Difficulty

"Hm?", the eye sensed some sort of intent being aimed at.

Analyzing the contestants it aimed to find the source but it quickly died down stopping the eye from finding it.

'Weird.'

-----

A few minutes later they had all basically recovered and were finally able to look into 'Its' eyes.

But not for long.

Shivers ran through the Testers spines as they looked up at the pair of eyes, it was as if they could see the scenes of them dying over and over within.

"Welcome to Elegance Online!"

As those words vibrated through the room a hidden smile curled up within those disturbing eyes.

It gave them a moment to get used to the pressure then continued speaking.

"Now, I hope you a most pleasant experience in this undeveloped tutorial, don't worry though, we made sure that it was simple enough for you humans to understand."

The vibrant energy swirling about its eyes seemed to 'bow' towards them momentarily then returned to its original form.

Thud.

One man stepped forward with anger present on his face, "You fucker, will you at least explain the situation we're in? Elegance Online? What's that!"

The hidden smile that sat within its eyeballs shifted into a serrated blade.

"You don't need to know."

At this moment, the testers learned of this world's horrors.

A screen appeared in the sky, on it the scene that was about to occur was being played all around the room for those that are too far to see.

Its vibrant red energy gradually coiled around into a murky dark whip.

"Here's a quick lesson."

SPLAT!

Blood dripped off of it like a waterfall as it raised itself from the spot that man was standing on the moment before.

The man squirmed in agony for a moment as his organs spilt out, his painful cries echoed through the stained white room.

His arms stretched out and tried to grab someone nearby but ran out of energy and plopped down onto the ground.

A moment later his squirms died down, brain matter silently leaked through his nose.

"Don't ask any useless questions, now, have fun learning how to play this game!"

The eye disappeared.

-----

Silence.

Those standing near the man slowly moved away from his body in shock.

[Tutorial Has Begun]

[You Have Have 5 Minutes To Select Your Difficulty]

[Level 1 -> Level 12]

[The Lower The Level, The Easier The Difficulty]

Looking at the body Ariel knew that he could have stopped him, but he decided not to.

'They needed something to show them that this wasn't a game, that this is reality. And I'm not strong enough to do that yet.'

A sense of guilt knocked at his brain but he didn't welcome its existence and threw it out.

Looking to his left he found a pair of friends backing away in shock.

One with hazel eyes and brown hair cut in a buzz cut, the other with slightly long, wavy hair and green eyes.

'Lucas The Ice King and Ray The Flame King'

He recognised the two as powerful tester's who would pave the way for everyone else, for the majority of the time he looked up to them as idols.

But not even they were able to survive the final Ordeal.

'Perhaps this time I can grow them under my wing.'

He quickly shook these thoughts away.

'I need to focus on myself, for now, I can't grow them if I'm a weak hatchling myself.'

[Please Choose Your Difficulty]

The screen appeared before him, tempting him to select his difficulty.

His anger grew further as he remembered the cruelty of this tutorial that was given to the testers.

'It's exactly as it states, a tutorial, anything you gain within is removed afterwards, any stats you gain within is removed afterwards. Nothing, you gain nothing from this tutorial except trauma.'

You might ask, won't you gain combat experience?

A smirk grew on his face.

'Combat experience my fucking ass, it was pure luck if you survived the higher difficulties, as for the lower difficulties, you didn't require combat to pass.'

'Higher difficulties are nothing but a death trap.'

Looking around he saw the same faces of both greed and fear he remembered from his previous life.

Every tester selected was a serious gamer, therefore they all have the same gamer mindset.

Higher difficulty = more rewards.

Of course, it was all nothing but bullshit.

The real tutorial lay in your ability to understand the true essence of the tutorial.

And in his previous life, not a single one of them understood it, they all took the bait.

But still, a good amount of people were terrified from watching a person squirm to death with his organs laid out like a cheese platter, slowly dying out like a hopeless worm was not within their interest so they selected the lowest difficulty.

Looking back at the dead body he bowed towards it slightly.

"I'm sorry, you were fucking stupid, but thank you as well."

He ignored the awkward looks those around him gave him and selected his difficulty.

[Level 1 Selected]

...

"What's going on?", he looked around and found that he was still in the room.

[Error Selecting Level, Please Select Again]

[Level 2 -> Level 12]

'What is this?'

He quickly moved on to the next option.

[Level 2 Selected]

Nothing again.

[Error Selecting Level, Please Select Again]

[Level 3 -> Level 12]

Sweat began dripping down his face, 'Not even I can survive the higher difficulties with all my experience.'

[Level 3...

By the end, he couldn't help but feel despair.

[Error Selecting Level, Please Select Again]

[Level 12]

He raised his head towards the white sky.

"You're fucking kidding me..."

-----

Level 1 -> 6 Fatality Rate - 1%

Level 7 Fatality Rate - 40%

Level 8 Fatality Rate - 50%

...

Level 11 Fatality Rate - 80%

Level 12 Fatality Rate...

100%

'A 100% fatality rate'

When he originally did this, not a single person survived the hardest difficulty.

And of those that did survive Level 7 and above, most ended up with severe trauma and committed suicide.

[Time Remaining 0:30]

With a quick look, you could see that only a sparse few remained in the white room at this point, most had already arrived at their tutorial.

Taking a look back at the screen he let out a long belated sigh.

"Fuck it.", a sharp aura flashed through his eyes.

[Level 12 Selected]

"???"

"Nothing again?"

[Error Selecting Level, Please Select Again]

[Nil]

Scratching his face he could no longer feel surprised.

'If I remember correctly those who didn't select a difficulty by the end were automatically killed.'

[Time Remaining 0:05]

One more look around the white room only 3 people remained, one was unconscious from shock and fear, and the other one was bent over vomiting his stomach out.

"And the third is me."

'Is it over for me?'

[Time Remaining 0:00]

"Ping pong! Time is up!"

A cheerful pair of eyes flew about the room, its vibrant red energy dancing around violently.

"Ohohohoh! There are people left behind!"

The pair of eyes squinted and lowered itself to their level.

"One is passed out..."

SPLAT!

A mixture of skull fragments and pink 'jelly' intertwined and began to cement across the floor like a tropical dessert.

"One is useless..."

CRUSH!

Every bone in his body was twisted beyond recognition, a painless instant death.

"And the last one is..."

Ariel raised his hand and gave it the warmest wave possible, he drowned every sense of hatred he felt towards the thing.

"Hoh!"

It flew even closer to him, if Ariel moved his face forward by an inch he could touch its pupil.

"You seem normal to me, why didn't you select a difficulty?"

The words were warm, but the intent behind them insanely malicious.

To the untrained eye, it would seem kind...

But Ariel could see it.

The piles of dead bodies and grieving souls exploding outward behind it, threatening to swallow him whole.

If he answered incorrectly, he'd die, if he answered correctly, he could still die.

That's the type of existence this thing was, it didn't give a shit about him, the only thing it wanted was a more entertaining show.

'If so, there's only one thing I can do to survive this.'

"It's too easy."

Blink.

A wave of violent energy spewed out, flinging his hair backward from the pressure alone.

"Eas-y...?"

"I need a harder difficulty."

The eye went silent for a moment, it wasn't contemplating anything, instead, it was silently laughing at him, it was mocking him with its gaze.

"You? You find it too easy? You weak, puny human? Find the hardest difficulty too easy?"

A grin grew within its eyes.

And the room turned dark.

"Don't joke around with me."

Energy spewed upward into the sky, the whip was being formed once again.

"I'm not joking."

Ariel remained calm, if he showed any form of panic or worry, it wouldn't believe him in the slightest.

The eye watched him for a moment longer.

"Interesting, you don't feel any fear, your words aren't lies either."

Everything returned to normal, the whip that was about to crush him disappeared like it was never there to begin with.

"So can you do it? Give me a harder difficulty?"

Its red energy slowly extended outwards in a form of rope, caressing his cheek it stretched around him and grasped at his neck.

"Can I do it?"

A red face grew out of its energy, a wide, creepy smirk began laughing out in amusement.

"KEKEKEKEKE!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"You ask if I can do it!"

A tongue slipt outward from the face and licked him from the bottom up.

"The real question is-"

[Transferring Tester To The First Level Of Psuedo Hell]

"Can YOU do it...!"

Its smile grew wide.