A few hours later, the three of us returned to the simulation room, the latter two breathing heavily. We had just cleared our fifth dungeon in a row, and their stats were certainly reflecting the hard work they were putting in.
"Luke... please... goddamn, we need a break..." Tommy's voice was laced with exhaustion, his eyes half-lidded and his shoulders slumped. Celine, though equally drained, had a fiercer glint in her gaze, her hand gripping the twin Serpent swords I lent her.
"I can continue Luquier, really," Celine insisted, though the tremble in her voice belied her fatigue.
"No, Tommy's right. Let's call it quits for now," I said, placing a hand on Celine's shoulder to ease her grip on the swords. She reluctantly nodded, and we all stepped out of the simulation room and into the GPA lobby.
The lobby was buzzing with activity, Players from various guilds and factions discussing the recent updates. The atmosphere was tense, but there was an underlying excitement as well. The game was continually evolving, and that spiced things up for those who were used to the predictable grind of the earlier floors.
"I can't believe it, but I think I'm gonna have to use the GPA's showers," Tommy grimaced, his clothes drenched in sweat. "This is insane, Luke. How do you do this all the time?"
I took a second to glance at his stats. Maybe it was the reassurance of clearing dungeons by my side, but he had upped his Risk stat from 1 million to 5 million, which was still a safe bet for now. Despite that, he was still shy of 50 million in every other stat, incomparable to Celine, who had just broken the 600 million mark.
"I just... treat it like I would any other virtual game I've played, I guess," I replied with a shrug, trying not to make it seem like a big deal. The truth was, I still didn't fully grasp that the world had been transformed into a living, breathing game. Not even after dying so many times or facing off against unimaginable entities. Speaking of dying...
[Number of Deaths: 2316 | Mental Reduction: 231.6%]
I smiled wryly to myself. Using the shackles in tandem with Final Gambit allowed me to farm experience, albeit minimally, every time I died. It was a grind that most would consider hellish, but I found a strange solace in it. The mental reduction probably had a large part in that. Despite having cleared five dungeons back to back, I only gained 9 levels from it, which wasn't all that bad.
[Stat Points: 29,126,663,482]
9 billion extra stat points. If it had been the old me when I first started, I would've never imagined I'd be gaining so much all at once. I had to stop myself from salivating thinking of the potential 'good stuff' that my Achievement would grant me whenever it was done calculating.
"So, what's your plan after?" Tommy stretched, his arms reaching out in opposite directions. "I know damn well you're not done after grinding, with that new patch or whatever that came out."
"You know me so well," I chuckled, glancing around the lobby. Players from different guilds were forming groups, their eyes alight with excitement and ambition. "I'm going to check out the progress of how the 40th floor is going-"
[System alert: Floor 40 has been cleared. Floor 41 has been opened. The First Act will now begin.]
"...Or maybe I'll just check out the 41st floor," I corrected myself, a hint of excitement in my voice. Tommy and Celine looked at me, a mix of amazement and dread. I already knew they were worried about the 50th floor checkpoint, so I can imagine what they were thinking hearing me speak of going on the 41st floor.
"I'm not going to clear it," I raised my hands in defense, catching the look they gave me. "But I want to see what kind of theme the next few floors will have now that we're entering a new Act."
"Then wait for me, Luquier," Celine called out, already moving towards the elevators. "I need to freshen up after our leveling."
I nodded, sneaking a glance at Tommy. He met my gaze and groaned, hanging his head.
"Fine, I guess I'll come too," Tommy conceded, though his reluctance was obvious. "But just for the exploration, not for fighting. I'm so tired, I think not even my Strength stat can restore my stamina."
I chuckled, watching as he went to use the facility's showers. Left alone, I sat in one of the chairs in the lobby, pondering over the game's evolution. When I first bought and played the virtual predecessor, it was simply a game with no real consequences. But now, it was a second reality that had become a grim battleground for power and survival.
All my prior knowledge I had of the game was up till the 30th floor, where I managed to overcome Levius- but now I didn't have an advantage. As I mulled over my next steps, I suddenly realized something.
"Huh... the Patron of the Dead's Blessing..." I muttered under my breath, rereading the description. Honestly, requiring all of my Risk just to use it once didn't seem very enticing, not to mention all of the locked descriptions it had. It reminded me of when I first obtained the Soultaker, though it was the Hand of Thanatos at the time. I wasn't sure I would ever use it, but maybe I'd try it out after reaching the 50th level. Hopefully the world wouldn't be destroyed by then.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the elevator doors opening, and out stumbled Tommy, looking a bit more refreshed and a lot less soggy. "Alright, let's get going," he said, though his voice was still laced with weariness.
"Whoa, hey bro, you can relax a bit," I said, gesturing for him to sit on the couch next to me, "Celine hasn't come back yet."
Tommy sat with a grateful sigh. "No but like, how are you not exhausted? I know our levels and stats have some part in our biological shit and all, but there's no way your absurd numbers actually make you inhuman."
I shrugged. "It's probably because I've died so much in the game that my body's gotten used to the feeling of pushing through exhaustion," I quipped, though there might have been some truth to it. With each death in Sephera's tower in 'Last Stand', I had learned to ignore pain and fatigue, which I couldn't really explain how or why, with the exponential pain sensitivity increasing every time I added more Risk.
Tommy glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "Yeah, speaking of which, I'm pretty sure you're the only person I've met that's racked up so many deaths." He leaned back into the couch, folding his arms behind his head. "What's it like? Dying over and over again?"
"Well-" I paused, taking his question into consideration. It wasn't till I realized at that moment that I had forgotten what it felt like when I first died. "It's like... you know that feeling when you get out of a hot shower and the cold air hits you?" Tommy nodded slowly, his eyes focused on the ceiling. "It's a bit like that shock, but instead of cold, it's just... gone."
Tommy didn't say anything for a while, his eyes still on the ceiling. It was clear he was processing what I had just told him. Dying in a game wasn’t the same as dying in reality, but the line was blurred now. I guess I never thought about how video game characters felt as they died over and over, but I had a good feeling it was something similar to what I had experienced.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"You know what's crazy? You didn't talk about how painful it was at all."
Before I could register his response, Celine walked up to us and plopped onto the chair across from us. "Are we all prepared to go now?"
"Yeah, let's go," I nodded, getting to my feet.
Tommy followed suit, stretching out his arms and yawning loudly. "I'm so tired, I don't think I can drive right now. Luke, can you drive us in my car? It'll take us a bit to get there, so we can switch off if you're tired, too."
I saw Celine immediately pale before I even opened my mouth.
"Actually, have you ever dreamed of flying?"
----------------------------------------
In seconds, we were already standing in front of the tower after I flew the three of us there. It was my first time carrying more than one person, but it barely took any effort thanks to my stats. In fact, it made me curious on what the upper limit was that I could lift.
As we stopped to catch our breath, I couldn't fight off a smirk. Tommy had looked like a kid in a candy store, his eyes wide and full of amazement as the flight reenergized him while Celine had tried to keep her composure, a slight green tinge to her skin.
"All good, Celine?" I called out as we approached the tower, trying not to laugh at her wobbly legs.
She simply grunted back, which I took as a yes. Tommy, on the other hand, was grinning like a kid who had just experienced his first roller coaster ride. "Dude, that was sick! Can we do that again?"
"After we check out the forty-first floor," I told him, amusement in my voice.
The three of us headed to the blue checkpoint portal, instantaneously stepping onto the 40th Floor Safe Zone. The three of us paused for a moment, awestruck by the stark change.
In the previous three Safe Zones, each level had a medieval fantasy theme to it, the area growing larger and larger the higher the level was. So, it was expected that we'd be stepping into a larger version of the peaceful fantasy theme we had been accustomed to seeing. But what greeted us was something entirely different.
The Safe Zone was now a bustling metropolis, with skyscrapers that pierced the sky and neon lights that created a vivid, colorful tapestry against the dark backdrop. It was like a mix between cyberpunk and fantasy, and it was absolutely breathtaking. The air was filled with the faint buzz of hovering drones, the murmur of people speaking in various languages, and the occasional sound of floating advertisement screens.
"Holy shit." Tommy's voice was barely a whisper as he took in the view, his eyes wide with amazement. "I thought this was a fantasy game?"
So did I. Despite only having reached floor 30 in the virtual predecessor, I kind of figured it'd stay along the fantasy tropes. The tower was known to shift themes dramatically after every 10 floors, but at least it kept to the concept. Now, it felt like maybe the theme shifts weren't random, but chronological. As in, we were seeing the timeline of the tower unfold before our eyes.
"Hello, welcome to the fortieth floor Safe Zone," One of the two women dressed in the GPA's Incident Prevention uniforms said to us as we approached.
[Faction: Angel] [Faction: Prime Sapien]
"Hey..." I greeted back, taking note of the system message that popped up next to them. If the IP personnel found our neutrality strange, they didn't show it. Maybe Players who opted out of choosing factions weren't as uncommon as I thought.
As we stepped into the sleek paths of the cyberpunk city, a torrent of system windows popped up in my vision next to every Player I saw, depicting their faction choices. It turns out that while faction-less Players were definitely the smallest population, it wasn't nonexistent, which helped ease my guilt a bit. There were a great deal of Angel and Demon-aligned Players followed by Monsters, and finally Prime Sapien.
"Immor- Luquier, I understand your original goal was to explore the forty-first floor, but perhaps we could... take a moment?" Celine suggested, her eyes wide with wonder as she gazed upon the neon-lit skyscrapers that pierced the night sky.
"No, yeah, I'm okay with that..." I nodded, equally in awe of the tower's transformation. The air was thick with the smell of rain-soaked pavement and the faint scent of ozone from the neon lights flickering above. The change was so unexpected, I pretty much forgot the urgency in my plans.
"Okay, we'll meet at the floor entrance up ahead in like... let's say twenty minutes?" Tommy suggested, his eyes already darting to a nearby shop.
The two of them darted off before I could say anything, but I understood their excitement. I walked down the path that led to the floor's entrance, my eyes scanning the new environment. The tower's interior was a stark contrast to the gothic architecture of the lower levels, now replaced with gleaming chrome and colorful neon lights that reflected off the wet surfaces. Instead of the usual flags bearing guild emblems that waved through the air, floating screens advertised the organizations. The NPCs were dressed in a mix of futuristic garb and fantasy elements, creating a unique blend of styles.
I took my time, strolling through the area and taking in the futuristic vibe of the cityscape. The tower was always surprising me with its constant evolution. It was like walking into a different world every time we climbed higher. The sounds of the city were a mix of hushed whispers of the wind through the tower's corridors and the distant hum of machinery.
I kept an eye out to see if I could either spot or sense Lucinda's shop, but it didn't seem like I'd be encountering her this time. Maybe I hadn't done anything of note to require a visit from her. Or perhaps she was busy with something important.
I decided not to worry about it as I perused through the shops, picking up a few new clothing items to match the theme. I settled on a sleek black and neon blue ensemble, which was surprisingly comfortable and looked good on me. At least, I thought so. Sephera didn't agree.
After 20 minutes, I headed over to the end of the Safe Zone, where a couple groups of Players stood in front of the green portal to the 41st floor. Tommy and Celine soon joined up with me, their weariness zapped away by the atmosphere of the Safe Zone.
"Ready?" I asked, taking out my Soultaker.
"Yup. I get why you're so invested in this new world now, Luke," Tommy said, his eyes glinting with excitement. Celine nodded in agreement, looking a tad more nervous but equally eager.
We stepped into the portal and blinked a few times to adjust our eyes.
"Oh. That's cool."
The 41st floor kept the theme of the Safe Zone in mind, incorporating futuristic styles in what looked like a gothic setting. Castles with neon lights streaked across their ancient stones stood tall in the background, with hovering cars and airships flying around them. Buildings with spires and pointed arches carried neon holographic panes in place of stained glass, giving a stark contrast between the old and the new. The floor itself was a mix of cobblestone and metal, with blue lights emitting from the cracks.
[Honestly, I’ve seen better…]
I ignored Sephera and glanced around, taking in all the sights and sounds. The first thing we noticed was that several groups of Players had set up camp a few paces away from the portal, which was strange. On every floor thus far, I hadn't encountered a camp so soon, which gave me the feeling that the difficulty had spiked. A part of me was embarrassed to find out what type of mobs lurked on this floor.
"What the... why are there so many people near the portal entrance?" Tommy voiced our shared confusion as we approached the makeshift camp. The atmosphere was tense, with Players huddled around fires, their faces a mix of fear and wilting determination.
"Perhaps it is more of a stage hazard?" Celine suggested, glancing around. "Not even the strongest would be able to easily overcome a cloud of poison gas or the like."
We made our way past the thick of Players, reaching the edge of the camp and the entrance to the cyberpunk gothic city. An older Player noticed us approaching and tiredly got up.
"You guys are here for the first time, huh?" he asked, his voice gruff but not unkind. His eyes were dull, as if devoid of any hope. "I'd suggest turning around and coming back with a bigger group. Or at least, a Player with the Holy attribute- maybe even a couple from the Angel faction."
"Why? What's the deal with this floor?" Tommy asked, eyeing the man curiously.
"Goddamned bastards have the ability to siphon our stats from us. Thankfully it's only temporary, but they were already strong enough in their fantasy version," he replied, his voice weary. "But here, in this... cyber hell, they're practically untouchable."
"And who are 'they'?" Celine inquired, her gaze shifting around the camp warily.
"Blood-sucking fuckers who can use futuristic weapons and skills. It's like they're Players too, but half-machine, half-monster," the old man spat, his frustration palpable. "Simply put, they're-"
"Robot vampires," I breathed out, eager to fight against them.