[Lyra Solara was born in a small village during a time when the Flame Source burned brightly, as a bastard child of the Solare royal family. She grew up to be a brave and just child, her heart filled with a deep love for her people. She learned to wield a sword and shield at a young age, and her abilities quickly surpassed those of others.
Her metal armor shone like the reflection of the Flame Source.
When the Nullifiers first attacked, Lyra was still a young woman. But when she saw the helplessness of her people, the Flame Source within her burned more fiercely than ever before. She fought on the front lines, her sword cutting down the creatures of darkness and nullity one by one.
Her shield became a bulwark against the arrows of despair. She rode from village to village, gathering the Solarians and encouraging them. Her words rekindled the dying embers in their hearts.
Thanks to Lyra's charisma and fighting skills, the Solarians put up an unexpected resistance. They won many victories and repelled the Nullifiers time and time again. The people named her "Flame Maiden. For them, Lyra was not just a warrior, but a gift from the gods and their only hope against the darkness.
The Solare world consisted of several different kingdoms that believed in the supremacy of the sun but had different beliefs.
Lyra saw an opportunity here. An opportunity to unite the world. At first, everything was going well. She fought wars, conquered cities, and ruled the hearts of the people, but then something happened. Something called "the System" suddenly plunged the world into catastrophe.
Lyra was among the survivors. On the one hand, she was trying to learn about the system, and on the other hand, she was trying to protect the world from constant attacks by unknown forces.
Turning this crisis into an opportunity, Lyra found a member of the nearly extinct royal family, married him, and forcibly proclaimed herself queen of Solare. She then changed the name of the royal family to Solara.
Lyra learned the system, improved herself, and gathered her army in the midst of a slowly changing and strengthening world, which gave her the opportunity to expand even further.
A spark was all it took to unite the whole world under her command. But then they came.
The Solarians fought against the enemy under Lyra's banner. Under Lyra's influence, the sun never set on Solaria for centuries.
To defend against the enemy, Lyra ignited her own Flame Source, but the enemy did not play fair. They stole the hearts and emotions of the people, turning them against Lyra. Despite surviving hundreds of intrigues and thousands of assassination attempts, Lyra was defeated by her own family.
Lyra was stabbed in the back and killed by her own son.
Solaria had fallen in the same way. -Veritas]
Marcus's heart was pounding.
"Didn't Lyra just die?" He frowned and looked at the place where Lyra had disappeared.
"The timing doesn't match. Either there's a problem with the story, or there's something wrong with Lyra herself."
Marcus looked at the story on the console.
"Does Lyra think she just died? Is her sense of time distorted? What is the system trying to do by telling her story? What is it trying to tell us? Why could Lyra talk to me in such a flawless system? Why are her memories still intact even though thousands of years have passed since her death? Why did this happen to me?"
Marcus stared into space thoughtfully.
"Why didn't the system help Solaria? If it had, the story wouldn't have ended like this."
Marcus turned and looked at the door.
"I think I need to go back and discuss this with Joseph."
Then, without even looking back, he left the tower.
...
Outside the tower, he saw the group he had come with surrounding Aron.
As soon as everyone saw Marcus, they started asking him what had happened.
"Calm down." Marcus raised his hand.
Then he took a chair and sat down.
"This tower isn't fair. It's only fair in terms of level. Everyone faces the same type of enemies. For example, Kim, you might be able to pass the first level with a lot of effort, but the second level is impossible."
Marcus then recounted what he had seen inside. Although Min-Jun and Jason were interested, they were in no hurry to earn 100 sc and 1000 exp points for the time being.
With their enthusiasm dampened, the team returned to the shelter with Marcus, taking Aron with them.
Aron was reprimanded along with Jared and Tobey. Joseph told them they could leave the shelter, but they wouldn't be able to return.
Under this ultimatum and knowing the irreversible consequences of their actions, the three young men decided to stay and work harder than anyone else.
...
Elura was busy with her usual tasks.
She was constantly going back and forth between Doctor Max, Austin, and Joseph about the shelter's future plans.
They had already started planning many things. With the support of the two nurses, they had even started implementing birth control measures.
They had found everything useful in the pharmacies before the destruction and stored it in a warehouse. They had distributed it to the people.
Today, Elura was helping in the administration office. Her main quest was related to assisting and planning.
She knew everything that was in the shelter and helped with planning.
She was busy filling the coffee machine when she saw Joseph storm in. She listened to a few words and handed Joseph a cup of coffee.
"Thank you."
Joseph leaned back in his chair and looked at Hugo.
"Is there any news?
Hugo took the headsets off his head.
"No, nothing." He shook his head. "We can't reach any satellites. It's as if the space that existed before is now gone. We can't send or receive any signals to or from any transmitters outside the atmosphere."
Joseph shook his head. "I figured as much. I even suspect that the system has isolated us."
Hugo nodded in agreement. "It's possible, but I don't understand why the local internet is down. We don't have any power problems, and the main gateways are intact."
"Did Saleem take a look?" Joseph asked.
"Yes, he said there was nothing he could do about the internet. He thinks it's most likely that the Ley rifts in certain parts of the world have brought down the entire local network." Hugo nodded.
"In short, the infrastructure and electromagnetic fluctuations are causing this." Joseph nodded, and Hugo agreed.
"Well, can't we make a much more powerful radio broadcast?" Joseph asked.
"We can." Hugo took a sip of his cold coffee.
"We can make a low-frequency radio broadcast, but we don't have enough materials for that. We collected all the radio broadcast trucks and antennas in New Telludure, but it's still not enough. Besides, we don't know how to build an antenna."
Joseph shook his head. "Even if we did, the closest city to us is Eastwall in the east. We would have to build an antenna that could reach Eastwall. That's not realistic. Unfortunately, we don't have enough manpower, technical knowledge, or materials."
"Then can we say we're trapped?" Joseph bowed his head.
He knew that millions of people were still alive somewhere out there. He was particularly interested in people in other countries.
He wanted to bring the whole world together and rule it.
"We can say that." Hugo shook his head.
"Where the hell is William? Did you hear anything?" Joseph asked.
Hugo shook his head slowly. "Yes, we spoke yesterday. He said he'd be here soon."
Joseph made a strange face. "Let's see what he brings us."
Elura heard the entire conversation. She listened especially closely to the parts about William.
William was like a little brother to her, or at least she felt that way. After the argument with Marcus, her interest and affection for him had grown even more.
It was as if William had come out as their little brother and defended them, and it had worked.
She herself was at level ten. They had hunted with Austin in the time left over from all the planning.
They were very close to reaching level 11. Both of them were thinking about choosing classes that suited them. Classes independent of civilian life, combat classes.
Because their basic requirement for survival was to be able to fight.
Elura put her hand on her belly and rubbed it a little. Then Joseph's question brought her back to reality.
"Do the people have any problems?"
Elura shook her head. "No, but I talked to Max yesterday. They've decided to get married. You have to arrange their wedding. Also, as you said, all the medicine and condoms have been piled up in Max's office. I've already seen a few people take a handful of condoms." Elura smiled.
"Our population is going to grow even more, boss. You have to be ready."
Joseph shook his head. "Let's hope they don't breed like rabbits in hard times like poor people. We can manage on our own for now, but that's just for now. I think most things will be gone before a year is up, right?"
"Yes." Elura nodded. "Most of the snack foods and packaged foods will be gone by our sixth month.
Sugary foods with long expiration dates have a shelf life of more than a year, but most of it will be used up because people need it.
Then we'll run out of fuel. I talked to Austin. He said it will be gone by our seventh month. Then we'll be left in the dark. We don't have a water problem for now because the mountain is full of water, and the wells are sufficient.
Fortunately, we have a large stock of basic food.
What we have is enough for 3-4 years, assuming the population doesn't grow."
"We don't have a problem with water and basic food, but electricity is important." Joseph frowned. "We have to find fuel."
Hugo shook his head. "It's hard without killing the field bosses."
"Isn't there anything in the system?" Joseph rested his head on his hand.
"No. There's nothing related to fuel or energy. But we found something called an energy converter. It works like our generators, but it's impossible to get, at least for now."
"Why? How much?" Joseph asked curiously.
"The cheapest one is 3 million SC."
Joseph shook his head at Hugo's answer.
"Everything will have to wait until the system updates itself. Fortunately, we got a lot of information from the tower, and that provided good motivation."
Joseph couldn't help thinking about it. The Solarians had fought a great war and been destroyed.
He wanted to see Lyra Solara for himself, but he wasn't sure he could defeat her.
"No, there's no way," Joseph said and left. He didn't want to sit around doing nothing anymore. Winter was coming, and the energy problem would be their biggest concern.
At this rate, the fuel they had would run out in the middle of winter.
Elura left and went to the house she shared with Austin. As a couple, they had been lucky enough to get one of the newly built houses outside the city.
Theirs was the house right in the middle, next to a few flowers.
When she arrived, she saw Austin preparing dinner.
She approached him from behind, hugged him, and helped him cook. There wasn't much. A few cans, lots of cabbage, and some potatoes. It was a balanced meal in terms of carbohydrates and protein.
"What did you do today?" Austin was the first to speak.
"We delivered Max's medicine. We also reviewed the food plan." Elura spoke as she stirred her food with her fork. She didn't feel like eating much today.
"What about you?"
Austin shook his head. "Not much, we managed to reduce the noise from the generators, not completely, but enough that it's not disturbing.
Also, the seventy-third truck is fixed."
"Really? You guys are fast!" Elura's eyes lit up.
Austin smiled. "It's all thanks to the new kids. Most of them are good with machines, and some know more than I do. We even have a former auto company employee who knows his way around a car. He's a genius when it comes to modifications."
"What kind of modifications?" Elura pointed her fork at Austin as if she wanted to stab him.
"Don't worry, we're not wasting any materials. The goal is to turn the trucks into zombie mowers, like the ones we always see in the movies." Austin spread his arms wide.
"And we're not doing anything without Joseph's knowledge."
Elura shook her head and lowered the fork.
"Do you think the trucks are powerful enough to get past the field bosses?" Elura asked, stuffing several potatoes into her mouth at once.
Austin took a sip of water and replied.
"Impossible. I saw that creature. It can destroy our trucks with a single blow. Even if it can't catch up with us, there are thousands of zombies around it. The trucks aren't powerful enough to get past them. Eventually, the road will be blocked."
Elura shook her head. "What about helicopters? Is there no way?"
Austin shook his head. "No. That's even less likely than the trucks."
"I see." Elura nodded and continued eating. After a while, she stopped and spoke. "Then our only hope is William."
Austin shook his head.
"Yes, I think so too. From what he told us last time we spoke, he's on a better path than evolution, but it's much more difficult. He even said he wanted to challenge the boss of the open dungeon alone soon."
Austin took a deep breath. "I hope he doesn't do anything stupid."
Elura shook her head. "I hope so."