Chapter 6: 5. Ruins of Genesis – 5

At the tutorial zone, Jenjen explored the new map with someone's help.

 

At first, the map is accurate. The indicated safe routes are indeed safe, and there are carved artworks on the wall that provides help to new players.

 

The only thing bothering him is that he hasn't met anyone else. There are supposed to be 1000 players and he only met 2 players, taking into account that he has explored a considerable amount of space already.

 

"... I think I'm completely left behind."

 

He continued to explore this lonely place. However, the supposed staircase to the third floor isn't there. Instead, he reached a dead end. He met a moving something on fire.

"Finally, some action! Since this is a tutorial, this must be easy!"

He swung his fists into the air, preparing for his first enemy. Unfortunately, the 'easy' enemy isn't merciful. It transformed into a flame wolf and bit him before he managed to react.

"Ah!"

He found his left arm at the fangs of the flaming wolf. He felt a sting... and that's it. The game inhibits pain to an acceptable level. However, the game also simulates blood loss. The wolf attacked again, this time, targeting his head.

"This is way too hard!"

Just as the wolf's fangs reached him, the flames illuminated a certain artwork in the cave.

"To record in first person view, simply say Record and clap three times-"

... if only I have seen it earlier...

[5:00]

[4:59]

[4:58]

A timer appeared. 5 minutes? It shouldn't be long.

Jenjen removed his helmet and ensured an internet connection. Five minutes have been gone before he noticed it.

He entered the game again, this time with more energy than ever.

"HELLO, GUYS AND GIRLS! I'M YOUR-"

He first recited a few lines for preparation and then started recording.

"Record!"

"HELLO THERE! I'M YOUR BEST GAMER VLOGGER JENJEN! THIS IS MY FIRST TIME COMING HERE! WOW! THIS IS SOO AMAZING!"

He pretended to be surprised and acted like a child having a new toy.

"GUYS, YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS! IT IS REAL! WOW!"

His exaggerated moves are through the roof, his facial expressions worthy of a clickbait thumbnail, and his catchy phrases are everywhere.

"LOOK! LOOK! I CAN TOUCH THIS!"

He then touched the wall and acted extremely surprised by his discovery. There's a camera that suddenly appeared beside him, following his actions. This is so convenient!

He then squatted, rolled around, ran exaggeratedly, and made terrible and wishy-washy commentary.

"THIS WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING!!! VIRTUAL REALITY, VIRTUAL GAMING! MAN! I'M TELLING YOU!-"

He repeated the same lines over and over again, stretching the exciting atmosphere, again and again.

He then ended up in the shallow pond within the cave.

"Hey! Are you here again?"

The man who named himself Golden Potato shouted at me. He enjoyed swimming in this pond.

Jenjen heard him and wished he didn't emphasize the word 'again'.

"What are you doing, talking to yourself?"

Jensen wished he knew how to pause the recording but he died too soon before he read the remaining parts of the 'How to Record' artwork.

"I'm recording."

"Recording?"

Jenjen then pointed to the automated camera following him.

Golden Potato tilted his head, unsure of what Jenjen is talking about.

"You can't see it?"

The swimmer Golden Potato nodded to his words.

"...okay. Have you seen Slice?"

"Ah, ya mean the one with the ridiculous name? Nah, he's gone! He died too much."

"Died too much?" I raised my eyebrows from his response.

"The resurrection cooldown is cumulative. The higher the number of deaths, the longer it is. There's even one where he died so many times the game itself stopped him due to the " game addiction" and will only return for a whole day. Hopefully, this cooldown will return to five minutes after a day or something. Anyways, he should be in cooldown for 2 hours."

He stared at my eyes, hinting at something.

"Remember what I said? These flame elementals can imitate anything. Wolves, weapons, anything! The sky is the limit."

He felt his words tingling. It's so overpowered! But the wolf he has seen previously is a burning one. If that thing imitates us, players, it should be burning as well.

"I know what you're thinking! But you only met the creeps. The boss of the second floor introduced himself as the Flame Bishop. It can imitate us perfectly and mislead us. Thankfully, it's only limited to the second floor. Imagine the hardship we have to suffer if we met it at the start."

... imitate perfectly? Don't tell me... the map carved on the wall... Is it fake? To mislead us? To think of it, I reached a dead end previously...

"Well, what are you doing here, Golden Potato?"

"Ahhh, waiting for it to be slain. I already waited for one hour just for that damn cooldown. I'll just wait here and join you after the bishop disappeared!"

He's all smiles like it's completely fine. The recording is still up and I don't have any damn clue how to pause or stop it.

"I only met you and 'Slice', and as far as I recall, there should be 1000 players. I haven't met anyone yet."

"Perhaps they're all in cooldown. This game is so brutal, after all. That's it! They're all going to revive sooner or later. How about you wait for them from here? I need a company after all."

"... no thanks."

"Okay. Good luck!"

I continued my walk. I didn't remember where's the previous route up to the second floor but I recall that there are no dead ends here and everything leads to the exit. And he's right. I'm sure I took a different path and I ended up on the same second floor.

I no longer have the energy to be overreacting. This game is ridiculously hard and I couldn't care to die again and again. I need results. I need something substantial...

I explored the ever-familiar second floor. Unlike the caves on the first floor, the second floor is tiled albeit very hard to notice. The walls are smooth. It is completely dry, unlike the humid first floor. It is also darker compared to the first floor because of the absence of bioluminescent plants.

'Slice' is nowhere to be found.

What I need to find first is how to pause and stop this recording before entering the third floor.

This time, I didn't follow the map, since following it means fighting the cheating flame elementals again. There should be another artwork on how to record somewhere.

Jenjen checked the camera again, on for 30 minutes, and decided to be energetic on this new floor.

You are reading story Travelling Merchant NPC at novel35.com

"OH MY! NEW MAP! THIS IS SO AMAZING! LOOK! THERE ARE TILES THIS TIME!"

He crouched and tapped the floor tiles, highly emphasizing this useless fact.

"THERE'S A NEW THEME THIS TIME! I CAN FEEL THE NEOCLASSICISM!"

At the word 'new', his two hands acted like there are sprinkles all over the place... He's going to edit it later. There's barely anything on the second floor, but for him, it's more than enough to classify it under a certain specific part of history. As to whether it's true? Even he doesn't know.

"OKAY GUYS, I CAN HEAR THE ENEMIES!!! LET'S BE QUIET!"

... How can I comment on this?

Just as he said, a flame elemental appeared at the end of the way.

"GUYS, WE DO NOT HAVE GEAR YET! THAT'S S-TIER BOSS-LEVEL CHARACTER DARK SOULS!"

He threw every kind of word to emphasize that it's a hard enemy.

"RUN!"

He acted scared... no, extremely exaggeratedly scared. His face is highly detailed. After he ran a lot around the forks, he acted tired and panted hard, with his hands on his knees.

He then added a lot of unnecessary commentary about it. And repeated it three times for 30 minutes in different wordings. It appears he made it on the spot he forgot what exaggerated words he said earlier.

After some time, he found a room. The door is locked, with a puzzle on its knob. One must solve the puzzle to enter the door.

The puzzle is not difficult, not easy. Just an average one you can find on the internet. Unfortunately, Jenjen dislikes puzzles. His energy is in his mouth after all, instead of the brain.

"GOSH! THIS IS SO DARK SOULS!"

Everything hard is now labeled Dark Souls to him, even puzzles which has nothing to do with dark souls.

He temporarily log out, turned on the internet, and search for the solution. It only took 2 minutes for him to find the solution.

He logs in and attempts the puzzle again.

"OH WOW! I'm SO SMART! WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!"

He then took the liberty to explain the puzzle for the whole 15 minutes.

"LET'S GO!!!!"

He entered the room. It's a large room with the temperament of a temple. The altar, the quiet books, the holy atmosphere. For such a serene environment, the first thing he did...

"GUYS! GUYS! THIS IS SO AMAZING! LOOK! LOOK! WE ARE IN A CHURCH! GUYS! LOOK AT THE ALTAR! I WONDER WHO IS THAT GOD! GUYS, LOOK!"

He treated his viewers like 5-year-old kids that he needs to explain and comment on everything, completely ignoring that viewers have intuition and they can also think of what's happening.

An ashen creature appeared, floating above the holy grail he carelessly touched.

"YOU HAVE NO RESPECT FOR OUR PLACE."

Said creature wields his giant sword. At the first swing, the first thing that appeared is [30:00].

 

"Ah! I died again!"

It's the second time he died... This time, Jenjen logged in to some forums.

[How to defeat Flame Elemental?]

[The Bonus Holy Temple (picture)]

[VR is so cool!]

There are numerous posts, perhaps coming from people with a long cooldown.

He took the liberty to ask how to record and the whereabouts of other players.

He also searched for YouTubers who made commentary in-game, but thankfully, none. Most of them only entertain the ideas of VR gaming, prospects, and opinions of it.

"Now is my chance!"

He recalled the USB port to access the stored in-game recording. and made efforts to copy a whole 1 hour of recording. Editing, adding sound effects to complement his actions, and adding sponsors in between...

"Should I go for quantity over quality?"

He knew deep within himself the video is stretched too long. The only advantage he has is that he's the first YouTube channel to publish an in-game commentary about the game.

"If I stretched it too long, others might overtake me. If I stretched it too thin, my viewers won't be content. That would also mean less screen time, and it means less revenue."

He thought about it. He's in no rush to perfect the first video as he believed, one must make the best first impressions. He's late for 4 hours and no players reached the third floor yet, ao what could change if he's late for another 4 hours?

"Let's make a high-quality video, fitting all the content I made into 15 minutes! I'll just make another video for more screen time! What I need the most is viewers, and having them hungry for more is the most important."

He made a new recording in his bedroom, using only his voice, to include a certain skit in the middle of the video.

"-imitating anything it can! How wonderful! Truly such a creature of legends! Speaking of legends, let's talk about-"

---

 

Meanwhile, in the meeting room, they announced the existence of a certain 15-minute video.

 

"Dr.  Grahamfield! You have finally come! This is the first video that appeared about our game!"

The boss of the game company isn't a businessman, but a neurologist. The mechanics behind the full VR experience is all his efforts.

"It's six hours already? How could it appear late?"

"Hmmm..."

Someone brought a website to him. It's a forum and one of the questions is [How to Record?]

"They do not know? There's a Help at the menu, right?"

"We checked it and... we forgot to add it there. We... have already answered it."

"No, what I mean is why is it 6 hours? Even if we forgot to add it to the Help log, they should be everywhere. It should be easy for them. The hippopotamus gland should work fine for them for impending danger. Speak your mind."

The head of the game design department spoke.

"There's an abnormally high rate of death. Before, we checked the tutorial zone again and again even after the change of headgear, and our QA suffered zero deaths, even among their newcomers. We believe there is a major bug. We suggest temporarily closing the beta testing."

Dr. Grahamfield spoke after him.

"You believe there is a bug? So you're not sure if it's a bug? They... they are completely done with waiting. Observe the situation first."

A head of public relations raised his hand. The boss agreed to hear his opinion.

"While we are not sure yet, one of the main concerns is the ridiculous long cooldown. We suggest reducing it to 5 minutes only at the start of the game."

"We can't do that! The game is hyperrealistic and we need to pass on that life must be valued-"

"That's why I said only at the start. They must be not aware-"

"Stop. Let's not talk about it. Set the cooldown to 5 minutes at the start of the game."

"Yes, sir."