Chapter 42: The Neutral Zone Part 2

Now I was left alone, observing the bulletin board from a distance. It is still full of curious people studying the content of the pieces of paper stuck there.

I suppose I could take things lightly for a while. I will wait a few hours for the board to completely clear out. I don't want the novice survivors to see my actions and get the bright idea to imitate me, only to meet a miserable death.

I felt someone approaching me and heard them ask.

"How did you do it?"

It was a woman who exudes an atmosphere of dignity and elegance. She greeted me formally when I turned my attention to her. She is dressed in a European maid's outfit, her blonde hair neatly styled into a bun, and she is wearing elegant glasses that make her look very sophisticated and intellectual.

Clearly, she is Claire Agnes, the right hand of Taciana Cinzia. Even at this distance, she could not recognize me, so my costume and behavior as the underworld's god of death perfectly concealed my identity as Seol Jihu.

"Hello, how may I assist you, beautiful lady?" I replied, making a formal European-style gentleman's greeting. She seemed surprised by the greeting but clearly not comfortable with the compliment.

"My name is Claire Agnes. If it is alright with you, I would like the honor of guiding you through this facility."

"It would be a pleasure and an honor to receive your guidance. Please lead the way, beautiful lady," I said in a flirtatious tone, and she clearly showed a face that she was already regretting the idea because of my behavior. It made me laugh a bit, so I'm sure I will keep teasing her for a good while.

"Ahh, in that case," she said hesitantly, but suddenly stopped as she looked in the direction behind me. So, I turned and saw Maria standing there. Not only that, she was smiling broadly at Claire, but her smile did not reach her eyes.

"Maria! Of course, I know that Area 1 is not my jurisdiction. So it's a pleasant surprise to see you, its manager here. Would you be so kind as to guide the gentleman through the facilities?" said a clearly happy Claire, eager to get rid of me. Maria, who had been smiling wickedly before, stopped doing so and opened her eyes wide in surprise at Claire's words.

Maria studied her to see if she could find an explanation for the situation, but unable to find anything, she just sighed.

"Of course, it's my duty," Maria responded as briefly and politely as she could, trying hard not to let any other word that could give a bad impression of her slip out.

Claire let out a soft but happy sigh before bowing silently to me and leaving without saying anything more.

"Today that Sicilian bitch is definitely acting strange; she must have smoked a cigar with experimental drugs," Maria said thoughtlessly.

I found it interesting to see how she did not realize that she had just insulted so naturally, when just a few seconds ago she was doing everything possible to say as few words as not to let out a single insult.

"Very well then. Allow me to guide you," said Maria, smiling tenderly.

"Sure, but first, introductions are in order, right? My name is Seol Jihu. May I know the name of such a charming lady?" I said.

"Ah, of course, I am María Yeriel," she said while slightly lifting the hem of her dress. Although she does not have as much elegance as Claire, María looks cuter.

"I will be in your care then, Miss María," I said, and instead of walking ahead or indicating that I should follow her, she grabbed a part of my suit and began to pull, dragging me to a nearby café.

"Before we start, would you like to buy me something to drink first?" she asked without any shyness or embarrassment, rather she was giving me a judging look. As if she were evaluating the quality of a product.

As I had said before, María is a very greedy and foul-mouthed woman, but she is also quite loyal and it is worth establishing a good relationship with her, not to mention that she is cute.

"Sorry, it seems I forgot my manners for a moment, I was inconsiderate. As compensation, feel free to order whatever you like," I said, showing regret for being rude, and as I imagined, María's expression brightened, as if she had found an invaluable treasure.

Survival points are valuable here in the Neutral Zone, as they are used as the currency of exchange, whether for accommodation, supplies, weapons, any product or service that is traded here in the Neutral Zone is through survival points.

Looking at the café menu, the cheapest drink available costs one survival point. María, on the other hand, asked me to order one of the most expensive drinks on the menu for her, which cost 10 points.

The moment one places an order from the menu, the person's survival points are immediately deducted, but when I placed the order, no points were deducted from me. The reason is simple, just for being a golden-grade guest, I receive a 30% discount in most of the stores in the Neutral Zone, and to that is added that the one who wins first place in survival point acquisition from the tutorial and possesses the key with the number 1 engraved receives a 70% discount also in several stores, and if the store has a discount for both cases, then the discounts are added together, so in the stores where both discounts apply, I don't actually have to pay anything.

And for that reason, María, instead of ordering herself, asked me to do it for her, so the drink was free. After receiving the drink, María stood up and began to walk towards the stairs that connect to the upper floors, while sipping her drink through a straw.

"You really made a wise decision to stay behind since you have already secured your right to leave by obtaining the 1000 survival points. But it's better to stay and take advantage of all the little benefits you can from here, understand? It is really hard to return to the Neutral Zone once you leave after all." María said happily.

"Sure, I know the benefits and that is why I decided to stay. I definitely plan to squeeze everything I can out of the Neutral Zone," I replied.

"That's good, then I guess you'll need this," she said, pulling out a pamphlet seemingly out of nowhere and continued, "This is the list of some of the things you can buy at the VIP store."

María handed me the pamphlet. During our little conversation, we went up to the upper floors and entered a floor with several rooms with numbers engraved on the doors, and she abruptly stopped in front of a room with a number 1 engraved on the door.

"Well, here we are, as you won first place and possess the key with number 1, this room is reserved and free of cost for you, I recommend using it to rest and sleep, since this being the best room in the Neutral Zone, it has effects that increase the recovery from rest and sleep x2, so if you sleep 1 hour you will rest as if it were 2 hours," said María. Then she made a gesture as if she were saying goodbye.

"Thank you very much for the tour, Miss María. If you happen to see me at lunchtime, you are welcome to join me for a meal anytime, my treat," I said, and she abruptly stopped and turned in my direction, looked at me for a few seconds, and smiled sweetly before nodding and running off while humming.

I opened the door to the room with my key and entered. The room is large, so large that calling it a room doesn't quite fit; I would say it looks more like a grand hall. The walls are adorned with numerous paintings, and there are also many luxurious sculptures decorating the corners and other parts of the room, with a beautiful chandelier hanging from the ceiling. There are a few sofas, a huge super King-sized bed.

I threw myself onto the bed and it was super soft and fluffy, almost as if it were going to absorb me. 'It's a comfortable bed, I have to admit.' Now that I'm alone in my room, I took out the VIP store pamphlet that María gave me and reviewed it.

| Greetings to you!

The Neutral Zone operates a very special store for those of you with many Survival Points in your pocket!

The VIP store has three distinct features that set it apart from other stores within the Zone:

Firstly, this is a very unique store created through the combined guidance of the Seven Deities.

Secondly, the products of this store will never be restocked once they have been purchased.

And finally, the number of people who have used the services of this store can be counted on one hand.

Although the price of each item may be unimaginably high, we can confidently guarantee their effects.

The following is the list of items that can be purchased at the VIP store. And we remind you that no discounts apply in the store, please keep this in mind.

We eagerly await your patronage, so see you soon!

VIP Item List;

1. Ambrosia: 30,000 SP each, stock quantity x2

2. Pneuma Sky Boots: 50,000 SP per pair, stock quantity x1

3. Moirai's Keepsake: 600,000 SP, stock quantity x1

4. Miyal's Iron Brand: 100,000 SP, stock quantity x1

5. Divine Elixirs: 30,000 SP each

- Strength, stock quantity x1

- Durability, stock quantity x1

- Agility, stock quantity x2

- Resistance, stock quantity x2

- Magic, stock quantity x1

- Luck, stock quantity x3

6. Divine Stigmas: 300,000 SP, stock quantity x1

7. World Tree Seed: 400,000 SP, stock quantity x1

8. Sidus' Holy Measures: 80,000 SP, stock quantity x1

9. Aphrodite's Reed: 150,000 SP each, stock quantity x5

10. Psychi's Tears: 250,000 SP, stock quantity x1

Note: Survival Points = SP |

There are only ten items on the list if all the elixirs are taken as one item, and there is no doubt that each one of them has outstanding effects.

The obvious problem is of course the prices, which are incredibly high. Just considering that the requirement to leave the Neutral Zone is 1000 points and seeing that most enter the Neutral Zone with even less than those points and are given 1 month to reach that goal.

It is obvious that a normal person would not bother their mind to buy any item from that list, just as normal people on Earth don't think about buying limited edition luxury cars, boats, and planes. The items in the VIP store are on that scale.

But I already knew that from the novel. In fact, my plan is to take everything from that list, I will leave the VIP store completely empty before I leave or if not possible, I will simply take the things that will be most useful to me in my short-term plans.

It's time to test some things. First, before coming to the Tutorial, I made sure not to sleep for the last 5 days, and adding the time it took for the Tutorial, I have been without sleep for almost 6 days, which could be considered enough time to say that I'm mentally exhausted as a normal person would be after a long day of work.

A normal person would recover after sleeping 8 hours, but in my case, I recover by sleeping 2 hours thanks to my innate ability [Quick Recovery (Passive)], which allows me to recover 4 times faster. What I want to check now is if the room's x2 multiplier effect adds to my ability, and now that I'm exhausted, it is the best opportunity to check it. If I recover in 2 hours as usual, then the effects don't stack, but if I recover in 1 hour, they do stack, and it will be a great advantage for my future plans. So, I checked the time on my phone and saw that it was 4:32 PM, and since I also want to know if the effect applies to any part of the room and not just the bed, I went to sleep on the floor.

I woke up and felt completely recovered. I checked my phone again and confirmed the time, it's 5:38 PM, so I slept 1 hour and 6 minutes. In that time, I fully recovered, which means that both effects definitely stack, the one from my ability and the one from the room. And yes, the effect is from the room and not the bed, which works great with my plans.

With this confirmed, I feel more at ease. While an hour of sleep difference doesn't feel like much, the point was not so much for the resting but rather for the stacking of effects because in the Neutral Zone, there is an element called [Special Competition] that helps to improve training performance by x8 times, and if I multiply it with my other ability [Natural Talent (Passive)], which is a x4 multiplier, then I would have a x32 multiplier.

Having confirmed what I wanted to check, I left my room and headed back to the ground floor.

* *

Back on the ground floor, there was still a crowd in the plaza, but it was much smaller than an hour ago.

I looked around the mission bulletin board and the few people there gave me space with some fear. I suppose they understand that getting first place means I had to fight the Tutorial Monster and possibly face many dangerous things, which implies I am also dangerous.

Since they cleared the way for me, I simply walked up and looked at the board. It's quite simple; several paper talismans hang on the bulletin board. The talisman contains information about the mission, and if it is broken, it will teleport the user and anyone they are in physical contact with to the mission location.

The information written on the talismans is in this format:

- Mission name and number of available attempts.

- Difficulty.

- Rewards if successful.

- Punishment if unsuccessful.

- Whether cooperation is allowed or not.

The difficulty ranks are: Basic, Very Easy, A Bit Easy, Easy, Normal, A Bit Difficult, Difficult, Very Difficult, Impossible. The higher the difficulty rank, the greater the reward.

There are also individual difficulties among different missions of the same difficulty rank, so not all missions of the same rank give the same amount of Survival Points or have the same risk.

Basic missions have infinite available attempts, but they give no reward or punishment, and they are there for training. All class-related training missions are supposed to be listed as basic missions.

Missions that can be done in cooperation have a rule that must be kept. One cannot form a group where more than half of the minimum required number of participants come from the same Area as themselves. In other words, one is forced to cooperate with survivors from other Areas.

From this bulletin board, there are only two categories of missions that interest me. The first category is the impossible one; there is only one mission of impossible difficulty.

[Siege (remaining number of attempts: 1/1)

-Objective: In 48 hours, annihilate the race of Guardians protecting the "Sanctuary" and destroy their impregnable fortress!

-Difficulty: Impossible

-Reward if successful: +172,800 SP, a one-time use VIP store coupon (1 per person)

-Penalty: Death if unsuccessful

-Cooperation possible: up to 6 people]

The second category that interests me is the very difficult one; there are only 6 missions in this category, and they are in descending order of difficulty within the same category, as noted by the amount of points they give as a reward.

[Advance (remaining number of attempts: 10/10)

- Objective: Break through the attacks of the spirits, cross the bridge, and conquer the enemy's strategic position!

-Difficulty: Very Difficult

-Reward if successful: +60,000 Survival Points.

-Penalty: Death if unsuccessful

-Cooperation possible: up to 6 people]

[Defense (Remaining number of attempts: 10/10)

-Objective: Defend the magic circle and survive the enemy assault for 1 hour!

-Difficulty: Very Difficult

-Reward if successful: +50,000 Survival Points.

-Penalty: Death if Unsuccessful

-Cooperation possible: up to 6 people]

....

[T/N: The part I missed below]

....

[Extermination (Remaining attempts: 10/10)

- Objective: Eliminate all enemies in the area.

- Difficulty: Very Difficult

- Reward: +40,000 Survival Points if successful.

- Penalty: Death if unsuccessful.

- Cooperation: Up to 6 people allowed.]

[Sabotage (Remaining attempts: 10/10)

- Objective: Destroy the enemy's food supplies, weapons, and armor stores.

- Difficulty: Very Difficult

- Reward: +30,000 Survival Points if successful.

- Penalty: Death if unsuccessful.

- Cooperation: Up to 6 people allowed.]

[Stealth Navigation (Remaining attempts: 10/10)

- Objective: Quietly traverse the path to reach the designated destination.

- Difficulty: Very Difficult

- Reward: +20,000 Survival Points if successful.

- Penalty: Death if unsuccessful.

- Cooperation: Up to 6 people allowed.]

[Ambush (Remaining attempts: 10/10)

- Objective: Ambush and eliminate the group of bugs on the mountain path.

- Difficulty: Very Difficult

- Reward: +10,000 Survival Points if successful.

- Penalty: Death if unsuccessful.

- Cooperation: Up to 6 people allowed.]

Upon reviewing the mission list and calculating the rewards for the 'Very Difficult' category, the total comes to 2,100,000 Survival Points. However, considering the VIP store item prices which total 2,890,000 points, plus an additional 300,000 points for other plans, I realize I cannot purchase all the items as initially intended. Nevertheless, this is not a concern; I will have the chance to acquire the missing items during the second phase of my plan. For now, I will forego two short-term non-essential items from the store, saving 1,150,000 points, which will allow me to meet all my objectives in the Neutral Zone.

Having strategized the most efficient route to achieve my goals, I left the bulletin board. There's no benefit in starting now while others are present. If I complete a 'Very Difficult' mission and others attempt to emulate me, they might fail and reduce the limited number of mission attempts, thus jeopardizing my plan with a significant loss of points.

I will wait to act later when the bulletin board is unoccupied, seizing the opportunity to complete as many missions as possible. The main challenge lies with time-sensitive missions, such as defending a location for an hour, which cannot be rushed.

In the worst-case scenario, if some missions are lost due to others' failed attempts, I will need to find alternative ways to accumulate points. Fortunately, the 'Impossible' mission offers a substantial point reward and a VIP store coupon for a cost-free item.

However, my [Nine Eyes] indicate that the 'Impossible' mission is marked in Yellow, signaling potential risks. Therefore, I will reserve this mission for last, when the Neutral Zone is nearing its end, and my skills are at their peak.

After completing my assessment, I headed to a restaurant. It's been a while since my last meal, and with it being past 6 pm, it's an ideal time to dine. I scanned for familiar faces to join me, but finding none, I opted for one of the most expensive dishes. Thanks to a discount, it was complimentary. When the meal arrived, I enjoyed it in solitude and tranquility.

After leaving the restaurant, I glanced towards the quest board, noting the crowd that lingered. It seemed likely that people would be around well into the night, leaving me with little to do at the moment. Diving into my bag, I retrieved the guide's notes from the drawing machine used during the Tutorial. These notes were the key to purchasing a concealed consumable item from the VIP store. With the notes in hand, I made my way there.

[A Note from the Guide:

1. Tips for the Neutral Zone:

   - Looking to swiftly enhance your physical level or skill?

   - Consider using the [Special Competition].

   - Location: Available at the VIP store.]

The VIP store was situated on the eighth floor. Upon entering, I was greeted by a small room with a counter and a maid seated behind it. Her eyes widened in surprise as I walked in.

"Hey..." I greeted, "This is the VIP store, correct?" I asked, more to snap her out of her daze than to confirm what was evident.

"Oh, my apologies. It's unusual for a rookie to come through those doors so soon. Yes, this is indeed the VIP store. To purchase an item, please go through that door," she replied professionally, pointing to a small door beside her. "Regrettably, entry requires a minimum of 30,000 Survival Points."

"I understand, but I'm not here for the listed products. I'm seeking a product named [Special Competition], which, according to the guide's notes, should be available in this store," I explained, showing her the notes in my possession.

"Ah, the guide's notes... In that case, things are a bit different," she remarked, moving towards a large wooden cabinet on the wall behind her and opening it to reveal rows upon rows of potion bottles.

She selected one and placed it on the counter. Inside the small bottle was a milky white substance.

"In regular stores, you'll find [Normal Competition], but it pales in comparison to what's offered here in the VIP store. The regular version costs 250 Survival Points, lasts 12 hours, and multiplies results by four.

However, the [Special Competition] here is priced at 400 Survival Points, lasts 24 hours, and boasts an eightfold result multiplier. A single day of training with it equates to eight consecutive days, guaranteed," she said, her excitement palpable as she pitched her product.

I could not help but chuckle internally; I was already well-versed in this information and did not require any sales pitch, I had come prepared to purchase all 60 bottles available for each Neutral Zone.

"I'll take 60 units," I stated calmly, to which the maid gave me a look of disbelief.

"60? That's 24,000 Survival Points. Please, no jokes, or I may have to request your removal," she responded, visibly irritated.

Her skepticism was understandable. Only a few hours had passed since the Neutral Zone opened, and someone like Odelette, who scored 7,500 points, would typically be in the running for first place.

The notion of someone amassing 24,000 points so quickly was absurd. Yet, I had earned 35,500 points in the tutorial. After allocating 3,000 for the departure of uncle Jung, the mother and daughter pair, and distributing 5,000 among my group members, I still had 27,500 points remaining... more than enough to afford the 60 bottles at 24,000 Points.

"I'm not joking; I have the points," I asserted, displaying them through my interface, which allows one to show specific information without revealing anything more.

The maid's initial shock gave way to professionalism, and she proceeded to sell me all 60 bottles. I stowed them in my expanded-capacity bag and exited the store. These items won't be used until I begin serious training after the awakening chamber's release next month. However, purchasing them promptly was crucial, as they are limited in quantity, and I could not risk someone else depleting the stock.

Back in the square, I observed that the crowd around the notice board had thinned, though some people remained. Choosing a bench at a distance from the board, I settled down to wait, biding my time until the area was deserted.