AuthorPalt
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Tutorial Rewrite 17
🕑 Added 2023-01-07 15:43:42 +0000 UTCThere’s a long pause in the chat as they obviously deliberate my very serious injustice, and another minute or so passes most likely as one of them hurries to fix this most grave of offences, possibly by executing the offending parties.
Another minute goes by.
<JustAPrankBro[F5]: OxO>
<HuppiGupp[F10]: thats… uhh… wow>
<TalonsOfRage[F4] …>
Hm? That’s a pretty weird respo—
<PrissyKittyPrincess[F2] has been removed from the chat.>
They—they—they…!?!
This is just…!!
I can’t believe they would remove their own Executive from the group chat!! Who does that?! What kind of stupendous stupidity-wielders would go and REMOVE THEIR OWN COMRADE?? This is insane!
If I knew this was the kind of group the Guild of Representatives was, I never would’ve joined!
…I wonder if I’m still technically an executive? Hm. Well, I need to message Pox about this great injustice anyways, so I might as well ask him about it.
Quickly swiping over to the personal messages, I type up a letter for him.
<PrissyKittyPrincess[F2]: ok i joined
u cuz it sounded fun but like u and ur
group are total jack***** and a bunch of
***** so like i didnt do no thing bad
an they just banned me 4 NO REASON!!!!
im like literally ur executive and like ruler
so ummmmm y dont u treat me like it
literally sooooo dumb u guyz are all dumb
guild of representatives more like
guild of reprePOOsatives haha
get it cuz ur full of ****
isnt that just so funny its cuz its TRUE
ok but srs can u put me back in da chats
ill be good from now on thx>
Aaaaaaand send. Perfect. Now I’m sure he’ll understand my perspective and stand on my side even when the rest of the guild attempt to unfairly renounce me. He’s had my side since the beginning, so there’s no reason for him to turn me down now.
And after only a few minutes of suspense, a little answer drops in.
<OrthodoxPox[F3]: I have reviewed your case
and decided not to revoke the removals
conducted by RedHanded[F7] and TalonsOfRage[F4].
This is on account of the face that
you were in clear violation of the Rules
on both occasions. I have discussed the matter
personally with the executives, and we have
decided not to remove you from your post at this time.
However, you are on thin ice.
It is safe to assume that, should another
challenger of the Hell Difficulty reach
the second floor, they will be presented with
the position as executive. If you in this position should choose
to do away with them, then this will be considered foul play
and you will be fully removed from your position.
Furthermore, should you ever meet with any Representative,
they will do their best to punish you for your heinous crime.
Thank you for understanding.>
I stare at the message. Then I read it again, just to make sure my eyes are working.
Well, there’s only really one thing I can respond to that one, right?
<PrissyKittyPrincess[F2]: **** u>
Silently, I close down the window. The endless white stretches in front of me. I can feel my right eyelid twitch. I wonder what time it is. It can’t have been more than a few hours, but I don’t bother to check or anything, so who really knows?
<Top—Status—Community>
<01:10:23
Day 32>
<The third attempt will begin in
28:22:49:37
Floor 2 will open in
28:22:49:37>
It’s only been an hour? Wait, seriously? But I’ve been writing and chatting and messaging like crazy! That should have been at least a full day or something. This makes no sense. There must be something afoot here. That’s the only explanation.
But, well, uh, since I’ve got almost a full month to train until the next floor, I’d better get to it. I’m lucky you can still gain skill experience in the lobby without the added threat of dying. To boot, you also have the thing that all wounds get healed in a flash, so there isn’t much pain.
Even so, I think my best bet is to start by training my active skills. Most importantly, I want to be able to keep the enhanced senses and the Battle Focus and Field Focus skills on full alert, all the time, forever, always. Especially Enhanced Vision. So far it’s only at level 5, but I think I can get it higher by having it active all the time, even if it makes my eyes ache. And while that’s active, I’ll train with my weapons and jump around and do cool karate kicks.
Right, perfect.
Let’s get to it, then.
And so begins my training. I’m still annoyed that my only available sword is too blunt to use for anything other than parrying, but it’s good enough. Swoosh, swish, up and down, jumping around as I do. Bonking the pillars does nothing and just makes my sword bounce off. I wish I had a training dummy but I spent all my points on a cake.
After a while I switch to a knife.
<You have learned:
Basic Knife Arts Lv.1>
And so I train with that.
Running to and fro, up and down. I can’t tell how long I’ve been doing this. The Battle and Field Focus skills make everything slow down and I can’t tell how long a second is supposed to be. I couldn’t tell sunset from sunrise on the first floor because it was always dark but it's worse here. I can’t even try to use Hypnagogia because it's so bright I can’t see.
You know when you were a kid, and your mum told you not to look at the sun, but you did, and then wherever you looked, there would be a big white blot? I think I’ve developed that, but like, for my entire field of vision. Closing my eyes doesn’t help. Winding the clothes I bought around my face doesn’t help.
It’s all just white.
<Top—Status—Community>
<01:15:11
Day 32>
<The third attempt will begin in
28:22:44:49
Floor 2 will open in
28:22:44:49>
…It’s been five minutes? No that can’t… that can’t be right.
I must be hallucinating, or something like that.
Five minutes… It must be because of the Battle Focus, and the Field Focus. In here, I regenerate, and my brain does too, so it must be that they just… don’t stop. At-, at least, that’s what I think may be happening. Maybe. I don’t know. I can’t think clearly.
I keep training. If I train, I don’t have to think. Isn’t that neat?
<You have learned:
Exhaustion Resistance Lv.3>
<You have learned:
Basic Knife Arts Lv.7>
Funny, I can’t remember that one hitting level 2, or level 3, or level 4, or level 5, or level 6.
But I guess I’ll just keep going.
<You have learned:
Intermediate Spear Arts Lv.2>
…There’s a spear in my hand. I don’t remember summoning it.
“Inventory,” a voice says, but it’s not me, but there’s no one around either. It’s just white. But even though someone said inventory, no such window will pop up. All I see is a blot of white, like when you’ve stared into the sun for too long. There’s no inventory.
<You have learned:
Starvation Resistance Lv.6>
My stomach hurts. I don’t know why. I ate a cake only earlier today. Just a few minutes ago. It kept me nice and fed. Why do I feel hungry now? That’s so weird.
“Community.”
Nothing pops up. It’s white.
“Status.”
Nothing pops up. It’s white.
“Clock.”
Nothing pops up. It’s white.
When I look at my hand, all I see is a blot of white, like when you’ve stared into the sun for too long.
I think I’m moving, but I’m not sure anymore. I’m not sure if there’s something in my hand or not. Everything around me is white. I can’t see the pillars anymore. The pillars used to have shadows, weird shadows, like they were badly rendered and the sun was shining down from straight above, but they had shadows. I remember it. They had shadows, but I’m not sure I can remember what those shadows look like anymore.
Experimentally, after what could be a few minutes or a few hours or a few days or a few months or a few years or a few millennia, I try bringing my hand to my face and taking a big, yummy bite. Warm and wet stuff goes into my mouth and like a baby cow tasting its mother’s udders for the first time and I drink my fill of my milky white blood and it is so sweet and delicious like the first milk from a cow and it makes me want to cry but even when my world turns blurry it’s still white and white like when you’ve been staring into the sun for too long.
Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy.
I try getting more of the milk out of my veins. I’m not sure if there’s anything in my hands or if I even have hands anymore so I start scratching at where I think my wrists are and scratch and scratch and scratch and scratch and after only a few years the milk comes out again and I drink, starved, even though my skin and my flesh and my blood and my bones is all white like when you’ve been staring into the sun for too long.
White.
White.
White.
White.
I have decided that the fault must lie in my eyes. My eyes are wrong. They are bad. The whites of my eyes are bad. They are bad and they are wrong and I must do something about that, so I put what I think is my fingers into what I think is my eyes and the white turns red and then the red turns black and I cry tears of joy because the white is gone and the white is gone and the white is gone and the white is gone and the white is gone
But
Then the white returns, but I can see the pillars, and I can see the messages before me, but I don’t look at them, I look at the white floor, and the white pillars, and I see that the floor beneath my feet is not white, not anymore. It’s gone all red, from the milk in my veins.
And it’s still there. It isn’t gone. Much like the cake I ate, the milk from my veins is not removed. Never removed. Always there.
I decide, now, that the white must be gone. Gone. Removed.
My wounds heal fast but not as fast as I can tear them open with my own fingers. It heals slashes and nice gashes faster than when I rip the arteries out and point their pulsating openings at the ground, because the lobby gets confused, and doesn’t know how best to heal me. And once the red milk in my veins is on the floor instead, I get down on my knees and hands and spread it out more, further, everywhere the eye can see, across the floor as far as the floor reaches, and up the pillows as far as my little feet can carry me, and if I stab the spear and the axe into my feet and use them as stilts I can put the red even higher up, and I do, because the more of the white that isn’t white, the better.
And in the end the lobby isn’t white anymore.
And I smile, and sigh, and lie down.
<You have learned:
Bleeding Resistance Lv.10>
<You have learned:
Bleeding Protection Lv.1>
I see. I see…
<Floor 2 has opened.
Do you want to enter?>
<Yes/No>
“Yes.”
I press the Yes button.
