A supernatural flame that possessed no heat slowly burned the invitation in Lann’s hand. Rather than transforming into ash though, the paper disintegrated into blue particles of light that filled up the surrounding space. Both the city and the raccoon were gone and in its place a video began to play before Lann’s eyes. 

It was like a cringey cinematic for a third rate game. It had a voice over, bad camera angles, and a lot of explosions. The main event was a bunch of individuals charging head long into a horde of monsters. The narrator called them “chosen ones from another world” and it was beseeching them to “save this world.”

Whatever the case, it caused Lann to slightly regret his choice in participating. The worst part was the end though. A certain raccoon had appeared. It made a peace sign with its fingers and then said, “Like, comment, and subscribe to the ‘Crazy Raccoon’ channel! Join this raccoon as he becomes a famous live streamer!”

Lann, admittingly, admired the shamelessness of it. It was a blatant abuse of power. The raccoon’s authority was already diminishing, so it probably thought that it might as well try to get an edge while it could. 

When the video was completely over, the blue participles reappeared. The light was warm and Lann could feel himself being moved to another location. When the light settled Lann was officially in the tutorial.

The first thing Lann did was to check over his body. However, he took his time. Even though he could see other participants, he stretched his whole body, leaning to the left and then the right. He grunted while pulling on his arms. He then followed everything up by nodding to himself, while making sure his characteristic docile smile was always present.

‘Should we begin?’

Despite his apparent leisure, Lann’s gaze was tuned into the surroundings the entire time. There were people here before Lann; they were already moving about. But there were even more that were still reappearing, and they, like Lann, were taking their time to adjust. Some of which returned his notice. 

He did another bout of stretches and even gave a mild yet still auditory hum while these other participants gave him a wide range of unpleasant looks ranging from annoyance to outright bloodthirsty glares.

‘I guess they don’t want to be friends.’ Lann’s smile shook a little. He debated pretending to be hurt by their actions, but instead he gave them a cute wave while adjusting his smile to be even wider. 

As he waved his hand he thought: ‘If they get in my way, if they annoy me, then I can just kill them!’

Not everyone gave off violent auras though. There were dozens and only a small fraction had even given Lann a glance. As such they had escaped being marked and would escape becoming victims of the first round of his amusement.

Lann turned his attention to get a grasp of the terrain. It was an instinctually process that he almost always did after gathering his bearings. 

There were paved roads and only a few scattered trees, meaning the area was pretty open. There were also several identical buildings, all two-story and rectangularly shaped. With all these points, it became clear that this area was like the outside courtyard of some campus. 

Lann didn’t know if that detail was significant so he focused on practical elements.

‘So the roof and windows are the only vantage points… and maybe the trees?’ 

Someone began to climb a tree. It was quite humorous because it just made the man stand out more. It was already a tight space, so unless someone was confident then standing out was quite foolish. But maybe the man had a reason for his actions. 

Lann next turned his attention to the boundary. It isolated this space from outside contact and prevented the participants from leaving. It took the form of four white, semi-translucent walls that surrounded the entire space. It wasn’t clear if this was the extent of the dimension, or if the other parts were simply blocked off for the time being.

It didn’t matter. There was a light ring followed by a pop up notification. 

Participant 10739 welcome to Testing Zone 22. Please follow the glowing arrows to progress towards Area 3 to begin the tutorial. Instructions will be given by an administrator at your destination.  We hope that you will enjoy your experience while providing our sponsors with proper entertainment!  P.S. Excellent service will be met with rewards!!! -Delightful Peculiarity (Head Streamer and Main Host of the Preliminary Stage)

‘Hmm.’ The message was quite intuitive, but that was perhaps because Lann had participated in similar games and contests before. 

He could have been transported directly to the testing area, but he wasn’t. The tutorial was already in full motion. 

At the same time that Lann finished reading the notification, they appeared. He could see them—little orbs floating about. They were the same ones he saw flying around the city. 

The ones watching the games were often referred to as observers or guests. When they took an active role then the terms sponsors or patrons were more applicable. Sometimes such entities would be also referred to as constellations.

Some of the black orbs tried to get his attention. They tried to send him messages and some even created quests. The quests were basically do such and such and then get some kind of reward.

Lann couldn’t be bothered though. He absent-mindedly admired the moving arrows with a bit of fascination. Like the notifications that popped up, the arrows seemed to be an augmentation upon reality. It wasn’t a specifically unique setting, but it was still interesting to see. 

The small green arrows glowed underneath his feet. They moved slowly along the paved path and continued on into the interior of one of the nearby buildings.

Lann made note of the countdown displayed under each arrow. It seemed he had thirty minutes, an excess amount of time. Still, he was more interested in seeing where things went than loitering about. 

As Lann was walking, he could hear someone speed up from behind him. He could have moved out of the way, but he didn’t and a person ended up running into his back. 

He turned around to find a petite girl wearing a blue-green hoodie. Although the hood was pulled over her head, he could still see her bright red hair. It was a lighter shade than the scarlet tinge of her eyes. 

The girl was dazed for a moment, seemingly unaware of what she had run into. 

“Ah.” Realization seemed to set in, and a cute, small gasp escaped her lips. At the same time, her face turned red and she began moving her hands back and forth. 

“Umm… t-this… I…” She stopped flailing her hands and bent over at a 90 degree angle. She backed up as she bowed as if she wanted to just disappear from her current spot.

She then made a squeaking sound. It was as if she tried to say something but the air had left her lungs. 

“You were looking at the arrows and didn’t notice me.” Despite knowing this wasn’t true, Lann offered an excuse. 

In the corner of his eye, he focused on the movements of the wisp-like spectators that were floating about. Cliche tropes tended to be popular, so it wouldn’t be surprising if one of the observers, treating this as some kind of romcom, gave the girl a quest. 

Meanwhile, the girl raised her head and met Lann’s eyes. She squirmed from the eye contact.

Lann smiled as innocently as he could. He had to be careful not to let any of his vulgar tendencies show. “It is fine. I understand. It is partially my fault for being so slow and blocking the path.”

“Y-yes y-es… I mean n-no. It is my fault.” She blushed and bowed again. “D-don’t m-mind me.’

“It’s fine.” Lann wasn’t lying either. He was truly not bothered. It was the power of idle curiosity. The rationale and outcome might be lackluster, but as long as something could act as a time sink, then Lann would be content. 

“T-thank you.”

“I’m Lann. It appears that we are heading in the same direction.” The woman had bumped into Lann right in front of the entrance to one of the buildings—presumably the entrance to Area 3. He could already see several others making their way inside.

Before the woman could respond, an unimpressive brute appeared behind the two. 

“Move out of the way already.” The man spit at the ground. “Fucking bastard.”

It didn’t seem like the man was jealous. No, he seemed awkward—like he was acting out a script. Another quest?

Lann didn’t move and just tilted his head. His expression seemed to confuse the man. He seemed to be scanning something and after a moment he grabbed Lann’s shoulder. “I told you…”

“I recommend letting go.” Lann smiled.

“Ugh, let’s see what is the next th—” The man stopped speaking and grabbed his own throat. A fine line of blood was already beginning to form. A soft glow slowly dissipated from Lann’s fingertips. Not a single drop got on him or his clothes.

“I warned you.” Lann shrugged and then gave a feigned apologetic gesture. The entire time he smiled with innocent eyes. “But then again, I guess I didn’t really give you much time.” 

The orbs that were floating about seemed to shake excitedly.

‘Bastards.’ Still smiling, Lann mused to himself. 

The man fumbled backwards, still clutching his throat, and after a moment, the dying man turned into a bunch of particles. A small spherical object dropped from where the corpse should have been. Lann picked it up and observed a popup. 

A Power Orb dropped from participant 1742.

Lann grabbed the orb. It radiated an explosion of light that entered his body before disappearing.

Explanation: A power orb drops…

“Dismiss.” Lann skipped the message. 

32 XP acquired. Explanation: XP can be used…

“Dismiss.” Lann once again skipped the pop up. 

Lann could feel several entities boring holes into him. He was aware he could pull up a chat log to see what the observers were saying about him, but he ignored it. Just like how he ignored various notifications that indicated that some entities were still trying to directly message him.

The girl shuffled up closer to Lann. She didn’t appear too cautious despite her continued stuttering. “D-don’t you think that is…a bit…”

“Excessive?”

“Yes…”

“Not at all. He touched me with his dirty hands.” He gave an excuse that was mixed with a bit of truth. 

“I’m s-sorry!” She squeaked as she quickly bowed again.

Lann continued to smile. “You just bumped into me… accidently, right?”

The girl didn’t seem to enjoy the way Lann empathized his words. She sulked. It was quite convincing.

Lann had found the whole situation amusing, but he couldn’t help but have internal complaints. 

Like, would every event be so cliche? Which one of these trashy bastards lacked creative integrity? Did they think this was some fan fiction? 

It’s not like he couldn’t understand the appeal of such events. The girl runs into the boy and begins the start of their romantic comedy life. An arrogant bastard bullies someone just to get his face slapped. It could be thrilling, but wasn’t it too random? There is no setup, damnit!

Lann must have been standing still while thinking such thoughts because the girl began to speak. “I’m M-Maia… s-should we go…in?” 

He nodded and became calm once again. Getting heated was just another way for Lann to stave off his boredom. 

The destination wasn’t too far away. They took a right at an intersection in the hallway and then a double door greeted them. 

He threw the doors open, which caused everyone in the room to stare at him and Maia, who was blushing because of the commotion. She hid behind his back but made sure not to touch him. 

Nonetheless, Maia’s embarrassment even if it was a facade was pointless. The dozen or so people in the room didn’t care. They were all doing their own thing. 

The room was wide, a gymnasium of some sorts, and thus everyone had enough space to not bother one another. 

Lann turned and was about to make a comment to Maia, but she was gone. There wasn’t even the shadow of a person, and as such, he couldn’t help but let out a bitter sigh. 

‘Was I that weird?’