2 Tutorial Starts
Sung-jin got a weird sensation through his body after he disappeared from the dungeon; he couldn't see anything either because a bright light blinded him.
Ding-!
-System: 3…2…1… Rebirth is successful.
The weird sensation he had before slowly faded away after the rebirth was done, and he could begin to feel his body materializing again.
'This is a weird feeling. And why can't I see yet?!'
Sung-jin tried to open his status window, but nothing worked, and he could only wait for the system's next move.
…
It felt like forever since Sung-jin left the dungeon, and even though he could feel and touch his body, he still couldn't see anything.
"When will I be able to touch anything but myself—"
Ding-!
-System: Now sending 'Player' to the tutorial.
"Finally! Something happened after such a long time!"
Sung-jin exclaimed with joy after the system rudely interrupted his complaining.
'But why will it send me to the tutorial? I already passed it once.'
Sung-jin wondered about the system's choice.
'I get that rebirth is supposed to send you back to the start of the game with nothing but a character boost or a new weapon. Or at least that's how it works in most of the popular games. But sending me back to do the tutorial—'
Sung-jin tried to assess what was going on, but a sudden feeling of touching something solid disrupted his thinking.
"The ground!"
Sung-jin said out loud, surprised that the feeling of forest dirt could nearly move a man to tears.
'Ah, the lush and beautiful forest they call the Tutorial Area.'
Sung-jin deeply inhaled the fresh air with closed eyes. He remembered back to the past and imagined the big trees and green bushes surrounding the area. All kinds of animals were thriving here; it's a perfect ecosystem.
Sung-jin thought of the beautiful forest but a dark memory suddenly popped into his mind.
'I just have to clear the tutorial fast, so nothing major happens—'
Sung-jin thought it was a shame that this area would soon get destroyed. So he determined that he would clear this tutorial as fast as possible.
"What's happening?!"
"Where is this place?"
"Who kidnapped us?"
Sung-jin was interrupted by a swarming sound of confusion. He didn't have to open his eyes to see what was going on; he just enjoyed the feeling of touching the ground again. But his joy quickly turned into annoyance because of the constant cry for help the other players yelled.
'I remember this scene all too well…'
Sung-jin opened his eyes slowly only to see thousands of people either running around trying to figure out what was going on or people sitting down, crying for help.
'Many deaths will ensure this place soon.'
Sung-jin depressingly remembered the first time he found himself this world and did the tutorial.
'But there is no time to be thinking about that now. What's more important at the moment is what the rebirth did to me.'
Sung-jin tossed his cruel past aside and decided to open his status window to see the rebirth's change.
-Status Window
Name: Sung-jin | Level: 1 | Age: 20 | Title: none | First Generation
Strength: 10
Vitality: 10
Agility: 10
Dexterity: 10
Intelligence: 10
Stat Points: 0
Skills: None
Titles: None
'Uhm…'
'It's quite bare considering a rebirth is supposed to make one stronger, or have I misunderstood something?'
Sung-jin looked at his status window and thought deeply about what the rebirth was supposed to do, but as he thought, the familiar system notification resounded again.
-System: Tutorial will now commence.
The notification popped up in front of everyone, and a peaceful silence befell the once boisterous place. It was the first time the other players heard the sound of the system, and therefore they concentrated on trying to decipher all this new information. Still, it didn't take long before another wave of confusion hit.
The noisy crowd began to step closer to each other like a pack of penguins in the cold Arctic. But these people were more scared than cold.
Sung-jin ignored everyone panicking and sat down at the nearest tree he could find since he knew that there would be a few minutes before the monster wave would come.
Now he has to figure out what the rebirth was all about.
'If the rebirth didn't give me any skills or stats… What has it actually done then?'
Sung-jin thought that the Lich King had scammed him. But then again, it wouldn't make sense for the system to come up with those notifications. And as Sung-jin was thinking, he suddenly remembered another way the system gave rewards.
'The inbox, of course… How could I have forgotten that?!'
Sung-jin cursed himself for being a moron.
'When clearing a dungeon, instead of getting the reward dropped on the ground, it sometimes goes into your inbox. But only a handful of times have that happened, though.'
Sung-jin sighed in relief and opened his inbox.
-Inbox
1 Unclaimed reward [First Rebirth Reward]
'Ha! I actually got a reward!'
Sung-jin stared happily at the inbox window for a good while before he opened the mail.
'Now, let's see what I got!'
"Open First Rebirth Reward!"
Sung-jin said out loud, and a mysterious blue light surrounded his body. It caught the attention of everyone around him, but that attention was only short-lived.
Out of nowhere, weapons began to spawn on the ground in front of all the players. And this was the system's way to say, 'fight for your lives.'
'It finally gave us the weapons.'
Sung-jin got distracted from his rebirth reward to pick up a rusty sword that spawned beside him. He examined the sword, but it wasn't really worth more than the scrap price.
'I see… The system is still as merciless as it always been.'
Sung-jin sighed at the fact that the system everyone obeyed in this world was such a cruel entity. And he knew that out of the thousand people who just got summoned to this world, probably only 30 percent of them would survive the tutorial.
'It is truly a shame that all these potential workers will eventually die a gruesome death…'
Sung-jin examined his surroundings before standing up.
'Ten seconds before a complete chaos will engulf this place.'
Sung-jin was surprisingly motivated to do the tutorial after he had seen what the rebirth reward was. And now he couldn't wait for it to start.
"Open Status Window"
Sung-jin opened his status window just before the monster wave would come.
-Status Window
Name: Sung-jin | Level: 1 | Age: 20 | Title: none | First Generation
Strength: 10
Vitality: 10
Agility: 10
Dexterity: 10
Intelligence: 10
Stat Points: 0
Skills: None
Titles:
Dark Apostle: Lvl 1 [Exp: 0%]
[Effect: 5% exp gain]
[Effect: 10% damage gain. Dark Type skills only]
'This title is overpowered!'
Sung-jin smiled ominously. The title was the only thing that the rebirth reward gave him, and Sung-jin looked happy about it. The only problem with this title was—
'The first effect will help me a lot when leveling, and I think the EXP gain will rise when the title level rises. But the second effect…'
Sung-jin glanced at the second effect, not knowing if he should be happy about it or not.
'10 percent damage gain is overpowered, especially because it will rise. But Dark-type skills are not something you just get. The only Dark-type skill I had previously was Shadow Step, and it wasn't even dealing damage…'
Sung-jin got a little disappointed, but he couldn't really worry about it now since the system wouldn't stop pestering him.
Ding-!
-System: Monster Wave Cleared (0:5)
'I can decide my path at a later time. Now it's time to kill some monsters!'
Sung-jin tightly grasped the handle of his rusty sword and looked at the direction the monsters would come from.
…
"PLEASE HELP ME, SOMEONE!"
The tutorial had just begun, and screams could already be heard all over the tutorial area. Some people chose to run away, and some were too scared of the monsters even to pick up their weapons. But Sung-jin knew that those two types of people were the ones to get killed first. The only proper way was—
'To fight back!'
Sung-jin took a deep breath and began to run in the direction where the screams came from.
'Shadow Step!'
Sung-jin activated his Shadow Step skill…
But nothing happened.
'Ah, this is awkward…'
Sung-jin got very embarrassed. He had forgotten all about his rebirth, which took away everything, including his Shadow Step skill.
'It will take a bit longer to reach the monster wave than what I had calculated before… But while I'm running, I should probably equip my title, or it won't have any effects.'
Sung-jin turned the embarrassment into something useful and equipped his title, Dark Apostle, just before reaching the front line where the monster wave was mowing through the helpless players.
Piiing-!
Sung-jin hadn't even reached the frontline yet, and an arrow already flew toward him at high speed, but Sung-jin's reflexes were fast enough to avoid it.
"That was dangerous!"
Sung-jin exclaimed after just barely managing to avoid an arrow flying toward his face. The arrow was only a millisecond too slow, or it would have hit a bull's eye.
'My reflexes aren't as they once were. I need to stop thinking I have the same abilities as before my rebirth!'
Sung-jin looked in the direction the arrow came from.
'There you are, you little bastard!'
Sung-jin thought, staring ominously in the eyes of the green goblin who took cover behind a tree. The gaze Sung-jin gave the goblin was so murderous that the goblin's instinct told it to run, or it would definitely die.
It didn't take long for the goblin to decide it should retreat back to their main force since a lone goblin was pretty much useless. The goblin took the risk of dying so that it could kill a player or two by surprising them with an arrow to the face.
'Your plan didn't go so well. I dare you to try running!'
Sung-jin mentally challenged the goblin, and it seemed it understood Sung-jin's intentions very well. So, the goblin ran—
Thunk-!
The goblin slowly collapsed onto the ground with blood flowing out of the forehead where Sung-jin's rusty sword was embedded. Sung-jin had thrown his sword at the goblin from a fifteen-meter distance and hit right in its forehead.
The goblin didn't stand a chance against Sung-jin's abilities that he had earned after nearly five years of hunting all kinds of monsters. Sung-jin's stats might not be higher than anyone else, but his battle experience was clearly picking up that slack.
"That's what you call a bull's eye!"
Sung-jin victoriously said as he pulled out his sword from the goblin's head.
Ding-!
-System: Congrats Player. You leveled up!
