Leiu kept browsing the website for random information, and apparently, the average level of the players was between 8 and 12.

Moreover, 'LobiSoft' announced that the total players of the game 'Hell Gate' has exceeded 20 Million, which was truly outrageous considering it launched less than a day ago.

Also, he read that all starting villages were the same. There were thousands of them, meant to reduce the bloat and facilitate the beginner experience.

As for the beginning quests, they were more or less the same, instead of Bees or Rabbits, there were Slimes, moving gigantic Flowers and so on, all of them were weak and easy to kill.

Furthermore, it was revealed that, after acquiring a class, players could freely teleport away from the Beginner Village and, officially enter the Weiji Continent and start their adventure.

For now, only four major cities were discovered, all of which were Human-controlled Cities.

The four cities, Black Mountain City, NetherFrost City, Rachdale, and the Imperial Capital, were all in the Noules Empire, a massive nation North of the continent. Leiu found this a bit strange as, in the character creation, Players could choose races besides 'Human'. Shouldn't there be cities, or settlements, that welcomed their respective races?

There were some unverified posts about two small cities, seemingly meant for Players that opted to follow so-called 'evil factions'.

Last but not least, Leiu checked the classes and any comments about them.

The more details he discovered about the classes the angrier and surprised he became. First, more than 80% of the class quests were easy. There was no quests like the one he was currently doing, which teleported him to a weird manor.

Paladins, Sorcerers, Bards, Monks, Berserkers... there was a ludicrous number of Classes, however, not all of them were equal. For instance, the Paladin and Sorcerer Classes were 'Epic', making them inherently stronger than Swordsmen, Fighters, and so on.

From the looks of it, the majority of the Players got offered basic classes such as Thief and Fighter. There were posts about Rare and Epic classes but, for Leiu, they all seemed made up. Indeed, it seemed that those lucky enough to get a good class were unwilling to freely post the requirements on the official website.

After one last look,Leiu wore a grey jacket with a hoodie, took his phone from the desk and exited his little apartment.

The road to his workplace was straight, and within ten minutes, he was already there. Leiu seemed was totally absentminded as he walked, his thoughts all about the game.

Leiu worked a night-shift, and the work wasn't particularly difficult. At most, he had to clean the dishes and serve what few customers came.

It seemed kind of odd the owner of the café, who was also the manager and his boss, refused to close the internet café. Technically, his workplace was divided into two floors, one was akin to a restaurant while the other was a combination of a computer room and a café. All in all, the place was cozy, clean, and calm, but with so few customers coming at the dead of the night, it was counter-productive to keep the place open 24/7. Still, as he got paid a lot, Leiu didn't openly reveal his opinion.

The good news was that, probably in a month or so, the Currency Exchange would begin, allowing him get money by playing Hell Gate. Basically put, Lobisoft would, officially, help players exchange their Gold for real money. Games like Hell Gate were notorious for having Gold Sellers, so, rather than letting them ran rampant, LobiSoft opted to that role and introduce the Currency Exchange.

..

Leiu entered the Happy Hour Café and saw young woman, whom he greeted. She was Hye Nari, the manager of this place and his boss. In response to his arrival, Nari nodded at him. She always had an angry expression, but Leiu knew that she was a kind person who had always treated him well and never yelled at him.

After changing into his work clothes, Leiu immediately started working. He had several colleagues, all of whom were friendly and liked gossip. Unfortunately, Leiu rarely talked to them, but not because he disliked them. They were wont to laze and joke around, which made Hye Nari reprimand them with curses. Even then, Hye Nari never actually fired any of them.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Hey, did you play 'Hell Gate'? I already reached Level 11!"

"Hahaha, I played too, I'm 12! Better than you, I also got a Rare Class!"

"What? You got a Rare class? You bastard, such fucking luck, all my choices were normal classes, I ended up choosing a warrior... what about you? What's your Rare class?"

Two of Leiu's colleagues were sitting on a corner and chatting about the game, prompting him to perk his ears and attentively listen.

The one who got the Rare Class crossed his arms and puffed his chest, acting proud.

"Hehehe, I'm a Summoner!"

"Tch! I heard that it's useless..."

"What do you know? I can already summon a bird!"

"Hahaha, A bird you say? Hahaha"

..

Leiu was busy washing the dishes when someone called out for him.

"Hello Leiu!"

It was one of his colleagues, a girl named Jane. She was a sweet person that would occasionally talk to him despite his constant reluctance to socialize.

"Hey"

Leiu replied to her then turned around, resuming his work. He didn't come here to make friends, nor to flirt or find a girlfriend.

He thought that, since a long time ago, he showed enough unwillingness to talk to anyone, which was why almost everyone left him alone. However, Jane kept talking to him, which, at first, made him suspect that maybe she had a crush on him? Considering his average appearance and gloomy attitude, that was unlikely so he dismissed that thought very quickly. Still, Leiu dense, so he guessed that Jane simply wanted to befriend him.

Seeing him keep silent, Jane blinked her eyes and kept smiling.

"Did you play 'Hell Gate'? What Level are you? Did you get a Rare class?"

Albeit finding troublesome, Leiu didn't ignore her.

"I did play. I'm still low-leveled."

Leiu opted to lie for one reason; He didn't want her to ask him to play together.

"Oh... as for me, I played with my friends." She paused for a couple of breaths before asking, "Do you want to join us later? We can help each other."

Although she said 'helping each other', she obviously meant helping him, or more precisely, 'carrying him'.

"No need, I prefer playing solo."

Jane's shoulder dropped a bit, and while looking a bit dejected, she said,

"t's no fun playing alone, come on! Join us."

Despite seeing her reaction, Leiu kept a calm attitude and replied to her.

"No need, I prefer playing solo."

He repeated the same thing while his back was facing her. Seeing this, Jane didn't insist any further. She sighed and walked away.

The night passed peacefully, and at 6:30 AM, Leiu hurried back to his apartment and immediately went to sleep.

...

"Ah!"

Leiu, who had barely slept for 4 hours, snapped awake. His body was shivering and sweating, and his hands were trembling. He recalled the nightmare he had just had. It lacked any details, but it felt frighteningly vivid. He was stuck in a perpetual and cold darkness, which growled eerily like a hungry beast. He felt as if he was stuck there for an eternity.

To shake his mind off that scare, he took a shower and then got ready to enter the game.