At approximately 9pm, everyone was summoned into the restaurant for breakfast. I sat down at a table which had 6 seats, Luke and Jingxi spotted me and came down to sit with me. Hailey then came later and sat next to me. As we were talking about yesterday’s training, two people asked if they could sit with us.

A girl and a boy, which seemingly didn’t know each other. The girl came first and then the boy. The girl sat next to Luke, while the boy sat next to Hailey. We asked the boy and girl: “What’s your names?”

The girl which was a bit shorter than Hailey and had long reddish hair tied with a ponytail, and just as silm with brown eyes answered first: “My name is Peaches Han, nice to meet you. I’m a VRMMO player that plays NBO, my guild is called Ice Blades.”

After hearing that I thought to myself: Not bad, I’ve heard of Ice Blades before, they have little members but are quite skilled, not comparable to my group of friends though.

She continued: “I would like to ask to you join your group, or guild if you’re making one. I know you guys, you’re the “Crimson Vigilantes”, that 10 player group of friends. And you” As she pointed at me “are the strongest katana user in NBO, Gantic Flash.” I replied: “That’s right, and what are your abilities?”

She replied: “I’m a mace user, my special combo attack is called the Finale Strike, which is a 7 hit combo move.” I thought to myself, not bad, not bad. I said: “You’re welcome to join us, after all we do need members. Welcome to the Crimson Vigilantes, Peaches Han.”

After that, the boy started speaking: “Umm.. my name is Terry Wong.. I was in that fight with you guys before you guys defeated the boss remember..?”

I answered: “Don’t the silver dragons hate our guild?” He answered: “Well, I was the 2nd in command, and I don’t necessarily hate you guys.. I just had to follow orders that’s all.. But can I join your guild in this simulation please? It’s hard to survive out there alone.. I’m a battleaxe user and I have a 7 hit combo as well.. It’s called Earth Slam”

I answered: “Sure, why not?” I shouted: “Cheers to the 2 new members of the Crimson Vigilantes!” We all shouted: “CHEERS!”

As we started to order Dim Sum, and dig into our breakfast time went by sooner than we noticed. By 11pm, the speakers in the restaurant spoke out: “Everyone please arrive to the 2nd floor assembly by 11:30pm, or else you will be shot.” Not wanting to be shot, everyone hurriedly made their way to the assembly hall. Everyone in the Crimson Vigilante’s manage to get a seat next to each other.

The man in the black suit from yesterday spoke: “Please everyone take a look at the ipad next to you. The green boxes are the seats that you will have, the seats will determine where you will spawn and who will spawn next to you, although everyone spawns at the same location, you might want to spawn next to your new found friends, so I suggest you get booking.”

After hearing that, everyone started clicking on the ipads next to them, I managed to get a seat next to Hailey and Jingxi. While Luke was below me and had Terry and Peaches next to him.

Then after all the seats in the screens were red the man then said: “Please go into the door which is about to open behind me, And please don’t hurry as you cross through the scans.”

After he said that, the enormous screen behind him opened up, across it was a white room full of hospital beds. I guess since we were going into the virtual world for 3 days in the real world we would have to be hospitalized to be kept alive..

As me and my guild walked through the scanners, we stuck together until we found our respective beds, we laid down. As one by one, some person came to put the much larger version of a VTH on us.

As we were connected to the VTH, a man shouted: “Systems ready, start link.” After that, I was brought into a white tunnel once more. I was entering, the virtual world. After the white light disappeared I saw I was in a town, somewhat like the starter town in NBO.

There was a gathering area, where the man who was talking to us earlier suddenly emerged, larger than ever. He said: “I’m here to remind once again, players can kill players, clear the maze using the map in your inventory.

The tutorial is in your hands right now, so you should read it if you don’t play VRMMORPGs. If you die in here, you die in the real world. I shall see you all, depending on the situation in 300 days. May the odds be with you.” After that, he disappeared and everyone was in panic once more.

I estimated that since everyone was in chaos, it was the best time to go to the shops right now and pick up our starting weapons.

So I instructed everyone in the guild: “Quickly now! We must get our starting weapons and start farming in the maze, according to the map there’s a town nearby here. We should go to that town and farm nearby it’s outskirts, since it should only have low leveled monsters too!” Everyone nodded, and we quickly headed over to the beginners shop. After we chose our weapons of choice, we checked the map as we ran, clearing mob after mob heading towards the next town.

As we ran, I quickly made the party and the guild. Apparently, the max amount of members here in a party was 6, 4 less than NBO. We quickly made the guild “Crimson Vigilantes” through the gui. As we started clearing, I received a drop relatively quickly. It was called “Spirit of forest Katana”, and it had a requirement of level 3.

Luckily, when I got it I was already level 3, along with the rest of the guild. Everyone said i was lucky to get it, and that since I got the first drop it would probably mean I had the most luck. However, only after looking at the katana’s name, I had figured out that the first part out of the hundred parts of the maze was a plain.

We had been killing wolves, monkeys, lions and tigers all day long. As we reached the 2nd town, I asked everyone: “Should we rest here?” Everyone nodded, as we headed into the player inns to sleep. Everyone booked their own separate rooms to sleep in.

Our everyday routine was to eat breakfast, farm for 7 hours, then eat for half an hour for lunch, and farm 7 more hours, then eat again then sleep.

We maximized our XP gain through this daily routine, with our knowledge of standard VRMMORPGs, we had quickly became one of the top players in the simulation. And the “Crimson Vigilantes”, were well known. However, that didn’t change the fact that after 50 days, we still couldn’t find the boss room. The map only had guided us towards the dungeon, not inside. And inside the dungeon was a maze of it’s own.

day 53, 1st dungeon

“Hya, Heavenly Piercer!” A tab showed up showing the credits and xp we gained from killing the monster. After 53 days, we’re still in the 1st dungeon. Will we ever make it? The clearing team only consisted of 50 people, and so far I didn’t even know how much more floors did we have to clear in order to get to the top of the dungeon. As we cleared the current top floor and mapped it, we were attacked by more and more dark elves.

Eventually, we had to back down and drink our health potions to preserve our lives. Then, we struck them again. After that, a door opened and we saw it, the boss room. We peeked inside looking at what the boss looked like an enormous dark elf, wielding a katana.

After we saw it, we decided it was time to head back, and spread the news. It was only 11am after all, so there would be enough time for the clearers to gather at the 5th town, Seizu. After we spread out the news for the clearers, we ate lunch at one of the restaurants in the towns. Luke said: “Damn, food here surely don’t taste as well as the food in the real world.”

JingXi retorted: Well, duh it’s in the virtual world dumbass.” Luke shouted: “Why you piece of shit..” I said: “You two, just stop the argument for god’s sake.” The 2 girls at the table laughed, as they were chattering about how immature boys were.

After lunch, we were surprised to see not just clearers but normal players gathering too. After all the time we spent in here, it looks like they haven’t given up yet..

There was at least 500 players gathered as I began my speech : “As you know, according to the tutorial for this simulation, you should not fight bosses unless you’re 20 levels higher than that dungeon’s number. My guild’s current level at the lowest is 30, so I suggest anyone who’s level 20 or below leave immediately.”

With that, about 400 people left. As they were leaving, a brown haired person, who was half a head taller than me, jumped nearby me and shouted at me: “Are you telling these people to not participate? WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU? YOU JUST WANT ALL THE BOSS GEAR, ISN’T THAT RIGHT?” All you actual VRMMORPG players know how to use this damn machine, but the rest of us don’t. None of you taught us how to, and guess what, over 5000 players have died already because of you guys.”

He was right, we were MMORPG players, but we only thought of our own survival at the time, not the survival of everyone else.

Before I retorted him, a person who was a foot taller than that man who just jumped down, came down and said: “The VRMMORPG players, had to survive too. And think about it, since you were all in panic it wouldn’t make sense to help you all. It would just be a waste of time, plus a beginner's tutorial guide was given to you, if you didn’t read it and you died it’s your problem. And, why would the VRMMORPG players want the boss gear? They want it so they could help clear more dungeons and get us out of this simulation.”

After that, the person said: “Go on, continue speaking”. Stunned, I continued speaking: “We have found the boss room, and tonight in 6pm we meet here and prepare to raid it. Please get yourselves into groups of 6.”

After that, the Crimson Vigilantes got together and as we prepared to leave to rest before the battle, the huge man who helped me earlier said: “I don’t have I group, could I join yours?” I replied: “Sorry.. But we’re already a group of 6..” He said: “No problem, could I just follow you? I don’t need the XP or credits.”

I replied back: “Sure, why not? What’s your name by the way.” He said: “My name’s Leo Ren, I’m a Greatsword user.” I replied: “Alright, me and the Crimson Vigilante’s are going back to our inn to rest now. As we were heading back to the inn, terry asked us: “Do you need me to try upgrade your weapons? Or are you fine with the ones you have now?”

We all nodded, it was obvious we wanted rest above all things. So as we headed to the teleporter to go to the 2nd town, we went back into our inns set the alarm to 5:30pm. As I fell asleep, I had a weird dream of how the elf slaughtered all of us. After that I heard a buzzing…

As we all woke up, we quickly picked up all our weapons and headed towards the teleporter. We all said: “Teleport! Seizu!” As a blue light flashed we were almost immediately transported to Seizu. Everyone who was going for the boss raid was gathered.

Before we left, I made a speech: “Everyone, today we may die, but let us leave the memories of us as heroes, one’s that tried courageously and fought vigorously against the death simulation! Ad Victoriam!” They all shouted: “Ad Victoriam!”

As the clearing team of around 103 people went to the boss room’s door, I said: “There’s no turning back after we enter, any coward who wants to can do now. After we entered the boss room, the doors shut. As the torches ignite, we see several statues of what seems to be previous dark elven kings. A blue skinned, white haired elf which was around 10x taller than me, started charging towards us with his katana.

I called out: “Team three, team four, team 5 block the boss!” They all responded with actions, raising their shields and blocking the boss’s attack. I called out: “Team one, team two, team six, attack!”

As we attacked, the boss fought us off as our HP drained. I called out: “Switch now!” I shouted: “Teams 7,8,9 attack, teams 10,11,12 block!” After a while I called out: “Switch! Teams 13, 14, 15 attack, and the rest of you defend!” As this went on a while the boss was finally down to near 0 hp.

As my team prepared to finish it, the person who had shouted at me in the clearing meeting leaped out and took out his greatsword. He used a 7 hit combo on the boss, but then.. The boss’s sword glowed bright blue as it used a 10 hit combo skill on the person.

The person was slashed multiple times, as his hp dropped to 0, right before all our eyes. As I went over to him to tell him to drink the health potion, I said: “you’re a VRMMORPG player too, you know the last person hitting it gets the drop..”

He replied: “Yeah.. I was.. I’m sorry for earlier I hope you’d forgive me.. And save the others..” With this he disappeared right before me

After this, everyone was in disarray as the boss regenerated 20% of it’s hp post killing the person. After this I went on a fit of rage and activated my ultimate sword skill Infinity Slashes on a fit of rage I rampaged against the boss, Hailey went behind me.

As I constantly called out: “switch” The both of us were barely managing to block the boss, as we switch constantly from defending to attacking. Since everyone else was low hp, including the Crimson Vigilante guild members, it was up to us.. Although our hp was low, we had to risk this.

We kept barely dodging it’s blows. And finally, as the boss activated his sword skill, Hailey activated hers to counter it. Her 12 strikes managed to neutralize the boss’s sword skill. After that she yelled: “GO! GO JASON, NOW’S YOUR ONLY CHANCE” I shouted loudly: “INFINITY SLASHES!”

As my 14 hits slash the boss hard, it’s hp drops to zero. And I receive the rare drop from the boss. With the katana called : “Zhurong’s Katana” A level 34 legendary drop… The katana was a normal blade, except in the middle of the blade in both sides there was a dragon, spitting out flames. The handle was golden, and was shaped like a star, only that it had four large corners.

With my level being 36 it was almost perfect for me. After the boss fight, there was a huge celebration, with only one casualty, and that man being officially named a “dickhead” no one actually had died in that bossfight. A celebration was held in the first town, where many people across the death maze came. I sat away from everyone, and Hailey came next to me. She gently asked: “What’s wrong Jason?” I replied: “Nothing.”

She said: “That’s not the Jason I know, is it the death of that person?” I cried as I said: “He was just like us, a VRMMORPG player.. He was a brave person, despite being a dick and all. He had good intentions, but I had to let him die. If I had interfered earlier, none of this would’ve happened!”

She said: “We defeated the boss, it was his fault for rushing in like that, and no one blames you.. It’s ok Jason, just let it go. I’m sure he’ll feel much better if you forgot about it.” After that, she as she tried to hug me, I accepted her hug. It felt good, it was the first time I had that kind of feeling.. Someone who comforted me, someone who made me feel better about myself.