After setting up the game's online AFK function, Kairon got up and walked to Lenora's door next door, lifting his hand to knock softly.

  A few seconds later, the door creaked open a crack. When Lenora saw who was standing outside, she blinked in surprise. "Kairon?"

  She was wearing pink pajamas, a soft headband holding her hair pulled back simply from her face.

  Kairon cleared his throat quietly, averted his gaze, and spoke in a serious tone. "You're playing World of Eldrath, too, right? Listen to me. No matter where you are on the map right now, get back inside the novice village boundaries immediately. And no matter what happens next, do not, under any circumstances, log off."

  He remembered it clearly. It wasn't until months after they'd met that Lenora had told him she'd failed to find shelter during this launch-day cataclysm, and the System had assigned her to the Slayer Faction.

  She'd hated the oppressive, pitch-black environment there and had barely logged into the game after that. She'd also never told him her in-game ID, using the cross-server communication ban between the two factions as an excuse. That was why he'd come to warn her now.

  "Oh? Why's that?" Lenora pulled the door fully open, her eyes bright with curiosity.

  "Just do it. Trust me." Kairon didn't offer any further explanation. "Oh, and what's your in-game ID?"

  "Alright." Lenora blinked and answered honestly. "My ID is Liora."

  "Got it. I'll log back into the game and send you a friend request in a bit."

  With that, Kairon gave her a slight nod, turned, and headed back to his own apartment. He'd barely taken two steps when he froze mid-stride, spinning around sharply.

  Liora?

  Lenora's door had already clicked shut softly, but that ID had exploded in his mind like a clap of thunder.

  How could it be her?

  In his past life, he'd been out in the wilds on a hunt quest when he'd run into Liora, a Ranger who'd been working on the same quest.

  He'd been planning to use his skill to snipe the mobs for himself, but she'd sent a party invite before he could make a move.

  Kairon had accepted, of course, and the two of them had fought side by side through countless life-or-death situations after that, their stories weaving together in ways he'd never imagined.

  Only now did he learn that the top-tier Ranger who'd stood by him through countless trials had been his next-door neighbor, Lenora, this entire time. But why had she kept it a secret from him?

  Even when he put his full-dive headset back on and his consciousness linked into World of Eldrath, Kairon's mind still hadn't fully settled.

  A rapid-fire string of System announcements finally pulled him out of his memories.

  System Announcement: The world-ending cataclysm is imminent. All players must seek shelter in a safe zone immediately. Countdown: 1 minute.

  System Announcement: The Novice Tutorial Phase is coming to an end. The official expansion, Dawn of the Twin Stars, will launch shortly. All player levels will be reset to zero. Countdown: 1 minute.

  System Announcement: Experience gain rate during the Novice Tutorial Phase is set to 15x. Upon launch of the official expansion, the experience gain rate will revert to standard values.

  The red System announcements flooded the screen, and the World Channel erupted into chaos instantly.

  "What the hell? We've been live for an hour, and they're already dropping a new expansion?"

  "Fucking hell, I just hit level 4! They're just gonna reset all of it?!"

  "Are you all blind? The System said this was a novice tutorial from the start!"

  "Lmao, good. I still haven't been able to push my way out of the novice village gates!"

  Abuse, accusations, and smug gloating flooded the channel. Kairon turned off the World Channel's audio with a blank expression, leaned back against the inner wall of the hollow tree, and waited silently for the countdown to end.

  The moment the countdown hit zero, everything before him dissolved into absolute darkness.

  As his vision slowly returned, a shrill alarm blared through every corner of the space.

  ALERT! ALERT! The aircraft will crash in 1 minute. All personnel must proceed to the rear cabin door immediately and prepare for a parachute jump!

  The players in the cabin erupted into instant pandemonium, screaming as they stampeded toward the rear cabin door, throwing themselves out without a single hesitation.

  Kairon stood rooted to the spot, not moving an inch, a cold smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

  The last time around, he'd fallen for this fake alarm, jumped in a blind panic, and spent three full hours sprinting through the wilderness after landing just to reach the official novice safe zone.

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  He'd learned later that this starter spawn aircraft would loop the "crash in 1 minute" warning forever, but it would never actually go down. There'd even been a player who'd left it on AFK and slept through the night, only to wake up right where he'd started.

  While everyone else shoved their way toward the rear of the cabin, Kairon pushed against the crowd and headed for the cockpit.

  The cockpit door was left ajar. He pushed it open and found the pilot NPC in the captain's seat, already lifeless.

  He made no unnecessary movements. He lifted the pilot out of the captain's seat and began methodically looting his belongings. This was a trick he'd heard about long ago.

  You could strip the pilot's gear off and wear it yourself on the starter aircraft. Its stats were on par with level 5 gear, but the gear wasn't the main prize. It was the pilot's wristwatch, a critical item for triggering a secret encounter later on.

  He pulled the flight suit on, stowed the wristwatch in his inventory, picked up the parachute lying on the floor, then turned and walked to the cabin door.

  He stared down at the terrain rushing past far below, calculated the aircraft's flight path with pinpoint accuracy, then leaped out of the cabin.

  His target was SilverMoon Town, the real novice safe zone.

  More importantly, every map zone, mob spawn point, and bounty quest in the game would only be officially unlocked by the first player to reach SilverMoon Town.

  Every piece of content in World of Eldrath required a player to unlock it. The leveling spots, mob spawns zones in the novice area, and all of it would only unlock once someone reached SilverMoon Town.

  Howling wind rushed past his ears as Kairon angled his body into a steep glide, waiting until he was a mere 100 meters from the ground to pull the parachute's ripcord. At almost the same moment, he twisted his fingertips to form a nature incantation, summoning under his breath. "Shadowwood Panther."

  A faint green glow flared in the air, and the sleek panther materialized silently, plummeting toward the ground ahead of him and landing smoothly, using the tree cover to break its fall.

  Using the parachute's hang time, Kairon landed with pinpoint accuracy on the panther's back, reducing his fall damage by 80%. Even so, he was left with barely a tenth of his health. Any other class would have died instantly from a 100-meter parachute pull.

  The next second, a server-wide System announcement blared in every player's ears.

  System Announcement: Player [Kairon] is the first to reach the official safe zone [SilverMoon Town]. The server-wide Novice Zone Bounty Quest System is now unlocked!

  System Announcement: Bounty Quests for Novice Zone 1314 are now available. Players may head to the Quest Hall in SilverMoon Town to accept bounty quests and claim rewards.

  Kairon's goal was crystal clear. He headed straight for the Quest Hall in the center of town.

  World of Eldrath had no linear main quest line like traditional MMORPGs. Every bounty quest issued by an NPC was posted on the public board in the Quest Hall. There was a fixed daily cap on the number of quests posted.

  Anyone who arrived late was stuck with the dregs, the low-value material collection quests that everyone else had passed on. More often than not, by the time you'd ground out the materials and hauled them back, the NPC's purchase quota was already full, and you'd wasted your time for nothing.

  Ding! System Announcement: You have earned the achievement [Discoverer of SilverMoon Town]! As the first player to reach the safe zone, all NPCs in SilverMoon Town have +200 Favorability with you, and you have gained +200 Reputation with the Human Faction.

  A flicker of satisfaction crossed Kairon's eyes. He'd never cared about the empty fame of a server-wide announcement. This achievement reward was what he'd been after.

  In World of Eldrath, NPC Favorability was the hardest stat to grind. Countless hidden quests had strict Favorability requirements, and you couldn't trigger them even if you knew exactly how, if you didn't meet the threshold.

  Once inside the Quest Hall, he didn't hesitate for a second. He scrolled through the board, accepted every single high-value quest clustered in the same zone, and filled all 20 of his quest slots to the maximum limit.

  Everything was in place. It was time to head out of town and level up.

  He sprinted all the way out of the town's east gate, heading straight for his first quest destination, the Abandoned Power Station. Four of the quests he'd picked were all located in this area, perfect for completing all at once to save the maximum amount of time.

  At the entrance to the Abandoned Power Station, two level 2 Corrupted Hounds patrolled back and forth, low snarls rumbling in their throats. Kairon lifted his hand and cast Basic Observe, and the monsters' stat panels unfolded before him instantly.

  ---

  [Corrupted Hound]

  Rarity: Common

  Level: 2

  Physical Attack: 10

  Physical Defense: 2

  Magical Defense: 2

  Health: 30

  Skill: [Rend]: Rends the target with sharp claws, inflicting bleed damage equal to 10% of attack power every second for 8 seconds.

  Description: A hound corrupted by void energy, vicious and aggressive. It will actively attack any living creature that enters its line of sight.

  ...

  To get inside, he'd have to take out these two gatekeeping mobs first.

  Kairon glanced at his own stat panel. With the full flight suit equipped, his Physical Defense was a whopping 12 points. The hounds' attacks couldn't even pierce his armor and would only deal 1 point of forced damage.

  With no threat confirmed, he twitched his fingertips, summoned the Shadowwood Panther, and issued an attack command.

  The panther shot forward as an arrow loosed from a bow, leaping into the air and raking its sharp claws across the throat of one hound, activating its signature skill [Rip].

  -16, -14!

  Two high damage numbers floated up in quick succession. The hound didn't even have time to let out a yelp before it crumpled to the ground, dissolving into a flash of white light.

  Ding! You have slain [Corrupted Hound]. Gained +4 Experience Points (includes +2 bonus from the [Endless Vitality] talent)!

  Kairon blinked in brief surprise, then realized what had happened.

  The other hound snarled and lunged at him, but he rolled nimbly to the side, easily dodging the pounce, and issued another command to the panther.

  [Rip]!

  -16!

  Another high damage number floated up, but right on its heels, a System announcement rang out. "Insufficient energy. Cannot cast skill."

  He glanced at the panel. The Shadowwood Panther's energy was down to 5 points, regenerating at 10 points per second. Rip costs 40 energy per cast, so it couldn't be used for the time being.

  Kairon remained completely calm. He lifted the long wooden staff in his hand, and during the hound's attack recovery animation, landed a basic attack on it.

  -4!

  He stepped back to create distance, and using the combat instincts burned into his bones from four years of playing the game, he effortlessly dodged every single one of the hound's lunges, landing a basic attack whenever he found an opening.

  In just three or four hits, the Corrupted Hound let out a whimper and fell to the ground, dissolving into experience points for him.

  He bent down to pick up the 2 copper coins and a piece of raw meat the hounds had dropped, then opened his legacy panel, finally figuring out the source of the massive damage numbers.

  The [Symbiosis] talent from his god-tier legacy [World Tree Sapling] boosted the skill effect of all his summons by 50%. The Shadowwood Panther's Rip skill had originally dealt 200% physical damage, but it had been amplified straight to 300%. No wonder it had taken down a level 2 mob in two hits.

  He found himself looking forward to seeing just how far he could go this time.