Chapter 57: Curse of the Lords

The sound around him vanished. Voices became nothing more than a distant hum. His brain refused to process.

Luke could see mouths moving. He knew people were talking—knew Allison was asking questions. But he couldn’t hear a thing. The air felt thin. The floor stretched farther beneath his feet.

Eight years!

His heart pounded like a war drum.

Eight years!

His blood ran cold, rushing through his veins like ice water. If he couldn’t find a way out… if he was trapped here… if there was no return—he would become another name on a missing persons list. Just another corpse no one ever found.

Then the thought hit him. His mother. Thirteen years gone. Thirteen years without a trace.

A chill coiled around his spine.

Did she go through something like this? Is she still trapped somewhere?

His thoughts spiraled.

Why didn’t the government ever say anything about this kind of tutorial? Spending months or even a year in one is already insanely risky. But eight years? That’s insane.

He dug deeper.

Maybe… no one knows. After all, the only ones who understand this hell are the ones trapped inside it.

He took a deep breath.

There’s no way, in a hundred years of tutorials on Earth… this has never happened before. Or did I just get unlucky enough to land in the hardest tutorial of all?

Forcing himself to snap back, he tried to listen. Angelica was still speaking. Allison stood silent beside him. Her breathing had slowed. She’d shoved the fear down deep, just like he was doing.

“I’m not saying give up on returning to Earth,” Angelica said at last. She crossed her arms, locking eyes with both of them. “I’m saying accept the possibility… that you won’t.”

Her words hit like a cold blade.

“If you want to help us finish this tutorial, you have to think long-term. Hope is fine—” her gaze sharpened, “—but hope without realism will get you killed.”

Silence.

Then—

“I’m giving you a dose of harsh reality.”

She raised three fingers.

“There are three factions in this world,” Angelica said, her voice level, practical.

She repeated what Anna had told them before—but now, there was more.

“The Renegades appeared five years ago. Led by a man named Marshall.” Her eyes darkened. “They’ve been at war with Bartholomew’s faction ever since. Territory raids. Ambushes. Executions.”

Angelica leaned forward slightly.

“The Wild Zone isn’t just dangerous because of monsters. If the Renegades see you, they might think you’re with Bartholomew.”

As if the monsters weren’t already bad enough…

She reached down, picked something off the table, and tossed it toward them. It clattered against the wood.

A tooth.

No. A fang. Jagged, thick, yellowed with age.

Luke stared at it. Definitely not from any dinosaur he’d seen.

“This world holds more than just prehistoric beasts,” Angelica said. “There’s something worse.”

She tapped the fang with her finger. “Orcs.”

The word made the room colder.

“They’re not like the other monsters. They’re smart.” Her expression hardened. “They hunt in groups. If they see you, they’ll track you until you’re dead. And they don’t just hunt for food…” Her eyes narrowed. “They hunt for sport.”

Luke and Allison exchanged glances, both remembering the nightmare back in the village.

“In the deeper parts of the Wild Zone, orcs have villages. Caves. Encampments. Some ride velociraptors. Others command larger beasts. They wield spears, slings, axes…”

Luke’s stomach sank. Now it made sense.

“That’s why reaching the castle is nearly impossible,” Angelica continued. “The orcs own everything.”

She reached for another object on the table—a crude wooden figure, a king’s crown carved clumsily into its head.

“In the first year of this tutorial…” Her voice dropped, steady, grim. “…it was a massacre.”

She spun the figurine between her fingers. “Everything you see now—this whole city—was once just Wild Zone.”

“By day, we were hunted by orcs. By night…” Her eyes darkened. “…by the Midnight Wardens.”

Luke and Allison shivered. The memory was still sharp—the towering black knight that walked like death itself.

Angelica’s voice sharpened. “That’s when Bartholomew and his group made a suicidal decision.”

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She tossed the figurine onto the table. “They attacked.”

Luke felt his shoulders tense.

“They invaded what we now call Bastion. Over fifty people joined the mission—to kill the Warden who ruled that zone.”

She paused, eyes distant, staring into memory. “That night…”

Silence tightened its grip on the room.

“Only four returned.”

Luke and Allison barely breathed.

“Bartholomew… and Marshall were among them.”

Paul spoke then, still facing the window. “They were friends once.”

His tone was heavy. “But the fallout from that night broke them. That’s when the Renegades were born.”

No one spoke. Luke’s mind reeled.

Fifty people… died. Just to kill a single Midnight Warden.

His throat tightened. That thing he’d seen—it wasn’t just a monster.

It was an army in armor.

Angelica pressed on. “The closer you get to the castle…” She pointed at the map sprawled across the table. “…the more Midnight Wardens patrol the streets at night. And the more orcs rise with the dawn.”

Allison bit her lip.

“And the deeper you go into the Wild Zone…” Angelica’s gaze locked onto them, cold and unyielding. “…the worse the predators become.”

She leaned forward. “Now do you understand why no one’s gotten near that castle?”

Silence.

Luke ran a hand down his face. The weight of it all… it was suffocating.

Angelica crossed her arms. “After Bartholomew killed that Midnight Warden… none of them ever came near this place again.”

Paul finally turned from the window. “Over time, we started blocking routes. Cutting off access. Fortifying whatever ground we took.”

Angelica rolled another wooden carving between her fingers. This one was different—a replica of the hotel they stood in now.

“That’s how the Safe Zone was born.”

Paul exhaled. “But the problem is…” He looked at them now. “…Bartholomew rules this place like a king.”