"Shadow Claw's guys must have such priceless expressions right now!"
"Hahaha~"
"That final twist was absolutely brutal!"
Kalis, Lenore, and Eira sat around the table at Luminé Dining, their cheerful laughter echoing through the elegant private room. The TV screen on the wall cycled through news and updates about [Eternal Realm].
Since its launch, [Eternal Realm] had swept across the entire continent in a wave of popularity. In just one day, the number of logged-in players had surpassed one billion.
Whether they were students or office workers, everyone had found their own joy in the game.
No one quite understood why in-game time ran ten times slower than real time, but most people loved the feature and happily accepted it.
At that moment, the screen happened to broadcast the news of the Oath of Sky Guild purchasing their guild residence. In the comment section below, many people left congratulatory messages and shared their thoughts.
But even more comments were mocking and teasing from those in the know. After all, Shadow Claw had completed their residence registration only one minute later than Oath of Sky Guild, missing out on the server announcement and double experience bonus, becoming a laughingstock across the entire server.
"Shadow Claw has really messed up this time. First, they got intimidated by Kalis alone despite having over 20,000 members, then they got played by Oath of Sky at the auction. The damage to their morale will definitely make hundreds of people quit the guild." Lenore said with a laugh while cutting her steak.
Kalis leaned back in his chair, his tone calm. "To be honest, I kind of feel sorry for them. A top-tier guild ending up in such a sorry state is pretty embarrassing."
"Don't bother feeling sorry for them." Eira twirled her fork gently, her voice calm and rational. "They're probably plotting behind the scenes how to get revenge on you right now."
"You're right." Kalis nodded in agreement, then suggested. "Let's check the news from Ophilin Continent. I wonder how the players over there are progressing."
They switched the TV to the Ophilin Continent news channel, and a flood of updates appeared one after another:
[Ophilin Continent Top Player 'Cyrnath' Solos Level 80 Mythic Boss!]
[Ophilin Continent Level Leaderboard No. 1 'Darius' Challenges Solaria Continent: The Day I Break Level 100 Will Be the Day We Conquer You!]
[Bug? Fell Down a Flight of Stairs and Lost 50,000 HP!]
These updates included both highly anticipated deeds of top players and more obscure, interesting anecdotes.
Among Ophilin Continent's players, solo adventurers and small parties accounted for a large proportion. They were far inferior to Solaria Continent's guilds in terms of execution in ultra-large-scale army battles.
Although Ophilin Continent's players hadn't yet defeated a Level 100 Mythic monster to establish a guild residence, the number of top-tier powerhouses was not inferior.
Currently, Darius, the top player on Ophilin Continent's level leaderboard, has reached Level 76. Without killing a large number of Mythic or Legendary Bosses, his leveling speed was impressive—his monster-slaying efficiency could only be imagined.
In addition, many well-known professional players, veteran experts, and international tournament champions had also emerged in [Eternal Realm], achieving countless earth-shattering feats.
To date, the system announcements for the entire Blue Star Server have been updated dozens of times, with significantly more announcements from the Ophilin Continent Server than the Solaria Continent Server.
Most of the first-clear honors for main storyline dungeons had also been claimed by Ophilin Continent's players. This wasn't because Solaria Continent's players were weaker, but mainly because triggering main storyline dungeons required extremely high luck and specific prerequisite conditions.
If it were Kalis, with his strength, soloing main storyline dungeons from Level 25 to Level 155 would not be difficult at all.
The news also mentioned that a mysterious player on Ophilin Continent had revealed the stats of a Transcendent Mythic item.
According to the verbal description of the stats, it was a staff that increased Spell Attack by 10,000 and came with a world-destroying active skill. Once fully unleashed, it could flatten an entire map by itself.
Many people questioned the authenticity of this news, but Kalis thought it was highly credible. However, the player had not revealed their in-game ID, so everyone could only make random guesses based on the performance of Ophilin Continent's players.
Since the game world's internet was isolated from the real world, many wonderful in-game moments and key information couldn't be directly displayed on real-world networks.
This was undoubtedly a great pity, leaving those who hadn't logged into the game full of anticipation but unable to see the full picture.
But fortunately, it was almost time for people to get out of work! After dinner, [Eternal Realm] was bound to usher in a new wave of player enthusiasm, and major main cities would surely become more lively than ever.
"I'm done eating! Let's hurry back to the dorm and log in!" Lenore put down her utensils first, her eyes sparkling with eagerness.
Kalis and Eira felt the same way. The three of them had been enjoying their meal, but after seeing the news, they could no longer contain their urge to return to the game.
So they quickly settled the bill, returned to their respective dorms, washed up and tidied themselves briefly, then lay down on their beds and reconnected their consciousness to the game server.
...
"Welcome back to Eternal Realm!"
"You have created a character and can log in at any time."
On the login screen, Kalis looked at the handsome male mage holding a Celestial Staff.
"I have to admit, this design is pretty cool~" Kalis teased himself narcissistically, then clicked login. Light swirled before his eyes, and in the next second, he was standing on the bustling streets of Drakenspire City.
"Lenore, Eira."
His two friends had also logged in simultaneously, and the three of them remained at a party.
Lenore's Lunar Priest wore a light blue robe, held a Holy Tome, and was surrounded by a faint glow of moonlight. Eira's Dragon Warrior, clad in Dragon Scale Armor with a long sword hanging at her waist, exuded an imposing aura.
"Kalis, where are we going next? Let's grind levels together?" Lenore, who had just replenished her energy, asked enthusiastically.
"Sure, but… someone's contacting me." Kalis was about to agree when his friend's chat channel suddenly lit up.
"Brother Kalis, you're finally online! Hurry and help us—our guild residence is about to be breached!" The sender was Seren, the guild master of Spheres Crusaders. His voice was filled with urgency, clearly in imminent danger.
"Has the defense battle already started?" Kalis asked in a deep voice.
"It's been going on for almost an hour! The monsters attacking are too high-level. Each one takes a ton of skills to kill. Our members have died several rounds already, and now we're barely holding on thanks to the NPC army dispatched by the city-state." Seren's voice carried a hint of despair.
"Send me the coordinates—I'll be right there!" Kalis knew the situation was urgent and didn't dare to waste a second.
"First, head to Lunaris City. You can teleport directly to the Spheres Crusaders' residence through the small teleportation array there. I've already granted you teleportation access." Seren replied immediately.
"Grant access to my two friends too—we'll come together. Their character IDs are…" Kalis reported Lenore and Eira's IDs, then led the two of them straight to Drakenspire City's teleportation array.
The three teleported from Drakenspire City to Lunaris City, then used Lunaris City's exclusive teleportation array to head for the Spheres Crusaders' residence.
[System Notification: The target area is currently in a state of war. Confirm teleportation?]
Due to the special nature of the destination, the system popped up an additional confirmation prompt during the teleportation.
"Confirm."
Kalis and the other two paid the teleportation fee. A flash of light later, they arrived directly at the Spheres Crusaders' residence, where the Guild Residence Defense Battle was underway.
Boom—
Crack!
Roar—
As soon as they landed, deafening booms, magical explosions, and the roars of monsters surged over from the distance.
Kalis, Lenore, and Eira looked up and saw that they were in a simple village-like residence. There were very few buildings around, only a circle of wooden city walls and a few simple functional structures.
Within this 1000x1000-meter residence, dense crowds of players huddled together. After respawning, they rushed fearlessly toward the city walls, engaging in a desperate battle with the surging tide of monsters.
Outside the residence, a tide of monsters like a black ocean frantically slammed into the city walls—there were hellhounds covered in bone spurs, one-eyed giants wielding giant axes, and corrosive worms spitting venom.
Once players were surrounded by the monster horde, they usually fell in less than three seconds, while the damage they dealt to the monsters seemed insignificant.
"Priests focus on healing the NPC army! Knights and warriors use recovery potions on themselves! We can die, but the NPCs can't—otherwise, we'll never hold on!"
"Witer, go restock the alchemist NPC. The healing potions and mana potions are almost gone!"
"Brothers with broken weapons, go to the warehouse to get new gear! Don't worry about armor for now—prioritize killing monsters!"
Seren's roar echoed throughout the residence. The guild master stood at the entrance of the simple council hall, commanding the entire battle.
The council hall behind him was the core of the entire residence. Once the monsters broke through the city walls and destroyed the council hall, the defense battle would be declared a failure.
"Seren, which section of the city wall is under the most pressure? We'll go reinforce there!" Kalis scanned the battlefield situation in a few seconds, quickly entering combat mode and shouting to Seren.