Forums, as soon as that thought crossed my mind, a window opened in front of me.

[ Floor 1 Access Room ]

[ Forums - Easy 473/473, Normal 107/107, Hard 416/416, Nightmare 4/4 ]

Four in Nightmare means that there are a total of 1000 people here. Suddenly everything seems way different; if there were only four of us, it would fit the standard cliche of a training arc. Then, some powerful entity would appear, give us some super important mission, and then teleport us to a new world.

But with so many people here, that possibility seems unlikely. I refocused on reading the forums and thought about Hard difficulty; the option opened into a chat, like opening a new tab on a computer.

[Hard Difficulty - 416/416 ]

Rank ??? - What is this place? Has anyone found what we are supposed to do?

Rank ??? - What is this 1 week time for?

Rank ??? - I am Trippin. This is some weird shit.

Sheena - I figured out how to display my name.

The forum was a complete mess; most people were complaining, with some helpful info mixed in. The other forums were in the same situation.

"Everyone look at the Starter Guide in the forums; it's quite helpful," Andrew spoke up while still distracted by something on his screen.

I started reading the guide, and there wasn't much to read. Apparently, we will get 1 year to clear Floor 1 and then the 2nd Round will start. There is no mention of what will happen if we don't clear the first floor.

We will get to choose weapons at the start of Round 1. There will be a Teleport Gate to get to floor 1, and we will have limited hours to spend in the Access Room once Round 1 starts.

That is all that is related to what we are supposed to do. There was other information related to Access Room and Attribute Points, which was in many ways similar to games.

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The Access room is basically a safe area where you cannot attack anyone, and I wouldn't test it anyway. Attribute points worked a little different for example, someone with 4 Strength was twice as strong as someone with 3 Strength. This means it wasn't a linear progression, and every point mattered a lot more.

With that said, I pulled up my Character Sheet, which in my opinion, was very basic.

Name - Aron

Strength - 1

Dexterity - 1

Constitution - 1

Mana Capacity - 1

Mana Control - 1

Mana Regeneration - 1

Skills - None

Attribute Points available - 10

Either I was the most average person alive, or everyone started with 1 in all attributes. There wasn't much to look at; the Starter Guide explained what all the attributes did. It was also advised to focus on physical stats first.

I planned to put 1 Point in all of them to feel the difference and go from there, so I started my experiment by adding 1 Point to Strength.

My muscles tightened like the size of my body was not enough; it felt like the first day after going to the gym after a long time. The feeling passed after a while. After throwing some punches and kicks, I was sure I had more Strength than a heavyweight boxer. My elbow joint was starting to hurt, so I moved on to Dexterity.

It took me more than an hour to figure out what effect every attribute had. Dexterity took away any stiffness I felt by adding Strength; Constitution was a bit harder to figure out, it increased the toughness. My skin and bones felt more sturdy, and I am sure my weight increased enough for me to feel the difference.

Mana is tricky; I can almost feel it in the air like a breeze travelling along my skin. I am unsure if it's the Mana Control or Mana Capacity that allowed me to almost sense it.

After some deliberation, I put 2 points into Dexterity and 1 in both Strength and Constitution. I wanted mobility at this point, and I felt that more Constitution wouldn't help me. If I had put 5 points into both, I would be confident to take damage and not worry about speed.

I felt stronger than I have ever felt in my life. I could punch through a solid wall and not feel a thing, the level of control I felt over my body was unreal.

After a few hours, things started to calm down in the forums. Everyone had read the Starter Guide at this point, and there was a lot of speculation about why we were here and who was it that teleported us here.

Everyone started with 1 attribute for everything and got 10 points to spend. I was hoping it was lower for lower difficulties, which means we didn't get anything extra for Nightmare difficulty.

Ethan put his points in Strength and Constitution equally, which means he had a lot of power and durability, but his movements were very awkward. He looked more jacked than the bodybuilders on earth.

Debra did what I did and put 1 point into every attribute, but she put the last 4 points into Dexterity. She was very nimble and was doing acrobatics without any prior training.

Andrew increased his Strength, Dexterity & Mana Control by 3 and Constitution by 1. He has the most Mana Control out of all of us, but he still couldn't do anything with Mana. He felt as though he could move Mana around inside his body, but it didn't do anything.

There wasn't anything to do other than using forums. Days slowly passed with us doing some light sparring out of boredom. Things in other difficulties were a bit different.

Many people were arguing, and it was inevitable that some arguments accelerated into a fight, but all the people involved were paralyzed for hours. Things eventually calmed down, and finally, it was time for Round 1 to start.

A door appeared in the room with a black swirling void in the centre of the frame; it hovered in mid-air a few inches above the ground. I was nervous but excited at the same time, and It was finally time to start.

[ Attempt 1, Day 0, 00:00 ]

[ Access Room Time Available 72 Hours ]