Opening my Character Menu as I waited, I decided to spend my 30 unused Available Points on balancing my other Stats, still unsure what exactly to put them in, and keeping Strength and Agility higher than the others because they seemed the most useful.

Stats

Name: Eyes Thalion

Race: Wood Elf

Level: 1

Class: Ranger

Subclass: Seer

[Titles]: 2

Health: 300 (10% regen/hr)

Mana: 200 (1% regen/min)

Stamina: 200 (1% regen/min)

Vitality: 20 [+] Magic: 20 [+]

Strength: 35 [+] Agility: 35 [+]

Intelligence: 20 [+] Endurance: 20 [+]

Sense: 20 [+]

Available Points: 10

Status: None

Bonus: 5% Physical Damage Reduction

“I thought I didn’t put any points in Sense, so how is it at 20 already?” I asked myself, still dumping the remaining 10 Available Points into Sense anyway because it made the Seer Skills better. Moving on, I also noticed that Titles was now clickable, and I had 2 of them.

Total Titles: 2 Completionist: For fully completing the Tutorial, you have increased your ability to learn things faster. +10% Experience Gain from All Sources. The One Who Sees: The one who chose to walk the ‘Path Of A Seer’, you begin to see things one should not be able to. +10 Sense.

“Ahhh, that’s why my Sense was higher.” Trying to find out more about the Seer Subclass, I hovered my finger over it in the Menu but it only gave the same description from before. “How strange.” I thought to myself. “Usually if there’s a Subclass in a game, it almost always has a separate Level from the Main Class, but in this System the Level is separated from both. Does that mean they're the same Level? and if they’re not the same, is there a way to Level Up the Seer Subclass?” I wondered to myself, fiddling through the Menus.

After a few minutes of waiting and not getting a single response to my Requests, I was about to give up, when suddenly a bunch of messages came one after the other.

Xian has accepted your Friend Request, and has been added to your Friends List. Casino has accepted your Friend Request, and has been added to your Friends List. Dream Manic Pixie has accepted your Friend Request, and has been added to your Friends List. Tobias Casper Grim has accepted your Friend Request, and has been added to your Friends List.

“Ooo, 1, 2, 3, 4…” Counting the messages aloud.

Faust has accepted your Friend Request, and has been added to your Friends List. Essex has accepted your Friend Request, and has been added to your Friends List. Da Vinci has accepted your Friend Request, and has been added to your Friends List. Omega has accepted your Friend Request, and has been added to your Friends List. Lavie En Rouge has declined your Friend Request.

“5, 6, 7, 8…” Seeing the decline, I said “Awww, so close to being perfect, but I guess 8 out 9 ain’t bad, which is actually way better than 3 or 4 I expected.” But a second later, I got another message.

Lavie En Rouge has sent you a [Friend Request].

Taking me by surprise, I immediately clicked it.

Friend Request From: Lavie En Rouge To: Eyes Thalion

Message: Oops sorry, it was misclick, I meant to click Accept, so will you still add me?

[Accept] or [Decline]

I laughed, and said “I guess I spoke too soon.” Clicking Accept.

You have accepted Lavie En Rouge’s Friend Request, and they have been added to your Friends List.

Going to the Messages Menu, I created a group chat and began inviting the others to it, and then waited for them to join.

The Top 10

Lavie En Rouge has joined the Chat.

Da Vinci has joined the Chat.

Dream Manic Pixie has joined the Chat.

Faust has joined the Chat.

Tobias Casper Grim has joined the Chat.

Essex has joined the Chat.

Casino has joined the Chat.

Xian has joined the Chat.

Omega has joined the Chat.

When everyone had joined, I was surprised to see no one was talkative, so I typed in Chat first.

Hi, can everyone see this?

Lavie En Rouge- I can, and sorry again.

Xian- Yes.

Dream Manic Pixie- Yup

Faust- Yeah

Essex- I see it.

Casino- Yes.

Tobias Casper Grim- I can.

Da Vinci- (•_•)

Omega- Yes.

That’s great, and I want to start off by thanking you all for accepting my Friend Requests.

I only expected half of you to accept, maybe less, but I was happy to see that all of you did.

Dream- Np

Lavie- You’re welcome.

Essex- I only accepted because you're the Seer, right? Assuming this Da Vinci person switched their name after they picked Architect.

Da Vinci- (^-^)

Well yes I am the Seer, but why’d you have to expose us like that.

Essex- Sorry, I picked Glutton if that makes you feel better.

Faust- Woah woah woah stop guys ur gona expose all of us if u ppl keep telling us wat u picked

Dream- I don’t really care if ppl kno I picked Tamer

Lavie- I chose Valkyrie.

Casino- Mine's pretty obvious, but Gambler.

Faust- Guys stop doesn’t keeping it a secret from ppl sound so much better?

Xian- Well seeing how more than half of the Subclasses are already out there, it won't be hard that to guess the rest, and I think it's only fair to let them know ours Faust. Respawner.

Tobias- Phantom.

Faust- U guys suck Shifter

Omega- I guess that only leaves me as the Killer, right?

Wow, I didn’t expect you guys to expose yourselves too, but thanks I guess.

“I can't believe my Subclass got exposed so early, I was planning to keep it a secret, and who would’ve guessed these people would just outright tell each other theirs.” I thought to myself. “They either don’t really care about people knowing, or they can’t see the value of keeping 10 completely unique Subclasses a secret from people, except for that Faust kid.” Then typing,

That being said, I actually agree with Faust’s point.

Faust- Thank u!

So I’d like all of us to make a pact to not tell the other Players about yours or any of our Subclasses, okay?

Essex- I know you invited us and all, but why would we listen to you? You did come in 10th place after all.

That is true that I got 10th, but all of you let the Seer Subclass fall to me, and with it I saw the future.

Completely lying to them.

Da Vinci- ! (0.0) !

Dream- No way

Faust- Awww man I knew that looked like a good one

Essex- Oh?

Xian- Really!?

Casino- What’d ya see?

Thinking up a lie they would believe, I typed...

First of all the future is ever changing, so seeing something doesn’t mean it will happen, but from what I saw, if the other Players find out about our Subclasses, eventually they’ll get really jealous of our unnatural success and overachieving, thinking it's completely unfair for us to have the Subclasses they don't have, and then they’ll start forming groups to come and hunt us down.

Reading back what I typed, I thought “Will they actually believe that?”

Omega- These people already disgust me.

Xian- I’m not sure about you guys, but I’m pretty confident I would survive almost anything.

Faust- Do u really respawn? Cuz that’s really unfair 2 if u do

Xian- Who knows…

While they continued to talk, I looked up from the screen and saw the timer.

Waiting For Other Players: 2 Hours, 21 Minutes, 14 Seconds

“Wow, it’s only been about an hour and a half since I finished the Tutorial, this is gonna be a long wait.” I thought to myself, going back to the group chat where they were now exchanging what Classes they were. Scrolling back up, I read that: Lavie and Omega were Fighters, Casino and Tobias Rogues, Dream and Xian Healers, and Da Vinci, Essex, and Faust were all Mages.

Essex- And you Eyes?

Lavie- Eyes?

Oh sorry, mine’s Ranger.

Faust- The ranger class must suck then

Dream- Y would u think that?

Xian- Eyes got last place at 10th, and is the only Ranger in the Top 10, while the other Classes had at least two, therefore the Ranger Class is probably the worst of the 5 Classes, at least as of right now.

Dream- Ohhh that makes sense

Ouch, I’m gonna ignore that diss on Rangers, but does everyone agree to the pact of not telling the other Players about our Subclasses?

They all hesitated and didn’t type anything, and I assumed they were thinking of the pros and cons of the other Players knowing, and about the lie I told them. But after a few minutes of thinking, they all agreed one after the other to keep our Subclasses a secret.

Wow, thanks for all agreeing, and with that I think our chat is over for now.

Essex- Over? Shouldn’t we make a Party with each other or something?

Dream- Ooo that sounds fun!

Faust- Maybe but only if all of u aren’t trash

Dream- Lol look who’s talkin 6th place u didn’t even make top 5

Faust- Hey I only got 6th cause the last tutorial was rigged with skeletons

U healers probably had holy magic or something that was super effective against the skeletons and that’s why you 2 placed 4th and 5th otherwise y would healers place so high

Dream- Lol all I’m seeing are excuses, right Xian?

Xian- Don’t drag me into your argument, and to me it doesn’t matter whether we Party up or not.

Lavie- Well in my case, I don’t mind Partying with any of you.

Essex- How about you, Da Vinci?

Da Vinci- (^•^)/

Essex- I think that’s a yes?

Tobias- Well personally I work alone, unless forced to otherwise, or the circumstance is needed.

Omega- Yeah I don’t think I’ll join the Party either.

Casino- Same goes for me. I reckon I can’t trust any of y’all yet, and if we crossed each other, I bet it would be a whole lot harder to fight any of y’all than anyone else in this place.

The whole Chat stopped after what Casino typed, and I thought “They probably all had the same thoughts in the back of their minds, ‘Can I really trust these people? and what if I need to fight them?’, and Casino just said what we were all thinking.” Having the same thoughts in the back of my mind.

Casino- I’m leaving the group chat now.

Essex- Okay, I’m gonna go too then.

Dream- Me 2

“No, I can’t let them leave cynical about each other, otherwise they could be a problem in the future if they side with other Players later on, and they might even tell people about our Subclasses.” Then quickly typing to them,

Wait!

I know we can’t trust each other yet, who would, we’re just random strangers in a group chat together, but here's what I’m thinking:

I was gonna suggest we should experience and explore the new world by ourselves first anyway.

If we were all in the same Party together, we might not get stronger because we could easily rely on all the Top 10 Players around us.

In the meantime while we explore, we can slowly build and gain each other's trust while we talk in the group chat, and eventually when we can trust each other we can Party up then.

And any of you can always use the group chat to ask for help if you run into trouble or need someone for something that you can’t handle alone, and I'll be happy to help out.

Thoughts?

The chat went dead again until Lavie typed first.

Lavie- That sounds good to me, Eyes, I doubt this new world could be taken on alone if there’s an option to make a Party in the System. And if that’s the case, I would’ve eventually needed to make new Friends I could trust anyway, and I guess I might as well start making them with you guys.

I can at least trust in all your strengths.

I think seeing Lavie, the one who placed 1st in the Rankings, agree with me caused the others to follow suit.

Essex- I agree.

Xian- Myself as well.

Dream- I can’t w8 2 meet u guys later

Faust- I can wait 2 c u

Da Vinci- (^~^)/

Omega- I’m fine with that.

Tobias- I’ll have to see what the new world is like first, but sure why not.

What do you say, Casino?

Casino- I guess sometimes you just gotta take a chance, I’m all in.

I smirked, as a loud bell sound echoed in the now incredibly crowded space. My attention was immediately drawn to the timer that had now completely stopped, with an hour and 40 minutes still left on the time, as it then slowly changed the words in the air.

All Players Have Now Finished The Tutorial.

Changing what it said again.

All Tutorial Rankings Will Now Be Updated To The Final Results.

The Tutorial Rankings were then displayed on the 6 large blue screens, allowing everyone to see from every angle, but still unchanged and floating above the Rankings was the words COMBAT IS PROHIBITED. Catching everyone’s attention, the Tutorial Rankings started at the bottom at 9991-10,000th, but seeing their updated placings for what I assumed was their first time, people started yelling in anger, as the screen slowly scrolled up higher showing everyone else’s placings.

The voice of a man was prominent in the crowd, as he shouted “What the fuck is that bullshit! I was the first one to finish the Tutorial, so why was I placed 10,000th!”

A woman agreed with the man, “Yeah, I finished close to first too, but why did my place get changed close to last!”

Another person shouted, “Fuck you Guides!”

A few more people felt the same, then a few hundred, and then a few thousand. All shouting and yelling in anger of their placements, this whole situation we’re in, and at their Guides.

Faust- R these ppl stupid or something?

Xian- Well I was talking to people who finished before us earlier, and I found out most of them didn’t even know or find out about the Hidden Quests, and they just finished as fast as possible instead.

Faust- Ahahaha i guess that makes them stupid

Dream- Some ppl I talked to said the same thing

Essex- I wonder how many of them didn’t finish the Tutorial properly?

Casino- I bet half of them from all the hollering.

Making me look up from the chat, lighting was suddenly shot from the crowd, and passed right through the floating screens. A few other people started to join in attacking the screens, hurling more various types of elemental spells at it, and even shooting some arrows and crossbow bolts.

I don’t think the people noticed, but the COMBAT IS PROHIBITED words were now starting to blink red, and I thought “That doesn’t look good, I wonder what’ll the punishment be if it’s broken?” As I then heard a person scream out in pain, and in an instant the whole space suddenly went cold.

An overwhelming pressure overcame my body and it felt like the whole space just got a whole lot heavier and harder to breathe; slowly pushing us down, and causing all my senses to scream for me to run. Something was here but I couldn’t see it, and when I tried to move my body it wouldn’t move an inch, not even knowing or seeing why.

A loud voice then echoed in the space and silenced everyone. “Oh, no, no, no, didn’t you read the one rule? Did I not make it big enough for all of you to see? Combat is prohibited!” The voice was so loud that I thought my eardrums were about to burst, but I couldn’t even move my arms and hands to cover them. The words COMBAT IS PROHIBITED then turned completely red and instantly became 10x the size, making all the Tutorial Ranking screens disappear, and the words taking their place. “Lucky for you rulebreakers, only one Player really broke the rule before I stopped the rest of you from inflicting damage to another. And as such, only one will become my example.” Suddenly only my head was free to move, as I then watched a Player begin to float upwards from the crowd.

Moving and floating high up in the center of the space, the Player was able to move his whole body, and he shouted as his limbs flailed wildly “ What the hell is happening!? Who the fuck is doing this! Somebody help me! You're gonna regret-” And in the blink of an eye, the man’s head was cut clean off, not even seeing what cut it, as his head then dropped from his body to the floor. With the other Players also having their heads free to move, thousands of voices then screamed in complete fear and horror at the sight, pleading for help, and praying to their different Gods.

I was completely stunned in shock and disbelief. “There's no way that just happened, it must be a trick, right?” Looking up at the body still floating in the air, and spewing out blood from its neck. The sight was too much for me to handle, being diagnosed as hemophobic after the accident, as the memories of Uncle Thal’s bloodied body began flooding my mind again. Looking away, I felt absolutely sick to my stomach, and wanting to throw up, but I gulped it down. “Was I being too optimistic and carefree about this whole situation? Maybe these Guides are the bad guys, and they really are just using us for their sickening entertainment?” I thought to myself.

Then someone shouted, “Look something’s happening to that guy's body!” Reluctantly I forced myself to give a quick glance at the body, and I saw that a green and gold magic was surrounding and enveloping the entirety of the body. I watched all the spewing blood being sucked back up into the man’s body, and the head floating back up tp it too. With the head back on the neck, the bone, muscles, and skin reconnected itself, and when it was finished the gold and green magic dissipated.

Gasping back to life, the man said “What the hell, what was that!? Did I just die?” A spark of fire then ignited on the man’s chest, freaking him out, as the flames slowly grew and began engulfing his body. “Ahhhhhh! Ahhhhh! Help! Please help! No more!” Unable to move, none of us could do anything but watch the flames burn him alive. When his body stopped flailing in pain and was burnt completely black, the same green and gold magic surrounded his body again, and healed him completely back to normal. The man freaked out again when he returned back to life, but almost instantly his body was impaled with a large sharp ice shard, and then another and another, until he died again.

The loud echoing voice from before then spoke to us again, and said “I’m sorry for taking so long Players, I have to double check on everything before we start. Just give me 5 more minutes, and try to follow the one rule.” And instantly my body felt free again, and everyone else looked to be free too.

I looked at the man’s reviving body again, and I thought to myself “This is insane…” Watching the man get electrocuted to death next.