Alex almost instantly falls asleep upon entering his tent. Despite holding back yesterday, he still easily managed a full day’s work, trekking through dense forest, climbing into the mountains, and mining for days straight.
Suddenly, a sharp pain flares in his left wrist, as if someone just drove a knife into it. He jolts awake but sees and hears nothing. Just as he’s about to close his eyes again, he senses someone opening his tent from outside and hears faint whispers.
In an instant, Alex conjures Mustrano’s Malice Mauler lvl 3. Looks like his new ally is keeping his word this time, actually giving him a warning. Alex feigns sleep, hiding the massive claw within his sleeping bag. As the tent flap opens, a man rushes inside, attempting to stab him with something. Alex’s claw blocks the attack, without even losing a single point of durability. Instantly, he discards any thoughts of “handling this without force” and unleashes Mustrano’s ability, Toxic Breakthrough lvl 3.
His claw tears through the man’s chest, despite some resistance from a hidden layer of armor.
You have dealt 42 damage to Player 19
You have poisoned Player 19
You have caused bleeding to Player 19
“AAAAAAHH! HELP!” the man screams, stumbling back as he desperately tries to escape.
Alex leaps out of his tent, eyes locking onto the other players surrounding it, weapons drawn. He closes the distance to one of them, driving his claw into the player’s abdomen before slashing his exposed neck, nearly severing it.
You have dealt 51 damage to Player 8
You have dealt 56 x 3 = 168 damage to Player 8
You have killed Player 8
Before the last player can flee, Alex lunges at him, dragging him down. He drives his claw into the player’s face, punching it so hard his cheekbones crack, then stabs him in the chest as he raises his arms to shield his broken face—finishing him off.
You have dealt 27 damage to Player 8
You have dealt 45 damage to Player 8
You have killed Player 8
Alex notices the first man moving slower, leaving a trail of blood as he collapses. From his notifications, Alex gathers that the poison and bleeding effects have finally taken their toll.
You have killed Player 19
As his attackers lie dead, other players emerge from their tents, weapons at the ready, but it's already over. Alex glances around and catches sight of the villagers chuckling among themselves. They look at Alex, drag the bodies into a designated building, then retreat back to their huts.
“Show’s over, huh?” Alex mutters. “Looks like they never intended to uphold any real law in this village. As long as we’re not too blatant about our intentions, they don’t seem to care.”
To Alex’s utter surprise, and cringe, he hears a woman scream, “How dare you kill them?! This is all your fault! If you’d gathered more items for us, none of this would have happened!” This woman, along with the men from earlier, is part of the group of players who lost their internal “gamble” and chose to risk it all by venturing outside yesterday. They never returned, and Alex had assumed they were dead… but evidently, some survived.
The woman then goes completely berserk, pulling something from her inventory. Alex can’t make it out clearly, but he catches the glint of moonlight reflecting off metal. "A gun?" he thinks, not taking any chances. He draws his own [Mr. 5’s .44 Caliber 6-Shot Revolver], aims, and fires two bullets into her.
You have dealt 31 damage to Player 16
[Mr. 5’s .44 Caliber 6-Shot Revolver] effect activates: Explosive ammunition!
You have dealt 24 damage to Player 16
You have dealt 25 damage to Player 16
You have killed Player 16
Scanning his surroundings, Alex sees no one else attacking him. He approaches the woman’s body and realizes she wasn’t holding a gun after all, it’s a [Kunai] from Naruto. He’s unsure what to feel but knows she was involved in the attempt on his life. Moving to where the other players fell, he collects four bloody chests, including the [Kunai].
“Looks like the villagers swiped the corpses and their weapons but at least left the chests for me. This is insane, this isn’t even supposed to be a PvP world, yet here I am with nine chests already, and over a dozen others dead. The Realm is indeed cruel and unforgiving!” he tells himself.
“Under these circumstances… how does the Realm’s population even increase? All I see are bodies piling up around me. Maybe the last two missions were just a stroke of bad luck, an exception…” he wonders.
Taking a look around, he notices that while not everyone who went out yesterday returned, a few of them barely managed to make it back. Only the three men and this woman seemed involved in the plot to ambush him, so he has no reason to target the others.
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Alex inspects the [Kunai] he just acquired.
[Kunai]
World: Naruto
Quality: White
Type: Kunai
Required Stats: AGI - 5, SNS - 5
Durability: 15/15
Damage: 6-6
Note: There are more Kunai than humans in the world of Naruto!
“How basic,” he mutters, with no intention of using it.
He looks to the sky and sees the sun beginning to rise. “Guess I don’t need to go back to sleep!” He quickly packs up his tent, then settles down on a blanket to watch the dawn. Using this quiet moment, he reviews his status, mentally noting everything he’s gained over the past few days. He decides to separate his Miscellaneous Items from his Recovery Items, keeping a close tab on the latter; he can’t afford to run low on essentials. Although he constantly finds and buys new items, every battle drains his resources further.
Alex Kerber: Lvl 3
HP: 220/220, MP: 180/180
STR: 12 (+3), AGI: 12 (+3), PHY: 12 (+2), SNS: 12 (+2), CHA: 12 (+5), MNA: 12, INT: 12 SPR: 12 (+5), LUK: 12
Available Stat Points: 0
Innate Skills: Genius Conjurer lvl 3, Statistical OCD lvl MAX
Free Skill Slots: 0/3, Free Basic Skill Slots: 0/8
Basic skills: Basic Close Combat Prowess lvl 3, Basic Footwork lvl 3, Basic Endurance lvl 3, Basic Long-Range Combat Prowess lvl 3, Basic Eloquence lvl 3, Basic Concentration lvl 3, Basic Meditation lvl 3, Basic Mana Control lvl 3
Passive Skills: Pistol Proficiency lvl 3, Alexandrian Royal Swordsmanship lvl 3
Active Skills: Annihilation Grenade lvl 3, Sealion’s Icewing Embrace lvl 3, Black Magic (Fire-Blizzard-Thunder-Series) lvl 3, Sword Magic lvl 3, Mustrano’s Malice Mauler lvl 3 / Toxic Breakthrough lvl 3
Fantasy Coins: 187,000 Soul Crystals: Small x7 Tribaio Tokens: 0
Current Weapons: Mr. 5’s Revolver (Deep Blue), Sword of Pluto (Deep Blue)
Current Equipment: Commander Shepard’s Dog Tag (Deep Blue), Sealion’s Might (Deep Blue), Shield of Pluto (Deep Blue), Armor of Pluto (Blue), Visor of Pluto (Blue), Cuisses of Pluto (Blue), Gauntlets of Pluto (Blue), Sabatons of Pluto (Blue), Nimbus Cloak (Light Purple), Champion Belt (Blue), Cave Spider’s Essence Ring (Light Blue)
Recovery Items: Navalia Wolf Jerky x2 (Gray), Healing Potion x3 (White), Miso Ramen with Extra Pork (Green), Lurkwort x2 (Deep Green), Energy Bar x4 (Gray), EP Charge (Green), Lucky Miracle Clover (Deep Blue), Tribaio Village Healing Liquid (Green)
Miscellaneous Items: Jack’s Spare Silvery Mask (Light Green), Frost Essence (Green), Bloating Square Mushroom (Damaged) (White), Kunai (White)
Special Items: Pluto’s Ceremonial Blessing (Deep Purple), Baroque Works Invitation (Purple), Player Contract (Tereza Řezník), Destiny Supporter Token (Purple), 285th Hunter Exam Application (Gray), Navigators Ticket (Light Blue)
Alex feels a surge of satisfaction as he reflects on his growing inventory, his skills, and his steadily increasing stats. He’s reaching a point where ordinary humans don’t even pose a threat anymore.
If he had to reassess his Genius Conjurer innate skill, he’d now rate it as SSS. It started off nearly useless, but ever since acquiring the Annihilation Grenade, Sealion’s Icewing Embrace, and now Mustrano’s Malice Mauler, this ability feels almost unstoppable. He wonders if there’s a cap on how many conjurations he can access. The only limitation seems to be the MP cost. Alex intends to boost his MP pool even further, envisioning himself as nearly invincible. While he’s focused on physical items for now—anticipating plenty of physical tasks in this world, he plans to branch out into more magical items if circumstances remain stable. If he could gain a recovery conjuration, Alex feels he’d be virtually untouchable, as long as he has MP to spare.
At 10 AM, Alex observes eight players, including himself, holding their tickets. He earned six of them on his own; only Eirini and Patricia managed to make it independently, while Emma and her now small group, herself and four others, essentially bought their tickets.
He watches as the navigator arrives with a team of guards, who begin dragging the remaining players into a nearby building. “NOOOOOOOO, STOP! PLEASE STOP!” someone screams, while others seem either to have fled the village or resigned themselves to their fate. Alex notices many players who entered this world know each other, and a few now being dragged away look suspiciously “naked,” as if they’d traded away all their items to one of Emma’s remaining group members.
“I guess they’re still players. Gotta respect them for keeping their wits even in this situation,” Alex thinks, turning his head away, unwilling to see firsthand what grim fate awaits them.
The navigator finally steps forward. “Congratulationsss, playerssss! You made it. I do not care how you did it, you all earned the right to the exxxxam. Asssss you know, this year’sss exxxam isss in our beautiful Mimbo Republic. We will need to travel for a few daysss to reach the capital city where the exxxam will start.”
As the navigator speaks, another chilling scream echoes from the building where the villagers forced the players inside. “NOOOOOOOO, STOOOOP!”
Alex and the others glance downward, helpless to intervene.
“Don’t let our food sssssupply disssstract you,” the navigator sneers. “Hee Hee Hee, now follow me.”
Side Quest completed:
Mission: Gather in the village center with your Ticket at exactly 10 AM on January 4th
Reward: Safe passage to the Hunter Exam site