Three more days had passed since the incident.
Three days of strained silence, of a suppressed madness that now suffocated the entire virtual world.
During that time, Shaun existed in a state of constant hyper-vigilance. He slept only in fragmented minutes, leaving nothing to chance. He understood, with chilling certainty, that what awaited him when the protection period ended wouldn't be a simple clash between players.
It would be an all-out war between worlds—and he, somehow, was standing at the eye of the storm.
Only three days remained until the barrier fell and the "Age of Wars," as the players in the global chat were calling it, began.
Territories were rising across the various servers. Some were built on old strategies from the beta, while others were adopting far more bloody and realistic methods. But Shaun's city—his city was something else entirely.
From the moment the "Corpse Smelter" had settled at its heart, the land itself had begun to take on a strange, corrupted life. The grass had lost its color, the rocks had turned a sickly, pale gray, and the very air felt heavier.
In those three days, Shaun hadn't stopped. He established three new defensive lines around the city, each supported by towers manned by Shade Archer units acting as permanent sentinels.
The five Dark Smithies worked day and night, smelting the claws of Black Wolves and the scales of Magical Dullu Lizards, fusing them with the darkstone he harvested from the forest.
His remaining Shade Archers were organized into mobile scout units of three per squad. They patrolled in wide circles, disappearing into the ground like smoke, only to rematerialize at the first sign of danger.
But most important was what Shaun had done in the city center. Thanks to Iona, his support fairy, he'd managed to access a new system window, one completely hidden from ordinary users.
[Hollow Council Panel – Dusk Privilege 0.0.8]
It held dozens of names. Some glowed green, indicating their owners were still connected. Others were completely dark—a sign of neural disconnection... or permanent death.
Among them, one entry in particular snagged his attention.
[Nucleus – Central Sub-Server.]
[Access: Forbidden]
"Nucleus?" Shaun muttered, his eyes fixed on the grayed-out icon next to the name—a circle split by a vertical line. "Is this it? The Hollow Council itself?"
Iona drifted closer, her violet light dimming slightly.
[Please refrain from attempting to access the "Nucleus." That system is tied directly to the collective neural source of all users.]
"But that's what trapped us here. The virus, or the 'external interference'?"
[That is only part of the truth.]
"And the other part?"
The sprite paused, then replied in a tone that was almost a whisper:
[The other part... is that the Nucleus wasn't breached from the outside. It was breached from within.]
His eyebrows shot up. "From within?!"
[Yes. Someone within the game. A user from the "Lord" class attained unauthorized access. It began five days ago.]
"Five days..." A slow, cold smile spread across Shaun's face as he recalled the first server failure notifications. "You mean one of us... is the reason for all this?"
[It is more than that,] Iona said, fluttering near his shoulder. [Reports indicate the user responsible for the breach possesses a core code structure different from all other players. They are described in the Council's log with a single designation: "The Substituted Entity."]
His expression froze.
The Substituted Entity?
The term echoed in his mind. Was it possible this "Substitute" was the one who hacked the Council? Or... was the entity itself just part of the plan?
He violently shoved the thoughts aside. There was no time for theories.
Three days. That's all that was left before the protection barrier fell. Then, everyone around him would start fighting for survival.
He opened the global chat. Messages were flooding in.
[Region 46-CE declares an alliance with the Kiron Empire!]
[First early attack attempt spotted! Someone is attacking through the shadows, ignoring the barrier!]
[A player found a way to disable the barrier temporarily! Is this real?!]
[Dammit, who did this? The Council isn't intervening!]
Shaun smiled grimly. "So, the chaos is starting early."
He looked down from his tower. His city was no longer the same. The black spires gleamed with red energy lines, the shadow soldiers moved with an unsettling discipline, and the air itself seemed to pulse, as if the city breathed.
It was, in every sense of the word, a living entity.
"Iona, full growth report."
[City: Level 19 → Growth Rate 92%]
[Actual Population: 0 / Active Soldiers: 173]
[Conscious Entities: 6 (Includes Master Smith "Duram the Iron" and Shade Archer Captain "Jerik")]
[Collected Energy Resources: 13,000 units]
[Surplus Magical Energy: Stable]
"Good. We'll need all of it soon."
[Are you planning to initiate the attack?]
"No. Not yet. We wait until the last day..."
Just then, the System's voice boomed across the entire server.
[General Alert: 72 hours remain until the Global Protection Period ends.]
[All users are advised to prepare their defenses. The Regional Conflict Protocol will be activated upon expiration.]
[Additional Warning: Disturbances detected in the Central Hollow Council System.]
[Temporary "Temporal Disconnects" may occur in some regions.]
Temporal Disconnects?
A dark smile touched Shaun's lips. "Ha. It seems the game itself is losing its balance."
He stared at the gray horizon, where the distant forest dissolved into a thick fog. Out there, other players were building their own armies, dreaming of conquest or, like him, just trying to survive.
But they knew nothing of the truth. Nothing of the Hollow Council, or the real reason their world had been sealed.
"When the war begins... I won't just be fighting to survive." He closed his eyes, and the violet-tinted window bearing the hospital's name appeared in his mind. "I'll be fighting to remember who I was. And to take back everything that was stolen from me."
Iona flickered at his side, her voice soft.
[Then... let the Age of Wars be the start of your path to the truth, Lord of Shadows.]
Shaun sighed, studying the virtual map before him. Vast gray swathes of "undiscovered" territory still swallowed most of the region around the small city he'd built. All he'd managed to scout so far was a mere fifty-kilometer radius, most of it forests or the ruins of old villages inhabited by weak monsters that gave pathetic EXP.
But it wasn't the weakness of his surroundings that worried him; it was what he couldn't see.
In this world, the real dangers never show up on the map.
"Three days isn't enough..." he muttered, gazing out from the roof of the small fortress he'd built at the city's center.
He sat on the ledge and pulled up the system window.
[System Options]
[City Management]
[Summon Units] — Locked
[Develop Lord's Throne] — Requires Lvl 15 Main Hall (No active hall summoned)
[Exit World] — ...
He pressed the last option slowly.
[Warning: Exit is not possible. This function has been disabled by the "Hollow Council."]
He flinched, then let out a hollow chuckle, whispering with biting sarcasm, "Oh, look at that. I'm not even surprised."