Chapter 7: Player District

Edward opened the window of the cab and one of the guards immediately asked him for authorization.

"The area from here onwards is the Player District and it isn't open to normal civilians. Please show us if you have any authorization to be here," said the man in a firm and emotionless voice.

Edward showed him his Player License and after a couple seconds of looking at it he was respectfully allowed inside by the guards. They did however say that the cab driver shouldn't linger around and should head back out after dropping him Edward off to his destination.

After a couple hundred meters more, Edward was greeted by the sight of a building larger than the Player Association branch, this time with lot more people around it. He told the cab driver to park near it and proceeded inside.

The area starting from the gates on the road where Edward showed his identification was a restricted part of his city: the Player District. This was the area where most of the Players lived so that they can easily go to the Labyrinth whenever they wanted to. Everything in this place had something to do with Players or the Labyrinth, which is why civilians weren't allowed unless they had special permissions.

The Player District was quite large, but that didn't really concern Edward as his destination was the Headquarters of the Player District. The HQ was a large base which functioned pretty much the same as a branch of the Player Association. It was built near the vicinity of the Labyrinth's gate so that the Players can enter the Labyrinth through it. That wasn't its only purpose, though, as the HQ offered various other services and the reason why Edward had come here was for one of those services.

New Players don't really know much about the Labyrinth or what the Players exactly do so the Player Association has a briefing for new Players which is highly recommended for them to take before venturing into the Labyrinth or any Portals. Since Edward didn't have any pre-existing connections with Players, he decided to listen to the briefing before entering the Labyrinth.

With the information regarding Players Edward currently had, it would be near impossible for him to do anything. He only knew what every other civilian knew and in the job of a Player where danger lurks around every corner, a lack of information was as bad as a lack of power.

Edward looked around and analyzed the interior of the HQ. Inside the building, there was a front desk for inquiries, which is where Edward went to ask about the briefing session.

At the front desk, the receptionist told him that the briefing session would be conducted at 3:00 every day at a certain room. He had 10 minutes left and decided to just wait around idly for a while. Once it was only a few minutes before 3, Edward started walking towards the room. Fortunately, the briefing for new Players was on the ground floor and didn't require going to any of the higher floors.

The Player District HQ was pretty large and he could easily get lost if he were asked to go somewhere complicated.

On this particular day, Edward was the only new Player attending the session, which was fairly normal since Players don't awaken that regularly. The only other person present was the Player who was conducting this session.

He was an old man with a white beard and mustache called Joseph. He was pretty knowledgeable and was telling Edward a lot of information regarding the Players and the Association, but nothing about him was really unique and he just felt like an ordinary man.

The Players operated differently from the rest of the world and therefore used their own naming for a lot of stuff. Cities and countries weren't used to denote locations, instead Zones and sub-divisions were used. 26 Zones existed in the world and were denoted in letters and as for sub-divisions, each Zone had 10, denoted in numbers.

{The reason for this was definitely because the Players liked using cringy codenames and DEFINITELY not because the author of this subpar webnovel does not want to use real life locations. (￢_￢;)}

The current area where Edward was at was Zone F1. After explaining this unique terminology used by the Players, Joseph started talking about the basic features of the Player Interface which Edward already knew because of the Beginners' Guide, but he didn't interrupt as it would be rude.

He also noticed that Joseph didn't mention the Training Mode, but that wasn't really a basic function so he didn't think much of it. Since Edward knew about the Player Interface, he didn't pay that much attention for that part but Joseph caught his attention while talking about the opportunities to make a profit as a Player.

Since earning money wasn't really a part of the Labyrinth, it wasn't mentioned at all in the Beginners' Guide and Edward knew little about the topic. He started to pay extra attention.

"Now, I will tell you about, for some people, the most lucrative aspect of being a Player." Joseph said, looking into Edward's eyes.

Edward was interested, but not really greedy for money and remained calm, unlike the majority of Players. For him, the thrill of fighting and adventure was the best aspect of being a Player. This was a surprise to Joseph, who let out a little smirk and continued.

For a moment, Edward felt something, but before he could contemplate on what it was, Joseph had resumed speaking.

"There are two primary ways to make money as a Player: clearing the portals that can appear at any time in any place, selling the items acquired from the Labyrinth or the portals. There are also other methods such as… doing people's dirty work, signing contract with guilds or the Association or going on talk shows and the sort if you are popular, but those are not for you to think about at this level. For now, focus on getting stronger."

Edward was satisfied with this information and continued to calmly listen and remember whatever Joseph told him.

"The next thing I will talk about is the Player Association and its basic hierarchy and structure. I won't be taking much of your time for this and will just give you a brief run down. The Player Association branches have Branch Managers and various employees under him. As for the Player District HQs, there is a District Manager. Both these managers are at the same level but work in different areas. Above the Branch Managers are Zone Chiefs, who are like managers, but for an entire Zone. Finally, above them there is the Leader of the Player Association, who is one of the strongest people alive."

This information made Edward realize how much more he had to grow in order to truly be strong and filled him with a new found sense of determination.

After finishing this explanation of his up, Joseph told Edward how to get to the Labyrinth.

"The gate to the Labyrinth is the opposite side from here. Go back to the main hall and go right. About the Labyrinth itself, I will not tell you much. The only thing you should know for now is the basic stuff. The Labyrinth is comprised of 13 floors, each floor being harder than the other by a large margin. New Players like you start at the first floor and make your way down to the 13th.

As of right now, humanity has been able to reach the 5th floor and is unable to move further. The guardian of the 5th floor quite a bit of a problem…" Joseph's expression changed to a rather grave and serious look.

"Anyways, you will find out about that later… you will…" the old man looked at Edward with a sharp glance and continued, "That's all for now. This briefing session has now officially come to an end."

With this, Joseph told Edward he was free to go and enter the Labyrinth for himself.

Edward sincerely thanked the old man and walked towards the door. He left and turned around to close the door but when he looked inside the room for a moment, Joseph couldn't be seen. Well, the door was barely open so Edward ignored it, blaming it on the limited visibility through the barely open door and started heading to the actual Labyrinth's gate.

On the way to the Labyrinth, he saw many different Players, clad in all sorts of armor, some even wielding weapons. There wasn't anyone of his level that he could see, so he didn't linger around much. Edward wouldn't really meet the stronger players at the first floor and he wasn't the type to randomly make conversation with people who didn't concern him.

As Edward moved from the main hall area towards the right, he could see a large gate right in front of him. He pushed the gate open and walked into a room with a completely different structure and scenery. It was protected translucent blue barriers, which Edward assumed were some sort of an ability of a Player, on all sides.

Moreover, the environment of this room wasn't that of a closed room. There were some trees and bushes all around the place, the center of which was occupied by a cave like structure. This cave was the entrance to the Labyrinth.

Edward's heartbeat was slowly getting faster and he was starting to feel a rush of adrenaline.

In this area, there were barely any other Players; neither was there anything blocking the way to the Labyrinth such as security guards. Edward quickly moved forward and was less than a meter from the cave's entrance when a window popped up in front of him.

[Would you like to enter the Labyrinth?

Yes / No]

Edward took a deep breath, equipped the 'Enhanced Dagger' and replied in his mind eagerly.

"Yes!"