Mike started madly cultivating after he had respawned after the suicide mission. Using every moment he had to advance his body, using the tough core on his bones, and the somewhat elastic one on his muscles, forging himself into a living tank.

When he had spent just over a day cultivating, he got an offer he had always wanted, he was given the opportunity to join one of Main City 1's best teams. His younger self was madly celebrating inside of him, he had reached the major leagues.

Almost on the spot, he agreed to the proposition. The team was one of the most powerful groups, and it was intended to act as a forward team clearing the most powerful monster outside of the zone circle.

Their target was the forest right next to the lake zone. As it was one of the only areas where there was allegedly a big area already cleared of monsters, the perfect place to set up a forward camp.

There were countless other groups doing the same from different points around the zones limits. But as they were one of the strongest, they were placed into a place where they could get as far as possible into the unknown, exploring new areas.

Mike immediately headed there using the teleporter for a small fee. Where he quickly met up with his new team. And after exchanging a couple of words they headed for the forest everyone eager to see what it would be like.

The first few days they spend just exploring the areas surrounding the lake city, as the city next to the lake zone, came to be known as. They were slowly getting used to battling different kinds of monsters and honing their teamwork abilities, slowly but surely increasing their expertise.

However, they would spend only a small part of the day hunting, as most of everyone's time was directed towards fast advancement, putting the abundant mana the forest offered to great use. While they camped in the area that had been mysteriously cleared, as they had set up a base camp of sorts there.

It was one of the great mysteries of the lake city. There were stories of how anyone who explored the forest would die before they would even know what hit them, but just one day, it had stopped. No one knew what had happened.

One day someone had ignored the warnings and still went to explore the area only to notice that there was nothing dangerous there, only some small critters.

There, of course, were many who claimed that they had killed the creature, but not many people believed them, as they couldn't actually prove any of it, and most of them were extremely weak to top it off.

So people just gladly accepted the fact that they had access to much more resources.

A couple of days later, they were starting to form a routine. Each day they would choose one direction, and they would explore towards it, killing all the monsters they ran into, and they noticed that their team form was actually getting pretty good.

Mike would hold off the monster to the best of his abilities, acting as a tank, and the other would dart in, dealing devastating blows to their opponents. Their tactics were crude but extremely effective as the four others would make short work of the areas they thought would be vital to each monster, crippling them.

Their continuous cultivation was also starting to show its value.

Every single one of them had their cores and awakened some parts of their bodies, but only some of them had awakened their minds. It seemed to be one of the most difficult ones for humans to awaken. The wall demanded them to guide mana into it and break it. It was a strange new practice for everyone, something no one had experienced before, feeling the connection the mana had to you and slowly persuading it to move into your head and destroy a wall that felt impenetrable.

The guides helpfully explained that it was quite rare to be able to use just an awakened core to break the wall, as it needed very good control over mana and the will had to be sharpened, pushing at the wall from the other side.

But still, their group was one of the strongest,

Their group was affiliated with the USA faction, but truly only one of them belonged to it, the other three were quite mysterious to him. They spend most of their time together, and he had spotted on multiple occasions someone observing his cultivation. Two of them were like Mike and had already fully reached awakened real in all aspects, and apparently, the last one wasn't that far off either.

But the group of three was strong. And Mike was almost sure that he had seen them somewhere, but he couldn't place them anywhere, and even more importantly, their skills with the weapons were leagues above him. They were true pros, and he was very curious about where the USA faction had found them, and more importantly, hired them to act as their soldiers.

However, he didn't have that much time to get to know them, as mostly everyone quietly cultivated. And when they headed to hunt, they had to stay quiet, and only used hand signals.

But what Mike enjoyed the most about their exploration was the fact that they were earning ridiculous amounts of credits. They were paid handsomely for each and every cultivation spot they cleared of monsters, allowing people to go there to cultivate, increasing the USA faction's influence by positively influencing everyone's lives.

And top it all off, they were earning cores at ridiculous speed, and every single one of them could choose carefully what kind of core they would like to use to advance their bodies.

Finally, after days of fighting the monsters near the zones limits fine-tuning their cooperation, and getting used to their newfound powers, they were finally confident enough to head toward the deeper parts of the forest.

Everything seemed normal at first as they headed deeper into the forest. No one of them suddenly died or lost consciousness. No, it looked just like the other parts they had explored near the zones edge.

However, they soon got the feeling that something was off. They had walked for half an hour without running into any enemies. This was the first time this had happened after they had entered the forest, usually, there were multiple monsters trying to gain control over every area that were all too happy to give the human-shaped invaders a warm welcome by attacking them.

But here, there were no signs of life, almost as if this area had also been already cleared.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Mike was in the lead as their tank. He signed for the other to be on high alert, as he was starting to have a bad feeling about this. He felt a gaze burrowed into his neck, but he just thought that it was someone from his team looking at him, not daring to turn around, trusting that the others were doing their part and surveying their surroundings.

His uneasiness continued to rise, and just as he was going to suggest that they went back, the wolves descended on them. In their first attack, they took the USA presentive out. He had been holding them back a bit separated from the main group, and this small distance between them proved to be fatal.

The wolves tried to do the same to Mike as he was holding the front cutting him off from the main group, and attacking him. But he was made out of tougher material.

He started madly fighting the two wolves that had chosen him as their next meal. He could see how ten wolves were slowly closing on the main group, circling around them, stopping them from helping Mike.

As he fought, he soon realized that they wouldn't be able to do anything without working together. Of the mysterious three, one was using a bow and two other swords in light-leather armor that was no match for the wolves' claws.

He had seconds to decide what he would do, he could just escape, the two wolves were only stopping him from moving toward the surrounded three. However, absolutely nothing was stopping him from escaping alive, cutting their losses.

But it just didn't feel right.

"Well, at least I can test my limits..." Mike thought before he let out a battle cry and went berserk.

He put his shield in front of him and rushed forwards, not caring that the wolves were right in front of him, pushing through them while madly swinging his hammer, abandoning all technique for raw power.

He broke through the wolf circle, re-joining his party, but his arrival acted as a signal of sorts as all the wolves chose that exact moment to attack.

Mike did his best to draw as much attention to himself as possible, as he was the only one who could take more than just one attack. He immediately jumped in the middle of the wolves, ignoring self-defense, and his shied turned into a weapon, as he attacked everything that moved.

The last recollection he had, was that he was in the middle of six wolves. He could feel how there was at least one bitting at his leg, but he did his best to ignore it while continuing swinging his hammer and shield, making sure that the wolves hurt just as much as him.

As he felt that his body was about to fall apart he used his core, releasing his nature mana recklessly through his body without any control, allowing it to do its thing freely. It started to re-growing his skin and closing his wound, stopping him from bleeding out, keeping him going just a bit longer, pushing through the pain.

But there was a limit to how much a mad determination could achieve.

One of the wolves jumped at him and bit at his arm, leveraging it and bringing him down. Mike knew that this was it for him, he was utterly spent, as he fell down, he brought his shield over his head and neck hoping for the best. Then there was only darkness.

However, the wolves couldn't deliver the finishing blow. The other three had gotten their shit together, and they had finally beaten the other six wolves.

Arrows started raining on the wolves on top of Mike, and two of them charged at the wolves, forcing them to divide their attention from riping into the annoyingly elastic flesh of their hated foe, who had caused far too many problems for them.

Mike woke up to the feeling of a bottle on his lips, and he felt a sweet refreshing feeling rolling down his throat, one that he could recognize anywhere, a healing potion.

He was in the middle of a makeshift camp. There were countless dead wolves around them, and he could only see two other people still alive and walking.

They were looking at him in a completely different way than before, there wasn't only a vague curiosity behind their gazes. No, they were looking at him like they had met a like-minded soul, another mad adventurer.

As they sat in the middle of the carnage, completely spent, they started freely talking for the first time after they had formed the team.

The battle had done something that no natural conversation could ever achieve, they had seen each other true selves, what they were at the very core of their being, how they would act in a deadly crisis, where the only options were either to die or run away.

While they talked, Mike learned that they were pro players from the other VR games, and apparently, they had their own small faction of sorts. Mostly just a group of friends who had competed against each other in other VR games that had decided for once to work together, as the competition was on a wholly different level in the Secverse, bringing their considerable expertise together.

They even offered Mike a position to join them. And he couldn't say that he wasn't interested. To be able to play with the best player humanity had produced sounded just too good to be real. However, he quite enjoyed his free agent position, he could work for everyone and gain access to their resources if they wanted to hire him. So he told them that he was really interested, but he still needed time to think about it.

Afterward, they went back to the Lake City to rejoin with their team and sell their spoils of war.

They headed straight toward the trader, determined to find out how profitable their brush with death had been.

However, the moment Mike stepped into the store, he was separated from the others. And an unpleasant surprise waited for him, Asil Stein stood there waiting for him.

Mike shortly contemplated running out, knowing that being anywhere near this man, one's chances of living a long and happy life plummeted.

But before he could decide, Stein started to speak.

"So Mike, what do you think of your team?" All the warning lights were going off inside of his head. Was he truly already in the middle of some new mess?

"Have they invited you into something, a group, maybe?" Stein continued.

Mike hated every second of this. He regretted the fact that he had spotted this man and hadn't immediately run away.

But, before he could come up with an answer, their one-sided conversation was interrupted by a notification.

"The Olen's Have claimed the first neutral control point."

"Area controlled Humanity 3 % Olen 7%"

Stein froze for a few seconds, his face having a first facial expression that Mike thought might not have been carefully honed to foster his agenda.

The carefully crafted smile that told to everyone it landed on that you might as well give up as there is nothing you can do, your fate was sealed the moment I saw you, twisted as Stein furrowed his brows for a split second before the mask was once again back on.

Mike had to acknowledge to himself, that he might have driven the metaphor too far, but he couldn't help it, the man just made him uneasy.

To his relief, Stein quickly said. Let's continue this talk later." And quickly, rushed out of the ship.

Mike heaved a deep sigh, having just temporarily escaped, something he was sure he wouldn't like. He quickly exited the town heading for their camp inside of the forest, not wanting to risk running into Stein again.

While he walked, he started to reevaluate his priorities, just maybe being a free agent wasn't a good idea when he was being circled by sharks that smelt blood, every one of them wanting something out of him.

Just an hour later, Stein initiated a general exploration reward system, every person would be generously rewarded for each monster they killed. Also, he started mass recruitment to the USA faction, offering the best available cultivation opportunities, and all of their groups were to start pushing toward the deeper areas of the forest, not caring about human lives, trading them for expansion.

Then he threatened that people could only spend half an hour in any city or be banished. And spending time inside of the zones was only allowed to be spent cultivating. Of course, enforcing that would be almost impossible.

But the message was clear, humanity needed to do something to speed up their development. And Stein was going to do it, not caring about the public option about him, determined to achieve his goal.

Mike had to acknowledge that Stein might be just what humanity needed to win this war. However, even if he respected the decision, he could not bring himself to agree with it. The pain everyone felt while dying was all too real. Then there was the pesky little matter of free will, even if you could say that each person could choose if they would go and explore the surroundings or not play the game, but in reality, that wasn't a decision at all, there were not many people who could give it up once they had gotten a taste of what all was possible.