A week later.
It was morning and the players and NPCs were busy doing their work.
A group of 5 players was sitting in the tavern, eating breakfast and talking with each other while passing comments and remarks.
"Yeah, yeah, that." an elderly player said. "The battle of the Navier was the best battle I have fought at."
"Yeah, it was good. But come on, you can't compare it with Vuldr and Yildr duel," a female player responded.
"I think you both are right. But for me, my duel with you was the best," a male player said to the female player who responded a while ago.
The female player kicked the male player's chair and said, "I truly regret not killing you in the duel."
"Oh?" the man smirked and said, "That's the exact opposite of what you say when I plunge my sword inside your wet sheath every night."
The woman's face flushed red as she kicked the man's chair even harder, causing it to drip and fall to the ground. She frowned her face at him and said, "You crossed the line."
"Come on~ Everyone here knows what we do at night. There is no need to be embarrassed, you know?" the man said in a calm voice to make sure to not anger the woman more than she already was.
"I don't go around spilling beans everywhere about our sessions!" the woman yelled.
SIGH!
The man sighed and uttered, "Sorry. I didn't know you would get this angry."
"Calm down," another player said to the woman.
"Yeah, two need to pipe down," another female player stated.
The group consisted of five players, a 47 years old man, a 27 years old man, and a 28 years old woman— who were couples, a 21 years old man, and a 20 years old woman. The five of them used to work in a VR company, and they logged into a VR game created by them. However, Gods' Impact occurred, and they got trapped in a VR, the very thing from where they made living.
It was hard for them at first, but they soon got used to it and managed to survive this far without getting in any serious situation.
Since they had 'insiders' knowledge and knew how the VR mechanism worked better than anyone, it was easy for them to figure things out on their own.
They were one of the few who were the first ones to ascend to the higher realm.
"Let's just all eat breakfast. We are supposed to clear the dungeon today, right?" the 20 years old woman asserted with a knowing look on her face.
"Yeah." The elderly man nodded and said, "We barely made out alive on the 80th floor last time."
"That's an exaggeration. We didn't even enter the 80th floor and retreated on the 79th floor with minor injuries," the 27 years old man remarked. "We could have easily cleared that floor if it wasn't for you getting all scared at the end."
"There was no other option than to retreat," the 28 years old woman stated. "All of us were exhausted. And we were out of MP too."
Then, she glared at her boyfriend and uttered, "What would you have done if something had happened to any of us? You know very well that our team is dependent on each other, and without one of us, the entire team is useless. We have a formation that we have been following since the beginning. So if any of us had gotten injured, or in the worst-case scenario; died. Then, all of us would have met the same fate."
"…" The man was simply trying to ease up the mood, but he did that at the wrong time. And he was truly regretting it from the bottom of his heart.
"We are not main characters of a story where we would receive some powerful cheat just as we are about to die or get saved by some ass pull plot armor. If we die, we die. That would be the end of our story. No one would remember us and we would be just like thousands of other players who have died so far," the woman asserted in a solemn voice.
The other three players present there shook their heads at the man in disbelief as though they were blaming him for their current situation, and they were correct.
"It's almost time!" the 20 years old woman quipped in between and asked, "Where is 'he' at?"
"Probably busy in bed with his beautiful wife," the 21 years old man commented.
A few seconds later, a beautiful woman came out of the room on the first floor and stretched her arms in the air.
YAWN!
She yawned loudly and blinked a couple of times to keep herself awake. Then, she covered her mouth with her hand and glanced around at the tavern. Seemingly, she was looking for something or someone.
After scanning the area, her gaze fell on the group of five players who were chatting.
"…"
The woman walked down the stairs and stood in front of the table of the five players.
The elderly man noticed the woman and nudged the other players while pointing his gaze at the woman.
"Oh! Aria!" the 20 years old female player exclaimed with a smile on her face after seeing Aria.
"Good morning," Aria greeted them.
"Good morning," the five greeted Aria in unison.
Aria glanced around with a puzzled look on her face and asked, "Where is Zach?"
"Uhh… shouldn't we ask you that?" the elderly man wondered.
"He is not in the room, so I assumed he would be here eating with you guys…" Aria uttered with a confused look on her face.
"Wait… does that mean…"
The group of five players glanced at each other with a knowing look on their faces and then turned to Aria.
SIGH!
Aria sighed and uttered, "He went alone again, didn't he?"
"Yup!" they nodded their heads.
Meanwhile, in the dungeon.
[Congratulations! You have cleared the 100 floors of the dungeon!]
"Hmm~ It took me 2 hours to clear the last 20 floors," Zach uttered with a sigh.
***
Total players in the game- 1,482,304
0 new players logged in.
2468 players died.
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Thanks, @Daoist7x6p6b, and @Exoloty for the gift!