Four hours had passed.
Vale felt as if his blood had been completely drained from his body. Alice was riding on his face, moving wildly, her legs wrapped tightly around his head, her body swaying like a predator in the dark.
Then, Lora yawned, stretching her arms as she walked out of the cave. Her eyes reflected a strange, unfamiliar figure.
Alice curled her legs and sat at the entrance of the cave, gazing up at the starry sky.
"Vale, you know... even though you humans call our world the 'Chaos World,' in our eyes, you're the real chaos — the monsters that invaded our planet."
Vale sat beside her, sighing deeply.
"Everything you just told me... was it all true? So the one behind you... was using me?"
Alice nodded slowly.
"It's not exactly that. Your power had already been noticed by the one behind me a long time ago. But back then, your world couldn't truly interact with ours. It wasn't until the Chaos World and your world merged that I was able to reach you."
Vale stretched, his voice calm but firm.
"I appreciate your trust... but I'll restate my position. As long as you don't touch my family or my friends, everything else is negotiable. As for whether we can separate the merged worlds again... I can't promise that."
"Wha—? We Chaos Clan have no interest in you humans, kid. Don't get too full of yourself," Alice said, her pink, delicate face showing a mischievous smile.
"Uh… excuse me, Vale, it's time for the shift change," Lora said awkwardly, pointing to the server time on the screen above.
Vale looked at the time and chuckled nervously. "Oh, right. I'll take a break then."
Upon hearing that, Alice immediately wrapped her arms around Vale's waist. "Okay, I should go help you change clothes, master."
Vale's body jolted. He quickly waved his hands. "No, no, no! You can't come. Stay here and guard the place!"
Alice shook her head frantically. "No way! I must protect your safety properly!"
Vale immediately issued a forced command, and Alice reluctantly accepted it, though with a pout on her face.
Vale patted Lora on the shoulder. "If anything strange happens, wake me up immediately. Don't try to handle it yourself. If it gets too dangerous, let Alice help."
Lora nodded, then turned to look at Alice. Her face slowly turned red. "That girl is so cute… I just want to hug her!"
As soon as she said that, she clapped her hands over her mouth, blushing furiously before running out of the cave in embarrassment.
Time passed quickly, and Vale finally woke up. His stamina had fully recovered — 100% again.
"Good, this should be enough for about nine hours of continuous action," he said to himself.
Victoria was still curled up beside him, fast asleep. Vale didn't want to disturb her, so he quietly got up and began checking the items he had currently acquired.
"This is what dropped during the fight with Alice. Besides the Wind Cloak and Snow Lotus, it seems there are also some high-level gear," he said, tapping on his inventory.
To his surprise, he found that just by fighting Alice, he had already earned 100,000 Chaos Coins!
"Unbelievable. It's no wonder she was the final boss — the drops are absolutely insane. With these rare recovery items, the total value must already be over $200,000."
He opened the in-game Auction Hall and started listing all the useless items he didn't need.
Of course, the main reason was to clear out his inventory — in the early stages of the game, every player only had 50 inventory slots at most.
"If I sell everything, it should be worth around $110,000 to $120,000. But what about the rest of the gear?"
Vale checked the remaining items again, and his eyes widened.
He had managed to gather a complete set of Orange-ranked "Aoshi" gear — a set that only high-level players in the late game, or those who had spent a lot of money, could obtain.
Its value was at least $5 million.
"It's really a headache... If I sell it, only the guys from Thunder Company would have the money to buy it. Even if I sell 500,000 Chaos Coins worth of gear, it would just help them get stronger. If I had one of these pieces right now, it would be so useful..."
Suddenly, Vale's eyes widened as he noticed the last slot in his inventory — a red-quality 90-level weapon called "Chihun" (Blood Soul).
"Wait... it's an unranked weapon?!" Vale's heart started pounding violently. His hands trembled as he focused his thoughts on the weapon and opened the stat panel:
Item Name: [Chihun]
Level Requirement: [90]
Stat Bonuses:
Constitution +2000
Strength +1500
Agility +2000
Stamina +4000
Magic +1000
Advanced Stats:
Critical Strike Chance +20% (Perfect)
Critical Damage +350% (Perfect)
Magic Immunity +50% (Perfect)
Evasion +80% (Perfect)
Special Properties:
[Bloodthirsty Pursuit] (Active Skill):
Cooldown: 1 minute
When activated, instantly drains 10% of the target's maximum health and restores it to all allies.
[Divine Curse] (Passive Skill):
When casting a curse spell, there is a 25% chance to increase the number of targets by 3.
Each activation has a 10-second cooldown.
[No Level Restriction]:
This weapon can be worn regardless of the player's level.
Vale stood there frozen, his breath caught in his throat.
"Unbelievable... This isn't just a weapon... it's a legendary artifact. And it's mine."
His mind raced.
"Even if I can't use it right now... just knowing it exists... it changes everything."
"This is the ultimate weapon for a curse-based class! With this, I could just end the game right here and now!" Vale swallowed hard, his eyes wide with disbelief.
"This is worth at least 2 billion dollars!"
As soon as he said it, he immediately regretted it.
"No... no, it's priceless. Or maybe... it's only available to the game administrators themselves."
Without hesitation, Vale immediately equipped the legendary weapon.
But as soon as his fingers touched it, he felt a cold shiver run down his spine — and regret flooded his heart.
"This is my last card. I can't reveal it so easily. If anyone finds out I have this... I'll be hunted for the rest of my life."
After much thinking, Vale finally put the weapon back into his backpack.
"As for the rest of the gear, I'll keep it for now. I'll wear them once my level increases."
At that moment, Victoria woke up.
"Brother, I saw you look really excited earlier. What happened?"
Vale quickly waved his hands.
"Oh, nothing. By the way, Victoria, from today on, we need to start working hard to level up."
Victoria's eyes lit up.
"Great! What are we doing today?"
Vale pointed outside.
"Obviously, we're going to farm experience and level up."
Victoria shook her head.
"But brother, you said the area outside was for 20–30 level players, right? We used to be so careful, avoiding monsters and luring them to fight just to level up."
Vale gently pinched Victoria's cute little face.
"That was before. Now, we have a tool — no, a helper."
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
"I can only use it when the endgame comes. And right now, with the level restrictions... this weapon is too powerful for just grinding."
After much thinking, Vale finally put the weapon back into his backpack.
"As for the rest of the gear, I'll keep it for now. I'll wear them once my level increases."
At that moment, Victoria woke up.
"Brother, I saw you look really excited earlier. What happened?"
Vale quickly waved his hands.
"Oh, nothing. By the way, Victoria, from today on, we need to start working hard to level up."
Victoria's eyes lit up.
"Great! What are we doing today?"
Vale pointed outside.
"Obviously, we're going to farm experience and level up."
Victoria shook her head.
"But brother, you said the area outside was for 20–30 level players, right? We used to be so careful, avoiding monsters and luring them to fight just to level up."
Vale gently pinched Victoria's cute little face.
"That was before. Now, we have a tool — no, a helper."
Soon, the morning light broke through, and under the hazy mist, Vale, Lora, and Victoria ran toward the monster-packed area of the Giant Abyss Forest.
"Lora, are you crazy? We're all at most your 10th level! We'll die the moment we even touch those monsters!" Lora said, her face full of confusion and worry.
Vale shook his head, a sly smile creeping onto his lips.
"I'm not crazy. We have the strongest boss helping us kill the monsters now. Your job is to actively lure the monsters toward us."
Alice gritted her teeth, her eyes burning with fury.
"Wait for it… I'll make your descendants pay with blood!"
Vale's expression twitched as he instinctively covered his waist.
"Shut up! Go kill monsters already!"
Before Lora could even process what was happening, a flood of system pop-ups exploded on her screen:
[Congratulations! You have gained 1,000 experience (10x experience bonus, level gap bonus +150%, party bonus +50%)]
[Congratulations! You have gained 1,000 experience (10x experience bonus, level gap bonus +150%, party bonus +50%)]
[Congratulations! You have gained 1,000 experience (10x experience bonus, level gap bonus +150%, party bonus +50%)]
[…]
As the glowing light pillars kept flashing, within just half an hour, their entire group had reached level 10, and the experience had overflowed.