Chapter 3
*Ding, ding*... A chiming noise like a bell —or perhaps a warning chime— sounded loudly, making Klein and me jump in surprise.
“Ah...”
“What's this!?”
We shouted at the same time and stared at each other, our eyes wide.
Both Klein and I were immersed in a clear blue pillar of light. Past the blue veil, the plains in my vision blurred steadily.
I'd experienced this a few times during beta testing. It was a «Teleport» initiated by an item. I didn't have the prerequisite item nor did I shout the proper command. Did the operators initiate a forced teleport? If so, why didn't they even inform us?
As my thoughts raced, the light around me pulsed stronger and darkness overtook me.
As the blue light faded, my surroundings became clear again. However, this wasn't the sunset-lit plain anymore.
A large road paved with stone. Medieval streets surrounded by street-lamps and the huge palace radiating a dark light a fair distance away up ahead.
This was the starting point, the central plaza of the «Starting City».
I looked at Klein who had his mouth wide open next to me. Then at the bustling crowd of people that surrounded the two of us.
Looking at the bunch of stunningly beautiful people with a variety of equipment and different hair colors, they were no doubt other players like me. There were about a few thousand—ten thousand people here. It was likely that everyone who was logged on right now had been forcefully transported to the central plaza.
For a few seconds, everyone just looked around without speaking.
Then a few mumbles and mutters could be heard here and there; it started to get louder.
“What's happening?”
“Can we log out now?”
“Can't they take care of it quickly?”
Comments like these could be heard from time to time.
As the players started to get more annoyed, shouts like “Is this a joke?” and “Get the hell out here, GMs!” could be heard.
Then suddenly...
Somebody raised his voice above all these comments and shouted.
“Ah... look up!”
Klein and I almost automatically turned our eyes upward. There, a strange sight greeted us.
The bottom of the second floor, one hundred meters above us, was checkered in red.
When I looked closely, I could see that the pattern was made up of two phrases crisscrossing each other: the words [ Warning ] and [ System Announcement ] written in red.
I was surprised for a moment but then thought, “Oh, the operator is going to begin informing us now,” and the tension in my shoulders eased a bit.
The chatter died down in the plaza and you could feel everyone waiting to hear what was going to be said.
However, what happened next wasn't what I had expected.
From the middle of the pattern, a liquid that looked like blood started oozing down slowly. It came down at a rate that almost emphasized how viscous it was, but it didn't fall all the way down; instead, it started congealing into a shape.
What appeared was a twenty-meter tall figure with a hooded robe draped around it.
No, that wasn't exactly right. From where we were looking, we could easily see into the hood—there was no face. It was absolutely empty. We could clearly see the inner cloth and the green embroidery inside of the hood. It was the same inside the robe, all we could see inside the edges were shadows.
