Everyone had planned to show off their strength and stand out during this training session with the young Control master, but they had quickly realized that inside the world of Boundless, this was easier said than done.
Given their training, even their weakest member should have been able to keep on going for a week without the need for sleep or a break, but their bodies in the game world had betrayed them. Their movements were not as sharp or magnificent as in the real world, forcing them to waste much energy to execute even their most basic techniques.
All of them knew that their performance so far was not as great as could be, yet they would also argue that it wasn't their fault and that it was the game that limited them! However, after the previous exchange, it was clear the Superior Lady wouldn't listen to them.
Her last statement sparked further indignation and even though her aura and demeanor were scary, they couldn't help but feel that they were seriously being looked down upon. They all had come here to receive her guidance in becoming better warriors in the real world, not to play this stupid game!
Tunder Power just watched on with a detached expression. He might have been appointed as the leader of their entourage, but that was merely because he had shown the most promise in the selection exam, they all had to pass before setting out.
He had never truly considered himself as one of their bunch, and his relationship with his team members was shaky at best, which was why he preferred to strike it out solo in the first place.
Now, looking at their silent disapproval of Riveting Night denouncing them, he realized that he was truly astute in his choices. They were getting angry for no reason, and they were definitely projecting it on to the wrong person.
Did they think that because she was their age, she would be nice to them? Or show lenience because of their talent? It was likely she didn't even know their names or their backgrounds! Had they already forgotten the warning about what would happen if she as a Superior Lady wasn't pleased with them?!
She had made one thing clear from the very beginning! She only cared about talent. Since she had called all of them out here due to her dissatisfaction with the level of talent shown so far, it meant that their collective value to her had dropped greatly!
At this time the wise thing to do was to swallow down any negative feelings and brainstorm how to increase their value in her eyes!
Riveting Night had noticed their displeasure easily, yet instead of flaring up and calling them out for what could be counted as subordination, she remained calm. This really wasn't a good sign, but none of those arrayed here thought were smart enough to tell the difference.
"Follow me." She stated quietly.
Unhappy about their treatment, they nevertheless obeyed her orders as their superior and walked out of the Field Zone, heading towards the outskirts of the newbie areas. Before level 10, one could not enter the city areas, but all other zones were fine, assuming you could actually survive the trek there.
No one could copy what Draco had done when he first logged in by running all the way to Richmond's Field Zone from the town while leading a train of many monsters to the mage. As such, these level 1 players began to stagger after they crossed through two Field Zones.
What was even more horrifying were the monsters they encountered on the way. Those beasts felt that Riveting Night was way above their paygrade, so they did not want to antagonize her and since she kept walking without caring for anything happening around her, it appeared as if a silent agreement had been made between the two parties. They avoided her and instead focused all their energy on making the ones following her suffer.
With a group of 1,000 players, these monsters were basically kicking a steel plate, but the endlessness of them was a problem. It was almost like they sprouted from the ground like cabbage.
After an hour, none could beat their chest and say that they came out unscathed. Despite their great techniques and combat strength, they were soon hard-pressed to preserve their own lives.
Tunder Power had quickly noticed that not a single monster dared to attack Riveting Night so he had shadowed her at first. None but her had noticed his later disappearance however, because they were too focused on their own troubles.
As for the archer, he had fallen back a bit and was currently using a form of concealment to move and follow Riveting Night, as well as the whole group, as silently as possible. He did not attract any aggro or attack any monster, and just kept creeping along while pondering about the reasons for this Superior Lady's actions.
Tunder Power's strength did not come from his big muscles or super-fast fingers, but his comprehension ability and his tendency to think outside the box. He had parsed Riveting Night words and her actions so far to try and gain a basic handle on her personality.
As such, he had come to notice many things which led him to the conclusion that there was no need to waddle behind the woman like an idiot while endlessly defending oneself.
One only needed to follow her, as she commanded. She had already blatantly told them in the beginning that she only cared for the results and not the way how one achieved them. Of course, the other young talents could not be blamed, because anyone in that situation would assume that one needed to directly walk behind them, or at least within eyesight.
It was common sense really. It was just this Tunder fellow who was quite… eccentric.
As he trailed behind the group, he watched them closely. His fellow 'mates' were in a worse off position. Nothing had changed, they were still obstinately fighting using their own means and on their own while trying to keep up with Riveting Night who only continued to widen the distance.
He blamed himself for not having prepared any better. Vowing to learn as much as he could about this game world as he could, his Master Package seemed like the best place to start to cure his own foolishness.
He had assumed that it would be best to wait until Riveting Night gave them some directions, but by the way she seemed to handle things, he decided that would be unwise. It would be smarter to allocate what he could and suss his path forward.
When he opened his inventory, Tunder Power was surprised by everything he found inside. He had only opened the Rare weapons chest and the light armor set. He hadn't scrutinized the rest too carefully, and he was unsure of how he would utilize them, but looking at them now after experiencing the game for a bit gave him a few ideas.
First of all, he couldn't believe that they all had received free potions for claiming, yet people were struggling to hide and heal through natural regeneration. Not only that, but they had three free skills they could choose to streamline their fighting ability!
As for the Tradeskills, Tunder wasn't too sure about them, so he made a note to do his research on them later. The rest of the stuff could be useful in certain scenarios or could have been sold to gather money to purchase supplies.
Realizing this, Tunder suddenly understood why she had called off everything and why she was so disgusted after watching them. Tunder wasn't 100% sure, but from her point of view, they might be no worse than idiots confidently writing a global exam for geniuses.
Thinking along those lines, Tunder also began to understand what Riveting Night's goal must be in leading them through these Field Zones endlessly. Her main reason should be to show them that they were the ignorant roadside trash that acted arrogant for no reason.
Apart from that, she was probably trying to awaken their common sense through desperation... and who knows, the one that was able to notice what Tunder himself had comprehended might even be praised or rewarded?
However, he also realized that there was no way these fellows would ever realize what she needed them to unless Riveting Night - or someone else - spelled it out for them.
Looking at the unhurried Riveting Night who was gracefully walking along like she was out on a leisure stroll, it was clear that she had no intentions to do so. So, the question now was, who would enlighten them?
Well, the answer was obvious. It was either Tunder himself - as he appeared the be the only one who realized - or he would continue to watch until they all died.
Now, Tunder was poised to choose the second option. He had always been the type to strike out on his own, and he never had any positive feelings for his fellow mates from Supernatural.
He would normally never choose to help them. Why should he? When they came into this world, did they pop out of the same hole? No! Everyone came out on their own, so everyone should find ways to survive on their own!
However, he was caught in a dilemma. The same sharp mind that allowed him to pierce through the veil and see what was going on also told him that should everyone else fail, it was very likely he would fail too.
This appeared to be the type of situation where one wasn't being graded as an individual, but as a group. Draco had asked for 10,000 young talents from Supernatural, and if Riveting Night would assess the 'best' 1,000 of them to be so piss poor, then she would likely send them all back.
After all, Supernatural didn't lack youth. With a member count of almost a billion, how could they lack numbers? As such, Tunder had to decide if he would assist the team to help himself out or just wait it out and hope his conclusion turned out to be wrong.
Unfortunately, he had never been the reactive type, always prone to taking the wisest course of action, even if it went against his personal feelings. He burst out of his hiding place and shot down a slew of monsters.
He approached the group closest to him who were astounded that he would actually help them given the rift between their groups. With new monsters appearing repeatedly, he had to help them before they could catch a bit of respite, allowing him to tell him what he wanted.
"The reason we failed was because we did not try to understand the rules and mechanics of this game! That should why Lady Riveting Night is angry with us! This current scenario is not just to punish, but also to test us! Open your inventory and assess what is inside of the Master package you bought! Also, collect all loot from the killed monsters, and let us form parties! We need to work together, or it is likely that she will send us all back if we fail this test as well!"
Tunder Power kept the message as short and concise as possible, as he did not have the luxury of explaining his reasoning for this analysis. Instead, he just hoped that these fellows had enough sense to read in between the lines.
He repeated this same message many times in the span of an hour, as he went up and down, making sure that everyone he could see and reach could hear it. This cost him some HP and Stamina as he had to deal with monsters as he moved, but that was not too important right now.
Blessed be the name of the Gods, these people immediately understood Tunder's meaning. They might be youthful fellows who were ignorant about games, but they weren't braindead.
Following Tunder Power's advice they opened their inventory for the first time and were promptly greeted by a notification;
｢Thank you for choosing the Master package!
Rewards:
2 Health potions
2 Mana potions
2 Stamina potions
1 common weapon set
1 light armor set
1 medium armor set
1 heavy armor set
3 blank Tradeskills books
1 basic resources chest
1 rare resources chest
2 rare weapons chests
3 blank uncommon combat skill books｣
Even if Tunder was wrong, this was not the time to be divided. After inspecting these items, many realized their folly and quickly collected their potions, while those who sorely needed them used them quickly.
They also saw the skillbooks and marveled at their own stupidity, while browsing through the many options. Just like Tunder, they were unsure about the Tradeskill ones and decided to research them carefully after they left this dire situation.
With the fellow taking the lead and the others listening to him while forming parties as well as coordinating with each other, the monsters began to fall by the masses. They weren't dealing with unskilled people, but true fighters.
Once they found a rhythm, they were easily able to topple these mindless monsters that only fought on instinct. Against the power of their Rare weapons and Uncommon skills, they stood no chance. Before two hours came by under this onslaught, even the weakest of them had reached level 5.
Riveting Night didn't look back and kept walking, but she smiled slightly beneath her hood as nothing could escape her senses. Her assessment of the events that had unfolded was condensed into one word.
"Interesting."
