The floors collapsed. No matter what, Jenjen can't move. He surmised he must have been buried by the walls. And so, he logged out.

"Just how long can I record?"

How long has it been? 1 hour?

"Perhaps the storage provided is huge."

He didn't die in the game since a timer didn't appear.

"It will take time before my character gets rescued."

He decided to publish his second video. Like the first one, he'll prioritize quality over quantity.

107 minutes later.

"Done. Now published!... That's weird. The forum is quite a festival today when a groundbreaking mechanic was unearthed and yet the officials are quiet."

Could it be...

"they're offline? It's nearly lunch already."

...no. It must be...

"Intended. The tutorial zone is meant to collapse. 4 hours have passed before I entered the game. The majority of 1000 players easily found the stairs from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor and yet the same nearly 1000 players can't find the path to the 3rd floor."

Jenjen checked the forum once again. There were arguments that the players must defeat the flame bishop before entering the 3rd floor.

"Let's try not using game logic as a reason. Even if the flame bishop holds the key... where's the lock? If we can destroy the dungeon, why can't we destroy the lock as well? Where is the exit the flame bishop is guarding?"

He checked the forum once again.

"3rd floor. Enter."

After searching the term 3rd floor, a new post appeared.

[We managed to go to the third floor!]

[It's as the title said, THE elusive third floor, baby! We entered-]

It's a long post about how they managed to enter the third floor. The post is littered with pictures of their selfies and groupies.

[-Before the earthquake, one of us is a mountain hiker. He advised-]

Knowing what the next statement is, Jenjen skipped the majority of it.

[-ropes, grappling hook, weapons. They're everywhere!-]

Skip.

[-the third floor has collapsed as well. We climbed-]

"Climbed? I need to know more about it. I have to go there as soon as possible. I can't miss it!"

[-Rats! So many rats! I accidentally stepped on it!-]

"Yup. Time to log in. I think I'm going to miss a lot."

---

 

[Quest: Exiting the Tutorial Zone

Difficulty: A

Details: To finish the tutorial, leave the tutorial zone. Only for this tutorial, the method to solve the quest will be provided. Be reminded that in an ordinary high-difficulty quest, there will be no handholding at all.

Method 1: Survive for 6 hours. There will be an attack every hour and every death will reduce your XP reward.

Method 2: Kill the Flame Bishop. A false accusation will heavily reduce the XP reward of the accuser.

Character Information: Level ONE Flame Bishop. A rare flame elemental with a known special ability to perfectly imitate anything. Abilities: Level ONE [Imitate] (ACTIVE, Copy an existence's physical attributes. More effective to EVIL beings), Level ONE [Soul Damage] (PASSIVE, Every successful kill is permanent death.), Level ONE [Loyalty] (CURSE, This creature must remain loyal to the Flame Monarch.)

Method 3: Open the exit on the third floor.

Method 4: ???

Reward: 10~100 XP, Common Weapon with Level ZERO [Soul Bind]

Requestor: GreenNet Gaming]

 

As Jenjen logged in, he was bombarded by a lengthy quest. He read it carefully and felt dizzy.

"What's method 4?"

Jenjen is more intrigued by the question marks compared to other methods, but alas, he has to ignore that for a while.

"Method 2 is impossible. There are 1000 players here and catching that one flame bishop hiding and impersonating the players is not viable."

"-and method 1 might sound easy, I mean, you can just log out during the attacks, but think about it. Do you think this hardcore game will just let us exploit? You see, it's not simple, as the attack will only be considered finished if all fire elementals are defeated-"

"Woah! Who are you?"

"I thought you were talking to me. You're loud, you know. Ah yes, where are we again? Yes, method 3. With the collapse of the dungeon, climbing up the floors is as riskier as ever. We're not all mountain hikers here, you know."

The girl in front of me is surprisingly talkative. She has that nice look... regarding looks, isn't she familiar? Ah!

"Rachelle! That famous streamer! Ahh, what nationality are you again?"

"I'm from... doNATION."

She then made a cute pose that invites an uplifting atmosphere.

"Yeah, I'm Rachelle. And no, I'm not famous enough yet. I'm surprised you knew me."

"I'm Jenjen, I'm your fan!"

It's not, but it never hurts to make friends.

Someone else intruded on our conversation.

"Well, I'm from reincarNATION then... am I late?"

"Nah, you're not."

"Right, I just came here to say that there's no one on the 3rd floor, meaning the flame bishop cannot be present there. And I delivered some stuff that you might need."

The third person softly placed his basket on the floor.

"Ah, please, the reward."

"Reward?... Ah! yes! Here, give me your phone and I'll send the money right now."

"Ahh... We... No one brought our phones inside the VR."

"Ah, sorry! I forgot! We don't have phones here. Just say it. I'm recording right now. I'm a streamer after all."

"Okay."

The mystery person casually uttered his phone number.

"Haha, thanks... Ahh, umm, ahh, eh-"

"Marco. That's my name. Please don't forget."

"Haha, sorry, sorry."

Marco left the two of us. He appears to be extremely sad.

It was pure silence. We even attracted others' attention.

"... Anyways, where are we again?"

"That I'm one of your fans."

"Really? Yes, I'm happy I met one of my fans."

Rachelle is a female gamer that streams her gaming content. She's terrible at action games, strategy games, puzzle games, and everything else popular. However, she's abnormally great at games that have unconventional mechanics or just plain weird unknown games.

She also plays MMO roleplaying games and one of the most notable detail about her is the undying bodyguards that always holds her hand and assist her in every way possible... but right now...

"Rachelle, where are your suitors?"

"Ah! Ah, yes! They saw my face."

"They... saw your face?"

"They, uh, I'm uncomfortable being surrounded by men, ah, I mean, I don't mean all men. You are fine. It's just that this game is too real, and normally, I just ignore it in other games, but-"

"Okay, I get it. I can already imagine what happened next."

Rachelle paused from her reminiscing. She then became quiet for a while and said,

"...you're smart."

"Nah, I'm just intuitive."

"That's smart to me as well. Say, are you interested in joining my faction?"

"Your...?"

"Yes, the Method 2 Faction! Hunt the illusory flame bishop! There are only 80 of us in method 2 but don't worry, we will tirelessly ask questions NPCs can't answer!"

"So... what about-"

"Don't think about it! The method 1 faction seeks enjoyment through war and bloodlust! They're barbaric and vicious! They have long shed their humanity to appease Freya, the goddess of war and death!

The method 3 faction is a hopeless one. They seek an easy way out to escape from the painful reality and abandon our persistence, and the worst of all, to appear different from us, and soon, to appear better than us!

The method 4 faction is the worst. They cling to the littlest wish of discovering the unknown, gambling with their future, just to hide their nefarious intention. The day they lost the gamble and the devil himself demanded their debt, they will bring us down with them. Us! They lavish their present time knowing despair comes next!"

... She's a good talker when it comes to ruining other people's reputations. Yet, it's easy to infer what she's talking about.

"Let's see:

Method-one faction consists of the majority numbering around 800 players. They decided to defend. The goal is clear and simple, and so, the majority joined them. Not far from us, a large circle of players is formed. I presume they are method one.

The method-two faction is us. The flame bishop is great at hiding. This is the most important detail. There are 1000 players, and it's hopeless to find that one unless we managed to bring order and put them all into a single line, which is extremely harder than it sounds.

Method three is I presume the hiker's group. I read their post about entering the third floor, and obviously, they must be unlocking that exit on the third floor right now. From what I recall, the person who interrupted us recently is a member of the method-three faction.

And..."

Rachelle's eyes pointed in a certain direction... Wait, that pond is still fine?

"The swimming club. The method-4 faction or rather, I'd like to call them the no method faction. They're waiting for the tutorial to finish itself... or they like swimming. And I can guess who is the leader of that faction. Golden potato, isn't it?"

Rachelle's eye widened from my guess.

"... you knew that jerk?"

"Eh?"

"Even I can guess what's in his mind. Hah, at the beginning of the quest, four leaders stepped up at the broken stairs. myasshurts, TotallyNotRachelle, uhh, I forgot the third one and Golden Potato. And guess who has the longest speech! The lazy one! It won't be an exaggeration if others mistook it for a political speech! Anyways, the third one is out of reach on their third floor, so let me introduce you to myasshurts."

[120 minutes have passed]

[Wave 2 is approaching]