“Okay, let’s get to hunting [Giant Green Slimes],” I thought aloud. Getting the attention of a bunch of Green Slimes, I watched as they merged into one giant slime. As it bounced closer to me, I readied my brand-new greatsword. Once it was close enough, I swung the sword, which easily cleaved through the large monster’s gelatinous body and sent a jolt of yellow lightning coursing through it.
It jiggled and took a bounce backwards, as if retreating. But before it could, I dashed forwards and attacked it again. Just like the first time, my greatsword cut a swathe through its body, lightning shocking it afterwards. With one more attack, it exploded like a water balloon, the scattered bits of slime turning into red particles.
[You have obtained [Vial of Acidic Goo]]
[You have leveled up]
“Guess I need to figure out what stat I’m increasing now,” I mutter. After thinking long and hard about it, I decided to put all 5 stat points into Int. This raised my Int up to 15, which in turn increased my MP to 75, my Magic Attack Power to 75, and my Magic Defense to 75. “Good, that’ll help increase the lightning damage my greatsword does.”
But before I could think too much more on the topic, another giant slime started bouncing towards me. I charged straight at it, my sword carving an arc through the air. The blade of the greatsword impacted the slime’s body, cutting deep into it. However, this time, I must’ve struck something important, because the slime took critical damage. Then the lightning jolted it, doing even more damage. Even though it wasn’t dead, it was close to it.
“Let’s finish this,” I said. I stabbed it with the tip of my sword, which was enough to finish it off. It vanished into red particles, leaving behind only another vial of slime. “Alright, just gotta kill three more of these suckers to complete my Quest. Then, I think I’m gonna take a break from playing.”
Looking around, I spotted another Giant Green Slime not far away. Running at it, I slashed it with my greatsword. It jiggled and quivered, its body shaking from the impact. Bouncing into the air, I watched as the monster came hurtling down like a meteor. Chuckling to myself, I simply pointed the blade of my sword up. The slime then landed directly on the blade, impaling itself. Pulling my sword free, I slashed it one more time, killing it.
“Awesome. Now just two to go,” I said. I was able to quickly locate and kill two more giant slimes. Then, I decided to logout and rest some before going to work. “Huh? Why isn’t the logout button working?”
I tried pressing it a few more times, but it still wasn’t doing anything. Frustrated, I slammed my fist through the holographic screen. Taking a breath, I decided to look through the dev notifications to see if I missed something. But even after doing that, I still couldn’t find any reason for the logout button to not be working. And at that same moment, a message popped up in front me.
[Good evening, Players!]
[I’d like to start out by saying thank you to all of you for purchasing my game!]
[However, there’s a much more important topic to discuss: the logout button.]
[As I’m sure many of you have already noticed, the logout button isn’t working.]
[This isn’t a bug or flaw in the game, it’s working perfectly as intended.]
[You see, I got permission from the governments of each country this game was sold in to purposefully trap all of the Players inside for an indeterminable amount of time, and the only way to escape is by defeating the game’s final boss.]
[Now, I would like to specify that none of you are in any actual danger, as you will respawn as normal when killed, and medical supervision is already being deployed to the homes of every Player.]
[My reason for doing this is twofold, with the first reason being for mine and society’s benefit, and the other reason being for your own benefits.]
[Reason one, is that this is a giant social experiment, to see if countless Players with no relation to each other can band together and work to escape the virtual prison they’re currently trapped in.]
[Reason two, is to find the best gamers in the world, and to that point, you will all be ranked using a variety of categories.]
[And to incentivize the ranking aspect, the top thousand Players will all receive rewards proportional to their rank.]
[However, I will not specify what those rewards will be.]
[Good day and good luck!]
But TowerQuest Online has already been out for a month. Why is this so-called “social experiment” only just now being enacted? I thought. But I knew I’d never be able to figure out the answer, so I decided to focus on something else. Escaping from this game-turned-prison.
“Hey, newbie. Good to see you again,” a slightly familiar voice said. Turning around, I saw the gun-toting blonde woman I had met before. “That message was pretty wild, huh?”
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“Uh, yeah, it was. I hope we can all escape,” I replied. She nodded in agreement.
“My ID is GamerCutie. What’s yours?” She asked.
“My ID is Cain. It’s nice to meet you,” I answered.
“Nice to meet you as well, Cain,” GamerCutie replied. “And you can just call me Gam for short.”
“Alright, I’ll do that then,” I agreed.
“Cool. So, how long have you been playing TQO?” Gam asked.
“Today’s my first day playing,” I answered. “How about you?”
“I’ve been playing since open beta, so I already know the game pretty well,” she replied. “However, as far as I know, none of the beta testers or people who played it during the open beta made it even close to reaching the final boss.”
“Dang. How far did you make it?”
“I was able to enter the Tower, but I only made it to Floor 5 in the Tower, even though I was Level 112 at the time. And the final boss is said to be on the top floor of the Tower.”
“Wow. How many floors does the Tower have?”
“No one knows. But each floor is supposed to have its own floor boss, and floor bosses are stronger than most of the bosses found outside the Tower. It was Floor 5’s floor boss that kept from beating the floor.”
“What was Floor 5’s floor boss?”
“An [Earth Golem] with high HP and Physical Defense, but it also had higher Physical Attack Power than golems typically do.”
“That does sound annoying, but did it have some kind of gimmick or something?”
“It was able to create earthquake-like shockwaves that put everyone caught in them under a Stun status effect. It could also shoot rocks as a ranged attack.”
“I see. That does seem somewhat difficult.”
“Well, I was fighting by myself and couldn’t do enough damage to kill it by myself.”
“Ah, got it. Anyway, I need to turn my Quest in to Farmer James.” I then started walking back to town.
“Wait! Here, let me send you a friend request,” Gam said. I then received a notification for her friend request. I accepted it, happy to have a new friend in this prison. “See you around, newbie.”
Gam then began walking in the direction of the forest. Turning to the face the village, I headed towards Farmer James. Once I met up with him, a wide smile stretched across his face.
“Greetings, Adventurer Cain! Thank you so much for clearing my field of those [Giant Green Slimes],” he said. “Take this as small token of my appreciation.”
He handed me a small sack of gold coins. Then, he tipped his straw hat to me before walking away. Watching, I saw that he was headed in the direction of his wheat field. Curious, I walked up next to him.
“What’re you doing now?” I asked.
“I’m heading back to my field. Now that the monsters aren’t threatening me, I can start working again,” he explained. “However, it’s a large field, so if you could help me plow and sow it, that’d be most kind of you.”
[Farmer James has requested your help in tending his wheat field.]
[Plow 0/10 plots]
[Sow 0/10 plots]
[Rewards: 200 gold, +Relationship with Farmer James]
[Failure Penalty: -Relationship with Farmer James]
[Accept? Y/N]
“Sure, I guess. Why not?” I said with a shrug.
“Thank you! Just follow me and we’ll get to work,” James said, gesturing for me to follow. We walked to his wheat field where he handed me a hand plow. “Watch me, and then do your best to do the same to those plots over there.”
“Alright, I’ll try my best,” I replied. He nodded in approval before getting to work. I watched as he plowed one of the plots. Once he was finished, I began plowing the 10 plots he had asked me to work on. It was hard work and unlike anything I’d done behind in real life or in the game. After I finished plowing all 10 of the plots of land, I received a system message.
[You have surpassed your physical limits]
[Your Str stat has been permanently raised by 5]
“Oh, wow, I wasn’t expecting to get something like this,” I thought aloud. “So, if I just continuously surpass my limits, I can just continue to permanently raise my stats without leveling up, new Items, or new Skills? That’ll be helpful in the future, I’m sure.”
I then got to walk planting seeds in the plots I had just plowed. It didn’t take too long and was much easier than plowing. However, because it was easier, I didn’t get any bonus stat increases. Shrugging my shoulders, I walked over to James.
“I’ve finished plowing and sowing the plots,” I told him.
“Oh, thank you so much, Cain! I really appreciate your assistance!” He said, handing me a small bag of gold like before. Once again, he tipped his hat, then got back to work. Turning away, I decided it was time to hunt the Wild Boars needed for my pet shop Quest. Which meant I needed to return to the forest. However, as soon as I crossed the tree line and entered the forest, I received a message.
[Warning! The [Forest Guardian] is watching you. It will begin hunting you if you remain in the forest for longer than 5 minutes]
Gulping, I tightened my grip on my greatsword. However, I wouldn’t let that deter me from my goal. I began searching through the forest, trying to find a Wild Boar to hunt. After a couple minutes, I finally found one.
“Here, piggy piggy. I’m not gonna hurt you, I just need your meat,” I said, trying to lure it over to me. Unfortunately, my plan didn’t work. Instead of walking over to me, the massive boar pawed at the ground and began charging towards me. Leaping to the side, I barely avoided being speared by one of its giant tusks.
Standing back up, I swung my sword. The blade collided with the monster’s thick hide, but was deflected off, not doing much damage. A jolt of electricity then zapped the boar, causing a small amount of steam to curl off of it. Snorting, it lunges forward, once again trying to slam into me.
I sidestepped the lunge and brought my greatsword down on its neck. The blade cut into the meaty flesh, electricity zapping it again. It growled and groaned before turning to run away.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” I shouted. I threw my sword like a spear, the blade embedding itself in the boar’s back. It squealed and fell to the ground, Paralyzed by the lightning. Grinning, I pulled the sword free and decapitated the boar. Its body turned into red particles, leaving behind a large piece of red meat and a tusk.
[You have obtained [Raw Meat (x1)]]
[You have obtained [Boar Tusk (x1)]]
“Great. Now I just need to get 19 more pieces of [Raw Meat],” I muttered. However, as I was thinking about what the fastest hunting method would be, I received another system message.
[The [Forest Guardian] is enraged]
[It is now hunting you]
Sighing, I hung my head. But I couldn’t let that discourage me. Looking around, I began searching for another boar. After a few minutes, I found scraping a tree with its tusks.
“Gotcha,” I whispered. Dashing forwards, I swung my greatsword. It slashed into the monster’s flesh, leaving a large wound. I continued hacking until it died, and I was once again very glad to have gotten my new greatsword from Karc. “This is easy. I’ll be gone from the forest before the guardian even finds me.”
At that exact moment, there was a terrifying crashing sound behind me. Turning around, I saw a massive ogre-like creature holding a tree as a club. The monster came closer and I received a notification.
[You have encountered the raid boss [Forest Guardian]]