Chapter 22: Difficulty
Chapter 22 – Difficulty
While Misha was having a rough night, Pioneer was sleeping inside his new shielded tent.
It was 3 AM, and the night was not over yet.
*ZIIIII*
The reactive barrier around the tent sent out an electric shock toward an attacker. The dome of transparent shield shook and sent a warning toward Pioneer King.
In an annoyance, he woke up and took his handgun with him, thinking that a stray zombie or a mutant was attacking the barrier.
"Who the fuck do you think you are!? I'm going to bust your head open and piss into it!"
Pioneer loaded his pistol and got out of his tent, only to dumbfound at the sight before him.
A red tree with human arms and legs as branches stood outside of the barrier. It was the very same tree that Misha encountered and had been following her trace up until now.
Unfortunately for Pioneer, the traces led the tree to his tent.
The branches moved. Hundreds of human arms and legs kicked and punched the barrier in a frenzy, and its thousand roots were trying to penetrate the transparent shield.
The shield battery cell was getting dim each in every second. It was a matter about time that the shield would lose its power.
"Ugh?"
Pioneer was petrified. He stared at the tree in a daze as his mind went blank.
*ZIIII*
*ZIIII*
The shield grew dim. It was about to be disabled.
"Damn you!"
*BANG* *BANG*
Pioneer unloaded his bullets, which destroyed the shield from within the barrier.
The bullets hit the tree trunk and got stuck on the surface. None of them manage to penetrate it.
"Taste this! Flame Field!"
Pioneer activated his skill and enveloped himself in flame, yet the tree did not show a sign of fear.
*PU*
A sharp tree root exited the ground where Pioneer was standing. It stabbed through his crotch and pierced all the way, passing his innards, throat, and his skull.
As it entered Pioneer's body, the lone root extended its small branches, which began sucking all liquid they found.
Pioneer spasmed in shock, but he stopped moving after the body turned into a dried mummy.
After the gruesome torturing, in Pioneer's game vision, a black screen and a message appeared before him.
<<You have died>>
…
…
That night, all surviving players encountered monsters, mutants, or zombies while they were resting.
Majority of the players were killed during their sleep, but a few managed to scrap themselves out of the predicament.
Dove was one of the survivors.
Currently, Dove hid in a pile of a dung mountain of a giant creature that he discovered during the day.
In front of Dove, a three-head-snake moved around the mountain of dung in anger. Its body was riddled with bullet holes, and the surface of its skins had black marks from grenades or explosives.
The snake glared at him, wanting to bite him and taking him out of the pile of poop.
Several hours passed after the staring contest, morning arrived, and the snake chose to leave the place.
Dove stared at the snake without blinking until it left his sight. He spat out a piece of dirt that got into his mouth.
"I have to read more history books when I get back to reality. Aren't there monster encyclopedias in the years back then?"
…
The sunrise illuminated the traces of fighting and the struggling of all players.
At another side of the wasteland, Big Crotch was panting as he pointed his rifle at a monster in a 3-diameter crater.
It was a one-meter-size green egg with jelly tentacles within its mouth. This green egg found Big Crotch and his friends, who was sleeping in a group with a lighted campfire.
All seven of BC's friends were killed in their sleep and eaten by a dozen green zombies, who lay dead on the fields behind his back.
Big Crotch had 25 bullets left and a psychic skill that he believed he could use it one more time before he would collapse from the exhaustion.
The green egg monster, however, kept regenerating its shell and negating all damages he had done.
"I heard from the staffs that you bunch of eggs are persistence and annoying. Now, I know it's an understatement. You are damn stubborn pieces of rotten egg! Just die already!"
*TATATATA*
*CLANK*
No bullet left in BC's rifle chamber or magazine, yet the egg was still alive, and its tentacle still attempted to get up from the ground.
"[Gravity]!"
Big Crotch activated his character skill again. The extra weight was put on top of the egg, crushing it into the ground and expanding the size of the crater.
The egg cracked, but it kept regenerating back to fight the damages.
BC gulped down his last saliva while his trembling legs lost their strength. He stumbled backward on his butt as he was panting and sweating profusely.
Five minutes later, the egg rolled itself up from the crater and approached Big Crotch. It opened its mouth and spat its digestive fluid to repay the favor.
The fluid hit BC's face, which melted his skin on the spot.
"AHHHH!"
Seven tentacles extended from its mouth and wrapped around BC's head. It pulled the body of the green egg over.
The flower-like mouth of one-meter-egg opened wide and chomped down onto the head of Big Crotch.
*PAKI*
*CRUNCH*
*KRUCK*
<<You have died>>
…
…
…
Colony Putinof#13
Inside the pyramid, the government game company building, every administrator was monitoring the event.
"The first night of the test has been finished, sir. The Grand Marshal wants us to recheck the difficulty setting and said it was too difficult for the kids."
"How many survive?"
"Two, sir."
"Where are both of them at the moment?"
"Player Dove at in the 15th respawn area, but Player Misha is in Queen Egg No.2819's womb."
"… That boy-trap again?"
The administrative director, the same guy who told his staffs to ignore Mia's existence, looked at the logs of the activities in the past few hours. His frown deepened as his eyes flickered left and right.
Reading the logs of all combats, he nodded, "The difficulty is just right. These silver pants rich brats haven't learned about the right preparation or studied about these monsters before they began hunting. This is what I'm expecting."
"What should we report to the Grand Marshal, sir?"
"There is nothing wrong in this closed beta test. We have the right difficulty setting, and we are educating the spoiled rich brats. Killing them two or three times in the tutorials is a part of the education."
Chapter 23: Eggs and Jelly
Chapter 23 – Eggs and Jelly
7 AM.
23 Hours remaining until the end of the quest,
With nothing to do, Misha planked inside the oval room. Because of the boredom, she decided to grind her attribute status EXP a bit.
Since she would not gain any more EXP from the daily workout after the quest ended, this was the last chance to grind.
<<You have maintained the plank position for one hour>>
<<VIT EXP has increased by 1,000>>
<<Your VIT has increased to 152>>
<<STA EXP has increased by 1,000>>
<<Your STA has increased to 152>>
…
***************
Status
Name – Misha
Class – Unassigned Combat Class
Level – 25
EXP – 0/3,000
Free Attribute – 18
Attributes
STR – 150/1,002 (68.58%)
VIT – 152/1,002 (0%)
AGI – 197/1,000 (41.43%)
DEX – 165/1,000 (85.00%)
INT – 500/1,000 (0%)
WIS – 375/1,000 (31.61%)
Luck – 18/100
STM - 152/1000 (0%)
Skills
Self Regeneration – 3/100 (0%)
Pheromone – 5/100 (10%)
***************
…
Misha collapsed on the ground on her tumble. She panted as the exhaustion of the one-hour long planking was killing her back and her core.
*SCREECH*
Meanwhile, her roommates, the three green eggs at the size of one-meter each, stuck out their tentacle tongues and licked her sweaty body as they detected the odd smell of sweat.
"Stop, I'm not your food!"
Misha activated her [Pheromone] again, and all the tongues retreated.
For the past hours, these three eggs attempted to attack her whenever her [Pheromone] smell subsided. As a result, Misha had to keep releasing the green gas once every 10 minutes, which she leveled up this skill to five unintentionally.
Getting trapped in the oval room with monsters was stressing.
.
8.30 AM
A gap opened on the wall, and several human-head-size tentacles dragged a hundred of blobs of green jelly inside. They threw the jelly to the eggs and Misha as if they were giving it to them.
The three eggs opened their mouth like baby chicks and scrambled for the jellies while Misha was dumbfounded by the event.
One of the jelly pieces landed on her lap. She picked it and smelled it.
"Still smell like a dead fish. Well, a cooked dead fish."
Misha checked her hunger status, it was already at 30%. Once it dropped to zero, she would begin starving and would die in a few in-game hours if she could not find something to eat.
Seeing how desperate her roommates competed for these pieces of blob objects, she put it in her mouth.
If ones did not mind the saltiness and rotting taste, the jelly texture was the same as puddings.
After eating a handful of jelly, Misha rechecked her hunger status.
80%
"Eating one of these increases my hunger bar?"
<<You have eaten [Egg Queen's Condense Milk]>>
<<You have gained 500 EXP>>
<<Your [Self Regeneration] have gained 10,000 EXP>>
<<Your [Self Regeneration] skill have increased to level 4>>
<<Your [Pheromone] have gained 10,000 EXP>>
<<Your [Pheromone] skill have increased to level 6>>
"Ugh!?"
After seeing the result of the jelly, it took Misha a split of a second to know what she should do next. She rushed toward the scattering blobs of jelly, scrambling to collect as many jells as possible.
Fortunately, the tentacles tossed in several hundreds of jelly blobs, which Misha managed to secure twenty of them in her bosom and one in her mouth. The rest was collected and eaten by the glutton three baby eggs.
Misha retreated to the corner of the room as she chewed the jelly in her mouth. She looked around for a place to dig and hide her properties like a puppy with a bone.
One of the eggs noticed that Misha was collecting food. It expanded the tentacle outward to steal Misha's collection.
"They're mine. Scram!"
She ignored the noodle-like tentacles and kicked the greedy egg like a soccer ball. It was sent and hit to oval room wall and screeched in pain.
The other two wanted to take Misha's food, too. They snuck on of their tentacle tongue toward Misha in a snail pace, thinking that they would not be noticed.
Misha stomped her feet on the tongues as she patted her hands. The jelly in her mouth was already in her stomach.
<<You have eaten [Egg Queen's Condense Milk]>>
<<You have gained 500 EXP>>
<<Your [Self Regeneration] have gained 10,000 EXP>>
<<Your [Self Regeneration] skill have increased to level 5>>
<<Your [Pheromone] have gained 10,000 EXP>>
<<Your [Pheromone] skill have increased to level 7>>
Her hand took another jelly into her mouth as Misha planned to finish them as soon as possible.
<<You are full. You can't eat anymore>>
"…"
Misha rechecked her hunger status.
130%
The number was in red instead of the usual white color, and it had a warning of overeating.
<<You can't eat any food when the hunger meter is over 100%>>
Misha wanted to cry. She had 20 jellies that might increase her skills by another 20 levels, yet she could not eat it.
*SCREECH*
The three baby eggs stick their tentacle tongues at Misha's direction, wanting to fight her to steal the jelly.
Seeing their reaction, Misha cracked her knuckles.
"Fine. Exercise time after a meal."
*SCREECH*
The eggs opened their flower mouth, revealing their fangs and barbed tongue. They were serious.
"Okay, maybe not. You can have them."
Misha took one jelly and stuffed it in her mouth as she stepped aside for the eggs. She did not want to risk her life with these monster in their serious mode.
The three eggs rolled toward the last jelly pile, but their shell collided with each other.
*SCREECH*
Sibling-fight happened. They spat their acid fluid and tried to bite at each other.
Meanwhile, Misha sat in the corner as she enjoyed watching them struggling for the last pile of food.
As she continued to watch, Misha noticed their weakness.
Two of the eggs coiled one of its tongue around all tentacle tongues of its other sibling. Meanwhile, the other tentacles pushed the shell of the coiled tongue egg outward, yanking the slimy tentacles out of its innards.
It pulled the tentacles out, which the victim screamed and rolled around in pain. The crying egg size shrank as the liquid inside the egg spilled outside, which it stopped shrinking when its size reduced to a chicken egg.
Misha raised her eyebrows, "Is this what I ate at the base? But why did they burn my hand before they let me eat it?"
The chicken-size egg had not died yet. It trembled and wailed as it was crying for help from its mother.
Instead of crying in a strange monster scream, it sounded like a kitten.
*Mew*
"..."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
0 Power
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