Darkness. Howling winds. A strange whistle reaches my ears, like a loosened arrow, and all of a sudden everything is very, very cold, like a late autumn evening. I stumble forward, and find that the black ground beneath my feet is stiff with cold dirt and rocks. Goosebumps spread across my body in an instant. Roots like veins crawl across the ground.

　　Something feels wrong. Something feels very wrong. "E-, everyone, are you still—,"

　　Whirling around, I find that I am not alone. There stand my comrades, but they look different. I hear that whistle again. But it`s so many. Splitting the horrible wind that threatens to topple me off my feet. Closer, closer, faster, faster. And then, they strike.

　　Arrows.

　　I don`t know where they came from, I don`t know who loosened them, but they struck like vipers.

　　Some pierced through Aashna`s soft back like a knife through tofu. Others thump thump thump into the shield in her hands, first getting stuck and then eventually breaking it fully, making it splinter and turn to dark dust. After that, there was nothing to save her anymore as the swarm of arrows pierced her lungs and deflated them before she could even attempt to scream.

　　And then she falls into my arms. She doesn`t bleed as much as I thought people did. The holes are plugged by the arrows.

　　"Ahh&"

　　Choi Min Shik sighs as he falls over, his back prickly like a porcupine with arrows. A spear apparently isn`t too good at stopping arrows.

　　And neither is an axe. Takashi just falls.

　　Aashna shudders and twitches in my arms. I can hear arrows whizzing past my head, but I`m not thinking about them. Thump, thump, thump. With every arrow that hits her body, her limbs twist and jerk. But she isn`t saying anything. Her eyes are dull in the infinite darkness. I know she`s dead. But she`s still warm. I can`t think. I wrap my arms around her and feel how the arrows stab into my arms and pin them to her dead, porcupine back.

　　And slowly, shuffling my feet against the ground, I drag her off to the side.

　　After only a few seconds my foot catches in the loop of one of the many roots snaking across the ground and I stumble into the shade of a dark, leafless tree, collapsing to the ground in such a way that I feel a few additional arrows stab into my legs. But once I`m in the shade, the arrows stop.

　　I breathe. Fast, just like my heartbeat. She`s still in my arms. I can`t let go of her anymore, because the arrows bolted my arms to her back. I can`t feel the pain. I can`t feel anything but the warmth of her body slowly draining away.

　　I hold her tighter.

　　Piercing Tolerance Level 1>

　　&Alright. I see. So you get stronger& By getting hurt. I see&

　　Something rises to my cheeks. Something hot and choking and burning and it goes out of my eyes as cold streaks that run down my neck and into the mouth of my torn hoodie to make it soft and damp and warm.

　　If I look to the right, I can see glints from the arrowheads whizzing by, reflecting what I think might be a moon. But when I look up, what I see isn`t a moon, but rather an eclipse. A perpetual, unmoving eclipse of the sun. With the white-silver outline around that dark spot that is the moon, it almost looks like a massive eye, peeking down between the twisted branches of the leafless trees.

　　Hell Difficulty First Floor:

　　A Forest Dark.>

　　<[Clear Condition]

　　Reach the hill gazed upon

　　by the black eye.>

　　Slowly, I let my head fall from that staring eclipse down to what lies below it. Just as the window said, it`s a hilltop. It`s tall and mainly composed of jagged, tooth-like rocks. All I need to do is reach there.

　　I look back to my right. The wind whines and with it comes the whistle of endless arrows. By the tawny light of the eclipse, I can see the outlines of Takashi and Choi Min Shik, both covered with so many arrows they resemble urchins more than humans. The thought almost brings a chuckle to my lips.

　　Still holding her in my arms, I lean over to the left and release the contents of my bowels. An arrow whizzes mere millimetres past my head and by sheer instinct I jerk it back again.

　　Field Instincts Lv.1>

　　My lungs hurt. After a full 24 hours in a place where I can`t physically feel pain, this shuddering is nauseating. I don`t even know how many arrows I`ve been hit by. How many arrows can you take before you die?

　　Leaning forward, I start counting. Five arrows on my arms. Two in my legs. One in my left shoulder. That isn`t too bad. Aashna took 19 arrows, so unless I get hit 11 more times, I`ll be fine. I should be fine&

　　Poison Tolerance Lv.1>

　　Aha& ahahaha&!

　　I see how it is—!

　　"Take me back!" I cry to the whistling winds. "Take me back to the Lobby, please!" But the attempt just leaves my lungs feeling rattled. I feel like laughing but I can`t muster the effort. Maybe I need to say the right word? "Return! Back to Lobby! Leave floor! End attempt!"

　　Nothing. I`d say that silence meets me, but the arrows whizzing by all around me are way too loud.

　　There is no return. I`m stuck here until I clear the floor, or, even more likely, die.

　　I hold her closer. There`s no respawning. I can feel it. I can tell. She`s just gone, and them, too.

　　Normal Lobby: 52/258

　　Hard Lobby: 3/40

　　Hell Lobby: 0/1>

　　&Yeah, I`m not surprised. It really is just me, then?

　　Everyone else is also doing their best. But I don`t think any of them have died yet. And still, we&!

　　I shake my head. The movement makes her shuffle around atop me. I`m starting to lose my sense of touch in my hands and feet. I feel sick to my stomach for many reasons. And now that I think of it, my vision is sort of blurry, too. I can`t tell if this is the poison or just the blood loss. So, in the end, this really is the way it happens.

　　I don`t& I don`t want to die. I thought I did, but&

　　I don`t want to become stiff like she is.

　　Bleeding Tolerance Lv.1>

　　Unconsciousness Tolerance Lv.1>

　　For some reason, I feel neither more alert nor more blood-full. Just the opposite.

　　But I`m not dead yet. And really, what kind of loser dies on the first floor? Of the tutorial, too? Not me. No, I can`t be that. I won`t allow it. I need to live on. So I can stick it to LetsFraternizeTogether, and to dad who didn`t wanna bail me out, and to everyone else who kept me down&!

　　I`ll show them all the tenacity of a pro-gamer—!

　　So let`s just breathe in, and out. Let`s relax. The poison spreads faster the faster my heart beats, and I bleed out quicker too. There`s no time limit on this quest. It`s just me, and that`s it. I can take as much time as I need. I don`t know if my wounds will automatically heal, but if there`s a skill for that, then I`m sure I can learn it eventually. I just& need& to relax&

　　&

　　I let my eyes close.

　　Darkness surrounds me. Darker than the forest. In here, there is just me.

　　Me, and the pain. I can feel the arrows. The adrenaline fades bit by bit and the pain lurches unto me but I don`t let myself get lost in the pain. There is pain, yes, but in the pain I also feel warmth. My heart beats fast. But with every second that passes, it slows down, bit by bit. The sludge within my system that would bring total oblivion loses its tempo.

　　Poison Tolerance Lv.2>

　　Darkness. Darkness. Darkness.

　　But deep in the darkness&

　　Light.

　　Meditation Lv.1>

　　Lesser Auto-Regeneration Lv.1>

　　Internally, I smirk.

　　A what—

　　<[Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita

　　mi ritrovai per una selva oscura

　　ch� la diritta via era smarrita.]>