Lord of The Red Planet

Rian held the Guild Staff of Avanheim, a silvery-black rod. The staff's design was fundamentally simple; the guild members at the time had chosen to draw inspiration from Eastern, not Western, mythology.

They'd based its design on a Buddhist staff, with a few modifications. In the center of its ring, instead of a spearhead, there was a miniature black hole that throbbed with a purplish-black and white light.

Beneath it, nine rings dangled, forming a circle that seemed to float in mid-air. These nine rings symbolized the core principles of human morality: Wisdom, Justice, Equality, Courage, Compassion, Hope, Honesty, Perseverance, and Freedom.

Each ring glowed with a unique color reflecting the essence of its respective value, and all were interconnected by thin lines of light, as if to assert that perfection could only be achieved when all these values stood together.

These rings weren't just for decoration; they were Divine-Tier Items that the guild members had painstakingly collected from every corner of the World of Avalon.

You could say the Guild Staff of Avanheim was on par with, or perhaps even surpassed, a regular World Class Item.

The Staff of Avanheim also symbolized Creation and Death. It was capable of creating any life form under Level 90 and possessed an Instant Death spell effective even on Level 100 players, capable of bypassing various defensive item effects up to a certain limit.

What's more, the staff could constantly replenish its own mana by absorbing the flow of mana from the world.

Thus, the wielder of the Staff of Avanheim would never run out of mana in the middle of a fight. Isn't that cheating?

The reason the guild members had forbidden him from using this immensely powerful staff was because if the Guild Staff of Avanheim were ever destroyed, the Avanheim Guild would be destroyed along with it.

But since this was the game's last day, he decided to take it with him to the Throne Room on the Ninth Floor.

Rian stopped in front of the magnificent gates leading to the Throne Room. He looked up at the pair of giant doors before him. Carved into both doors was a painting in the European Renaissance style, depicting fifteen figures of different forms, all reaching out toward a brightly glowing golden chalice in their midst.

Seeing this beautiful painting, a wave of nostalgia instantly washed over him.

"Fitria Da Vinci's work… it really is beautiful. If I remember right, this was the moment we conquered Filius Castle, wasn't it? And as a reward for conquering the Castle of the Creator Goddess, the developers gave the Avanheim Guild one of the fourteen World Class Items: the Holy Grail." Remembering that golden age, a flicker of sadness crept into his heart.

Back then, Noah had accidentally discovered a flying castle in the ruins of a very remote island in the Atlantic Ocean. Not even the players who loved role-playing as pirates had ever found this island.

Even after the entire world map had been charted by players who followed the Path of Great Conquest or by Adventurers, this island was never discovered until the year 1856 of the Minoan Calendar, by Noah.

Noah had washed ashore on that island while sailing to the Linoan Continent. According to his conversation with Noah at the time, the reason he hadn't used teleportation magic was because the player serving as the Emperor of the Aritanian Empire had used a World Class Item to block all forms of teleportation magic from outside the Linoan Continent.

In Avalon, players were free to become anything and create anything, even carve out their own history by founding kingdoms, building empires, or conquering other nations.

Besides having a magic system, the game's laws of physics were also one hundred percent accurate to the real world.

When this news first spread, no one believed it at first. After all, this was just an MMORPG.

But when a player managed to develop a simple firearm in the game based on his own knowledge, suddenly many people started to believe it and rushed to try it for themselves.

This phenomenon even attracted scientists from the real world to play the game just to prove its validity. As a result, they discovered that scientific formulas did indeed apply in the world of Avalon, which in turn made many governments interested in the game's source code.

Because of this, civilization in the world of Monia developed at an incredible pace and entered the Steam Age.

Players who dove into Avalon chose various paths in life: some became scientists, some became merchants, and some became pirates.

That era was even called the Golden Age of Avalon, with nearly a billion players logging in every day from all over the world.

This was possible because Avalon had only a single global server and was equipped with a highly accurate, real-time language translation feature.

"The Holy Grail World Class Item, huh? If I'm not mistaken, that's one of the fourteen strongest World Class Items, right?" Rian touched his chin, thinking. This was the World Class Item that allowed a player to ask for anything from the developers.

The reason the Avanheim Guild hid this fact was because they were afraid the top-ranked guilds would unite to attack Avanheim to seize the item.

Although the Avanheim Guild was strong and had once been ranked fifth globally, it didn't mean they could withstand a combined assault from the other major guilds.

So, the guild members at the time had agreed not to reveal that they possessed the most sought-after World Class Item in all of Avalon.

"It's a shame. An item this good was never used, not even once before the game ended," Rian sighed softly.

He stepped inside. The familiar sight that greeted him made his chest feel tight. All of this was built on the hard work of the Avanheim Guild members, but now they had just thrown it all away.

Rian's grip on the Staff of Avanheim in his right hand tightened.

The Throne Room was designed to be as beautiful as possible, modeled after the palaces of European kings, with a particular blend of Gothic and Renaissance styles. From the center of the ceiling hung a magnificent crystal chandelier, casting a warm white light throughout the room. The rest of the ceiling was covered in replicas of famous paintings from around the world.

This was the painstaking work of Fitria Da Vinci, one of the few female players in the Avanheim Guild. Her hobby was art.

On the left and right walls hung rows of the members' personal banners. One of them was his, featuring a design of a black, angel-winged dragon biting its own tail, forming an Ouroboros symbol.

Rian's steps halted when he saw six female NPCs and one old male NPC in a European butler's uniform standing respectfully at the edge of a red carpet. These NPCs, dressed in full maid uniforms and equipped with various combat items, were the Final Guardians of Avanheim. If all the floors below the Ninth Floor fell to the enemy, it would be their turn to defend this floor.

However, since no enemy had ever managed to breach the Eighth Floor's defenses, their duty had so far been limited to cleaning the Ninth Floor.

"To the Ninth Oath Maids, thank you for protecting the Avanheim Guild until this final day," he said softly, his voice thick with emotion. "As a final command… return to your positions."

He took a deep breath, then walked toward the throne, which sat atop several steps. The throne was jet-black with gold accents and had a very high back. In its center was an engraving of a golden sun, the symbol of the Creator Goddess.

To the right of the throne stood a statue of the Creator Goddess, made from an unknown, marble-white material. The Goddess was depicted holding the Holy Book of the Sun, with a symbol of the sun floating behind her head. The expression on her face radiated compassion and sincerity toward her creations.

To the left of the throne was a statue of a giant knight, as tall as the Goddess's statue. The knight's European fantasy-style armor, which covered its entire body, was also a beautiful marble-white.

The throne and the two statues were said to have been here for millions of years.

Every time he looked at the Goddess statue, Rian always felt there was something unusual about it, but he never knew what.

To the right of the throne stood an incredibly beautiful female NPC. Her features were so lovely she looked like an angel described in religious literature.

She had jet-black hair that cascaded down to her back, with distinct East Asian features and milk-white skin. She wore an elegant white gown with a black floral pattern. On her head was a pair of coiled white horns, and if you looked closely, you could see a sort of reptilian tail near her tailbone.

"Emma Wiliams." Rian looked at the female NPC. Emma Wiliams was an NPC created by Kohmi Joshua, a beauty maniac in the guild. In Avanheim, Kohmi was known for being obsessed with beauty and good looks. Even his own game character was stunningly beautiful. When asked by other guild members why he was so obsessed, Kohmi never answered.

Some guild members even suspected Kohmi was a model in real life, but that was never proven.

Emma Wiliams was one of the most important NPCs in Avanheim because she served as the Secretary-General. This position gave her the second-highest authority in the entire guild, just below the guild members themselves.

Of course, in-game, it was just a high-ranking position with no real power. Because even though the game had many amazing things, its NPC intelligence was still on par with other games.

The difference was that in Avalon, players had the freedom to design their own NPCs.

So, the position of Secretary-General was just an empty title.

"If I remember correctly, her race is Ancient Dragon, right?… Wait a minute, what's that she's holding?" Curious, Rian approached Emma Wiliams and saw a short, metallic-black staff. At its tip was a cube that constantly shifted its geometric shape. The cube had a very futuristic design, and its color kept shifting between dark purple, dark blue, and dark red.

"Isn't this… a World Class Item? That Kohmi, he even gave a World Class Item to his NPC." Rian could only sigh at his former guildmate's recklessness.

Luckily, this World Class Item wasn't one of the fourteen special ones. If it had been, he would've definitely taken it.

Because those fourteen World Class Items were incredibly valuable, and if they fell into enemy hands, they could endanger Avanheim's safety.

The Avanheim Guild itself only possessed three of those fourteen World Class Items, plus twenty regular ones.

Rian looked at Emma's face. Her expression was as flat as a machine's, completely devoid of emotion.

He could only sigh again. No matter how beautiful Emma was, she was still just a collection of code.

Rian walked to the throne and sat down.

He stared at the familiar scene before him. "Soon, all of this will be gone, huh…"

In the corner of his monitor, the server shutdown countdown continued to tick away.

Rian directed his gaze to the fifteen banners hanging on the wall. He began to point to them, one by one.

"Me."

"Fitria Da Vinci."

"Noah."

"Kohmi Joshua."

"Dark Lord Akasa."

"Emperor of Evil."

"Julian."

"Millennium."

"Kazumi Fuchi."

...

He named every guild member in the silence, then stopped.

Out of fifteen people, thirteen had retired, and one hadn't logged in for five years.

Those wonderful times were about to end.

"After this, I might try Avalon II." He'd already seen the trailer on YouTube. It was the next-generation game from Avalon. Maybe he could rebuild Avanheim there.

Without him realizing it, only five seconds remained until the server shutdown.

5

4

3

2

1

Instantly, the screen on his monitor went black. At the same moment, Rian's vision plunged into total darkness.

Hah... hah... hah...

The sound of heavy, ragged breathing filled the air, as if someone had just escaped death's grip.

"What's happening?!"

"My Lord, is something wrong?"

A gentle, clear female voice suddenly reached his ears, jolting him from his confusion.

...