Chapter 17

Tutorial 2nd Floor, Waiting Room (Part 1)

[Tutorial, Welcome to the 2nd Floor.]

[1st attempt, day 29. 4:40]

[Time left until end of 1st attempt: 43 hours 20 minutes]

It's finally over. For real.

It felt like something that had been constricting my airways deep within my chest had been unwound.

The time left until end of the 1st attempt was 43 hours.

That was still plenty of time before the 2nd attempt would commence.

If I knew it would have ended like this, I would've tried that trap in front of the boss room once more.

Who knew the boss room would be over that quickly?

2nd Floor waiting room.

It didn't seem that different to the waiting room in the first floor.

It was the same stone room.

No, there was one obvious difference.

[Enter the stage?]

This so called 'stage' that the message was referring to would not be to Tutorial's 1st floor.

It will probably take me to the 2nd floor.

This meant that strategies could be developed for the floors above before the attempt timer hit zero.

People in different difficulties would have definitely developed strategies for the 2nd floor.

The first information about clearing the 1st floor was spread around the Community chat at roughly 20 days after the 1st attempt.

Those people who had cleared the floor roughly 9 days earlier wouldn't just be sucking their fingers in the 2nd floor waiting room.

What if they were able to develop a sufficient strategy for the 2nd floor before the 1st attempt had even finished?

There could even be people who had cleared the 1st and 2nd floors and were even looking at attempting the 3rd floor in the 20-ish days that I've been here.

This would be more than possible for people in the Easy and Normal difficulties.

There was a reward for the person who cleared a floor first.

As for me, I'm the only person left in h.e.l.l difficulty so it's obvious who will get it but, what about the other floors?

The ones in the high ranks of every floor would be competing to clear the floor first.

Moreover, those in the higher ranks wouldn't be so willing to share their knowledge in the Community chat.

Although their fight barely relates to me, I still wonder.

If I clear more than one floor in one attempt, what kind of rewards would I get?

Are there extra rewards that could be earned?

I should definitely ask Kirikiri about it after I've finalized my tactics for the 2nd floor.

After summing up my thoughts I wandered around the 2nd floor waiting room.

Was this waiting room ever so slightly larger… oh!

There was a bed in the dark corner of the waiting room.

I guess there was a slight upgrade.

It was old and stained, it even looked like there would be the stench of fungus on it.

But I wasn't in a place to be a.n.a.l about that.

I threw my body on the bed and instantly my eyes closed themselves.

As my nervousness subsided, my whole body was buried in the soft sheets of the bed.

d.a.m.n. What is this? It's so comfortable.

There was much to do.

There was so much to think about.

But… Let's think about after having a deep sleep.

I couldn't beat my exhaustion.

How long did I sleep for?

[1st attempt, day 29, 17:05]

[time left until end of 1st attempt: 30 hours 55 minutes]

Did I sleep for like, 12 hours?

I slept for way too long.

There's so much to do.

I think that was the longest that I've slept ever since I came into the Tutorial.

Was it because I was so relaxed?

I lifted my body and sat on the edge of the bed.

var infolinks_pid = 2003024; var infolinks_wsid = 13;

Sigh, what did I have to think about?

Oh, yeah.

My mental state.

If I couldn't even trust my own choices and accept my past mistakes, then there was no chance for survival.

I needed to test my mental state so I that I know that there was nothing wrong with it.

A few days ago, I thought about this when I first discovered the healing well.

At that moment, instead of going to the boss room and clearing the tutorial faster, I went back to the waiting room at the very start to retry the trap.

It was also to improve my stats and skills.

It was a typical gamer's mindset.

It was definitely the right way to grow stronger and improve, but with that reward came a risk. The pain.

Oh and of course, near death.

Yeah, they could say this was a brave thing to do, to walk the road of pain. One that was painted so obvious. Just because it was the most efficient path.

However, you could actually die while walking.

If the chances of staying alive from that was lower than the chances of living with no purpose, and a person still walked that road without hesitation… you could say that person was r.e.t.a.r.ded.

Am I r.e.t.a.r.ded?

Am I still not able to grasp the reality I am in and still thought of this as a game?

After falling into the Tutorial, my dedication had also changed a lot.

Before coming here, I was always just drinking and watching TV.

I didn't feel any sort of rush towards life and I couldn't entertain myself enough to put aside the boring life of mine. So I always fell asleep slightly tipsy.

Without a doubt, if time pa.s.sed a little longer, I would've been an alcoholic.

I thought that just dying somewhere other than home wouldn't be too bad either.

There was no meaning or motivation to my life.

But look at me now.

I'm looking ahead and running towards it.

I wasn't even thinking about the pain or the safety of my life.

I was able to feel the excitement and antic.i.p.ation that I had forgotten since I came here.

I worked day and night for one game when I was a pro gamer.

And on the day of the match.

The prize-money, the glory that victory awarded me for all the effort I put into the game. My future changed due to the outcome. The fans that cheered me on, their antic.i.p.ation, h.e.l.l even the squad and the problems with sponsors.

I put all that on the line and played against my opponent.

Others may label that as just childish play, but for me it was having a duel on a single log bridge.

It was a cold and brutal battle, but that was the life I loved living.

Even if I lost, even if I fell from the top, If I stayed in the world of gaming, if I was able to feel the spark I felt through nervousness and victory…

I've regretted ever since. How I longed for it, drinking day by day.

And at that moment, enthusiasm was given to me once more.

At that moment, I knew.

Pain or death, it didn't matter for me.

I was like a craved drug addict, and this time I got my hands on some.

Without caring for side-effects, I just enjoyed the rush and pleasure.

It was time for my personal diagnosis.

Mmm… it wasn't bad.

There wasn't anything wrong in my head.

My current mental state would actually be of great help to my growth.

This abnormal enthusiasm wasn't going to stop me, but would instead be the fuel that would bring me forth.

Let's sum everything up positively. It felt like my heart and even my body had gotten so much lighter.

On to the next thing in my to-do list.

"Shop."

As I opened the shop, like Kirikiri had said, all equipment, potions and essentially any item that would be useful for battle were all locked and only food and lifestyle items were the only items available.

Thanks to Kirikiri's advice, I had already bought all the necessary items earlier.

I took out clothes that I purchased with Kirikiri.

I was pretty much half naked the whole time.

My clothes were stained with blood and it had holes everywhere where the arrows had struck me. Moreover, due to the fire in the boss room it was all ragged and in tatters.

Spending points on just normal clothes instead of equipment that would give me beneficial stats felt a little off, but it was better than staying naked so.

Although there was no beneficial effect provided from the comfortable, thin, white t-shirt and sweat pants, it actually felt quite good when worn.

It felt like going from barbarism to civilization.

"Auction."

Oh, this was quite fascinating.

People who had cleared the 1st floor were able to buy and sell items in the Auction tab.

Most of the items listed were beginner items and the extra rewards gained from clearing the 1st floor.

They were weapons that wasn't suitable for the owner or was just plain useless.

In all of those, there were also stuff like this.

[Cat collar with a bell]

Description: Cat's don't like this. If you try force this on your cat, even if you are its owner, it may show its claws.

Kyaaaa! What an amazing item.

I can't believe they gave you that s.h.i.t as a reward.

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I could only laugh because it was someone else's, if that s.h.i.t was mine I would've just thrown it away on the spot.

I checked the Community chat and it seemed that extra rewards were completely random.

Even if you clear with significant results (as the author of this post claims), you could get a s.h.i.tty item, and even if you clear just barely, you could get a G.o.dlike item.

Well. The messages said that the extra rewards were given based on your play history.

It could just be an excuse from the people who got s.h.i.tty items.

Since it hadn't been that long, there weren't enough examples to make a conclusion.

I'll be able to tell when I check later.

Now, the last key problem.

The problem which was to check the 2nd floor before the 1st attempt ended.