I looked behind me, and I saw all the survivors who fought and survived against the dragon. I thought we got teleported to the city, but that place wasn’t like the city I remembered. I saw dozens of buildings destroyed and many others were totally covered in vegetation. I could see trees everywhere, even in the middle of the roads. That place looked familiar, but at the same time, it seemed strange.

While I was studying the surroundings, they stepped forward. All of them looked relieved and happy, but they didn’t look all that comfortable.

‘So, Ryan and Ellie already know, huh.’

I didn’t show any expression when I looked at them; thanks to that; they hesitated for a moment.

“It’s good to see you again, Ethan,” Jerry smiled.

Jerry – HP: 1231 MP: 1121 STA: 1231

Physical Limit Lv 27, Mental Limit Lv 27, Sensorial Limit Lv 04.

Skills: Blood Thirsty Lv 08, Beast Skin Lv 05, Rest Lv 04, Demonic Blade Lv 04, Fire Pillar Lv 04, Thunder Punch Lv 06.

Evolution Orbs: 14526/35000

Evolution Coins: 7563

As I had expected, he was far stronger than any of us. I was ahead of him because I spend thirty days inside the tower. Jerry always did everything with efficiency in mind, and the monsters wouldn’t change that. Because of the battles, he looked even more imposing that I could remember, he was almost fifty, but he looked like he was only thirty years old. He had the body of someone who spent two decades religiously working out. All his hair was black, and I couldn’t see a single white hair. As always, his hair was very short, and in his dark brown eyes, I could see the light of a man who fought with his life on the line dozens of times. For some reason, he was using the army’s uniform.

“It’s good to see you too… sir.”

Thanks to my words and my indifference, they soon understood that I also knew everything. The first one to recover had been Naomi; just like Jerry, she looked much younger than she indeed was. Her blond hair was tied up in a ponytail, and she looked more slender and elegant than in my memories. That said, I also could see in her blue eyes the same glint I saw in Jerry’s eyes. She was wearing light clothes like that was her day off.

Naomi – HP: 444 MP: 2452 STA: 444

Physical Limit Lv 16, Mental Limit Lv 37, Sensorial Limit Lv 05.

Skills: Heal Lv 09, Frostbite Lv 08, Mirage Lv 05, Physical Blessing Lv 06, Mist Lv 06.

Evolution Orbs: 11226/35000

Evolution Coins: 1113

“So, you do know,” Naomi said and then showed a serious expression.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“In that case, we will act accordingly,” Naomi said with her eyes closed and arms crossed. “You can ask us anything later, at an appropriate time.”

“Roger that… you two grew up a lot; I’m glad you two didn’t look much different.”

“You think so?” Ryan showed a shy smile and scratched the back of his head.

“You too grew up,” Ellie said, showing a pure smile. “You look fiercer and cool.”

“Your definition of cool is a little bit strange.”

I couldn’t see a single thing cool on me; I was covered in blood, dirt, and sweat. In any case, I couldn’t mistreat them. Ryan and Ellie just got caught in my messy situation. Those two looked like the perfect combination of Jerry’s and Naomi’s genes, although Ryan was tall for his age, he wasn’t that imposing like Jerry. Ryan always felt embarrassed when he was being praised, but aside from that, he could talk to any stranger about anything. His hair was dark like Jerry, but he had Naomi’s blue eyes.

Ryan – HP: 365 MP: 285 STA: 365

Physical Limit Lv 16, Mental Limit Lv 16, Sensorial Limit Lv 16.

Skills: Hawkeye Lv 07, Focus Lv 04, Magic Arrow Lv 06, Alert Lv 06, Mana Bomb Lv 04.

Evolution Orbs: 2452/16000

Evolution Coins: 5312

If Ryan was a bit shy and innocent, Ellie was mature for her age. She had excellent social skills, and she was quick to analyze and praise even strangers. She was blond like Naomi but had Jerry’s dark brown eyes. She was still growing, but it was evident that she would become a beautiful and elegant woman like her mother.

Ellie – HP: 356 MP: 2185 STA: 356

Physical Limit Lv 10, Mental Limit Lv 31, Sensorial Limit Lv 07.

Skills: Lightning Lv 06, Mana Shield Lv 06, Tornado Lv 08, Ice Lance Lv 06, Haste Lv 05.

Evolution Orbs: 8522/16000

Evolution Coins: 9635

“Ethan, who are these people?” Harry asked.

“They are…”

“They are his family.” Sandra interrupted me. “Long time no see, Jerry. You too Naomi, you don’t age, do you?”

“Sandra?” Jerry asked, surprised. “I didn’t expect to see you here, and you already know Ethan?”

“Yes,” Sandra answered, showing a grim expression. “He caused a few problems, but he helped us a lot. In fact, I met my son and daughter before a disaster could happen thanks to him. I’m truly thankful; you two should feel proud. Despite everything.”

Sandra looked at them like she was reprimanding them. She also knew about me; it was evident judging by her actions.

“Small world, huh. “ Naomi said, looking a little bit uncomfortable. “In any case, I’m glad that you are alive and you met your son and daughter.”

For a few seconds, the air around us became heavy. Sandra was trying to reprimand Jerry and Naomi without making a scene, while Harry and the others looked confused by my lack of emotions on my face. To make matters worse, Claire appeared like she was ready to pick a fight.

“Is that all you two have to say?” Claire asked, glaring at Jerry and Naomi.

It was evident why Claire was so upset, although she was barging in on someone else problems, Jerry and Naomi understood she was right in being angry. Because of that, they avoided her gaze.

“I won’t judge your past actions,” Claire said. “But why in the hell didn’t you bring your son to your side after the monsters appeared?”

Although Sandra didn’t want to make a scene, Claire wasn’t even a bit worried about that. She was almost shouting, and even though Harry and the others understood why she was angry, they thought she was going a bit overboard. For many reasons, they couldn’t answer Claire’s question, and I wasn’t interested in that answer either. I already had a good idea of their reasons.

“Claire, can you please shut up?”

“Like hell, I will!” Claire shouted.

“Claire… I believe I helped you more than a few times. I’m not going to ask you anything in return, but unless you want to make me your enemy, I would advise you not to involve yourself in my problems. Do I make myself clear?”

It had been a while since I felt so much anger, but luckily, that made helped me to send that message to Claire. By her expression of shock, she understood that I wasn’t joking. I used that opportunity, and I looked to Harry and the others, and they also understood that applied to them as well. Despite everything, Claire decided not to insist although I could understand by her anger and frustration that wasn’t over yet for her.

“I guess this is enough for introductions… Don’t we have some more important matters to attend to?”

“… Yes,” Jerry said. “But first, you and your group should rest. We also lost many comrades when we fought that dragon, so, for now, just take a long shower and rest for the day.”

Jerry and Naomi guided us toward our temporary rooms, but before we reached the building, we found a statue in the middle of the city. That was a dangerous place, the monsters could destroy it, but the statue didn’t have a single scratch. I looked around and focused my eyes, and then I noticed why. They had walled the entire region; I could see fifteen meters tall steel walls in all directions and those walls I saw dozens of survivors using their weapons and killing enemies in the ground and in the sky. Besides, there were ten heavily armed men near the statue, so, not even the craziest human would be able to destroy it.

“We will have a lot of problems if the statue gets destroyed,” Jerry said. “So, the first thing we did after returning was to create those walls. You all will have to help to expand those walls; I don’t have to explain why right?”

“Yes, because we have to earn our space here,” Sandra answered. “Anyway, did we really returned? Weren’t we on Earth during those days?”

“We can’t be sure, given the circumstances,” Jerry answered. “But our minds were connected to a virtual reality in another place. Right now, we truly are on earth. But, we are on an earth one thousand years in the future. After so much time, all electronic devices stopped working. So, it’s impossible that we were connected here. We reached this conclusion after investigating the growth of the vegetation.”

The survivors became speechless with that explanation, but our situation didn’t change. We have the statue, there were monsters everywhere, and we had to fight, that was the important part.

“So, no more safe hotels, huh,” Sandra said, annoyed. “What more changed?”

“The system is pretty much the same,” Jerry explained. “We fight monsters, and we earn coins and orbs. But, there are no more rewards every ten days. Also, when the monsters die, their bodies dissolve really fast, and the environment absorbs their energy. Occasionally, they drop items. The environment also changed; the monsters aren’t only mutated animals. There are many fantastical kinds of monsters lurking in the world now. Eventually, I think we will face dragons again.”

Thanks to that information, the survivors got depressed. To kill a single dragon, we lost almost seventy percent of our forces. And by the looks of things, the survivors in the city aside from us weren’t more than five thousand.

“How many survivors are here?” Sandra asked.

“A little more than five thousand,” Jerry answered, showing a serious expression. “And no more survivors will join us. From the one hundred areas, only the survivors of four areas are still alive. Your group is the last one; all the other areas had been deleted.”

Basically, 99.8% of this city population died in the last one hundred days. And we can't expect anything better in the other cities."

After Jerry explained that, we reached our temporary home, it was a very simple building which probably will be used as a warehouse in the future. But at least there enough rooms, even if everyone decides to sleep alone. They probably made this building using the statue, after all, it was one of the two buildings in the surroundings which didn’t have any cracks, it was still standing and didn’t have any vegetation in it.

The building didn’t have any beds, but all the survivors had things like that in their backpacks which could distort space. Anyways, the survivors entered the building without saying a word and headed to the showers to clean themselves. That would probably take a while…

“Ethan,” Jerry touched my left shoulder. “I will be waiting for you on the fourteenth floor of that building in front of the statue. You want to know about everything, right? Come to my office tonight, and I will tell you.”

“...Ok.”

Jerry, Naomi, Ryan, and Ellie left, showing complicated expressions. Although I could understand why they were acting like that, they could act like usual, and I wouldn’t care. I had no grudges against them, after all. In any case, even though I wasn’t all that interested in what they would say, I wouldn’t lose anything by listening either.

‘I still have two hours… I guess I will clean myself in the river.’

I could see a lot of monsters resting inside the walls, so, Silver could rest anywhere. I climbed Stella’s back, and she flew toward the river. There were some monsters there, but Stella killed them all with her thunderstorm. From there, I could see some survivors in the top of the walls looking at me suspiciously, but I just ignored them. I burned my old clothes, and without a care, I jumped in the river. Although inside the virtual reality was summer, it wasn’t that hot in the city. The weather changed a lot in the virtual reality probably because we had to experiment many kinds of situations and fight against different types of monsters. As if the virtual reality was just a tutorial, and only now, we would face true challenges.

In the blink of an eye, the two hours passed while I was relaxing in the river. It seemed that I would have to walk for a few kilometers to see those new monsters. In any case, I would have plenty of time for that. After giving some time to Silver and Stella to rest, I would leave the city. I put on new clothes, and then I headed to Jerry’s office; it was time to finish the business of my old life. Only by doing that, I would obtain the freedom that I wanted.