The Place Where Everything Begins

"The thing is... I want to say thank you in place of everyone else."

Mitchell said with a heartfelt expression on his face while Eddie also nodded his head in agreement.

"Nah, it's okay... You guys have already thanked me multiple times already. I told you I just did what I could, didn't I?" Jeremy replied casually as he really thought it was not a big deal.

The real big deal would only be if he didn't receive enough SP to buy skills...

Even so, Mitchell still tried to express more gratitude,

"Well... you know. We have no casualties at all, only some lightly and moderately wounded ones in this horde. That's also..."

"Alright, alright... I don't think of it as a major concern or anything; that's for real. Enough with the gratitude, okay? Besides, don't you guys have anything else to say aside from thanking and appreciating me?"

Of course, Jeremy interrupted Mitchell's speech in the middle.

*Sigh*

Mitchell let out a short sigh in helplessness before finally going into the topic of his actual purpose of coming to see Jeremy,

"Alright, I understand. In fact, I have had something nagging me for quite some time already, may I ask?"

"Sure, go ahead." Jeremy replied concisely.

When Mitchell had heard Jeremy's consent, he spoke in mind,

"That time, when you told us the plan, why did you tell me not to disclose to everyone that it was your idea?"

Upon hearing Mitchell's question, Jeremy pondered for a bit before replying,

"Hmm... Not gonna lie; I hate nuisance. Well... Let's think of it this way... if you tell everyone that it is, in fact, my plan, what will happen next?"

After being asked back instead of answered, Mitchell fell into deep thought before responding with some uncertainty within his voice,

"If so... everyone will feel even more indebted towards you. Oh, so when you said that you hated nuisance, it means you don't want anyone to bother you?"

"That's right. Everyone is just like a fly to me."

Jeremy replied with a light smile after hearing Mitchell's reply while there was also another notion within his head,

'Especially the two of you... two bigger flies...'

Well, Jeremy's thought was quite logical as the two buddies were indeed annoying, for they to appear before him 'too' often.

At last, upon seeing Mitchell didn't ask any further and Eddie didn't even open his mouth to talk, Jeremy said lightly,

"Anything else? I have got something to do."

"No, I've finished my piece." 

After hearing Mitchell's reply, Jeremy turned his head towards the 'quiet' muscular man, Eddie, and said,

"And you, Eddie?"

When Eddie had heard a question suddenly directed at him, he shook his head left and right vehemently for fear of inducing another wrath of the 'lord'.

"Good then. Excuse me."

After saying so, Jeremy strolled away from the two people in the toilet's direction, situated near the Crystal.

...

A short time later...

Mitchel and Eddie came back behind the defensive measures...

"Please listen!!"

Suddenly, when the atmosphere started heating up from the people's excitement, Mitchell, who had just arrived back from the talk with Jeremy, shouted for attention.

"..."

"..."

After seeing everyone was paying attention to him, Mitchell said further,

"According to the plan, first of all, we will go and check everyone's current missions' progress at the Crystal."

"After checking and reporting your missions at the Crystal, please... please do not access or report the third Tutorial Mission in your Status Window just yet. For the very reason that we will leave this place together as a whole, please do not abandon your brothers and sisters here."

Having spoken till here. Mitchell looked at everyone's face imploringly before continuing, but his voice seemed to be a bit sterner than the previous soft voice,

"You guys know all too well... even if you somehow ditch everyone else here, we will still meet one another in the next stage. At that time, rather than helping one another survive, we might become enemies instead. So, please choose carefully. The choice is yours to choose..."

"That's all I have to say. Now, you may go to check the progress of your missions at the Crystal."

"..."

"..."

After everyone had heard Mitchell's long speech, they kept silent for quite some time as they really didn't know what to say in response.

It seemed like Mitchell's speech had flushed a few people's tricky thoughts down the drain...

Quite a few of them indeed had such a notion of ditching everyone behind and teleporting out of here alone.

However, after hearing that they had a very high probability of meeting one another again in the next stage, they suddenly did a one-eighty-degree turn of thought.

'It was better to wait and see the situation first before deciding whether to teleport or not...', was the thought within those few people's minds right now.

Thus, everyone moved out all at once towards the Crystal without caring to clean up the area in the least, for they would be leaving here soon enough.

*Flip-flop*

*Flip-flop*

The sounds of people's footsteps echoed out uncoordinatedly within the spacious chamber...

Shortly after, everyone finally arrived before the Crystal. Then Mitchell said,

"Everyone, stop."

"We will do it one by one. Please queue up in a single line."

Upon hearing Mitchell's words, everyone started queuing one by one in a single long line.

The first person in the line, Grayson, went forward to touch the Crystal without further ado.

After several seconds, he finally retracted his hand back before turning his head towards Mitchell and nodded his head slightly as a positive sign.

Upon seeing that sign, Mitchell smiled in delight for a bit and said,

"That's good... Now, we have one person who has passed this tutorial. Alright, next one..."

Afterward, Grayson stepped out from the Crystal's vicinity, letting the second in the queue touch the floating Crystl after him.

The one who was touching the Crystal was a middle-aged man of average height named Derek. He was one of the main combatants fighting at the right passageway alongside Eddie and Mitchell.

Soon, Derek stepped forward and reached out his hand to touch the Crystal...

Similar to Grayson earlier, Derek retracted his hand after some seconds passed. Afterward, he turned his head towards Mitchell, who stood to the side and said smilingly,

"I've also passed."

When Mitchell and everyone else had heard and seen the response, smiles started appearing on their faces.

It seemed like they would be getting out of here soon, after all...