While everyone else busied away to prepare for the event that could happen at any moment, Zen logged into his virtual world. There was something he had to confirm.

Ever since he found out how virtual reality games were a cheating way to bridge the ability gaps between reality and games, Zen had something he wanted to do. He might not be able to match any of these crazy mafia heirs and heiresses in combat. Zen was just an ordinary teenage boy who did not undergo any of their crazy training. He was poison resistant, had the power to set someone in flames or steal people's luck. However, he would like to think that he was more knowledgeable than anyone else about games and their loopholes.

There were safe zones in the Egg Hunt arena. Zen memorised everything he could about the school that the first event will be hosted based off. However, what he lacked was the ability to escape his safe zone if it was compromised.

Sure, Zen trusted his party members to come to his rescue if Johan and his bloodthirsty guild ever found him. However, in an explosive battle between many powerful individuals and a Basilisk on the loose, Zen did not have the confidence to remain alive amidst all the crossfire.

Hence, he had to learn how to run away as fast as he could to clear the stage.

"Let's see, the VR games that the Godfather sent are good. Are there any running games in here?"

As Zen browsed through his massive VR game collection by category, he wondered if he could master some basic parkour skills in games. After all, jumping from window to window would be a lot faster than going down and up a flight of stairs.

There were two games that Zen knew were good options to train his running skills. The first was a straightforward reflex runner game called Maze Runner. He had to collect speed boosts in the game to complete the maze level and avoid running into walls as he ran. The second game was a personal favourite. It was an obstacle running competition against an artificial intelligence opponent. While the game did not have many in-game elements, the controls and special animation effects were what made the game so thrilling. It was called Street Sprinter.

If he played these games enough times, the action would be so familiar to Zen in his head that even if his physical body was incapable of performing these actions from the lack of proper muscles required to pull them off, the repeated motion from the VR simulations in his head would give him a powerful in-game ability to replicate the moves.

Of course, it was not entirely perfect, and anything could happen during the execution. If Zen's mental state wavered, he would not be able to pull the move off successfully. However, preparing something he could gamble with was better than having nothing to use at his disposal when he was in a pinch. Zen would rather take his chances jumping from a window to escape death and take massive fall damage if he missed than not be able to escape his murderer at all.

"Street Sprinter it is," Zen decided.

His first map was an urban setting. It was more practical to learn how to jump from windows and ledges than avoid walls and obstacles coming in his face.

Without hesitating, Zen confirmed his selection and was taken to a familiar starting screen. Instead of resuming from his game's previously saved progress, Zen decided to start afresh. He needed the tutorial to walk him through the sensations before he attempted to replicate them without using game controls like he normally used.

As the instruction screens hovered, Zen took his time to dash across a single narrow plank with the tutorial's guide. The system guided his body so Zen wouldn't fall off the ledge, and the feeling was very similar to getting possessed. For a while, it was uncomfortable when Zen's mind did not fully sync with the action.

Although the game's tutorial prompted the stage's completion, Zen ignored the flashing window to proceed to the next obstacle stage. Instead, he continued to go back and forth on that single plank like a lunatic.

Each time he crossed the plank and used the tutorial system's help to correct his sense of balance, Zen felt that he was getting closer to being able to do it without the system's help. He must have repeated the process almost twenty times before he stopped feeling the system's influence.

The world watched as the gamer completed his tutorial in a similar fashion, repeating the simple stages over and over again, refusing to proceed until he had done the action about twenty times. The forward roll motion was probably the only action Zen did not repeat more than ten times.

When Zen finally cleared the stage, the game brought him to the first stage. Here, he did something most people did not understand.

[Do you wish to disable system assisted body movement guides?]

Zen hit the "confirm" option so fast that nobody had any time to blink. Without the game system's assisted body movement guide, the game was hardly playable unless someone was a pro athlete. Even for the first stage, Zen would not be able to clear it. Someone like him without any experience in the actual combat field wasn't capable of it.

Zen waited for the countdown to end to begin his sprint. Already, he could see the first obstacle. There was a short run before he had to jump from this roof to a shorter roof. According to the tutorial, he should pick up speed and step on the ledge of this roof with his dominant foot to spring to the next, throwing his body's momentum forward while curling into a ball. Upon landing, Zen should use the forward force to roll twice before getting up on his curled dominant foot to continue the sprint.

However, that was in theory.

When the horn sounded, signalling the start of the sprint, Zen took to a dash like the wind even though he lagged behind the AI competition. He prepared himself for the leap at the ledge and launched himself from it.

Three out of four characters in Street Sprinter made it, and the world cringed when they heard Zen's scream after his feet failed to reach the other roof. Scratch that. He wasn't even close. If anyone captured the moment he launched himself from the roof, they would notice how Zen didn't aim to jump far. Instead, he jumped high as he launched from the roof at a narrow-angle, too close to the building he started on.

[Stage failed. Respawn?]

Zen shook. The experience of free-falling from a high rise building with a void below was terrifying. Thankfully, this was only a regular game and not a death game like the opening ceremony.

[Yes.] Zen selected and was transported back to the starting line with all three other AI competitors.

The geeky boy clenched his teeth. This was harder than it looked.