The Leaderboard!
After the four people reminded him, Hailuot noticed the Leaderboard option on his Game Interface.
He opened it...
It was the Level Rankings, which listed the ten thousand highest-level Players in the game.
The highest Player level in the game was currently 75, and the Player's name was...
When Hailuot saw the name at the top of the rankings, his pupils contracted sharply.
Soul Eater
It was the hidden name of his father's family.
Was it a coincidence of the same name, or...
Uneasy, Hailuot clicked on the name "Soul Eater." One of the options that appeared was to send a private message.
He chose to send a private message.
He typed: I am Hailuot, at the family cemetery.
Send!
If Soul Eater wasn't his father, receiving such a message would leave him completely confused.
But if he was his father...
Soul Eater replied!
Hailuot opened it with an excited heart.
"Location coordinates?"
"Skeleton Maze..." Hailuot found the location coordinates in the upper-right corner of the Game Interface and entered "3697:5984."
Send!
This time, Soul Eater replied at once: "Stay there and don't move. Wait for me! I'll be there soon! Welcome to the Heroes World, my son!"
"Okay!"
It was him!
Hailuot never expected to find his father, who had been missing for four years, so easily.
This was nothing like what he had imagined.
Shouldn't his father have been trapped somewhere, forcing him to train in this game world and endure countless hardships before he finally rescued him?
At the very least, there should have been some difficulty!
But now... his father, missing for four years, had become the game's Number One Under Heaven!
And right now he was on his way over.
What had he been doing these past four years?
And what reason had kept him from coming home?
"Big Brother Shattered Bone! Big Brother Shattered Bone!" Misty Rain First Blossom saw Hailuot intently operating the Game Interface and asked, "Are you contacting that powerful friend of yours?"
"Yeah! He's on his way here now."
Hearing that their newly acknowledged big brother had summoned a skilled player, all four of Misty Rain First Blossom's group grew excited. With a skilled player leading them to grind monsters, their own levels would surely rocket upward.
Yu Yaowan pleaded, "Big Brother Shattered Bone, have your friend help level us up. We have no equipment and our levels are low, we can only fight these low-level monsters, it's so miserable."
Hailuot replied, "Once he arrives, I'll ask him if he has time."
The four of them shouted together, "Thank you, Big Brother Shattered Bone!"
Misty Rain First Blossom asked again, "Big Brother Shattered Bone, what do you do? When do you usually log on? We could play together."
Hailuot considered his current situation and replied, "I can't say when I'll be online. We've already added each other as friends, so we can arrange something when we have time."
"Okay!"
After chatting for a while longer, Hailuot gained a rough understanding of the Family Cemetery's current state.
For some reason, the Claurend Family's Family Cemetery had become a map in the game "Heroes World" called the Olden Cemetery.
Heroes World was vast, and each major Faction had its own Plane.
The Olden Cemetery lay in the Plane of the Undead Faction—the Land of Death—specifically in the Rotten Wasteland ruled by the Sorrow King, one of the Seven Governors of Death.
Scorched Earth City, the nearest Undead City, lay less than ten kilometers away.
Ever since Heroes World opened four years ago, the Olden Cemetery had always been one of the best leveling grounds for new players of the Undead Faction. There was a unique type of monster here called Chaos Beasts, which had a chance to drop Small Chaos Crystal Particles upon death. Chaos Crystals were a highly versatile magical material, so many players focused on Alchemy would long-term purchase Chaos Crystals in bulk.
"A newcomer who reaches level 30 in the Olden Cemetery can sell the Chaos Crystals they've saved and buy a decent set of advanced Equipment."
Shuchacha spoke as soon as Misty Rain First Blossom finished: "This is only the First Layer Skeleton Maze of the Olden Cemetery. Higher-level maps lie farther below, but every passage leading down is sealed. No one knows how to break the Seal."
In other words, only the First Layer Skeleton Maze of the Olden Cemetery was open.
Hailuot pieced together what he had learned but offered no opinion. Instead, he asked, "The Player at the top of the Leaderboard is called Soul Eater. Is he also in our Undead Faction?"
Bringing up Soul Eater got Misty Rain First Blossom and the others talking even more.
Soul Eater was indeed a Player of the Undead Faction. He was among the first Players to enter Heroes World when it opened and had held the top spot on the Level Rankings from the beginning.
He almost never logged off, grinding monsters and leveling up around the clock without rest, earning himself the title "Human-Shaped Liver." At his strongest, he had once led the second place player by as much as ten levels. It was only as leveling up became increasingly difficult that Soul Eater's level advantage was gradually caught up to by later players, though he still managed to maintain a gap of two or three levels.
Misty Rain First Blossom said excitedly, "He's also won first place three times running in the Number One Under Heaven Tournament. His Necromancy is used with such masterful skill, he has countless admirers. It was actually because I watched Soul Eater's matches that I decided to play a Necromancer."
Black-and-White Peach added, "The Undead Faction was unpopular at first, but many new Players choose it now. Most of them believe the Undead are powerful because of Soul Eater."
At this point, Hailuot had formed a rough judgment as to why his father had been missing for four years.
Internet addiction.
And a severe case of it!
Still, as long as his father was safe, that was the best thing of all.
As they chatted, two Chaos Monsters that had respawned nearby appeared. The four Players from Misty Rain First Blossom's group rushed forward and unleashed a flurry of attacks, killing the two fire-breathing wild boars in an instant.
Among the dropped materials was a bright, glinting object.
"It's a Chaos Crystal!"
Yu Yaowan, the Black Warrior responsible for collecting loot, ran over happily when he saw the valuable material.
As he bent down to pick up the Chaos Crystal, a wave of pressure came from the far end of the passage.
Wisps of black mist spread out, and the temperature turned icy cold.
As the sound of hoofbeats rang out, a rider came around the corner.
The horse's entire body was tightly wrapped in tattered black cloth strips, and two black holes served as its eyes, glowing with eerie green light. One glance at it made his whole body stiffen as terror pressed down like a wall.
The rider on the horse's back wore a black robe, the edges of its collar trailing like mist. His face bore a mask made of human skin, its rigid features exuding a chill that seemed to pierce straight to the bone. His eyes likewise glowed green, carrying no trace of life whatsoever.
When Butler Kote saw the newcomer, he stepped in front of Hailuot as if facing a great enemy.
"Master, the opponent is extremely powerful. Please return to the Manor at once!"
Hailuot, however, stood still and quietly watched the rider approach on horseback.
Misty Rain First Blossom's group of four were startled at first, but then all rushed toward the approaching rider, shouting like star-struck fanboys: "Big Shot Soul Eater!"
"Big Shot Soul Eater!"
"Big Shot Soul Eater, got any junk items? Spare us some!"
"Big shot, can we get a photo together?"