The story of Hernie’s strange research started when she discovered the potential of mushrooms after learning about the mute maiden’s influence. Unlike Gilda, who was only interested in quirky inventions and potions, Hernie was intrigued by mysteries.
“I’m not sure if you know, but there is a shrine in this very forest for a mute maiden named Mandy. I found her shrine after trying to locate the source of power for this dungeon. All the mushroom monsters were born from her influence. I don’t know who she was, but the amount of power from her resentment and longing made her a deity.”
That’s new. Zen never heard about any characters becoming immortals, but according to Mandy’s memories, the mysterious friend who lived in a cave was a vampire. She was turned into an undead, and it wasn’t very far-fetched for Hern
The hour passed quickly, and Zen received news that the rap battle stage was prepared. All he had to do was teleport to where the crowd was waiting.Gulping nervously, he glanced at Hernie, who gave him a reassuring pat on his back.“Don’t worry about it,” she told him. “There is a handicap for you, so you can refer to the lyrics. The most important thing is the flow and the passion during the competition. It’s ok to make up some parts on the spot accordingly. Lil’ Mushade doesn’t do freestyle, so you have an advantage if you can. There’s no need to pay too much attention to the rhyme.”Taking a deep breath, Zen mentally prepared himself for the first and probably last rap battle of his life. Waiting to be transported to the rap arena, Zen revised the lyrics. Acc
Dishevelled, Zen skidded to a halt outside the kitchen and peered inside. A boy with white hair was already sitting at the counter, but he remained so still that Zen wondered if he was a statue.“If you’re here already, then let’s not waste any more time and get started.”Flinching at the entrance, Zen hesitantly made his way over, taking many sneaky glances to get a better look at this mysterious candidate. Damian Gorski had mismatched eyes, and initially, Zen thought it was heterochromia until his yellow eye moved individually and dilated so much that the iris turned completely black, like a camera zooming in on him.The sudden abnormality made Zen jump and stumble backwards with a squeak. From the time he entered the kitchen until his disgraceful fall, Damian Gorski had not moved from his
The flick from Liu Feng’s finger was starting to bruise badly. Zen winced in pain as his sworn brother rolled a warm hard-boiled egg on the greenish spot.“You deserved it,” Liu Feng scoffed when Zen whined in pain. After eating egg scallion pancakes, he felt more generous but wasn’t ready to forgive his sworn brother for meeting Damian alone. Zen had to learn from his mistakes.The gamer wanted to be angry at how ruthless the blind assassin was. However, he couldn’t possibly stay mad when his sworn brother was showing him tough love. He understood how worried he made the effeminate man by disappearing in the middle of the night to meet Damian. Liu Feng explained that even if murder was forbidden in the academy, that did not stop other candidates from harassing others or disabling them before the next event.“You’re lucky it was only Damian. If you ran into those crazy bastards and died, I can only cut off my hair, renounce my
When Zen finally logged into the dungeon, his eyes bulged at the number of messages from Sasha. Liu Feng was not joking about how they wanted to carry him through the second floor. The Russian sniper complained about gargoyles on floor nineteen and cursed in her mother tongue about the useless grind for better materials in preparation for the boss fight they keep dying to.
Mandy’s Meadow and shrine quickly became the girls’ favourite spot. It was very peaceful, and the extra buff they received from Mandy could be helpful in the fight with the Gargoyle boss. Akiko and Sasha decided not to take more detours and help Zen defeat the Toadstool boss monster before they split off to complete their different quests.“If I recall correctly, we need to head to the forest’s heart to find the boss monster. It looks like a toa
Thirty seconds after they visited the third floor, they returned to the second floor’s entrance. Zen did not want to deal with the goblins yet. However, he realised he could turn in the quest to the shady merchant regardless of the floor he was on. Unwilling to take on the third floor’s main quest, Zen ignored the man and returned to the previous floor with his party members.“Did you also receive the spore spray cans?” he a
Zen woke up feeling as if he had only fallen asleep five minutes ago. He checked the notifications in the holographic screen in front of his eyes to turn the alarm off, but there was no sound to mute.“Wha—?”Still foggy from sleep, Zen almost jumped when Liu Feng played the new notification on text-to-speech on the other side of the bed.[New event: Treasure Hunt. More details will be released in an hour. Stay tuned!]Freaking out at the new event announcement, Zen dragged his tired body out of bed. There was only an hour before Akiko called for a group meeting. He had to prepare breakfast before that.Unlike the jumpy gamer, Liu Feng stretched lazily to the sound of the sink running. Last night, Zen spoke to Damian. It mildly bothered him how his sworn brother went behind his back to seek out someone potentially dangerous alone.In a foul mood, the Seer waited until Zen left to wash up and change into his training outfit. He ha
Eventually, the meeting dispersed. Everyone decided to make the necessary calls and preparation for the event, including Liu Feng, who excused himself to resume training in the dojo. Zen decided he wouldn’t need a map compass for the event because that would eventually become useless. Event merchandise were scams to make students part with their credits. The Godfather must have included some sort of financial trial for the future successor with tempting but usel
From floor five to floor nine, Zen discovered many changing elements in the virtual world. The dungeon mechanics became more complex as they climbed the floors. It was difficult to believe that until floor ten, they were still in the tutorial stages.Damian’s game guide from floor five was very different from Zen’s version. The cyborg logged every single type of equipment and monster as an encyclopaedia page, including replicated screenshot images. He rated them according to their value, usage, frequency of occurrence, something Zen had not considered, and prices. The floor map was also marked to indicate where they could commonly be located, along with an estimated loot drop guide. Compared to Zen’s walkthrough guide, Damian created a very different and detailed directory.Although their styles were very different, Zen teared up with gratefulness for the guide Damian put together. If Zen excelled at game progression strategy, Damian’s information w
Liu Feng was not pleased to learn that Zen was already considering inviting another troublesome person into his circle after sparring with Akiko. Yet, he could not say he was surprised. In the brief weeks of meeting Zen, he had seen enough to know it would not be the last time either. From the get-go, even Liu Feng had been drawn to the young cook because of this attitude. It was both the young man’s charm and weakness.While the blind teen had enough respect for Chatura, a famous strategist, he hated dealing with snake-like personalities. They already had several ticking time bombs in the Godly Food Party, and the Lau Triad’s influence could only shield Zen from so much harm. Damian Gorski had provoked half the Round Table, and Zen had rejected everyone there. An omerta might be sacred, but it was not always upheld by both parties. There were many ways to cancel an omerta, usually involving the death of one party, and Liu Feng did not wish to crush his younger swor
After finishing his dinner, Zen sipped on the weird concoction called tea from a heavy stainless steel tool holder sterilised in isopropyl alcohol. The cyborg offered to distil and mix some of his alcohol supply into the tea for a ‘better flavour,’ and Zen smartly declined. He did not have a mechanical gut that could be replaced easily. It was best to stick to conventional instant tea in unconventional cups, even if Damian stuck two very different flavours of instant tea in one cup.Although Damian had overheard the conversation in the kitchen, Zen still told him what he knew from Bolt and asked if Damian had a way to verify the information. Due to the many rumours floating around Chatura, it was difficult to know the kind of person she was. It was obvious who spread those rumours.Within thirty minutes, Damian uncovered a lot more than Zen thought was possible. Then again, he should probably not be surprised that the Gorski had such an extensive information ne
Sneaking dinner back to the room, Zen thanked Bolt and Yelena for updating him about the new faction. Although neither invigilator liked the strategist, Chatura was a very powerful person whom Zen found intriguing.Unfortunately, Liu Feng and Akiko were out. They said they would be sparring in the training ground and were not back yet. Sasha and Oritha were still in the gym, making Damian Zen’s only option to discuss this new situation with them.Deciding to take a quick shower, Zen sent Damian a text and asked if he could come over to discuss something confidential in thirty minutes with his dinner. The cyborg took a while to reply, but Zen smiled when he received an affirmation in the middle of his shower.Thirty minutes later, Zen knocked on Damian’s door, freshly showered and with a packed dinner in his other hand. There was nobody in the corridor, so Zen relaxed.Damian opened the door within seconds and welcomed Zen in.“Pardon the me
When Bolt returned with the first aid kit, he was largely relieved to see how Yelena was taking care of Zen. Taking over, he checked on the burn injury that had greatly reduced thanks to the ice cream tub, although the same could not be said of the melting liquid inside.“That might have to go back into the freezer for now,” he gently told Yelena, who agreed.Now that the actual adult was back, Yelena threw the explanation to Bolt. She hated the woman Chatura. There was no way she wanted to explain all the complicated history to Zen when she could barely speak English. Besides, between the two of them, Bolt was supposed to be the smarter one.“Oh, Chatura. Yes… it’s a complicated story,” Bolt frowned. “There are so many rumours and versions about what happened to her before she had been turned into an invigilator here. I’ve never personally met her or talked to her in my time here. However, I don’t think we have a
After spending most of the day in the virtual world, the rest of Party Godly Food excused themselves to hit the gym and stretch their muscles. Damian returned to finish compiling the game guide while Zen worked on preparing dinner. Yelena and Bolt were present, so there was no need for anyone else to keep him company. Not to mention, the kitchen hands were very helpful. Most of the ingredients Zen needed were already prepared. The dirty dishes from the last meal were washed meticulously and left to dry on the counter.“Did you find anything new in the dive this time?” Bolt asked while Zen mixed his seasoning.Zen wanted to make something simple for dinner as they had a heavy tea. Fried rice and some soup will do. There was more than enough for everyone later.“There were new things,” Zen admitted, reluctant to reveal too much information about the new features and unique split-path quests he and Damian had discovered. “However
Collecting the rewards for successfully defeating John’s cousin, the party members of Godly Food jumped into the portal leading to the next floor. Zen knew that the dungeon had different themes on every ten floors. The tenth floor of each themed stage would be different from the other stages in difficulty. It was why the vanguard team struggled with the twentieth floor’s boss. In addition to the stage mechanic’s difference, the final boss was also tougher to deal with. If not for the monstrous capabilities of the combatants, Zen doubted they could breeze through the first ten floors as quickly as they did.Anticipating a village or town vibe similar to the other floors from before, Zen was stunned to find himself in a rocky cave full of darkness. It had ominous vibes, and only Liu Feng moved confidently in the darkness. Everyone else minimised exploring further without a light source.“We’ll log out here,” Akiko informed Damian. “Y
After entering the boss dungeon den, Zen shivered. It wasn’t similar to a wolf’s den. If anything, it appeared closer to an actual dungeon, as if someone had deliberately attempted to imprison the boss here. The stale smell of dogs and many broken chains of different sizes on the ground spoke volumes about John’s cousin.Unlike the short werewolf, who remained in his werewolf form constantly, the boss was a monster who could transform. Depending on the moon cycle, it could be a violent and bloodthirsty monster or a broken man who lived in constant fear and misery of his curse.“He changes according to the moon cycle once the rampage begins,” Akiko explained. “I took a while to figure out how to kill him, even on the first run. He’s immune to damage on a blood moon. We need to finish it as soon as possible.”With a full party participating in a boss battle, Zen had faith they could conclude it before even the blood moon p
Finally approaching the final boss’s cave, Zen wondered if the storyline would change because they had let Han murder John brutally. His body had been hacked into pieces and scattered around the rotting forest. The maggots would get to it soon and reduce it to bones. Yet, the cruel butchering session remained fresh in Zen’s mind.Everyone in the party knew that feeling all too well. Having lived in the underworld, they sympathised with Zen, who had lived like a civilian his whole life. Although not everyone participated directly in the act of murder, they knew what it meant to take a life. Even Damian had seen it happen. He knew how to interrogate for information and was quite adept at the craft when required.“Don’t think too much about it,” Liu Feng was the first to break the silence. “He wasn’t even real. This is a game designed by the Godfather to find the next successor. It’s just another test.”Even if it wer