Guided by Nene's carefree humming and bouncing steps, Noah stood before the towering gate pulsing with light, its surface rippling like blue mercury caught in a dream.
The closer he got, the more the air hummed, like the whole thing was alive and breathing.
"Come on, Player! This is where your great journey begins!"
Nene didn't wait. She hopped straight into the shimmering gate like she was diving into a pool of sparkles. A second later, Eve floated past him in her orb form, drifting lazily like a tiny moon with attitude.
"That's one hell of a gate."
Noah kept staring, eyebrows raised, lips parted like he'd just seen a unicorn doing the moonwalk.
Around him, clusters of other players lounged on the wide stone steps, some fiddling with gear, others just zoning out like background extras in a video game cutscene. Not one of them even glanced his way. Not a flicker. Not a nod.
Noah stepped through the shimmering gate, its liquid surface rippling around him like a lazy wave swallowing sunlight. A faint tug pulled at his skin, and the world flipped.
When his feet touched solid ground again, he looked up—and stopped.
The sky stretched forever, wide and pale, a calm canvas brushing against the edges of sight. The breeze was gentle, brushing past him like a curious ghost.
As he glanced down, his pajamas had already begun to fade, threads unraveling into specks of soft light. In their place, a loose tunic and boots settled over him—light as paper and just as plain.
He stood in the middle of a never-ending grassland. The earth rolled on without hesitation, a quiet green sea with no shore. There were no landmarks. No cities. Not even a tree. Just wind, sky, and that whispering carpet of grass.
In the far distance, small figures moved. Some sprinted, others fought. Flashes of color blinked where weapons clashed with oozing slimes and quick-footed pup wolves. Players, scattered like seeds.
Noah shielded his eyes and took it all in.
"This is supposed to be underground? Looks more like someone dropped a skybox into Minecraft and forgot to close the server."
[Each floor is its own little world. Day-night cycles, wildlife, terrain—all of it real enough to punch you in the face. The thing running this place? Think god-tier with admin privileges. This here is the Grassland of New Beginnings. Population: noobs and things that like eating noobs.]
Nene stepped closer, her hands curled around something behind her back. Her eyes flicked to Noah, and the weight of urgency hung in the air like a held breath.
"Noah, your journey won't mean squat if you don't gear up. The monsters around here? Let's just say they're not into small talk. So, here—catch."
From behind her, she brought out a flintlock—sleek, aged, but battle-ready—and a compact pouch filled with strange, round bullets that shimmered faintly in the light.
Noah caught the weapon, fingers curling around the grip with the casual ease of someone who'd been waiting way too long for some action.
"This... this is what I'm talking about."
He spun the flintlock once, purely for dramatic effect, and tucked it close like a long-lost partner.
[Untiered: Flintlock.]
Nene didn't wait. She bolted ahead, her steps quick and light, but just as she reached the edge of the path, the ground pulsed like a heartbeat skipping a beat.
With a wet squelch, a blue slime popped into existence, like a bubble snapping into the world.
It lunged forward with a speed that didn't match its jelly-like body, stretching upward in a sudden arc, and slammed toward Nene before she could react.
[Common: Blue Slime — Level 1.]
The air barely shifted as Nene moved, yet her blade gleamed the moment it left its sheath.
[Here it goes, Noah. Prepare for battle.]
She stepped forward with a spark of confidence.
"A slime! Don't worry, Noah, I got this. It's just a squishy little blob."
Noah tilted his head, unimpressed.
"Ah... so we're doing dramatic close-ups now. Cool. Where's the orchestra?"
Before her bravado could land a second sentence, the blue slime wobbled once—then launched itself like a flying jellyfish missile. It collided with Nene mid-boast, flattening her into the dirt with a soggy whump.
The ground gave a dull thud as she crashed into it, sprawled and blinking in disbelief.
A strained breath left her lips.
"I took a hit. I don't think I can... yeah, nope. I'm out."
Noah stepped past her, casually, as if the monster hadn't just bodyslammed a swordswoman.
"Of course you can't. Who wrote the script for this intro—M. Night Shyamalameh?"
The blue slime jiggled with a strange kind of energy, like jelly with a heartbeat. Its semi-transparent body quivered with anticipation, and within that wobbly mass, the crystal orb at its center pulsed like a living eye.
The orb darted forward, aligning with Noah, as if locking onto its target.
[This is a tutorial fight, so relax. The other creeps won't dogpile you just yet. But don't get cocky—this squishy freak isn't harmless. It bites. Hard.]
Noah cocked his flintlock with a grin that promised mischief and questionable decisions.
"Alright, blueberry Jell-O. Let's see if you're bulletproof or just extra squishy."
Noah's fingers tightened around the smooth grip of the flintlock, the weight oddly familiar in his hand.
His Dexterity didn't just affect how he moved—it shaped how he thought. Reflexes kicked in, weaving instinct and motion together like they'd rehearsed this a thousand times.
Without so much as a pause, he lifted the barrel, aligned the sights, and squeezed the trigger.
A sharp click, a puff of smoke, and the first bullet tore through the air. Before the echo faded, a second shot chased after it, just as precise.
The slime shifted.
Its surface didn't ripple—it opened. Two clean, perfect gaps bloomed across its gelatinous form, exactly where the bullets should have struck.
The lead sliced through without meeting resistance, punched cleanly through the slime's shifting mass, and exited out the back with a wet pop, leaving no trace behind.
The slime jiggled. Unbothered.
"Awesome. It's got a body made of ghost privileges."
The blue slime twitched, its jelly-like body quivering before it suddenly shifted shape. In an instant, tendrils stretched outward, sharp as blades, gleaming under the sun like glass soaked in morning dew.
The spikes didn't just shoot—they exploded from its surface and shot forward in a blur, a dozen jagged lances tearing through the air as they zeroed in on their target.
The moment they struck the ground, the earth erupted. Chunks of grass and soil were ripped from the surface like paper caught in a shredder.
What was once a calm patch of grassland now looked like someone had taken a giant cheese grater to it—trenches and holes scattered across the field, steam rising from the craters where slime had seared the soil.
Noah barely blinked before his instincts kicked in.
"Okay, that's not normal slime behavior!"
His feet slammed into the ground and he launched into a sprint, weaving through the incoming barrage. A spike grazed past his shoulder. Another barely missed his head.
"Is this thing made of knives and unbridled fury?"
He dropped low, rolled beneath a sweeping arc of liquid steel, and came up on his feet with a grin like someone who just survived a rollercoaster with no seatbelt.
"You trying to kill me or just showing off your deadly spike dance moves?"
Noah raised the flintlock, a cocky grin playing on his face, and fired twice without hesitation. The crack of the shots echoed in the stillness as two bursts of smoke curled into the air.
The blue slime's body trembled, then rippled like water hit by a stone. Instead of collapsing, it shivered and scattered into writhing tendrils.
From its center, sharp spikes jutted out in every direction, twisting unnaturally before launching themselves at Noah like a rain of icy needles.
"Okay, so quick question—who the hell gave this jelly bean a license to go full anime villain?"
He twisted to the side, boots sliding across the ground, just dodging a spike that embedded itself in the earth where his head had been.
"I thought this was a level one! You said level one, right? Not boss fight with bonus trauma?"