The Earth Online

46 Entrance to The Second World

Nobody talked while on the drive back home. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts, as they kept seeing the red mother’s peaceful but resigned smile.

They could see the little kids quickly handing the prizes and waving goodbye with bigger-than-life smiles, not realizing what happened to them in the whole cube.

It was heartbreaking for them.

Thaleos kept thinking about how this whole game was absolutely controlled by the gods. The cube made him realize that the gods can do anything they want, as long as it fits their entertainment needs.

But through this experience, he also learned that the gods can’t control everything. The game had strict rules, but it also had loopholes, namely James’ journal.

Yet the bearded man realized that there was another loophole; it was that the gods have no control over emotions and thoughts.

They can influence the players, but they can’t fully control their actions. Even as gods, they can only control fate up to a certain extent.

Thaleos knew that he couldn’t lose confidence now. They can talk about these things that were making them anxious, but they need to create solutions after.

That’s the only way to survive. It’s so tiring but fighting just to see the small happy things made everything worthwhile.

Upon arriving back to the Melam Military Base, they saw that the alumni guild wasn’t there anymore.

Once they got inside the house and straight into the living room, they saw a little note on the coffee table near the sofa.

They knew that it was from Ryan due to horrible tiny scribbles. Kedrick did his best to decipher the little message and read the note to the whole team,

Thank you so much for taking the time to train all of us.

Till the second world.

Staying Alive,

Ryan

“Well, that’s it. It seems more real now. The second world opens up tomorrow night. How surreal is it?” Ygritte crossed her arms while mindlessly staring at the note.

Haya nodded his head and muttered under his breath, “Jesus Christ, it’s been a little over eight months. How did we survive this long?”

They always had moments like this, especially when past events start sinking into their consciousness.

Since they’ve been in a flight-or-fight mindset for the past couple of months, their minds constantly just took whatever was thrown at them—giving them little to no time to fully emote their emotions.

“It’s hard to accept, but this is our world now. We can choose to ignore it or we can choose to fight it. I hate how we’re forced into this situation, and all your emotions are incredibly valid—especially considering how the gods literally f****d us over multiple times—but like our predecessors, we fight. We f*****g fight up until the end. We might now win or outwit the gods, but we’ll die trying.” Thaleos directed his gaze at every single one of them, communicating to them his determination to fight for their little family.

Kedrick’s eyes slightly glistened, as he knew how hard it was for everyone, and for him, too. He always felt like he had the responsibility to cheer everyone up, but he realized that he needed time to process his emotions too.

A human being can’t survive just smiling their whole lives.

After the whole team shared their feelings about the whole things over a couple of light beers and nachos, they felt the invisible weight on their shoulders slightly lifting up.

They spent majority of the night just sharing the things they hated the most about the whole game and some of the silver linings in this terrible world.

That evening, they slept well and were ready to fight with all their hearts tomorrow.

~ ~ ~

Thaleos woke up in the middle of the day. He just groggily stared through the window and felt at peace for some weird reason. It was half-past one and he just took the silence in.

He knew that everyone was still asleep, so he decided to get up, take a quick cold shower, and cook something up for the whole team.

Once readying everything up and seeing that everyone was still asleep. The beast tamer decided to double check their journey luggage one last time, and then proceeded to walk around the Melam Military Base.

It was going to be their last day on it. He remembered how he had to borrow millions of dollars just to build it before The Apocalypse started.

He knew that he had to let go of the piece of land at some point, but they’ve all built memories here—from the first time they sighted the wolf-eagles to training the Antum Gudea.

He wasn’t fully attached to the place, but he felt slightly sentimental about leaving it.

As he reached the alchemist’s lab, he saw Abheek laying on the recently moved bed in the lab. The young man seemed to be asleep as he was snoring so loudly.

He remembered how the young alchemist was so eager to come with their team to the second stage, but his sister wanted her younger brother to be close to her in the first few months of the stage.

So begrudgingly, Abheek did agree in the end.

The beast tamer slightly chuckled and just continued walking around the base. As he reached the barn, he saw a figure sitting by the aged trees near the field.

Slowly walking towards where the figure was sitting, Thaleos tried his best to stealthily move and quietly clutched his dagger.

Once he was a couple of feet away, the figure suddenly spoke and an old man’s voice came out,

“Ah, amazing job with what you did with this farm.” The beast tamer knew the familiar voice but he didn’t know who the person speaking was particularly.

“It used to be a dead farmland, but you turned this into something wonderful. It’s an absolute pity, you have to leave it.” The old man finally turned around and revealed himself.

It was the old man from the Merryfair Farm, he was part of the old couple that sold this land to them. The aged man’s eyes wrinkled a bit as he smiled at Thaleos’ confused face.

“Don’t worry, just an old man passing by before the second world opens.” The bearded man didn’t know what to say, so he just nodded his head in understanding and bowed a bit to show his respects.

As Thaleos looked back up, he saw the old man’s eyes glinted an amazing shade of gold. He paused for a second and felt that something was odd.

“Don’t worry, young one. I mean no harm, just to pass a message. Since you won against Irkalla’s game, you get more than just those prizes. Your team now has access to the Door of Promotion.” The aged man slowly muttered, emphasizing certain words.

“This door is exclusive to professional players only. Congratulations, you and your team have surpassed the NPC level. Now, you’re playing the real game. May the gods be with you.”

The farm owner walked behind one of the trees and when Thaleos tried to follow him, he suddenly disappeared.

Before Thaleos could even look for the old man around the location, he felt something within him changing.

Feeling a slight headache coming, he sat nearby the trees as he felt his legs weakening. As he started seeing black spots, his vision started to shift.

The sensation felt weird and overwhelming, as he saw a black and white scene with 2D and 3D elements like hand-drawn trees then multi-dimensional beasts.

Upon seeing one of the beasts that looked like a giant centipede with a humanoid head, it suddenly dawned on him that this was one of the beasts that James was describing in his journal.

Thaleos tried blinking the image away, but he could still see how some humans—he couldn’t fully see them due to the changing dimensions of the elements—fighting the menacing centipedes.

Before the two groups could even reach other, Thaleos suddenly woke up from his reverie. When he opened his eyes, he saw Kedrick, Haya, and Ygritte surrounding him.

“Oh my god, dude, are you alright?” Haya asked as there was a certain panic in his eyes. Kedrick and Ygritte also had the same look in their eyes as they warily stared at the bearded man, fearing that he might pass out again.

They spotted the beast tamer laying on the ground and slightly convulsing. They all immediately rushed to his side to check on him.

“I-I think I just saw a bit of the future.” Thaleos stuttered out, as he felt himself breaking out in a cold sweat. The experience took a lot out of him and he hypothesized that the gods haven’t adjusted the balance of mana and miasma in the power.

He remembered James explaining this in great detail as he saw one of the players being blessed by the gods with a new power.

“What do you mean you can see the future?” Kedrick asked in an incredulous voice. He was thinking that the man passed out because of overworking, but he knew that the beast tamer wouldn’t lie about these kinds of things.

“I saw it. I saw a glimpse of the second world.” Thaleos explained while looking up the sky. The premonition immensely tired him out, but he had a little smile on his face.

The others looked at him as if he were crazy, but eventually, smiled along with him.

“We can do this.” Haya whispered under his breath.