," Livina said while rubbing her eyes.

Before we could do that, we came across Hime and other raid survivors. They went back to the safe area after they finished the raid. All of them looked battered and exhausted to the core. Only ZhaoYun and the two other raiders who just earned their boots grinned from ear to ear, looking as if nothing could ever wipe that shameless grin off their faces. At least not for that day.

DragonTalon went to elbow him in the chest.

"You asshole, getting a helmet and boots on the same day."

ZhaoYun's grin grew only wider.

I could not help but smack him on the back.

"You lucky bastard. You better help us get our boots before you go and level to 150."

"Hahaha, I won't. Of course I will join every run until all of us get our boots."

Hime stood in the middle and clapped her hands thrice.

"Everyone, please listen to me for a bit."

"Good job today," Hime praised. "We will repeat the raid same time tomorrow. Three players earned their boots today. Amazing achievement. I am going to send three players with boots to the next level raid so that newer players can join. Please pay attention to the raid setup before you go to sleep tonight. Just in case you are required to join the raid, please make sure to redo your level 60 precursor raid today."

"..."

So much for going back to Paradise Island to sleep.

Having come from the tiring Queen Spider raid, no one in their right mind would want to solo the tiresome level 60 raid. Especially not when 30 people needed to do it and the Life Point reward was still between one to three Life Points.

Together with my original party, we waddled toward the entrance cave again to do the level 60 precursor raid. It was even faster with 6 people. I was so tired that I barely paid attention to what I was doing. I just attacked randomly and did not even bother to heal my party mates continuously. Lucky for me, they were also too tired to complain. Drinking potion was faster than asking and waiting for heal to come.

My second precursor raid gave me two Life Points.

After we were done, we marched straight to the port to board the Giant Macaw. When we arrived at Paradise Island, it was already almost 8 PM. My eyelids were as heavy as stones. The six of us walked along the map of Paradise Island, looking for a good place to park our homes when we heard a commotion.

In the middle of Paradise Island, two groups of players were quarreling. I squinted at them to get better looks. Once I recognized who they were, I was stunned.

Aurendiria, Ingenious, and ArrowRain were arguing loudly with Ninja and PrecisionShot. HinoKun and SakuraChan stood in the middle of the two groups, trying hard to pacify the others.

"I demand that you drop the Ice Dragon Cloak right here, right now!" Ingenious shouted angrily, pointing a finger into Ninja's face.

"Be reasonable! What is the use of me dropping the cloak now??" Ninja shouted back furiously. "I already said I was sorry. Stop pressuring me!"

"Fuck, PRESSURING YOU???"

Ingenious looked like he was about to punch Ninja in the face. ArrowRain also stepped forward with her bow in her hand. HinoKun stepped in front of Ingenious and ArrowRain, preventing them from beating Ninja up.

"Look, Ingenious, I know how you feel. I promise you that it was an honest mistake. Ice Dragon Cloak is not easy to get. What is the point of forcing Ninja to drop it?"

Ingenious grabbed at HinoKun's collar and gritted his teeth at him.

"I am forcing him because he is a fucking thief! He has always been one, and you have been shielding him all your life!!!"

"You know I forced him to drop the illegal helmet ages ago. It's just that we are fighting to get everyone end-game equipment and now you want him to drop the cloak! If this is not a waste then I don't know what it is!" HinoKun countered, his face turned redder from fury.

"You should have done more than just forcing him to drop an illegal helmet only to allow him to loot a 'legal' one with the elite squad! You should have fucking banished him from your guild!" ArrowRain screamed.

"LOOK, I am very sorry that he stole the cloak okay?? But what was the point of making Ninja drop the cloak now? It only means that we have 2 players who need a cloak instead of only one.

If it makes you feel better then Ninja doesn't need to join the future Ice Dragon raids ever again."

Ingenious let out mocking laughter.

"Do you take me for an idiot? Yes, sure that is the best punishment for a thief. Let him loot an illegal cloak and as a punishment, he doesn't have to contribute to the future raids anymore. Shit, HinoKun are you for real???"

After keeping silent for a while, Aurendiria spoke up, "It sounds like a good way to glorify thievery. Just steal the loot so you don't have to help out others with their equipment. Today it's Ninja, tomorrow it will be PrecisionShot. What is the point of running together if there is no trust within the squad? How many more Ninjas will steal the cloak from under my nose?"

All six of us sucked in a deep breath incredulously.

I shifted my gaze to Aurendiria, who pressed her lips together adamantly while shooting daggers at Ninja.

Ninja had stolen the Ice Dragon Cloak that was supposed to be looted by Aurendiria.