As we rushed towards each other, our blades crossed. The sounds of the two blades crossing each other could be heard clearly. As we clashed, our blades went KLANG everytime the blades hit one another. As we fought back and forth, everyone in the room was amazed at our speed. It was like we were fighting each other with superpowers. However, as you all know each battle has a conclusion. As I was pushed back by the kobold’s heavy punch, my katana managed to land a hit on him. As our HPs went down to yellow, both of our weapons glowed. As mine glowed blue and his glowed red I shouted : “TAKE THIS, AND PERISH.” I activated my sword skill Infinity Slashes. As our sword skills collided head on, at the 13th strike I noticed he was left wide open, so I decided to use my final slash in my sword skill to attack with full power. As I attacked, he quickly dodged it and used his remaining slashes on me. At that moment I thought I’m going to die, like this. I had a good life, good bye Terry, Leo, Luke, Jingxi, Peaches and most of all, Hailey. As the sword reached me I heard a KLANG sound. And I saw what appeared to be a rapier blocking the kobold’s slashes. Hailey cried out with tears on her cheek while saying: “Why would we let you go and die alone? If there’s a chance of death, all of us are willing to die with you, but together we have a greater chance of success. So, instead of you going alone and risking your own life, let’s all finish this Kobold... Together.” After she used her sword skill Heavenly Piercer to block kobold’s remaining slashes and deal damage after she was done, she immediately yelled: “SWITCH!” Almost instantaneously, Jingxi and Luke came out and used their sword skills using their weapons, and landed several hits. After that, the Kobold’s HP depleted and disappeared into dust. As we were receiving the rewards Luke shouted : “YES!” We all went over to him, including me who just took a healing potion to heal. He had received the executioner’s execution axe. It turns out that it was usable by both Luke and Terry, who said that he would let Luke have the drop this time since he didn’t do anything against the boss. The weapon was called : “Fanranchusi Executioner Axe” A rare weapon for level 108. Perfect for Luke’s level. However what was weird was that my Wushidao’s stats still far surpassed this axe’s stats by 4x even though it was already max upgraded, and was still the second most powerful weapon we had seen.

After we all had enough of seeing Luke’s new rare weapon we all went over to tend to the only survivors of the battle. It was the couple I managed to save from the execution, the rest had been executed already, dead. They were unconscious, and had little to no health. As we gave them the health potions, their eyelids began to open. The man said: “Honey.. Are we alive?” The woman then weakly said while hugging him: “I think so.. I only remember we were about to be executed..” He said: “It’s ok now.. And who are you all?” I said: “My name is Jason Gan, I’m the leader of the Crimson Vigilante’s, and also the clearing group commander.” The man said: “My name is Searing Ng, and this is my wife Rosie Ng.” The man was a tall man about as tall as Leo, with smooth short black hair. While the women named Rosie was a girl which was slightly taller than Hailey. She looked more like a older sister to Hailey, both having some of the same qualities in terms of hair, eyes and body proportions. She had a graceful smile on her face and said: “Hello, nice to meet you..” I then inquired further and asked: “Why were you here, you aren’t with the clearers.. Nor are you a low level. You’re a level 105, but you have no weapons and armor? Only simple clothing..?” Searing said: “Both me and my wife Rosie have no idea of why we came here, we were simply out on one day minding our own business in Hong kong together and then after we think anymore about the events later I only know what happened once we entered here. We were transported to a cell once we arrived, we were tortured and Rosie was.. Raped. Abused. We had been like this for 16 days now..” After he said that Rosie began to cry, and he said: “It’s alright Rosie, it’s alright. At least you weren’t driven to insanity, and we’re still together right?” After that Rosie stopped crying and cried out: “yes searing!” After that she went into his arms and sobbed, as Searing continued to speak: “We only know one thing, and that is that our memories were wiped of why we were imprisoned here, but at the same time I still have most of my real life memories including my memories of my time with Rosie.” I asked: “Aren’t you both a little bit old for this?” He replied: “For what?” I answered: “This is the death simulation, you both look like adults.. And there aren’t supposed to be for adults.” He then said: “I’m 28, and Rosie is 26.. Why are we in the death simulation..” I said to him: “It’s alright.. Just be careful if you die, you’ve only got one life.” After hearing that Rosie cried once more and Searing said: “It’s alright, I will protect you with my life, we’ll make it out here alive.” After that, he asked me: “So can you tell me the basics of the death simulation?” I then started explaining to him and Rosie, how did the death simulation work and the basics of the game.” After that he got up and said: “So basically, right now we’re on day 80, we have to clear 8 more parts including this part to get up to the final part. And we have 220 days to do it, and you’re part of the clearing group which clears bosses and you’re also the top guild.” I said: “yeah, now let’s get you to work on that sword skill.” As I taught him how to open menu, I saw that he had a strange skill. [Dual wielding swords]. I said: “You have a unique skill huh, better not let anyone know. Use that, it’s probably the best for you.” After saying that, I gave him two level 100 longswords to dual wield. The weapons I gave him were the loot drops today and were quite practical to use against the kobolds of this dungeon. While I taught him, Hailey and Bonnie rushed over to Rosie to teach her. Rosie, picked the a spear for her weapon as she was taught how to use it by Hailey and Peaches. The 3 girls cheerfully discussed the simulation’s mechanics and about the relationship between of Rosie and Searing. Obviously, after hearing the love story between Rosie and Searing the two girls were both at tears at how romantic it was. Apparently, Searing once was a Duguo soldier at the age of 18, and during the war he saved Rosie and they got married after the war hiding their identity as a former duguo army officer.” After hearing that story I thought He and his wife were probably bought here as prisoners of war to be first tortured in real life, then in here. But keeping my thoughts to myself, I said: “Since you’re from the outside and also level 105, you might want to join us? We can teach you how to use skills in several days..” Searing said: “We’d be glad to join your guild, am I right honey?” Rosie nodded, as Hailey and Peaches hugged her as they shouted: “Yay!”

Time passed fast as we trained Rosie and Searing about the basic commands of the game. They quickly managed to master standard sword skills, and began training for their new unique combo sword skills. As they settled in into the inn that we had rented with the rest of the crimson vigilantes, day by day passed. By the 3rd day they were with us Searing completed a 10 hit sword skill. While Rosie by the 5th day completed a 8 hit spear skill, day by day we got closer to the boss. At the 4th day after a long day of farming, I overheard Hailey and Rosie talking about cooking. It seems that they both shared a interest in cooking, while Searing came over to me and said: “That girl’s a good choice ya know.” I asked: “What do you mean?” He answered: “Come on now, don’t play dumb. It’s obvious you both like each other.” I started blushing as I said: “Why do you think of that?” He answered: “After all, me and Rosie started out like that, you and Hailey remind of me and Rosie during our days.” As I was about to blush bright red, the two girls came out with our dinner. It was amazing, a cantonese style roasted duck. The duck had reddish brown skin, while it’s meat was grey. It smelled great, despite this being a virtual world I could smell the duck’s strong scent. The two girls shouted: “Dinners ready!” Right after they shouted everyone came out, and Jingxi said: “Mannnnn.. This smells amazing!” And Luke said: “This smells so good I bet I could dive in right now!” As he was about to reach for a piece with his bare hands his hand was smacked with a chopstick by Hailey. Who lectured him and said: “Where are your manners, sit down first and get rice before you start eating..” He shamefully apologised: “Sorry Ma’am… I forgot.” After we finished eating that delicious meal, everyone was filled up.. We all decided to sleep early to get to the dungeon early tomorrow for the boss fight. As we entered our separate rooms, except for Rosie and Searing who had a larger bedroom because they were a married couple. As I went into my bed and lied down, I started closing my eyelids and went to sleep.

I was woken up in the night, when I heard a strange noise.. I heard a high pitched voice just yelling out “AH” constantly. I leaped out of my bed and checked the time, the time was [01:00]. I opened my lights and went outside of my room. As I travelled through the elegantly made hallway, I tracked the voice’s owner to.. Searing and Rosie’s room.. I thought So that’s what the girls were talking about huh. Searing and Rosie couldn’t figure out how to disable the [NSFW Restriction] through menu and so they asked the girls, afraid of being laughed at by us boys. As I heard the high pitched voiced shout “AH” louder and more frequently, I thought Welp, at least it’s going to be over soon right? After my thought, I heard a male voice saying: “Quiet down or they’re going to hear us..” The high pitched voice answered: “I can’t help it.. it just feels too good alright?” The male sighed and spoke: “Alright alright I’ll end this quickly.” After he said that, I heard a large shout of : “AHHHHH.” After that I decided that they probably wouldn’t do IT again and headed back to my room, as I heavily collapsed on my bed with a huge “THOMP” noise.

At the next morning, as I heard the alarm beep I put my hand up and attempt to silence it. After my attempts to resist to get up I finally realised it was futile and got up and did my morning routines. As I put on my normal clothes which were hung in the wardrobe in my room, I opened my door and headed for Hailey’s room. After I was inside, I saw that only Rosie, Searing, Ximing, Hailey and I were here. As we all waited for everyone to wake up and arrive, Ximing broke the silence and said: “You both disabled [NSFW Restriction] and did Sex didn’t you.” Rosie blushed bright red and gave a slap to Searing who replied: “I’m sorry ma’am, but in my defence I did tell you to quiet down..” After that slap the rest of the gang arrived in time to see it, and Peaches said: “You guys really did it last night here, right after we told you the controls.. Wow, you must really be in a hurry huh.” Rosie shouted: “It’s not like that..” Hailey then came out with breakfast and attempted to defend them by saying: “God don’t be so harsh on them, they’ve been tortured and Rosie raped.. It’s only normal for them to do that, after all they just want to be together.” I responded by saying: “At least they could’ve kept it more quiet, instead of being so loud. Jeez, do you guys do it that much in the real world too..” Rosie blushed and responded: “No.. we barely do it.” After that everyone laughed, as we ate the sandwiches Hailey prepared us for breakfast.

After breakfast we all headed out to the teleporter, as we headed there we see many people with different weapons and armour going to and away from the teleporter, life seemed normal. It just looked like people were going to work, like normal life. But, there was a certain difference. In normal life, you could pick your work. In here, your work is picked for you. But, it still calmed me to see that there were people living out normal lives here, like Searing and Rosie. They were positive, and they were high spirited to get out of this hell. I always wondered what carried them on, was it their love for each other, was it their hopes to get back together in real life? I will never know, I guess. As we teleported to the executioner’s room through the teleporter pad I placed outside of the room, Rosie put her self in Searing’s arms. She was sobbing, while Searing was trying to comfort her. I sighed, I knew that Rosie would never be able to forget what was going on while she was in this room. As we left the room as quick as we can to help Rosie’s tears, we began to take out our maps, which we’ve been using to map down the route towards the boss room.

As we cleared out the mobs of this level of the maze, we mapped it out and prepared to advance to the next level. As we went to the stairs we saw it was like a long passage way, elegantly decorated with pictures of kobolds. There was gold torches with the stairs being elegantly put out. As we arrived, we saw the door to a room. I opened it. It was.. the boss? A enormous Kobold named Emperor Of Kobolds, Fujin Huang with bright gold armour and a silver helmet. He was armed with a weapon which we couldn’t figure out. After we saw the boss, I told everyone to run back to the teleporter as fast as they could. We had to inform the clearers about the boss and clear it. As soon as possible, as we ran back to the teleporter we quickly teleported towards Shinpong, the first town. Immediately after we teleported there, we started spreading the news by yelling out the news. The news spread like fire, because right after we ate our lunch in noon all the clearers were gathered in the clearer square.

This time though, there was only 82 clearers.. Was the rest of them wiped out by the defences laid out by the kobolds? Because.. it seemed like the defences of the prison were much harder to get through than the mobs in itself.. Was the concept of this part of the maze the guards of the prison..? I couldn’t tell. As I bought everyone to my teleporter by giving them it’s ID, every clearer starting with the Crimson Vigilante’s lined up to get teleported there. When we were all there, I led the charge bringing everyone towards the boss. We knocked the door open and began fighting, the boss wielded.. A rapier? Hailey was excited, I could definitely tell that she wanted that beautifully decorated diamond rapier. As the boss fight began, each group switched again and again. The boss was defeated within 3 whole cycles of switches, with Hailey getting the drop weapon. So I thought So, the challenge in this floor was.. The outer defences? The boss was too easy.. Even though I was stuck in my thoughts, Luke slapped me and said: “Come on, cheer for her or you’re never going to be successful.” I said while blushing bright red: Sh..ut.. UP!” I went over to Hailey and congratulated her for getting the last hit, and she smiled while replying to me : “Thanks Jason!” I nodded while smiling back. The rapier’s name as she read it out was “Striking Light”. The name suited the rapier.. With it’s diamond blade and silver hilt, it was like a sword made of pure light itself. As we all returned to Shinpong using the Boss room’s teleporter which we found behind his throne. After that, a massive party was thrown to celebrate the people rescued from the dungeon and the victory we scored over the boss.