*>System message:*
*>A player has reached level 10. A system update has been scheduled. The servers will shut down for maintenance in 10 minutes. Please save your progress and log out in a safe area. Servers will resume operation in 18 natural hours.*
Whether a player was in the Northeast, Southeast, Central, Southwest... This system message was delivered to every Synergy player across Etmos.
*Ah, there was something like that, wasn't there?*
Occasionally, when a player hit a milestone, the system would undergo various updates. Usually, with each update, the "realism" of the game would turn up a notch.
A major concept would be introduced that would change players' perception of the game, and with each of these major concepts introduced, the tops of the leaderboards and the groups in power of various areas would always be volatile.
In other words, chaos would ensue.
*This first update was definitely shocking.*
Jisha recalled the first time a player hit level 10 in her previous life. When she logged back in the next day and saw the change, she was flabbergasted.
*"Why would anyone enable this?"... is what I thought. Everyone was so naïve back then...*
She quickly collected the pieces of loot off the ground. After inspecting them, none of them seemed interesting... besides one.
*These other things will sell for some cash, but this one...*
*>Name: Jade Charm*
*>Type: Accessory, Necklace*
*>Description: A good luck charm to protect you from harm!*
*>Rating: Level 5, Epic*
*>Ability:*
*>Lacquer: Invulnerability to all attacks below level 15 for 1 second. Cooldown: 13 minutes, 2 seconds.*
*... it'll be a nice gift for Syn.*
It was the protective item that Castle used in his confrontation with Asunder. Though Jisha didn't know this, she could tell it had obviously been used as it was on cooldown.
She knew Syn's favorite color was green, so the jade, along with the magic dagger, would send her over the moon.
Jisha wanted to imagine her best friend's face light up at these gifts, but now wasn't the time.
*...*
As was seen, or rather, not seen, earlier, she'd never received a clear notification for the dungeon. And right now, she could tell something was off.
The forest was lush. The clearing was green. The light breeze brushed her cheek. The sun warmly shone down. The sky was a crystal blue.
On the surface, nothing seemed out of place. But after playing Synergy for many years, Jisha's battle sense was unmatched in the current era. She paid as much attention as she possibly could to her surroundings.
*...*
10 seconds.
20 seconds.
30 seconds.
Nothing.
*If only my senses were a little sharper...*
Jisha sighed ruefully and checked her settings for an option that would not appear until after the update. But to her surprise...
*What?*
The setting was already there. She didn't know how this was possible, but she couldn't complain.
She immediately turned this setting to its max value.
When she did, her perception of the world increased by a significant margin.
Now, 1 minute had passed.
And she detected an anomalous movement in the cave behind her.
Slingshot in hand, she carefully approached the source of the suspicious movement.
When she moved forwards enough, she saw it clearly. It was simply standing in the shadows of the cave.
*... What is that?*
It wasn't anything she'd seen before. It wasn't like anything she'd seen before.
*Is my wish for a sense of wonder being granted already?*
She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
This thing was undoubtedly a mob.
But... what kind of mob?
It looked like the silhouette of a player.
Mobs that imitated players weren't uncommon. However, every player had a class, and because of this, every player imitation had one as well.
However, this silhouette did not have one. It simply looked like a regular human.
Moreover, it wasn't an average silhouette. It was incredibly dark.
In a normal shadow, there would at least be some light that passed through it; if a shadow was cast on the ground, you could still see what was under it.
This silhouette reflected absolutely no light. It was so dark that it even seemed to be sucking in the light around it.
This, along with its androgynous shape, made it impossible to glean any information from its appearance.
Jisha attempted a basic appraisal...
*...?*
... and was hit by another surprise.
The appraisal revealed nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Usually, when an appraisal failed, it would show something like this:
*>Name: ???*
*>Level: ???*
But it never did absolutely nothing.
There was only one way to find out what this thing was capable of.
Jisha fired her Golden Slingshot at the "shadow demon", as she would now dub it.
Her shot was on point. The shadow demon didn't move. However...
*Are you kidding me...*
The pellet passed harmlessly through the demon.
Though they were rare, there did exist a couple monsters that were simply immune to "ranged" attacks.
And Jisha hated them. She would stop at nothing to eliminate these things.
Now, the shadow demon was provoked. Immediately after being attacked, it dashed towards her.
*Fast...!*
It was nothing like anything she'd seen thus far in this life.
Jisha fired another slingshot pellet at the demon. There was a small chance the first attack's failure was a fluke.
*...*
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The second pellet met the same fate as the first.
Jisha gritted her teeth and swapped to her dagger. She stood her ground and waited for the demon to approach her.
It still showed no signs of how it was going to attack, so she stood in a basic defensive stance.
20 metron...
10 metron...
When it approached the 5 metron mark, the shadow demon unsheathed a dagger from God knows where.
Now, Jisha understood how to respond.
Once the demon lunged with its dagger, she would sidestep and counterattack.
*And... now!*
The demon's arm swung at her with incredible speed.
*-5*
When Jisha sidestepped, the dagger grazed her neck.
She vividly felt the sharp blade drag across her neck and the blood that slowly oozed from the wound.
*Yes, this is how it's supposed to be!*
What was the setting she had enabled earlier?
*>Pain: 5% -> 100%*
It was ridiculous. In the current VR market, there was ample regulation against excessive manipulation of the brain. There were several incidents of this "manipulation" causing insanity or worse. They became ideal case studies on what not to do.
Obviously, pain was one of these manipulation methods. No full-dive VR game allowed you to experience excessive pain.
But Synergy blatantly ignored many laws of the world.
Jisha used the momentum of the shadow demon against itself as she plunged the dagger into its chest. The combined momentum of the dagger and demon colliding with other would essentially cause bonus damage.
But when she did, no damage numbers appeared...
This was another surprise. If the attack did no damage, a simple *-0* would appear.
No damage numbers would appear only if the attack completely missed.
However, Jisha clearly felt the dagger piercing through flesh.
For a moment, she was stunned with surprise.
And in that moment...
*...! Again?*
An event that caused her heart to fill with rage.
For the third time within several hours, Jisha felt a blade plunge into her back.
And with the pain setting at max, nothing was left to the imagination.
The skin. The muscle. A collision with a ribcage. A punctured lung.
The vivid feeling of a foreign object tearing through each one.
*-92*
Jisha coughed up blood.
Was she just a punching bag now?
What had she been doing all this time?
Playing Synergy? Treating it like a game? Indulging in her childish desires?
The future of her family was uncertain. Was there any time for this? And it took another literal stab in the back to remember what she was supposed to be doing!
*Focus!*
An ordinary person would be completely crippled if they felt this much pain at once, but Jisha was able to compose herself. She wasn't a stranger to pain.
She ripped the dagger out of the shadow demon's stomach and sliced its throat.
Though no damage numbers appeared above its head, it seemed to do the trick.
The shadow demon staggered backwards and collapsed on the ground.
*>System message: Dungeon clear!*
*>System message: Level up!*
*>Name: Fae Sol*
*>Level: 10 -> 11 (+1)*
*...*
*Haha... one level? What is this, a kid's participation medal?*
Jisha, who had nearly lost all of her HP, was fully healed upon leveling up. The dagger that was lodged in her back was ejected like nothing had happened.
She collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Though her body was fully healed, her mind was racing.
She looked over to where the shadow demon collapsed. The only item it dropped was the dagger it was using.
*It better be good.*
Since difficulty in Synergy was appropriately rewarded, Jisha was expecting a good weapon here. She'd only received one level after defeating a tough monster. However...
*>Name: Reminiscia*
*...?*
No description. No stats. Only a name.
This was also unusual. When an item's description was obscured, it was explicitly shown to be redacted. However, this item simply did not possess the data other items usually did.
Jisha wanted to figure out what was happening, but she'd been hit with too many surprises in succession. She wasn't in a state of mind to think properly.
And besides...
*>System message:*
*>The servers will shut down for maintenance in 10 seconds. Prepare for a force logout.*
It was time to exit this virtual world.
It would have to wait until tomorrow.