Praise the Orc! - Chapter 214

Chapter 214

Chapter 214 – WARNING (2)

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There were two choices given to the users: terminate the connection or ignore it .  Most users chose the latter .

“All of a sudden, they’re telling us to stop the connection? Are they crazy?”

“They are forcing us . Elsaco is crazy . ”

“Have they been hacked? This is too much . ”

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All the users in Appalachia’s user market were nervous .  Elder Lord was a virtual reality game that functioned using the human brain as a control medium, but there had never been an in-game incident resulting in injury or death .

Furthermore, the core system ‘Albino’ that maintained the game was perfect .  They believed that there were no problems . At most, they believed that the connection would be forcibly terminated .

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So once there were 30 seconds left, people started talking about what would happen if the timer reached ‘0 . ’

“Hey, are they going to give us compensation when it’s over?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Something like this… In fact, this is a test of courage . Those who last until the end will receive a special reward . That might be the case . ”

“Puhahaha, how ridiculous . ”

“It’s plausible . ”

The users had no worries .

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***

Crockta also watched the timer as it approached ‘0’ .  His heart started pounding; something was going on .  He ignored the orcs cheering for him and the defeated war god .

The thoughts of Orc Warrior Crockta and Cafe Owner Jung Ian clashed .  The grey god was trying to do something .

The war god asked as he saw Crockta’s shaky eyes, “Did something happen? You won, Crockta . ”

“War God, I want to ask you one thing . ” Crockta looked at the decreasing timer and asked .  “Does the grey god really want to destroy this world?”

“That’s right . ”

“Why?”

“That…I can’t tell you . ”

“War God . ” Crockta stared at him .  “I met the grey god and her apostles, the demons who followed her . I heard about the truth of this world . ”

“……!”

“The stars in the night sky are fake . All the stars have died a long time ago . The star god died . The sun god is asleep and the grey god is trying to destroy the world . I want to stop her, but I don’t know the truth . ”

The war god’s face stiffened .   Crockta gritted his teeth as he spoke, “Tell me the truth . ”

The timer was steadily counting down towards ‘0’ .  He looked beyond the face of the war god, beyond the expedition army and the other gods, and beyond the orcs praising him .  Everything blurred .

“What does she want to do?”

“She…” The flames around the war god shook as he said .  “She wants to restart the world . ”

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“Restart the world?”

“The forces maintaining this world are exhausted . It is a slow and gentle progression, but its destruction is inevitable . The sun we have is literally the last thing remaining in the universe . That is why she wants to do this . ”

The war god formed a fist .

“She intends to take everything existing in this world and return the universe to its beginning state . ”

Crockta thought about it .  Crockta turned around, his heart furiously pounding .  He saw Tiyo shouting at him and Anor laughing . Hoyt was celebrating the victory by laughing with Tashaquil and the orc warriors .  Even the expedition members were relieved to end the terrible war .

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The logout window was in front of him .  Beyond that, the war god said, “We will stop her . ”

***

A crowd was watching Crockta’s victory .

“He really won . ”

“Amazing . ”

They were users watching the battle of the orcs from a distant place .  It wasn’t long after they started Elder Lord, but they enjoyed the world of Elder Lord while cooperating together .  They watched the war between the expedition and the orcs from far away .

“I want to sign up for ‘He’s an Orc, yet still Praiseworthy’ . ”

“I’m thinking about restarting as an orc . ”

“Hey, that doesn’t suit you . ”

“I don’t suit the macho style?”

“Brother is a magician . ”

They were talking loudly when they suddenly stopped . A system message had surfaced .  All of the users were looking at thin air . At first, they didn’t know what it meant but then they frowned .  They looked at each other with bewildered faces .

“What does this mean? It’s prompting us to exit?”

“I think so . There is a timer…”

“What is happening all of a sudden? The game is shutting down its service? Does this make sense? This is absurd . ”

“It sounds like a system error . ”

“Let’s just watch . It is probably to fix the problem . ”

“Really?”

They fell into confusion .  The timer was gradually counting down .  Suddenly, they saw someone .

“……?”

“Eh?”

They hadn’t felt it, but a man in a robe was sitting in a place not far away . Their gazes fell on the man .  The man looked into the air before getting up from his seat and walking towards them .

“Uh…?”

He was holding a sword in his hand .  Their bodies flinched as they stepped back . The man was just walking, but he quickly narrowed the distance .  The users reflexively raised their weapons .

“Uwaaaaaah!”

A user at the front wielded his weapon .  However, the man easily avoided it and stabbed the user’s neck . Blood splattered and he collapsed to the floor .  A pool of blood covered the ground .

The other users shrieked, “Aaaaaaack! What are you doing?”

The man glanced at them before swinging his sword again .  They tried to resist, but it was useless .  The man’s sword moved a few times, causing blood to fall to the ground .  The users became grim as people were sliced to death .

The users in the back tried to run away, but the man caught them quickly and stabbed them in the back .  Users died one by one, and the crowd that gathered to watch the war were all bleeding on the ground .

The man looked at the scene with emotionless eyes .  Gradually, the users’ bodies turned into white particles .  It was a beautiful sight, as if it was snowing .  The man looked at it and closed his eyes .

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He muttered, “In the end, it is like this…”

Then he opened his arms .

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***

“Hey, fix your positions!”

“Boss! The timer is gone . What should we do? Don’t we have to disconnect now?”

“We are currently fighting! Just fight! There is no problem! The timer was probably a vaccine to take care of the problem!”

“Understood!”

The users were fighting with a group of goblins .  They were a small clan and were in the process of defeating the goblins for a quest . They struggled due to the large number of goblins, but they effectively dealt with the enemies .

The warrior classes rushed towards the goblins with their shields . After blocking the attack of the goblins, they stabbed with their spears and swords . The magician classes supported them from behind .

“Good! Keep going…keheok!”

However, the goblins were tough .  There was a goblin shaman among them . A fireball burst out and the warriors were caught in an explosion .  The goblins rushed to strike with their weapons .  The warriors bled out and died .

“You guys…!”

The clan master in charge of the fight was enraged and rushed with the elite users . The goblins were frightened by the charge and started to retreat .  The users didn’t show any mercy to the goblins .  Magic arrows pierced the backs of the retreating goblins . They screamed and collapsed . The warriors chased them to the end and killed them .

The quest was successful .

“Phew…it is over . ”

“Everyone worked hard . The profit will be distributed when the dead members connect again . ”

The clan gathered in one place .  They confirmed their injuries . Some were killed by the goblin shaman, but most of them were unharmed .

“Everyone worked hard . There was a strange message so let’s end it here . We don’t want there to be any problems . We will regroup later . ”

“Yes!”

“I understand . ”

“Thanks for the good work!”

“Thanks for the hard work . ”

They tried to shut down access to Elder Lord .

However .

“…Eh?”

“Eh?”

“What is this?”

Everyone was puzzled .  They couldn’t logout .  They fell into confusion . They smiled at each other and tried again several more times . However, they couldn’t log out .

The Elder Lord logout method was simple .

When they thought about the logout button in the status window, the message, ‘Do you want to log out?’ would appear in the air . If they thought about logging out at that time, they would, usually, slowly return to the real world as the screen turned white .

However, this time, the logout window didn’t pop up .  Everyone’s face gradually stiffened .  They were unable to terminate the connection to Elder Lord .  Something was wrong .  They wondered if there was a relationship to the message window .

“Excuse me…Brother Culma . ”

“Huh?”

“That…isn’t that a little…strange?”

“What?”

The clan master frowned and turned his head .  A clan member was pointing with a speculative face .  His gaze followed the direction of the hand .  It was the dead clan members .

“What about it?”

“Brother . They are dead . ”

“That’s right . So . . uh…huh?”

The other clan members froze as they realized what he was saying .  Users disappeared into white particles . Their connection was forcibly terminated, and they would be able to reconnect after a short delay .  The ‘aftereffects of death’ lasted for a while, but there wasn’t a big penalty .

However, these bodies didn’t disappear and remained in the world .  It was like they really died .

“…Hey, hey . ” The clan master spoke in a loud voice, “You saw it before . It might be because of an error . The server is strange right now . ”

He chuckled .

“Those Elsaco guys aren’t doing their work properly . Isn’t that right? Hahat, something like this…”

“Yes . Haha…”

“It seems like it . ”

They tried to diffuse the situation with a laugh . However, they currently couldn’t log out and the bodies seemed dead .  The same was true for the goblin bodies .  This was a game, but they really did seem dead .

“…Hey, I feel bad . Let’s get rid of them . ”

The clan master said as he turned his gaze away .  The clan members picked up the bodies and threw them into the bushes .

During the quest, the timer was gone and four users were killed .  They were the first victims .

***

Kim Chulmin,  the owner of an Elder Lord capsule room, detected abnormalities in the capsule management window .

The Elder Lord capsules were driven by modern science . In order to ensure the safety of the connected person, his/her bio-signal would be stopped immediately if there were health problems .  As the capsule manager of the capsule room, he could monitor the whole situation .

The man’s eyes widened .

Two customers .  They died .  It was displayed that they were dead .

“Hey . Call 119! Quickly! Shit!”

He jumped up from his seat and shouted at the part-time worker .

***

Crockta .

He was standing there .