What the fuck was that?

You have died. Gained Title: Dead Meat I(C) Dead Meat I: Die once. Better luck next time! +2 END, + 2 DEF, + 2 VIT Respawning...

Black tendrils crept into his vision, enveloping him in an unbreakable pressure. He floated in absolute darkness, a blue screen in front of him.

Dead meat... He shuddered, thinking of the gruesome battlefield. Couldn't they have called it something else? And I really, really, don't want a next time.

Eugh, fuck that, let's think about something else. He looked at the name. All these titles have "I" after them, which should mean they increase in Roman numeral terminology or how it's worded or whatever and-

I can look around! He strained his eyes, but he could only see darkness. I think. Actually, hold on.

Where the fuck am I?

He tried moving around. I don't feel like I'm being hugged to death anymore, but nothing happened. Is this still part of game limbo?

He tried to recall the moments before he came here. Wait, that black thing stabbed me, right? How'd it do that? What is this game balance? Ugh! After he got stabbed, it had crawled up his leg, and-

...Am I in its stomach right now?

Oh god. It- Ah, fuck. I'm not in pain. It's fine. He denied it, quickly. There was no way the game would go that far, anyway. Sure, it had rivers of rabbit guts and-

Everything's perfectly fine. Everything is fine. Stop thinking. Stop.

Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light, forcing him to close his eyes.

When he opened them, all he could see was a deep, dark shade of brown. He stumbled backwards instinctively. What the-

He glanced at his surroundings. Oh, I'm back! Not back in the bloody fields he had been in before, but the portal room he and the party had been in at the start. Torches on the walls lit up the vast room- Wait. Was it this big?

Taking a better look, he realized this wasn't the portal room. It had the same layout, with torches on the walls and runes on the floor, but had to be at least two or three times larger. Large enough, he noticed, to hold everyone else that had died, seeing Rei and Rui in the back right corner.

"Oh dang, you lasted a while. I thought you would've died already," said Rei, raising an eyebrow.

A sudden wave of nausea came over him. The last time he had seen her, there had been a gaping hole in her stomach. Then it registered in his mind what she had said.

He quickly regained his composure. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, no offense, but like," she scoffed, "you're a mage, meaning that all you have is a stick, not to mention your stats are crap and-"

"Is it really that bad?" He asked. Gav told me that his stats were higher or something, but like, he's also a few levels higher, so maybe-

"Have you seen the reviews? Everyone that picked a mage gave the game 1 star. There are straight-up so many issues with the class, too. Like for instance, your staff," she pointed, the handle sticking out of his pack a few meters away, "does basically the same amount of damage as a random stick you could get from a tree. And the ones like the two me and my sis have aren't cheap, not to mention they barely do anything much since they're meant for casting magic, which no one even has."

He frowned. "Well, I like modified my staff a little, so it deals a little extra damage, and I did pick up some other skills. So that's not too bad, right?"

"Nope, it's still shit." Rui cut in.

Rei said something to her in a language he couldn't understand- probably Japanese, now that he thought about it, because of their names. Rei groaned in response.

"I'm not wrong, you know." Rui said.

"Where did you even learn that word? You're 11 years old!"

"11 and 8 months, actually."

"That's beside the- Ugh, whatever. But yeah, she's right though, because of the class bonus."

Daru scrunched his forehead. "Wait, what?"

"There's no way you can be this clueless, right?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Basically, each class buffs certain skills and stats. So a warrior might get a buff to "Stab," or "Slash," but not to "Punch." This is why mages can't even catch up even if they learn the same skills- since the only non-magic skill that's buffed is "Staff Mastery."

She continued. "The only real positive thing is probably that we last longer in dungeons since we get reductions on mana consumption and stuff, but in general, mages are just really weak meat shields."

Then there was a sudden flash of light, and Hal appeared, shards of light fusing together.

Glancing around, Hal simply laughed, before falling to his knees. "God, that is... impossible." He spat out.

"What happened?" Rei asked, bending down and poking him. Rui simply shook her head.

"Look at who was talking big," said Rui, in mock distaste.

Hal smiled, sighing. "It wasn't this hard before... They really upped the difficulty on the dungeon."

"It's barely been a week since the game's release," Rui countered.

"Hey, a lot of people play this game, okay, and I guess they wanted to... shut people up." He chuckled. "To be fair, it was like way easier compared to this. Like all the waves were the same and then you had the boss. Now, the first wave is a rabbit apocalypse and the second you just die instantly."

"Wait, you got to the second wave? How was it?" Daru asked, surprised. "And how come you guys didn't see the dead bodies?" He added quickly.

"Huh?" Hal turned to Daru, as if remembering his existence. "Oh yeah, you fought that hidden boss or whatever and got coma'd. Also, you do know that dead bodies don't really..." he struggled to find the word, "exist, you know? Like when you die, your body disappears."

"What?" Daru said, scrunching his forehead. "Okay, first off, what boss? Secondly, there was like a sea of blood, floating skeletons and chunks of flesh, and you know, like rabbits. Eating. People."

"Oh." Hal clicked his tongue. "That sounds horrible," he said, dismissively, "and also, I'm pretty sure that only happened to you. Must've been the hidden boss- I heard they added a surprise in the last update. Also, do you know what the gore filter is?"

"What?" Filter?

"Okay, so you don't. Um, basically it was an optional update or DLC or whatever that censors or replaces gory stuff with other stuff. It wasn't mentioned in the tutorial since it's supposed to be enabled automatically, though."

"Supposed to?"

"Yeah, apparently one of the devs messed up a line of code and now it's like half and half. It's just a rumor though, so I don't know."

"Yeah, yeah, no one cares." Rei cut in. "What happened during the second wave?" She asked, her eyes twinkling.

Hal whistled. "Oh, ho ho boy, it was horrible. So this time," he said, "there were three types of enemies. There was the regular, the laser, and the black killing machine of doom."

Rei sighed, putting a hand on her forehead. "Why do I know you?"

"Oh, come on! I'm trying to make it dramatic, okay?"

"Must've not been dramatic if you got here two seconds after this guy showed up," she retorted, pointing at Daru. "Anyway, go on." She motioned at him to continue.

Meanwhile, Daru occupied himself with some blue screens. He scrolled through the tabs until he found the one he wanted.

Gore Filter

ON

OFF(Selected)

He pressed the on button quickly, and the screen disappeared.

"So it's the same format as before," he heard Hal say. "Survival, waves, that sort of thing. There were 10 regular wabbits, 5 laser wabbits, and one jackwabbit, aka the black rabbit of death."

Rei frowned. "That doesn't seem too hard. After all, it's only sixteen monsters, which is way less than-."

"You didn't let me finish," Hal interrupted. "Turns out the reason that number's so low is because jackwabbits can one-shot people." Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and Milo appeared on his knees, groaning. "It hurts! Oh god, it hurtsss!" he mumbled, clutching his stomach.

"I guess he got the same treatment," Hal said sheepishly. "The second the wave started I got smacked in the face."

"What? That can't be true, right-" Another flash of light, and Gav appeared, falling on his hands and knees just like Milo.

"So remind me who said this would be "a piece of cake" again," said Rui, making air quotes with her fingers.

"I was wrong, okay? Very very wrong. Happy now?"

A loud noise came from above. Suddenly, a door opened behind them, with stairs leading upwards.

The second wave has ended! Players Remaining: 0 Rewards will be distributed shortly.

A silence came over the group. Hal was the first to break it.

"Okay, that was actually really fast. Damn."

"..." Rei flicked him on the forehead.

"Ow!"

"It's VR, how can you feel pain? Quit faking it, all of you," she said, addressing the two still on the floor.

"What?" Hal frowned. "Wait, hold on. You didn't activate the reality filter, did you?"

"There's a reality filter?" Daru asked. How would that even work? And why would someone play a virtual reality game only to turn off the realism?

"...Only a little bit," Rei muttered. She scowled at his reaction. "I don't want to know what it feels like to get shot with a laser, okay? Is that so wrong?"

"It's more of the fact that it ruins the game," Hal replied. "It's not even an official feature; it's something the devs made as a joke."

"I-It doesn't ruin anything if I put it on the lowest setting," she stuttered.

Feeling more and more like a bystander, Daru decided to stop watching the two bicker. He bent down. "So, what happened?" He asked Gav.

Gav sighed, keeping his head down. "Uh, well, we sort of all died. See, the wave's about to start, we're all at full health and rested, not to mention that- one of the key features of the wave's waiting time period is that you can send in more players to replace the ones you've lost- and we got a ranker."

"Ranker? Like, on the internet?" Daru asked, referring to Legacy's website.

"Oh, no, there's a leaderboard. You unlock it at around level 10, I think? Anyway, we had like rank 5 with us. Some archer lady. Apparently she's a part of the top guild from some RPG, but she clearly ain't up to standards," he chuckled. "Second the wave started, she went down. This black blob just bounced off her face out of nowhere and one shot her."

The jackwabbit, huh.

"And then this blob rebounds off her face," he said, making a large arc with his hands, "and kicks Hal in the head and he dies. Not to mention the laser wabbits are going pew pew pew, anddddd we all dead."

"Oof." Daru didn't know what to say.

"Yeah, so this dungeon kind of sucked. Let's not do this again, okay? Or at least, well, you know," Gav said, waving his hands, "after we level up a bunch, right? I mean, there's no way this thing is F-Rank. It's gotta be at least E-rank or like Lvl 20-ish, right?" he said, smiling.

"Yeah. Yeah. I... I went through some shit too, Gav." Daru replied, still thinking about the dream-like space he had been in.

"Oh, wait, that reminds me," he muttered. There was that dog, right?

"Status," he said, but a small blue box came up instead.

You may not use this command right now.

"What?"

"Huh? What happened?" asked Gav. He yawned.

"Hold on, can you check your status?"

Gav raised an eyebrow, before relaxing. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you- you can't use system functions in a dungeon."

"What? Why not?"

"You know what safe rooms are? Like, RPG-wise?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah."

"According to one of my friends that got an internship here, there are safe rooms on lower floors. And so during testing, one of the beta testers found a bug in the safe rooms that let him log out. The thing is, logging out in a dungeon messes up the cycle that lets you send in more people and controls the waves and stuff, which made the game crash for like everyone." He cracked his knuckles, standing up straight.

"Oh." Daru didn't know what to say. This was getting complex.

"So people complained because people started abusing the hell out of the bug whenever they ran out of heals, so the devs started working on it. But since deleting the safe rooms ended up making some floors practically impossible, and ruined a bunch of future puzzles, they just decided to take the easy route and just disable the system." He poked his stomach gingerly, before relaxing.

"Really? That's so stupid."

He shrugged. "Eh, my friend told me it's like kinda like pruning a bush. It's easier to just go chop off stuff sticking out rather than taking a nail clipper and cutting each and every leaf. "

"I guess I see your point," Daru admitted, "but why not just make the logout function unusable? What if you want to check the time, or something?"

"Too many potential bugs, apparently. The main problem with making the game wasn't writing the code, it was making everything work without some little screw making it all fall apart. And they spent like a decade on just writing this thing, too. Technically, they're actually still supposed to be in beta testing, but for whatever reason they decided to release it ahead of schedule." He shrugged. "That's just what my friend said, anyway. I don't really know much."

"Ugh, stop it!" Hal yelled.

"Apologize!"

"You apologize!"

The two turned back to see Hal and Rei in a hair-pulling match. Off to the side, Rui and Milo just watched.

"Uh, shouldn't we stop them?" Daru asked.

"I wouldn't get involved, if I were you," Milo stopped him, holding up a hand. "Never underestimate how dangerous stupid people can be."

"Shut up, Milo!" Hal and Rei yelled simultaneously.

A ringing sound filled the room, gradually getting louder, silencing everyone. When the room grew completely silent, it disappeared.

Rewards will be distributed now.

Shards of light fused together in front of Daru, creating a small, rectangular wooden box, roughly the size of a piggy bank. Carved on top was a picture of a smiling wabbit head with a top hat, like a cutesy little drawing. It would have fit easily on any children's book if it weren't for the two dark holes bored into the wood, representing its eyes.

Looking around, it seemed everyone had received one. A sudden exclamation of excitement came from across the room, with a player holding not a wooden box, but a metal one. Mutters of envy came from every direction. Daru recognized her attire- she was one of the players from the shield wall. A large, battered metal shield rested on the wall next to her, as proof of her struggles.

He noticed a striking difference, however, with his. Only his box, Gav's, and Milo's had top hats.

I wonder what that's all about.

The ringing sound came back, ceasing the whispers. A flurry of blue boxes came up in front of Daru.

Gained 635 EXP You have leveled up! Examine(C) has become Lvl 5: +1 WIS Staff Mastery(C) has become Lvl 4: +1 INT Close Combat Mastery(C) has become Lvl 3: +1 ATK Conditioning(C) has become Lvl 2: +1 VIT Learned Axe Kick(C) Axe Kick(C) has been absorbed by Close Combat Mastery (C) Learned Dodge(C) Learned Mental Resistance(UC) Learned Sleep Resistance (UC) Learned Curse Resistance (SR) Summon Familiar (C) has become Lvl 2: +1 WIS Learned Skill Share (R) Learned Block(C) Learned Swimming(C)

He read through each carefully, grinning at the level up. Maybe the dungeon wasn't so bad after all- getting this much EXP would have taken him at least a week normally.

The second half of the messages confused him.

So all that stuff I saw was an illusion? Mental and Sleep... And Curse! Why's curse resistance a tier higher, though?

But if that gruesome scene he had been put through hadn't been real, what was with the dog and... "game heaven"?

The next message answered his questions.

Summon Familiar? A familiar's like a pet, or whatever, right? I don't know how I got this, but at least it explains the dog. I think.

Come to think of it, wasn't there a wolf or something back at the plains? That's got to be it, right? He recalled blacking out after meeting it. Something had to have happened while he was out.

His eyes widened reading the following message.

What the hell? How did I even get this? Seems like it would be pretty busted, though, he thought, thinking of all the possibilities of such a skill. Imagine a top tier warrior raining fireballs onto the field. Then again, they'd have to nerf it or something, right?

And two more new skills! Block, and... oh. Fuck you. As if I needed another reminder. He scoffed. Where would I even use that right now, anyway?

On impulse, his mind came back to the blood-covered battlefield.

He slapped himself. Ugh, whatever! Besides, I've got these two new skills!

A small laugh came out of his mouth. He fidgeted, his hands behind his head.

Gav whistled, next to him. Contrary to him, his brother only had a few screens pop up. "Looks like someone got something good," he said, putting his hand on Daru's shoulder.

Daru chuckled. "You bet I did."

Gav raised an eyebrow. "Even better than what you've- you know."

Daru grinned at him. Gav gave a pained smile in response. "Ahaha... lucky you. I got a few level ups and nothing new." He gave his head a slight tilt. "Hey, that rhymes." He sighed again.

"Pftt. You really got nothing?"

"Yeah. I mean, I've gone hunting more than you have, but still, you got like ten things. Like, what is this? So unfair."

A little shriek of surprise came from across the two of them.

"Oh my god, I got one!" Rui squealed.

"You got one?" Rei asked, turning her attention towards her sister.

"I got one!" Rui repeated, her tiny fists in the air. Contrary to her previous demeanor, she was beaming from head to toe.

"Wait, what? You actually got one?" exclaimed Milo, shock apparent on his face. His bow clattered to the ground, which he hurriedly picked up.

"What'd you get?" Hal asked, confused. He sat on the ground, making meaningless scribbles on the ground with his finger.

Rui shushed him. "Secret."

"Looks like they got something good too," Daru whispered to Gav. What if it's a rare skill? he wondered.

Gav shrugged. "It's probably a semi-rare or an uncommon, but I'm leading towards SR."

"How do you know? It could be like a skill level up or something higher."

"Only the top 5 have something higher than a level 5 skill, right now," Gav explained, "and if they did get something better, in like the one percent chance they did, there's no way they'd be talking about it here." He pointed to the surrounding people. "They've already gotten a lot of attention." Indeed, a few players were looking at them, some curious, some with more sinister looks.

"So an SR..." A sudden thought came to Daru's mind. Mana Manipulation is also an SR. What if it's something related to that?

"Hey, excuse me," came a voice, snapping him out of his thoughts.