Dying In Real Life Is Another Way To Play

When Lan Ranyan heard this, she shouted and moved at the same time.

"Qian-ner, guard Shan-Shan!" and she disappeared.

Hearing this, Ye Qian disappeared as well and reappeared beside Zhang Shan. When she got hold of him, the two men disappeared as well.

*BBBOOOOOOOMMMMMM*

*BBBOOOOOOOMMMMMM*

When Ye Qian saw this happen she also disappeared together with Zhang Shan and when they reappeared they were a quite far from their initial position. It seemed that Ye Qian made sure to reappear next to where Zhang Shans' jian sword was dropped.

"Quick, arm yourself!" she yelled while pointing to the sword in the ground.

Zhang Shan immediately picked up the the jian sword and readied for battle.

*BBBOOOOOOOMMMMMM*

From their initial spot they saw Ye Qian reappearing together with the "doppelganger".

However this time, Ye Qing's right hand was cut-off and his sword was broken in two on the ground beside them, his previous majestic aura was no longer present.

"NOOOOOO!!!!" Ye Qian yelled angrily

She paused for a while and composed herself as she emptied all her arrows from her quiver to attack the "doppelganger".

*twang**twang**twang**twang*

Multiple arrows were successively released by Ye Qian, anger visibly reflected in her eyes.

As the arrows were mid-flight she murmured "Dying breath..."

All the released arrows glowed with different colors. The path left by arrows looked like a stream made of rainbows.

"Lunaris..." "Avestra..." the voice of Lan Ranyan was heard

Beneath the "doppelganger", ice crept upwards turning his feet frozen hindering his movement while at the same time spiky stalagmites made of ice attacked him from below rushing towards its heart. At the exact same instance, Ye Qing was encased in what looked like an ice prison.

As the arrows hit its target, different colors of flames bloomed and engulfed the being, it looked like it burned whatever was inside to a crisp.

"Malakara..." the icy voice of Lan Ranyan continued to echo the walls of the cavern

From above, a gigantic meteor-looking ice appeared and in a flash, started to fall down diagonally.

*BBRRRRAAAABBBOOOOOOOMMMMMM*

Dust and Mist engulfed the cavern, there was complete silence.

When the area was cleared, the "doppelganger" was still standing in the middle, his armor was battered but the being itself seemingly unscathed and alive nonetheless.

Lan Ranyan reappeared beside the encapsuled Ye Qing and released him.

"It seems,even a guild wouldn't be capable of wounding a legend..." Ye Qing said after being released.

As he said this, the "doppelganger" glared and spoke to them, while pointing at Ye Qian and then Zhang Shan.

"Rokta atul, esara ular rinake atuar galuk. Evetar akdua nahar, olegan rasal tenordo abratakar..."

Lan Ranyan was surprised and shouted at Ye Qian.

"Qian-er what did it say?"

Ye Qian replied, " I think, the language he's using is undiscovered yet, but it closely resembles demon tounge."

"He seems to say something like friend... enemy... and myths..." she said.

Zhang Shan said, "Is he saying that I'm the enemy and your his friends?"

"It doesn't seem that's what he said" Ye Qian added.

Suddenly the ground behind Zhang Shan rose up silently.

When the "doppelganger" saw this, it prepared to strike.

Ye Qing and Lan Ranyan, unfortunately didn't notice this from their current point of view and thought that it wanted to attack Zhang Shan.

Since everyones attention was focused towards the "doppelganger", when it disappeared, Ye Qing, Lan Ranyan and Ye Qian disappeared as well to obstruct it from attacking.

As this happened, Zhang Shan felt something behind him, as he turned, he tried to defend by attacking with his sword in a slashing manner.

*Ding*

"You have gathered an unknown number of experience after killing an unknown creature!" the system chimed

*Ding*

"You have gathered enough experience to level-up!" it added

*Ding*

"Please proceed to the nearest Discovery Testing Facilty for proceeding to the next level" successive system notifications alerted Zhang Shan in his mind.

When this was currently happening in Zhang Shan's mind, the four reappeared a few feet away from Zhang Shan, The "doppelganger's" sword was lodged in between Ye Qing's left shoulder as he tried to hug the "doppelganger" while both Lan Ranyan and Ye Qian were hugging it from behind trying to stop it in it's advance.

On the other hand, Zhanh Shan was finally able to identify what tried to attack him.

A white spider the size of a dog was cut in half, as its blue blood was spashed all over him, a few even entered his mouth. As this scene unfolded in front of his eyes, he gulped, and with it, the blood was ingested as well.

When the three and the "doppelganger" saw this scene, they were shocked, while the "doppelganger" looked more horrified than being surprised.

"...."

"..."

"...."

Ye Qian was the first to speak, "I think something was lost along the lines during translation... hehehe..."

"You think?" Ye Qing grumbled sarcastically, the sound of pain apparent in his voice

Lan Ranyan added, "Although I don't understand what it said, I'm thinking, he was trying to say something like... I'm not an enemy but a friend and I'm trying to help him" as she pointed to Zhang Shan. This time the three slowly loosened their hold with the "doppelganger"

Even after they already let go of the "doppelganger" it still stood there with it's mouth agape, it's face looking horrified as its other free hand was still pointing and shaking to Zhang Shan.

Zhang Shan turned and saw this scene incredibly stupid. He wanted to add more to the topic and was about to speak his mind when he felt his stomach churning.

After that he suddenly started to glow in a greenish light. At the same instance, Zhang Shan heard a prompt from the system in his head.

*Ding*

"Congratulations! New gene discovered!"

"Please proceed to the nearest Discovery Testing Facilty for identification"

Ye Qian was the first to gasp as she said "Gene Devouring!"

It seemed that what she said seemed to awaken the "doppelganger" from its trance. The "doppelganger" then started to move and kept on jabbering repeatedly while holding its head in frustration.

"Ebika! ebika! atuantor!"

"Navero atara tuga salase, radin ulaka darenda amare!" it continued on rambling as it kneeled down in despair while repeating the words all over again.

"What is it saying now?" asked Zhang Shan, the others also interested in what it was trying to say.

"Something about losing... defeat... no hope... and throne..." Ye Qian said.

"I think this poor guy is having a nervous meltdown..." Ye Qing added.

As the four looked at this debacle, they felt sorry for the "doppelganger". Lan Ranyan on the other hand started to heal the group. Green aura started to engulf the party and the fatigue and stress was slowly wearing off, Ye Qing's wound started to slowly heal as well.

As this was happening, the supposed corpse of the White spider started to show signs of moving and tried to slowly gather as well. When it started the regeneration process, the "doppelganger" seemed to have been woken up from stupor as it stood up and gazed at the four, started speaking again.

"Karuka allel tromoka, Salarta azeka lua aratur. Amare dipra sateka atuantor!" it said while gesturing them to stay away and move further back.

"It seems to say something about throne... and hope again..." said Ye Qian.

Ye Qian and Lan Ranyan seemed to understand it's intentions. They both nodded and started to usher away Zhang Shan and Ye Qian back to the giant spider carcasses.

"Since we're done with what we came for, there no need to further stay in this place. Grab whatever you can from the corpses and We'll do a few trips back and forth the city" Ye Qing said.

"Shan-shan, just make sure to avoid stating where it was from, make up stories if needed, I don't want this place exposed to other players just yet." Lan Ranyan glared at him with a hint of threat.

Zhang Shan nodded in silence as he shivered in fear inside, he knows first hand how evil this woman can be.

As the four were collecting their loot and belongings, packing what ever they can in their bags, they saw from afar that the "doppelganger" was still fighting with the white spider.

Everytime the white spider dies, they have seen that the "doppelganger" would try to either to drink its blood or chomp its flesh little by little.

"That's the sixteenth" Ye Qian said as she murmured under her breath.

Zhang Shan being near her as he tried to help her collect her arrows on the ground heard her and looked at her with a puzzling look.

When Ye Qian saw him looking at her like this, she felt embarrased as she looked away and said, "Sorry, force of habit."

Lan Ranyan saw this peculiarity as well as she started to say something like "another point that makes my theory plausible..." while scribbling in her notes from who knows when she took it out from her bag.

Ye Qing noticed this as well, he paused for a while on dissecting the second carcass, contemplating on something as he said. "This should be enough for now, let's pack up and get moving." he tried to force a chuckle and went back to contemplating as he directed he others to leave.

As they left the area, Lan Ranyan started to withdraw her orb and the place started to dim and become devoid of light.

The sound of fighting in the distance didn't seem to stop even in complete darkness.

Lan Ranyan seemed to mention something about "Abyssmal Vision" as she continued writing in her notes.

Zhang Shan caught all of this but chose to remain silent. Ye Qing noticed this and told him that this is something that he may need to get used to, he said that after every trip, Lan Ranyan would always do this to note down all her observations regarding their discoveries. This turned out to be more than just a quest of submitting discoveries for her and turned out to be one of her habits that she developed in game.

Zhang Shan seemed to be a little troubled about this and it didn't escape the notice of Ye Qian.

She went to his side and whispered, "Don't mind her, she's always like this ever since she wasn't able to "recycle" her first avatar."

"She did mention once that she has reasons to believe that "Alternate Realm Chronicles" is more than just a game." She added.

She then looked with all seriousness in her eyes at Zhang Shan as she stated...

"She believes, that we're actually in another real universe..."