Level 169's

On a certain day in the office of Lucid Dream Servers Corp.

Shibuya sat opposite a computer monitor while snoring. Yesterday, he just had to pull an all-nighter to monitor a certain section of Lucid. Since he was assigned to the monitoring department, he had to know everything that's going on in the Lucid Dream Server and record it. The recording will then undergo quality control and either be sent to the masses via Youtube or sent to the archives as a record. When he applied for a job in monitoring a certain VRMMORPG game, he never thought that he'd be monitoring all the players. He thought that he'll be monitoring the game for bugs.

But just recently, he managed to create a working system that would enable him to record whatever happens in the world of Lucid. Since 100% of the events involved a certain place where it will occur, Shibuya marked all locations on the map where an event is sure to take place. Most of them were some of the most dangerous places in Lucid. Of course, anyone who goes there would trigger an event or something worth recording.

And right now, one of the marked locations started beeping.

In a heartbeat, Shibuya's eyes shot wide open and he started recording the place. After wiping the drool off his chin, that's when he realized that the beeping sound came from one of the unexplored locations on the world of Lucid. And adding to that, the location was marked 'impossible'— meaning, it's one of the most impossible places to explore. Which also means that going inside here is suicidal.

"I remember this location. This is where that stupid javelin thrower got a minus 5 level-down. Why is another person entering it now? Does he have a death wish or something?" Shibuya asked himself, reaching out his hand to grab the already-opened bag of potato chips lying on his desk.

But when he was about to reach his hand into the bag of potato chips, his jaws dropped as his monitor showed the zoomed-in birds-eye view of the Spirit Jungle. Instead of one beep indicating one person... there were three beeps! And that's not the only thing surprising.

In the middle of the Spirit Jungle, there's a teenager who seemed to be walking casually as ever. It's as if he was walking in a park rather than a den of evil spirits. While the two other beeps came from two level-169's, they were having an even harder time compared to the teenager who was just—

"WAIT?! LEVEL 16?! I shouldn't be eating a bag of potato chips right now! I should be eating popcorn!" Shibuya exclaimed as he sprinted towards his personal cupboards and grabbed a bag of caramel popcorn.

"Now, this is interesting." He commented, popping popcorn in his mouth as a grin of satisfaction plastered on his face. "If this footage gets released, I swear I'll swear my earnings to these three awesome people!"

.....

Meanwhile, in the Spirit Jungle.

The Spirit Jungle is said to be one of the most dangerous places in the world of Lucid. In the overall rankings of dangerous places, the Spirit Jungle easily snagged tenth place out of the other locations. That's how dangerous it is.

And yet, for some reason, a teenager seemed to be having the time of their life over there as if it's just a normal forest. With a notebook in hand and a pen in the other, he was busily mapping the whole area and jotting down every detail he could find on the place.

[Exclusive Quest: Map the entire Spirit Jungle

Rewards:

— 50 Garnets, 9 Quartz

— Third-Eye

— The Holy Sword of Light and Truth

— Living Quarters

— Direct Ownership of the Mapped Area.

Description: Since you are the only Dreamer capable of mapping the entire area alone, the System has granted you the opportunity to map the entire area. And since the difficulty level of mapping the area is s++, the rewards have been upgraded to the maximum level as well.

Notice: Failure to complete this quest would result in— well, nothing. There is no time limit, take your time mapping it down. Once the mapping progress reaches 100% the rewards will be sent to your mailbox.]

When Yuuta reached halfway through the Spirit Jungle, a notification suddenly popped up in front of him, giving him an Exclusive Quest. He figured that the Exclusive Quest is just like the Exclusive Title— which is only exclusive to one Dreamer at a time. If that were the case, then this Exclusive Quest must be really important. Or so, that's what Yuuta thought.

And because of that, Yuuta concluded that he should take note of everything he finds interesting. He was on the way to the lair of the S-Rank Evil Spirit and he was feeling rather disinterested so he thought that a change of approach would probably entertain him a little bit.

Of course, he still kept track of time and didn't stay at one place for too long. Even with an exclusive quest given to him, he hasn't lost sight of the original Special Quest to save Hirasawa Yua.

The deeper Yuuta went, the thicker the fog became. But thanks to his All-Seeing-Eye Skill, he could see just fine and he didn't have any difficulty mapping the area on his way. He could tell that he's getting closer and closer to the lair where the S-Rank Evil Spirit is so he put his guard up and hoped that the Black Grsrzy Scarf would work just as well against the S-Rank Evil Spirit.

Up until now, Yuuta hasn't seen a single Evil Spirit in the vicinity. Even if his eyesight were above average compared to other players in the world of Lucid, he still couldn't see a single evil spirit around him. It perplexed him a little bit but he felt relieved. For someone who's as blind as a bat in real life, Yuuta is not one to handle a scary sight if ever sees one. That's also one of the reasons why he dreaded going into the Spirit Jungle.

Clink!

Clang!

Swish!

Clink!

From a distance, Yuuta was surprised to hear ragged breathing emanating from the thickest part of the Spirit Jungle. There were also the steady clinking of metal and clashing of who knows what. Curious, Yuuta cautiously moved through the trees, trying to find out what the commotion was all about.

Once he reached a small clearing, he saw two figures struggling to fight inanimate objects— more specifically, skeletons brandishing their swords and rocks flying everywhere with all the intent to hurt them. Yuuta has only seen those things in movies so he had no clue what was going on.

"What are they doing?" Yuuta asked himself, squinting his eyes.