Tutorial - Final Stage

People with the most participation points in your age group:

- Strength: Scott Moore - 5,744

- Agility: Feng Shen - 74,569

- Resistance: Alexandra King - 3,751

- Magic: Alicia Winter - 15,877

Unlocking the Pioneer Achievement for them.

So Scott had won. Shen wasn't glad about it, but at least the asshole had not betrayed anyone. That was the only good thing Shen could say about him.

He wasn't surprised to see Alicia's name there, as he had seen her determination to get the Achievement at the end of the fight. He wondered what had made her change her mind.

Achievement unlocked: Pioneer

Beat the final test of a Pioneer Tutorial.

A Pioneer is a true elite and the hope of their race. As such, they must be prepared for the challenges ahead.

Rewards:

- All stats upgraded from G to E+

- One free stat upgrade from E+ to D-

- Free E+ weapon

- Free E+ equipment

- All items in the Special category of the Guardian Store will remain at a 90% discount

| Reward applied: Resistance Up (E+)

| Not eligible for reward: Strength Up (F-)

| Not eligible for reward: Strength Up (F)

| Not eligible for reward: Strength Up (F+)

| Not eligible for reward: Strength Up (E-)

| Not eligible for reward: Strength Up (E)

| Not eligible for reward: Strength Up (E+)

| Not eligible for reward: Agility Up (F-)

(...)

| Not eligible for reward: Agility Up (E+)

| Not eligible for reward: Resistance Up (F-)

(...)

| Not eligible for reward: Resistance Up (E)

| Not eligible for reward: Magic Up (F-)

(...)

| Not eligible for reward: Magic Up (E+)

| Non-eligible stat upgrades turned into AP | +220,000 AP

| Total AP: 220,814

Those rewards were astonishing.

The continued discount on the Special items alone was amazing. Special items couldn't be given to others, and the category currently had only one item, learning ability upgrade. However, it was a fantastic item that made the discount worth all the trouble they had gone through to keep it.

Shen had gotten the exclusive True Pioneer Achievement that no other human could have, yet it was worse than Pioneer. He guessed that the Pioneer Achievement, despite having a slightly inferior name, was created by the Alliance proper for grander purposes. In contrast, the True Pioneer was created by the Pioneer Tutorial just to make it possible to kill the final boss.

It was nice to see he had also gotten the converted AP for the magic stat he didn't have. Of his stats, only resistance wasn't E+ yet, so he got a lot of AP. He also got a new D- stat upgrade and told the system to apply it to his strength because his agility was already D-.

Shen quickly checked the Guardian Store, but it had nothing available for purchase at the D- tier or higher. That made it pretty obvious what to spend his extra AP on.

He could improve his stats over time, but the tutorial's discount was about to go away. The time he would save was more than worth the AP investment.

Unfortunately, he was just thirty-six thousand AP short of upgrading his agility all the way to D+, so he went with the second-best option.

"Buy D- resistance and D agility," he said.

| Reward redeemed: Strength Up (D-)

| Purchased: Resistance Up (D-) | -64,000 AP

| Purchased: Agility Up (D) | -128,000 AP

| Remaining AP: 28,814

The system made him float as it reconfigured his body once more.

Shen's strength and agility reached new thresholds, his entire body adapted for the improved stats. Everything became more resistant, too, from skin to marrow, muscle to tendon. Even his eyes turned immune to anything an unarmed mortal might attempt against him.

All over the stage, people were going through similar processes. While it happened, the system prompted them to choose the free weapon and equipment.

"Spear and lamellar armor," Shen said.

| Reward redeemed: Any Weapon (E+)

| Reward redeemed: Any Equipment (E+)

One spear and one armor materialized, floating, in front of him.

The spear was a visual downgrade from the cool golden and red one E- he had. Its shaft was polished dark gray bone, the spearhead looked like simple metal, there was no tassel, and it had a metal counterweight. Shen even Inspected it to make sure he wasn't getting tricked somehow.

Wyrmbone Moonstone Spear (E+)

Enchantments: Self-Repair (E+), Sharpness (E+), Penetration (E+)

A finely crafted spear made with the bones of a D-rank wyrm and a unique metal acquired by refining the moon orbiting the homeworld of the malkov race.

The lamellar armor was a special thing; it even came with parts that Shen wouldn't strictly call armor pieces.

It was mainly made of metal, the shoulder had brown and silvery metal platings, the chest had extra brown plating, there were silvery lamellae from the belly to the knees, an extra round silvery piece protected the gut, brown leather acted as padding and held many parts together, dark gray cloth provided extra padding below the leather and hid the arms and legs, a piece of the same fabric with a brownish tint covered the right half of the chest and belly for aesthetics purposes only, and brown vambraces with silvery details protected the forearms.

"Inspect," Shen said.

Kardor Elite Sargeant Armor (E+)

Enchantments: Self-Repair (E+), Damage Reduction (E+), Shock Reduction (E+)

The armor traditionally worn by elite sergeants of the extinct kardor race.

Made of shintu metal, carof leather, and tantuuk fabric.

When Shen's upgrade finished, he stuck his E- spear on the ground, put the armor on, and grabbed the new weapon. Both fit nicely.

A few moments later, everyone's upgrades were over, and they got a new message.

Tutorial - Guardian System's Lies

The Guardian System cannot ever lie to you with one exception: when it doesn't know the truth.

This exception, albeit rare, is more commonly found in two situations: during a battle against the Alliance's enemies and in sapient-supervised events.

In a battle, the enemy may engage in counter-information tactics that may hinder the system's ability to provide accurate data. However, unlike in this tutorial, your superiors cannot directly lie to you using the system, only limit the information you have access to.

In sapient-supervised events, the data provided by the system is fed by sapient beings, so they can be imprecise under one condition: if it's about the future. Sapients can change their minds after informing others of something, so this condition was added. However, they cannot use the system to misinform about anything else.

In this tutorial, this happened to you in three distinct moments. First, the system once said all stages would have a middle and final boss, but one stage didn't. Second, it declared there would be 80 Pioneers, then had everyone fight for the privilege, with the possibility of failure. Third, when it said the final boss had only two HP thresholds.

The first two moments happened because there was a change of mind about how the tutorial should proceed. The final boss thresholds were purposefully misleading to remind you of the Void Spawn adaptability.

Never take a victory for granted until your enemy is dead—and even then, make sure they don't have a way to return to life.

Those rules were somewhat fair, Shen reckoned. It was good to know the system couldn't lie to him in any other circumstance.

Of course, it could be lying to him right now, so he would take every message from now on with a grain of salt.

Tutorial - Final Stage

Congratulations on completing the tutorial!

It surprised this Pioneer Tutorial's Administration to see over 75% of Earth's population above fifteen years old join the tutorial. We expected about 50%, but we underestimated how well-received our three gifts would be and how you're affected by the herd effect.

Over four billion five hundred million people joined the tutorial.

Eighty became Pioneers.

You have one week to do whatever you want before this Pioneer Tutorial ends.

Dying will cause you to be removed in advance.

Eighty in four billion was one in fifty million. Quite the rare Achievement.

Tutorial - Temporary Mental Modifications

The Pioneer Tutorial applied two changes to your mind that will be removed when you leave the tutorial:

1. Character Boost

As you develop as a Guardian, you'll also develop your Path, the mix of your Concepts and Laws that made up your power. Your personality will set its destination, and a powerful character is needed to proceed further. We helped you with that.

The boost didn't change your morals. It made the scheming more devious, the righteous purer, and so on. It accentuated your characteristics, whatever they may be.

As unfortunate as it is, the Multiverse Alliance needs powerful soldiers more than kind scholars, so morals aren't as important—as long as our laws are followed.

2. Concept Intuition

There's a particular type of magic formation that is very expensive to both set up and maintain. It can increase one's intuition toward Concepts. It was in place during this entire tutorial.

We didn't warn you about it to give you a final lesson: never neglect your Path. At every chance you have, push it forth. You never know what you might be missing by pursuing other goals.

The first change was very offensive. Once again, the Alliance invaded the singularity of the self to further its agenda. It didn't matter if it was beneficial; Shen didn't like to stop being his natural for even a moment.

He understood why it was needed. Pioneers needed to become a new race's elites, whatever the cost. But he didn't need to like it.

But speaking of costs, he had one week to use the expensive Concept Intuition magic affecting his mind, and he knew just who he didn't want to have the same privilege.

"I told you treachery would not be tolerated," Shen said using his Lion's Roar. "Now, you'll continue paying for it."

He willed it, and his mind became aware of the three hundred people closest to him thanks to his mastered War. The number of people he could "link" with and the range would increase as he either grew stronger or specialized in that aspect of War.

Shen had a D-rank mind and an E-tier learning ability, so he recalled whoever he had seen backstabbing others during the fight. As he got aware of those around, he could easily find whoever he wanted.

He turned right and sprinted at the nearest deceitful bastard.

Alicia was in awe of having E+ stats. Was that how Shen felt? All that strength at his fingertips?

Speaking of Shen, he was killing people again. Some tried to argue their case; others called him names. Only a few tried to resist, none successfully.

After the swift and easy killing, he returned to the middle of the field, said he would rather not be interrupted as he used the Concept Intuition to the utmost, suggested everyone do the same, sat down with his legs crossed, and closed his eyes to meditate.

Alicia did likewise; who knows, she might even reach D-rank yet.

All around her, the survivors did as suggested. Whatever politics they had in mind could wait until they either harvested all they could of the seven days of extra intuition or were close to the end.

The extra week was fantastic for Shen.

To begin with, he started "repurposing" his body to his cultivation method. Once more, the system had given him "generic" muscles when he improved his stats. It would take a few extra weeks to finish the process, but he was confident he wouldn't become incompatible with his cultivation, at least.

More importantly, he had significant gains in his Path.

His Concept of Combat reached 93% of the way to mastery, only the final gap remaining.

Sharpness got all the way to 85%.

Zephyr sat firmly at 75%, greatly aided by his footwork level up and all the climbing and dodging.

Arc Flash got to an incredible 50% in one go. Using it repeatedly, seeing so much lightning, and getting electrocuted had helped a lot.

Flow wasn't going as well, at 40%, mainly assisted by all the moving around the battlefield.

And Boundless improved maybe five to ten percent, now resting anywhere between 15% to 40%. He would only get a precise number after he understood half of it and could see the entire "page."

That was the fruit of fighting experience, the extra few points of learning ability, the knowledge on mastered Concepts he gained on the Skill level up, and actually mastering his first Concept.

Speaking of levels, his improvements on Concepts and his learning ability also helped him with his stuck Skill.

Shen stood up and trained his spear forms.

Where he once had been sloppy, hesitating, or imprecise, now he showed precision and determination. His spear art was firm where it had to be and flexible where it demanded.

Thrusting, hacking, splitting, jabbing. Chiseling, groping, throwing, rushing. Deflecting, hooking, upholding, spinning. Scraping, stretching, whirling. The fifteen basic moves of Windstorm Spear Art.

Shen trained them all, dancing in the movements sets and using his footwork to accomplish the final Hurricane Martial Art. Now that he thought about it, it was weird the system hadn't recognized the union of cultivation, footwork, and spear art that made the ultimate martial art of the Feng Shen. He tried registering it again, to no avail.

Regardless of that, his training bore fruits. The moment Shen finished the last movement of the most complex set he knew, he got a notification.

| Skill Level Up — Windstorm Spear Art (C-) — Level 3

Shen practiced everything he got from the level up even as information entered his mind, giving him extra moves and fixing the old ones.

| Skill Sync Complete — Windstorm Spear Art (C-) — Level 3

It ended quickly, but he continued; he lost himself in his spear.

It had been a while since he had done that. The weapon had helped him from the very first stage up to the last kill of a betrayer. He was glad he had made it the foundation of his Path.

Almost seven days had passed when he felt there was no more to be gained meditating or training—at least nothing that the Concept Intuition thing would help with. He had a little over two hours to talk to Alicia and Sai—who was standing behind him—and maybe make new allies.

He found her standing nearby, juggling a few dozen tiny fireballs in front of her with concentration.

She was wearing a long, sleeveless crimson dress with golden details. There was a new golden ring with black inscriptions and a red gem on her index finger too. He guessed they were her free E+ equipment and weapon.

"Hi," he said, approaching. "How are you doing?"

She looked at him and smiled as her fireballs dissipated. "Fucking awesome! I've never felt so strong before! Is that how you feel all the time?"

He smiled back. "I suppose. You live in New York, right?"

She nodded. "Yup! Will you come to see me? Memorize my phone number and get yourself a phone to call me. Memorize my address too, just in case phones stop working. I'll wait for you."

He had told her he had no idea where he had woken up. Their only ways to meet were if the system let them choose where they were placed once they left the tutorial or if he got to her.

She gave him her data, then he got the same from Sai—who lived in India. He had become a Pioneer too.

"Call Alicia if you can," Shen told the man. "If phones aren't working, I'll find a way to reach you."

Shen was about to engage in a conversation with Sai, who had new dark leather armor and dagger, when the war council approached.

"Can we talk?" Marzia asked.