Chapter 88 - It's Raining Black

"Mei Mei. Lock the doors properly before you go to sleep!" After reminding his sister again, Liam then stretched his arms and let out a big yawn before getting back into the game capsule.

"Your brother is always this loving and caring?" Shen Yue asked enviously. 

She herself did not have any siblings and her parents also kind of stopped talking to her and were cold and distant from her when she did not listen to their orders and study medicine.

She wanted to become a dancer instead and in the meantime worked as a personal trainer to make ends meet and support herself financially.

"Yes, my big bro is nice to me all the time." Meilin replied but after that, she grinned widely and then winked. "He He? Why do you ask, sis Yue?"

"Ah… Nothing. Nothing. Was just curious." Shen Yue immediately became conscious again and turned her face back to the TV.

Watching her actions, Mei Mei became more excited and continued teasing her. "He also doesn't have a girlfriend, sis Yue. He He."

Shen Yue did not say anything and quickly stuffed her mouth with a spoonful of food. However, her beautiful face was already red like a ripe tomato.

Meanwhile…

Back in the game, Liam looked at the two leeches staring at him and then patted them with a smile. "Time to get to work!"

Kyuuuuuu!

The trio started walking around Yleka city as Liam was trying to make up his mind. He had 48 hours plus another 48 hours before the black market opened up again.

This was a significant amount of time and he needed to spend it properly. The most important task now was to level up and he knew a lot of juicy spots to do this.

However, he had a feeling that he could be spending this time better. 

He opened the world map in his system interface and gazed at the blackish dark red blinking icon near the right bottom corner.

The nether realm!

According to the details of the reward he received for obliterating those worthless souls, he should be able to enter and exit this at will.

In his previous life, Liam had only entered this well past the event, and by that time everything good was already gone.

He also didn't know much details about this place as he had hardly paid any attention to it, but now that his undead affinity and demonic affinity were SSS-grade and S-grade, it would be foolish to ignore this part of the tutorial.

If he was simply going to be leveling, he might as well do that here and explore the nether realm at the same time to be more efficient.

Without the details of the treasure spots and juicy easter eggs, combing through a place like that was going to be a difficult job. So the earlier he started working on it, the better.

He might be sacrificing his leveling speed a bit, but it didn't matter as he would also be looking around the place at the same time.

Making up his mind, Liam pressed the blinking button. Immediately a reddish black swirling mass of energy appeared in front of him. This was a portal.

"Hmmm… If I am not wrong. This should be a single use portal. It should disappear after I use it until I summon it again." 

Liam carefully observed it first and then extended his hand to reach the portal. 

At the same time, he was also prepared to react immediately as he had no idea what awaited him on the other end. 

It wouldn't be anything that he couldn't handle, but Liam doubted that the system would go easy on him. If anything, it would be the other way around.

He looked at the bird and the fox and pointed to the portal once before directly touching it. The two as well did the same and the next second, all of them were pulled in.

The lush green forests around them disappeared and they now stood on what looked like a vast desert, except the sands were brownish green in color.

The sky above them was crimson, blotched with pitch black clouds.

[Ding. You have entered the nether realm]

[Ding. You are the first player to discover the nether realm]

[Ding. 5000 Experience points have been rewarded]

[Ding. You have obtained the title 'Pioneer']

[Pioneer: When the title is equipped, drop rates are higher and experience points gained are boosted by 5%]

"Heh. This is a very useful title." Liam clicked his tongue and then opened the map on the system interface once again. It indicated that he was in the Zodal Empire in the eastern zone. 

"If I remember correctly, this should be a demon kingdom. The eastern zone should be mostly demon kingdoms while the south should be beastkin lands."

He gazed at the map which was mostly blanked out and tried to remember as much as he could. 

But his exact starting point didn't matter too much as necromancers were typically scattered throughout the nether realm. 

As he looked at the map trying to jog his memories, a loud thunder rumbled snapping him out of his thoughts. Black raindrops fell from the sky, wetting the barren desert lands and forming small black puddles.

"Hmmm." Liam collected a drop of the black rain in his finger and flicked it casually. This was the trademark debuff of the nether realm. 

Players avoided this rain like plague as it not only decreased their stats but also sizzled and burned as it touched the skin. However, Liam currently did not feel any pain.

He was also not injured. The drops that fell on him momentarily drenched his clothes but were later absorbed by his skin underneath, leaving his clothes once again clean and dry.

The raindrops falling on his hands and his face were also readily absorbed and before he could wonder why this was happening, he received the answer.

[Ding. You have been empowered by the nether]

[Ding. All your stats are increased by 10%]