Chapter 9: The World Chat

Chapter 9: The World Chat

Jack was lost in a deep, dreamless sleep, completely worn out from the grueling physical toll of the day, when a crisp, high-pitched system chime suddenly pierced the silence and jarred him awake.

[System Announcement: Server 09 Local Chat feature has been unlocked. You may now communicate in the local server channel.]

[System Announcement: World Chat feature has been unlocked. You may now communicate in the global cross-server channel.]

“Haaa?!” Jack groaned softly, blinking away the heavy fog of sleep.

As he tried to shift, he felt a strange weight pressing down on his chest—light and warm, like a tiny sleeping hamster. He glanced down to find Aria curled up fast asleep on his shirt, her little chest rising and falling in rhythmic breaths while a tiny line of saliva trickled from the corner of her mouth onto his chest. Despite the absurdity of the situation, Jack couldn't help but soft-chuckle. He reached out with two fingers and gently patted her soft blue hair for a moment, causing her tiny face to relax into a peaceful, cozy smile.

‘Right... there’s something critical I need to do immediately,’ Jack thought, his heart suddenly pounding in his throat. ‘I need to search for Zoey in the chat.’

Keeping his movements completely still so he wouldn't disturb the sleeping water fairy, Jack quietly called up the system interface with a flick of his wrist. A semi-transparent holographic window materialized in the dim air right above him.

He quickly opened the Server 09 Local Chat, hoping to find her in a direct line in his vicinity. But the moment the text stream rendered, his eyes widened in sheer dismay. The chat log was a chaotic, unreadable blur. Millions of desperate people were furiously typing at once, frantically searching for lost family members, spouses, and children. The wall of text scrolled at a dizzying speed—one message would flash for a microsecond before being instantly buried beneath thousands of new entries.

Hoping against hope, Jack quickly brought up the input panel and typed out a message with trembling fingers:

[Jack Mercer]: [Zoey, are you here?! It’s me, Jack! If you see this message, please add me as a friend immediately!]

He hit send, but his message vanished into the endless torrent of text within a fraction of a second, swallowed instantly by the panicked shouts of countless other survivors. A red system notification immediately popped up over his chat box:

[Notice: Local Server Chat usage limit reached. Cooldown time remaining: 09:59.]

“Dammit...” Jack gritted his teeth, staring blankly at the ten-minute timer.

For a long time, he lay motionless in the dark cabin, staring intently at the fast-scrolling names, desperately scanning for any sight of Zoey’s name. But as the minutes slowly ticked away, a cold, heavy dread settled deep inside his stomach. What if she wasn't even assigned to Server 09? What if she had been spawned into an entirely different environment altogether?

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Jack tapped the screen to toggle over to the World Chat channel. The moment the global feed opened, his breath caught in his throat. The horror stories flickering across the screen confirmed his worst fears—this apocalyptic dimension was structured exactly like the unforgiving world of [Max Difficulty Survival], divided into countless specialized death traps.

[User_8841]: [My heating says 'Free fuel: 05:14:22 remaining.' What happens when it hits zero?! Do I need to feed it beast cores and wood? I don't have any of that! Someone please help!]

[User_1092]: [For those on the Frozen Server, the bonfire's automatic heat is going to shut off in 5 hours! If you haven't gathered wood or beast cores yet, you need to go out NOW. Once the free fuel drops, we are going to freeze to death!]

[User_7723]: [Has anyone figured out how to get fuel for the Toxic Pylons in this server? My 12-hour clean air supply is almost gone and the thick green fog is pressing right against the barrier!]

[User_3301]: [For the survivor above, you need to go out and kill a beast for fuel! Even if it’s toxic outside the zone, you can survive for a short time. Just run back to your pylon fast before the poison drains all your HP. The Toxic Pylon will automatically purify you and heal your HP back up!]

[User_4412]: [I stepped out of my warm zone to chop a tree on the Frozen Server and my ears are completely numb. The frostbite is real, guys. Don't go out without heavy wrapping!]

[User_0059]: [Don't trust the water! I saw a massive blue lake just outside my barrier, ran toward it, and dove in. It was a mirage! I swallowed a pound of scalding sand instead. My throat is bleeding and my Hydration is down to 2%!]

[User_6112]: [The sand outside the barrier is literal burning coal. I stepped out to gather some dry ironwood, and the soles of my starter shoes completely charred off. My feet are covered in third-degree blisters. If your barrier drops, the ground itself will cook you alive!]

[User_9981]: [Brothers in the desert! If you need to go out, dig beneath the top layer of sand. The deeper sand is slightly cooler. Wrap your face in whatever cloth you have—the dry wind will literally suck the moisture out of your eyeballs!]

[User_1402]: [Do NOT swim too far up or out! The water pressure at this depth is insane. I swam just ten meters past my bubble to grab a floating crate, and it felt like an elephant stepped on my chest. My HP dropped by 50 in five seconds!]

[User_0449]: [My bubble's [Buoyancy Core] free-use timer has 5 hours left. If it shuts down, the pressure will collapse the bubble and I’ll sink right into the black trench below. I need [Glow-Crystals] and beast cores to keep the buoyancy engine running! I'll trade my starter sword for fuel!]

[User_5520]: [How the fuck should I fight against the sharks inside the sea?! They are way faster in water! I just lost my left arm, and a shark destroyed my oxygen bottle! If I wasn’t right next to my bubble, I would’ve been eaten alive!]

[User_8201]: [The starter oxygen bottles only give you 20 minutes of air outside the bubble. I got my leg tangled in some glowing kelp while mining coral, and I made it back into my bubble with literally 2% oxygen left. I was passing out. Watch your timers!]

Jack kept reading in stunned silence as message after message exposed the brutal reality of their new world. It wasn't just volcanic wastelands—there were countless tailored hells. Some survivors were trapped in a Domain of Eternal Shadow, where the complete absence of light left them relying purely on system clocks to know if it was day or night. Others were buried deep underground in subterranean caverns, fighting against suffocation and thin air whenever their ventilation zones failed.

Every single server was a tailored nightmare, designed to crush human life.

“Oh no... where can I find Zoey like this?” Jack said.

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