Whoosh!
"Whoa, whoa! Did I fail the test?!"
I thought since it was a test of courage, I just had to jump into the trap without batting an eye!
Was I wrong?!
Thwack!
Just then, something heavy struck him squarely on the top of his head.
Excel had delivered a body slam.
"Gah! My neck's going to snap!"
"Are you awake yet, you hopeless brat?!"
Excel kept smashing his head.
Ignoring the sensation of downy feathers brushing against his head, he looked around.
"How did you get here?"
"Look up."
"The trap from earlier? There's a trap in the sky? What kind of scene is this?"
"It was an illusion."
"An illusion?"
"Yeah."
"Huh..."
Now it's even an illusion.
This test was truly extraordinary from start to finish.
Pushing people's resolve to the absolute limit.
Of course, even if the trap is fake in a situation like this, wouldn't you die at this height?
"I have my own reasons for believing that. This is a game where you can't fall to your death. And since they called it a test of courage, I figured I naturally had to be brave."
"Even so! You could've at least gone first!"
"No, that would've felt a bit off. Are you telling me I should just throw you in every time something like this happens? I'd rather pass on that."
Even in this fake world, Newbie believed there were lines that shouldn't be crossed.
One of them was treating his comrades like disposable items.
"Hmph!"
Excel was still crossing her arms in anger, but she seemed strangely relieved.
Anyway, leaving Excel behind, Newbie stood up.
At that moment, the scenery changed.
Suddenly, the surroundings turned black and white, and before they knew it, a human figure appeared right in front of them.
"First off, congratulations."
"Ugh!"
"Eeek! It's a ghost!"
Despite the two's startled reactions, Drusus simply rummaged through his robes and continued speaking.
"Normally, a true top student would have jumped in after dispelling this illusion spell. Still, I'll count this as a pass."
"T-thank you?"
"Well, in a way, you've passed the hardest part of the test."
"Huh? What do you mean by that?"
He shook his head.
"The final test of courage was supposed to be about dodging the examiner's attacks and making it down. Normally, even if the examiner poses a threat, it's customary not to catch you so ruthlessly… but well, that's up to the examiner's discretion."
He looked at the newbie with a strange expression, and the newbie was too busy avoiding his gaze.
Druusus tapped his staff and sighed.
"I suppose I'll have to wait and see how many people you'll help pass."
"Huh?"
"Let's see."
After that, he waited for an hour, holding his hourglass.
"Whoa!"
"Ugh!"
Not everyone was a coward.
Surprisingly, with the exception of a few, every single player bravely threw themselves into the fray.
It was just a matter of timing.
However, there was one thing they all had in common.
"Newbie!"
"Look over here!"
"Wait, hold on a sec!"
"Whoa, superstar."
"Shut up, Excel!"
Everyone had gathered around Newbie.
They bombarded him with questions, and even rushed over to shake his hand.
Above all, they exchanged meaningful glances with each other, and then...
"Ooh-yeah!"
"Long live Newbie!"
"Hey, wait a minute! What are you doing?"
"What do you mean, what are we doing? We're giving our hero a piggyback ride!"
They began lifting him up.
Newbie soared straight into the air.
"Aaaah! Stop! Stop it!"
"Hurrah! Long live Newbie!"
After watching them like that for about five minutes, Drusus put his pocket watch back in his pocket.
"Alright. It looks like none of the ones who were up there are left. Let's wrap this up. Everyone's celebrating."
Even though it was clearly a celebration, they listened to Drusus's words with expressions as if they were being torn apart.
Paying no heed to their expressions, he continued speaking.
"You will see a light at the gate leading out of the guild you are about to enter. But whether that light is the glow of hope or the hellfire that will consume you is something you must decide for yourselves."
He pulled a card from his pocket and held it up.
Immediately, a list appeared in everyone's status window.
"Do you know what this is?"
It was a roster of names.
The only unusual thing was that most of the names had a red line drawn through them.
Newbies and a few others had no idea what was going on, but those who caught on broke out in a cold sweat and swallowed hard.
Seeing their faces, Drusus bowed his head.
"Yes. Some of you know. It's a list of the pilgrims who left before you."
Some looked as if they wanted to ask what the red lines meant, but they didn't dare to ask.
Or rather, it wasn't that they couldn't ask—even though they knew the meaning, they somehow didn't want to have it confirmed.
'Lady Arien is on there, too.'
There was no red line next to Arien's name; instead, a red line ran through the name "Chalie" beside it.
Druusus continued his explanation.
"Most of the names will likely have red lines through them. If you have even a shred of common sense, you'll understand. Those are the ones who can never return to the Guild. They are, in a sense, martyrs."
At those words, everyone's faces fell.
Those who could never return to the Guild.
Those who had become prisoners of the kingdom and were turned into slaves, or those who had become test subjects—unable to die even while alive—and were locked away in eternal detention camps.
It was a list of those who had fallen into an eternal hell where they could not die.
Druusus looked each of them in the eye one by one and warned in a low voice.
"If any of you still choose to proceed after seeing this, take a single step forward, and your names will be added to that register."
He cleared his throat briefly and continued.
"And a red line may be drawn through your names as well. For martyrdom invariably follows the pilgrimage."
Thud!
He tapped the floor with his staff.
"Those who wish to proceed despite this, take a step forward here."
In an instant, everyone in the room stood frozen in place.
It was just the floor, yet they all stiffened as if they were standing on the edge of a cliff.
Their minds were filled with all sorts of thoughts.
About the fate of the players who had become prisoners of the Kingdom.
A life as an inventory slave, locked away in a warehouse forever.
A life as a training dummy for the Kingdom's Knights.
A life as a combat machine, providing battle data.
In the worst-case scenario, a life reduced to a test subject for the Kingdom's mages in an eternal detention center.
Thud!
The first to step forward were Newbie and Excel.
And just as before, once one person found the courage, everyone else followed suit.
As everyone took a step forward.
"I, Druzus, Grand Master of the Guild, hereby declare! I recognize all of you here as pilgrims! May you reach heaven at the end of your Pilgrim's Progress!"
Druusus declared.
With that, the test was over, and only the real battle remained.
Unlike a test where you can always try again even if you fail, this was a path from which there was no return once it was over.
*
"This is a personal gift from me."
What Druusus handed over was a parchment.
"Paper?"
"Outside, it's usually safer to write down and read all documents by hand."
"Oh… instead of a status window."
"That's right. You're starting to understand the outside world a bit now."
"Hahaha… I guess so. But what is this?"
"It's the identities of the Seven Apostles, sent by the guild's scouting party."
His eyes widened instantly.
Looking at the contents, he saw a map of the entire game world, along with detailed descriptions of each region.
It was filled with flag markers alongside a list labeled "Scout Outposts."
"Is there a guild headquarters out there too?"
"Of course. Those who remain isolated, knowing nothing and unaware of anything, are bound to die. We're alive and well right now. And that's all thanks to our eyes and ears."
"I see."
"If you see those eyes and ears, help them and let them help you. Protect one another. That's the guild's only rule outside."
The newbie nodded.
After studying his face, he gave a faint smile for the first time, looking at ease.
"Yeah, I can tell just by looking at your face. I won't have to worry about you. Just as I said before, though, you'd better learn how to hide your emotions."
With those words, he walked away slowly, as if his business was done.
"I don't believe in hope. I just wish for it."
Leaving only those enigmatic words behind, he vanished.
After that, the other guild masters guided them along their respective paths like event staff.
*
Whoooooosh! Whoosh!
Two pillars of light briefly appeared in the forest, and where they vanished, Newbie and Excel opened their eyes.
"So this is what a teleportation portal is. It feels kind of weird."
"It feels like I'm being dragged along—it's annoying. Do we really have to do this every time we leave the guild?"
"We have no choice. You'll have to understand."
Unlike when they entered, the pilgrims did not exit through the main entrance.
If they did, they risked being tracked down by Devotees or the Kingdom's scouting party who might be waiting there.
Therefore, every pilgrim leaving the guild was randomly teleported through a portal to a secret area surrounding the guild.
Additionally, to prevent everyone from being captured at once, each person was sent to a completely different location.
Thanks to that, Newbie and Excel found themselves alone in a place neither of them recognized.
"By the way, what does it say on the parchment?"
"Wait a sec, I need to see it too. Come here."
The two read through the parchment map and the accompanying notes.
Of the seven Apostles identified by the guild so far, four had been located.
One was in Unreal Palace, the kingdom's capital; another was at Victory Flag, the kingdom's largest military base.
The third was at the Eternal Detention Center.
Crucially, all three locations were marked with a vivid red warning sign.
The last one wasn't as far away as they'd thought.
There wasn't any warning sign, either.
[Taming City]
[Presumed to have been visited by an Apostle of unknown identity. As there is no Guild Scout Headquarters nearby, no further information can be obtained.]
"Taming City?"
"Ah, that place!"
"You know it?"
"I heard about it in the forest! It's supposed to be famous, right? Since we need a ride anyway, it'd be the perfect first destination, wouldn't it?"
"A ride? What do you mean, a ride?"
That remark frustrated Axel.
"No, so are you just going to keep riding in carriages from now on? Or are you going to walk?"
"Come to think of it... both are pretty dangerous."
If they kept traveling by carriage within the kingdom, there was a high chance they'd get stopped at a checkpoint.
But walking wasn't safe either.
In fact, there was a high probability of encountering the kingdom's patrols or bandits.
"That's why I heard in the forest that players all ride their own mount pets!"
"Wait, you're practically half a pet yourself..."
"I'm not a pet! And that's just what they say!"
"Anyway, one way or another, we have to go to Taming City. A mount..."
Having a dedicated mount would definitely allow for faster travel and make it easier to escape whenever trouble arose.
"Alright! Let's head there then!"
*
The passengers, left stranded in the middle of the wasteland after their entire carriage was stolen, had been kidnapped by the Devotees under the guise of "rescue" and were being held captive deep underground.
If there was any silver lining, it was that most of them were merely being held captive.
"Aaaaaargh!"
Except for one person.
Trop, the coachman who had placed the bet of a lifetime, was being tortured while tied to a chair.