Tutorial Rewrite 62 (Patreon)

Now that I think about it, I haven’t been to the forums in a while. I don’t feel like posting anything, but there might be some new information or whatever. Can’t hurt to check, right?

<Status—Community—Top>

<Asia Server>

<Easy Lobby: 859/1 121

Normal Lobby: 170/265

Hard Lobby: 24/42

Hell Lobby: 2/2>

Ah, I forgot to check if—

…Oh. Looks like Virgil didn’t exactly… yeah. Man. If she could access the community boards I would’ve sent her a PM or something, but as it is… Owch. I can’t really do anything for her. Assuming it’s her, of course. I mean, technically speaking, she could have left someone else behind, and…

—No. I don’t want to think like that. That isn’t… that isn’t something she’d do.

Whatever the situation, I hope, maybe in vain, that she at least feels some solidarity with the fact that I’m not dead. We’re both alone, but we’re alone together, you know? Yeah.

Yeah…

W-, well, anyways. Next time we meet, if there’s such a time, then I’ll just hear her out. I don’t think there’s much I can tell her, I don’t exactly have the skills myself to teach her how to best convince people not to go kill themselves, but the least I can do is listen. With any luck, she’ll learn the ropes after a while. It doesn’t look like either of us will leave the tutorial anytime soon, so she has all the time in the world. I guess.

Without much else to do, I go into the community boards.

<Status—Community—Top>

<Discussion Boards>

<HerringFerry[F6]: List of all known former

Representatives and Executives.[28]>

<PetrolPatrol[F2]: What is this place?

How is everyone so cool with this[2]>

<HookedOnBach[F7]: Lawbook for

all challengers in the tutorial. :)[397]>

<SuperMoleman[F27]: Moleman’s Guide to

the People’s Rulership of Rebel.[78]>

<Thanks4All[F15]: wat happened at the

Conference i was on the loo wher did the guild

of representatives go[0]>

<ZebraPhonic[F2]: hi uwu[3]>

Same old, same old.

From what I can tell, those rebels decided that someone had to make sure everyone was following their agreed-upon rules, so they appointed themselves as our new leaders, with the whole organisation being called the People’s Rulership of Rebel. PRR for short.

Bach is the leader of it all. I’m not surprised. It doesn’t appear like this was democratically voted on or anything, but nobody’s complaining, so I’m sure it’s fine. The rulebook she posted is just a standard thou-shalt-not-kill. I tried reading whatever it is Moleman posted, but it was so dry and boring I had no choice but to drop out after only half a paragraph. Anyhow, the PRR has a general leader for each floor who will stay there and make sure that nobody causes trouble, and if someone does cause trouble, the issue will be brought to the delegate of the difficulty itself, who will decide on the punishment from there.

It’s pretty similar to what we had before, but now it’s the people’s, so it’s fine. It doesn’t really make any difference to me, and nobody’s complaining or anything, so there isn’t any problem. Easy stuff.

The only other thing of note is that I’ve gotten a bit of hate mail.

<Status—Community—Top>

<Personal Messages>

<[NEW] Nevermore[F5]: please go

and die in the next floor.>

<[NEW] FranticRomantic[F3]: ok

a representative literally killed my

friend and now u are just going free witch

Is totally dumb so plz go a[...]>

<[NEW] VatOfBrain[F12]: you are a furry.

please put yourself down.>

<[NEW] WhitherAndFall[F6]: i

wanted to see you die an now im

disappointed please kys next time ok.>

<[NEW] LethargicSand[F4]: im glad

your on hell difficulty so youwill die soon.!>

<[NEW] Jormungand[F16]: thx 4 the

3 months ******.>

<SuperMoleman[F27]: Good luck

with Floor Four!>

Yeah, I’m not reading those. If I wanted to go blind, I might as well tear my own eyes out again.

So, since there’s nothing of value to be found there, I just exit out. Back out into this horrible WHITE lobby. Thankfully, I know how to handle it now. So, with no time to waste, I get to painting.

By the time the whole room is a nice fleshy RED, six hours have already passed, which means I’ve still got 18 hours left to waste until the next floor opens. Thankfully, I’ve got a lot of tolerances that need increasing, alongside a few related skills.

Fun fact! I can use maul on myself, and if I disembowel myself just right, I can keep it from healing long enough to raise my tolerances. Useful!

Unfortunately, though, the maul skill isn’t too quick to improve, which is fine since it’s already very effective. Faster than I would have expected it, my hours are up, and the time has come.

<Top—Status—Community>

<06:46:24

Day 113>

<The fifth attempt will begin in

7:18:13:36>

<The fifth floor will open in

00:00>

<Floor 5 has opened.

Do you want to enter?>

<Yes/No>

As usual, I press yes, no thinking required.

And before I know it, I’m there. Let’s see here…

Above me is a dark abyss. Below me is a somehow even darker abyss. From what I can tell, I’m standing on a tiny, solitary platform, high enough to make just about anyone feel a bit agoraphobic. N-, not me though. I’m perfectly fine standing up here. No problem at all, whatsoever—none. The fact that my legs are trembling is just because of the winds. Yeah, that’s it. It’s just the winds…

<Tutorial stage,

Hell Difficulty Fifth Floor:

The Infernal Hurricane.>

<[Clear Condition]

Descend the mountain.>

Ah. Ho-hum.

Leaning forward, I look down again. Yeah. That’s deep. Can it even be called a mountain? Honestly, it’s more like a… Well, whatever it is that’s one size above mountain, I guess. Really, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were above the clouds. I can’t actually tell the difference between the darkness above and the darkness below, so I can’t be sure either way. But what I do know is that I’m starting to feel just a little woozy.

<You have learned:

Oxygen Deficiency Resistance Lv.7>

Mhm. Ah. Yes, I see. That makes sense. Mountain climbers do climb with oxygen tanks for a reason, huh? But I don’t have any, so I guess I’ll just die.

Alright, alright, strategy time. I’ve got a little over a week to descend this mountain and encounter beef-royale. That should be doable, right? If the time gets too tight, I can always just jump and probably die when I hit the ground. Yup. Yup…

W-, well, no time like today! I’d better get started.

I walk over to the ledge and look down. It—it sure is steep, huh? It’s basically a vertical drop, right down to God-knows-where.

Tentatively, I sit down on the ledge, putting my feet over the side. I just need to drop down, and then I’ll make my way down at least relatively quickly. It’s totally doable. Slowly, carefully, I inch further and further down the ledge. That is, at least, until something bites my foot, and I pull it up to find a little bat stuck to my sole, biting and chewing at my arch.

<Bat (Lv.1)>

H-, hey, no freebies! Get outta here!

I shake my foot vigorously, but when the bat won’t let go, I just rip it off and stick its head into my mouth. I crush it between my molars, making its skull pop in a really gross fashion. I don’t know what else to do with it, so I just stick the rest of it in there and chew and swallow. Simple stuff.

<You have learned:

Bacteria Tolerance Lv.7>

<You have learned:

Bacteria Tolerance Lv.8>

<You have learned:

Bacteria Tolerance Lv.9>

<You have learned:

Parasite Tolerance Lv.5>

<You have learned:

Indigestion Tolerance Lv.10>

<You have learned:

Indigestion Resistance Lv.1>

…In other words, eating raw bats isn’t good for me? Gee, who woulda thunk it.

Anyway, with this, I think I finally know what that weird sound I’ve been hearing is. I thought it was just the wind, but it seemed a bit too animal. On the other hand, now that I’ve had a taste of this here bat, I think I might know just a bit better what this smell is. That darkness above and around and below me isn’t just darkness. It’s bats.

Hundreds of millions of bats. Enough bats to completely blot out the sky and the ground. And by descending this mountain, I’ll be going straight into that swarm.

…I’ve got my work cut out for me, then.