Chapter 15.) City Of New Beginnings

With the final phase of the exams completed, Inorin has been released into the world of Ender's Playground to do whatever he pleases.

He spawned in a cabin like hostel filled with other players sitting around and chatting.

He decided to start looking for Koeda right away to figure out what to do.

Even though he invested a lot of time into finding out as much as he could about the game, he still didn't know what he wanted to do first.

He opened his friend's list and messaged Koeda asking where she was at the moment.

He walked over to talk to the person behind the front desk while he waited for a response from her.

Believing the man behind the desk was an NPC made Inorin ask simple question for a simple reply back.

"Im guessing you're a new player. Well this is a hostel, you can rent a room if you like." The person tells him

"Yes I just finished the exams."

"Well my name's Vinni, I can show you around after my shifts over if you'd like."

"Wow NPC's are this complex?" Inorin asks

"Oh I'm not a NPC, I'm a player just like you. You'll rarely ever see NPC's actually." Vinni explains

"Really then how did you get this job?"

"The manager is an NPC and they'll remain in the building until at least 10 players are hired."

"Rin!" Someone yells from behind them

"Oh Koeda? How'd you know where I was?"

"The friend's list tells where you were." She explains

"Oh okay, anyways listen to this guy, he knows a lot. Please continue!" Inorin orders

"Okay, well the pay is pretty good, I'm earning about $50 per hour. Which is really good because you can use in-game currency in the real world."

"Really!?" Both Koeda and Inorin questioned unanimously

"Really, although all money transfers are cut by a forth when you go to cash it in real life. So 100k would only get you 75k in the real world, which is still really good."

"Rin, I think we should focus on buying stuff in game before transferring any money to the real world."

"That's a good plan." Vinni adds

"I agree, it's not like I have anything I need to buy in the real world anyway." Inorin answers

"Also, money in the real world cannot be transferred into the game. So if you transfer money from the game, it would be best if you pulled out the exact amount since you can't put it back in."

"Wow that's a lot to remember. How's about we add you, so we can play together when you get off." He asks

Inorin and Koeda both added Vinni and left the hostel to find another person.

"Where do you think he is? Neither one of us added him."

"I added him but for some reason it only says he's somewhere on this floor. But there are only three starting locations on this floor, so we just have to check the last one." Koeda replies

Koeda and Inorin spawned at different locations on the same floor which meant they only had to check the location they hadn't been to yet.

The first 100 floors of the world were separated by 3 major timelines and one alternate timeline. Floor one to floor 25 were made up of the present timeline, 26 through 50 was an alternate dimension, and 51 through 75 were the past. The last floors leading up to floor 100 held the future timeline.

Each time held subjects exclusive to that region but they were all intertwined with one another somehow.

On floor 1 of the present timeline was the City of New Beginnings, were all players originated. It held three main start points, the hostel, the cathedral, and the communication's tower that held the teleport portals.

Inorin spawned at the hostel and Koeda spawned at the Cathedral so they simply needed to go to the communications tower.

Problem was neither of them knew how to get there, so they decided to ask nearby players for directions.

"Hey... do you know how to get to the communication tower from here?" Inorin asks while tapping another player on the shoulder.

"Of course, I can show you if you want." The random man replies while laughing.

"Okay cool, let's leave now." Inorin orders

"Woah dude not so fast, I think you forgot something." The man says while holding out his hand.

Koeda runs up on the man and holds a dagger to his neck

"You're going to take us to the tower or you can die here."

The man nodded then backed away from the blade.

"She's scary, fine let's go, I've got better things to do than babysit a couple of noobs."

So the group of 5 proceeded to head to the tower together.

While they walked they saw multiple players, shops, houses, and even low level dungeons on the way.

When they finally arrived at their destination, the man guiding them said as he pointed: "alright its right there but this is as far as I'll go."

Inorin thanked the three guys as they turned to continue on their journey across floor 1.

As soon as they began walking one of the three guides charged in with a short sword to strike Inorin in the back of the head.

His attack was cut short by Koeda who blocked his sword with an arm blade.

The man quickly leaps back in an attempt to gain space between them.

Koeda mugs the man then precedes after him while spinning her blade around her hand.

Another guy with a staff steps in front of him.

*Illusion Magic: Debiruzufōku* A large invisible black rod in the shape of a pitchfork moving in a parallel dimension.

Three invisible fast speeding black rods separated themselves from the whole and headed straight for Koeda.

"Koeda look out!!" Inorin shouts

Koeda senses the attack but is moving too fast to dodge out of the way.

She is struck by two of the three rods by just barely being able to shift the left side of her body out of the way.

After being pierced in her lower chest and right arm pressure points, Koeda is rendered mostly immobile, standing frozen in place while still being able to talk.

The original guide then breaks out in laughter.

"Kill her, slit her throat like she threatened to do to me." The man says

Hearing this causes the Rogue to head for Koeda in an attempt to kill her like he tried to do to Inorin.

"Rin I can't move!" Koeda says while staggered

Inorin hurriedly steps in front of Koeda preparing himself to protect her while she's paralyzed.

The charging Rogue throws 4 small daggers in rapid succession whilst continuing forward.

Inorin for the first time reaches in his small purple fanny pack under his cloak and pulls out a double sided dagger with a holding hole in the middle of each blade and three regular shuriken

He throws the three shuriken which block three of the flying daggers.

For the last dagger, Inorin uses the rounded blade of his double sided dagger to block, in turn sending the dagger far leftward.

Immediately after having his daggers blocked, the man got close enough to launch a actual attack.

Inorin ducked under the man's short sword swing then kicked him in the lower thigh forcing him back 10 feet.

When the man finally caught his balance, he smiled at Inorin and said; "it is done" as he turned around.

With all speed, Inorin's head snapped to the back and he saw the last flying dagger redirect it's path to stab Koeda in the back.

•Shing• A loud sound ricocheted throughout the surroundings as the dagger collided.