The Earth After Rebirth

Hiro looked at his friend shaking his head, "who else?"

Kiro shrugged nonchalantly. What Prometheus said was very vague, it could have meant a thousand different things and he wasn\'t in the mood to mull it over. His focus was entirely on that weekend.

Compared to that, the game\'s riddles and warnings seemed less important. They were declaring war on the Sanctum, a notoriously unknown society which ran their country however they wanted. They were challenging it with their real bodies, not in-game avatars. A lot could go wrong.

That\'s what was mainly on his mind. Ways to avoid getting any of his friends killed, he didn\'t want to lose any of them, he\'d grown too fond of them. But of course, that\'s something he wasn\'t willing to admit.

They were walking down the mountain, feeling very accomplished. The game finally unlocked the notifications and they came pouring in. They all felt a very big jump in strength. All were now over level 100, even Ishaan.

Which caused the system to do the unthinkable. They supposed it was finally time for it to let the entire populace of Asgard know that greater and better things were up for grabs, to anyone who was lucky enough.

[Congratulations to the battle mage, Ishaan, for being the only non guardian player to cross levels above 100.]

Ishaan was bright red after hearing that. He\'d always been envious of world announcements, and felt some kind of way that he\'d never really triggered one. But now that it was happening, he didn\'t know whether to hide or feel a sense of pride in his accomplishments.

He froze on his way down, basking in his glory though still embarrassed. Each one of After Dark pat his shoulder as they passed him, as if to say they were proud. That made him a tiny bit emotional and appreciative.

The doubts he had about taking on his father when he started challenging this mountain were washed away. Replaced by a newfound courageous heart.

He was surprised that, an accomplishment in-game made him gain such confidence. He knew how strong guardians were, so to achieve something that hasn\'t been achieved by a regular players put a chip on his shoulder. A chip his friends thought he deserved to have.

The others who weren\'t close to him didn\'t understand the emotions he felt, the turmoil that ran rampant within him. Which he defeated right then, he took a long look at the mountain behind him and smiled a little, in his heart he was thanking the god of fire and illusions. He realised then that, this was a good test for him, one he needed.

To that world announcement, the system didn\'t explain further after that. The general public assumed guardians meant some really strong NPCs. They\'d only ever seen NPCs with that much levels, that meant to them, this Ishaan was some kind of god.

When people found out he was actually part of After Dark, it caused a whole lot of commotions. Anything amazing that happened in the game seemed to be centred around Kiro, Hiro and their mercenary group. Which evoked a lot of skeptics.

"This is too much, isn\'t their luck a bit too much?" One comment read.

"Luck? I\'m convinced they\'re using hacks. There\'s just no way. I\'m ways away from reaching level 100."

"Yeah. The more you level up the harder it is to reach the next stage without dying. There\'s definitely something amiss."

"This forum is always full of crybabies. You\'re really blaming others for your own incompetence?" .net

"How much did they pay you? lol."

"Haha, I also wanna get paid to say nice things about them!"

The reviews were very mixed this time. Not that any of them knew this, they never really checked social media, it wasn\'t something they were used to. Kiro especially was taking a break from it, he didn\'t like how it sucked him in and made him obsessed with it a bit.

But even if they were aware, there was only much they could do. Their minds were on something else, something more important than having online wars with strangers. Strangers that were accusing them of the impossible.

The company that created may have been unknown within their society, but one thing was for sure, hacking Asgard Online was impossible. Many have tried and were met with their stats reset.

Isla let out a soft laughter looking at a small blue window in front of her. "They think you guys are cheating, it\'s kind of funny, these arguments."

Then one by one everyone\'s window popped in front of them, except for After Dark. They really didn\'t care to join in on the forum wars.

"Let them think what they want." Felix commented, his annoyance couldn\'t be hidden.

"But, this...shouldn\'t you do damage control? After Dark is a business isn\'t it?" Saanvi asked with knitted eyebrows.

"That would make sense wouldn\'t it? But I doubt we will need to do that. If anything people will want to align with the hackers to be carried." Nikolai said sagely.

Kiro nodded vigorously, "yes. No such thing as bad publicity."

One thing that frustrated them was the fact that, although the system was eager to plant them here in an instant, bringing them back was a whole other challenge. It refused to answer when they called on it, which forced them to walk back to civilisation together.

They parted ways once they reached the capital. There were so much materials, Hiro\'s shop was teeming with them. He had to beat down a wall connecting to the other room, creating a doorway and a storage room at the same time. He was very satisfied with the result.

They decided to call it a day and focus more on their mission out there. Hiro, albeit skeptical, agreed. He wanted to spend more time perfecting the potion but he also understood the importance of their mission.

When Kiro logged out, his phone had a lot of missed calls and one email from the president of Kismet Inc. Jon Scott.

"Dear Mr. Waynworth,

I hope this finds you in good health. I\'ve tried calling but there was no answer. I\'ve finished the prototype of what we talked about, please get back to me at your earliest convenience."