"Attention all participants," the Announcer declared. "The evaluation period has officially concluded. I hope you are all entirely satisfied with your assigned combat roles. It is now time to discuss the rules of your very first tutorial phase."
The massive crowd fell completely silent. Even the giant Warrior named Baruka stopped swinging his heavy wooden club so he could listen carefully.
"In just a few moments you will be transported to a localized tutorial ground," the Announcer explained. "This area is completely cut off from the rest of the universe. Your primary objective is incredibly simple. You must survive in that dense forest for fifteen consecutive days."
Dustin frowned and quickly did the mental math. Fifteen days was a very long time to go without proper food or clean drinking water. He wondered if the magical system would provide them with basic daily rations.
"I must also clarify one very important detail regarding your participation," the Announcer added with a laugh. "The pain you feel in the tutorial ground will be absolutely real. Furthermore any participant who loses all their vitality points will face permanent termination. If you die in the forest you will simply cease to exist everywhere else. There are no extra lives and there are no second chances."
A wave of terror washed over the endless crowd. The reality of true death finally crushed whatever small hope they had left. Several people dropped their weapons onto the floor in shock. Others began weeping loudly and hugging their loved ones desperately.
Dustin felt his own heart rate spike dangerously. He took a deep breath and forced his body to remain completely still.
A young athletic woman named Cha hae suddenly stepped onto a slightly elevated section of the white floor. The golden glow of her status screen illuminated her determined face. She raised her sword high into the air to draw the attention of the terrified people around her.
"Everyone needs to calm down and listen to me," Cha hae shouted. "Panicking right now will only get us all killed. We have thousands of people in this massive room. If we work together and form a solid defensive perimeter we can easily survive for fifteen days."
Her strong voice cut through the weeping and the fearful whispers. People slowly began turning their attention towards her
"We need to organize a central command immediately," Cha hae continued. "All the Warriors and Defenders will form a massive outer wall to protect the group. The Archers and Elementalists will stay right behind them to provide ranged magic support. The Clerics and the Civilians will remain safely in the absolute center. We will pool all of our resources together. We will send out large hunting parties to gather food and we will fiercely protect the weak."
It was a beautiful and highly tactical speech. Dozens of frightened civilians immediately rushed toward her elevated position. They desperately wanted to be part of her organized and protective community. Even a few of the newly assigned Warriors nodded in agreement and began moving toward her to form the first defensive lines.
Dustin watched the inspiring display of leadership from the very back of the dense crowd. He slowly shook his head in absolute disagreement.
'That is the single worst idea I have ever heard,' Dustin thought critically. 'Grouping thousands of noisy and panicked humans into one massive target is pure suicide. The sheer noise they make will attract every single predatory monster within miles. They are basically trying to build a giant all you can eat buffet for the local wildlife.'
He looked over at the charismatic blonde man named Kael. Kael was forming his own separate group composed entirely of aggressive damage dealers. They were loudly discussing how many monsters they could hunt to maximize their experience points before the timer ran out. They completely ignored the careful defensive strategy proposed by Cha hae.
'Those guys are even worse,' Dustin reasoned internally. 'They actually want to actively hunt the beasts. They are going to charge straight into a nest of angry monsters and get themselves completely slaughtered on the very first day.'
Cha hae continued organizing her massive defensive group.
The Announcer suddenly interrupted her passionate leadership efforts with a booming laugh.
"Oh I absolutely love seeing such wonderful cooperation," the Announcer cheered loudly. "It is truly inspiring to watch you all band together. However you are making a massive assumption about your deployment. You will definitely not be staying together in one massive army. That would be incredibly boring to watch."
Cha hae froze and lowered her silver sword slowly. The massive crowd murmured in confusion.
"As the tutorial begins this massive room will be divided," the Announcer explained. "You will all be randomly sorted into completely isolated server clusters. Each localized tutorial ground will receive five hundred participants. The system will ensure a completely random mix of strong classes and weak classes in every single zone."
"Furthermore you will not spawn together," the Announcer added. "Every single individual will be teleported to a completely random location within their assigned tutorial grounds. You will all begin this journey entirely on your own. I suggest you run very fast if you spawn next to something hungry. Good luck to all participants and please do enjoy the hunt."
Cha hae opened her mouth to shout one final desperate instruction to her gathered defenders.
She never finished her sentence.
The white floor simply vanished.
It ceased to exist entirely in a fraction of a second.
Dustin felt his stomach launch upward into his throat. The sudden weightlessness was entirely sickening and completely disorienting.
He closed his eyes tightly and crossed his arms over his chest to protect his vital organs.
The magical transit lasted only a few terrifying seconds.
Dustin was suddenly spat out of the empty air. He fell a short distance of roughly five feet and crashed violently into a massive patch of dark purple bushes.
The thick shrubs were covered in vicious curved thorns that looked like iron fish hooks. He rolled heavily onto the forest floor and grunted in sudden pain. He lay perfectly still in the dirt and stared up at the tiny slivers of grey light shining through the massive canopy far above his head.
His left shoulder was throbbing with a dull ache from the rough landing. His plaid pajama pants were torn at the knees. His exposed legs were bleeding steadily from multiple deep scratches caused by the thorns.
A small blue screen flickered to life in the extreme corner of his vision.
[ Notice Participant has arrived in the designated tutorial zone ]
[ Tutorial timer has officially started ]
"Well that was incredibly unpleasant," Dustin groaned weakly.
He was extremely grateful that the system had not dropped them directly from the sky. He had survived the teleportation mostly intact but the stinging scratches on his legs served as a brutal reminder that the pain in this world was entirely real.
Dustin slowly pushed himself up onto his hands and trembling knees. He ignored the sharp pain and crawled completely under the thickest part of the bushes. He needed to hide his bleeding body from the open dirt clearing immediately.
He activated his perception and carefully surveyed his immediate surroundings.
The forest was incredibly dark and terrifyingly dense. The trunks of the trees were wider than large commercial trucks. Their massive roots formed tall twisting walls of solid dark wood that blocked out the horizon.
Far off in the distance he could clearly hear the horrific sounds of the other players completing their own random drops.
Some people were screaming out the names of their lost family members. The random teleportation had completely destroyed the grand social order that Cha hae had tried so desperately to build.
The desperate human shouts were suddenly interrupted by terrifying and wet gurgling sounds. Those horrifying noises were followed closely by the sudden and vicious roars of massive beasts.
He was entirely alone in a dark and deeply hostile world.
'This is exactly what I wanted in the first place,' Dustin reminded himself quietly. 'There are no noisy teammates to attract the monsters to my hiding spot. There are no charismatic leaders trying to force me to fight on the bloody front lines for the greater good. It is just me and my terrible stats against the world.'