“Sorry I’m late! Did you wait long?”

Although it was virtual reality, Liu Feng could tell that it was Zen. In fact, nobody else would have this much guts to run up to him without stating their business. Zen did sound a little out of breath, and the Seer wondered if the feeble boy was able to clear the first stage of the dungeon without anyone’s help. He was simply too weak.

With a frown Liu Feng jumped off the tree he was sitting in and blew the slimes chasing Zen with a powerful whirlwind kick. The poor monsters flew away with high pitched cries, mimicking the sound of kittens whining, and Zen felt his heart clench in pity. They might be monsters, but Zen thought they were rather adorable when they weren’t hellbent on chasing him.

Seeing how the immediate danger was over now that his protector was here, Zen collapsed onto the ground breathlessly. Who would have thought that the slimes would start chasing him the moment he left the spawn town’s protection area? This VR game’s difficulty was set too high. Zen didn’t know what would happen if he died in the dungeon game. Would he also die in reality?

Seeing how shaken Zen was on his first dive experience, Liu Feng thought it might be better to take Zen to a safe area and explain some basic rules.

“Follow me,” the blind teen said and helped Zen onto his feet. “I know a good safe zone for camping that slimes won’t attack. There is a repellant herb that grows in the area.”

Impressed by Liu Feng’s knowledge about the VR dungeon world, Zen nodded and followed after the Seer, holding onto his sleeve upon Liu Feng’s insistence. As a blind person, the VR world replication handicapped Liu Feng more than others. Without a sense of sight, Liu Feng could only rely on his sense of hearing. The VR game didn’t replicate wind and ground vibrations, unlike reality. He often had troubles locating the monsters and enemies until they were too close for comfort in the upper levels. It was the only reason why he was still unable to clear the fifteenth floor.

The area that Liu Feng led them to was a meadow. Zen thought that the safe spot would be a little more secluded away from prying eyes, but the game developers continue to surprise him. This Godfather’s Dungeon was very unlike the regular VR games he played. While many elements were familiar and consistent with the games he played, the unpredictability of the game’s main framework made Zen question the motive of the developer. Unlike regular games created for a user’s enjoyment, this dungeon game was designed to permanently eliminate players.

“We’re here,” Liu Feng said, and Zen released his hold on Liu Feng’s sleeve.

He looked around the empty field and noticed that the Seer was right. There weren’t any slimes within sight, and Zen wondered how OLiu Feng found out about it.

“Which is the slime repellent herb?” Zen asked. He wanted to collect some as a preventive measure.

The Seer shrugged. “Beats me. It’s just a piece of information I gathered after meeting many NPCs in this stage trying to find that sole NPC quest giver. There are disadvantages to being a blind gamer.”

Zen looked around in the field and wondered if he was able to find it by merely gathering. The game didn’t seem to have any inspection skills, which was strange for Zen. Shouldn’t games have tutorials or guides to explain the game mechanics?

“This should be your first time diving into the dungeon,” Liu Feng stated.

Zen nodded before giving him an affirmative reply, forgetting that Liu Feng couldn’t sense things within the game. It must be tough for Liu Feng. Yet, Zen couldn’t help but be reminded once more how powerful this person was. Despite his handicap, Liu Feng cleared the stages on his own all the way to the fifteenth floor while Sasha was still stuck at the fifth stage.

“Akiko and I must be the few who made it past the tenth floor, so while we don’t know what lies ahead until we clear those floors, this is what I can tell you about the stages from here to the fourteenth floors. Consider the first ten stages as tutorials. Here, your aim is to complete quests to attain in-game items and recipes to assist you in the next stages. The only way to get items is by finishing quests. These quests can be repeated as many times as required, but most people don’t bother. It’s a waste of time.”

This piqued Zen’s curiosity. “Why a waste of time?”

The Seer made a strange expression as if he ate something odd.

“The items do not often appear even after slaying the monsters once the quest is over. It’s faster to simply move to the next level once you defeat the stage’s boss monster. Besides, you get better items in the next stage. As long as you use them sparingly, you will be alright.”

As a gamer, Zen didn’t know if this logic was alright. These people were mafia, and perhaps they were used to being minimalists. However, Zen preferred to be fully prepared before a huge raid. As a gamer, tactics and ample preparation is required before any boss battle. Merely raising a character’s level and stats isn’t enough to beat high-levelled bosses. These people simply took advantage of their natural ability as a strong stat character to power through levels. It wouldn’t be long before they hit a roadblock. Even despite the alliances of parties and guilds, these people still act as freelancers from different families.

“I see,” Zen simply said, keeping the opinions to himself for now.

Liu Feng frowned. “Each stage has a different monster and agenda, but they are mostly weak to people like us who were born and trained in the mafia. It might be a different case for you. You could die when you battle wolves and kobolds.”

Wolves and kobolds! Zen felt his gamer soul shiver with excitement hearing it. So far, he only saw slimes no matter where he went. He didn’t know if there would be other monsters, but Liu Feng confirmed their existence for him.

“What’s after stage ten?” he asked. Perhaps there would be stronger monsters like orcs and dragons.

The Seer sighed. “It’s a completely different world. If the first ten stages were quest guided that offers the player items and recipes, the next few stages are akin to a hard-core wilderness. There are no safe zones, and there is a death penalty.”

Death penalty? Zen felt a chill down his spine. Have people already died in the game and had their bodies moved from their rooms without him knowing?

“I was careless on the twelfth floor and died once,” Liu Feng admitted.

There was a long silence, and Zen tried to wrap his head around the news.

“But how are you still alive? You’re not a ghost or a zombie now, are you?”

The Seer laughed at Zen’s conclusion. How refreshing! His innocence just made Liu Feng want to own him all the more.

“No, I’m not. However, unlike dying in the first ten stages, dying from floor eleven onwards will require you to pay a price. From what I experienced, 100 credits were deducted from my balance for a revival. It is automatically deducted, and you get respawned on the tenth floor’s town. It’s a really good thing you can skip to the level you died at once you cleared the other level bosses. Else, I would have really hated leaving my progress and losing it all to meet you here.”

Zen understood. Losing progress was any gamer’s frustration. However, through talking with Liu Feng, he gained some very valuable information. This VR dungeon game doesn’t appear to be as simple as a regular RPG game. The elements change through stages and floors.

“What’s the theme on floor eleven?” he asked.

The Seer frowned. “I don’t really know. Unlike the open-world concept here with villages, towns and hunting grounds, the next few floors past that take place in a crypt or a castle with never-ending walls and corridors. It feels like a maze, but not even Akiko knows what it is. According to her, there are no windows wherever she went, and she doesn’t know if it was night or day.”

Hearing how the monsters in the next few stages weren’t difficult to defeat, Zen was curious why Liu Feng didn’t make further progress.

The blind man sighed. “The stage I’m stuck in has a boss that doesn’t make any sounds when it appears. According to Akiko, she had troubles defeating it as well. In fact, she had to use items to get past that stage. For me, it doesn’t matter what kind of items I use. I doubt it would work.”

Curious about what was plaguing Liu Feng, Zen asked for more details about the boss Liu Feng couldn’t defeat, and Akiko struggled with.

Hesitant, the Seer explained that it was a ghost boss.

“The Death Princess used blindness cure eye drops to get past that stage. The boss is annoying because it has an area blindness effect. When you get hit by the blindness effect, you aren’t able to tell where it is. However, as I was originally blind, it becomes impossible for me to do anything even if I had a blindness cure.”

Zen cringed. No wonder the Seer was stuck at that stage. It was designed to be his stumbling block. What a terrible match of attributes!

“Why don’t you party with someone to clear the stage?” he asked. Zen wasn’t confident in his abilities to help Liu Feng, but if someone like Sasha was there… they would breeze through it.

The stubborn Seer huffed. “I don’t trust them to not stab me in the back. Besides, boss item drops only go to one person. That’s the reason why everyone is desperately trying to clear a boss by themselves.”

Zen didn’t know if he should laugh or cry when he heard this. Instead, he decided to let Liu Feng in on a revelation.

“You can defeat the stage boss multiple times to get the drop,” he explained. There was no reason why they couldn’t do this in the game.

At that, Liu Feng froze. “You can?”

Zen nodded. “It should be possible. The first dungeon boss of this level still spawns after you defeated it, right?”

At that, the Seer stood up. “Wait for me,” he told Zen.”I’ll check and be right back!”

Without another word of warning, Liu Feng sped off to find the boss of this level. If boss drops could be attained multiple times, this information will be beneficial for their guild’s advancement.

Left alone in the safe zone, Zen looked at the different plant lives. There was a slime monster repellant plant somewhere, right? With a cheeky grin, he started picking different kinds of grass and flowers. If there were no inspection skills, he’d just have to try this the old fashioned method. It was a good thing that he was a relatively fast runner when compared to the bouncing slimes.