Riley stepped forward, his eyes reflecting the pulsing glow of the crystal.
He carefully crouched down, wrapping his hands around the crystal.
It was surprisingly cold—far colder than the air around it—and as soon as he held it, a faint vibration trembled through his palm.
He lifted it, observing it with narrowed gaze.
The crystal was no bigger than a small rock or stone, enough to fit into his palm. But despite its weight, it had a strange oppressive aura to it.
Its core kept shimring with twisting purple light, cold wisps of darkness slowly oozing out of it.
Riley kept on staring at it, his mouth parting slightly, but no words ca out.
’I wonder... what will happen if I eat it?’ The thought ca out of no where, and he quickly shook his head, brushing it off.
’Control yourself...’ he mumbled inwardly, exhaling.
He didn’t know why such a thought would creep into his mind in the first place, since he could only absorb from living things, not objects.
Besides, doing that would be such a stupid thing.
[Dark Crystal (Rare)]
[Description: A crystal ford from compressed darkness. Corrupts mana.]
The item’s description appeared before his eyes, and his grip on it tightened slightly.
His grip on the crystal tightened slightly.
The description on the crystal might be short, but it spoke volus about its power.
It was sothing more dangerous than any random item or monster drop... one that could twist and corrupt mana itself.
This... was how the demons had done it.
How they had managed to infiltrate Earth.
Riley’s face twisted into a frown, and he clicked his tongue.
Long before the first rift opened on earth, dark crystals—so even more powerful than this, had already been planted all over the ga world.
Over ti, these crystals had worked like seeds—slowly poisoning the invisible boundary between Earth and whatever world this was.
No one even knew the truth of the world inside the ga. People just called it "the ga realm" or "inside Apocalypse."
But there were many more things buried underneath the ga, and even in his past life, the full truth about Apocalypse hadn’t been discovered.
Many talented researchers, scholars, and guilds had investigated deeply about the ga, trying to understand where exactly the world was.
A prominent theory that ca up was that this realm existed in a kind of parallel dinsion to Earth.
A sort or mirrored world, in which every a parallel version of every player existed.
And as they played, grew stronger, and leveled up, that version slowly synchronized with their real body... until one day, the two versions fully beca one.
But not everyone agreed with that theory.
So claid that the ga world wasn’t parallel to Earth at all, and was instead an entirely different one, artificially linked to earth.
Others believed it was a simulation, so magic, and there were even those who claid the ga was alien technology.
There were hundreds of theories, but no definite answer.
As for Riley?
He believed it was a mix of both.
The ga world was real. As real as Earth. It had its own history, its own monsters, races, geography, and laws.
But it also existed parallel to the real world, mirroring each of the players as ga characters, while the NPC’s were native citizens of this world.
The rifts were definitely going to happen during the rging of the ga with reality.
Even without the demons, the barrier between Earth and the ga was already weakening from the sheer number of players and mana crossing over through the ga.
However, the process should have been gradual, so only level one to three monsters were ant to appear in the real world.
Things humanity could’ve handled easily—even without powers.
Unfortunately, the demons’ interference sped up the process, allowing the barrier between both worlds break faster.
Sothing as powerful as the dark boar was able to slip through, causing chaos on earth.
Riley stared at the crystal again, and then he placed it in his storage ring.
’It mutated that fanged boar... better not be careless with it.’ he thought, turning towards the cave’s exit.
The boar was an experint of the demons, but their plan wouldn’t work anymore, because he had already killed it.
Killing the boar this early was sure to change a lot of things from how they were in his past life, but then, he never cared about letting things play out exactly as they did then.
If they did, then the end of the world was sure to co... the true Apocalypse which swallowed them whole in that tiline.
’I’ll be ready for you, no matter how many co... I’ll be ready.’ he thought, leaving the cave. ’I have to.’
He couldn’t help but squint as the ray’s of sunlight suddenly pierced his eyes, but his vision quickly adjusted.
A familiar vial filled with red fluid imdiately materialized in his hands, and a sinister smirk spread across his lips.
’You think you can get an antidote for free Harty...’ he mumbled inwardly, chuckling to himself. ’But it won’t play out the way you expect.’
He then pulled out another potion from his storage ring, this ti, a mana potion.
He gently held both potions side by side, observing their contrasting red and green colours.
Then he carefully opened both, pouring a drop of the mana potion into the poison worm antidote.
The antidote bubbled slightly, but no notable changes occurred in its colour.
Riley chuckled, impressed with himself.
He then returned the mana potion to his storage ring, carefully observing the antidote.
Since the red potion was ant to be an antidote for poison worm venom, disrupting it by even one drop from a different substance could change its effect entirely.
For example, adding even a drop of mana potion to it could cause a reaction, and the potion wouid be changed from an antidote... to one of the deadliest things within the ga!
This was sothing discovered by a player in his past life called Whiteripper, a con-artist who sold fake potions and items.
He was eventually exposed after many players reported dying after using his fake antidotes.
This was sothing that was supposed to happen so weeks from now, when players started exploring the notorious [Slimy Crab Area].
’I never thought I’ll one day use your thods, but now I’m grateful... Whiteripper.’
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