Reset: DPS to Support?!

"Kiikkk!"

Within a dark hallway, a rat hurried through it, quickly making its way past its kin and hurrying over to a giant door.

"Kiikk!!" The rat cried out.

"...another...message...?" A voice protruded from behind the door in reply.

"Kikk!!" The rat continued to cry out.

"...what...is...it?"

"Kik!"

"...hmph...you...wish...to..." The voice stopped abruptly as it soon suddenly spoke in a defeated tone. "...fine."

Soon after the voice had stopped speaking, the door that the rat stood in front of, opened. Moments later, in the eyes of the rat, they were greeted by a large knight who donned a broken array of equipment—From a sword with no blade, to cracks on its armour.

"...master...is...through...there."

With its rough figure and lifeless eyes, the knight pointed its finger over towards a room that seemed to be filled with an ominous aura. In reply to the knight, the rat walked past it as it quickly quickened its pace.

...

"Heeyah!" Frey shouted out as she swept the floor around her, quickly turning the enemies around into grey ash. "Phew... that should be it! We're done with this round, right?"

"Mhm," Shinto nodded his head as his eyes glanced around the halls of the catacombs. "That should be it for the time being until the rat's flood this place again."

"Yawn..." Ethaniel yawned. "We're done already? Good. Then, do we go for another round or do we end it here?"

A few in-game days had passed since Shinto and his group had started grinding their way to level up. Besides resting here and there, the party had mostly been fighting against the rats this entire time whilst waiting for Raina to finish up with learning the spell.

"Hmm... well, it's been quite a while since we last logged out," Shinto tilted his head in thought. "I guess we can end the session here."

"Oh? Has it been that long?" Frey blinked at the statement.

"I don't know when you logged in but for me, it's been 12 hours. I'm almost nearing my daily limit," Shinto said.

In-game, to prevent people from playing the game for twenty-four hours straight, each and every player may only play the game for twelve hours without break. At times, one could exceed the limit to sixteen hours once or twice a week, however that is to that point.

A human still needed to rest their mind in real life and eat healthily. Being stuck in a capsule for nearly the entire day would make one's body grow numb from the lack of movement; thus to prevent that, after exceeding one's daily limit—Players were required to take a break from the game for four to six hours before they could enter into the game again.

"Yeah..." Ethaniel continued to yawn as he stretched his body. "I'm going to reach my daily limit too."

"Am I the only one who hasn't reached it yet?" Frey tilted her head.

"...how long have you been playing?" Shinto raised his brow. From when they first entered the game to now, he had thought that no one had logged out.

"Uh... I kind of logged out of the game a few days ago in-game?" she muttered out. "It was when you guys were fast asleep in the village!"

"You logged out while you were in the village?" Ethaniel blinked. "Well, I guess that's reasonable."

"Huh? Why do you feel confused as if I wasn't supposed to do that?"

"...nevermind," he shook his head. "I'm tired and I'm just going to log out now."

"See you in six hours or so?" Shinto asked.

"I guess," he lazily answered as the character slowly dispersed into blue particles, indicating that he had logged out.

"You gonna log out too?" Frey asked.

"Yeah, what about you?"

"Uh... I'll just stay here for a while and explore the town properly!" she said. "Kon might be lonely too, so he'll be with me!"

"Phew... At least Frey won't be going to the other world yet!" Kon cheered. "I won't be bored the entire time!"

"Aha," Shinto chuckled as his eyes turned towards his friend's list. "From the looks of it, Raina also logged out."

"Oh, she did?!" Frey said in shock as her eyes moved towards the system interface in front of her. "Huh... I thought that since the slimes were making Raina learn the spell... she wouldn't have the chance to log out, y'know?"

"Nah. I don't think there's a quest that insane enough to prevent you from logging out for a long time," Shinto stated. "In any case... It'll probably take a few more days? Well... From the estimation that Rustly gave me. But, it seems that this spell is dependant on person to person on whether or not they can learn it fast."

With the lack of communication between them and Raina; they could only guestimate the time it'd take for her to learn the 'Flames of Etheral' spell.

"Yawn... But, whatever... I'll think about it more when I get some shut-eye," Shinto said in a tired voice. "I'll be logging out now."

...

Within the real world, Hasegawa Zayden exited out of his capsule as he turned to look at the time, [8:23 AM].

"Mmm..." Stretching his arms and legs, Zayden rubbed his eyes as he made his way over towards his phone. "It's a Saturday huh? Good..." Muttering out, he quickly opened his discord as he sent a message to Jisa.

「Shinto: Wake me up in six hours or so, I'm getting a shut-eye.」

In turn, Jisa immediately replied.

「Jisa: HUH? You're sleeping at this time?! In six hours... that's at two!.」

However, despite receiving the reply in almost an instant, Zayden placed down his phone onto his drawer as he hurried towards the bathroom, washing up—Then he made his way over towards his bed, quickly lying down dead tired.

"Sigh. Sleeping in-game can rest my mind for a while, but it doesn't beat sleeping for real," letting out a tired sigh, Zayden closed his eyes as he drifted off into deep sleep.

...

From within the dark hallway once again—The rat made its way out of the door with what seemed to be a cheeky smirk plastered on its face.

"Kikkk!!"

Moments after the rat had exited out of the room, black smoke began to protrude out it as it began to fill the halls.