Chapter 25

Chapter 25 –

[Round 2, Day 19 . 6:30]

Yawn

‘It seems I'm not sleeping enough, yawning as soon as I wake up . ’

I did a little stretching as I got off the bed .

‘Time to start another day . ’

It was impossible to tell morning, noon and night apart in this world, but I had been living a routinely life, having planned time for sleep, meals and work times in my time schedule .

Not only did it help to use my time to the fullest, by repeating a certain action in a day, it made the Tutorial into a routine which helped to increase my focus .

Of course, this idea of mine doesn't include any professional advice, and I was merely mimicking the schedules given to me back when I was an active professional player .

Just before I retired, the team hired a physical coach, who looked after us by giving many advices including daily patterns .

It was to help me with my declining skills, but I always dealt with him harshly due to constantly being on the edge from stress .

I can't even remember his name .

It would’ve been nice if I stayed on his good side and learnt a few things from him .

After the brief stretching, I did a light jogging following the walls of the Waiting Room .

After the 30 minute jog, I had a simple breakfast .

You didn’t feel hunger in the Waiting Room, but this was also to create a daily routine .

Eating something also makes you feel better .

I opened the Community as I was eating the jerkies and the riceballs I bought using the points from the 1st floor .

There were a lot of funny stories that were being posted by the newcomers from the 2nd round .

All the stories about the real world in the past month .

It seemed so peaceful that it felt unrealistic .

How a certain idol group had come back,

how a new blockbuster superhero movie was amazing,

how the result of president election in America was unexpected,

how there was a hidden ruling power in the Blue House exposed .

(TN: Blue House is the building for Korea's president, equivalent to White House in America . There was a recent event where one of the president's aides had been running the country using the president as a puppet, and it's a reference to that . )

[Lee Hoi Chang, Floor 2: Hey, honestly that sounds like horseshit to me . We've been making jokes that Korea is like hell but, that's just too far don't you think?]

[Jung Jin Soo, Floor 2: Yea maybe this is just a prank made by all the new kids in 2nd Round?]

[Kim Kyoung Jin, Floor 1: I'm telling you, it's real . ]

[Kim Sun Young, Floor 1: I know it sounds unbelievable . . . Ah, it sounds more like a lie when we try to explain it . . . ]

The Community was not just updating the real world news from the newcomers, but also releasing new information found by the 1st Rounders as well .

Most of it was information gathered by asking one of the supervisors you can meet by clearing the Floor, like Kirikiri .

At first, nobody wanted to share their information, but the atmosphere had changed since then .

It seemed the leading clearers in Normal Difficulty have begun to compete against each other .

When you looked at it, it looked no different from watching a group of peacocks shaking their tails to show them off .

Perhaps because of this strange environment, many of the people took pride in their status, image and friendships in the Community .

Well it was all worth it for me, since I could easily gain new information .

But, not all information was useful .

There were a few trolls who just wanted attention, while others seemed like they were just posting their fantasies .

And I was designated as one of them as well .

Mainly due to the information I released about the Hell Difficulty at the start of Round 2 .

And lastly, there was a son of a bitch who spread false information around .

Of course, the bastard's name was discredited, to prevent anyone from Round 2 to ever listening to him .

But not all the information was unreliable .

Lee Young Jin in normal difficulty had already reached Floor 6 .

Dear god, Floor 6 .

It means he climbed each floor in an average time of 7 days .

That's amazing speed .

Like Lee Young Jin, some of those who were trying to clear the Tutorial quickly had been releasing their newfound informations they gained from the Supervisors to the Community .

They even made surveys to vote for which questions to ask, as they prepared for the boss rooms .

Most of the useful information in the Community was from these leading adventurers .

The most important information of it all was about clearing the Tutorial and how to return to our world .

It was first found by someone in Easy Difficulty after reaching Floor 5 .

They said you could return to the real world after clearing Floor 100 in the Tutorial .

But there were many who didn’t believe this information .

It would gain credibility if more adventurers asked the same question and received the same answer .

Anyway, this information was like a ray of hope to the many people in the Tutorial .

The same went for me .

It was just that, how long would it take for me to reach Floor 100, when it was so hard to even survive in this place .

Just thinking about it made me sad .

It was like I was walking in a pitch dark tunnel, with no sense of time, then hearing that there just might be an exit at the end of the tunnel .

And I better focused on the present, if I wanted to see that future .

I couldn’t forget about the danger to the present from distracting myself by the gains I would have in an uncertain future .

There was information about possible bonus rewards that could be gained by clearing multiple floors in a single round .

To summarise, a significant amount of points was given .

But, many have decided that it was better to focus on growing our stats rather than the bonus points .

The main strategy to focus on growth in the lower stages remained .

And . . .

[Difficulty Hell, Forums (1/1)]

Not a single newcomer in Hell Difficulty had survived .

I had prayed for their survival, but it was for naught .

Considering how much thought and effort I had put in for their survival, I was surprisingly apathetic about it .

Was it because I felt the same thing in Round 1?

Or, did I know that surviving through those countless deadly traps was impossible in the first place?

It was not odd that an average person couldn’t survive in Hell Difficulty .

Infact, I was an outlier by reaching up to Floor 2 .

If anyone else survived through the 1st floor, I would think that the gods had given their divine protection to them .

I didn't feel sadness, but I still felt bitter .

I quickly turned the Community off before I got depressed again .

"Status"

‘Now, time to check the stats . ’

After the description of Battle Focus's hidden active skill was unlocked, I had been checking on the Status routinely to check for any changes .

Personally, I had been wishing for a description of Wind Spirit's Blessing's status effects and the conditions to activate it .

[Lee Ho Jae (Human)]

Lv . 7

Strength : 12

Dexterity : 32

Vitality : 18

Mana : 22

Skills : Battle Focus Lv . 7 Willpower Lv . 5 Awakening Lv . 1 Night Vision Lv . 2 Brighter Vision Lv . 1 Charge Lv . 2 Natural Regeneration Lv . 2 Improved Senses Lv . 4 Increased Field of Vision Lv . 1 Tough Skin Lv . 1 Basic Swordsmanship Lv . 1 Cut Lv . 1 Basic Shield Skill Lv . 2 Wind Spirit's Blessing Lv . 1 Pain Resistance Lv . 11 Bleed Resistance Lv . 4 Stun Resistance Lv . 2 Pierce Resistance Lv . 2 Poison Resistance Lv . 4 Paralysis Resistance Lv . 6 Heat Resistance Lv . 4 Burn Resistance Lv . 6 Cold Resistance Lv . 4 Frostbite Resistance Lv . 3

Misc : The God of Adventure pities you .

It showed all the effort I had put in until recently .

At first, all it had were strength, dexterity, vitality and mana, but it has gotten quite long now .

‘If there was one thing bothering me, it's that the god of adventure is still pitying me . ’

‘It's been a few days since I almost died from a mistake, but they still feel sorry for me . ’

‘What's their problem?’

(TN: Author's ambiguous about the gender of the gods, so I'm using gender neutral words . )

The most notable changes were Willpower's increase and gaining of Increased Field of Vision and Tough Skin .

How to use or improve the Willpower skill was still a mystery .

I thought I would find out its effect once its level increases .

Increased Field of Vision literally increased my field of vision .

It was not just seeing in a wider angle,

but closer to increasing the field of vision around the object I am focusing on .

Humans usually can't focus on everything they see .

From their large field of view, they apply their attention and decision making on a small area of focus, but just by having it larger, I can see and judge more than others .

It's what is often described as an athlete's ability to 'assess the field' or 'good eye' by others .

And, it was one of the abilities I had when I was a professional gamer too .

By having a skill on top of my natural ability, its effect would be tremendous .

Tough Skin literally made my skin tougher and stronger .

I gained it as I increased the Resistances for heat, frostbite and pierce .

It was not to the stage of not being cut by swords or pierced by arrows, but it felt tougher when I pinched it .

It felt more like cow leather rather than human skin .

It felt rather disgusting if I kept feeling it .

The last changes I should mention are my resistances .

In the last few days, I had been focusing on the growth of my resistances, resulting in their levels raising .

Although recently, this growth seemed to had stopped .

‘Now, my monitoring is complete, time to start my day . ’

[Will you enter the Tutorial Stage?]