Rioneed: VRMMORPG

The world suddenly changed, as the sky turned grey and the sounds all around just vanished. Maya was standing in the village lord's mansion when this happened. She felt it with her divine sense to have her face changed color. 

She ran to the outside to confirm with her own eyes what she saw with her divine sense. Rinobak was running as well towards her, and just as he was about to yell in panic, a loud majestic voice echoed throughout the whole world:

"The village upgrade trial has ended successfully. This village had gained the approval of the gods and it can be promoted to a higher degree. 

As the village performed excellently in this trial, it will be exempted from any future trials. You can upgrade the village spontaneously when you fulfill the basic requirement of the village upgrade. Good luck humans."

The world then ushered in utter darkness for quite some time, before all the phenomenon disappeared and the world regained its clarity and liveliness. 

Maya looked with distress around her as she used her divine sense to scan the whole area to feel great panic. She wasn't in that game world, but she was in a barren world full of demons without end. Maya looked towards Rinobak who rushed to say:

"It's a disaster, my lady, the village was moved to the original world where we came from."

Maya wasn't a nobody, she once established a mighty empire under her wise rule, so she controlled her chaotic emotions as she asked:

"Is the trial supposed to end so soon? Ibro didn't mention this thing to me."

"No, No it isn't. Something is wrong here, this isn't normal at all," Rinobak said with obvious distress and anxiety. Maya had more disturbed emotions than him, as she understood what this move implicated. 

She knew she was forced to be separated away from Ibro. She wasn't worried about him, but she missed him already. A soft sigh came from her before saying with decisiveness:

"This isn't the time to feel panicked, we need to assess our situation and organize ourselves. I have some of my trusted men inside my world, I will let them out to help the skeletons and villagers here defending this village. You need to put everything back to order and calm everyone, if Ibro isn't here, then I'm in his stead."

Rinobak was taken aback from her behavior which reminded him of his king. No matter what happened, Ibro was always the solid rock they always leaned on, and now his lady was taking up this role, and she was doing perfectly in it.

"Understand my lady, give me some time and I will brief you with all the updates."

Maya didn't look at him as she released a good number of her own troops. All the cultivators were briefed by her divine sense about the current situation, so they moved out immediately with haste riding over their bony frost dragons. 

One million cultivators exited from her own world moving towards the distance in unison. This wasn't everything she owned inside her world, as she still had an equal number of cultivators, and the most important thing ever, the skeletons Ibro left for her inside her world. 

Large legions of liches, dragons, death kings, and death knights were occupying a good region of her world, side by side with all the skeletons they summoned. 

She decided not to use this card early one, as she was sure whoever did this brilliant move was still keeping an eye over here. She had to feign weakness, or else she would risk this village here and put everyone's life up to grave danger.

Maya then returned to the lord's manor as she sat there focusing with great attention over the whole area around her. The village was built in a great location, with a mountainous barrier upfront, forming a natural barrier for this big basin. 

She noticed two rivers that ended in the ocean. The basin itself was a clean land with no demons at all, but outside this basin, the whole world turned to be a world of demons. 

She didn't feel any threat from those lowly demons, as she fought for a long time with them either alone or side by side with Ibro and she still survived till date. She tried to find anything else out there but she couldn't, so she sat there quite waiting for the return of Rinobak. 

She stayed in this village for a day now, but she didn't yet get familiar with everything here, as she was concerned by defending this village and strengthening Ibro's grip over the game world she was at. Now, she had to reconsider her previous strategy. 

Ibro was somehow a rash person, as he liked to solve every problem he faced with force, but she wasn't like him. Although she was wise, strong, and determined, she also tended more to the steady development. 

Her empire took some years to stand over her legs, but when that happened, it managed to stand against endless oceans of demons for a long time. Maya decided to stick with her own strategy; after all she didn't know when Ibro would return, or what the enemies were preparing for her. 

Sometimes, faking weakness was the most suited solution ever in dealing with tough problems. She took a glance inside her own world as she relayed new orders for the skeletons there. She ordered them to use every ounce of power they had to summon skeletons. 

She also told them to be ready for any upcoming battle she might summon them to help at. Although the entry of this basin was heavily guarded with skeletons that tasted the bitter taste of war, she wasn't completely sure of the ability of those few numbers to guard the village for a long time. 

As she waited for Rinobak, she watched the entrance of the basin with the ongoing brutal war between the defending skeletons and those demons. 

The strength was with skeletons, but the numbers were with the demons, and usually numbers could beat any strength no matter what, so she focused her attention over this area trying to evaluate when she would be needed to interfere to help.

In a blink of an eye over one hour passed when Rinobak finally returned. She glanced over him a couple of times during this period to make sure there was no problem whatsoever. Rinobak was an experienced administrator, so he managed to control everything in the village just in one hour. 

Maya felt more confidence with the presence of Rinobak with her, as she knew better than anyone how valuable this man was to her and to this small village.

"My lady, I'm so sorry to take all this long to settle things."