Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Lynda———

“Finally! Another city block.” I called out once another one finally came into view. “Hopefully there is actually a map in this one.”

“We didn’t even explore the entirety of the last city block.” Glery pointed out.

“I’m not going to explore all the floors of those buildings! Are you crazy? I think an hour is enough time.” Searching for items was way harder than I thought it’d be. Secret compartments, hidden in plain sight, stuff like that. It’s not like the chest on the plains that were easy to spot. “Besides, with one of the buildings clearly being tampered with and all the roads, it’s probably a spot a lot of people are gonna stumble on sooner rather than later.”

“Your observational skill seems to have improved randomly.” Hah? What the hell does she even mean by that?

“Oh shut it. We need to search and hope to find a map.” I said once both of us walked into the area filled with these generic buildings. We simply go into the first building we find and search every nook and cranny. Ignore any large building with a bunch of floors. Hopefully finding the important items and then dipped. “Kinda sucked that we can’t just holed up in one of these buildings without risking being discovered. Something like this sticks out like a sore thumb and I bet someone wouldn’t be afraid to glass the entire place if they think someone is hiding.”

“...You’re talking about her?” Glery asked while both of us continued to search this one small building.

“Not just her. I bet a good chunk of people from that class can just wipe out the whole place with no issue. That’d be bad for us, obviously.” Usually these buildings and terrains would’ve helped us hide from potential threat, but when there is no limit to what destruction can be caused that simply becomes a moot point. “If we sense a massive commotion happening nearby, we need to run in the opposite direction immediately.”

“At least that sort of scenario is less likely to happen considering this is the first day. If you are worried we could also pour all our resources into getting the detection tool as well.” She said after seeing how worried I am. I just don’t want to go out like a chump, at least. Obviously neither of us are winning this game with the odds stacking against us, but going out with dignity would’ve been a good consolation prize.

“I think we’ll be good with some pills and a map and that thing. How many points do we have in total right now anyway? Did you sell everything off? I got… seven hundred points at the moment.” It might seem kinda dumb to not keep stuff like grenades and other weapons, but realistically those won’t be useful on people we are actually worried about fighting. Me and my axe alone can probably deal with most of these guys as long as they don’t jump me.

“Nine hundred on my end. Not enough for a map, unfortunately. The player detector is more costly at sixty thousand.” She answered. At least the thing that is more immediately important is cheaper.

“Guess we better start looking then. I’d love to clear out the entire place just in case there is already a map here.” I said as we entered the last room in this particular building. “…It’s hella creepy how these buildings just have no one in them at all. Minimal furniture for the most part as well.”

“They couldn’t even be bothered with the NPCs…” Glery muttered as we cleared out the room. “…Hey. About the ones in EX-VR…”

“Let’s not talk about that.” I said before she could open that can of worms. “Alright. Next building.”

———Kenni———

…Man. It’s actually kinda suck that all these uploads in the real world took forever to come out since I’m in jere. I’m just trying to see some dumb balls bounce on the walls and it’s just not at the scheduled time yet. It had been like… almost five minutes in the real world, roughly. Kinda crazy how that works.

…Actually even the few minutes it’ll take to upload those contents are gonna be a few hours, fuck me. Did they let us access the internet here as a sick joke?

I guess I’ll just look at the old stuff then. The internet speed here is actually absurd. Probably in the milliseconds since it doesn’t feel like it’s significantly slower in this space.

…I think there are currently some parts of the internet blocked on this device. Obviously I can’t log into anything. They certainly don’t want us to find out what’s happening in the game thanks to any sort of update people will yap on about. Logically there’s gonna be at least a few minutes delay since even a few seconds thinking up of something to say means multiple minutes had already passed in here. Information is still power, so they can’t afford us even hearing people talk about something that happened an hour or two ago.

I believe they talked about it being broadcast to anyone associated with the school. Probably on their website or something. It’s not like it’s a heavily publicized event as far as I’m aware.

I can’t imagine that certain details about it won’t be leaked out, so that’s probably why I can’t search about certain things even though we’re not even five minutes in.

Lemme just link this device to the TV so I get a bigger screen for the video. I guess I’ll put… Uhhh… This video on. Sure.

What else would I do for today… I kinda don’t want to roam around and lose sight of this place, and I don’t want to waste points on a Shinepoint just so I can get back here. Rather cutthroat to put stuff like that on a paywall right after I obtain a map. Several features are intentionally left out to limit how much we can do.

…I guess I can order room service. I don’t know how that’s gonna work without any NPCs being present. It doesn’t even look like there are monsters roaming the place as well. Don’t these kinds of things have savage animals running about causing a stir?

Do these cost any points? I see some stuff in the fridge that doesn’t seem to come up with any caveats. Let’s see here.

Stuff like water is free, but actual meals cost points… I guess I’ll stick with those snacks in the fridge for now. Due to how this world works even those foods will keep me full for a while.

…Who even modeled this entire map anyway? I can’t imagine it being easy even if some of the assets were copy-pasted. Can’t say I’m envious of whoever had to be in charge of that. Unless they have some insane ability I don’t know about.

Let me check the current leaderboard at the moment. Right now it doesn’t show any names. That’ll be revealed tomorrow once everyone has acclimated to the situation and gets some drive. As it is, even the top earning isn’t that far ahead. I got over a thousand points from all the scraps and a bit of killing, and the one ahead of me is still only a few hundred points above. I think I know who that is, but assuming won’t lead to much.

Right now. All I can do is wait. I would love to observe

———Histon———

“…Shit.” I cursed out seeing the red arrow pointing out from beneath my feet. That means I’m extremely far from the safe zone. I have… a bit under four hours to reach that or I will instantly die. Talk about bad luck.

*Dash*

I ran as fast as I could using this arrow as the guide. No way in hell I’m screwing around like that, who knows how far I actually am for it? I’m not risking that even if there’s a chance someone noticed me and came in for an ambush. Whoever that was can taste my fist for all I care!

“Haaa…” I think I ran for a few solid minutes and the arrow still hadn’t changed color. Did I seriously run in the wrong direction all this time? What the hell did I do for such terrible luck?

———Fiss———

I could finally see the border displayed on the ground separating the two areas.

Looks like I really wasn’t that far from the safe zone. I would’ve thought even a yellow arrow would’ve meant quite a long distance considering that they said the size is akin to an entire state.

Now that that problem is finally dealt with. It’s time for me to find a place for me to sleep in for the rest of the day. Now do I stay in one of those city blocks or in the woods? Both sound pretty damn bad.

I hope there’s a secret area or something for me to hide in. I bet there are a bunch of valuable resources in those too. Has anyone even discovered those things yet, I wonder.

As for the stuff I can use from the shop… Unfortunately, all the convenient items are really expensive. I can’t really afford stuff like ‘pocket house’ or ‘cloaking sleeping bag’ and all of them are more expensive than even the player detector.

…The numbers went down. Looks like someone got jumped when they tried to move into a safe spot. Unfortunate.

I haven’t been ambushed or even encountered anyone ever since I killed those two. Not even a hint to another person during my long journey. It feels like a haze since I have just been looting the empty buildings and tiny chests on the road. I don’t even see an empty chest on the way. I must’ve been out quite far from most people in general, or maybe the others were unlucky and got placed way too close despite the size of the map.

If only I actually get a map, then I would’ve been able to plan things out for tomorrow, but as it stands I am only walking around in circles, it feels like. Not that there is much for me to do as it stands. I don’t want to waste energy roaming around when other people will also come around here eventually. I don’t know how much area was being cut off, but even a little bit of it would be a massive area. It feels like exploring is just an option where the outcome will be bad no matter what.

…But if I want to just rest, I need to find a shelter in the first place… So I need to explore…

———Malk———

“So… Do we each have a separate room?” I asked after a moment of silence after we got the special keycard.

“We could simply get the luxury suite with a bigger bed and it’ll be fine.” Qyunda remarked. “...You think they record us in there?”

“I doubt it. There has to be some sort of boundary at play here. I think they’ll focus solely on when people are fighting more than anything else.” Why does she even need to ask that?

“That’s good to hear.” She replied… Wait. Are we doing that?

“I’ll say this before you get any ideas. I’m not in the mood right now.” I don’t want things to get awkward in there.

“Wha- I should be the one saying that! I’m only asking because you might get rowdy!” She quickly deflected the accusation. “Who the hell are gonna do that in the middle of a competition! Get real.”

“Then that should include me as well!” I pointed out. “...Let’s just go get our room already. Does this even let us order room service for free?”

“Why the hell will it do that? Is room service even a thing in this empty hotel?” She asked as both of us looked at the detailed list of rooms. “...Let’s take this one.”

“Alright.” I replied as we made our way out of this room and back to the main lobby. The room we choose is quite high up in the sky.

The elevator quickly sent us up to the floor and Qyunda pulled out the keycard and opened the door. Inside is a massive room with far more decoration than one would expect. Even the main area is quite big.

“Oh look. Seems like we can call for room service.” I remarked while looking at the tablet on the table and checking what it’s supposed to do. “...Yeah I ain’t paying any of that. Do you think the card works in other hotels as well?”

“If it’s copy-pasted, maybe.” She said before walking to the bathroom. “I’ll be showering for a while. All that walking is making me sweat.”

“Yeah yeah.” I dismissively replied before sitting down at the table.

…It’s hard to believe that we’re in a game and a competition, to be more specific. It does have the vibe of a killing game, and I guess we are ‘killing’ people, but the deaths aren’t even permanent.

“I’m done. The bath is nice.” Qyunda said after getting out of the bathroom. “You’ll go in next?”

“Obviously. I need some refreshment as well.” Could we technically clean ourselves with a few spells? Yeah, but it’s just not the same as a nice shower or bath.

———Lynda———

“It could be worse than this.” I said before sitting at the empty table. Is a shack in the middle of the woods rather suspicious? Yeah. But it’s also somewhere that most people won’t even notice. It’s not on the map unlike most structures. “Do we keep watch or are we just gonna go to sleep? The bed isn’t too big either.”

“I don’t think most people will have enough energy to risk fighting this late at night, especially for people who have to book it or die.” She gave me her opinion. “Best for us to be in our best condition by tomorrow. We’ll start exploring, right?”

“That is the plan. Stacking up on healing pills to prepare ourselves for the final battle would be a good idea, if it even mattered in the end. At least we don’t have to worry about weaponry.” I’m not sure why they let us keep these special weapons, but it does give us an insane advantage over the others.

“...Would that matter in the end?” Glery honestly asked.

“Unless there are more than two of us attacking her, it wouldn’t.” I somehow doubt we’re the only ones who recognized the biggest threat in the game. After her it would’ve been Kenni, and I doubt really know what her movement will be like.

“Thinking about it further. Couldn’t she realistically just nuke the entire map? With the condition of less strain in combat, she could probably do that just going off previous incidents.” Glery pointed out.

“The fact that she hasn’t done that isn’t all too surprising. She never seems like the type to get things done with quickly.” She doesn’t really stir up trouble in quite the same way as Kenni who is much more boastful and coy with her approach. It’s hard to make a read on her outside of that.

“...You think her friends will go after her?” She asked.

“No doubt about it. They’re probably the type to acknowledge that there are no hard feelings in this event. They’re all looking to win one way or another.” In the first place, she would probably attack them since she considered them the most entertaining opponents to have.

“Hmm…” Glery mumbled to herself.

“Let’s just rest. I think we yap on enough already. I’ll take the sofa, you can take the bed.” I said before lying down on it. Tomorrow is going to be when things are really starting.