In the serene morning, the sun hung high above the sky, casting its gentle and warm glow over New York City.
Below, the streets buzzed with life.
The atmosphere was filled with the familiar sounds of honking cars, chattering pedestrians, and the occasional lody of street musicians.
To an outsider’s eye, it was a typical morning in the city that never sleeps.
People bustled about their daily routines, opening shop doors, sipping morning coffee, and hurrying off to their respective workplaces, unbeknownst to the fact that this calm was nothing but a fleeting illusion that would soon be shattered by the storm of chaos lurking on the horizon.
Destruction was ready to descend upon them.
In the sky, a few wispy white clouds began to gather in their innocent white forms.
But as minutes passed, these clouds morphed, twisting and turning into ominous shades of gray, darkening the once clear sky.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Suddenly, a sharp wind cut through the streets, sending papers swirling and skirts billowing. followed by the pitter-patter of raindrops splattering against the earth.
Rat-a-tat-!
The unexpected and abrupt change in weather seed to have shattered the tranquility, and everyone felt a sense of unease.
For so reason, hearts thumped in their chests, though no one could pinpoint the source of this sudden anxiety.
Yet deep down, an instinctual fear whispered to them—these raindrops were not re water droplets, but were the ominous whispers of their impending doom.
Minutes ticked by, and the rainfall intensified as if the clouds sought to drown the entire city, and just when it felt like rain was nothing more than a natural phenonon, a sudden chill ran down the spines of everyone in the city.
They all stopped at once and looked upward as if under the influence of an invisible force.
"W-what is that?!"
Soone shouted in panic, pointing his finger, trembling with fright, up at the sky.
The people of New York City stood frozen in disbelief and terror, their eyes locked on to the massive, black hole-like portal that had materialized in the sky out of nowhere, until soone murmured.
"It’s a Dungeon Portal."
"B-But why is it black and so big?!"
"It’s a Chaos Dungeon," ca the grim realization from soone in the crowd, "and it seems like it’s on the verge of breaking out!"
"How can that be?!"
"Find yourself, bastard; everyone run!"
No one knew who shouted, but it was like the beginning of a chain reaction as one by one people ca out of their stupor and ran for their lives.
"Fuck! What are the players doing?"
"Run for your life."
"How can sothing like that appear so suddenly?"
"Mommy..."
Panic spread like wildfire through the streets as people recognized the ominous sign of a Chaos dungeon breakout, which could happen anyti, and that too right at the top of their heads.
Sirens and alarms rang!
"Please calm down and follow the safety drills."
Evacuation orders were hastily issued, and brave police and on-the-spot players started to guide people to underground shelters.
The governnt authorities and guilds who were alerted to the situation also sprang into action and imdiately started to mobilize players to contain the disaster that was about to befall.
Regrettably, it was already too late.
"AAHHHHHH"
Before evacuation plans could be fully enacted, a loud scream echoed through the city as another portal materialized in the sky, followed by another and another, until the entire skyline was obscured by the ominous black voids.
Realizing that this was no ordinary dungeon breakout—rather, a catastrophe of a magnitude never before witnessed in human history since the apocalypse a decade ago—shivers ran down everyone’s spines.
Shortly after that, the first of the chaos monsters descended from the sky like fiery teors, crashing into the heart of the city with earth-shattering force.
BOOM!!!
"—AHHHHHHHHH!!!!—"
Buildings crumbled, streets ruptured, and screams pierced the air as pandemonium erupted in every corner of New York.
Yet, amidst this chaos, there was a figure wearing black robes and a mask, jumping on top of buildings hurriedly, unturbed by the havoc below, and moving unnoticed by the masses who were busy screaming and running for their lives.
The figure soon stopped on top of a building, took out a whistle out of thin air, and then blew it with full force.
————!
The strange thing was that no sound ca out of the whistle, but the figure did not stop because of this, nor did it wait to see the result of his actions; it left in the sa way it ca and rushed towards another location.
This mysterious figure was none other than Adrian Vaiself.
Navigating through the outlying neighborhoods of East New York, where security was lax, Adrian darted from one location to another.
However, no matter where he passed from, there would be a new portal ford on his last location from which a Chaos Monster would descend down and start a wanton slaughter.
"This should be the last one."
In the blink of an eye, the once bustling streets of New York beca a battleground—a sight straight out of hell, where survival beca the only instinct that mattered to everyone.
With each Dungeon breakout, more and more Chaos Monsters descended and started slaughtering left and right.
Blood flowed like a river, and corpses assimilated back into Chaos energy, dispersing in the wind.
Chaos energy was spreading like a plague, and it plunged the once-vibrant streets into darkness and despair.
Everything happened so quickly that no one even had the ti to react, resulting in a scene of purgatory that no one even imagined seeing in their wildest nightmares.
This was all witnessed by Adrian, who stood on the top of an apartnt complex with rain pelting his robes, the hems flapping in the fierce wind.
’Everyone should be ready by now.’
He thought to himself and sent a ssage telepathically to Daisy through their connection of souls, courtesy of the Soul Bound Contract.
— You ready?
….
In Adrian’s Villa, situated on the outskirts of the city far from the heart of the catastrophe, Daisy sat imrsed in a tub filled with stamina and mana recovery potions.
Surrounding her were five female players specializing in healing magic; their sole purpose was to channel restorative spells onto Daisy continuously. Daisy had a frown on her face as she stared at her phone, which displayed a continuous stream of alerts and news about the unfolding disaster.
It was at that mont, though, that Adrian’s telepathic ssage jolted her out of her stupor.
— You ready?
— Everything’s prepared here.
Daisy replied imdiately, but having realized the danger of the situation through the news on the internet, her heart beca heavy, yet there was nothing she could do about it.
She could only pray and wish him luck.
— Be safe, Owner... I will help you recover as much as I can, even if I have to give my life for yours. Please be safe and have good luck.
— Thanks.
Their conversation ca to a close without the healers noticing a thing, and Daisy sighed quietly as she stared out her room window at the dark sky.
No one knew what she was thinking.
…..
Back to Adrian.
Having concluded his conversation with Daisy, Adrian retrieved his phone and attempted to reach Sylvia, who was en route to San Francisco to join the Red Rose guild, one of the USA’s top 10 guilds—an all-female guild.
The deputy head of this guild was in fact a spy of the Thronfield royal family of the United Kingdom—a connection Adrian sought to establish for long-term purposes through Sylvia.
[The number you have dialed is currently switched off.]
However, the call to Sylvia went unanswered, and Adrian ignored it for the ti being.
"It seems she’s already boarded her flight. Well, there’s still ti before the Thronfield royal family sets its sights on Kiara. Sylvia should be able to secure a favorable position by then."
With that matter settled, Adrian proceeded to dial the last number on his list to confirm the situation.
Dring-dring-!
The call rang a few tis, finally connected with a click, and a weighty, authoritative voice answered on the other end.
— Adrian, you done on your side?
"I am going to the dungeon in a few minutes; what about you, old man?"
— Almost done. Nightingale is on the verge of collapse, and I just got a call from Mia. She has already trapped the Shinning Guild in a Chaos Dungeon, and she’s now rushing to their treasury and warehouses.
"That’s good."
Earlier this morning, Adrian had given his father two Chaos Anomaly potions of low grade, one grade higher than the lowest grade he used on Daisy.
The plan was simple: to entrap both Shinning Guild and Nightingale Guild in the Chaos Dungeon created by the Chaos Anomaly potions and loot their warehouses and treasuries.
He had already injected a substantial amount of Chaos energy into both Ashley and that supervisor.
As such, their conditions were incomparably worse than Daisy’s were in her world, and so when the seed of Chaos sprouted from within both Ashley and her supervisor, they both instantly turned into a source of chaos and beca the irremovable core of the dungeon.
Even the entropy barrier wasn’t ford at the sight, and their headquarters were directly turned into a dungeon site.
"Now that all their high-end forces are trapped and the reinforcents won’t be able to arrive on ti, all that’s left is to kill and loot... It’s just dad; be careful of Mia... You know soone’s face, but you don’t know soone’s heart."
— That’s not a way to speak about your sister... Anyway, I hope you stay safe... You have made your father proud. I am happy to see you change for the better. Just don’t dwell on the past and forgive her.
This ti, Adrian didn’t speak anymore and directly hung up the phone.
Click-!
His gaze drifted to the distant, boundless horizon as he murmured to himself.
"I am not your true son. I bear no grudges from the past and harbor no hatred toward anyone in this world. Yet, I know she remains unchanged and will not stop until she harms and vents her hatred."
『In the pursuit of my victory, I am both my own harshest critic and my enemy’s relentless torntor, for I will stop at nothing to attain my goals.』
"But she doesn’t know; anyone who dares to stand in my way will die the most horrible death at my hands. I won’t forgive anyone, no matter who it is."
A look of murderous viciousness flashed across his eyes, but he quickly redirected his attention to the task at hand, located the dungeon he wanted to go to using the Satellite Maps app, and dashed openly towards it.
’Rachael must have already fallen unconscious at the mont in the dungeon. I need to get there before the dungeon changes because of Rachael’s complete awakening.’
He had just thought about it and increased his speed when suddenly, a system notification popped up in his vision.
[Your summoned Chaos Monster has died.]
[Ding! You have leveled up]
[Ding! You have leveled up]
[...]
"Ho! Five levels in one go. Impressive."
Even though the increase was substantial, Adrian’s emotions didn’t fluctuate much.
Because this was just the beginning.
"I’ve unleashed nearly a hundred Chaos Monsters. Let’s see how much further I can ascend today, standing upon the mountain of corpses that is this New York City. Hahahaha."
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