[Day 1]

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself standing in front of a small village. There were five other people beside her, crowding around. She noticed that they all looked around, though none of them showed surprise. Kirana understood that they were all just like her.

As if answering the question, there was a familiar voice resounded in their ears, tinged with malicious glee. [Welcome to the D-level dungeon, ‘Mountain Village’. Players, you are chosen from countless people in the world, so please try your best to survive! Your mission is to: survive 7 days. Good luck and don’t die!]

Kirana gritted her teeth. The inexplicable hostility, instead of fear, made her angry, but she couldn’t do anything about it.

The seven of them glanced at each other.

After a few awkward seconds, a young man in his thirties finally started to speak. “Hello everyone, I’m Kevan.”

There was a pause for another few seconds until a young teenage girl smiled and opened her mouth shyly, “My name is Miranda. I’m in junior high.”

Inwardly, Kirana cursed the damn game for pulling an even younger kid than Indra from last week. However, she kept her quiet. She was used to being low-key after a few years of peaceful life.

They took turns to introduce themselves. Kirana was last. She remembered everyone’s names; Kevan, the bespectacled young man, Miranda, the young teenage girl, Banyu and Bintang, a smiling young man and his sullen teenage brother, Jet, a man who made her felt dangerous, and Putri, a young woman who looked curt.

This time, unlike the previous dungeon which had players from various age, all the players were under forty. Somehow Kirana felt that it was more dangerous than the previous one. Well, the previous one was E-level, and this was stamped as a D-level…

After introducing themselves, they decided to walk to the village. There was an old man in tribal clothing standing at the village gates. “Ah, hello, hello. I am the village chief of this village. You all must be the scholars sent by the university, yes?”

They all looked at each other and nodded. Seemed like this was the identity arranged by the game. They followed the village chief inside. The group was separated into two houses. Kirana was put together with Putri, the curt woman, and Miranda, the shy teenage girl.

With all three women being the quiet type, there were no talking as they entered the house. Kirana vigilantly observed the place given to them. It was an old, dilapidated house of an old couple. The two of them welcomed them warmly, but Kirana wasn’t fooled. She suspected all the NPCs in the game as one that could transform into a monster anytime.

Kirana took a deep breath and went out of the room without saying anything to the other two. It would be better for her to act alone. It was safer and more practical.

The village wasn’t very big. There were about twenty houses here. It was mostly centered around the biggest house in the village, which she assumed would be the village chief’s house. The other houses were arranged neatly side by side on the rocky road to the biggest one.

The old couple’s house, which where she was now staying, were just a stone’s throw from the village chief’s house, which was why she could immediately see the village chief, talking to the male players who stayed in his house. Kirana glanced a little, then decided to walk around the village instead. She had little trust for NPCs, though she had to admit, some information could be spread in their words.

Well, later, she thought. She just needed to map her surroundings and get a good sense of where’s were. After all, to survive a week… Perhaps she would need a hiding place.

The dungeon name didn’t give her any clue. ‘Mountain Village’? Yes, it was an obvious name. The last dungeon at least was named ‘Haunted Bus’, so she knew immediately that something was wrong with the passengers.

What would be the danger here? What would threaten her survival?

As she walked to the outside of the village, back to the place where the players first appeared, she noticed that the road to the village was really rough. No vehicle could access the place, save for a motorcycle, perhaps. All around the village, there was mostly just woods. The darkness made her felt slightly vigilant.

She hesitated for a little bit, then took a step forward.

[Warning! Out of bounds, please go back or you will be obliterated.]

Despite the threat in the voice, she couldn’t help but smirked. Was it because they didn’t set a boundary in the first game? There should be many players that went out of bounds like her. (System: No, really. It was just you.) She then turned back to the village.

 

That night, the village chief hosted dinner for their bunch of university students.

Kirana sat at the end of the table next to the pair of brothers, Banyu and Bintang. The chief kept talking about how there would be an annual festival tomorrow, and how they arrived at the right time. Kirana didn’t eat much. She didn’t know if she was too paranoid, but she felt that everything was suspicious.

“You girls will enjoy tomorrow’s festival,” he said with a big smile, looking at Kirana and the other two, who sat across from her.

Kirana didn’t react and just played around with her food. The other two, too, didn’t reply a word, though the teenage girl, Miranda, smiled shyly.

The older one of the brothers, Banyu, sent them back after dinner. Kirana didn’t say a thing, but she thought he was being unnecessarily kind. After all, the house they stayed in was literally just next door. Perhaps he wanted to investigate or something. Kirana didn’t know how someone could keep smiling in this kind of environment.

She didn’t say anything until they were inside the bedroom. Since the house wasn’t that big, the three of them were placed in the same room. There was only one bed. Kirana and Putri seemed to tacitly decide that it was for the youngest Miranda.

Miranda somehow shyly approached her. “That… Big Sister, can you bring me with you?”

It seemed like, between the sour-faced Putri and the indifferent Kirana, she chose her. Kirana frowned a little bit. With her strength, she felt like bringing a kid was a chore. Without softening her tone, she said bluntly, “No.”

The kid’s disappointed sad face was like a punch in the gut, but Kirana turned a blind eye.

Sleeping on the floor was something Kirana was used to, but the earthen floor somehow felt colder than usual. She frowned a little bit, but didn’t let it bother her. She didn’t really intend to go to sleep, anyhow.

When she heard the other two girls in the room asleep, she started to move from her place. The door made a little sound upon opening, which made her cringe a bit, but overall, she went out of the room quietly.

Once she was out of the old couple’s house, she walked around the village chief’s house. Earlier during the day, she couldn’t check anything since she acted as a guest, but now she could. Because she was now acting as a thief.

The backyard of the village chief’s house wasn’t very big. It was bordered by only a few weak sticks that act as fence, but she didn’t find them obstructive at all. Perhaps because it was just a small village and this was also the village chief’s house, no one would dare to steal.

Kirana saw a few gardening tools and a small garden there. It seemed quite normal. She saw the few ingredients used in the dinner served to them earlier today. The village chief’s wife didn’t appear at all earlier, so either he wasn’t married, or his wife couldn’t come out. In a small village deep in the mountains like this, it was unlikely that they had helpers, though, so she was sure it was the wife that cooked earlier. Of course, it wasn’t impossible that some other villagers went to help the village chief, but she found that unlikely.

But this was all just speculation. Her plan tonight was to observe every evidence possible and arrange them later.

What danger could be in a small village like this?

The forest was one possible source. It made her feel uncomfortable. Perhaps it was the villagers, she thought, remembering the passengers NPC of the previous dungeon turned into a monster.

In any case, there was nothing else she could get from the village chief’s house. She wasn’t bold enough to sneak in. Her style had always been wild and unrestrained—which was why she didn’t practice much anymore since she went into hiding.

Before she could leave, though, something caught her eyes. She was stunned. There was a plant in the corner of the herb garden, pretty much hidden from sight. It was poisonous. It wasn’t the type that would grow as weed, but had to be carefully cultivated by hand, too. She knew this because once, in order to hide in the wilderness, she stuffed knowledge about poisonous plants in her mind.

Why would the village chief’s garden have a poisonous plant?

She noted that poisonous plant in her head, as she didn’t feel like investigating closer. Going around the village chief’s house, Kirana passed by the villagers’ houses one by one. When she neared the gate, she saw two people walking towards her. She would’ve hide, but it was too late.

The two of them also saw her. Kirana recognized them as the brothers who somehow got into this level together. The older one, Banyu, greeted her. “Are you investigating as well?”

Kirana nodded without answering a word.

Banyu’s grin stayed on his face, however. “Want to go together?” He offered. When she was about to refuse, he continued, “We can exchange information. Do you want to know how my brother and I are here together?”

She didn’t really want to know that, since she was all alone, but it could be useful in the future. After hesitating a little bit, Kirana finally nodded. “Did you guys come from outside?”

Banyu nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, yes. There is a barrier, though. We can’t step outside the boundary.”

That, she knew. She tried earlier. “I just came to the backyard of the village chief’s house. There’s a vegetable garden, likely where ingredients of our soup came.”

The information she shared was totally useless, seeing that they stayed in the village head’s house. Bintang, the teenage boy, muttered so in annoyance, but Banyu somehow still smiled amicably. “Yes, yes. It should be the village chief’s wife, who cooks for us. She never appears, though. Apparently, she was always in stayed locked in her room.”

They started walking back to the village center. “Has the village chief mentioned his wife at all?”

“Not really,” Banyu shrugged. “I asked if he is married, though, which he said yes and his wife is shy with strangers. But it’s weird.”

Kirana nodded. Since she didn’t want to take advantage of the two brothers, she said in a low voice, “There’s a poisonous plant among the vegetables.”

Bintang, who had been looking down, raised his eyes sharply at her. Kirana didn’t really care and let them stare. Banyu, who was also stunned for a few second, finally gave an even wider grin. “Thank you, miss. Do you want to know how the two of us got here together? I got a reward ‘Team Formation’ card after the first game. I saw the same item in the mall, though.”

“How many coins?” Kirana asked curiously.

“It’s consumable in the mall, for ten coins each,” Banyu said.

Kirana’s face remained indifference, but in her heart, she cursed. The black-hearted game was also a mini-transaction robber. “I see.” She knew unless she really needed it, she would never buy it.

They walked to the west side of the village, where there was a small river, separating the village from the woods. Under the moonlight, the river glittered a little bit. Somehow she felt a hint of danger that made her reluctant to come close.

Banyu seemed like he was feeling the same thing, so they quickly turned away. Unfortunately, Bintang didn’t seem to get the memo. Before Banyu could pull him away, he was already at the riverside.

“Bintang! Get back here!” Banyu whispered sharply.

“There’s something in the water… Ah!”

Bintang somehow fell down and his feet started to sink. “Bintang!” Banyu moved quickly to his brother’s side. “Are you okay?”

Bintang was definitely not okay. “Help! Something… Something’s puling me!” The teenage girl was frightened.

Kirana hesitated for a second, and then sighed. After all, it was a human life. She couldn’t turn a blind eye. She ran to their side and helped pulled Bintang up. The boy looked to be in so much pain, like there was a metal cuffing his feet and pulling it deeper into the river. The more they pull him, the worse his face was.

Kirana took a deep breath. With a move that she had practiced before, she pulled out her [Stick] out of nowhere and started hitting whatever shadow in the water. There was a pause in the pulling, which Banyu used as a chance to pull Bintang up completely off the river.

The three of them ran far away as possible. Bintang’s breath were heavy, as was the case with Banyu, but Kirana, the girl who looked a bit weak, still breathed regularly.

Banyu looked at her for a second before looking back at his little brother. “Bintang, are you okay?”

Bintang still huffed and puffed a little bit. Banyu knelt in front of him and rolled up his trousers.

There was a bit of purple and blue around his ankle.

Kirana let out a hiss. It really did seem horrific, and seemed like it caused a lot of pain. Bintang’s face was so pale under the vague light from the lanterns of the villagers’ houses. “We better get back,” she said at last.

Banyu nodded in agreement, no longer smiling as he usually did. “Okay, thank you.”

Kirana also went back to the old couple’s house. Carefully entering the room, she observed the other two, who were still fast asleep. She went back to her place and closed her eyes. She better took some time for rest.

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