“Ten seconds until the permanent shutdown of the Divine Realm Era servers.”
The cold system prompt echoed within the empty mage tower.
Leo sat upon the Arcane Throne, a symbol of the highest honor in the entire game. He didn’t join the other players on the world channel, crying and wailing their farewells.
He simply watched his character panel in silence.
ID: Don’t Cry Over Lag
Titles: 【Arcane Emperor】 (Server Unique), 【legendary Archmage】, 【Controller of Forbidden Knowledge】…
Level: LV.99 (Max Level)
Equipment: “Void Sovereign” Set (legendary), “Eternal Vision” Staff (legendary).
As the only man in this globally popular VRMMO to have completed every ultimate achievement and stood at the pinnacle overlooking all living beings, he chose this way to bid farewell to the world that had accompanied him for ten years.
“Even if it was just a virtual world…”
Leo stroked the cool surface of his staff, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“03, 02, 01…”
“Goodbye, my era.”
Just as the countdown hit zero and Leo prepared for the darkness of a forced logout—
“BOOM—!!!!”
There was no familiar logout interface.
An unprecedented, terrifying sensation of tearing—as if his soul were being forcibly stripped from his flesh—instantly overwhelmed him!
Countless fragments of magical knowledge, spell models, and rune trajectories—data he had once known by heart in the game—transformed into actual imprints of knowledge. Like a burst dam of lava, they poured brutally into every single one of his brain cells!
“Aaaaaagh—!”
Leo felt like his head was going to explode.
“Warning! Unknown high-dimensional energy intervention detected! Logout program error! Soul is undergoing…”
The system’s chaotic alarm blared in his mind, followed immediately by a void of deathly silence.
…
He didn’t know how much time had passed.
“In the name of the royal blood, I, Lucrezia Sylvania, invoke the final logic of the contract…”
“Respond to my call! Whether you be a demon of the abyss or a heroic spirit of the heavens…”
A young, trembling, yet stubbornly defiant voice rang in Leo’s ears like a clap of thunder.
He snapped his eyes open.
What met his gaze wasn’t the familiar ceiling of the game’s temple, but a somber, unfamiliar sky pouring with torrential rain.
And he himself was currently in a free-fall from ten thousand meters in the air, in a most unscientific posture!
“Holy shit?!”
The intense sensation of weightlessness made his heart hammer against his ribs.
Before he could grasp the situation, the muddy, bloody battlefield below rapidly expanded in his vision.
“THOOM—!!!!!”
A massive crash resounded.
Leo felt himself smash through some hard metal first, then slam into a pile of highly elastic flesh cushions.
The massive impact jolted through his spine straight to his skull. Stars danced before his eyes, his internal organs felt displaced, and his stomach churned violently.
That torrent of knowledge that had been frantically pouring into his mind seemed to come to an abrupt halt during this violent collision.
“Cough… uack…”
Leo lay prone on the ground, every bone in his body feeling like it had been shattered.
The thick scent of blood, the earthy smell of rain, and a strange, faint scent of charred meat—perceptible only when close—drifted into his nostrils.
“Hiss… it hurts…”
The sharp pain made him gasp, followed by the metallic tang of rust hitting his nose.
He shakily propped up his body and shook his dizzy head.
“Dammit… where the hell did I end up? Is this even still domestic?”
Just then, he felt a burning sensation on the back of his left hand.
He lifted his hand to look, seeing three blood-red, complex marks resembling command seals slowly surfacing.
‘What is this? Command seals?’
He endured the vertigo and frowned; this realism seemed a bit too good to be true.
Before he could investigate what the things were for, the nauseatingly thick smell of blood filled his nose again.
‘Wait… when did the haptic feedback update? Is the pain simulation this real? And this smell of blood…’
The deafening sound of clashing weapons, roars, and dying screams around him experienced an extremely brief lull before exploding into even more violent slaughter!
“Wait… didn’t the servers close?”
Leo looked up and began to scan his surroundings.
He was in the center of a literal Shura Field.
The rain fell in sheets, and beneath his feet was a viscous slurry of mud mixed with blood.
His “landing point” was a mess. Seven or eight soldiers wearing tattered guard armor lay dead in a radial pattern around him.
Clearly, the “flesh cushions” he had hit earlier were these unlucky bastards.
And not far in front of him, a petite figure sat collapsed amidst the pile of corpses.
It was a young girl.
Silver twin-tails, cascading like moonlight, were now tangled with rain and mud, clinging miserably to her pale little face.
The once-exquisite princess dress she wore had been torn in several places. The soaked fabric clung tightly to her, outlining her slender frame which shivered from cold and fear.
Notably, her white silk stockings had turned into “muddy stockings,” with several gashes revealing the reddened, snow-white skin beneath that had been scratched by thorns.
Her mouth was slightly ajar, revealing a tiny canine tooth, her expression a blank stare—a mix of shock, confusion, and a final sliver of frantic obsession.
She was kneeling in the center of that muddy ground. Before her was an extremely intricate, yet clearly incomplete magic circle.
The lines of the array were flickering with a final, unstable crimson glow, and her slender, blood-stained palm pressed into the center of the circle was still trembling slightly.
She seemed to have exhausted all her strength, staring blankly with eyes that looked at him as if he were a monster… this man in black-purple rabbit pajamas who had just fallen from the sky.
‘Is this… the savior I summoned by gambling my life and the last of my kingdom’s fate?’
“A summoning ritual?” Leo raised an eyebrow, then looked at himself.
“So… I’m the summoned creature?”
He looked further out.
Two groups of people.
One group consisted of about a dozen paladins clad in silver-white plate armor, wielding greatswords of holy light. They were in a semi-circle, fiercely attacking the remaining guards.
These people had fanatical looks in their eyes, and their strikes were ruthless.
Further away, another group of about a hundred people stood.
Dressed in uniform black armor with sword-and-shield emblems on their armbands, they circled the edge of the battlefield like patient vultures, neither attacking nor retreating.
Leo’s pupils constricted slightly.
‘Church fanatics? And another country… spectating?’
‘Is this exquisitely modeled important NPC being hunted? Judging by the outfit, she’s at least a princess or something… has her kingdom fallen?’
In almost an instant, he pieced together the situation before him.
At that moment, the leading knight captain—a ferocious man with a cross-shaped scar on his face—removed his helmet.
He noticed Leo’s “grand entrance” and burst into deafening laughter:
“What am I seeing? A… jester in purple rabbit pajamas?! Hahahaha!”
He turned toward the silver-haired girl sitting on the ground in despair, the mockery at the corner of his mouth growing more cruel:
“Lucrezia! Is this your trump card? Summoning a circus clown?!”
Eligor snapped his helmet back on, the cold metallic click of the visor closing was ear-piercing.
“Go! Cut that jester into pieces and feed him to the dogs! Bring me the descendant of the blasphemer alive!” He swung his greatsword forward violently.
“Yes, sir!” Three blood-soaked paladins grinned, raising their greatswords as they lunged toward Leo, their eyes glinting with bloodlust.
“Protect Her Highness!” The last two remaining guards let out a final, mournful cry as they moved to intercept, only to be sent flying with their breastplates caved in. They clearly wouldn't survive.
“It’s over…”
Lucrezia closed her eyes in agony, two trails of tears mixing with the rain as they fell.
Her last hope had been shattered.
Rate on N.U.
