Is this really a Game?!

Creeeaak!

The big gate of the safe zone slowly opens as Reign and the others wait patiently outside, finally seeing the gate open they enter inside where they see the guard observing them with a weird expression on his face.

“Damn guys, I really thought you died this time, what took you so long, you don’t look injured or anything.” The guard observes them from head to toe, trying to check for any injuries. .𝘯𝘵

“Come on man, we were only gone for a day, what do you mean took us so long?” Shadow complains to the guard as he walks towards him.

“A day, what do you mean a day, you were gone for three days you brats!” Jack shouts at them from the wall. Jumping down he lands right in front of the group and gives them an angry stare. “What the hell were you doing for so long, do you know how dangerous the forest can be for you bunch, what happens if you die huh, do you know how much harder that would be for us, the promotions and bonuses gone and… god, I don’t wanna think about it.”

“So you were just concerned for yourself huh.” Wolf tells him with an annoyed face.

“Of course I was, it’s not like you and me are friends or anything you brats, first you gotta become a lot stronger for anything like that, anyway, come on in and tell me what happened.” Jack tells them while waving his hand for them to come forward.

“We went in a dungeon, but there’s no way it took so long, I’m certain it took me less than a day, and we only waited for Shadow and Beast for a couple of hours.” Reign puts his hand to his chin and thinks about everything that happened.

“Ummm, guys actually – ” Beast speaks up and tries to say something but is cut short by the system.

[The waiting room is a special place where time is accelerated, it took player codenamed ‘Beast’ three days to finish the dungeon.]

“What?!” Everyone exclaims in unison and looks at Beast.

“I thought everyone knew, I didn’t think that the waiting room was a place like that.” Beast puts his hands up in the air and gives an apologetic face.

“It’s alright Beastie, it’s not your fault.” Shadow comes closer and comforts the downed Beast.

“Alright, so we were gone for three days, well vice-captain, what did we miss?” Wolf walks towards Jack and asks him.

“Not much honestly, the map still isn’t finished, but we’re nearly there, the only thing different is that we let the others out to hunt as well, they’re not as good as you guys, we already had some deaths.” Jack tells them while they walk towards the castle, on the way Reign and the others can see students and professors moving about, some were bringing corpses of monsters they hunted while others brought back corpses of their fallen comrades, there were even some that were simply kneeling on the floor as they wept.

“So you have already started with that huh?” Reign looks around them, noticing them everyone was giving weird glances to the party, some were excited to see them, some didn’t care while others were angry. Reign weirdly didn’t think too much of it, he and the others were quite a drawn back group, they didn’t really have friends in the university, only some acquaintances.

“How many are dead so far?” Wolf asks in a cold tone.

“About 20, considering the amount of people it’s a small number, but it’s still concerning, these guys have no experience in true life and death battles, we need to find a way for them to become a bit more brave, and don’t look at me like that, you know it best, this world you are in now is governed by the law of the jungle, only the strong have a chance to survive, the weak have no other choice then to struggle or perish.” Jack gives everyone a stern glare as he speaks the words out.

Reign and everyone else put their heads down, they knew he was right, the safe zone wasn’t a place where you could just life in, you have to pay after a month passes, if people didn’t try to fight now they will never be able to survive the hellish world.

[World announcement!]

[To all the players in the world, it has been 5 days since the start of the game, please be warned that the tutorial phase will only last for 5 more days, after that the rules and benefits the system has given will be changed, give it your best and use the remaining time wisely.]

“Tutorial phase?” Shadow looks at other with a dumb expression on his face.

“This probably has something to do with the party system not dividing the exp earned right now, I’m pretty sure that after 5 days all of us will be gaining far less exp compared to now, we need to at least get to lvl 10 and do the hidden dungeon before it happens.” Reign turns around and tells everyone, they already knew about the exp not being divided and that it will not last for a long time, but they never expected the time would arrive so soon.

“Yeah, I’m not far away from level 9 right now, what about everyone else?” Wolf asks the others.

“Half” Shadow answers.

“Same” Tank says.

“M-me too.” Beast gives a timid answer.

Wolf looks at Reign who answers with a small smirk “I just need 60 more points.” Wolf face flinches a bit when he hears that, but continues on like nothing happened. “Alright, we should rest a bit first and then go hunting a bit, we’ll just continue with that until we finally get to level 10 and get our classes, then we do the dungeon.”

“That probably won’t work for you guys.” Suddenly from the side captain Eldar shows up and tells them.

“What, why?” Reign asks him.

“It’s simple really, to get a class is easy yes, but there is a trial you must face, depending on how far you go in it will show your potential and unlock more class advancements for you later on, the better you do then the better chance you have in the future, that of course doesn’t mean that if you don’t do well now you’re screwed, it’s merely a probability issue, I’ve seen many that sucked at the first trial but managed to either get lucky or just power through with sheer effort and become incredibly strong, but I would advise you to do your best straight away, and that means the trial might go on for a couple of days.”

“So there’s even something like that, do we gain anything else from doing well?” Tank asks with sparkling eyes.

“Nope, that’s why a lot of people don’t try to hard and regret it later on, remember, the system only rewards hard work, so I advise you to give it your all in the trials, you lot have a lot of potential, I would hate to see you waste it.” Eldar gives off a friendly smile as he tells them that.

“And you probably will get a better promotion and bonuses if we become stronger huh?” Wolf asks with a small smile on his face.

“Well of cour-” Eldar says before shutting his mouth, knowing he was caught he let’s out a fake cough and says: “Just remember this, my ambitions and wants are closely connected to yours, that’s why I will try to help you guys out whenever I can.”