The infinite white void buzzed with a nervous and heavy energy. Dustin kept his hands resting comfortably in the pockets of his plaid pajama pants. He felt the cold weight of the rusted dagger pressing uncomfortably against his stomach. Thousands upon thousands of people around him were still inspecting their glowing status screens and testing the balance of their new weapons. The massive crowd stretched out endlessly in every single direction. The initial shock of the teleportation was slowly fading into a grim realization of their violent new reality.
The cheerful synthetic voice of the Announcer returned to shatter the temporary quiet.
"Attention all participants," the Announcer declared brightly. "The evaluation period has officially concluded. I hope you are all entirely satisfied with your assigned combat roles. It is now time to discuss the rules of your very first tutorial phase."
The massive crowd fell completely silent. Even the giant Warrior named Baruka stopped swinging his heavy wooden club so he could listen carefully.
"In just a few moments you will be transported to a localized training ground," the Announcer explained with upbeat enthusiasm. "This area is a heavily forested zone completely cut off from the rest of the universe. Your primary objective is incredibly simple. You must survive in that dense forest for exactly fifteen consecutive days."
Dustin frowned and quickly did the mental math. Fifteen days was a very long time to go without proper food or clean drinking water. He wondered if the magical system would provide them with basic daily rations. The cheerful tone of the Announcer strongly suggested that they were going to be completely on their own.
"I must also clarify one very important detail regarding your participation," the Announcer added with a bright and warm laugh. "The pain you feel in the training ground will be absolutely real. Furthermore any participant who loses all their vitality points will face immediate and permanent physical termination. If you die in the forest you will simply cease to exist everywhere else. There are no extra lives and there are no second chances."
A cold wave of pure terror washed over the endless crowd. The reality of true death finally crushed whatever small hope they had left. Several people dropped their weapons onto the polished marble floor in complete shock. Others began weeping loudly and hugging their loved ones desperately.
Dustin felt his own heart rate spike dangerously. He took a deep breath and forced his body to remain completely still. Panicking burned precious calories and clouded logical judgment. He reminded himself that his massive perception stat would keep him entirely safe from sudden ambushes. He just needed to find a dark hole and sleep for two solid weeks.
A young athletic woman named Cha hae suddenly stepped onto a slightly elevated section of the white floor. The golden glow of her status screen illuminated her determined face. She raised her pristine silver sword high into the air to draw the attention of the terrified people around her.
"Everyone needs to calm down and listen to me," Cha hae shouted with incredible authority. "Panicking right now will only get us all killed. We have thousands of people in this massive room. If we work together and form a solid defensive perimeter we can easily survive for fifteen days."
Her strong voice cut through the weeping and the fearful whispers. People slowly began turning their attention toward her shining silver blade.
"We need to organize a central command immediately," Cha hae continued passionately. "All the Warriors and Defenders will form a massive outer wall to protect the group. The Archers and Elementalists will stay right behind them to provide ranged magic support. The Clerics and the Civilians will remain safely in the absolute center. We will pool all of our resources together. We will send out large hunting parties to gather food and we will fiercely protect the weak."
It was a beautiful and highly tactical speech. Dozens of frightened civilians immediately rushed toward her elevated position. They desperately wanted to be part of her organized and protective community. Even a few of the newly assigned Warriors nodded in agreement and began moving toward her to form the first defensive lines.
Dustin watched the inspiring display of leadership from the very back of the dense crowd. He slowly shook his head in absolute disagreement.
'That is the single worst idea I have ever heard,' Dustin thought critically. 'Grouping thousands of noisy and panicked humans into one massive target is pure suicide. The sheer noise they make will attract every single predatory monster within fifty miles. They are basically trying to build a giant all you can eat buffet for the local wildlife.'
He looked over at the charismatic blonde man named Kael. Kael was forming his own separate group composed entirely of aggressive damage dealers. They were loudly discussing how many monsters they could hunt to maximize their experience points before the timer ran out. They completely ignored the careful defensive strategy proposed by Cha hae.
'Those guys are even worse,' Dustin reasoned internally. 'They actually want to actively hunt the beasts. They are going to charge straight into a nest of angry monsters and get themselves completely slaughtered on the very first day.'
Dustin finalized his own personal survival plan right then and there. He would stay as far away from these large and noisy factions as physically possible. He would be a complete ghost. He would find the thickest and tallest tree in the entire forest and he would not move a single muscle until the fifteen days were finally over.
Cha hae continued organizing her massive defensive group with frantic energy. She was busy pointing at different people and assigning them specific patrol routes for when they finally teleported to the forest. She wanted the entire command structure to be perfectly settled before the survival timer actually started.
The Announcer suddenly interrupted her passionate leadership efforts with a booming synthetic laugh.
"Oh I absolutely love seeing such wonderful human cooperation," the Announcer cheered loudly. "It is truly inspiring to watch you all band together. However you are making a massive assumption about your deployment. You will definitely not be staying together in one massive army. That would be incredibly boring to watch."
Cha hae froze and lowered her silver sword slowly. The massive crowd murmured in fresh confusion.
"As the tutorial begins this massive room will be divided," the Announcer explained with bright enthusiasm. "You will all be randomly sorted into completely isolated server clusters. Each localized training ground will receive exactly five hundred participants. The system will ensure a completely random mix of strong classes and weak civilians in every single zone."
The terrified whispers quickly escalated into panicked shouts. People realized they were about to be separated from the strong Warriors they had just befriended.
"Furthermore you will not spawn together," the Announcer added happily. "Every single individual will be teleported to a completely random location within their assigned forest. You will all begin this journey entirely alone. I suggest you run very fast if you spawn next to something hungry. Good luck to all participants and please do enjoy the hunt."
Cha hae opened her mouth to shout one final desperate instruction to her gathered defenders.
She never finished her sentence.
The solid white marble floor simply vanished.
It did not crumble slowly or fade away into mist. It ceased to exist entirely in a single fraction of a second. The thousands of people standing in the infinite void dropped directly into a swirling ocean of bright blue magical energy.
Dustin felt his stomach launch upward into his throat. The sudden weightlessness was entirely sickening and completely disorienting. The bright blue light blinded him instantly. He felt a strange pulling sensation across his entire body as if he was being forcefully stretched through a tiny invisible tube. The deafening screams of the thousands of people around him were suddenly cut off and replaced by a harsh rushing wind.
He closed his eyes tightly and crossed his arms over his chest to protect his vital organs.
The magical transit lasted only a few terrifying seconds. The bright blue light vanished and gravity violently reasserted itself.
Dustin was suddenly spat out of the empty air. He fell a short distance of roughly five feet and crashed violently into a massive patch of dark purple bushes.
The thick alien shrubs were covered in vicious curved thorns that looked exactly like rusted iron fish hooks. The dense vegetation broke his short fall perfectly but the sharp thorns immediately tore into his skin. He rolled heavily onto the damp forest floor and grunted in sudden pain. He lay perfectly still in the dirt and stared up at the tiny slivers of grey light shining through the massive canopy far above his head.
His left shoulder was throbbing with a dull ache from the rough landing. His plaid pajama pants were torn completely to shreds at the knees. His exposed legs were bleeding steadily from multiple deep scratches caused by the purple thorns.
A small blue screen flickered to life in the extreme corner of his vision.
[ Notice Participant has arrived in the designated training zone ]
[ Tutorial timer has officially started ]
"Well that was incredibly unpleasant," Dustin groaned weakly into the damp earth.
He was extremely grateful that the system had not dropped them directly from the sky. A massive fall from the high canopy would have instantly shattered his legs and drained his pathetic three points of vitality. He had survived the teleportation mostly intact but the stinging scratches on his legs served as a brutal reminder that the pain in this world was entirely real.
He forced his shaking right hand to move slowly toward his waist. He let out a small breath of genuine relief when his fingers brushed against the rough leather handle of his rusted dagger. He had somehow managed to hold onto his terrible starter weapon during the chaotic magical transit. It was completely dull and practically useless for actual combat but it was the only piece of metal he owned.
Dustin slowly pushed himself up onto his hands and trembling knees. Every single muscle in his back screamed in loud protest at the sudden movement. He ignored the sharp pain and crawled completely under the thickest part of the thorny purple bushes. He needed to hide his bleeding body from the open dirt clearing immediately.
He activated his massive eighteen points of perception and carefully surveyed his immediate surroundings.
The alien forest was incredibly dark and terrifyingly dense. The trunks of the trees were wider than large commercial trucks. Their massive roots formed tall twisting walls of solid dark wood that blocked out the horizon. The air was thick with humidity and smelled heavily of wet moss and the distinct metallic scent of raw copper.
Far off in the distance he could clearly hear the horrific sounds of the other players completing their own random drops.
Some people were screaming out the names of their lost family members. The random teleportation had completely destroyed the grand social order that Cha hae had tried so desperately to build. The five hundred people in this specific server cluster had been scattered violently across the massive dark zone.
The desperate human shouts were suddenly interrupted by terrifying and wet gurgling sounds. Those horrifying noises were followed closely by the sudden and vicious roars of massive beasts.
Dustin realized with a cold shiver that some unfortunate players had spawned directly into the dens of resting predators. The system was entirely ruthless. It had dropped weak civilians right next to giant monsters without a single ounce of mercy.
He was entirely alone in a dark and deeply hostile world.
'This is exactly what I wanted in the first place,' Dustin reminded himself quietly while clutching his rusted dagger tightly. 'There are no noisy teammates to attract the monsters to my hiding spot. There are no charismatic leaders trying to force me to fight on the bloody front lines for the greater good. It is just me and my terrible stamina stat against the world.'
He curled his bleeding body into a tight and silent ball beneath the thorny canopy. He decided to stay perfectly hidden in the dirt until the terrified screams finally stopped echoing through the ancient trees. His fifteen days of absolute misery had officially begun and he fully intended to sleep through as much of it as possible.