Jake sat down in front of the creepy woman and nervously fixed his jacket. "So, hello?" He tried to smile and appear confident, but the wriggling spider limbs were freaking him out.

The goddess smiled back, stretching her lips a tad too far. Just the tiniest bit too far. She locked her eyelids in place, so they wouldn't accidentally blink and just stared into the boy's eyes.

"The voice..." The human bit his tongue and massaged his throat. "The voice said we can ask questions. If I chose BB, can I be immortal?"

The spider suppressed its lips, from revealing its teeth. Without moving the tiniest bit, it opened a mouth behind the child's ear. "There will be a price to pay. One body, one soul. Consume and you will live."

Jake slowly paled and his body stiffened. Could he do that? Take another's soul to extend his life? Who knew what a horrible future these beings planned for Earth. He'd have to.

Finally, the goddess broke. Raising her head high, she cackled, forcing a couple of happy tears from her eyes. "I'm bullshitting you kid. We overcharged the fuck out of the formation sustaining the bonfires and lamps. You won't even run the risk of becoming mad from insight or turning into a beast from blood consumption. Some gods frown upon any magic messing with minds, so we found the easiest solution would be to give you all, immunity to that crap, at least at the mortal levels."

As the boy's face slowly lit up, the spider continued. "No protections for the trauma of dying repeatedly though. Hire a good psychiatrist if you want to follow this path." The creature gave a warm and cheerful smile, showing its teeth.

"I will go." Jake stopped himself from standing up and looked the creature in the eyes, before quickly switching his gaze towards the ground. "Is it alright if I go?"

"Remember to visit our offices in the villas, if you will have more questions! Have a cheerful apocalypse!!" The monster waved it's left appendages and focused on something far away.

The boy sat awkwardly for a bit and finally got up, bowing his head a couple of times. Except for a couple of people running out into the fields, the place was still empty. Jake scratched the back of his head and walked a couple of steps away from the desk.

With no goal in mind, he decided to check what was inside the villas and made his way towards the one to his right. The double door was marked with a bonfire and a gas-lamp. He reached his hand towards it, but stopped himself and looked back.

Some people began to materialise by the chairs. Some slowly walked away from them, other bumped into each other as new people were getting up. Jake stared at the scene for a while and finally turned back to the door. "It's only going to get weirder."

He had to lean his full weight on the door to open it, but with a screech, it slowly revealed a spacious lobby. The walls, of the simple room, were lined with sculptures of arachne stepping on broken corpses of Amygdalas.

"Petty." The human shrugged and shivered a little. Ahead of him, the stairs rose to a stained glass window, showing shadowy humans reach up towards a red sun. Beneath the sun, was a tiny, slit, red moon. The longer Jake looked at the scene, the more he felt something was looking at him from within it until red eyes opened all over its surface.

He swiftly looked away and instead walked deeper into the lobby, to see what was in the two corridors at the sides of the room.

Deep in the corridor on the left, stood a three-eyed statue of a muscular demon. On the right, stood a fat demon wielding a club. Neither being his goal, the boy strengthened his resolve and walked up the stairs, keeping to the rhythm of soft, otherworldly music coming from somewhere above.

Once he reached the first floor, Jake looked back. The stained glass was as he first saw it, the light behind, making some of the details blink as the clouds passed behind. A strained smile spread across his face and he turned forward. Right before him, stood a tall figure of a fully plated knight.

The human stepped back and tripped. Before he could fall down the stairs, the knight reached for him and caught his arm. "Sorry dude, I was a little lost reading my status and didn't notice someone else came." Rumbled... a kind voice of a young man.

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The armoured man made sure the teenager stood right and lifted the visor of his helmet. "I'm Russel, so, did the administrators come already?"

Russel had a rather average, bony face, thin lips and a light stubble, shining from the sweat he built up wearing the heavy suit of armour.

"Yeah, a soon as the message ended. They like came down from the sky as spiders, then turned into people." Jake shuddered and rubbed his arm. "They're like, really cree... I mean, they like to mess with people. At least the one I spoke with does."

A light chuckle spread throughout the room. The boy looked around nervously.

"Something wrong buddy?" The man bowed down, to get a better look at the shorter one's face.

"The chuckle, you didn't hear, man?" Jake looked around and took a couple of deep breathes. "Whatever. You've been here the entire time? Do you know if some BB related stuff is here?"

Russel continued looking the teen in the eyes for a couple more blinks and certain he was alright, straightened back. "Yeah, on the third floor, there are some closed offices on the left and some creepy beast sculptures on the right... if you like, look from the stairs."

"Thanks! See you later then!" Jake waved and swiftly turned and run up another flight of stairs, reaching their end on the second floor. "... where is the third floor?" The boy thought out loud and looked around. There were offices in a corridor the left and a werewolf-like beast next to a door on the right. "I guess he counts different?" The teenager shrugged and walked into the room on the right.

Inside was a small hill, lit by a non-existent source. Green hedges lined walkways leading towards a small church. Beyond the fence around the hill, instead of the humongous trunks he expected, Jake only saw a night-sky-like smoke.

To the left of him, slightly up the path, stood the doll, or a doll rather. The boy stared at it, wondering which part exactly was wrong. The face covered in red eyes? The eight arms? The white suit, instead of a dress? That it was standing before he even got any Insight?

"Hello, hunter. If you will decide to build your own settlement, I will help you create your own doll to offer the levelling services." The doll waved each of its arms in a different greeting. "For now, rejoice, for you are granted the honour of working with such a Great One as I."

"H-hello!" Jake stammered out and bowed. After a short pause, he straightened his back and Made Contact. Raising one hand high above his head, stretching the other to the side. After a couple of seconds, he turned his arms the other way.

"Such a strange greeting ritual. You can grab some weapon from the stairs and go get yourself some blood outside." The doll shrugged and sat down on the wall behind it, then pulled out a small book from a crack in the air and began reading.

"Oh, once you took a weapon from here, a lamp will appear downstairs. Touch it to register yourself into this system." The eldritch construct voiced out, without looking up.

"Thanks... you." The teen bowed towards the figure again and with nervous steps made his way towards the stairs. Small, disfigured people stretched out of white, smoky stains on the ground, showing him a selection of weapons. He stopped his hand just over the cane and with resignation grabbed the axe. "I can pick up some cool stuff after I learned to fight at all."

He looked over to the other puddle and waved his head. "I will find the flamethrower... but it'd be nice to have choices, so maybe..." He grabbed the pistol and with not a little trepidation, patted the tiny people on the heads. They made surprised, but happy noises and waved their arms above their heads. The boy straightened up and tried to Make Contact again. The creatures happily responded with the same. 

With a smile on his face, Jake left the room and run down the stairs. At the ground floor, he found Russel standing over the lamp, the warm light of a bonfire reflecting from the man's armour.

"Hey, man!! So, I've got a question." The boy slapped the lamp and a familiar status screen spread before his eyes. His stats seemed to fit a Noble Scion, fitting for a teenager leading a cosy life.

"Alright, answer one for me first though." The armoured man waved away something covering his sight and focused on the teen before him. "What's your name?"

"I totally didn't introduce myself!! Sorry 'bout that. I'm Jake." The kid waved away his screen and smiled at Russel. "So, what were the shrine maidens like? The doll was replaced by some employee of the spiders outside or something."

Russel smiled back and nodded to himself. "They were simple sculptures but looked just like in the games. They spoke without opening their mouths, it seems I will be able to get my own golem if I make an Outpost down on Earth."

"That's way less cree... unusual than the doll. Did you get your armour in the DS rooms?" Jake walked around the lamp, towards the door. "Want to get the first few levels together?"

"No, my parents collect medieval stuff. They bought me a set when I began doing HEMA, they overspent, so it'd be as authentic as possible... I guess that's quite good, all things considered." The man followed after the teen. "And sure, I'd rather not find out if we respawn for a while longer."

"We totally do..." The boy paused to pull on the doors. "... the administrator told me, but also warned I should get a psychiatrist if I want to make it through."

Russel grabbed the handle on the other wing of the door and the two opened it together. They were greeted by a mass of people milling around and squeezing every which away. Some of the humanoid spiders, pushed through the crowd, carrying children that made it into the tutorial without their parents. The kids seemed to be asleep, snuggly bound in webs.

One of the spiders walked between the men, carrying eight kids above its head. It paused and turned around. "Would you like to take up babysitting duty in exchange for small improvements to your Outposts?" Its voice came directly from the minds of the humans, sounding like a whisper of a mountain stream.