★ Chip

More or less, Rose thought she had gotten the chip due to her first MVP battle results. Killing a boss in 5 milliseconds? Had anyone ever done such a thing? Needless to say, she had gotten herself some coins for whatever and reached level 4 in her first kill.

She would have had some uses with the eyeball's tail if it didn't disappear.

A theory had also found its conclusion from the recent happenings.

There were two known cases for transmigration. It was either through memory transfer or soul transfer. If her memory was transferred into the game character 'Rosetta', then she shouldn't have that much influence in the game, she would still be considered an NPC with a label and a degree of autonomy.

However, with her case, aside from external factors, there had been no restrictions to her as a character and she had been moving and implementing decisions just like a real person. No autonomous, not according to the system and certainly not the same 'Rosetta' anymore.

The likely conclusion of why the [Boss] wasn't affected with her speech earlier was due to its underdeveloped cognition prevalent with monsters. Maybe not all but the low level eyeball certainly wasn't very bright. In fact, it acted like a child intent on harming those who disrupted its sleep— for a baby eyeball, that's all it knew to cause tantrum. Having thought that, her lullaby was very effective to it due to its underlying need to sleep, to go back into slumber and just be a child finally satisfied.

She suddenly felt guilty, thinking she had killed a babe. But then again, she could've died.

She clapped her hands together and solemnly apologized to the wind. "Forgive this Grandma for killing you, and thank you for the loot." There was only the howl of the night breeze in return, making her tremble from the cold.

Beyond the broken rooftop door, a sky full of stars spread far and wide, like a starry blanket above. The wind was chilly and the roof was wide open. There was nothing else in sight. She currently had a chip she didn't know how to identity and plentiful of Prestige Points (PP) for god knows where to use. She also had her voice to attempt and kill more mobs, to clear the way and maybe reach a laboratory.

In the game, players were required to use a tool to identity unidentified items and there should be one in the school laboratory. After all, they also had dungeons as practice fields with real rewards and loots to bequeath for students.

She was inspired to kill more after earning a satisfactory reward, completely forgetting her apology for killing a baby monster.

Monsters, here she comes, a walking siren is on her way! Ready to annihilate them all.

"But what if they're smarter than the boss?" Rose was suddenly in dilemma, a hand on her chin as she pondered for alternatives. But her greed won her over and she begun to descend downstairs, towards the 6th floor where there was only darkness.

She hadn't even stepped down from the last step when she felt a sting on her calf, making her retreat back instantly several steps backwards.

"...They've been waiting." She deduced. There was no light so she couldn't see how serious her wounds were, but she was sure they were pretty deep.

She calmly sat on the step, crossing her arms over her chest while her back was ramrod straight. "An invisible boundary that only NPCs and Online Players can cross..." Then she begun with a hum, before spreading her voice into a hymn. Slowly, softly at first and then she realized, the instinctual sounds of monsters grew more and more quiet, as if calming their anger for the trespasser. She was the intruder.

The voice was the key, the lyrics was not important.

For what may seem like 40 minutes, she heard the faint sounds of snoozing. So she stopped and brought herself down to the 6th floor completely. Her steps faltered when they bumped onto something hard, but since it was dark she couldn't see what it was.

She followed along the walls, opposite from the windows and felt along to find any door.

Finding the first door, she nudged it— it was locked. And another, it was also locked.

She continued this quiet and tiresome process while limping; her calf wounds had been bleeding too much for her taste. Her forehead was now layered with thick sweat, her back soaked and her eyes still couldn't see a thing. It was almost nightmarish, but she was a fighter.

Not stopping short despite the pain in her lungs for short of breath, she finally found the right room. Still, it was locked.

Slowly, she heard the same faint even footsteps from earlier— Online Players. There really were brave souls even during the darkest of the night when monsters were a certain degree stronger and a notch more aggressive. Not to mention the whole building was in lockdown.

[Hey, look. This one is sleeping... What the heck? I just kicked it and it's not waking up! Lololol.]

[Oi, stop playing around. I only came with you to grind levels, remember? I'll only heal you not kill mobs. If it's sleeping, kill it right away lest it wakes.]

[Fine~ Fine~ Hya!]

[Fool! Use your gadget!]

[Oh, forgot. Beginner tutorials made me punch a dummy a thousand times...]

[That's cus you didn't use your gadget for a thousand times. Can't you read?]

[Uhhh... Bro.. Stop being mean, okay? I was half-asleep!]

[You are always half-asleep, la! Get on with it! Ruining my date just to help you... what am I thinking.]

[I love you too, Bro~~]

[F*ck]

As the beginner player killed more and more of the unconscious monsters, Rose was also leveling at the side. "So status effect gives me contribution too."

It was a breeze for the online player because there was no struggle, then slowly, faint light finally penetrated the complete darkness that Rose was previously in. Unlike the Online Players, she couldn't see anything at all. She didn't know why.

Then she soon discovered it was due to 'level gap'.

She was at level 4, but after 20 minutes of purging, she had gone up 4 more levels. At level 8, she could faintly see the monsters and discover their basic information, and they all ranged between level 9 to 11. There was a 5-level gap, which she could also relate to the [Boss]. Until she killed it, she could only hear the sounds and faintly follow along her instinct.

[Look! A hidden NPC!!]

[...Never heard of one at the Academy at all... Could this be?]

[Who cares, let's see how it goes.]

They slowly approached Rose who was beginning to feel numb all over from all her wounds. She tried to distract herself from the pain by doing some critical thinking, but the Online Players completely snapped her out of her thoughts.

She comb her way up the wall to support herself to stand and to act mute.

As a mute, she frantically acted like an animated NPC pointing at the door beside her, as if urging those who could understand her meaning to open up the freakin' door.

[Open the door. Maybe this really is a hidden quest available only after midnight...]

[OKAY!!]

Right away, the beginner player passed by Rose like she really was just an NPC that need not be paid any more attention. It was also this time that Rose realized that Online Players could destroy passageways or obstruction into another area through physical attacks or spells. In an instant, the door to the laboratory room was broken down.

She felt dismayed as she had intended to lock herself inside once they opened the door for her.

Neither could she run, for it was much too painful due to her wounds.

There was immediate light as soon as the Online Players went inside, greeting them with silence and stillness they had not expected. She nonchalantly followed along the Online Players and went straight to the Identification Pod, placed the ★ Chip and stole it back before going over the little cabinet at the side where there was a sink.

Like an indifferent NPC that she was, she washed away her wounds, applied antiseptic all over and everywhere with gritted teeth, tears of pain were threatening to escape from her eyes.

[I don't understand...]

[Let's wait. Maybe this is just the prologue.]

[It's taking a while, why don't we kill more mobs?]

[You go, and crawl back when you are dying.]

[Ha! Did you forget they're all still sleeping?! I'll be off!]

The light from the white texts looked a little more dimmed due to the fluorescent lights up the ceiling. Still, Rose could clearly read their exchange. After bandaging her arms and legs like a mummy, Rose decisively left the Laboratory but followed after by the Online Player whose level she couldn't see [??].

She might be able to go home tonight after all, and thus with quick steps, she moved down a floor— sung her piece and made the monsters fall asleep. The Online Player continued to tag along, determined to get to the bottom of this hidden NPC and hidden Quest.

Her throat grew hoarse but still she continued to sing like she seldom did in operas. For every floor, she continued to level up because just after them was the beginner player who was by now addicted to killing helpless monsters, stabbing them or invoking area magic to obliterate them all at once.

Like this, she finally ended up at the entrance and just like with the Laboratory Room, she acted like a distress mute NPC frantically pointing at the entrance door. And since her wounds were a bit more bearable now, she improvised further, banging the glass entrance doors like some zombies were after her from behind.

[...This is really taking too long...]

Still, the Online Player blasted off the entrance door. He was so powerful!!

It only required him one spell and the whole wide glass door disappeared like it was never there.

But Rose did not have the leisure to rave further for she quickly ran outside of the school building, straight to the entrance and turn towards home, limping. Whatever white texts were there on her back, she had no mind to care!