The Flames Burn Bright (3): Tutorial

{… AND NOW THE END BEGINS, FALL INTO DESPAIR AT THE FACE OF THE GATES TO THE CHAOTIC INFERNO!!!!} The voice thundered before a bright flash and the divine presence just vanished and the chills came to an end.

…

『Humanity's Fall』

This was what the Event was called, this was what the Inferno System brought it up as.

When the world was still in the confines of mortal concepts, such an update called for an event to follow.

In the original game, after each update, all players pro or otherwise were made start from the very beginning just so the selfish creator could extend his games mainstream life.

He was a good strategist.

The forced movement of humanity into the Inferno was like an actual Game update and naturally an update and restart had to follow, just like old times.

Laid on the floor were the scattered, bloody and dismembered corpses of the humans laid evenly across an eerily rocky area.

This area stretched far enough for it to meet with the still skies.

The Notification of the start of a new event began popping up above all the corpses.

This time it was without a 『Proceed or Forfeit』 question.

Something was clearly happening below the surface.

Some of the corpses randomly scattered into purple pixels, this only served to further accentuate the notion.

Let us focus on a particular player so we shall achieve a more in depth and immersed feeling of the activities, {now shall we?}

The player we shall be focusing on isn't one of the Pro gamers or super good leisure players, but someone who barely even got to see the game's opening sequence before he was sucked into this mess.

『New Player, please input your name』

『----------』

As you may have already thought, something was indeed happening.

Within each of the players, an introduction scene played where the Inferno System requested names.

Old players were immediately pushed into the Tutorial Phase with their old Avatars and names while the few new players without names or Avatars saved to the system were requested for their input.

"Name?" This particular player asked in surprise.

His skin still tingling from the extreme pain he felt while being squeezed through the gate, it happened only a minute ago, so it was still distinctive in his head he was so already on the floor clutching his body in pain and terror when he saw the System pop up.

He put his hand forward and he flicked the dashes on the floating light green panel before him, this action switched the letters from between A-Z and he used this to input the player name he desired as he laid down on the floor. He was already all too used to putting his name into holographic screens, it was almost muscle memory at this point.

『A---------』

『AC--------』

『ADA-------』

『ADAK------』

『ADAM------』

『Adam? Is this okay?』

"Yes, that is my name." The player said as the green sign up panel vanished and he was moved. The pain in his body slowly vanishing.

From the dark and empty part of his psyche that he found himself in, he instantly moved to the first level of the game, but he was lucky this was a mere tutorial version.

『Welcome, Adam. To the Chaotic Inferno's ZEROth Circle! The central City where the Tutorials take place! the start of your damned journey riddled with sins against your kind and the kind above!』

One needs not pay too much attention to know why it was accused of being controversial.

…

『Do you intend to play with your REALITY, Adam? Y/N』

The system brought up the first optioned question since the Game began.

It seemed to be asking if the players wanted to engage in the game or not, but not playing the game meant you wouldn't be a player and there was nowhere else to go.

The loud bloodcurdling death screams of the scared players that chose 'No' could even be heard by Adam inside his own tutorial, like it was a goodhearted warning to players that wanted to contemplate.

He didn't need to think too much after hearing that and he chose 'Yes'. His mind was in so much turbulent turmoil that it seemed to calm itself. His fight or flight shock response was completely numb.

The players current location was The Circle outside of the Inferno; The Realm of NULL, 『the ZEROth Circle』.

It had a vast ocean of flowing magma, brimstone and flames far ahead of it, this could only be seen because the Game had not properly loaded up yet and this could be seen from the green glitches everywhere.

When Adam looked at the horizon with the flame ocean, the locations name popped up on the System panel before him.

『The River Styx; the starting point of the damned』

Adam was naturally fascinated by what was happening, but he knew and understood his priorities.

He was looking around with just a slight bit of fear dwelling in his heart.

A glitch started to contort violently right in front of Adam's face and what seemed to be a horned ogre with rotting skin and eyeless eyeholes fell out of the dark space the glitch created and the ogres face directly touched Adam's.

Adam felt his heart and soul leave his body as he was literally face to face with a demon. His legs went numb and he fell straight to the floor, tainting himself in his own fluids as he screamed out loudly begging for his life.

He could barely move his legs or his tongue so his screams were like incomprehensible wails as his tongue made his words slurred.

The Ogre just stood there, without movement, with a large silver axe in its hand- The Ogre Demon was large with rotting and ripped reddish skin, two horns that seemed to have split through its skin to grow and an ever open mouth with large hippo-like tusks in its mouth. The Ogre looked menacing but it didn't attack.

This was a Tutorial Phase, it was expected that the beast wouldn't attack him.

"What's happening now?!" He asked loudly as he kept his distance from the spawned demon by crawling away.

He looked to the demon and saw its diseased skin and maggot infested eye holes and the system brought up its name.

『Tier 0- Foul Ogre; for tutorial purposes alone.』

They seemed harmless, well until the actual tutorial started with a long information dump.

『Tutorial;』

『This entity is of the race of the beings you will be Tasked to face throughout your journey in the Chaotic Inferno.

The Ogre is their most basic form, unless Events are in place, it doesn't get any weaker than this.

The demons do not run with the Level system that players have; they use a Tier system. There are thirteen Tiers, Tier thirteen being the most dangerous. Each Tier can translate to a different level if a level system is used, a Tier 3 ghoul could take a Lv 178 player equally, the levels that the Tiers are equal to aren't always constant, they change along with the Tier and the demon in question. Pg 1/3』

This was the first page of the three-page basic demon tutorial.

Adam read carefully while still being wary of the demon in front of him and then clicked the panel for the next page to surface.

『The higher the Tier the more options are available to you on what to do with a demon. If the tier is low the demon will be mindless and only seek your flesh and its destruction. If the Tier is a bit higher, they can be trained as Pets, a higher Tier can be befriended and finally some civilized demons of the high Tiers can sign a contract. Although some demons are powerful enough to be high tier but will just mindlessly seek after your destruction, so the conditions vary and differ from demon to demon. Pg 2/3』

He read diligently although the way the game developer was dumping information was quite shameless, it was probably useful information and Adam clicked for the next page.

『Demons are very resilient and dexterous even the weakest Tier can wield weapons and have large health bars unlike Beginner Players. One must be diligent and tolerant to be able to handle the annoying demons in the first few scenarios. You shall be given one basic weapon of your choice to utilize in winning this one on one battle. If you succeed you will proceed into the General area where you can relate with other Players who have been assigned to a similar Domain or City as you. Despite this being a tutorial, you can lose your life even though the Ogre is weaker than Tier 1. {MSG: Death brings about absolute destruction of your mortal soul.} if you finish the tutorial you will be awarded because of the Event that is taking place currently. Pg 3/3』

Adam was having a smooth read until he stumbled upon the Message (MSG) part of the panel.

"Absolute Destruction!!?" He exclaimed in disbelief and accidentally closed the Information Panel.

This signaled to the Inferno System that he was ready to choose his weapon and start the Tutorial.

The Ogre finally started moving in more defined animations and it was terrifying, it sneered and growled at Adam who was in front of him.

Although it made more life-like movements it was still in its original position as though it was courteously waiting for him to select his weapon.

The green inferno system panel came up and then stretched around Adam.

The panel that stretched around him reflected his image and current Avatar which looked exactly like he did when he was living in the original reality.

He sported shabby dark blue hair that could cover behind his neck due to its length and he had light blue eyes which were getting even darker because of the world he found himself in.

He was wearing a simple dark robe which every 'Damned sinner'/ Player was forced to wear from the start, since it was basic and provided no added stats.

"What do I do?" Adam asked in confusion as the pressure from the movement of the Ogre began to get to him.

The panel popped up with just one word on it.

『Scroll』

The System was almost like a living entity in itself.

Adam was expected to pick his weapon from this closet hanger type storage in the System.

He put his palm forward and swiped it to the right and a weapon image that looked almost transparent appeared before him.

『Basic Wooden Bo Staff』

He understood and he kept on scrolling to check out the merchandise.

『Basic Wooden spear』

『Basic Iron Longsword』

『Basic Dual Wield Iron Axe』

『Basic Iron Dagger』

『Basic Iron Mallet』

『Basic Wooden Bow.』

This was all there was.

They were indeed 'Basic' and they were of the worst material quality that this game could possibly offer.

But that didn't matter to Adam.

He had never touched a weapon in his life before, but he could remember using a random stick like a weapon once before.

No matter how much you think that's very similar to using a Bo staff, Adam seemed to disagree, he even argued within himself about which to choose.

"The staff or the longsword?" He asked himself almost forgetting the situation at hand.

They both had excellent reach but they would both wear him out equally, it all depended on his experience with them.

"Those times behind Uncles restaurant, I used the stick like a katana, not a staff. I think I know the safest bet. Swing and Stab always works" He said.

He reached out for the longsword and he selected it.

He knew he was having second thoughts but he didn't have the luxury of a second choice so he had to.

He strongly believed that some people were already leaving the Tutorial and he knew the game was not patient enough to wait for him.

He collected his thoughts and shoved them deep in the back of his mind as he stared back at the Ogre but its growl caused Adam to almost fall once more.

As soon as he touched the image, he was forced to stagger backwards as the metallic grey Long sword spawned in his right hand and he fell to the floor.

Before he could recover the green panel appeared far above him.

『LET IT BEGIN』

The Ogre charged at him and he just stood there trembling in fear as he could barely even lift the blade.

He realized that he was too relaxed and he was taking it too lightly.

"I could actually die here!!"

[A/N: Bro just realized that lol.]