"I know you are scared," Everett said. He raised his pale, gray, artificial right hand. He showed it to the giant. "I know what it feels like to be broken. I know what it feels like to suddenly realize you are weak."The giant lowered his massive hand slowly. He rested it on the side of the mountain. He leaned his enormous head closer to Everett.The giant breathed out. A huge gust of warm, damp air washed over Everett, smelling of deep pine needles and rich soil."You were a king in your sleep," Everett said softly, looking into the ancient stone face. "You were invincible. And the System ripped your blanket away. The System wants you to be a monster. The System wants you to smash the trees. It wants you to fight."Everett slowly lowered his arms. He stood completely relaxed. "But you do not have to be a monster," Everett whispered. "You are just alive. And being alive means you bleed. Being alive means you feel the cold. It is okay to be afraid."Korrok stared at the tiny, scarred h

Every single person in the world stopped what they were doing. The massive army marching toward the Sleeping Peaks stopped walking. The airships hovered in place. Everyone stared up at the giant video playing in the red clouds.The video showed a dark, thick forest. There were massive, ancient pine trees. It was the Deep Woods.Everett’s heart stopped beating. "No," Everett whispered. He stepped forward on the cliff. "No. Oram."The camera panned down. In the center of the dark forest, a giant creature was trapped. It was Oram, the Guardian of the Deep Woods.Oram was a beautiful, ancient god. He was fifty feet tall. His body was made of thick, twisting brown tree trunks and glowing green leaves. His eyes were pools of bright, warm golden light. He was a gentle giant who had protected Everett many years ago. But right now, Oram was not standing tall. He was on his knees.Thick, heavy black iron chains were wrapped tightly around his massive wooden arms and neck. The chains burned wi

The ground beneath Everett’s boots was dying. It was not a slow, natural death. It was a fast, terrible sickness. Everett ran toward the Whispering River. He breathed heavily. His lungs burned. But as he ran, the world around him began to rot.Oram, the Guardian of the Deep Woods, was dead. The players had murdered him for his Mythic core. And because the forest god was dead, the forest could no longer exist.Everett watched in pure horror. The massive, ancient green pine trees towering over the landscape suddenly turned gray. The bright green needles dried up instantly. They turned into black ash. The ash rained down on Everett like dirty snow.Crack. Snap. Crash.The giant trees could not stand without their god. Their thick wooden trunks broke in half. They fell to the ground, smashing into gray dust. The beautiful green grass turned into dry, dead, brown dirt. The flowers withered and blew away in the cold wind.The System was deleting the biome. Without the god to anchor the co

The truck stopped at the edge of the ruined city.Apex City used to be the most beautiful place in the world. It was a place of shining silver towers and clean white marble streets. But now, it looked like a graveyard. The civil war between the noble houses had burned the buildings. The sky above the city was a violent, angry red. Giant cracks split the dark clouds. The air smelled like burning plastic and hot metal.Red warning boxes flashed everywhere in the sky.INSTABILITY WARNING.WORLD PILLARS FAILING.SERVER COLLAPSE AT 60%.The System was screaming. The world was dying. But the hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the center of the ruined city did not care about the sky. They did not look at the red warning boxes. They only looked at the loot.Everett stepped out of the truck. He stood on a high hill of broken concrete. He looked down into the massive central plaza of the capital.The plaza was completely packed with people. It was a massive, greedy ocean of players, m

Everett turned around. He looked through the white wall of light at the confused, angry vanguard.Everett gripped his plain steel sword in his left hand. He stepped completely out of the white dome.He walked back across the line he had drawn in the stone. He was entirely unprotected. He had no magical shield. He had no glowing stats."He left his shield!" Jax screamed in delight. "He is an idiot! Kill him now!"The forty-nine elite players charged again. They swung their massive, glowing weapons.Everett stood perfectly calm. He watched them come.A massive player swinging a heavy blue ice-hammer jumped into the air, bringing the hammer down toward Everett’s head.Everett did not try to use his pale right arm. He let it hang loosely at his side.He simply stepped one inch to the left. The ice-hammer missed him entirely, smashing into the marble floor. Before the player could lift the hammer again, Everett stepped inside his guard. Everett drove the hilt of his steel sword directly i