- Jay POV -

That fight was insane, god what the hell is Ele's pain resistance at, you'd think she'd at least wince when she caught me. At least duels respawn you immediately after and without you actually loosing a life. Well, she's walking over and she looks absolutely PISSED... Hah, so fucking WORTH IT!

"Shit Jay, what the hell was that?"

"Me!? I should be asking you that! What level do you have pain resistance at!?"

"93! You?"

"93!? FUCKING 93!? MINE CAPPED AT 1!!!"

"HAHAHAHAHA... HA, of course it did, HAHAHA... I can't believe I even had to ask that!"

"Har Har Har, why'd your skill cap so much higher than mine?"

"Probably because my fighting style involves taking a hit, ignoring the pain, and fighting on like a NORMAL person. Your 'fighting style' is literally just don't get hit, but when you inevitably do, you practically turn into a Honey Badger covered in razor blades, of course your pain resistance is non-existent."

"How could a game possibly account for the fighting style and MINDSET of each player to give them some custom level cap!?"

"...What? Jay... Ah..."

"WHAT!?"

"Jay, this isn't a game."

"Are you high?"

"No JAY seriously, this ISN'T A GAME! Holy shit that's right, you where sleeping when all shit went down weren't you!? Ok, just... give me a second, we'll walk and talk. HEY NOR... NOR!"

"Huh... YEAH SIS I GOT IT, I GOT IT, WE MADE A KILLING OFF THAT FIGHT... OH HEY JAYCE!?

"HEY ELEANOR I SAW YOU ON THE SCOREBOARD, 4TH PLACE, SUCKS TO SUCK!"

"Whatever."

"Ele what was she talking about... did you set this whole thing up... actually dumb question, of course you did, how much did you make?"

"No idea, though if I had to guess... probably about 12,000 hub points."

"The hell's a hub point?"

"Currency in this place, lets get going I'll show you around the place, by the way a hub point is worth 1/10 of a tutorial point, so 1 TP equals 10 HB, oh yeah you should also know that 100 EXP is 1 TP."

"Wait, experience unlocked already? What about the SRs?"

"Yeah both unlocked, experience is mostly used as a currency but you can also use it to up your attributes, stupid expensive though, and SR goes from 0/0 to 5/5, not sure what it's all about though since the floor 2 tutorial hasn't started yet."

"Oh that's pretty cool I guess, I never liked character levels as a mechanic anyways."

"Yeah we should definitely get back on point though. As I was saying before, this isn't a game, you remember the night you finished that bat-shit crazy VD challenge run of yours?"

"Yeah, that was exhausting, now that you mention it a lot of crazy shit has been going on in this place, that night I got this weird pop up asking me to pick a difficulty for the tutorial of the Path of Stars, I chose impossible because of course I did, and ever since I joined I've been noticing tons of weird shit I wouldn't expect from a game."

"Yeah well, you're not the only one who got that notification, everyone here did too, but most of us actually saw what happened next. That same night, all over the world, these gigantic monoliths..."

"Like, a tower per-se?"

"... yes Jay, like a tower, just without doors, or windows, or an INTERIOR, just a BIG, PITCH BLACK, FUCKING PILLAR, or in other words, A MONOLITH!"

"Yeesh, ok yeah, a monolith, got it!"

"Now if you would be so kind as to stop interrupting me, lets get back on point... so these gigantic monoliths literally descend from the skies surrounded in light..."

"How can they be surrounded in light, light isn't clothing or like, a liquid, you can't just surround yourself in it!?"

"Ok, I know you're just trying to be a cheeky asshole, but that's actually not a bad question considering that those things where ACTUALLY, LITERALLY, surrounded in light, yes, like they where wearing it. And to answer your question, I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA! Anyway, those monoliths come down all over the planet, a few hours later either everyone who got the pop-up had made their choice or they got left out or something, IDK, and here we are, INSIDE, those monoliths I presume. Just to be clear this does mean that, at least in theory, if your life count hits 0 and you die again, that's it, you're DEAD, like, permanently."

"...Well then... that's a lot... I guess it's safe to assume that the outside world is going through some crazy shit right now?"

"I'd say so yes, I've heard some people talk about seeing like, portals, or cracks in reality or something before they left, so at this point I'd say interdimensional alien invasion is a safe assumption."

"... I have no idea how to respond to this."

"I've elected to just do the tutorial for now and think about it when I can actually do something."

"That sounds pretty good... so we've been standing in this 'elevator' for like 5 minutes now, are we going somewhere?"

"Oh... OH YEAH! Yes, where going shopping, you need clothes, and a storage device, that sack you're carrying looks stupid heavy."

"Yeah, it REALLY is, I do NOT have the upper body strength to deal with this all day."

"Here, give it to me, I'll carry it for you until we get you somewhere to store it."

"Oh, ok, sure thanks. By the way what's your strength at anyway?"

"12, it's what I started with, for the attribute groups I have 12 PP, 11 PC, 13 MP, 12 MC, and 5.5 SP."

"And you started with all that!?"

"Well no, not the SP, I started with 5."

"Holy shit, that explains how you got through the first floor so quickly... holy shit you had a luck of 10... I started with 2... I got luckier than any human ever should and you still have more luck than me..."

"Ha, sounds about right, I'm the best after all."

"Fuck you, lets just go shopping already!"