42 - A Baptism by Bone

---Hedgehog's POV---

Despite my impulsive nature, I worked surprisingly efficiently—not much slower than Garble. I was quickly catching up to ProGamer_Daddy, who seemed to be the least physically adept among the three veteran players.

I could tell Garble was increasingly pleased as he observed me. Especially after discovering through our conversation that I was a combat player, he seemed to be considering something.

So, during our midday break, while I was gulping down water to quench my thirst after all that running around, Garble suddenly turned to me.

"Hey, Hedgehog," he said. "Want to join our team?"

I almost choked on my water mid-swallow, coughing violently. "Join you? You three are starting a guild? Why pick me?"

Could it be that my personality was just too dazzling, catching the eye of the veteran players on the first day?

He handed me a sweet fruit and answered honestly, "We've already scouted out Honeyvale and are planning to form a small team to explore beyond it. Right now, we're missing a front-line tank."

"The guild system isn't fully implemented in the game yet, so there's no rush. For now, it's just voluntary, temporary cooperation. If you're willing to join, we'll provide you with more detailed guides beyond the standard beginner missions."

At this point, he paused briefly and added, "Including strategies for first-level magic skill selection and training techniques."

"Skill guides!" My eyes lit up. "I'm in!"

"That quickly?" Garble was momentarily stunned. "Don't you want to think about it?"

He hadn't even finished laying out all the conditions yet? But did I care?

"No need! You guys are players from the first batch—it's a sure thing that following the you will get me somewhere!" I grinned. "Just the fact that you can help me breeze through the early stages is enough reason for me to join!"

Besides, based on how I'd gotten along with him that morning, our personalities seemed to click perfectly! I also recognized the other player who was a streamer. Teaming up with them? No worries at all!

Garble nodded.

He emphasized again, "We plan to keep the speed of our progress, so there are strict requirements for how long members need to stay online. There will also be mandatory tasks. Can you handle that?"

"Of course! It's a VR game—I'd love to be online every day!" I readily agreed.

It was only then that something occurred to me.

"By the way, what's the name of our guild—no, our team?"

Garble froze mid-bite.

"We don't have one yet."

Ah, there were only three players in the game previously, so they hadn't even bothered creating a group chat, let alone naming their team.

"We'll add you to the group chat once we log out. We can discuss the name then."

"Great! Coming up with names is my specialty!" I was thrilled.

Garble struggled to swallow the sweet fruit and glanced above my head.

"Maybe..." he muttered under his breath.

"What did you say?" I didn't catch it.

"Nothing."

He stood up, brushing himself off.

"Done eating and resting? Let's aim to get you to Level 2 today!"

My eyes sparkled. "Got it!"

I quickly scrambled to my feet to follow, my body still sore all over despite the game's partial pain dampening.

But who cared?

It was just my avatar's body. As long as I didn't outright die, I'd push myself to the limit!

---Viktor's POV---

I climbed to the top of the church, settling into a hidden spot. As the tallest structure in town, the church offered an exceptional view.

With a feather quill in hand, I jotted down plans for the game's framework and the goodwill system.

Occasionally, I glanced at the busy players below, remotely monitoring their equipment and adjusting the data on their game panels accordingly.

Thankfully, I wasn't a real intermediate mage. Though my mental capacity was strained, it wasn't to the point where I couldn't oversee the activity in the small town. This multi-threaded work was troublesome but manageable.

Still...

"This can't go on forever," I muttered, putting down my pen in exhaustion.

The matter of realistic game panel data would have to be addressed soon.

I opened the operations console and looked at the functions, each requiring an eye-popping amount of divine power. For the first time, I understood why gods were so obsessed with accumulating divine power.

"At least everything is progressing smoothly. No difficult troublemakers have appeared among the new players. Everything's going well."

"As if!" A childish shout of anger interrupted my thoughts.

Looking down, I spotted Luminaris, who was struggling to climb the edge of the church roof with his tiny, barely visible hands. His round body was covered in dust from the wall, his radiance dimmed significantly.

Having hung there for a while, he was swaying precariously, about to fall.

I sighed and grabbed the illusory thread of light tethering him, mercifully pulling him up.

"What are you doing here? And why are you such a mess?"

I scrutinized the pale golden orb floating in midair, stroking my chin.

Luminaris's body began to glow red. "Floating and flying aren't the same!"

"Ok?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Ok? OK?!" The little orb bounced in agitation. "You try floating around with barely any divine power! I can barely manage three meters off the ground!"

"And whose fault is that?" I smirked, knowing full well all his divine power was in my hands.

"You—! That's not fair!" he huffed. "Do you know how hard it was to climb up here? The walls are slippery, and I don't even have proper hands!"

Shaking his head, Luminaris said, "That's not the point. I'm here to complain about your undead!"

"Two undead won't stop bothering me—I can't shake them! They're driving me mad!"

"Oh, and I'm not giving you any more magicoins, so drop it."

Seeing his intentions exposed, Luminaris's glow dimmed even further.

"I swear I won't waste them this time! Didn't you tell me to assign more quests? Without your crafted coins, the undead won't accept the tasks!"

I sighed and said, "Any quests related to altering the church's layout will never get approved."

After all, quests had to pass through me, the GM, before being published. While Luminaris could set the rewards however he liked, I strictly monitored the tasks themselves.

I was about to issue another warning—reminding him to stop calling the players undead—when something suddenly happened.

The sky darkened, thick clouds rolling in after the earlier rain.

A low, ear-ringing hum reverberated through my mind.

The magical energy in the air grew chaotic, like an invisible storm, all of it converging toward my location!

My power began to surge uncontrollably: Advanced Mage, Archmage, Grand Mage, Magus, Great Magus…

I dropped to one knee, supporting myself with one hand as the feather quill fell from my grasp.

"Son of a…!"

I managed to curse through gritted teeth, struggling to suppress the rapidly escalating power within me.

It was a god-resurrection ritual!

---

High in the sky, the edges of the dark clouds churned relentlessly, forming bizarre whirlpools and twisted patterns.

The changes were so dramatic that they immediately caught the players' attention.

"Why is it raining again?"

"Whoa, today's thunderclouds are looking pretty fancy. Moving around like some kind of divine judgement!"

Boom!

A white bolt of light streaked down from the sky, landing not far from them.

The massive pillar of light illuminated the entire town.

For a brief moment, the players were silent before they all stood up.

"Holy crap!"

"Whoa, this is like a 5D cinematic masterpiece!"

"Looks like it struck near the church!"

"Let's go check it out!"

"Aren't you afraid of getting hit by lightning?"

"So what? If I die, I die. Anyway, I haven't saved enough magicoins yet. Maybe I'll score a free resurrection!"

"Good point!"

The players dropped whatever they were holding and ran toward the church.

---

Meanwhile, at the center of the church, what the players had mistaken for divine judgement revealed itself as something else entirely.

The blast of white energy sent Luminaris flying across the roof, nearly hurling them over the edge

A faint golden sphere of light rolled clumsily on the rooftop before stabilizing itself and getting back up.

Luminaris looked up, disbelief written all over his face, and muttered to himself. "The divine power of the God of Sea? Why would it appear here?"

But now wasn't the time to dwell on that.

He anxiously flew toward the center of the white light's impact, his voice filled with worry.

"Undead, are you okay?"

Viktor's entire skeletal frame creaked under immense strain, sounding like a wind turbine on the verge of collapse.

He forced his jawbone open with difficulty.

"Do I look…"

Crack!

Snap!

"…like I'm okay? What is Sel'Kanus doing..."

Unfortunately, before he could finish speaking, the rampaging force within him surged again, leaving him no choice but to focus all his energy on resisting it.

But he was losing ground, step by step.

His injuries hadn't healed, and when it came to strength, he was no match for the divine power brought by the white light.

The divine power rampaged through his body, as if intent on shattering and reconstructing every single bone.

No, not "as if." It was shattering his bones!

Viktor's skeletal frame began to emit piercing cracking noises.

Every bone seemed to be twisted and pulled by an invisible giant hand until they could no longer withstand it and shattered into fragments.

Even his skull was covered in cracks, and the soul flame in his eye sockets dimmed as it struggled.

"Undead!" Luminaris cried out in anguish. "You can't die! If you die, I'll bury myself with you!"

Frantically, he caught Viktor's crumbling bones and tried to piece them back together.

His speed was so frantic that he left afterimages.

But how could shattered bones be reassembled completely?

Every time he managed to fit some pieces together, more bones would break apart, far too many for him to handle!

"Sniff… sniff…"

Golden teardrops fell onto Viktor's bones.

Luminaris was crying for himself. He was still a minor deity and didn't want to die!

He seemed to be talking to Viktor, but also muttering to itself. "Undead, you can create the undead, right? There's a way to save yourself too, isn't there?"

When the players arrived, what they saw was a rain of white bones rolling off the church rooftop like a localized hailstorm.

Against the pitch-black, inky sky, the scene was disturbingly eerie.

Hedgehog screamed in terror, "Oh no! Our faction leader exploded!"

"Fuck! Fuck!" ProGamer_Daddy clutched his head, unwilling to believe his eyes. "What the heck just happened?!"

NeverShowOff caught two falling bone fragments mid-air and took a closer look—two finger bones.

"Don't panic. Viktor is an undead. He should be able to piece himself back together!"

As he spoke, the bones in his hands split into four fragments.

"Probably..."

Then, even more fractures appeared on the fragments in his hands.

"…"

He decided to stop talking.

ProGamer_Daddy peeked over and exclaimed, "This is too shattered, isn't it? It's practically powder!"

Hum—

In the chaotic crowd of players unsure of what to do, a metallic hum pierced through the air and silenced everyone.

Then.

NeverShowOff witnessed a sight that, even years later, he could never forget.

It was a dazzling beam of white sword light.

Appearing mid-air, it slashed through the sky, streaking straight toward the dark clouds.

The sword light shrank to a fine line in NeverShowOff's vision, then expanded with deliberate, unstoppable momentum, slicing through the black clouds.

As it stretched across the vast expanse of darkness, the patterns flowing within the sword light shimmered and exploded with a resounding blast!

From the great sword light burst countless smaller, meteor-like streaks of light.

In the blink of an eye, the dark clouds were torn apart and consumed.

The sky returned to a brilliant blue, and sunlight once again poured onto the land.

Edgar stepped into the first rays of sunlight, appearing before everyone.

He placed his broken longsword, now split into two, into his storage space, then lifted his gaze to meet NeverShowOff's from afar.

Those eyes held neither joy nor sorrow, and with the pillar of light behind him, he seemed like a god of mercy.

In NeverShowOff's mind, there were only one word: "Dawn."

He looked down at the shattered finger bones in his hand. At least they had stopped breaking apart further.

All of this had happened in just two seconds.

The rapid changes left the players so stunned that they simply stood there, rooted in place.

Edgar frowned slightly.

"What are you all standing around for? Viktor can still be saved. Pick up his bones, quickly!"

His words shattered the solemn atmosphere from earlier.

Realizing his mistake, he mumbled to himself in a low voice. "Right, Viktor mentioned I need to assign tasks to players to make them move."

He skillfully opened his NPC panel.

A flashing red emergency task prompt appeared in front of every player.

The players snapped out of their daze.

"Yes, yes! Save Viktor!"

"Save my beta test privileges!"

"Who has a sack? I found half a skull!"

"I've got one. Be right there!"

Hedgehog tried climbing onto the church roof and shouted back.

"Someone give me a hand! There are probably more of Viktor's bones up there!"

"Ow! What was that?!"

Hedgehog clutched his head, glaring at the bone that had hit him. He looked up—

Only to lock eyes with Luminaris, who was perched on the eaves.

"The goddess?!"

Luminaris couldn't understand the players' language. He just kept ferrying Viktor's bones and dropping them on Hedgehog's head.

Hedgehog scrambled to catch the falling bones below.

"Hey! Ow! Slow down, lady! I can't catch them all!"