𝒪𝔳𝔩xt.𝑐𝗈𝑚

POV ???:

Thousands of players stood in a crowd that covered the entire desert in the colorful canvas of their varied outfits. None of them moved as they gazed at the countdown floating in their visions.

“Why do I feel like this will be the last and final update.” Depressive murmurs were constantly echoing through the entire gathering of the players.

He wasn’t the only one as the gloomy atmosphere throughout the entire gathering thickened.

“I feel the same buddy…”

This time the update brought only worries with it as the world threat wasn’t just a lich, an insane king, or some overambitious berserk demon. This time the beast with power beyond anything they ever faced raised and declared war to reclaim their allegedly occupied territories.

“This must be the endgame. The highest class dragon with an entire army of draconic beasts and infantry armed with freaking blasters.”

The countdown quickly trickled down, the number reaching tenth with the color of the front turning into a threatening shade of red.

“What will happen if the world threat wins?” That was the question no one knew.

[0!]

Ding!

//

The servers are shutting down!

//

Darkness filled their entire realities, only the glow of the interfaces bringing light in.

POV Vesuvius:

The dragon’s eyes snapped open, and a terrifying elemental force awoke with him. The apocalyptic storm transformed. Its background was pitch black as if someone was looking straight into the black hole due to the frost becoming so cold it trapped and froze all the light around him.

The solar flares were so bright and hot that their heat made everything around burn out of existence constantly flash and burn within the black frost, making it look like a black hole devouring a star.

To the dragon’s shock, he noticed the system was again offline.

‘How long was I out? It had to be at least two days.’ In his opinion, it was still worth it as he was now even more ready for the likely upcoming counterattack by the gods.

‘Everything is calm and silent at last.’ The players were gone leaving the world much emptier and calmer than before.

What unnerved him most was the utter lack of response from the gods. There was no sign of distress or fighting from the connection with his minions. Everything was at peace except for some small, regional conflicts.

There was no declaration of war, no call for a crusade against him, or even an attack of elementals and angels.

He knew they would act slowly, but he at least expected some small symbolic attack or an oracle to condemn him for his actions, but there was nothing.

‘I don’t like this. It feels like that looming silence before a storm.’

Even the dragon god and the fallen dragon king remained silent, and now that the players were gone, he realized how unnaturally silent the world was.

‘Even the system is gone, now.’

Ding!

//

Your ticket reached the front of the queue. Please wait…

//

‘So this support thing is also accessible through the deve…’

Before he could even finish his thoughts, a text appeared before his eyes.

[This is truly unexpected…]

In confusion, Vesuvius looked at the glowing text of the message.

[This is simply perfect! A dragon got their claws on the system access!]

‘Perfect?’ He wasn’t sure, but he had a lingering feeling that the message’s author was the system’s elusive administrator.

“What can be perfect about it for yo…” His voice echoed through the vast and empty divine kingdom. He didn’t know if it would reach the admin, but he could hope, as he still had a grudge to settle.

[What? I see the havoc you have caused with it already.]

He had a bad feeling, but it quickly passed as he was almost sure the so-called administrator didn’t care about collateral damage from the few messages and how the system operated.

[Go, cause even more havoc, and break the balance as much as you want. Go and defy the old rules of reality!]

‘What is this admin’s motivation? Why would they want to bring chaos?’ At first, it sounded demonic to him as he could see all the sin and corruption it brought upon the originally innocent souls of the players, turning them into merciless killers.

But now it didn’t feel demonic to him, ‘It doesn’t feel like they care about that aspect, it is as if they wanted just that chaos and destruction.’

[What do I want? I want havoc. I want anarchy and misuse of power! Go take the space element. I am offering it to you on a silver platter.]

“Yet, you have forbidden me from taking what was mine! I should have the right to take and copy the time magic!” Even through his confusion, Vesuvius still didn’t forget about the old feud, as dragons never forget their grudges.

[Do you really believe I can oversee the entire system by myself? It was an automatic trigger to preserve the integrity of the system. I would gladly welcome another opportunity to break this reality even more if it was on me.]

The messages didn’t stop as one after another popped into his vision as fast as he could read them, all pulsing and glowing in the eerie red halo.

[I will submerge both their favorite worlds into the storm of chaos and war. Don’t you see it? Everything is slowly moving towards the great war that will break both worlds. I will bring this cycle so much out of its track that it will force them to appear!]

“Why are you telling me all this? No, one asked you about your motivations. I just want what lawfully should have belonged to me.” Vesuvius had no patience for the mad and likely deceptive and manipulative blabbering of the being.

Even though he couldn’t hear the words, just see the text, he could feel the energy of grudge and even zealotry torching in every syllable.

‘No, this isn’t a work of a demon.’ He was now sure of it. This was something else, something with motivations so foreign he couldn’t even begin to grasp them, ‘Or maybe it is a demon. They were always good deceivers and liars.’

[You are like your god, no fun, and straight to fulfilling your desires or going back to sleep. Yes, you will get your compensation, dragon… it was just that I spoke with someone other than a stupid and lowly mortal after a long time.]

This piqued the dragon’s greedy mind as he could easily imagine the potential gain from the compensation as he already made calculations, ‘I still have an opportunity to copy one skill and now I will gain something on top of it? The loss is slowly but surely turning into a gain.’

[You greedy dragons… I can rig the wheel of luck. The next time you evolve, you will become stronger than usual. Yes, I can already see the destruction your conflict with the gods will bring. Yes, go for it.]

The message vanished, leaving only static and the dragon’s golden and blue eyes scanning it.

Just from these few messages, he felt like the administrator behind the system, whoever they were, was bad news for him.

‘Just as I thought, I should be careful with the system. Especially now that I know its administrator isn’t someone with good intentions. Is this how tech support should act?’