Chương 79: (B2 Chapter 30)

Brooke's POV: I let go of the arrow and watched it strike right in the hobgoblin's neck, taking it down. However, that was just a drop in the tide that was the goblin army following me. How did it go so wrong…?

We had focused on defense throughout the tutorial, and only a few of us had levelled up. If someone had asked me a couple days ago about our defenses, I would have boasted about them, confident in them not being breached by anything. I had also discovered the sneaky goblins hiding around our clearing, and had killed them all with the help of my friends, which just made our confidence climb even higher. Then, the goblins had attacked two days ago. The start went quite well actually.

The tall walls we had all painstakingly built had held up, and the 'killing zones' that the goblins were funneled to worked amazingly as well. Us archers and mages had easy pickings of the lot, and we were brimming with confidence. But the goblins kept coming, and they had archers and mages of their own. Still, we managed for a while, but our resources kept running dry and we had to rotate just to keep firing.

The basic skill 'Summon Arrow' that all archers got came in handy, but even that required mana to summon an arrow. We barely kept up, but the goblins were never-ending and we kept getting tired. They hadn't stopped in the night either, and instead had kept on mercilessly attacking even when so many of them were already dead. We must have killed hundreds by that point, but the goblins didn't stop. By some miracle, none of us had been killed yet and our defenses still hadn't been breached.

However, that all changed when dawn arrived, and with it came the hobgoblins and goblin elites. Better armoured and higher levelled, they were able to largely shrug off our arrows and most of our spells, and started dismantling our defensive layers one by one. A large goblin mage, protected by hobgoblins, rained destruction into our midst, and we started getting our first casualties of the battle. Morale was running low, and despair was starting to set in.

Still, we persevered and pushed on, and then the battle was suddenly over. John, who was knowledgeable about all this game stuff, had referred to them as ogres. They arrived with a calm, even gait, and walked straight towards our walls without breaking stride. Arrows bounced off their skin and spells seemed to be nothing but an annoyance. Even the few of us with abilities couldn't make much of a difference as our abilities had little to no effect.

I had a great view with my vantage point high in one of the archer towers, but I wished I didn't. The ease with which they destroyed our walls beggared belief. Nothing was able to stop them, not even Harry, our best tank with an ability that made him incredibly resilient, was able to take one hit from them. They walked through the walls, with their hideous grins and their massive weapons. Every sweep of their arm killed off more of us.

I watched in horror as some of them gleefully started eating some of us alive, the sounds of screams and the crunching of bones something I knew I would never forget. I tried everything, but even my strongest skill 'Piercing Shot' did nothing to the gigantic ogres. They just kept killing. When Mark, our leader, fell, that was the final straw. Something snapped within me, and I joined the numerous others running for our lives. The goblins had gleefully pursued us, taking us down one by one no matter what we did.

Some jumped into the river to get away, only to be dragged immediately down by something in the water. Some tried to hide high in the trees, but goblins were excellent climbers, and so were hobgoblins. The ogres didn't bother, instead they just uprooted the entire tree with horrifying ease. Our numbers kept dwindling, and I didn't realize it, but soon I had stopped fighting back and just kept running. My speed allowed me to go past the others who were running, and I had soon left the chaos behind.

I had paused high up in a tree, hidden from view, but after about an hour the goblin army found me again. This time, I didn't bother fighting back, but instead just ran away. Since then, it was all I had been doing, and I had lost track of how long it had been. I knew it had been more than a day, as the goblins had pursued me throughout the night. The hobgoblin I had just killed in desperation toppled over, but dozens of goblins and numerous hobgoblins were there to take its place.

I turned around and ran, and I knew the goblins were just enjoying the hunt otherwise I would already be dead. Their excited cackles and cruel hoots were quite clear in their meaning. Should I just give up…? Should I just end it…? The small knife I had with me started feeling heavier as I contemplated ending it instead of getting caught up by them. The sounds of the goblins disappeared soon, but I knew they would catch up again when I stopped.

I didn't know what was worse, constantly running away, or knowing I wouldn't get away. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. I tried… I really did. But I couldn't find any place in that massive forest that was safe from them. Sooner or later they always found me. And as I stared down at the approaching and cackling monsters with their hideous grins and the saliva dripping from their mouth, I knew I was doing what was right. I was taking back control.

I raised the knife high in the air, and took a deep breath. The sounds of the goblins kept coming closer, but my entire focus was on the point of the knife. Goodbye, Mom, Dad… I hope I see you again… Bracing myself, I plunged the knife down. Or at least I tried to… but my hand didn't move. I opened my eyes and tried looking around, but I could only move my eyes for some reason, and with my face pointing up, all I could see was branches, leaves, the sky, and my outstretched arm holding the knife.

My heart started beating faster as panic properly set in. Did the goblins paralyze me?! Won't they even let me die…? But for some reason, I couldn't hear them coming closer or cackling like they used to. In fact, I couldn't hear anything, and now that I looked closely, the leaves were completely still. What's going on…? The system answered. The tutorial has ended. You have earned the Title: Pioneer. You have failed to complete the tutorial. No rewards granted. Prepare to be transported back to Planet 646287.

Alex's POV I stared at the system notification in surprise. Completion of the tutorial was to be expected, but the second part was new. Announcements? Since when does the system make announcements…? Ignoring my thoughts as usual, the system continued on, dropping constant bombshells one after the other. The System Store has now been activated completely. Users may also choose to sell off their wares directly through the Store. Clarification: the System does not take feedback from Users.

Users are advised to use their time with other, more beneficial avenues. The Users deemed unfit for starting a tutorial iteration were placed in a statis, and shall now be released next to the closest gathering of same species Users. There shall be more System events in the near future. It is suggested for Users to be prepared, as participation is compulsory for fit Users. Opportunities to grow stronger shall now be more readily present for Users on their planets.

It is suggested that Users should adapt to take advantage of them within suitable time. Improvement: Users grouping together may now be able to do so through the System. Correction: The User death inventory retention error has now been fixed. I waited a few seconds, but the system messages stopped appearing. I took a deep breath and started going through them one by one. The more I read, the more I realized that there was a lot to unpack here! I immediately noticed that these 'announcements' weren't all the same.

Some seemed like generic messages while the others were much more specific.

'Clarification', 'Improvement', and 'Correction'… these seem specific… Not only were they specific, but they directly showed that the system was changing. The system had issued a clarification very early in the tutorial as well, which was about the safe area. And that clarification and these three specific announcements had now made one thing abundantly clear – the system is always aware of our inner thoughts.

It had always seemed strange to me that the system issued a clarification about the safe area out of nowhere. And now, this clarification was much more straightforward. I could easily imagine millions or billions of people demanding answers from the system or wanting the system to make some changes, and I believe this is what the system was referring to as 'feedback'. Then there was the improvement.

The system obviously observed people working together, and not just humans, I imagine a number of other races had banded together and worked as one as well. And the system had taken that into account and probably introduced a party system of some kind. Lastly, there was the 'Correction'. It didn't take long for me to figure out which error the system was referring to.

Honestly, it had completely skipped my mind, but with this message, I was reminded of the fact that during the 'walkthrough' of the system, it had mentioned that inventories would empty upon death. However, despite the number of deaths during the tutorial, I don't think any inventory emptied itself. There had been so much going on during the tutorial that thinking about loot dropped from dead people hadn't even appeared in my mind. I remember that this was an aspect of the system I was very wary of initially…

and now it has apparently been fixed. I shook my head and focused back to the announcements for now. I could worry about death releasing inventory contents later. What these three specific announcements all had in common was that they all had probably originated from Users. Countless users had probably complained to the system about different aspects, one of them being the inventory error while another possibly had to do with the lack of a party system.

Amongst the probably billions or trillions of pieces of 'feedback' that the system had received, it had chosen to ignore everything else but an error it had committed, and a new feature that it deemed would not affect its plans if it were introduced. What even are its plans…? Does it even have a plan…? My thoughts were cut off rather suddenly by a loud commotion from downstairs. It sounded like a large crowd of people speaking over each other, not making any sense.

I turned to see Madelline and Omar had also ceased their reading of the system messages and were instead trying to listen to whatever was going on downstairs. My improved perception then picked up on something. A sound that I hadn't heard since the tutorial started, even though it was a common enough occurrence that most people put this sound to the same 'ignore unless it gets too loud' category, just like sounds of conversation or the sound of someone coughing.

It was a sound I actually didn't think I would hear again for a long, long time. Is that a child crying…?