Chapter 6 - A great first impression

[??? POV]

I was simply talking to my colleagues about new things that were happening or that we are planning for the future. Among us, only one had a note app turned on, to write down all our ideas, so they could be discussed at the next meeting.

"Then we could try to use a new item creation system and give item creators room for some extra space in the Shop Window." My friend to my left commented.

"Hmmm... sounds like a great idea, but in theory, wouldn't that destroy the proprietary store system we're already planning?" Another colleague, a little further away, pointed out that detail.

"No. At most it will make people lazy when looking for extreme quality items, but on the other hand... It would help players to be able to compare extreme quality and value items with those they want to buy." my colleague to my right spoke.

"So it would be more or less the same logic as going to a place to buy something in person and looking on your cell phone if the price of the item is exaggerated or extremely cheap? Hm...okay, let's save that idea for later. Something else to discuss ?" The person sitting in a chair opposite me asked curiously.

"Perhaps in regards to skill's reviews list to ban, nerf or whatever? Do we already have the list of this until Early Access ends?" I asked looking at my colleagues and one of them shook his head.

"Unfortunately I didn't have time to see this, family issues are getting in the way." When he said that, everyone laughed.

"Was it your wife or mother this time?" I asked.

"Mom... She kept giving me hell to spend time with her, even though I had already visited her for a whole week, not even a month ago." He said embarrassed.

"Relax, all mothers are like that, man. Seriously, mine is coming into the room all the time and handing me cookies. Lucky for me, you can't hear her through the neural link" We had a long and fun laugh with that comment, and soon a notification ping appeared on my display.

"Oh, did something happen? If I remember, we put a rule in place that we were only supposed to leave super important notifications on." My colleague on the left commented as I opened the notification.

[Warning! Someone entered The Frozen Hut dungeon!]

I broke out in a cold sweat seeing that notification, and everyone seemed to notice my sudden annoyance, as one of them tried to snoop on what I was seeing. He got wide-eyed just like me, and commented "Isn't that the dungeon you put as a draft?"

When he said that, everyone else looked shocked at me, and another asked. "Wait, you didn't forget to close the dungeon entrance, did you?"

"I-I remember definitely deactivating the object_event that allowed entry. It's the only way they could get in, so.. HOW?!?" I exclaimed and opened the command history window, searching only for that dungeon to see if I really had closed it or not.

"This is going to be a problem... You said you were testing some skills on the AIs that will be given to Bosses from lvl.40 and up, right?" The colleague who had snooped into my communication window asked.

"Yes, but I don't understand how they-" I stopped talking when I saw that there was no deactivation message from the bed's object_event. I really had completely forgotten to hide the script that activated the dungeon.

"Damn... I really forgot..." I said embarrassed and soon one of my companions pulled my dungeon history screen to him and left it on the ground.

The screen extended and changed functionality, now we could see in real time what was happening there. Apparently, there were only two players who had entered the dungeon, and when we pulled their character sheet, I noticed that one of them was still at a very low level, even for the recommendation we gave for someone to find such an adventure.

"Are we going to get them out of there or...?" I looked at my friends and one of them shook his head.

"The meeting is over anyway, let's see how novice players run in fear of your dungeon of horrors. Just for entertainment."

"Really...?" I asked.

"We'll give them compensation when they die, maybe we'll make them return all the levels and items they lost as a way of apologizing and not making them angry for something unfair." One of us said that and I had to agree that at least it was good we didn't lose players because of our mistake... I mean, it was my mistake, but everyone here, as developers, will have the same responsibility.

So we sat there and watched the big screen on the floor showing their situation, every now and then we switched to the first person view of one of the players, but generally we kept it in a third person shot.

To be honest, I was getting overwhelmed, this dungeon was meant to be a quick 1 hour adventure, but because of the advanced skills of the monsters there and because they were hunting some specific monsters in addition to that, they seemed to last three times long of time. I was even confused as to why they were stopping sometimes to hunt [Ice P-Rabbit]s, but then one of my colleagues opened his writing console and looked up some information.

"Interesting... well I suspected..."

"What's it?" I asked, curious.

"Remember that silly Side-Quest I planned a week ago?" We all nodded with his question, and soon he continued talking. "Apparently they accepted this Side-Quest and that's why they went to that area of ​​the map... They're pretty smart for assuming that they would find these monsters inside the dungeon."

"That's because I made this dungeon part of the map's environment, I just created countless walls and locks, making it only accessible through the only entrance." I commented and those who were confused about how that was possible suddenly had an air of wisdom.

I was even more impressed when I saw them arriving in the Boss room, I had made that room inspired by several movies and anime where the heroes arrive in the arena of the final battle against a great king. It made me proud to see the expressions of surprise and beauty that they had when analyzing that big room, that was the spirit that I wanted to give to whoever went there.

We saw them prepare for the battle, with one of them picking up a bow, ready to shoot. My colleagues and I noticed that, even though he had a whip and a bow, he had no job classes related to these items, the only offensive item he had that involved a job class of his was the daggers.

"He must have trained in target shooting irl or in some other virtual game to be able to do that without having a proper job class..." I thought, as I watched him shooting a fiery arrow at my precious snowman, who was now beginning to move and show its true form.

We continue to see their hard fight, to say that it was incredible would be the least possible, that battle was more than impressive, it was extraordinary! It was as if both players had trained in martial arts or great fighting techniques! This was splendid and shocking to say the least!!!

"Doesn't your snowman have all the skills with the potential of a lvl.60?" One of my colleagues asked and I just agreed. I didn't give this Boss extremely crazy skills, I just made all his skills have the strength of advanced skills, not the same level of versatility.

[Arena condition changed, timeout enabled.]

I saw this notification in front of me and looked to the side, seeing one of my colleagues messing with the dungeon settings.

"What do you think you are doing?!" I exclaimed.

"I won't accept that two players of this level manage to defeat a Boss like that... That's what I want to heat things up." He said while eating something that resembled a mixture of popcorn and cookies.

We looked at him with a little anger and I took a deep breath, I hadn't created the rewards for that dungeon yet, so anyway they wouldn't receive anything additional for completing it. Even so, put a limited time in the middle of nowhere... it was a very wrong thing to do, even if the Boss was already at half health, due to the initial attack it received.

We continued to watch the fight in silence, while all this time, the players were managing to dodge the attacks while using their skills to slowly drain the life of the Boss I created. I didn't know if I should be proud to see such experienced players in Early Access, or if I should be angry that my precious monster couldn't attack them.

Time was passing, the limit that was placed was coming to an end, even so none of them had died yet, until the moment when one of them was thrown and suffered from OHKO.

"Sheesh" We all said in unison.

"That one must have hurted." I said as I watched the remaining player scream in rage and charge at my monster.

Those moves...

That use of basic skills...

And that technique...

All this made me see my creation being destroyed, milliseconds before the dungeon kicked the player out of there due to the time limit.

[The Frozen Hut has been completed!]

I quickly clicked on some buttons on my console, and deactivated the dungeon. A deactivated dungeon meant that only us, Devs, could see it, for others, the place became a blank and empty room. I took a deep breath as I observed that all of my colleagues were incredibly impressed by that player's performance.

"Who the fuck is that guy?"

"He really started a few days after we released Early Access... how is it still at such a low lvl with so much technique...?"

"This was meant to be... A poorly finished and unbalanced dungeon..."

"We need to find out who this guy is.. his IGN doesn't tell us so much, and I bet that someone would be crazy enough to put their real name, but his username is 'Th3Unkn0wnF0r35T'... maybe there's some connection we could do with this username?" One of the Devs, who are responsible for our website page, commented, making me snap out of my thoughts.

"I created that dungeon, I will go to him to congratulate him and try to get as much information as possible without destroying the terms of use and privacy that we created. Anyone against it?" I asked and no one seemed to refuse my idea.

[Is The Frozen Hut the right place you want to go?]

I activated the system that asked me that question through a popup. I clicked on the accept option and a portal appeared on my side, which I soon entered without much delay.

[3rd Person POV]

Player Hikari was lying in a completely strange space, he could see nothing but the white color in all directions, there weren't even shadows, which made him become disoriented and fall when he took a wrong step. Slowly he decided to sit up, still panting from the battle he'd just had.

"Wh-What is it?" He whispered to himself, confused he opened his status window, and he could see it, making him more relieved to know he was still in the game.

However, before he could use the Party window to talk to Touch_Me, a large flashy portal appeared next to him. The portal was quite colorful and vibrant, which made Hikari see it very clearly in the middle of that empty white. From inside the portal, a humanoid being came out, with slightly brown skin, with arms proportions a little more elongated than that of an ordinary person, in addition to wearing a white mask and the clothes being all dark. If these details didn't exist, that would be considered a human NPC or a Player who loves simple things.

"Hello boy... Did you enjoy your little adventure?" Said the mysterious being, it snapped its fingers and chairs appeared next to both of them, it sat in one while Hikari was a little scared, but decided to accept that and sit down too.

"I'm fine... just tired... I've done a lot today." Hikari replied calmly as he saw a large mug of butterbeer appear in front of him.

"Drink it up, you deserve a victory drink after that." That strange being answered and soon a console appeared in front of it to write some things.

"... Wait a minute... Are you a Developer?" the player asked calmly after seeing that floating keyboard, moreover, he decided to take a small sip of the drink, it tasted amazing and delicious, even more so than the other butterbeers he has tasted.

"That's right, I'm one of the Developers, to be more exact, I'm the creator of the dungeon you completed, you can call me 'Great-o Doll', but many call me GoD..." Said the developer, with an air of grandeur.

"Kind of cliché, don't you think?" Hikari commented, taking another sip from his butterbeer mug, and the developer burst out laughing.

"Yes, I know it's cliché, I purposely chose it as an inside joke that me and the other developers have... but anyway, back to business... I'm here because... the dungeon you completed shouldn't be actived, the entrance was supposed to be completely blocked for players to enter... and due to my mistake, the entrance remained open." GoDoll commented, giving a slight embarrassed laugh.

"So... Was it a half-done dungeon?" Hikari asked, taking another sip of his drink.

"No. The dungeon was complete... the problem was that I was using the monsters, traps and the Boss of this place, as tests for powerful skills..." The developer said this, but Hikari didn't seem to understand where this was going, then he continued to talk. "The skills and attacks you faced here were all above Lv.40."

With that comment, Hikari forcefully spit out the beer that was in his mouth, soiling the floor beside him, while coughing a few times, trying to catch his breath. Great-o saw that reaction and gave a smile behind his mask, that was comical to see, almost like a scene from a cartoon.

"D- *Cough cough* Did you say lv.40?!?"

"Yes, and you managed to survive all that... the snowman... or as the system call it... [King SnowFlake]... could be being seen as a Lv.30 Boss... but actually all his skills were from Lv.50-70 monsters..."

"T-That's insane! You're telling me I survived attacks that are more than 50 levels above mine?!" Hikari asked, and GoDoll responded with a simple nod.

"If your friend hadn't been so flustered and gone for a point-blank attack in that form, he would be here for this conversation as well." With that comment, Hikari stared a little at the non-existent floor and sighed.

"But relax, I will be sending him a formal apology later today, as well as giving him the levels and items he lost with that OHKO." GoDoll explained and gave a long yawn.

"However... I want to know something... who the hell are you to have managed to do that? I mean... my colleagues and I watched the fight against the Boss, it was impeccable to the point that we felt like emperors watching a fantastic fight and beautiful in a coliseum." He commented again, getting Hikari's attention.

"Oh... I'm not as awesome as I look, I'm just playing, having fun, and taking notes."

"Taking notes? Could you explain that to me?" GoDoll looked at the player, very interested.

"I'm working as a Game Reviewer... I decided to choose YGGDRASIL as my complete focus... I was even thinking of trying to contact you guys to do interviews and stuff like that in exchange for other things. So... finding a developer now, has its advantages." Hikari answered simply.

"Oh! A game reviewer? Famous or newbie?"

"Newbie... This is my first job actually, but you could say I would famous if I said who I really am." Hikari answered him, finishing his butterbeer.

"So... rich dad's little boy who wants to get out under his dad's wing using 'fun' jobs... Got that right?" Godoll asked.

"Yeah.. Like that."

"Interesting... So about this thing with doing interviews and stuff. I would need to know who you are first for that, mainly because... you're the first direct contact I have with someone cataloging our game... That might become something bigger in the future than just a review website... and become a secondary zone of secure information... of course, apart from the official YGGDRASIL website itself."

Great-o Doll was very interested in that whole conversation, meanwhile he was seeing conversation bubbles from his fellow developers countless times, and he answered them by typing on the floating keyboard, instead of speaking, so as not to disturb the fluidity of that situation. Hikari had a simple but smug on his face, as if he had, by sheer luck, gotten what he wanted without having to look too hard.

"So... instead of getting just one interview... would I become your affiliate? Is that what you are saying?"

"Not exactly... It's more like a secondary way for players to know things and see us, Devs, in a more humane way, and not as if we were crazy people who live to fix the servers." GoDoll explained further and Hikari chuckled, agreeing with the idea.

"But... as you yourself said before... that you wanted to interview us in exchange for some things, can you continue your line of reasoning?"

"Yes... I won't say my level of kinship, but I'm from the Kobayashi family... the same Kobayashi family that works with air purification around the world." Hikari said this calmly and sternly, but soon GoDoll stood still, as if he was impressed, but his mask didn't allow anyone to see if that was true or not.

"Kobayashi... Oh... now I get your username... very silly, but clever." The dev responded calmly and watched Hikari, talking and giggling a bit. "So would our game get sponsored or something for you to become a helper and such?"

"Well... a sponsorship I don't know if I can get it... but at the very least, a big discount for the devs on the company's products... That's something I can try to give you without any problems." Hikari replied.

"Could it be... let's talk about this later... now you deserve a much better prize than all this talk." Great-o commented as he took a kind of big box from inside that portal. "As a reward for defeating a Boss with an average power of lv.60, when you were only a lv.15 player, I will give you this thing."

The large box was pushed in front of Hikari, it was very square and had a design that resembled an ordinary wooden box used to store items on ships. On top of the box were three bows, one red, one purple, and one yellow. Hikari glared at those bows and before he touched the box, Great-o Doll snapped at him.

"To open it, you only need to pull one of the color bows... If you open it with the purple one, you will gain consumable items of Top tier to above. If you open it with the yellow one, you will gain a huge amount in Coins, equivalent to the value of items that would give the same level of power that [King SnowFlake] had... and opening with red... you'll get two... random items out of 5 specific items."

"Can you tell me the possible purple and red bows items?" Hikari asked and the dev shook his head.

"Well... purple are Top tier consumables... but as the name says... they are consumables... Yellow will give me money... but I already planned to work hard inside the game, why would I want something I can have later?" Hikari kept talking to himself, while the dev watched, with a proud smile under his mask.

After a few seconds of deep thought, Hikari pulled the red bow and the box opened, revealing two very interesting items. There was a Hunnic bow, with the ends being blued, the main material being a whitish wood, and in the middle there was a purple area to be able to hold with the hand, the string of that bow was quite clear also with light purple details. The other item there was a kind of sword, to be more specific, a katana, with a white handle, a dark purple sheath and a golden guard.

[Player Hikari received Bow-Bifrost]

[Description: Before the teleport portals that connected the remaining 9 realms of YGGDRASIL, there existed a physical bridge that connected 2 realms, Midgard and Asgard. This bridge was destroyed during one of the High-Beings' attacks, who were trying to devour the YGGDRASIL leaf that represents Asgard, but that realm managed to survive, unfortunately losing connection for some time. This bridge was made of something called Bifrost, an extremely powerful and beautiful metal that glows in rainbow colors when activated, it was said that the bridge this material came from, burned enough at the point that ice enemies could start melting just from seeing the metal.]

[Data: -Arrows used with this bow automatically gain simultaneous Burn and Freeze effects, but the chance to inflict one of these effects on targets is 10%.

-When the item's owner has a Level-Up, the bow's durability goes back to 100%.]

[Player Hikari received Kowai-Muramasa]

[Description: A sword from the eastern world, made by the amazing Muramasa. Muramasa's blades are known to sap the wielder's willpower, and drive them mad for murder and bathe the blade in blood. Many believe that there may even be demons inside each blade. Kowai-Muramasa is a very specific katana, it is said that the demon that inhabits it makes the user feed the blade in two ways, either inflicting fear on enemies, or receiving blood from the user's targets.]

[Data: -50% chance to inflict Bleed effect when attacking in unprotected areas.

-5% chance to inflict Paralysis effect when unsheathed in front of a target.

-Kowai-Muramasa has its own levels, they increase the more the user kills enemies that are with Blood or Paralysis debuff using its blade.]

"Can I really have this?" Hikari stared at the dev in front of him, the player's face was completely impressed and shocked by those descriptions and datas.

"Of course, I don't see a problem. Since we'll be doing some kind of contract later and stuff, we'll always keep an eye on you anyway. If we see that we need to nerf your items, we'll contact you first and we can have a conversation of possible ways to nerf without taking away the importance of the gifts you are receiving."

"Great... Can I..."

"Test? Of course, I don't see a problem!" The dev soon started typing on the floating console's keyboard.

[An Enemy has arisen! It's a Dummy Lv.100!]

Hikari stared at the [Dummy] and then at the developer over there, too confused. Great-o Doll just laughed a little and struck a comical pose as he spoke. "Relax, it's just an object that we, devs, sometimes use to test in practice equipment that has suffered some type of complaint."

Hikari then took a deep breath and picked up [Bow-Bifrost] for the first test. The player took a common arrow from within his inventory and began to use the new item, the arrowhead began to shine a beautiful color that was changing from red to blue, while the ends of the bow itself were changing color in a style of RGB lights, but in a more mystical way. Slowly the boy was positioning and aiming at the center of the [Dummy]'s body. When he was ready, he fired a shot.

The arrow hit the [Dummy] throwing it away, but soon it returned to the position it was, and above it was the information that the test doll had suffered a debuff of Freeze. Even so, there was still in the air, a rainbow trail along the way the arrow was released, which disappeared after a few seconds.

Now for the next test, Hikari took [Kowai-Muramasa]. Initially positioned at the waist, taking the blade from the katana sheath, he could see that the blade was very beautiful and delicate in a certain way. But in doing so, nothing happened to the [Dummy]. So he continued testing, sheathing and unsheathing the katana several times, until above the test doll, a information appeared that it received a debuff of Paralysis.

"These items are really amazing... But are you sure I deserve all this?" Hikari was still in doubt if this was all real or some dev making a joke.

"Relax, kiddo. I told you it's okay. Besides... the title [Born to Kill] suits [Kowai-Muramasa] a lot" The dev laughed and opened a new portal.

"Wait, you know about the title I got on the first day?" Hikari asked, startled.

"Of course, we have access to character information." The dev was deadpan about that and Hikari just facepalmed.

"Okay... We'll see later then, won't we?" Hikari said, approaching the portal to finally leave that white room.

"Yes. We already know your username, if we want to talk to you, we'll send an email through your YGGDRASIL account. If you want to talk to us, just send a message calling some Dev, I'll come if I'm online." Great-o Doll reached out to Hikari, who simply shook hands firmly with the dev, before finally walking out of that white room.

"This kid has a future. How much do you bet he's going to be the most well known player in the whole game?" Another dev emerged after the portal Hikari went through was gone. He used a high-elf as a character.

"... I'll bet you 5 months of free snacks, but don't go overboard." Great-o Doll made the comment, laughing.

"What about the fact that he's related to the famous air purification family company?" Another dev appeared, this one having a beast girl as a character.

"I don't think people would have the nerve to create such an absurd lie when we can just deactivate his account via Neural-ID." Great-o raised a big point.

"Okay, so if there really is an interview and after that we don't get those discounts he mentioned... we want you to take responsibility for being the first one be interviewed." the beast girl dev said.

"I'm okay with this... I really liked this boy, y'all saw that his talent isnt a lie." he said, as both they three went out that white room using other portal.