Night had fallen completely.
Daniel stood alone atop a solitary hill on the outskirts of Imperial City.
The night wind howled around him, tugging at his robes and hair until they snapped loudly in the air.
He remained motionless, simply waiting.
Alan had said that once night fell, players would begin hearing strange noises, and the Ancestral Statues would also start behaving oddly.
The conclusion they had reached was this: the world of the new version had been layered together, with day and night each belonging to a different world.
Dayti belonged to Aetheria, but the night belonged to another mysterious realm that no one could clearly define.
Just as he was thinking about it, Daniel’s ears twitched slightly.
It was here—that strange noise!
Buzz... rustle... whisper...
A jumble of chaotic sounds rushed into his ears all at once.
The noises ca and went in fits, yet seed to follow so hidden code.
So dragged on for a long ti, so ended sharply and abruptly, so were so loud they were startling, while others were as thin and faint as the buzz of a mosquito.
For the mont, he could not make out what kind of scenes these sounds belonged to.
He frowned.
What exactly was the point of creating an overlapping world like this in the new version?
Could the secret of the Fla of Heritage be hidden within this chaotic tangle of sounds?
He could not figure it out for the ti being.
But he did notice one thing—he could see vague shadows floating around him.
Within his field of vision, dim figures flickered in and out of existence, just like the sounds, appearing only sporadically.
"So I’m the only one who can see them? Why did Alan never ntion this?"
Daniel found himself puzzled.
Those phantoms resembled an ink-wash landscape painting. At tis they ford the outline of a city, and at other tis they beca bustling streets full of people moving back and forth.
But everything was too blurry to see clearly.
It felt as though he were standing at the center of a stage surrounded on all sides by illusions.
Daniel patiently continued watching.
At that mont, a light suddenly appeared in the distance.
Daniel’s pupils contracted sharply.
The light grew clearer and clearer. It turned out to be a phantom projected by an Ancestral Statue.
The figure was shrouded in a faint white glow. It seed to be a knight, gripping a long spear and galloping forward on horseback.
But after racing for a while, the statue’s phantom suddenly vanished into thin air.
Daniel watched helplessly as the figure plunged headlong into the darkness and disappeared without a trace.
Gone?
Yet not long after, that sa light reappeared from another direction.
It was still the sa phantom knight of the Ancestral Statue, riding back with imposing majesty.
With his keen eyesight, Daniel clearly saw that the tip of the spear was indeed still stained with fresh blood, exactly as Alan had described.
And just then, a phantom suddenly darted right in front of Daniel.
Every hair on his body stood on end.
It was the phantom of a little girl, no more than ten or so years old, staring at him with wide, curious eyes.
Daniel widened his own eyes and stared right back at her.
They were so close that it felt as though one could touch the other simply by reaching out.
After hesitating for a mont, the little girl slowly extended her hand.
Her eyes were filled with curiosity as she gradually raised her arm and reached her palm forward.
Daniel did not move.
The hand in the phantom kept reaching forward—and passed straight through his body.
The little girl looked shocked, her eyes filled with disbelief.
Her lips moved as if she were saying sothing, but Daniel could not hear a single word.
The scene was bizarre beyond words, as if living beings from two separate worlds were tentatively probing each other through an invisible wall.
Daniel drew a deep breath and tried reaching out as well.
The result was the sa as with the girl—his hand passed straight through empty air.
At that mont, the little girl seed to hear sothing. A look of urgency imdiately appeared on her face.
She turned to glance at Daniel, then gritted her teeth, pulled a bracelet from her wrist, and threw it down by his feet before turning and running off, vanishing without a trace.
Daniel blinked, then lowered his gaze to the bracelet and cast a detection spell on it.
[Unknown Bracelet (???)]
"Hm? This is..."
To his surprise, the bracelet could actually be detected.
That ant it was a real, tangible object.
He bent down and picked it up.
Sure enough, it felt cool in his hand. Its design was similar to the jewelry of Aetheria, except that it looked exceptionally old and worn.
"Is this a quest item? Sothing from the other world? Or so kind of token?"
Clutching the bracelet, Daniel’s mind filled with questions.
Just then, the activity in the guild channel pulled him back to reality.
[Doom Guild Channel]
"Polaris District coordinates (91911, 46641). There’s a cave here. I just saw an Ancestral Statue’s phantom going in and out of it several tis. Sothing’s definitely off!"
"Are you insane? You still dare go wandering around outside at night? None of us even dare step out after dark anymore."
"Holy shit, man, your guts are unreal. A few mbers have already been killed these past two days without understanding what happened."
"Exactly. I heard that over in World Zone No. 616, a few mbers got killed tonight too. Even the death notifications were vague and unclear."
"No, wait, why are you all talking about this creepy stuff like it’s normal? This is a ga!!"
"Co on. Do you seriously still think this is just an ordinary ga?"
"...In the real world, my Strength is high enough to punch straight through a wall..."
...
Daniel swept his gaze over the guild channel.
Most of the mbers were discussing the strange events of the night.
Players had actually been killed for no apparent reason.
Of course, that cave at the posted coordinates was strange as well.
What exactly was inside that cave that made the Ancestral Statue’s phantom run there again and again?
He opened the map and entered the coordinates.
The location was near a small town in the northernmost part of the Polaris District.
Daniel took a single step forward, and his entire body vanished from where he stood.
Whoosh—!
He appeared in front of the cave entrance.
By now, quite a few guild mbers had already gathered there.
The mont they saw Daniel appear, they beca excited and started greeting him one after another.
"Holy shit, they actually called the guild leader over!"
"Leader, this cave’s seriously weird."
"No kidding. Once night falls, this place feels haunted as hell. Could it be so vampire instance inside?"
Daniel nodded and asked curiously, "What strange things have happened here?"
One of the mbers said, "A bunch of human-shaped phantoms keep appearing here. They show up and disappear at random, and whenever they appear, they bare their fangs and claws at us."
"And the Ancestral Statue’s phantom has been running back and forth here many tis too. Sothing is obviously wrong."
Daniel asked, "Have you gone inside to look?"
"Of course we have."
Another person answered, "All of us have gone in several tis already, but we didn’t find anything. The cave isn’t even very big—you hit the end after walking for just a few minutes."
Daniel nodded.
Even though no one else had found anything, he still wanted to go in and see for himself.
"Leader, are you going in? Can we co with you?"
"Yeah, Leader, take us along so we can broaden our horizons!"
"We probably won’t be much help, but just being able to follow the leader is good enough!"
Faced with the mbers’ requests, Daniel gave it a mont’s thought and agreed.
After all, they were all brothers from his own guild, not outsiders.
Besides, they had already gone in many tis without discovering any real danger. Even if he went in himself, there was no guarantee he would encounter anything.
With that thought, he nodded.
"Alright."
"Holy shit! The leader’s taking us into an instance!"
"The leader is invincible!"
"We finally get a chance to witness the guild leader’s style again!"
"You’re overthinking it. We’re just going in to take a look, not to fight anything."
...
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