They crossed the Jagged Pass without encountering a single enemy. Much like their experience ever since the Cursed Faewoods, the game world's experience seemed to have broken down. If everywhere were like this, how could players be expected to reach level 100 in a normal timeframe?

  BlackKokoro complained that they should have stuck around the battle for Dragonheart's Sanctum longer and farmed up experience. But they all knew that was impossible once the new boss was created. And while breezing through the story was fine from a gameplay perspective, this world had so much lore to offer that it would have felt like a waste to skip everything and hop right into endgame content.

  The party of seven reached the top of the pass where a waypoint stood among barely recognizable foundations of a lookout tower. As they crossed an invisible threshold, the region name was displayed: The Undead Wastes. The landscape before them was another region comparable in size to the Western Highlands. However, it seemed that they wouldn't have to travel much farther.

  The sky was overcast, steeping the land beyond in perpetual twilight. However, near the bottom of the slope was a sight both fascinating and grotesque. A mass of undead creatures, both humanoid and otherwise, shambled forward slowly. Among them were many giants, wounded and rotting, still clutching tree trunks for clubs. And towering above all of them was a city-sized, multi-layered ziggurat.

  Its walls were undulating, and if one looked closer, one could see a myriad of gray and decaying hands stretching out from it as if begging for help. Faces were buried among them, wailing voicelessly, lamenting their fate in death. The entire structure was moving at the same speed as the surrounding undead, slowly but steadily, ever crawling toward the human kingdom's border.

  That was the Crawling Mausoleum, seat of the Great Necromancer, and one of the pathways into the endgame. The structure was a region unto itself, so although it was made from undead bodies, players couldn't destroy it. Or at least that used to be the case in the game. BlackKokoro would surely try anyway.

  "[Meteora]!" the witch chanted and launched her spell with the longest range at the approaching undead menace. Instead of the usual flaming meteorite coming down from the sky, it was a black sphere that seemed to suck up all the light around it. The spell impacted the ground and exploded outward in a wave of darkness, swallowing up hundreds, if not thousands, of zombies.

  But the Crawling Mausoleum was undamaged. A death knell sounded from within the unliving building, and the entire army was activated. The mass of zombies started running up the slope like a tidal wave, heading toward the one who had attacked them. AFKat nodded to IpponSakura, and the Oni took the little catgirl's hand. She spun her around and tossed her down the slope with all her strength.

  AFKat crashed through the approaching undead like a cannonball before landing on all fours. She wiped her face and suppressed the urge to retch at the body fluids clinging to her lips, then stood up straight and raised her arms. "Funyaah!"

  Her taunt echoed across the area, audible even over the noise of trampling feet and the moans of the zombie horde. All the enemies in a large area around her immediately changed their trajectory and bore down on her. Their clawing hands and rusted weapons hit her all over, but didn't leave a single mark. She didn't even budge when a zombie giant tried to stomp her into the dirt.

  Then, the ground under her feet shook, and void fissures appeared all around, swallowing countless enemies instantly. Jets of black fire erupted from them before they turned into geysers of pitch darkness, showering the surrounding mobs and melting them away. It cleared a large swath around AFKat, allowing for more mobs to target her, walking into the persistent spell's area of effect, only to be erased again. The entire deathtide turned its attention to the little catgirl standing in their midst, and forgotten was the existence of BlackKokoro.

  Undead weren't known to be smart in the first place, and they usually had to be controlled directly or given specific instructions. Otherwise, they attacked the nearest enemy and ignored everything else. Since the Great Necromancer was deep inside the Crawling Mausoleum, they would have free rein in how to deal with his army out here.

  The [Pyroclastic Eruption] remained in place for a long time, erasing countless zombies trying to get to AFKat at its center from existence due to the void element's effects. Unlike [Necromancers], enemy that raised the dead could use any corpse, even that of a previously raised zombie. Thus, the [Voidweaver] could efficiently cut down a necromancer boss's army permanently.

  BlackKokoro leveled up while watching the tidal wave disappear in the circular area of effect around AFKat like water running down the drain. It was a pretty boring gameplay experience since there was no variety in the enemies' behavior. The Siege of Araheim, the invasion army's attack on the Ruins of the First Watch, and the Battle for Dragonheart's Sanctum had all been much more interesting. Not to speak of the bossfights where she had to fear for her very life.

  "You seem dissatisfied," commented KuroYasha when she saw the witch pouting. "If you want to reach level 100, this is how you have to play the game."

  "I thought as much..." BlackKokoro responded with a sigh.

  It took about as long to go from level 1 to 80 as it did from 80 to 90. And then it was almost double each previous level between 90 and 100. There were various ways to speed up the process, such as expensive consumables to increase experience gain in exchange for higher difficulties in endgame raids. But that was back in the game, when crossing the Western Highlands took less than twenty minutes.

  Who knew how long it would take now that the game had turned real? Of course, there were some key differences now, such as the fact that enemies of factions that had powerful leaders in the lore no longer roamed the regions randomly and were concentrated in one area. Maybe the net outcome was the same for an AOE caster like BlackKokoro.

  Finally, the [Pyroclastic Eruption] ended after some time, and the party advanced while the witch unleashed [Unlimited Power] in front of her. The black lightning that seemed to rip open space itself cut the zombies down in large numbers. The other party members took care of any lucky stragglers who were not hit by the randomly forking spell.

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  They reunited with AFKat and repeated the same strategy as before. The little catgirl rolled up into a ball, and IpponSakura grabbed her by the hem of her [Veil of the Innocent] to toss her with all her strength. AFKat barreled through the zombies like a bowling ball knocking aside kegs. This time, she didn't stop until she nearly reached the Crawling Mausoleum.

  An echoing meow pulled the enemies in the vicinity toward her right as a [Meteora] was already coming down from the fathomless depths of space. The others were now surrounded and deep behind enemy lines. The others bought BlackKokoro time to cast her next spell, making sure not to kill too many mobs so they didn't take experience points from her.

  The witch cast a [Voidtide] around her and cleared a large area in one go. It gave her space to cast a [Pillar of Annihilation] on AFKat's position, clearing out a large number of enemies again. Then, the mobs were on her companions again, and she repeated the process, alternating between [Voidtide] and AOE spells around AFKat. They slowly advance through the undead army toward the Crawling Mausoleum.

  By the time they reunited with AFKat again, BlackKokoro had gained another level. She was only four levels away from catching up to WolfGodKotaro, who gained very little shared experience. They had to come up with a way to level as a party, because otherwise, it would be pointless to stay together, and that would be really sad for an MMO.

  MANhera punched a zombie so hard that it practically blinked out of sight, cutting a linear path through the horde. Her build wasn't made for taking care of many enemies at once, so she could only rely on her knockback mechanic. On the other hand, KuroYasha's seals and magic arrays were incredibly versatile, allowing her to perform both offensive and defensive maneuvers.

  BlackKokoro cast a [Starburst Stream], summoning a line of stardust that reached all the way to the steps of the Crawling Mausoleum. The spell detonated a moment later, erasing all enemies in their path. Without further ado, the party rushed into the gap and started climbing the stairs made from flesh and bones toward the first layer of the ziggurat.

  "Why aren't they following us?" wondered the witch when she looked back after a few dozen steps. The zombie swarm seemed to have completely lost interest in them and returned to walking forward at the same speed as the Crawling Mausoleum itself.

  "Because this place counts as a different region. Look," TripleBatsuDance explained before pointing to their right. They had reached the first layer of the ziggurat and walked in through the arched gate. The witch noticed that the dancer was pointing at a strange circle made up of corpse parts, with guts creating the lines and severed hands making runic signs. As they came near it, the flesh formation lit up in the familiar blue glow of a waypoint. "We could now go wherever we wanted and come back here another time."

  "We'll continue~" declared BlackKokoro.

  Ansazu nodded in assent from the shadows nearby. Since they weren't in their party, they would't be able to tell where they went if they used a waypoint. It was in their best interest that they continued on foot until they could find an opening to pick them off one by one. Of course, AFKat's invulnerability was an issue, but if the other players died, she wouldn't be able to do anything by herself anyway.

  The party continued on their way inside the citadel. Since this counted as a region, it was larger than expected. And the enemies they encountered here jumped up by six entire levels to 68 compared to the Undead Wastes. After all, one was supposed to encounter the Crawling Mausoleum only after finishing all the quests and getting to level 68 or above themselves. Now, even the beast boy was underleveled at 67.

  But BlackKokoro's damage was already endgame-ready. She cleared the packs of zombies led by special undead variants and rare mobs without much trouble even now. The rest of the party only had to keep her safe from the occasional surround or sneak attack from unexpected angles. It was similar to their journey through the Lost Mines of Morakan, but they had more members to cover every weakness now.

  It slowly grew darker than it already was from the overcast sky, signaling the end of the day. However, they had left the waypoint behind and had headed deeper into enemy territory. There would be no safe place to rest, as even the very ground they walked on was made from the minions of the boss presiding over this region.

  Now, they had to commit until they defeated the Great Necromancer and unlocked the waypoint in his boss room. But before then, there were three sub-bosses they had to kill to even be allowed to access it. And the first came up already, defending the stairs to the second layer of the ziggurat.

  It was a towering embalmed humanoid creature with purple skin named The Rending One. It lacked a head but had two extra arms grafted onto its torso, each ending in different weapons instead of hands. Its torso seemed to have been separated from its abdomen at one point and replaced with a metal structure that allowed it to spin around on it.

  BlackKokoro made short work of it with a [Conduit of the Void], blasting both its phases in a single hit without even knowing what this boss did. She was cackling with mad laughter at her insane damage, so she seemed to be having fun despite trivializing the game content and not even being able to see the enemies' mechanics.

  They quickly made their way through the second layer and reached the third. The boss awaiting them was The Chasing One, a centipede made by stitching human-looking torsos complete with their arms in a line. The first torso in the line was held upright by strings attached with hooks pulling on the skin of its back. And finally, its head was an amalgamation of hands forming an insectoid face, complete with dozens of eyes making up compound eyes.

  BlackKokoro hated its appearance and blasted it with a [Starburst Stream] that traveled down its entire length and hit it countless times, instantly killing it. The quickness of its phase transition, in which it split into multiple parts to attack as a pack that shared one health bar, was its downfall. She was glad that the corpse disappeared into stardust since she would have refused going anywhere near it to proceed down the corridor.

  Finally, they reached the fourth layer where the third and final sub-boss awaited. However, instead of finding The Abducting One, there was a player sitting on its mangled body. His name read Babibubebo, and he was level 100. And the only thing AFKat could think of when she saw his appearance was: Ugly.

  Babibubebo's hair was bright pink, styled into two short twintails while the top of his head was bald. His bulbous nose looked broken in multiple places, and his eyes were looking in two different directions. A broad mouth, constantly open because it had been stretched to its maximum on the slider, revealed rows of crooked yellow teeth. The most egregious neon makeup covered his eyes, face, and lips.

  He wore a cash shop outfit that was a complete mismatch with his avatar's design: The Heavenly Maiden Dress. On a beautiful female model, it would have evoked a feeling of grace and divinity. He had an extremely lopsided build, with a muscular upper body and arms, but the skinniest legs possible. One might question how he could even stand.

  Babibubebo was what one would call a joke character design, one streamers often made for fun. However, now that the game had turned into reality, he was stuck with it. He stood up and looked at the party with empty eyes. But to everybody's surprise, it lit up with new life, and his already broad mouth opened into the ugliest grin imaginable. With the most annoying voice a human being could muster, he spoke, "New victims!"