Atlas wanted to curl into a ball at the final line but forced himself to stay standing. Complaining would do nothing but prolong his inevitable demise. At least, that's what he thought until he gave the wording a second glance. If the punishment only applied to failing to complete the quest, then his death wouldn't be permanent so long as he could survive long enough to fulfill the two main objectives, especially if he could do them at the same time as the wording implied. Of course, that still required him to not die for fifteen minutes, something that he had no doubt would be almost impossible."Whatever. I can't take this shit back now. Might as well do it now," he muttered, before realizing one problem. "How do I start the damn thing?" He gave the notification another read and saw a line he had missed because of the punishment section. ACTIVATE QUEST PYLON TO BEGIN SCENARIO Atlas realized that he had yet to check the environment that he found himself in. He pushed away the notifications with a mental nudge before examining the area around him. Fortunately, he hadn't missed any integral features other than a floating purple crystal with gold structures floating around it. Atlas assumed that was the pylon, but other than that no other features decorated the plateau he stood on. It took the shape of an almost perfect circle that seemed to be out 50 meters across. Atlas couldn't see anything past the edge due to a thick cloud cover, so he walked over to the pylon.With no indication of how to activate the thing, Atlas just put his hand on the crystal and focused on his quest. A moment later, a prompt appeared in his vision. VANGUARD INITIATE DETECTEDINITIATE SCENARIOYESNO Atlas focused on "YES," and the prompt disappeared. When nothing happened, he began to wonder if it had broken. That thought was quickly discarded when the pylon disappeared and in its place appeared a humanoid, causing Atlas to stumble back in surprise. Atlas would have assumed it was a human man, except the being stood at least four meters tall and had golden skin. He could only guess that this was his namesake, Atlas the Titanos. Atlas decided to call the larger being Big A in his head to avoid confusion. He also ignored the timer ticking down in the corner of his vision. TIME UNTIL SCENARIO BEGINS: 10:00 Big A looked at Atlas and spoke in a deep voice that reminded Atlas of Mufasa from The Lion King. "It would seem that I have a visitor and a World Vanguard at that."Atlas's eyes widened in surprise. "You know what I am?" He asked.Big A gave a booming laugh that shook the air. "I was millennia old even before my race reached beyond their means. I have come across many vanguard members, including humans.""There are other humans in the universe?" Atlas questioned, reeling in surprise."Indeed. Your race is perhaps the most populous and varied in skills and occupations, though you are also known for being amongst the most average in combat capabilities. I am surprised that you are not familiar with this. This is common knowledge, even for the World Vanguards."Atlas gave an awkward chuckle. "Hehe. Yeah, about that…" Big A's eyes narrowed at Atlas. "I'm kinda in the middle of my integration, whatever that means." He rubbed the back of his head.Big A stood silent for a long moment before reaching up and rubbing his chin. "That… explains much. You are not the first person the system has assigned to help me fight the tainted as part of a scenario, but you are certainly the weakest. Your potential must be great indeed for the System to award you with as difficult a scenario as this one. However, two advantages come with having an integration as hard as this one."Atlas perked up at his words. "What?""Before that, perhaps you might share your name. I am aware that the system gives you that information beforehand, but it does no such thing for me."Atlas blushed in embarrassment. He still hesitated before speaking, worried about how name sake might react. Still, he took a deep breath and said, "My name is Atlas Driscol. It's a pleasure to meet you, Atlas the Titanos." As he finished speaking, he watched the giant before him for any reaction.Big A looked at him before laughing with a thick booming guffaw that rang in Atlas's ears. Atlas wasn't sure how to feel about this being the second time in one day. After he had composed himself, he spoke, "Oh, never let it be said that the System has no sense of humor. This will certainly be interesting. Forgive me, young Atlas, but this has never happened before. I sense the hand of Fate at work here, as fickle as she may be."To answer your question, the first benefits us both and greatly increases your chance of survival. The System, as harsh as it may seem, never creates a scenario in which you cannot complete the base requirements. That means the enemies coming through this attempt will be limited in strength, though still quite dangerous."Atlas liked the sound of that. "And the second?" he asked."As it is champion level, should you complete the scenario, any achievements or awards you gain will be vastly superior to those offered at any of the other six levels. Such high-level scenarios are seldom successfully attempted as a first scenario, only five or six a generation. That is especially true for a World Vanguard like yourself, who has certain benefits due to your status."Atlas's head was spinning from the amount of information Big A had given him in such a short time. He focused on the part that seemed to apply the most to his current situation. "Six other levels? But, I thought there were only four: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Champion. At least that's what showed up when the system generated my scenario."For the first time, Big A seemed truly surprised. "Atlas, there are seven difficulties for system-generated scenarios. Easy, Normal, and Hard are the first three, yes, and they are considered the basic level for the average citizen of the multiverse, but the other four are where the truly talented venture. In order, they are Extreme, Terror, Demonic, and Champion. For you to skip so far shows just how strong your potential truly is."Atlas reeled at the news of just how dangerous a situation he'd found himself in, but he took a deep breath and forced himself to stand steady. He had known from the moment his difficulty changed to Champion that he'd probably die, even if he hadn't realized just how much of a change it'd been. The only difference now was that he learned just how good his rewards actually were. Having steadied himself, Atlas took one look at the timer that had been counting down all this time. TIME UNTIL SCENARIO BEGINS: 2:17 Atlas looked up at Big A, a serious expression on his face. He stared the giant in the eyes and said, "I'm ready. Show me what I have to do."