The Lost City-State

Soon, as she was checking a desk against the wall.

Her gaze was drawn to something propping up the table leg.

It was a book.

The cover was dark brown, its edges were worn, and it looked extremely old.

It was also illustrated with some text and symbols that she couldn’t understand at all.

Out of curiosity, Kristine reached out her hand.

She pulled the ancient book out from under the table leg.

The book was very thick and heavy in her hands, covered in a thick layer of dust.

She stood up, casually patted the dust off the cover, and glanced at it a few times.

“Black.”

Kristine looked up and asked Black, who was still busy searching on the other side.

“Are you looking for a book?”

Black was on the floor, checking under a cabinet. Hearing her, he didn’t even turn his head.

“Huh?”

He answered, a little puzzled.

“How did you know?”

“Is it a very, very old book, with strange writing on the cover?”

Kristine described the book in her hands.

Hearing this, Black’s head shot up with a thump, and he looked over.

When he saw the book in Kristine’s hands clearly, his pupils suddenly contracted!

The size of that book, the cover design, the color…

‘That’s it!’

‘That’s the ancient book I’ve been searching for, the one with the remnant soul hidden inside!’

However, the next second, his heart almost leaped out of his chest!

Because he saw Kristine, while asking, was about to open the ancient book out of curiosity.

The game’s setting instantly exploded in Black’s mind.

Once this ancient book was opened, it would trigger the remnant soul’s instance!

“Don’t open it!!!!”

Black’s face changed drastically, and he shouted with all his might.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Kristine was startled by Black’s sudden shout and trembled.

But her hand, due to inertia, couldn’t stop in time.

Her slender fingers happened to turn a yellowed page.

The moment that page was turned.

“BOOM!!!”

From within the ancient book, an intensely strong white light erupted without any warning!

The light was so brilliant that it swallowed all the moonlight in the room, rendering everything a pure white!

Black and Kristine had no time to react at all.

They only felt an irresistible, huge suction force coming from the center of the light!

Their figures became blurry and distorted in the strong light.

They were directly sucked into the ancient book!

The strong light flashed and then disappeared. The room returned to its silence.

Only the hazy moonlight flowed in.

And that ancient book, with a soft thud, fell onto the soft carpet.

The pages closed, as if nothing had ever happened.

But the room was now completely empty.

…

After a dizzying spell that felt like the world was spinning.

Black fell heavily onto the hard ground.

“Hiss!”

It felt like every bone in his body was about to shatter.

He shook his groggy head, pushed himself up, and looked around.

“Where is this…”

What he saw before him left him a little stunned.

This was a ruin of an ancient city-state, as if it had been abandoned for thousands of years.

The lead-gray sky was oppressive and lifeless.

Just one glance at it, and Black felt like he couldn’t breathe.

A few pitch-black crows perched on a broken stone pillar.

Their hoarse and mournful cries added to the grim atmosphere.

The air was filled with a nauseatingly thick smell of blood, mixed with dust and the stench of rot.

Devastation was everywhere; the sight was shocking.

As far as the eye could see, there were corpses everywhere, lying haphazardly among the ruins.

Blood had stained the ground, gathering into dark red streams that flowed slowly.

There was not a single intact corpse.

Fragments of human tissue, severed limbs, and internal organs were scattered everywhere…

There were men, women, gray-haired old people, and young children.

Their deaths were extremely tragic.

Their expressions were frozen in the terror of their last moments, their eyes wide open, unable to rest in peace.

As if they had seen something unbelievable before they died.

After looking around, Black understood where he was.

This space was not real.

It was the magical space constructed by that remnant soul, the Dragon-Corrupted Leonard, based on his most painful memories from when he was alive.

These bloody and cruel scenes were all reconstructions of indelible fragments from his memory.

In the game, this was just a background image to set the atmosphere.

At that time, as a player, Black had entered this instance with a very high level and a full set of advanced equipment.

And his friends had just called to urge him to go out and play.

At that time, he had only glanced at the story synopsis.

Then he had killed that long-winded remnant soul in a few hits.

So he hadn’t felt much of anything.

However, now.

When that image was presented before his eyes in such a real and impactful way.

The thick smell of blood, the gruesome deaths, the desperate atmosphere…

All of it made Black’s stomach churn, and a strong sense of discomfort rose in his heart.

“Hoo.”

He took a deep breath and calmed down.

He remembered the difficulty of this instance very clearly.

The remnant soul Leonard’s level was around 45.

With his current strength, although it would be a tough fight, defeating it was not impossible.

It was precisely because he was confident that he had been determined to come and get the Ivoran Holy Water formula.

But, now, an unplanned variable had appeared.

Kristine had been sucked in with him.

Black scanned his surroundings but couldn’t find any sign of Kristine.

He simply opened his mouth and shouted.

“Kristine! Kristine!”

In the empty and silent ruins, only his own echo and the mournful cries of the crows answered him.

‘Where on earth is she?’

Black’s brows furrowed tightly.

‘Forget it, it’s useless to stay here.’

A light flashed in his hand, and he took out the Overlord Spear. Spiritual power surged, and his senses spread out.

Then he cautiously explored forward.

This magical space wasn’t large; Kristine couldn’t be far from him.

Besides, with Kristine’s strength, she was stronger than that remnant soul in a one-on-one fight.

But Black was still a little worried.

The remnant soul Leonard had been a Dragon-Corrupted when he was alive.

And not just an ordinary Dragon-Corrupted.

He was a Dragon-Corrupted who had been cursed by the Demonic Dragon King Níðhöggr thousands of years ago!

Even if only a remnant soul was left, a trace of Níðhöggr’s power still remained in the essence of his strength.

And within Kristine’s body existed the power of the Dragon King of Madness.

Níðhöggr was the absolute ruler of the dragons.

No matter how powerful the other Dragon Kings were, their lives and deaths were decided by its whim.

The power of the Dragon King of Madness, being of the same origin but a lower rank.

In the face of the residual power of the true Demonic Dragon King, it was very likely to be suppressed, or even controlled!

Thinking of this, Black’s pace quickened considerably.

Along the way, the corpses became more and more numerous, piling up like mountains.

Many corpses were in several pieces, and everywhere were traces of being torn and gnawed by some immense force.

The breaks were left with gruesome, inhumanly large teeth marks, as if they had been treated as food by some terrifying monster.