551: Zachary The Doll.

Zachary The Doll.

[The Stage Two Begins]1

[Mode: Team-Up]

[Gather Points To Enter Final Stage]

[Points: 0]

After the barren wasteland with drought-suffered earth and factory-filled city, the second stage's realm was vastly different.

With a cloudless blue sky, flourishing earth, shining sun, beautiful grasslands, deep lakes, and far-away mountains, the place looked like a paradise.

Then, hundreds of shining lights descended from a ripple in the air, carrying players and New-Gen Humans from different realms. Everyone gathered, coming from different Class Reams. It was time for everyone to gather under the same sky. However, it wasn't a solo competition.

With hundreds of mountains littering the outskirts of the Realm, they were homes for the players and New-Gen Humans. Inside every mountain, there was a cave created to be their living quarters until this stage was over.

Unknown to the public, one of the strongest players gathered in the same event, which was still kept under wraps. In the future, this would be known as the Tournament of Champions, The Beta Version.

…

In the outside world, the public had already noticed the strange disappearance of the Top Players. At first, Kalzer, and his assumed opponent, Wraith, disappeared. Then, more players started disappearing, and they had a hunch that something was happening.

At the core of the News Stations, they checked their reporters every hour. However, none of them found anything about it. It was like they were swallowed up by the earth.

However, it was only a matter of time before everyone found out, and it would be the start of the storm that would snowball till the fated match between Isaac and Kalzer.

…

With a soft breeze caressing his face, Isaac slowly opened his eyes. Immediately he felt an uncomfortable feeling spreading across his back like he was lying on sandpaper.

Looking down, his so-called 'bed' was made of rock, extremely hard and very unpleasant. Then, turning around the cave, it looked like a small room for two.

At the end of the cave, there was another rocky bed, which happened to be empty. However, Isaac could hear soft footsteps coming from outside the cave, where a shimmer of light seeped through.

Standing up, he stepped out of the cave and was greeted with the soft wind, swaying trees, and calming grass.

"Oh, are you my teammate?" A voice cut off his thoughts. In the deeper forest, a ginger-haired youth plucked flowers while noticing the white-haired youth.

"Eh, who are you?" Isaac didn't act hostile because there was a strange red symbol hovering above the ginger-haired youth. It was 'X'. Isaac assumed that he was his teammate, which also meant that team killing was forbidden.

"My name is Zachary. Nice to meet ya!" The ginger-haired youth patted the dirt off his hands, then stood up and offered his hand for a handshake.

Isaac slowly shook his hand, frowning as he scanned his so-called teammate. Teaming up with a stranger wasn't that pleasant because there were many things that could go wrong.

"How far have you explored?" After asking, Isaac noticed the lack of emotion in Zachary's eyes, like he was an emotionless doll. However, the smile on his face managed to fool the onlookers.

Removing his hand, Zachary shrugged his shoulders while shaking his head, "Not really. I just thought that the flowers looked nice, so I decided to pluck them!"

"Right…" Isaac brushed past him, motioning him to follow, "We should explore the surrounding area."

"Right, can't." Zachary playfully saluted as he followed after. The eternal grin didn't leave his face. That made him look strange, also creepy.

Leaving the forest, there was an endless grassland surrounded by the verdant forest.

'How are we supposed to receive points?' Isaac thought while caressing his clean-shaven face.

Zachary leaned on the tree bark, fiddling with the flower. As his emotionless eyes saw the petals, he slowly plucked them and ripped them apart. He continued doing that till the flower was nothing but a dead petalless flower.

"Hehe…" Throwing the dead flower away, Zachary licked his lips as he looked at Isaac's white hair, 'Such deep death scent.'

Feeling chills running down his back, Isaac turned to look at Zachary with a frown deepening on his face, "What are you doing?"

"What?" Zachary innocently blinked, feigning ignorance.

"Sigh…" Isaac heaved a sigh, rubbing his forehead, 'Out of all players in the world, I got him.'

"Hey, look." Zachary, with a grin, pointed his long index finger at a faraway distance. At the edge of the forests, dozens, no… hundreds, of players, and New-Gen Humans popped out. They were all checking the realm, shocked at they were basically trapped in a circle.

On the outskirts, there were mountains that made a circle. Then, there was a forest, acting as cover for the caves. Lastly, the enormous grassland that worked as the center of the circle.

No one could see the player's faces. They were all obscured by a shadowy veil.

"Shall we return?" Zachary asked, looking amused, "I don't like the look in their eyes."

"Yeah…" While the shadowy veils obscured the faces, the eyes were clear as the sky. And currently, everyone looked hostile at everyone, even their teammates.

Turning around, both Zachary and Isaac ventured back to the cave. Moving onto the dark cave, they checked whether there was anything left behind by the creators of this place. There wasn't.

Only the two rocky beds. Everything else had to be manually created by the two.

While Isaac focused on gathering his thoughts, Zachary tried to pull out his weapons to no avail.

"Yo, we can't use our weapons," Zachary said while facing his bed, showing his back to Isaac.

"Eh?" Raising his head, Isaac looked surprised. The two guns still hung from his holsters, the dagger hidden deep in his camouflage outfit.

Touching Silvercloud, he pulled it out of the holster.

'Silvercloud?'

'I am still here and usable.'

'Others can't use weapons, but I can?'

'Hmph, we are different from the usual creations of the systems! But that still doesn't mean you will be unrivaled. There are people with weapons that can be used even though there is this restriction…

'Like, this your teammate, he is hiding something. Move with extreme caution.'

'Alright, thanks.' Before Zachary noticed his weapons, he put them inside the Inventory and sighed, "Yeah, I can't use either."

"Strange, ain't it?!" Zachary's hearty laughter echoed in the cave.

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