Chapter 228: The Disappearance of the Players

“【Cassius’s Secret Treasure】, have you all bought it yet?”

Mantou looked at the crowd eagerly, seemingly hoping to find fellow unlucky souls.

He had spent all the money from selling dragon scales on treasure chests, drawing seven times, but ended up empty-handed, only getting an adventurer’s undergarments.

Born Battle Maniac rubbed his bald head and laughed, “I got pretty lucky, pulled a useful green-tier item.”

Summer Night Autumn Rain also smiled cheerfully, “I drew a Fireball Staff, and only tried once.”

Mantou felt like crying but forced a smile, “Why is everyone so lucky—am I the only one who’s completely unlucky?”

Singo shook his head.

Mantou was immediately thrilled, his face lighting up.

He thought he’d found a fellow unlucky brother and quickly asked, “Haha, you had bad luck too, right?”

But Singo said dismissively, “I didn’t buy any at all.”

“It’s just for fun; this type of event is just the officials trying to reap profits from us. They probably want to control the beta players’ gold stash, so the disparity isn’t too large when the servers open.”

“Seriously, who would be dumb enough to throw their savings into this? You think you’re that lucky? With such odds, I’d rather spend money outright to buy something useful.”

Hearing this harsh truth, Mantou’s smile froze.

He patted his chest, barely comforting himself, “Luckily, I’m not the worst off; at least there’s that guy who did twenty pulls and got all junk.”

“Charlotte, my dear brother...”

He wiped the tears from his eyes, a gratified smile spreading across his face.

In the distance, Charlotte was lying on the ground, looking like a black-and-white photo. Members of the 【Magic Coin】 guild gathered around him, pouring all sorts of magic potions, like “Mental Elixir” and “Rage Potion,” into him, hoping their dear leader would recover from this miserable ordeal.

Charlotte’s nickname, “Twenty Shiny Whites,” had already spread, becoming a hot topic on the forums and serving as an emotional crutch for countless unlucky players.

Sky Witch’s tale of “Two Miracles in Single Draws” alongside Charlotte’s bad luck had become known as the “Yin-Yang Duo” or the “Fortune-Unfortunate Twins.”

“That’s enough now.”

“Only three hours left until the server shuts down. Don’t you guys want to taste that twenty-gold-crown wine?”

Singo pulled out a beautifully packaged wine bottle, deliberately swaying it, the enticing liquid glistening on the glass.

The wyvern also landed beside them, nuzzling its long neck affectionately against its rider.

Mantou felt his spirits soar.

“Come on, let’s drink till we’re wasted!”

Langli Baidiao slung an arm over Mantou’s shoulder, smiling slyly.

“Count me in too!”

“You, Lang Scum? Really?”

“It’s the last day—don’t be so stingy, alright?”

“Rawr~”

“What the hell, why is your lizard biting again?! Is he targeting me?!”

Inside the Steel Dragonwing Palace.

Cassius sat upright on his cold throne, eyes glued to the screen, keeping a close watch on the magical projections across the kingdom.

The countdown timer on the panel ticked down second by second.

“10, 9, 8...”

“2, 1...”

“0.”

The numbers finally reached zero.

Without warning, the noise in the taverns abruptly stopped, the celebrations in the square halted.

Whether in the wilds, the mechanical factories, deep within the mountains, or even in the jaws of a lion-scorpion, all players’ bodies disintegrated into fragments of shimmering, illusory light and then vanished without a trace, as if they had never existed.

Though there were only about a thousand players, Northwind Fortress seemed noticeably emptier without them. Many local residents had grown accustomed to the antics of these crazy strangers, and their sudden absence felt strange. In places like Baator City and Seg Town, where players had first started, the impact was even more profound.

The bartender who had just mixed a perfect drink stared dumbfounded at the now-empty tavern. After a long silence, he finally muttered, “So... who’s going to pay for these?”

“Wait... How do we shut down the magic circuit again, and which indicator light do we look at?”

“You never got around to explaining that—”

Apprentices in the factory watched as their instructors disappeared right before their eyes, standing bewildered in front of the complex machines, unsure what to do.

“Rawr?”

A lion-scorpion that had just been toying with its prey, swallowing the human whole, suddenly found its meal gone. Its jaws empty, it could only let out an irritable, angry growl, its small brain struggling to comprehend what had happened.

Inside the Steel Dragonwing Palace, Cassius turned to the magic mirror and asked:

“Well, did you notice anything unusual?”

The mirror revealed the ugly face of Langpu, who replied gravely, “Still... nothing.”

“We experimented on twelve players and set up controlled trials, monitoring over a hundred others with magic, but we didn’t find a single clue.”

“Logically, for such a large-scale teleportation, no matter the method, there should be traces left on the Weave. Even a divine act would leave something behind. But these ‘Starfallers’ seemed to vanish into thin air—no magical fluctuations, no traces of any teleportation spell.”

Cassius responded calmly, “I see. We can drop the investigation for now.”

“Understood, master. I think I should help manage the leftovers from the Machine God Church. We have too few competent mages in the kingdom; I worry our assigned people won’t handle things correctly and might cause losses.”

“Go ahead.”

With that, Cassius severed the link, and the mirror dimmed as Langpu’s image faded.

“So, it’s still a dead end. What kind of power lies behind this so-called ‘game system’?”

“Maybe only by touching the divine realm could we catch a glimpse of the secrets beyond this fog...”

Cassius muttered to himself as he stared at the 【Temporary Server Shutdown】 message on the panel.

He had taken the “shutdown” event very seriously, gathering nearly all of Ember Kingdom’s spellcasters to study it, yet they had still come up empty-handed—suggesting the forces behind it were of an unfathomably high level, beyond even Langpu’s understanding as a high-tier mage.

“Phew.”

Cassius exhaled a breath of sulfur, flames escaping his mouth, turning the interior of the palace into a blazing furnace. Fortunately, it was a new palace, or else there might have been another disaster.

“The ancestral bloodline within me is getting out of control. If I don’t digest it soon, I’m afraid there’ll be a volcanic eruption. Looks like I’ll need to enter slumber within the month.”

At that moment, a tiefling guard knocked on the door, his timing less than ideal.

“Urgh!”

His hand burned on the red-hot iron door, and he let out a pained yelp, but he still reported through gritted teeth:

“Your Majesty, Lord Fried from the Dragon-Oath Hall is here, and he has brought twelve humans with him.”

“Let them in.”

Cassius replied calmly.

He gave his wings a slight wave, smoothing out the magical turbulence and calming the restless fire elements. The scorching air began to cool.

“It seems Fried has finally selected the first batch of people.”

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