"Hey, Ethan," Leon greeted.
Ethan stepped forward fast and pulled Leon into a tight hug. His arms wrapped around him so firmly that Leon almost couldn't breathe.
Ethan was overwhelmed—happy and touched. He never expected to see Leon inside this game.
"I can't believe it… you're really here, Leon!"
"Lucky for me, I ran into you, Ethan."
"How are you? The last time we talked, you said you were ill, right?" Ethan asked.
"I'm better now. The kidney transplant worked."
Ethan nodded, feeling thankful that his friend had recovered from his illness. Still, it was a pity that Leon ended up trapped in this VR game.
From what Ethan could see, Leon carried a bow and a quiver full of arrows. Judging by his outfit, he was clearly an archer.
"Not your usual pick. You used to be melee, right?" Ethan said.
"Yeah. I got tired of being an assassin. There are too many of them nowadays. Honestly, it's a good thing I didn't pick that class again—assassins are being suspected of everything lately," Leon explained.
"But how did you even know I was here?" Ethan asked curiously.
"Red Notice," Leon replied.
"Ever since your Red Notice appeared in the city, I knew it was you. No newbie could take down half the players in one city except you."
"I left Porco and headed south, arrived in Nile City, and started searching for you. Players there said you were hiding in the forest. I followed your trail and eventually found you. I even saw your fight earlier," Leon said.
Ethan smiled, impressed. He gave Leon a proud pat on the shoulder. "You've turned into a professional stalker."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Leon chuckled.
"What about you, though? I heard you were dead, but now you're alive in the game?" Leon asked.
"About that… I don't really understand it either."
"Hmm… maybe the developers used your body for some kind of experiment?" Leon guessed.
Ethan was stunned. He'd never thought of that before.
All he knew was that he had died, and somehow his soul had been transferred into the game.
That was how he saw it—his soul and the Tower of Ascension were one and the same.
But Ethan didn't want to dwell on it. Seeing Leon again was more than enough to lift his spirits.
Back in the day, Leon had been part of LionArk. But when his health started failing, he had to take a long break.
The system didn't allow players to stay AFK for years, so his account got deactivated.
Before Leon could go through with his kidney transplant, Ethan was already reported dead.
After the successful surgery, Leon recovered and wanted to make up for lost time by playing Tower of Ascension again.
When the Full VR Drive event came out, Leon tried it.
Unfortunately, he got trapped in the game with everyone else. To make things worse, his old account couldn't be reactivated—he had to start from scratch.
Unlike Ethan, Leon focused on grinding low-level monsters and joining party quests.
After reaching level 15, he moved toward the central region and arrived in Porco City. He joined a guild there and leveled up through guild missions.
Since then, he'd stayed in the city. When he heard rumors about Ethan, he guessed Ethan would head for Porco on his way to Mavelard.
So, Leon planned to intercept him—and by sheer luck, they ended up meeting in the equipment shop.
Ethan turned back to see the shopkeeper still showing the weapon panel he was browsing. He motioned for Leon to come inside, and Leon nodded.
Ethan continued checking the weapon list, especially swords. His Flamefang Sword was good, but he wanted something even better.
The shopkeeper understood right away and swiped the panel, revealing a list of Rare and Epic swords.
The prices were ridiculous—an Epic sword cost around 200,000 gold.
Ethan had enough gold, but he hesitated. He was worried he wouldn't have enough left to buy skill tokens afterward. He was torn.
"What do you think, Leon? Sword or Skill Token?" Ethan asked.
"Definitely the sword. A strong weapon always means higher power. If you buy a new skill but your weapon's still weak, your damage won't improve—maybe even drop," Leon said.
"Yeah, that's what I thought too."
In the end, Ethan decided to buy the sword. Among the many options, one caught his eye—the Fire-Pillar Sword. Its buff effect increased AGI and CON by 15%.
[Transaction Successful]
[Fire-Pillar Sword || Epic || 200,000 Gold]
[Proceed with Payment?]
[Y/N]
Ethan confirmed the purchase. That left him with only 55,000 gold. But he quickly sold his Flamefang Sword for 100,000 gold, so in the end, he only spent 100,000 gold for the new one.
[DING! Item Equipped]
[Item: Fire-Pillar Sword]
[Rank: Epic]
[ATK: 6662 || DEF: 5825]
"Well, that's one unique way to buy something," Leon joked.
"Of course. Gold means everything in this game," Ethan replied.
While swiping through the panel again, Ethan's attention stopped on a strange item priced at 50,000 gold.
It had no rank—just durability—and looked like a mysterious glass tube.
"What's this item?" Ethan asked. Leon leaned closer, just as curious.
The shopkeeper glanced at it, smiled, and explained, "That's an Incubation Capsule."
"Incubation?" Leon repeated.
"Yes. It's used to hatch monster eggs. Once it hatches, the creature becomes your pet."
"I'll take it," Ethan said firmly.
Leon turned to him, confused. He had no idea why Ethan wanted a glass capsule, but the shopkeeper nodded and processed the transaction.
"An incubation capsule, huh? What, did you find a chicken egg?" Leon asked jokingly.
"Better than that," Ethan replied with a grin.
Now he finally knew how to hatch the egg he'd gotten after defeating the Viper monster earlier.
He placed the capsule on the counter and pulled a brown-green egg out of his inventory with both hands.
"W-What kind of egg is that?" Leon asked, startled.
"A Viper Egg."
Ethan opened the capsule door and placed the egg inside. As soon as it closed, a bright light flashed, making both of them step back in surprise.
[Incubation Capsule]
[Egg: Viper]
[Estimated Hatch Time: 168:00:00]
[Possible Pet or Soul Servant Rank: Rare (60%) || Epic (25%) || Legendary (5%) || Mythic (0.1%)]
[Note: Host can speed up hatching time by using Pet Essence]
Ethan smiled. 168 hours—that was a full week. If he wanted to shorten the time, he could use Pet Essence to speed it up.
Problem solved. Now he just had to wait for the Viper egg to hatch. He couldn't help but wonder what kind of pet he'd get since egg-born pets weren't the same as trial pets.
Once they finished shopping, Ethan and Leon stepped out of the equipment shop.
"AVL? Does that stand for Aston Villa?" Ethan joked.
"Avalon. It's Avalon," Leon corrected him.
"So, you joined a guild called Avalon?" Ethan asked. Leon cleared his throat and nodded.
"They're not a top-tier guild across the whole game, but in Porco City, Avalon's one of the respected ones," Leon said.
"If you want, I can take you there."
"No, Leon. With my PK status, there's no way I can walk in there without getting hated by everyone."
"I guess I'm just destined to be alone in this game," Ethan muttered. Leon didn't know what to say.
"I understand," Leon replied quietly.
As the two talked, a woman came rushing toward them from the end of the street—riding a lion as her mount. She looked panicked.
"Leon! It's bad!"
"What happened?" Leon asked.
"Our base is under attack—by Twilight!" the woman shouted.
"WHAT!?"