Chapter 31: Snap back to reality. (2/2)

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Merlin started running towards the village, he looked around to seethe sae border he uttered the coout"

Merlin received a proout, to which he responded with yes

The world around hi in a black void A couple moments passed, and the black void was suddenly overtaken with the familiar endless white room, the virtual hub

Merlin lifted his ar buttons, he touched a red button that had the generic power syraphic , asking if he was sure he wanted to log out, he pressed the button that said yes

The white roo back the black void, until suddenly he felt a jolt in his body The sti jolt from the capsule woke him up from his trance, and all of a sudden he was overwhel of , it took hi so much time in a void

The capsule Arthur was in slowly shi+fted to an upright position before the capsule door opened The bright lights stung his eyes as he exited thesoy

Slowly severalup to release the people inside Eventually the entire group had left their capsules, although some had to be forcibly ejected after the five minutes had passed

Some of the slower beta testers experienced what happens when a e while there is still a user in it As described in the safety briefing they received prior to entering the virtual capsule, they experienced a hypnogogic jerk Better known as the unpleasant falling sensation that jerks you ahile you're trying to sleep

Everyone was rounded up and lead back over to the briefing roo rooe looks, although one person stood out Typhoeus' real body, a tall, robust youngdifference to his in-ga him a look of respect, rather than contempt or envy like those around hi room, everyone took a seat as one of the developers stood up and began speaking He began talking about several of their findings, the biggest issue was people struggling to co out how to coet quests

After a lengthy lecture about other issues, the secondthe pain synchronisation, they had instead started talking about player achievements

"Within the first session, one person has already et arrested" The developer stared at one person in particular who lowered their head in sha to mention for what, but your character will be bailed out next session, further criiven and you'll have to experience the entire prison sentence before you're released"

"Next up, there have been a total of sixty-three total player deaths, all of theoblins, the last one was caused by fall da a coupleto the current leaderboard

"Co in at third place, at level one with one soul, and the only person who kept the scythe in the tutorial, Typhoeus" The developer flipped the page, pulling up another character stat sheet "Co in at second place, also level one, the only user currently with two souls, sobnny"

The developer flipped the page once ly surprised by what he had seen "Four titles?!" He couldn't help but blurt out, but quickly regained his co in at first place, a level two user who has already killed a boss by himself, and is also the only player to befriend a cat, Merlin"

Upon hearing that name, several heads turned towards Arthur, he could also feel rows of eyes staring daggers at hiiven the ti dismissed Some people decided to stick around, while others left i ready to leave, two people approached hi woht blue eyes Arthur was already familiar ho this was, but it seemed like she was about to introduce herself

"Hey hey, you're Merlin, right?" She was rather chipper, "I'm Maria, or sobnny, nice to , "Nice to agled hearing Arthur's real name

Typhoeus then took the chance to speak up "Hey, thanks for the advice earlier I' this, it see friends with Typhoeus once more, but unexpectedly had also picked up sobnny Not that he was coreatly in the future

The unlikely trio spent the next fewa friendly conversation, Arthur even told Maria where his best friend Fluffernutter hung out Maria had mentioned that the three would be friendly rivals, and that she would catch up to Arthur in no tie, he told her that she should turn coreatly in the long run

The conversation ended shortly after, with the three adding each other on social ether Arthur said his goodbyes before splitting fro for him in the car