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Players around the world settled inside their pods, or on their beds and chairs, with helmets on their heads. The last five minutes before the game went back online were counting down.

The hype was a world phenomenon, with even more players getting ready to launch the game than before the update. The forums were exploding with theories about what the update was, with no news about it from Evo-Gaming.

Throughout the seven-day update, posts about New Eden abounded. So much so, that it had drowned a single post out.

One person had seen this post when it went live, and this person was David. But the post had surprised even him, since this was not a repeating thing.

The post came from a disgruntled sister, whose brother had been in a coma ever since the update started, his body now laying in the hospital. But no matter how hard she tried yelling to the world that New Eden was dangerous, no one listened.

But David was worried. This person was none other than Xavier Lagacé, gamer tag Chronos.

Last time, Xavier had convinced him to play New Eden during the update. But this time around, he was apparently in a coma during the update.

It made no sense. Why would his path be altered?

It wasn\'t like the butterfly effect could affect him, who had had no contact with Alexander or himself since he came back. Why had his future changed?

But David had no time to go investigate. Neither did he have the right to.

Xavier\'s sister would find it weird if he suddenly walked in like he had known him forever.

Aside from that, he also no longer had the time to do so right now. With the update almost done, and the game reopening in a few minutes, David had to put all his attention on New Eden.

He only wished his friend would get better.

Settling down inside his gaming pod, David closed its lid. As he gazed at the dark inside of the pod, he let his mind wander to memories of better times, with his friend of a different lifetime, and softly sighed.

"I hope you get back on your feet. Humanity will need you."

***

Alex was walking up his stairs, heading to the main room, where his pod was connected. Next to his, a recent addition was now resting.

Kary had her gaming pod moved to his penthouse, after asking for his permission, of course, to which he gladly said yes. He couldn\'t let her play on his helmet all the time, after all.

Alexander immediately noticed the different density of mana in his apartment the day after the pod was delivered. With this fact before him, it was easy to infer that the pods were facilitating the entry of mana into their world.

Of course, he knew this wasn\'t the only entry point. After seeing how dense the mana had been in Nebraska, he knew there were other points of leakage.

But it all didn\'t matter anymore. From what David had said, the point of change had already been crossed and it was no longer reversible.

All they could do now, was become stronger in and out of New Eden, and hope that when the time came, they could repel the demons.

Reaching his pod, he could see Kary was already in hers, ready to close it and log in. Alex reached inside her pod, pecking her lips with a kiss, upside down like a certain superhero.

Kary giggled, grabbing his head so he couldn\'t pull away, and giving him a flurry of kisses back.

They had gotten more at ease with each other over the last few days. Living together had burned away a lot of barriers.

Releasing Alex\'s face, she smiled at him.

"Alright, you flirtatious demon. The game\'s about to relaunch. We should get ready."

Alex nodded, smiling softly at her.

"Right back at you, my curvy vixen. You ready to kick some demon ass?"

"Of course. Are you?"

Alex chuckled. He was ready, and he would most likely be the first to fight demons, anyway.

When he was logged out, he was still standing directly inside the hall that led to the shield artifact in his starting village. And with the message Aberon had left him, he was certain this would have turned into a hotspot in ten years.

He had already told Kary that he would take some time before coming back to their base. He explained the situation to her, and she even called him lucky.

Logging back in and facing the new threat felt like any gamer\'s dream come true. But he wasn\'t sure about her claims.

Yes, he was ecstatic to go back to fighting directly on entry, since he liked combat a lot. But he wasn\'t sure that facing demons right away was the best for him.

Especially since his soul had already been corrupted once. He feared what would happen if he was so abruptly shoved into a corrupted zone.

But he couldn\'t change that, so he would have to figure his shit out.

\'I can always teleport away if I feel the corruption is too strong.\'

Alex went to lie in his gaming pod, Kary closing the lid on hers as he did, followed by him doing the same. Staring at the screen inside the pod, Alex looked at the timer.

*0:35*

Closing his eyes to center his mind, he put himself into a fighting mindset directly. He was certain he would land in the middle of trouble, so it was his best option.

Counting down the seconds in his mind, he felt gravity pull him down as he reached zero.

Similarly to the first time they logged into the game, the players across the world were brought on a small trip across New Eden\'s skies.

But the landscape had drastically changed.

Instead of nice green plains, mountains scraping the skies, and cities teeming with activity, what the players were forced to watch was ultimately unpleasant.

Cities burning, plains scorched, bodies strewn about, and mountains seething in black energy. The world of New Eden had been ushered into an era of war.

Astaroth looked at all the devastation and immediately thought back to the memories Khalor had shown him of their world in the same state.

\'I guess the true game starts now…\'