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Rejuvenated after a good night’s sleep, Nem let out a mighty yell. After waking up, he had returned to the game and prepared to enter the first multiplayer area. His excitement and cheerfulness made any tension that had formed the night before fade away like mist.

After mentally preparing himself, Nem walked up to a puddle that had formed near him. That’s right, a puddle. After finishing his last quest, all the moisture in the earth gathered to create this mysterious pond. Although Nem didn’t know what it did, he had faintly guessed that it held the key to getting to the next area. Pacing around the outer edges of the pond, Nem couldn’t figure out what to do.

Finally, tired to waiting, Nem furiously yelled a long, “Hey!” The pond, however, still remained still. Not even a ripple had formed on its surface. Without another option, Nem slowly approached the puddle.

At first, Nem tapped the water’s surface with his left foot. He was quite literally testing the waters. Although a ripple had formed from the point where his foot met the water and quickly spread to the outer edges of the puddle, there were no other activities in the pond.

Unable to see the danger that a puddle could present to him, Nem decided to jump, feet first, onto the puddle. He shrugged as he said, “What could possibly go wrong?” Nem expected the water to disperse at the weight of his feet landing in the pond, but instead, the water around his feet simple rippled like it had earlier. After landing, Nem suddenly sensed a sinking feeling.

Nem was literally slowly sinking into the dirt. Panicking, Nem tried everything in his power to escape from the dirt. He tried to jump out, but that had only caused him to fall over. By this point, his body had sunken up to his knees, removing his capability to stand back up. Without any other options, Nem tried to claw his way out of the puddle, desperately looking for a way to survive.

At this point, despair had gripped Nem’s heart and he could do nothing as a suction force caused his body to sink faster. Nem quickly sank into the puddle and only stopped sinking when his chin touched the water. Everything from his neck down was submerged in wet dirt. (Definitely not the best feeling, trust me) Nem groaned as he thought to himself, “Why did I have to jinx it?”

After sinking, the puddle had gone quiet, as if the monster that was pulling at Nem earlier had gotten bored of him. The silence remained for a good 3 seconds before the area around Nem started to shake.

Suddenly, a giant frog popped out of the earth, consuming the pond and everything in it. Having eaten its fill, the frog turned around and jumped back into the hole it created earlier when it jumped out.

The next instant, it magically reappeared in an a giant well. As its massive body leapt out of the well, a singular voice let out a shocked gasp. The frog landed on the ground and spit out Nem, who was surprisingly clean and dry. Seeing that it had delivered its package safely, the frog turned around and leapt back into the well, creating a huge wave as the frog dived in.

Nem shook his head, as he slowly stood up. Out of nowhere, a hand slapped Nem’s back, shocking him back into attentiveness. Looking around, Nem had realized that his surroundings had surprisingly changed. Earlier, he had been alone in a field of green grass, but now, he was in a bustling town, full of people and 1 VERY shocked person.

A haughty laugh rung loudly in Nem’s ear. Looking behind him, Nem found that both the hand and the laugh belonged to a well built man who was standing behind him.

The man quickly took a look around and gave a quick nod to himself. “Hmph, it looks like there’s 20 in this batch, not bad.” After surveying the crowd, the man saw Nem’s baffled look. “Hurry up and join the group over there newbies” he scolded.

Unaware of what was happening, Nem decided to follow the man’s instructions for now. Falling in line with the rest of the crowd of 20, Nem curiously took a glance at the people around him. All of the people had shawdy looking equipment and a wide variety of weapons. None of them, however, had a spear. This was because the spear was unique to the Spear Bearer class. Luckily, Nem didn’t have Bo Fai equipped at the moment, so he didn’t stand out from the rest of the crowd, with the exception of his shiny equipment.

The haughty man from earlier mightily yelled, “Glen, take these newbies to the examining grounds.”

Hearing the man, a skinny blonde man ran towards Nem’s group responding, “Yeah I got them Eugene.” Observing this “Glen” character, Nem understood one thing. This “Glen” person wasn’t exactly the best looking guy. Glen looked like the average supermarket clerk and had zero charisma. He looked like casual normie A and wasn’t impressing anyone with his outer appearance. If it wasn’t for his fancy looking equipment, the man would’ve looked like just another part of the crowd around Nem.

Smiling, the man approached Nem’s group and cheerfully waved. “Hey, what’s up newbies. Welcome to Tomer’s Village, one of 10 different beginner hotspots. My name is Glen and I’m going to take you guys to the examining grounds. Once there, you will fight amongst each other in front of an audience. Guilds will also be observing the fight and anyone that performs well will be picked up by one of the guilds.”

Hearing that only the best of the group will be selected, a few of the newbies started shifting their feet. Some of these people were losers in real life that always got picked last for dodgeball. Having this form of competitive selecting reminding some of these people of uncomfortable memories.

Seeing their shiftiness, Glen chuckled and said, “Don’t worry though, even if you’re not especially good, you’ll get picked up by other guilds who are looking to beef up their numbers. No matter what, you should all get a guild that wants you with them.”

Having said his fill, Glen started walking away towards a bustling street full of numerous observers. Seeing Glen’s hand motion to follow him, Nem’s group started to walk in the direction that Glen had started going towards. Just when Nem was about to join the rest of the group, a familiar hand suddenly stopped him.

The hand belonged to the haughty man named Eugene, who had slapped Nem on the back earlier. Suddenly, Eugene’s face turned serious as he said, “Look, the game’s just started so there are a lot of game devs who are abusing their power to give their friends special items. Just because you have some fancy gear, don’t assume that you’re better than the rest of us, ok?”

Eugene grabbed a brown tunic from his inventory and threw it at Nem. He said, “Here’s a class neutral tunic. Anyone can wear it. Having such fancy gear will make others jealous so I advice you hide that stuff for now. After all, even if PKing is not allowed in here, people can still hunt you down once you decide to leave to farm. (PKing means Player Killing, which basically means players killing other players: PVP!)

Nem grabbed the tunic and grunted in response to Eugene. Although he technically wasn’t a game developer’s (dev) friend, he technically did get some perks from one of them so Eugene wasn’t completely in the wrong. Too lazy to argue, Nem quickly unequipped his gear and put the brown tunic on. After equipping the tunic, he turned around and started to follow his group.