Cleared?

Hu. Hu. Hu.

Kneeling on the ground and gasping for breath, Pro stared at the ground in front of him. He felt exhausted all over and wanted to just pass out, but he still held on.

He was back!

When the orb only had a fourth left, it actually shattered into pieces! His book swiftly absorbed the rest of the orb while the entire dungeon realm shattered! An intangible force shackled the dungeon realm in place as if time had stopped.

Pro thought he was dead at first, but he actually survived! Then, he felt an intangible force send him out of the dungeon as a dungeon clear message appeared in his mind.

The dungeon actually counted that he cleared the dungeon! Well, not in the tradition sense.

[Dungeon 'Fairy Tale: Little Red Riding Hood' cleared.]

[Clear Condition: Dungeon Core Destruction]

[Rewards: 250 Merit, 1x Random Item Draw (Grade F)]

A gleam of excitement flashed through Pro's eyes as thought back about his close call. Truly full of risk and alive only because of plot armor, but it was worth it.

Not only did he pass the dungeon he originally intended to fail, he also received better rewards in addition to an unknown basket that was still sitting in his pocket space!

After calming down, Pro rolled over and laid on the ground as he observed his surroundings. It was a familiar place. A red portal was nearby and a group of law enforcers were scrutinizing him with strange eyes.

Fortunately, his instinct made him put his book back into his spiritual realm as soon as he realized that he was being kicked out of the dungeon. Otherwise, his book may have been revealed.

Even if no one could see it, Pro was still wary of other more powerful traversers. Who knows where there is a peeping eye observing the newcomers?

After glancing at each other, one of the law enforcers walked forward and stopped next to Pro. Looking up, Pro found him to be familiar. It was the one he thanked on a whim.

"You are the last one of the previous batch. The rest of your ... companions had already returned to the school. A new batch had already entered ... you should go back and report soon lest they remove you from the roster."

Oh boy. Was he really that bad compared to the others? Well, Pro had no time to think about this now. He needs to head back quick and report!

Pro nodded towards the law enforcer as he replied with a happy smile, "Thank you for letting me know."

The law enforcer silently nodded back without any change in his expression. He turned around and walked back to his position, awaiting the return of the new batch of entries.

Pro struggled up and huffed a couple of times. He then briskly walked away.

Seeing that Pro had disappeared into the distance, one of the law enforcers couldn't help but reprimand, "Why bother? It's not like they would actually care. Getting involved with them would only bring you disaster. I say that it would be better to have one less of these vampires in the school. At least there will an extra quota of resources for us at the end of the year."

The law enforcer that reminded Pro was silent for a while before he answered, "I don't like to owe others for their kindness."

"Tch. Hypocrite," the other law enforcer sneered before returning to silence.

Meanwhile, Pro had finally made it back to school. He hurried to his class. Entering the classroom, he was met with the somewhat surprised eyes of others, but it didn't last long as they didn't really care.

"Oh. It's good to be back. Good, any seedling that can return is a good thing. Fortunately, I did not send in the updated roster. I'll add you back, child. Go on, have a seat," the old granny greeted Pro with a friendly smile as she made some marks on a device in the podium where she stood.

Returning to his seat, Pro plopped himself down as he wiped the sweat on his forehead in exhaustion. The class continued as the old granny restarted her lecture regarding the world outside the safe zone.

Although the rest of the traversers didn't care, Pro could feel the excited stare coming from his only companion in the class, Fatty Tu Fu. For now, Pro just ignored him as he seriously paid attention to class while recovering his energy.

It didn't take long before class came to an end.

"Alright, children. Now that after you passed your trial dungeon, if any of you have questions, you are free to come to my office to ask ... for a small fee in merit of course. Okay, class dismissed."

Some traversers, who wanted to stay alone, filed out of the room while others gathered in groups.

Glancing around, Pro noticed a couple of students missing. It was clear that they had descended. The ones left were the ones with 'potential'. So, now factions had begun to form, mostly grouped by their source seed type.

Of course, Pro was an outcast. Similarly, fatty Tu Fu was in the same situation. So, the two formed a faction of two ... outcasts.

"Yo! I knew you would make it Neo! When I didn't see you, I was shocked. I couldn't believe you would fail! As expected, you didn't disappoint!"

Pro rolled his eyes.

Although this fatty was an outcast due to his looks, Pro knew he was slick with his words. This was why the fatty was able to gather info from the others even though they excluded him.

Although the other traversers were arrogant, they won't smack away a smiling face that was flattering them.

"So, how was it, Neo? What Fairy Tale did you get?" Tu Fu asked curiously as he slapped his chubby hands over Pro's back.

Pro glanced back at him while feeling weak inside. Still, he responded, "Are we allowed to reveal details about the dungeons out here?"

"Of course! After passing the trial, we are allowed to reveal the details as long as it is not to the newcomers. This first trial is like a screener. If you don't pass it, you are an outsider. It's kind of like an unspoken rule. No one would reveal info to you, not here or even outside ..."

"Unless you pay a sufficient amount of merit that is usually way higher than the amount you can get as a reward. So, no one is that stupid to waste merits like this for a simple trial dungeon. Of course, this is only for the trial dungeon. For dungeons after this, you can easily get some details at a fair price. Some info for low-grade dungeons are even free."

True. Even if Pro had that amount of merit, he would spend it on increasing his strength, not on some information.

Pro nodded and replied, "There was a little girl wearing a red cloak in my dungeon, it was called Little Red Riding Hood ..."

"Oh! You got that one too?!" Tu Fu exclaimed in shock.

Then, as if realizing that Pro didn't know, he gave Pro a couple of pats on the back as he sneered while nodding towards a group that was surrounding an arrogant young man.

The young man was standing behind the podium while waving his hands in excitement during his speech.

"Ji Fan?"

"Yes. You won't believe it, after he came out, he bragged for more than a day over his achievements! He said he cleared a hidden plot and got over 500 merits and a F+ grade item draw as a reward!"

"Hidden plot?"

"That's right. He said something about the hidden truth. It seems the dungeon boss was a fake. The real dungeon boss is the grandmother. The hidden plot was uncovering the fact that the fake dungeon boss starved the real dungeon boss to death, then reviving the real dungeon boss by bringing the dungeon core to the real boss ..."

Pro felt a bit dizzy as he listened to the fatty. Wait, doesn't this mean that he was super close to completing the hidden plot?! He got the dungeon core! He even found a skeleton that he suspected to be the grandma! However, he stupidly let his book consume the core instead of giving it to the big boss ...

At the thought of the 250 merits and the better reward he had missed, Pro felt a pain in his chest.

How do protagonists in novels let all the clues click in place and make solving mysteries look easy as pie? When it came to the actual thing, he didn't even have a single clue until he heard about it from others!

"There's really a difference between traversers ..." Pro couldn't help but mumble.

"Yo, Neo, don't have to be so down. Cheer up, at least you passed and got the basic rewards. There were a couple of unlucky ones that probably went down and probably got nothing. We could be considered lucky," Tu Fu comforted as he gave Pro a pat on his back.

Pro thumped his chest to get rid of his grief over lost money. He then asked the fatty, "What about you? What did you get?"

"Oh, you wouldn't believe it, Neo! I actually got one called 'The Little Mermaid'. Ohhh, just recalling it makes me excited! That smoothness, the way she wrapped around me, the way she sang for me ..."

Wait. Why does the fatty's story sound a little wrong?! It's starting to slip out of the fairy tale children radar and into the adult category!

Pro stared at the fatty with strange eyes as he coughed, "She was willing right?"

"Ahem. Of course! How could she not be? She even welcomed me by calling her friends to prepare a seafood banquet for me! It has been a while since I had such a fulfilling meal! That wonderful feeling above and below ..."

"I thought I could enjoy the buffet longer, but some old man with a fork came uninvited. I thought he came to steal my food. So, I gave him a slap. Who knew that he would actually croak after one slap?! I then got the dungeon clear message and was kicked out with the most basic rewards. Sigh, if I had known, I would have held back ..."

Pro's lips twitched. If one didn't understand the hidden truth under this shameless fatty's one-sided story, they would have thought he was a good man.

In reality, everyone should know that none of the traversers were good people!

After all, they either came here because they've suffered through everything or they came because their life was ended because they were the cannon fodder or villain. The protagonist? That type of soul won't die so easily and won't end up here.

"Yo, Neo, you probably have a F- draw chance from the basic rewards along with some merits? How about we head over to the Tower of Negativity? We can collect our item reward at the Redemption Center. Then, we can head over to Bai Hua Lou-"

"Ahem. Tu Fu, I don't have much merits and have to use my merit to buy some other stuff to prepare for my next dungeon ..."

"Ah, understand. Understand. I guess we'll go study culture next time. Still, let's go play the roulette then I'll show you around the market. Trust me, Neo. I haven't been here for long, but I can be a proper guide already. I won't charge you because we're friends!"

Under Tu Fu's enthusiastic coaxing, Pro was half-dragged over to a towering, red-tinted structure that spiraled into the fog above.

Above, a faint red trail of red mist wrapped around the tower like a sleeping dragon. Below, a bustling crowd filed in and out of a large, opened gate that led into a long street lined with shops on both sides.

Although Pro was exhausted, he still woke up a bit when he arrived. After all, this was the Tower of Negativity, where anything can be bought as long as you have merits to spend! It was also here that Pro will collect his first item drop!