The Earth Online

47 Welcome to The Second World

They were all in the black truck as Kedrick drove them all to the Emerging Group’s manor.

Since one of the small doors to the second world was located here, they previously made the deal with the guild to gain access to the hard-to-find portal.

Most of them were anxious about the second world and just stayed quiet throughout the whole drive. Thaleos sat at the passenger seat and just stared through the window.

They passed by golden fields that danced along to the cool autumn air. The road to Ellis Town was surrounded by vast fields and enormous mountains.

Every once in a while, they would see large butterflies soaring through the fields. These butterflies grew ten times their size, as they were as big as eagles.

Thaleos tried to memorize how their planet looked like before setting off to the new world. Ygritte, Haya, and Kedrick did the same.

Although they deeply hoped that it isn’t true, they knew that there was a large chance that they won’t make it back to earth. Everyone knew the truth, but no one really talked about it.

In the middle of his daydreaming, the black truck suddenly slowed down and then a large blue screen appeared on the middle of the road.

The gods had this technology where they force you to watch your announcements regardless of where you are. They knew what was coming, but still couldn’t help but roll their eyes and huff in anger when they heard Irkalla’s voice.

“Hello, my interesting and gullible little humans. As you all know, the second world is about to open up in three hours. Sadly, only 1/10th of you were able to move pass their NPC level and reached the professional level. So, for those who didn’t make it, sadly, you have to stay here.”

The group of four could hear their hearts beating loudly, as they were scared with what the underworld goddess might say next, “But worry not, we won’t let you just die or anything. We’re keeping the monsters and beasts at the same level right now.”

The whole world was currently watching the goddess right now and the silence echoed throughout the whole atmosphere. 

Irkalla reveled in the silence filled with fear and anxiety. She gave one tiny smirk and then proceeded to end peoples’ agonies.

“There’s not really a catch. If you fail to survive the second time around, then you die or become a full-on NPC with no thoughts, aspirations, or dreams.” The last part made everyone’s heart drop.

What’s the difference between death and not being conscious that you’re alive at all? Ygritte thought to herself as the druid could remember all the times she resurrected and controlled the dead.

They were all basically zombies.

“Since we’re done with that, on to more important matters.” The goddess insensitively piped in and then cleared her throat to continue with her announcements.

“Sorry about that. So, the beauty with this second world or the more appropriate term would be ‘second stage’ is that it connects to 8,000 alien worlds. What does this mean for you, little humans, well first, you’ll potentially come across other species.” Irkalla paused and then took a long sip of her golden liquid.

“The second thing is that you guys will, at some point, interact with their world. But it really depends on the challenges and quests that you guys access.” She muttered through the wine glass.

Upon sensing how everyone had questions to ask, she replied with a, “This time, we’re not going to spoon feed everything to you guys. You have to go out there and search the answers for yourself. The goal is simple, you need to survive and conquer the second stage.”

Thaleos grit his teeth in frustration because he knew how hard it was for their team to survive, even with James’ journal.

“But I will give you a little clue. The second stage is relatively more structured than this earth-stage yours. There, you will experience Instant Missions. What these missions entail of is still a secret. Good luck, may you be in our favor.” With that, Irkalla disappeared and the truck started running again.

“I swear to god, I don’t know who’s worst, Irkalla, the god who’s just plain old cruel or Enki, a god who hides his cruelty under the guise of wisdom.” Thaleos unconsciously asked.

The three other team members had different answers, but they all agreed that they were both terrible.

“I wonder how the other two gods will turn out. I mean Nirah’s pretty open about his disgust for humans, so he chooses to not get involved with us at all and just play nasty ass tricks sometimes.” Kedrick mindlessly thought as they were nearing the Emerging Group’s manor.

Upon parking by the curbside, they saw the Emerging Group’s leader. An incredible beauty with muscles that intimidated a lot of guys.

“One of the doors to the second world is here, right?” The leader crossed her arms and looked at the group of four warily.

“Yes, but I won’t worry about it that much since we can all enter through the portal anyway.” Thaleos responded; this response made the leader sigh in relief and loosen her arms. She gave a strict nod, like an army general, and brought them to the manor’s gym.

“We knew that door was here because something felt different when we woke up this morning. It felt like the blue mist was thicker and the air just felt odd, in general.” The Emerging Group leader mentioned, as she unlocked the gym’s large red gates.

 “Also not to mention how the whole gym’s basically filled with the Ea Blue Mist.” The leader gruffly spoke while covering her mouth through the thick mist.

All of them mostly coughed as the area was extremely foggy. They figured that this was different compared to the other portals, as this specific door also connected to 8,000 alien worlds.

“The door opens in one hour; do you want to wait in the lounge first?” The woman asked in a deep voice, and they all nodded their heads.

They quickly escaped the suffocating gym and went off to the manor’s lounge area.

Once entering through the large double door, they were welcomed with sumo wrestlers and large muscular groups of guys. And in the middle of the group, there were gorgeous women also had muscular figures.

Everyone looked like they could kill anything that threatened their group. They warily stared at the group of four, but once seeing their leader nodding their head, they all lowered their guards.

They saw this as a form of sign that the leader trusted Thaleos’ group a little bit.

“My name is Nala. I lead my group, but I do not wish to be called a leader. We all lead and follow here, everyone’s opinion matters just as mine do.” The goddess of a woman had a straightforward gaze and spoke the powerful words as if they were a given.

Thaleos nodded his head and picked up a thing or two in how she handled her group. She explained that they all used to work for Nala’s company, and when the apocalypse started, the leader decided to take them all in her manor.

Ygritte was amazed at how powerful Nala was and aspired just to be like the woman. Kedrick and Haya’s respect and admiration grew deeper as all the other group members talked about how their group was created.

After hearing each other’s stories out, the air suddenly shifted to a more sinister and hostile one.

Nala narrowed her eyes and whispered under her breath, “It is time.”

Once they all arrived at the second world’s door, the entire gym had blue and red smoke swirling around.

“f**k it’s both mana and miasma, we have to go through the door quick.” Thaleos muttered under his breath. He took out a black mask from his utility bag and swiftly wore it, everyone followed suit.

Haya thought to himself that they weren’t even given the time to go through the door, like they were required to enter quickly as he observed that staying in the location would sooner kill them.

“We have no choice, let’s go in.” Ygritte spoke up, as well. Thaleos vehemently agreed and quickly jogged to where the small door was.

Upon reaching it, one could literally see it emitting both miasma and mana. He could feel the imbalance in the atmosphere.

He clutched the doorknob and immediately twisted it open. Everyone was keeping a close watch, just in case something suddenly appeared.

As soon as Thaleos opened the door, he could see the desert-like environment that James tried so hard to explained in his journal.

Seeing that the coast was clear, he turned his head to nod at the others. Seeing the nervousness in their eyes, he gave them a comforting smile.

He then looked back at the door and decided to quickly go through it. Although it was smaller than his physique, the threshold of the door seemed to be just an illusion because of how it adjusted to his size.

Once passing the door’s threshold, he stood up and cleaned up the sand that got on his clothes. Upon looking up, he was awe-struck.

He was in a desert that moved just like the seashore and had large trees, bigger than acacias, with pantone pink leaves.

That wasn’t the only thing that caught his attention, when he looked up, he saw that the sky was filled with stars and thousands of planets. Unlike the earth’s sky, some of the stars and planets appeared nearer than the others.

Making their odd colors stand out more. Seeing the swirling galaxies, he was amazed to see a group of large whales floating through the dark sky with bright planets.

He could just hear the gods whispering, “Welcome to the second world.”