Shin said his goodbyes to Ayaka and stepped out of Yuki's room, Lilian silently trailing behind him.
The moment he stepped outside, the scene before him hit him like a hammer to the gut. The once calm street of the safezone had transformed into a cage of violence and desperation. What was once a sanctuary now reeked of panic. Flickering gates lined the road—small glowing portals framed in gold, shimmering under the sunlight, with eerie purple sigils rotating lazily above them like cruel halos.
These must be the gates to the second-tier safezone, Shin muttered to himself. But he hadn't expected them to be the trigger for this level of chaos.
Players swarmed the gates like desperate animals, but even those with enough coins to pass through couldn't make it. The poor ones without enough coins clustered like vultures, waiting, watching, and ready to pounce at anyone who dared step forward. Screams echoed from every corner of the street.
