After the order from Marcus, everyone aggressively pushed forward. Rather than reserving Prana for a drawn-out defense in the hope that the monsters would eventually stop appearing, everyone went all out.
The Mages unleashed their explosive spells, the Rogues and Warriors pushed forward to clear a path through the vanguard, and the Priests continued to keep their stamina topped off.
There was another group on the other side of the street, which had formed from more players arriving to stop the spread of the Calamities.
However, there was a specific reason why all the Calamities were focusing on the players instead of spreading to different parts of the sector.
After observing the battlefield, Sami figured that the reason was some of the high-numbered players with Clubs.
Apparently, they had the ability to taunt and draw their opponents straight to them.
For instance, several dozen meters away from Sami, Marcus, who had the blood of monsters all over him, spread his arms wide, and with a wicked grin on his face, yelled at the top of his lungs.
"To me, you ugly bastards!"
His voice boomed across the entire street, and in the next second, all the nightmarish wolves turned toward him as if pulled by a magnet. Even the ones that had been running along the walls of the buildings leapt down, landing on the pavement and sprinting straight into his range.
But of course, that was a trap.
The players didn’t just stand aside and let them reach Marcus. Using the distraction, they unleashed a coordinated crossfire of spells and strikes, cutting down the hordes from the flanks before the beasts could even touch him.
A few minutes later, many players finally managed to push their way forward until they got to the alley. There, they could see what looked like a massive rectangular door formed from shadow, and through that door, the blind wolves continued to emerge.
What was unsettling and confusing was the fact that this shadowy portal was floating atop the corpse of a man.
Beside this body was a playing card. Of course, it didn’t take the smart people long to piece things together. The man was the Host, and the playing card was the Bridging Card.
"We need to destroy that card!" A random player yelled as they continued to fight their way closer to the Bridge.
After a short while, the dark-skinned woman who had been standing near Marcus tossed a blade at the card. It struck the face of the card dead center, piercing straight through the thick paper.
Just then, the shadowy door suddenly exploded outward in a violent wave of shadows. The mass of shadows engulfed the whole alley and spread out, causing players to raise their hands to guard their eyes.
For a few moments there, it looked like the world had been plunged into pitch darkness. Fortunately, this didn’t last as the darkness suddenly evaporated, bringing light back into the vision of the players.
But the darkness was not the only thing that vanished.
Even the remaining blind wolves, as well as all the corpses, vanished as if they were never there in the first place.
"Is it over?" someone muttered after a few seconds of people catching their breath.
’I hope so!’ Sami thought.
He had used up a good amount of Prana with all the buffing, debuffing, and healing he had been doing.
Although, compared to some of the others, he was looking much better. Not even a drop of blood was on him and his clothes were clean, almost as if he had not participated in this Quest.
’It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it’d be.’
Well, true.
There were reasons for that, though.
The first being that this was just a mid-ranked bridge, spilling mid-rank monsters of the First Tier. After his quest yesterday, he had mentally made a classification system for monsters. He figured there was a strong possibility that monsters were ranked just like players.
Like a deck of cards, players were ranked from the lowest number, two, to the highest, ten. And then there were the Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces.
Maybe... monsters followed this ranking too?
If this was the case, then a rank 6 Bridge, though dangerous to a few low-numbered players, wasn’t insurmountable for a coordinated team.
Which led to the second reason why this whole thing felt like a breeze. There were a lot of players present, with some even carrying high numbers, so of course the quest was relatively easy to clear.
Sami was just about to begin walking when a few notifications popped up in front of him.
[You have successfully aided in the completion of an Emergency Quest.]
[Calculating achievements and distributing rewards...]
[Commencing reward integration: You have earned 50 Evolution Points.]
"Only?"
For some reason, Sami had expected more. Was he being greedy? Maybe. Still...
[Available EP: 125]
[You have received Blind Wolf Tenderloin x10]
"...!"
Okay, now this was better!
If these were food, then... this meant that he didn’t need to go on Food Quests for some time!
[You have received an E Grade Item: Blind Wolf’s Eye.]
"...?"
An item?
That was a first.
He waited, and when no other notification popped up after a few seconds, he hurriedly checked the description of the Blind Wolf’s Eye.
[Description: A ring that allows the wearer to see better in low-light conditions.]
[Note: The longer it is used, the more its properties will degrade.]
’Hm...’
Opening his inventory, he could see that the ring was one of the few physical items sitting inside the translucent storage slots.
With a small smile on his face, Sami nodded in satisfaction, then made his way through some of the players to where Kenji was in the front.
The young man was leaning against his spear, taking in deep breaths. His eyes were fixed on the corpse in the near distance, the one whose card had just been destroyed.
When Sami stopped by his side, Kenji immediately turned to him, and before Sami could speak, he blurted out, "Yo, remember this guy?"
"Huh?" Sami’s gaze traveled from him to the corpse, which now had other players studying it.
The dead man didn’t seem familiar. Well, even if he was, Sami still wouldn’t remember. He wasn’t one to waste his brain space keeping memories of people who weren’t relevant to him.
So, he turned to Kenji and shook his head honestly.
"Come on! You don’t remember? He’s one of those two men who were arguing below your apartment last night," Kenji tried to remind him.
But when Sami shrugged to show that he still did not recall, Kenji sighed and looked away.
"Anyway. I wonder if that other guy was the one who killed him."
Sami frowned and finally spoke. "I’m more curious as to why and how he became a Host for a Bridge."
"Right. That too. I’m curious about that too," Kenji agreed, scratching his neck.
Just then, a familiar voice sounded beside them:
"Mm... you know what I think?"
Both Sami and Kenji turned their gazes to see Momoka standing beside them. One hand was in her pocket while the other scratched her chin, a pensive expression on her face.
When she noticed that she had caught the attention of the two men, she looked up and smiled. "What if... when a player dies, they become a Host for a Calamity Bridge?"
’Actually, I considered that too,’ Sami thought. ’But it doesn’t fully line up. There’s no way only one person died in this entire sector since the apocalypse started. Could it be that there’s a chance a person becomes a Host upon death, but certain conditions need to be fulfilled for it to occur?’
While he was still lost in thought, Kenji scoffed. "That sounds ridiculous, Momoka. There has to be another reason he became a Host. Maybe he did something he shouldn’t have."
"No," Sami said, turning to him with a slight smile. "I think Momoka is actually on the right track."
Momoka smiled and nudged Sami’s arm. "Right? Thank you!"
She then leaned over and stuck out her tongue at Kenji, causing him to scowl and look away.
Just then, Marcus spoke, drawing everyone’s attention.
"Listen up!"
Everyone turned to see him holding up the destroyed Bridging Card that had belonged to the dead man.
The card was a 6 of Hearts.
Marcus, who had likely finished discussing the situation with the other high-ranked players standing near him, continued, "The hypothesis right now is that the cards of dead players can turn into Bridging Cards, turning the corpse into a Host for these Emergency Quests. As for the exact trigger, we can’t say for sure yet. But to prevent this sort of scenario from happening again, spread the word on the forums and tell every player you know. All corpses need to be burned or cremated as soon as possible after death. And if a player leaves their card behind when they die, destroy it immediately."