Rewinding to the moment Tess was slain, a series of system-wide alerts flashed into existence, vibrating through the consciousness of every survivor.
[City Leader 05 has been terminated by an alien creature]
[Bounty Issued: 1 Million Points and 1 Advanced Physique]*
[Bounty Objective: Slay the Alien Creature and present the remains to any Town Hall to claim the reward]
The notification spared no one; it reached the individual leaders of the respective cities, those within the city walls, and the desperate, banned citizens lingering in the wilds alike.
Immediately following the bounty, a high-priority directive was dispatched to the remaining Base City Leaders: [Emergency Base Cities Leader Meeting to commence in 5 minutes. Please assemble at the Leader's Office in your respective City Town Halls.]
Deep within the forest, Olivia was focused on her training. She was meticulously practicing low-cost spells—techniques she could weave effortlessly without exhausting her mana reserves. Her goal was to develop a repertoire of instantaneous magic, a defensive toolkit that could be deployed at a moment's notice to prevent any more fatalities within her group.
However, a chilling mystery hung over their camp. After the death of the man who had rolled the [Golden Brick] on his Roulette, his corpse had vanished. One witness claimed, with trembling conviction, that they had seen the very earth rise up to swallow him whole.
Driven by a mix of morbid curiosity and unease, the group had attempted to recover him. Even Olivia had intervened, using her unique physique to subtly aid the excavation from the shadows. Yet, after digging a meter into the cold purple soil and finding nothing but dirt, the group's resolve crumbled.
Logically, the man was a stranger; he held no ties to them, and in this world, survival was the only currency that mattered. Most felt a sense of relief from an unnecessary burden, reasoning that the earth had simply saved them the labor of a burial. But for a paranoid few, the disappearance was a harbinger of doom.
They stared at the ground beneath their feet, haunted by a single question: "Will it swallow us in our sleep, too?"
This creeping dread began to rot the group's unity. Those who were once eager to explore the forest now grew impatient and restless, with thoughts of abandoning the party to retreat to the safety of the city. The camaraderie that had felt so solid when they first stepped beyond the walls was now spider-webbed with cracks; the death of a single man had been enough to shatter their collective trust.
Adding to the tension was the sight of new faces moving through the woods. These were the "Accepted"—citizens recently granted entry into the city's grace. They moved with a sense of purpose, emboldened by exploration missions issued by Slade, the Leader of City 01. With the promise of easy points, their presence served as a bitter reminder of what the outcasts had lost.
As the two groups crossed paths, a fresh wave of envy washed over the banned citizens, turning the already strange vibe of the forest into something truly volatile.
The sudden, blaring notification of the death of City 05 Leader, Tess, acted like a powder keg. For those already wavering and planning to leave, this news was the final spark that hardened their resolve to abandon the group.
The alert did more than just deliver news; it injected a deep sense of emergency into every person. Fearing for their lives, the group gathered and reached a collective, desperate decision: they would return to the city immediately.
In their panic, they were completely unaware of the terrifying details surrounding Tess's death. They didn't know that he had been killed inside the city—a place everyone considered the ultimate sanctuary in this new, apocalyptic world. Furthermore, they were oblivious to the fact that, along with Tess, many other citizens had been slaughtered within the city walls.
Instead, all the focus was on gathering and planning the next steps in this ever-changing, apocalyptic world.