The pain simulation of the nerve suit is equivalent to being in pain yourself. The black fluid excreted by the monster alien base was biting his flesh and blood. His armor and suit had long ago been disintegrated, hence, his skin was left exposed and unprotected.

By now, Lance is sure his corruption level is 100%. His skin is already dissolving with horrible pain.

Is this the 100% corruption level effect? He was aware of the pain stimulation caused by nerve suits, but isn't this more like giving him the real pain of being killed?

Lance tried to get a firm grip on his consciousness. But soon, the pain that far exceeded a human's limit almost boiled his brain. The suffocation and the errosive black fluid attacked simultaneously as it penetrated his mouth and nose, burning his insides and bones.

Twenty seconds later, Lance is still not disconnected.

He was trapped in the depths of this dark, eerie black fluid suffocating him, and even his loss of all senses was overwhelmed by pain.

If he really died because of system failure… How lame could that be? He was still seventeen. He still has a long future ahead of him.

Thirty seconds later, he still had not been disconnected.

After the game, he still had a date with Alice. He was supposed to go back and celebrate today's victory with his friends, then spend all night with Alice.

Lately, because of extensive practice plus catching up with school lessons, he has been so busy he could not spend more time with Alice. She's a very nice girl. And she always understood why he could not spare more time.

Now that the national championship is over, he should spend the rest of his holidays with her and ignore everything else…

And he had to die now. Fuck!

Drowned in this excruciating pain, Lance was twisting his body and gaping, because he could not breathe anymore. He did not know how long he had to wait. Since the national championship is public, many people should have been paying attention to him. If they notice why he did not come out, they will definitely find that something is wrong with his VR cabin.

I just have to endure.

Endure through this…

Endure….

On all sides, the monster alien base let out an ear splitting shriek. Because of this, the black fluid almost melted away his whole body. Lance could no longer keep waiting for a miracle.

He completely lost his consciousness.

What Lance did not know is that outside the game, another 'Lance' walked out of the VR cabin and smiled confidently at the reporters.

Seeing this 'Lance', his teammates and the audience burst into thunderous cheers.

***

When Lance woke up again, he saw dark clouds of the night overcast above him.

He wasn't at the bottom of the monster alien base, and those sticky black fluids were also nowhere to be seen. Surrounding him were huge with sharp edges and rugged rocks. Looking up, he noticed that the color of the trees and his surroundings was strange. It only has three colors: black, white and grey.

The trees have no leaves, and the area is completely deserted in all directions. There are only deformed monsters staggering slowly through the rocky dead forest.

Lance was dumbfounded.

His armor and overall suit had already fallen apart, his upper body was completely exposed while his pants were tattered. His wounds on his exposed skin were slowly healing. The communication device on his arm was malfunctioning. It keeps making buzzing noises from time to time.

His eyes raked over and studied the shattered metal pieces on his body.

His skin was supposed to be pale white, due to not being exposed much to the sun. But now, it looked like a mix of shades of pale white and gloomy gray. He dare not think that most of the monsters in the game have the same color of skin as this.

Lance tried to rub his arm, and some tiny blood marks suddenly appeared.

His fingers looked very strange. His nails were originally neatly trimmed and flat; now they are sharp, looking a bit like an animal's claws. The dark black color of his nails made it seem as if he was a stray who did not scrub his nails for a long time.

Lance frowned and seemed to be a bit lost. Still, he tried to turn on his communication device and contact the administrator.

However, the broken device only buzzed and showed no intention to work.

Lance sighed dejectedly. He slowly lay down and looked up at the night sky. If this was a dream, it should be almost time to wake up. But he was already sprawled on the ground. Instead of waking up, he was approached by a mutated animal that had eaten the monster alien's base black fluid.

Lance and the creature stared at each other for a while. It licked the side of its mouth, and a drop of saliva dripped onto Lance's face.

Lance: Ugh.

Lance quickly looked around and surveyed the area, searching for his unspecialized weapon. But he could not get a glimpse even of its hilt.

The mutated animal opened its mouth, and a horrible stench from the inside smacked Lance in the face, making him feel sick to his stomach. Lance's palms had balled into a fist. His mind was still racking over what to do next when the creature extended its tongue and licked Lance's face.

Lance: …..

***

On the other side of the fortress, there was a young woman glaring at the man sitting behind the desk. Her face was explicitly beautiful, with every feature perfectly carved and no flaws. But now, those amicable eyebrows were scrunched up. In her hand, she was gripping the weapon [Endless] that Lance owned.

The man did not even look at her when he said, "Something happened to Lance."

The girl rolled her eyes. "As if you cared."

"I do."

The girl scoffed. "If you really cared, you could have stopped Lance from recklessly charging forward. He fell into the base's core for his team to win."

"Yess…" The man removed his glasses and massaged his nose bridge. "Even if we search for his body, it will be useless since there won't be a bone left. I'm sorry, it was my mistake."

"Mistake?!!!!" The girl could no longer control her emotion, and she slammed both her palms into the man's desk.

The man raised his hand to stop the woman from venting her anger. He calmly removed the [Endless] from the woman's hand and placed it on his side.

"No one wanted this incident to happen. For now, we will look for another member to fill in Lance's spot on the team. Lance's parents and friends… we must not let them find out that 'that side' is virtual reality and 'here' is reality." The man paused, gazing at the young woman straight in her eyes.

"I believe you already know what to do, Alice."

The situation is getting more and more absurd.

Lance did not do anything to the monster who came over and licked him. At first, he was just thinking about what to do to defend himself. But now that he realizes this monster has no intention of hurting him, Lance slowly gets up and reaches out to the monster.

A ridiculous idea of befriending this guy just came into his mind. But just as his sharp claw covered hand touched the monster, it immediately shrank back and turned around to run away.

Lance: …..

In this game, I'm a human, right? Why is a monster running away from me?

Lance steadily got up on his feet. The fatigue that he felt after going through that much pain exhausted most of his strength. If he ever gets out of here and the bug in the game has been fixed, he will surely complain to the people behind [The World Invasion Online].

How many updates did they put the game through for it to mess up like this?

Above him, the gloomy gray sky started to form dark, heavy clouds. It looks like it's going to rain. When he was still starting to play [The World Invasion Online], their instructor repeatedly told them not to get exposed in rains like this. Especially if they are near the monster alien base.

The corrosion present in the rain can potentially cause harm to their in game characters. It can induce corruption in the character's body, killing them instantly.

Lance glanced around the area. Not far from him, he was able to see a cave hidden by dead trees and dead bones of animals. Lance had his worn out shoes removed and dared not linger over his toenails, which were blackened and crooked.

The skin on his feet is hardened, especially the soles. Lance did not hesitate to step on the ground barefooted and sprint towards the cave. The sensation coming from stepping on the peculiar looking rocks and cold mud made his feet tingle.