Third Person POV
"Come on Agnes! You can't do anything about him dying! He was stupid to ignore your advice and go do a mission right after his training session with you!"
Agnes kept her focus on the screens in front of her, even though what she saw didn't reach her brain, her eyes just kept staring as she did her best to ignore the lazy lady speaking.
Finally having had enough, Cinzia cut herself a new cigar and spoke in a firm tone unlike herself.
"I order you to go and rest yourself." Cinzian used magic to create a set of runes that lit up the cigar.
Agnes looked at Cinzia hatefully but Cinzia just shook her head and relaxed into her chair, taking a puff of smoke. "This is not an optional order. If you don't go, I'll kick you out of the neutral zone. You can say goodbye to the food you love so much."
Agnes was still hateful but she quickly turned around and walked out of the observation room. As she walked around the tower to reach her room, she saw a lone man staring at the noticeboard.
'Probably low on points…'
Sparing a last glance at the man, Agnes immediately entered her room. As soon as she closed the door she walked to the bed and crashed into it.
She stayed with her face buried in a pillow for a while before she peeked under her bed where a few items lay.
'I guess we'll be restocking the items in the VIP store.'
'Will there even be anyone to buy it?'
'I wonder how Miss Foxy will react once she learns that her dear Gold Mark contestant 'died'.'
First Person POV
Looking at the board I contemplated which mission I'd take next.
I felt a little tired and didn't want to strain my body too much. So I settled on a very easy mission that would be helpful.
[Feel the magic stored inside your body in twenty minutes. (remaining number of attempts: infinite)]
Feel the energy that courses through your veins, mixed in your body like blood, the energy that keeps you alive, that which is your life.
Difficulty: Very Easy
When successful: N/A
When unsuccessful: N/A
*Cooperation not allowed.
Tearing the paper, I found my surroundings changed once again, as I left the calm and serene Neutral Zone and entered an unnaturally empty white room.
I looked around for a few seconds before deciding to sit on the floor and try meditating to feel the magical energy.
'The task description said it was flowing through my veins and was mixed with my body like blood.'
'Will I be able to feel it if I feel the flow of my blood?'
I closed my eyes and started to meditate but soon realised that there was something even more unnatural about the room.
It was silent.
Eerily so.
There were no sounds in the room and each thought I had felt like a brick hitting my head.
After only a few minutes, I began to hallucinate sounds and colours began to flash in my vision despite having closed my eyes.
I only then realised I couldn't feel the ground I was sitting on. Soon everything around me spun as I lost track of which way was up or down.
Everything made it feel like I was going through a very bad trip.
I tried opening my eyes and looking around to orient myself but the blank white screen all around me left me feeling haunted.
So I kept meditating since there was nothing else to do in this empty room.
Seconds slowly turned into minutes as I calmed down from my initial excitement and mental diarrhoea as my mind started to slow down while spitting out thoughts, or rather I was becoming better at ignoring the thoughts that started to sprout.
It felt like they had become insignificant, like the tiny insect crawling on the grass blade in the ground you played soccer on.
Once my thoughts calmed down, I could hear the various sounds my body automatically made. I could feel the throbbing of the veins in my legs as blood was carried back to the heart through them. I could even feel my stomach *growling* from hunger.
My throat felt slimy and wet and I occasionally felt the saliva in my mouth increase or decrease as my body worked to relax.
Suddenly all of this vanished as the silence was interrupted by an audible mechanical *buzz* and *hum*.
I opened my eyes only to find myself back in the Neutral Zone.
'So fast?'
'Was that twenty minutes?'
'That felt way shorter.'
I picked up another paper for the same mission and tore it to reach the white room again.
I sat down to meditate and entered the flow state much easier than the last time.
Still, I failed to feel the special energy in my veins that I was supposed to have a lot of.
I tried the mission once more before I gave up for now and turned back to the mission to run until I collapsed from exhaustion to earn more points so that I could have the simple hundred-point meal to boost my energy.
This process kept repeating itself until I had gathered ninety points more.
It took me about six and a half hours to gather all the points and people had started coming mid-way through my training.
A few curious people paid attention to me, but most just spared me a simple glance and moved on. Not everyone knew everyone else in the Neutral Zone. After all, we'd all arrived from places much different from each other.
With a hundred points in my pocket, I moved to the cafeteria where I got myself a full plate balanced meal to help me heal quicker.
Although it felt a little disheartening to see my hard-earned money vanish in a moment as I paid the cafe worker dressed in a maid uniform, the food's taste more than made up for it.
After finishing my meal, I took a short break in the cafeteria as I observed the people around the notice board. Several people were trying to form teams to complete missions more easily, but a curious few did missions alone.
Most that tried to do missions alone didn't return and the few that did quickly joined a team.
After gathering some information about how risky the missions were by seeing which missions people preferred, I walked over to the notice board and picked up an easy mission.
[Survive on a mountainside (remaining number of attempts: 14/15)]
Avoid the fangs of a starving beast and survive for the next two hours within the mountainside!
Difficulty: Very Easy
When successful: +10 Survival Points
When unsuccessful: N/A
*Cooperation not allowed
'Although I can earn ten points faster by running myself to exhaustion, I think it'd be good to learn survival skills too.'
'I can see several other missions requiring it.'
'And it would probably help me survive in Paradise since I have no contractor to take care of me and I don't know where in the world of Naruto I'll be sent to.'
'If I end up in some random boonies, I'll probably need to learn how to live in the wild to survive.'
As soon as I tore the paper, my surroundings changed, and I arrived in a thick tropical forest. It was drizzling and the sounds of several exotic animals assaulted my senses.
*Grrrr*
'Alright, you feral doggo…let's do this.'
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A/N : What do I name him? I don't have a particular idea.