Chapter 33 – Dead Players Evaluation
While Dove and Misha had braced the danger of the mutated world, Pioneer King, Big Crotch, and other players who had died during the quest sat around in a white classroom.
The ceiling and the walls were all white, but there was no exit, window, or a door that they could leave this place.
However, the room contained sofas, coffee tables, and plates of various food at the back of the place. In front, a blank theatre-size monitor was there, but it had not shown any picture or broadcast anything yet.
A clock timer was on top above the monitor, which it continued to count down.
At the moment, it showed 30 seconds.
"Finally, the wait should be over soon."
"Yeah. Who would have thought that the game made us do nothing and wait until the quest time is over."
"They should have sent us back, so at least we can grind some EXP."
While everyone was annoyed by the game system, Pioneer took a piece of lamb steak from the plate in on his hand into his mouth. He did not care about anything after he died since Pioneer thought that he was just unlucky.
Big Crotch was also beside him, chewing a sushi roll in his mouth, watching the clock counting down to zero.
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The clock ticked zero. The quest timer was over.
"Finally …"
Before everybody could heave a sigh of relief, the monitor on the front of the room brightened. An image of a military officer in his 50s was revealed.
"Greetings, top students of various countries. My name is Colonel Dullahan Wildcat. You should have seen me on TV in the real world many times since I'm a spokesperson of the Milky Way Government. I'm here to give you an extra lesson of why you have failed the quest."
The image showed a map and several red X marks.
"Remember this map?" Dullahan said with a bright smile, "We marked it as dangerous for a reason, yet all of you went on and provoked all monsters in the danger zone. It would be a surprise if you didn't die, no?"
All players in the white room flinched in embarrassment as they did exactly what the colonel said.
"All monsters in the danger zone are boss-class monsters, yet you jumped in there without consulting the officers in the base, thinking that it will be a piece of cake like the other fantasy games. Well, death is what you got. To be honest, I played this game in the alpha test, and I didn't have a problem surviving on the wasteland for a week with my team without provoking anything in the danger zone. We don't hunt monsters, but we camped and fortified our base. That's all we did to complete the objective."
Still smiling, Dullahan switched the image to ammunition with different color and markings.
"Secondly, all of you never asked the armory staffs about which ammo or the recommendation of gears, load-out, or any advice that could have helped you. As a consequence, they gave you ordinary non-mod cheap bullets to save cost since those NPCs expected all of you to die because of your recklessness. Don't forget, the government and the NPCs in the game can be cruel to the players and outsiders. It's still in the era of the apocalypse and people in there have a twisted personality after all."
"I'll introduce you a few special bullets that the NPCs in this world commonly used. First, the yellow AR rounds, AKA Anti-Regenerative rounds. They are used against all monsters that can regenerate itself, such as Queen Eggs, baby Queen Eggs, or monsters with hydra genes."
"The red bullets are HE rounds. HE stands for High-Explosive, so when it's fired, it explodes. These things do little damage but it works against tree monsters. Furthermore …"
"The black rounds are stun bullets. They are used to ..."
"The bullets without tags are AP bullets. Well, AP means armor piercing. Everybody that has played war games should know ..."
Dullahan continued giving a lecture to the dead players, yet no one in game blinked or looked away from the monitor.
As elites of their generation, they possess a necessary discipline when listening to lectures.
…
The lecture ended after three hours of long briefing about their mistakes. Dullahan introduced all monsters in the danger zone and the normal mutants on the field. He also criticized each player by using the clips of their previous in-game actions before they died.
Of course, vile actions, such as team killing of Pioneer King, was also revealed. It caused everyone in the room to keep their distance from him.
"Now that I've taught you everything about your mistakes and gave you advice for your next attempt, does any of you have a question?"
Realizing that the lecture had finished, half of the students ignored Dullahan and chatted among themselves. However, Big Crotch glanced around the room and raised his hand.
"I can't see one of my friends here. Can I ask if the person is alive?"
Dullahan grinned, "Of all players around the world, only two players have completed the quest. One of your friends might probably be them."
"Can you reveal who has passed the quest?"
"Well, it's not a secret. If you want to know that badly, just check the level ranking. Isn't that obvious?"
Hearing the reminder of Dullahan, everyone checked the level ranking in the game menu.
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1. Psychic Trainee - Level 40 – Dove
2. Air Force Trainee - Level 26 – Misha
3. Psychic Trainee - Level 22 – Big Crotch
4. Psychic Trainee - Level 21 – Pioneer King
4. Psychic Trainee - Level 21 – Homeless Billionaire
…
"Who the hell is Dove!?"
"Level freaking forty!? Are you kidding me!?"
A commotion broke out as everyone was astonished by Dove's current level.
Meanwhile, Pioneer and Big Crotch's eyes stuck at Misha's name and level.
'That stupid girl has survived!'
'My Tiffany is still there!'
Pioneer frowned and clicked his tongue in frustration while Big Crotch grinned from ear to ear.
…
…
…
On the other side, Dove got stuck in the city quarantine zone after his blood test had shown negative for Hydra virus, but he got a positive for a minor disease form monster's dung and MCF from tattooed zombies were found instead.
After being vaccinated, he was trapped in there until the Mind Corroding Fungus and parasites from the poop-bathing were cleaned from his systems.
Just like the other players, he was also given a brief evaluation from a senior officer from the Milky Way Government.
Listening to the critics and realizing the mistakes he made, Dove slapped his forehead.
"To think that there are special bullets for those monsters. I'm stupid for not asking around for info."
The officer in a floating monitor of the hospital smiled, "You're an ex-professional gamer. You should have paid attention to quests and NPCs more. Leveling and surviving is not everything."
"I'll keep that in mind, thank you. Say, how is the girl with me? Is she in this hospital, too?"
"Hahaha, are you chasing after her, boy? You're doomed for a disappointment."
"What do you mean?"
"Whoops. My mouth slips. Well, Misha's fine, but she's not in the same hospital or the quarantine zone."
"What happened to her?"
"Oh that, she is undergoing an interesting development. All the administrators and the staffs of the game are betting if she will make it through the predicament."
"Predicament!? Can you tell me more? Can I help her?"
The officer shrugged, "Well, even if you know it, you can't help her. She's in the middle of a quest somewhere else."