"Whoah..." A blond-haired player looked around the cottage with an intriguing look. "This is wild. Yo, are you guys seeing this?"
With him, two other players joined at the same time.
They were equally impressed as they looked around and tried pinching each other to feel the sensation, whether it was anywhere close to real life as it was advertised.
At that moment, the blond-haired player saw that there was already someone sitting on the couch.
He showed a friendly smile and extended his hand towards the person.
"Hello, my name is Donald; who are you?"
His two other friends joined their friend and looked at the stranger with a neutral expression. They were aware of the game's hierarchy system, but in the tutorial, everyone was on the same level.
However, during the tutorial, the hierarchy might shift—there will be, of course, strong players and weak players.
They were trying to scan the black-haired young man from head to toe, trying to determine what his position in the hierarchy might be.
Adam silently looked at the hand in front of him and looked away, showing clear intention that he didn't have any desire to shake the hand.
"Ouch." Donald pulled his hand back with an awkward smile. "Not very friendly, are you?"
"Hey, we are just trying to be friendly." Donald's friend, a tall, lanky young man with a serious look, chimed in. "No need to be an asshole."
"Asshole?" Adam raised his eyebrow, then crossed his legs and put his arms over the couch's backrest. "I simply didn't want to shake hands. I was hardly an asshole."
"All right, you two. Calm down." Donald laughed and stopped his friend from arguing before it went too far.
He then looked back at Adam and smiled. "I hope we'll meet in the tutorial. Maybe we can work together."
'Donald Wetherson in the flesh.' Adam chuckled as he watched them walk to the other corner of the cottage. 'It took me a moment to remember his face. After all, he didn't really make much of an impression.'
At the center of the cottage, more flashes of light came from nowhere, and nervous players appeared from there. They all looked at the cottage with similar expressions—with awe and curiosity.
As they tried to get used to the movement, Donald and his friends went to introduce themselves—and as Donald looked somewhat handsome and approachable, many players quickly warmed up to him.
It was clear that he was trying to make himself look like a leader in the eyes of players and get them to rely on him.
'He'll lead you to your deaths.' Adam thought as he watched the players' mingling with each other.
At that moment, he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder.
"Excuse me..."
"Hmm?" Adam turned to see who was speaking to him.
It was an unfamiliar face—a pair of blue eyes hidden behind spectacles stared at him with a curious expression.
"Are you reading that book?" He asked as he nudged his chin toward the book on the table.
"No." Adam shook his head.
"Okay." The young man took the book for himself and sat on the other couch before starting to read it with a curious expression.
Adam curiously asked. "You knew it was the help manual. Someone told you about it, huh?"
"A-ah, yes." He nudged his glasses up and nodded. "My brother played the tutorial once. He gave me some tips."
"My name is Adam; what's yours?"
"Uhm." The glasses-wearing man looked at him and replied. "Seth. Seth Hardrock."
'Doesn't ring a bell.' Adam thought and nodded before resuming his silence.
As the time went by and more players crowded inside the cottage, Seth finished reading the help manual and saw that it was already quite packed around the couches.
He didn't notice before, but someone had already sat beside him as space started to get cramped, but surprisingly, no one was sitting next to Adam, and he wondered why.
Adam tapped his finger against his arm calmly, but with his side-eye, he saw Donald talking with players, who sometimes threw glances in his direction.
'Hmm, making me an outcast already? That was quick.' Adam chuckled, as he didn't expect it to happen soon.
He thought Donald would be able to resist his urges until the safe room opened, at least.
'They hadn't realized yet, but we are all opponents. Trying to fight for any resource.' Adam silently thought, 'This time, I don't want some baggage slowing me down.'
The time flew by while the players waited impatiently for the tutorial to start—since they appeared in the waiting room, they had mingled with others and acted like this was just a video game with no consequences.
A short while later, a strange ringing reverberated through the cottage—it sounded like an alarm clock went off.
Adam opened his eyes and stood up from the couch.
At that moment, the door swung open, letting cold air in, making many players shudder in the cold and forcing them to move closer to the fireplace.
A wide-shouldered man walked through the door, almost not making it through because of his muscular frame.
As soon as he entered, all the talk within the cottage died down.
"Hmph," he scoffed loudly and crossed his arms to flex his muscles. "My name is Ron. You'll call me Sir Ron!"
After scanning the cottage and seeing a few nods, he continued.
"I am a player, just like the rest of you. However, I am different from all of you.
"I am strong." Ron pointed at everyone individually with his finger. "You all are weak—you are Coinfeeders. It is an insult in here; it means waste of coin, what most of you are."
Ron's words struck a nerve among the group. Some didn't like what he said, as if they were nothing but a waste of air.
They hadn't come across such a thing in the real world.
"This is the first floor." Ron pointed at the winter wonderland outside.
"This is a dimension within the dungeon. To get to the next floor, you have to defeat the floor boss.
"The boss is somewhere in these mountains, and someone has to defeat it to get to the second floor."
"Wait, everyone doesn't have to defeat it?" A scrawny-looking player asked with his arm raised.
"No." Ron said coldly. "If the boss is defeated, it will respawn in 24 hours. In that time frame, you can get to the second floor if you wish.
"However, you don't get any points if you do that."
"Points?" A player asked.
"Points are what determine the score you'll reach at the end of the tutorial." Ron said. "You won't know your score—only your 'Handler' does."
"A handler?"
Ron took a deep breath as he seemed to get irritated by the questions.
"You'll meet your handler soon enough. For now, there are enough backpacks for everyone outside." Ron nudged his chin towards the wagon outside.
"If you survive through the first floor, more things will be explained to you.
"For now, find the boss; try to gain points for your score—remember, if your score at the end is worse than D-rank, you aren't worthy of becoming mercenary. You'll be trash for the rest of your life."
Near the couch, Seth formed a fist with his right hand and clenched it tightly.
Ron put on a hat to cover his head and said, "If you perform well, guilds might recruit you. Who knows, maybe you'll even be recruited by the guild I am part of."
He showed a tattoo that was on the back of his hand—it was a serpent coiled around a crescent moon.
"Crescent Serpents," Ron said with a hint of pride in his voice. "It's a prestigious guild that values strength and skill. If you show exceptional leadership skills and strength, you might very well be recruited. Remember the name!"
Donald and his friends showed expectant looks and raised their chins with overflowing confidence.
"The tutorial starts now!" Ron shouted and walked out of the cottage into the snowy landscape.
As soon as he said that, clouds began gathering in the crystal-clear sky as if a storm were forming, and almost instantly afterward, small snowflakes began dropping from the sky.