Chapter 184: Beta Version is Over

The morning sun appeared in the previously dark sky, cutting through the darkness and signaling the start of another day.

Few residents of Nova Roma noticed any difference in their lives.

Most of them continued living as usual, waking up early and preparing for another day of hard work.

No one noticed that, unknowingly, several hundred people had vanished from this world, as if erased by the power of the Gods.

In their cognition, their disappearance had been explained perfectly.

Some believed that these missing people had gone to visit distant relatives and would come back later. Others believed that they had locked themselves inside their rooms.

There were even some who conveniently considered them dead.

Only a single person knew the actual truth.

Aurelius.

Looking out of the window and seeing the empty entrance, with no sign of World_Builder or any other annoying Player, he knew that the time had come.

The Beta Version was finally over!

The Players had returned to their world!

...At least for now.

Confirming a fact he already knew, Aurelius couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

The Beta Version had only lasted for a few days, a very short amount of time. Yet so many things had happened since they appeared.

Although most of the extraordinary events seemed unrelated to the Players and appeared to be destined to happen, he knew very well that they were not.

The arrival of the Players in Nova Roma had brought forth great changes to this world!

At the very least, the Gods and the most powerful forces must have already noticed the Players’ peculiarities and planned accordingly.

In Aurelius’ opinion, it was highly likely that the gathering of Awakeners in the Imperial City was a direct result of their arrival. Otherwise, it couldn’t have been such a coincidence.

The Players had only been here for a few days, yet they had already caused ripples throughout the world.

What would happen when their numbers increased by thousands? Tens of thousands?

Aurelius didn’t know.

After a few seconds of thought, he shook his head and put an end to this matter.

Now was not the time to think about it.

As his mind stirred, a forum interface materialized in his field of vision.

It was densely packed with text, with some posts rapidly moving toward the top as they were flooded with likes, while others quickly disappeared beneath the endless stream of new posts.

Aurelius did not focus on them for long.

His gaze soon moved toward the top of the forum.

There lay several numbers, one next to another.

[28 Days. 12 Hours. 53 Minutes. 21 Seconds.]

A moment later, the 21 Seconds became 20. Then 19.

It was a countdown.

As for what it was counting down to, Aurelius didn’t even need to think about it.

It was the game’s actual release.

’Just a few hundred Players have already brought forth such great changes. If millions of them appear at the same time, just how much chaos will be created?’ Aurelius muttered inwardly.

He slowly moved his gaze toward the posts.

Most of them remained the same as always, either cursing the lucky Beta Players or the Beta Players themselves showing off their achievements.

Among the second category, there were some posts that piqued Aurelius’ interest.

He clicked on the first one.

Several images were attached.

In a dark cave, a man was sitting at the edge of a crimson pool as strands of red liquid moved toward him and gradually enveloped his body.

The crimson liquid wove together to form a cocoon with him at the center.

When it burst open, a notification flashed in front of the man.

...

"Class Ritual has been activated! Blood Warlock Ceremony is underway!"

"Ding!"

"Congratulations to the Player for taking up the Elite Class—Blood Warlock."

"Gained: ..."

...

Surprisingly, in the last day of the Beta, there were Players who had managed to become Awakeners without Aurelius’ help.

The man was not the only one.

As he scrolled further down the forum, Aurelius realized that there were many such "lucky" people.

Beast Tamers. Life Priests. Rune Masters.

There were many Classes, most of which had reached the Elite rank.

Aurelius was surprised by their luck.

One had to know that even his family, an Earl family that had existed for centuries, only possessed the Elite Knight Vow Class.

But very quickly, he realized what was going on.

’Every Player who has become an Awakener so quickly must have obtained a special Class. Ordinary Classes like Mages and Warriors are more common and easy to find, but they have more stringent requirements.’

’Even if someone obtains the opportunity to become one, they will need to make preparations before they become Awakeners.’

’On the other hand, as long as one is lucky enough to obtain a special Class, becoming an Awakener immediately is possible.’

As for the fact that the Sol family only possessed an Elite Class, which seemed inferior to a bunch of mortal Players?

Aurelius also understood why.

A person obtaining a Class and a family obtaining a Class were two different things.

For a family, they needed to constantly produce Awakeners, meaning they needed to obtain the Class’s exact Ceremony or a Class Item that could be passed down through generations.

On the other hand, as long as an individual became an Awakener, it didn’t matter what method they used.

The Players were the best evidence of this.

They had obtained these powerful Classes, but had no way to help other people obtain them.

’Perhaps there are also Sol family members with rare Classes like these. It’s just that there is no way to spread them throughout the rest of the family, meaning that rumors haven’t spread.’

A look of enlightenment flashed across Aurelius’ face.

He believed that this clue might prove very helpful during his visit to the Imperial City a month later.

Perhaps the younger generation of the noble families was much more powerful than he initially thought.

After taking a few more glances at the forum, observing the many Classes that the Players had obtained and reading their adventures with relish, Aurelius finally dismissed the forum.

His focus shifted back to reality.

As his mind stirred, his eyes concentrated on the grids floating at the edge of his vision.

One of them trembled, and a black cape appeared in his hand.

It was soft to the touch, yet Aurelius knew it was deadly.

It was the Mystery Cloak.

With a move of his hand, he put it on himself.

Immediately, Aurelius felt the world around him become silent, as though an invisible barrier had been erected, separating him from everything else around him.

No matter how much he moved, no sound was produced.

Even his footsteps had become completely silent, like an Assassin who had trained for years.

’It is worthy of being an Epic Relic...’ Aurelius mused.

’Although they are not written in the Player Panel’s description, the Mystery Cloak has several effects waiting for me to explore.’

’The Sea God’s Trident should also be the same.’

The thought made Aurelius slightly more interested in the other Epic Relic he possessed, whose seal must have broken as a result of his promotion.

Unfortunately, now was not the time to investigate it.

Soon, Aurelius left his room.

As he moved through the mansion’s corridors, he made no attempt to hide himself.

Yet whether it was the busy maids, the guards, or even the butler, none of them showed any signs of detecting him.

It was not that Aurelius had become invisible.

Rather, his aura had been concealed to such an extent that even noticing his presence had become nearly impossible.

Let alone ordinary people and Rank 1 Awakeners, he strongly suspected that even Rank 3 Awakeners would find it difficult to discover him. ℴℴ𝘮

The Mystery Cloak seemed to blur his very presence.

After experimenting with the Mystery Cloak’s concealment effects for several more minutes, Aurelius finally returned to his room and put it away.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he made his way out of the mansion under the watch of the surrounding servants.

"Young Lord!"

"Master!"

The people along the way greeted him and saluted respectfully, muttering inwardly that their Young Lord had woken up early today.

None of these people knew that Aurelius had walked right past them several times only a few seconds earlier.

--

The Blood Sun City was strangely silent.

When Aurelius walked out of the Sol family’s estate, there were no signs of the usual shouting and loud laughter unique to the Players.

It was strangely quiet, while the streets were busy but far emptier than usual.

He didn’t pay any attention to this.

The sudden silence was not surprising.

The Players had disappeared overnight, after all.

Although they were not many, merely a few hundred in total, the ruckus they caused was comparable to that of millions of ordinary people.

Weaving through the streets of the city with surprising familiarity, Aurelius soon made his way to a relatively remote area of the city, whose buildings were downtrodden, not having received care for decades.

Approaching one of the devastated buildings that blended perfectly with its surroundings, he put on a mask, disguised his appearance, and gently knocked on the door.

A moment later, it opened.

A hazy silhouette was revealed behind it.