When Yone reloaded back into the game, something was wrong.
Instead of appearing where he had last been in the black market, deep underground, he now stood at the outskirts of Crystilized Stone Town. The towering walls of the city loomed ahead, but he wasn't inside.
A chill ran down his spine as a notification appeared before him.
[System Notification!]
You have been forcefully relocated due to an emergency system override.
Your player state has been flagged as [Neutral Zone].
Monsters and players can now attack you freely.
"What… the hell?" Yone muttered, quickly checking his status screen. His nameplate, which was usually white, had turned gray, indicating he was now in a state of vulnerability outside of standard town protections.
And he wasn't alone.
A few meters away, several other players were also stumbling into existence, confusion written all over their faces. Some immediately ran back towards town, while others began checking their notifications just like him.
'They just aren't used to it,' Yone soon calmed down as he knew what was going on.
In reality, nothing much changed just player killers had their influence greatly reduced and are now at great risk and disadvantaged if they operate the same as they used to be. This was especially true for Under The Veil as their power would greatly be reduced from this point onwards.
At least for now...
Yone, on the other hand, wasn't shocked because of the update, but more of the fact that his quest seemed to have been cut off, and he was only left with the ring quest item he found in the small chamber, which truly made no sense.
'There is only one option now,' With that thought in mind, Yone headed inside the town.
As Yoe continued heading in his direction, he could constantly hear people running around, while some were shouting and others joyfully conversing about the new changes.
"Did you hear? Several top guilds are grouping with whatever they found inside our town from the random allocation of players and are heading into dungeons." One guy was jumping with joy as he thought about his first dungeon run in Eclipse Online.
"That's all you heard? You are old on the news, bro. I heard that Legends had gathered six of its top players that got allocated to Cristyliazed Stone Town and are heading towards Death Stone dungeon," His friend replied with a smirk, clearly still fascinated about the fact that he will watch the first clear on live stream by Legends itself.
"Legends are truly sitting on the throne as the number one guild in End World and planning on doing so at Eclipse Online as well. I wonder if any of the other guilds can beat them on the first clear this time. I never heard of anyone doing so since the emergence of Legends."
"Beating Legends? People would believe you if you say you saw a monkey flying more than Legends losing a first clear in any dungeon or raid, keep dreaming, friend. Haven't you seen their true levels? They've been hiding all this time! That Requiem is probably eating his fingers with shame as we speaking right."
His friend chuckled and burst out laughing, agreeing with him.
Hearing these words, Yone felt heartache as his face twitched slightly especially at his last words. Had he maybe misheard? What did they mean by true levels and hiding it all this time?
Subsequently, he went to the guy who was just speaking and politely asked, his face all smiles," Friend, I heard you speaking about Legends hiding their levels, what do you mean by that?"
The guy looked at Requiem like he was looking at an idiot for a moment before moving his eyes to his name. His body froze with fear, and he swallowed the insults he was about to utter as he replied with a gentle tone.
"Brother Requiem, you probably didn't hear of this yet because of your busy schedule hehe. But Legends had just made an announcement, and their message was simple: The sky isn't our limit. The void isn't either. You were never competing with us, you just didn't know it yet."
Yone rolled his eyes at their usual dramatic announcement of a self-fulfilling wish of grandeur, top players acting as literal gods in the gaming industry," That's it?"
"Well, it was at first, but many die-hard fans could decipher their wording and immediately checked the most popular ranking in the world right now, which is the leveling leaderboard in the fountain hall. And..." The man moved his eyes left and right as he hesitated whether to continue or not.
"Speak, why did you stop at the end?" Yone was furious as he almost slapped the guy to death, but quickly controlled himself. For some reason, he had a hunch what the next words were, but still had some hope that it wasn't true.
'It can't be right? I'm not that ignorant and gullible, right?' He assured himself several times, denying that possible thought.
'No. Impossible. I farmed the best mobs. I cleared the hardest quests. They were still level 2 yesterday!' Yone couldn't shake that thought as no matter how many times he brushed them away, they kept on coming.
'Unless…'
'They weren't level 2 yesterday.'
'I just assumed they were.'
'Because I was an idiot who didn't even know you could hide your damn level.' Yone felt that his confidence was shattering at that thought, but still lingered at that last shred of hope that his imagination is just running wild.
"Yes...yes, I'll continue. Well, after checking the leveling leaderboard, everyone almost lost touch with reality when they saw that on each single kingdom, twenty new players appeared with levels varying from peak level 4 to early level 5, overshadowing everyone else."
Yone started walking towards his destination, his mind filled with thoughts, an ugly expression on his face,' level 4 and 5? How, when, and where!?'
His mind raced with all possible thoughts but the only thing he could come up with is that they did as Ano and HealtheWorld and even better, most likely farming similar monsters to what he was farming, and most likely would have caught up to him if not for the quests he received and the absurd EXP with it.
Then...
Silence descended on Yone's mind as he closed his eyes, halted his steps, and laughed.
You can hide your level on the leaderboard?
HOW THE HELL DID I NEVER HEAR ABOUT IT!