Inside a female's dormitory, XS stood at the window, looking outside through it. When the apocalypse game was updated, a labyrinth session was created.
From that labyrinth, some players claimed to have found a few missing people on some floors.
The rumors alone were enough to ignite a spark of hope in Max. But her dad had been gone for days now, with no word from him.
She pulled down her hood, walking to and fro in the room.
"Fuck this," said XS.
- [Ding]
- [Invitation From Jones]
Since the labyrinth was created, top players like her were often pinged in the global chat room.
Except, XS had pinged Aiden a thousand times and received no response. The system kept saying no such player existed.
Unlike when she pinged someone else, it would say the player was dead or was never a player—but Aiden's was different.
- [Accept] --------------------------- [Decline]
The blue screen floated in front of her as she sat on the bed, huffing out a heavy sigh.
- [Ding]
- [Player XS has declined the raid request]
Like every other time she declined a labyrinth raid request, the whole chat would give her a bad-mouth attention.
- [That whore actually has a lot of pride}
Ding—
- [Let her face the labyrinth herself, she'd die anyways]
- Ding
- [System Notification: you've set message notifications to only when pinged]
"Aiden," said XS, staring at the ceiling of the room. "The savior," thought XS.
She recalled Aiden saying something about looking for the savior when they first met.
"System, open up the chat room."
Accompanying her words, the blue screen appeared, filling the room with various messages in the chat room.
"Send this message... 'I know where the savior is.'"
Immediately after she said that, the message was delivered. The only thing was, she prayed Aiden was looking at the chat room.
Without dismissing her system, the screen disappeared. Perplexed, XS wondered what had happened.
And then, a single blue rectangular screen materialized in front of her with one question encrypted on it.
And the name it displayed sent chills down her spine.
- [Doomsday: Where Is He?]
———————————
"Are you kidding me? You're really meeting whoever this person is?" asked Belle.
"Tsk, she's no threat," Aiden replied with a shrug.
He stood up from the couch, stretching his bones with a yawn.
"Besides, she's XS. I've seen her around somewhere," said Aiden.
"And you had to reply to her as Doomsday?"
"Look, I'm not some superhero who's planning on hiding his identity. The only reason I have this mask is because of the savior."
For the first time, Aiden yelled. Although he regretted seeing Belle's face like that, he didn't reply.
Aiden stopped with his fingers already on the doorknob.
"Look, someone has an idea about this guy. I gotta check it out, okay?"
Belle ran forward and hugged Aiden tight, with a few tears rolling down her cheek.
"Why did you have to die anyway?" she muffled.
From this alone, Aiden was sure he made her recall the memories with his future self. "It's okay, Belle. I'll be fine," said Aiden.
————————
The location XS sent was a very quiet place. It was where they first met—the bus station.
Aiden was standing at the entrance, the only place where he could see. His eyes kept shifting between up, down, left, and right.
"Aiden?"
And suddenly, he heard his name from the abyss. It sounded like XS.
"Oh my God, Aiden!" XS dropped her blade and immediately ran towards Aiden, who was a bit surprised when she hugged him.
"You're alive," she muffled.
"You don't know where he is, do you?" asked Aiden, not wanting to prolong things.
As soon as he said that, three men walked out of the abyss—one with a big battle axe matching his big size, the other more of a gun shooter.
The last one was slender, wearing a black hood—a magus-type player.
"Is that the guy? The Doomsday guy?"
Having heard that, XS tightened her hug against Aiden, as if not wanting to let go. "N...no, this isn't him," said XS.
Even if she had said Aiden was the boss, three level 30 players wouldn't be enough. She'd never find the right amount.
"Well, nice reunion. So now what?"
"Yeah, we've waited for half an hour, and your guy hasn't arrived. Can't wait any longer," said the shooter.
XS turned around. She had made a deal with them—which was that she would join their party, and in return, they would help her fight against Doomsday.
"What? You honestly thought the four of you could scratch Doomsday?" Aiden chuckled after hearing the magus player repeat the bargain.
"What about him? You think he's tough?" the magus player growled.
"No. I think he'd crush you," said Aiden.
His gaze met with the player's deadly ones, eyes locked on each other as if preparing for a cowboy showdown.
"Enough. Are we raiding the labyrinth or not?" XS immediately buried the tension, knowing it was escalating.
"Listen to the beautiful guys," said the shooter.
"Sure. Why don't we go now? There's a labyrinth on the northern side of the city."
"That's too far," said Aiden.
"Shut up," the magus player quickly retorted.
"What did you just say?" Aiden growled.
Boom!
In a split second, the two of them dashed at each other with killing intents at their max. The ground cracked from their tremendous strength.
However, the magus was held back by his friends, who had trouble holding him still, while Aiden's fist was the only thing XS could muster the strength to hold.
The fat veins on his fist were just inches away from the player's eyeballs.
"Jeez, man, cool it down."
Aiden sighed, and they both stood looking at each other, knowing deep down the fight was far from over.
The next moment, a purple circle with two triangles facing opposite sides and intricate symbols on it appeared underneath their boots.
After the glowing purple light, everyone was transported to a construction site.
"How's that for far, jerk?" said the magus.
"Jeez, man, cool it already," the shooter apologized to Aiden on his behalf.
Meanwhile, Aiden had his eyes gazing at his creation—a purple wormhole. Many existed like this as well. Inside is the labyrinth filled with monsters, traps, and different floors.
One thing was certain—once you're in, the player would be consumed with greed and power.
"Let's get going."