As soon as I opened my eyes, the first thing that greeted me was the stone ceiling. The dampness and coldness seeped into my back from the floor. I steadied my nerves, shaking off the goosebumps on my arms, and raised my body.

I found myself inside a prison made entirely of stone on all sides.

Having recognized the overly familiar scenery, my mind quickly assessed the situation. There was no way I couldn’t know this place; it was a space I had no business being unfamiliar with.

“Unbelievable.”

I recalled the moment I clicked on the beta tester application link for Brightest Darkness 5, only to be sucked inside the monitor with a bright Light Mass. That was my last memory in reality.

The first emotion that hit me was disbelief. These crazy folks were now going so far as to lure people in by pretending they got selected for the beta test of a new game.

Even if it wasn’t me, anyone who had even a passing acquaintance with Brightest Darkness 4 would have surely gotten trapped by this grand scheme. How much creativity did one need to possess to drag people into this nonsense?

Next, regret washed over me.

“I must be out of my mind. Why did I have to clear that enemy enhancing mode to be number one?”

Yeah, what kind of world are we living in these days?

If being sucked into the story of a novel you followed to the end meant something, or if the only reader who stuck by the writer finally got pulled in, then maybe that could be considered foundational.

These days, you get sucked into novels you haven’t even read, into those you’ve barely skimmed, into those you didn’t comment on, just by looking at the cover, filtering works, roasting novels, even dragging down the authors — it’s a horrendous world where you could end up sucked in time and again.

So, in a world like that, here I was, a hardcore player with 30,000 hours of playtime? I was prime bait for those terrifying entities frantically trying to rack up achievements as humans.

But what could I do? I had already messed myself up by clicking something, and now I’d actually stamped my eyes and got dragged in here.

I stood up. The floor was too cold, making it hard to sit any longer in my bare skin. Plus, if I lingered a bit longer, the first event of this tutorial area would kick off.

Plans automatically began to unfold in my mind. I had passed through this segment thousands of times already. I knew exactly how to move and act from here.

—Help me! Aaaaaaah!

Before I could finish thinking, sounds of people fleeing and horrifying screams echoed from a distance.

“It’s begun.”

I took a deep breath and positioned myself at the furthest wall from the prison’s iron bars. Outside, people were desperately pushing and shoving each other, trying their hardest to escape.

Prisoners across from me, looking bewildered, approached the bars while peering outside. Seeing a group of people fleeing for their lives, they must’ve been wondering what in the world was happening.

—Thud…… Thud……

From far away, the ground trembled slightly. As the ground tremors grew closer, the prisoners exchanged confused glances, not understanding what was happening.

Finally, as the thud-thudding reached right beside me, one prisoner pressed their face against the bars to take a peek outside, seemingly confirming something, before collapsing in terror.

—KuoOoOoOo!

Emerging from beyond the left corridor was a grotesque-looking monstrosity.

Its body was immensely fat, nearly filling the corridor, covered in distorted scales.

Its thighs and legs were thick, much thicker than the torso of an average person, yet it looked balanced due to its bulk.

Its arms were less than half the length of its legs. Yet, in one hand, it held a club almost as tall as itself, already smeared with blood.

Its face was horrifically distorted, with a mouth torn open nearly to the ears, displaying uneven, jagged teeth.

The tutorial area’s boss, the Human Butcher.

Upon seeing the monstrosity, the prisoners in the opposite cell screamed as if the prison would crumble. Apparently drawn by their cries, the Human Butcher turned away from me, heading directly for the opposite cell.

Its massive body squeezed through the bars as if they were made of candy. Soon, accompanied by agonized screams, the sound of human bodies being crushed rang out.

Blood splattered across the prison walls. Everything up to this point followed the game perfectly. Compared to the not-so-great graphics of Brightest Darkness 4, the visibility of the mangled flesh was enough to make me feel a bit queasy.

True to its name, the Human Butcher began to literally butcher the prisoners. Fresh blood dripped from the club as it stepped outside the prison.

Now, its next target was me. That hefty body thudded as it moved again. The iron bars of the prison door couldn’t withstand even a second and bent helplessly.

As the Human Butcher half-entered the prison, it lifted its club for a strike.

—Crash!

Just as its arm began to descend, a great crack formed from where its foot stepped down, causing part of the floor to split apart. It seemed startled, retracting its club at the last moment.

However, the fissure didn’t stop. Soon, the entire prison floor cracked with a crackling sound. It was a precarious sight, teetering on the edge of collapse.

“Now it begins.”

The Human Butcher must have thought I would fall to my death, snorting once before turning away. It was true I would fall with the crumbling ground.

But I wouldn’t die.

I closed my eyes, bracing for impact. Not long after, the floor reached its limit. Crumbling under its weight, it collapsed, and I plummeted downward alongside the debris.

Cough, cough.

Dust filled my lungs, prompting a fit of coughing.

I lifted my arms to push away a stone blocking my path and cleared the rubble piled on me. After repeating this for quite a while, I finally managed to crawl out.

I had landed in the prison’s lowest level.

From here, one could consider this the true beginning of Brightest Darkness 4. What I had encountered in the upper prison before this was only an intro in-game terms.

I dusted myself off and exited through the bent iron bars. All around was quiet. It was exactly the scenery I had seen in the game.

Never did I imagine I would experience this myself. A complex mood filled me.

“I wonder what past class/profile was chosen for me.”

I glanced down at my body. Clad in nothing but a loincloth, I had a fairly muscular build. Sadly, past class and body type were unrelated, so I couldn’t guess based on that.

Honestly, I was relieved I wasn’t a female character, even if just for a moment.

“Well, it doesn’t matter; I’ll find out soon enough.”

I walked towards the nearby staircase. Once I climbed these stairs, I would engage in my first battle against the mobs of the tutorial area, and also check what my past class/profile had been.

I picked up a shabby wooden club placed at the landing and cautiously climbed the stairs, careful not to make a sound, listening in on the conversations happening above.

“……”

I heard nothing at all.

“I’m in trouble now.”

As soon as I realized that, my face fell.

When moving quietly on the stairs, if nothing is heard halfway up, the player character’s past profile is indeed “The Forsaken.” Realizing that caused a surge of emotions within me.

“There are ten possible profiles to choose from, and I got stuck with that one?”

The Forsaken was the undeniably weakest character among the profiles the player could select. It started at level 1, with all stats also at 1, and received no items, weapons, or armor.

Due to having all stats at 1, it was the best character for stat efficiency in PvP brackets, but that was the entirety of its advantage.

Moreover, reaching that point in the first place was a struggle. Low health, terrible stamina, awful attack power, no items, and no armor.

It was a profile typically chosen when a hardcore player wanted a self-imposed hard mode.

While in the game, picking The Forsaken meant infinite retries, but now I was sucked into the game world. Where was the guarantee I’d come back to life after dying?

I let out a long sigh internally and gripped the club. Whatever happens, it’s better than having nothing. I clenched the wooden club tightly and slowly ascended the stairs. The upper floor came into view gradually.

“Just as I thought.”

As expected, the places where items indicating past profiles should have been were empty. In that vacant spot, prisoners dressed in shabby clothes wandered around with clubs in hand.

It was exactly the same scenery I grew tired of seeing in the game.

That meant my tasks would be exactly the same as the things I had grown tired of doing in the game.

Taking a deep breath, I advanced to the upper floor.