Ashley

When I open my eyes again, I find what looks like some sort of fancy plaza around me. One with an extravagant fountain at the center with ten different statues spewing water, each likely of a Primordial considering the sight of Chaos facing directly at me, and hundreds of people chatting around the plaza. Acting as if they’re waiting for something.

What it is they’re waiting for, I don’t know. And I’m not sure I want to find out.

I glance up to find a large number 10002 high in the sky. Then back down when I notice a new icon in the bottom right corner of my interface. One that looks like a screen.

After selecting the icon, a large screen appears in front of me. And I immediately feel surprised at the sight of what’s on it.

Some sort of home page for a website. With the label ‘System Event Hub #10002’ at the top.

Just how many hubs are there?

It’s possible there are exactly that many. 10002. But it could also just be that I was sent to this specific hub because I was in tutorial 10002.

I turn my attention to the tabs beneath the banner at the top of the page.

There’s Forums, Solo Events, Group Events, Solo Spectating, Group Spectating, Rewards, Starter Manual, and Successor Hub. With Starter Kit being green in color and Successor Hub being red while the others are all black.

I look away from the screen again right as I hear someone shouting, “She’s here!!! The new Successor!!”

And right when I see people beginning to look around, likely for me, I focus on the screen and immediately reach out to press on the Successor Hub tab. An act that teleports me away to some other hub that looks a lot eerier than the other one. With a lot more red, black, and purple colors, and a much creepier and more varied surrounding buildings around the plaza.

The most obvious change, though, is the fountain at the center of the plaza. One with just Chaos’s statue in it and none of the other Primordials.

Guess the Successor Hub is split between the ten Primordials. One per Primordial.

Wait, does that mean other Successors to Chaos will be here?

“You are my only Successor, Ashley,” I hear Chaos’s voice bouncing around the place and my head, making me turn to look around. But I don’t see anything. And I don’t hear him again, leaving me squinting my eyes ever so slightly.

After a few seconds though, I decide to ignore what just happened to instead focus on what he said.

I’m the only Successor to the Primordial of Chaos? Is that normal? For Primordials to only have a few Successors?

That’s… actually, that might be both good and bad.

Good since I don’t have to share this hub with anyone. Bad because it means more attention drawn to me from others.

I let out a shallow breath before walking over to the fountain and sitting on the edge of it. Then I open up that same menu from before.

Except this time the menu looks different. It has all of the same tabs as the other one, except now it has Successor Events as a tab in addition to the other tabs.

Hmm. Well, whatever. I have my privacy in here. Except for Chaos, apparently.

I go ahead and open up that Starter Manual tab, and the first thing I see when I do is some list.

New User Starter Manual

This Manual is meant to prepare new users for the danger of entering the System, and to answer some questions that may have been left unanswered during the Tutorial. The manual is separated into a numerical order based on the priority to the user.

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It is recommended to read this manual before the hour is over and you are returned to your planet.

1: All users who have died within the tutorial have been brought back to life.

I blink at that first bullet point. Because it is a little surprising.

After staring at it for a second, I try to think back to the notifications we got for the third phase of the tutorial. And it doesn’t take me long to realize that nowhere did it actually say that people would be dying permanently in it, even if it didn’t say otherwise either.

Guess everyone, me included, just assumed that the third phase was a permanent death because it made it sound more intense and dangerous. And it implied that we wouldn’t be able to be brought back to life for the third phase.

Now I feel awkward about my near death experience in the third phase.

Or experiences, rather.

Then again, that was probably the reason it tried tricking us into thinking we’d die. To give us life or death experiences while really thinking we were going to die without actually letting us die.

I move on to the next points in the manual.

2: During the course of the tutorial, Gates have started opening up all across the planet known as Val. These Gates are the same as the Gates leading to the Domains of the mini bosses within the tutorial’s third phase. However, instead of a short trek to the mini boss, these Domains are larger and have more monsters in them. Additionally, the Gates leading to the Domains will break open after one full week of no one entering the Gate. And if someone does enter the Gate, then they will break open one full month after they enter. Releasing all of the monsters inside to roam around the world of Val.

Oh. So that’s what Chaos meant by monsters back home.

I blink as a realization comes to me.

The tutorial’s third phase was exactly one week long. Almost as if the tutorial was designed to last until the first round of Gates break open.

It’s kind of screwed up in a way.

I move on to the next points.

3: Spires have appeared all around the world. These Spires give control over all of the Domains in the range of the Spire, making it so that the one who claimed the Spire has full control over who enters the Gates after the initial ten-second vacuum. Additionally, the owner of a Spire can lock anyone else from entering the Spire unless they have more System Stars than the user.

4: All Gates allow access to two different types of entrants. The first are those who enter the Gate within the first minute of it opening, after the initial ten seconds post-opening when the Gate begins to draw people surrounding it inside of its own accord. And the second type is the maximum of six users who enter the Gate after that minute. With there being a time limit of one hour after the first person of the second type enters after which the Gate will seal itself until everyone inside is dead or the Domain is cleared.

5: The users within the universe are divided into Classes E, D, C, B, A, and S. These Classes are determined by a multitude of factors including the user’s level, their number of wins within System Events, and whether or not they can pass a trial for each Class.

I cross my arms as I silently read each point, taking in the information and trying rather hard to memorize it all. Which isn’t too hard since it isn’t that much information.

On another note, I’m rather happy about the Spire thing. Because it means I’ll have a nice and safe place to rest. A place I won’t have to worry about other people bothering me.

Just like Chaos said.

Moving on to the next bullet point.

6: Users from other worlds may enter Val so long as they are invited by a user on Val with at least One System Star and are beneath the first threshold level. The level required to reach Class D. However, should a user on Val gain more System Stars, they will be able to invite higher level users to Val.

7: At least once every week, every user is expected to compete in a System Event. Whether this is through the System Event menu or through entering a Gate.

8: System Events are livestreamed events designed by the Primordials in order to use up the excess energy within the universe and decrease the number of monsters. It is also meant as a method for their entertainment and the growth of every individual user. And these System Events can range from livestreamed battles to the death, livestreamed sports with combat allowed, livestreamed races with combat allowed, and even livestreamed dungeon crawls, both alone and with others. Some of these events may risk the lives of the competitors, others may not. Additionally, regardless of whether the user is entering a System designated Event or a Gate, they will receive Skill Points as a reward for their progress within the System Event and for every monster slain.

Not sure I like those last two bullet points. At all.

I stare at them for several seconds before sighing.

Well, whatever. It’s not like I wasn’t already planning on entering Gates to get Skill Points. So it doesn’t really matter.

I proceed to read through the rest of the bullet points, but none of them are all that interesting to me. Mostly just information about each of the Primordials, information about how you can create connections with stronger powers within the universe through the System Events, and other such stuff like that. Also a mention about finding quite a lot of information on the forums when you need it.

So after I finish reading through it all, I go ahead and close out of the Starter Manual and open up the forums.

Because there is something I really want to look up on it before I return to Val.