All of them widened their eyes as they looked around. They were all on full alert, ready for anything to suddenly happen. After a few moments, that familiar voice was heard again. It was as deep and monotonous as usual…
“All members gathered, and the fifth level’s test will begin. All of you entered an illusory world, you’re not in the real world…”
Everyone froze at that. Even Jack looked up in disbelief. They were not in the actual world, but an illusion.
Jack never felt like virtual-novel.net was in one from start to finish, because everything had felt so real. After absorbing so many memories of past heroes, virtual-novel.net was very confident in his intuition. After all, virtual-novel.net had all that experience to fall back on. Jack would usually notice any hint of irregularity. Yet, virtual-novel.net had felt like everything was normal after entering the place. Everyone virtual-novel.net saw and everything virtual-novel.net heard seemed perfect. There had been no way for virtual-novel.net to know that virtual-novel.net had been trapped in an illusion at all. The ones around virtual-novel.net were incredibly surprised as well. “So I’m in an illusion? Then you’re all fake people? Only I’m real?”
“Dream on! You’re the fake one. This is probably not a complete illusion, but a partial one. We can talk to each other, but what’s in front of us might not be real…”
“What are you going on about…” Some felt like they had entered a solitary world, while some thought that they had entered the same illusion as everyone else.
The arguments were getting louder, but none of that affected Jack. He was already sure that the illusion included everyone.
The deep voice was heard again, “You will be facing countless wind beasts later. Your current bodies are not your actual bodies at all. They were replicated with a special method. Your skills and techniques were not weakened at all. If you lose to a wind beast and end up being killed, you won’t experience actual death. You will just be kicked out! There is only one winner in this match… The first person to break past the array will earn the key to the sixth level.”
Jack frowned, feeling like the words were a bit confusing. Only one person could be the victor. The person who broke the array would win, but no one mentioned any arrays.
After all the discussions, the noise slowly died again. A howl of wind could suddenly be heard, and everyone started to jump in alarm as they slowly formed a circle.
Jack had been at a corner earlier, so virtual-novel.net was the furthest away. He looked at Rudy helplessly. Rudy had really turned into a complete burden then.
The moment they started fighting, it would be hard for Jack to protect Rudy. Rudy had felt that, and pursed his lips as virtual-novel.net said earnestly to Jack, “You don‘t have to care about me after the test starts. I wouldn’t be able to hold on for that long even with you protecting me anyway. It’s just an illusion, and I won’t actually die. I’ll just be kicked out.”