Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 331 HELL

In the Red Room of the Manhwa Hall it sucked to have no green lights. The light above Second Life Ranker was no longer blue. Looking around, I mentally thought of the 12 doors like numbers on a clock. The entrance to the room was my 6 o’clock. The Second Life Ranker was my 11 o’clock. Last time I stepped into rooms without my World Lasting Physique it bit me in the ass, but I wanted to try anyway. World IDs were pretty much useless. 

Moving to the 12 o’clock door I opened it with little hesitation. I approved Hancock joining me and let the world take me. 

Darkness all around, a sidewalk appeared at my feet. People walking this way and that I moved to a building next to me. No World Lasting Physique. I didn’t have to worry about pain. Looking down I wasn’t fat this time either, so I at least had that going for me. Studying the black glass window of the business beside me I focused on my reflection as the memories came in. 

I was Weston Woon. 22 years old I worked at a convenience store as a clerk. No real job prospects. I lived with a couple of roommates and had given up on college some time ago. Fit, I had completed my military service when I was 21. I had more strength than I expected. My parents living out in the country I had a brother and sister that lived close by. They actually went to school and had high paying jobs so I didn’t get along well with them. That was when I got the notification. 

“Shit,” I said. Pulling up my Status Screen I summoned Hancock. 

A beautiful woman appeared in front of me. Only wrapped in a towel she cursed as she tried to hide her body. 

“Weston! We agreed on waiting an hour after coming to a new world,” she hissed. People stopped to watch the curvy woman try to hide behind me. 

“I know, but this world is tough,” I said. “I’m guessing we will both be teleported soon. A pop-up will appear asking what difficulty you want. I am picking Hell.”

“Hell? Why?” She asked, her eyes wide. 

“It’s harder. More opportunity for a challenge.” I realized she was working on very little information. I did a super fast rundown, barely stopping for breath as I spoke. “This world is a little messed up. If we are in the main story we will be teleported to some weird lobby then have to go through a tutorial. The tutorial has different levels of difficulty and I don’t think you can exit it until you reach the 100th level. I plan to go for the hardest difficulty,” I said.

“I will go too,” she said. 

“Honey, this could be very very tough, especially without-”

“I don’t care,” she said. Her eyes were firm. I nodded, my worry for her pushed back for now. 

“Okay. I will send you back. Make the shower quick. I doubt-” I stopped talking as a loud crash sounded from somewhere. I didn’t know what it was, but it didn’t sound good. “Fuck it. Skip the shower. Get clothes on and grab a knife, throw food and water in a backpack.” 

“W-” She didn’t have a chance to finish as I ended the summon. Disappearing from in front of me more than a few people began to exclaim in surprise. But they were all looking toward where the crash sounded, not in my direction. I gave it a glance, dust billowing across the street, it looked like a sinkhole opened up. I didn't have time to wait. Charging my feet with my limited pool of chakra I ran along the building next to me. I dropped down at a convenience store a street over. 

Police sirens sounding outside, I ignored them as I threw water bottles and food into a basket. Rushing to get it all, I cursed when I couldn’t find a backpack. Thinking back to my memories of the area I thought there was a store that would have one a few blocks away. Getting in line for the register I moved to pay but got a new notification. 

“Fuck,” I said. Looking around, a student was in front of me. I had my Chikyugi back, so my chakra was stronger. Touching the student’s shoulder I sent him into a weak Genjutsu and pulled his backpack off of him as he dropped to the ground. Dumping the contents of the bag out I stored the food, water, and knives inside. Throwing it over my shoulder I read the screen a few times. 

Excitement and fear were my main emotions. The Tutorial is Too Hard was one of those unforgiving worlds. The story followed a gamer from South Korea. Sent to the Tutorial World he had to become stronger to potentially fight against monsters in the real world. Dozens of other people in the Tutorial, only a few chose the Hell difficulty, and at the beginning only the protagonist lived through the first floor. There were game aspects of course, but a lot of people died at the beginning. I had skills, so I wasn’t too scared, but I knew it wasn’t a place I could beat easily.

Granted I could pick the Easy path, fly through it, and come out, possibly beating the canon. But there was a reason the manhwa followed someone that took the Hell difficulty. The strength you got from there would be useful later. I was sure some of the skills could even rival those from my main screen. Second guessing my choice I forced my hand to click ‘Hell’.

As I did, it all went dark for a split second. Then light appeared all around me. Blinded for a moment, I opened my eyes to see 6 pedestals. On the pedestals were different weapons. A new screen popped up. 

I walked up to them. Stone tile at my feet, the new area a few paces away was darkened. Unable to see or feel anything around me with my Observation Haki, I studied the weapons. Each was pristine and were worthy to be starter weapons. But this was the Hell Difficulty. Nothing was as it appeared. 

From left to right there was a sword and shield, mace, axe, bow and arrow, gnarled wood mage staff, and spear. I almost went for the sword and shield. I had practiced with my Jitte enough, but my eyes were drawn to the spear. I regretted not going to Demon Slayer World to learn their fighting techniques. My skill with weapons was mostly self taught except for throwing knives. 

Thinking about it, I moved to the 5 foot long steel spear and picked it up. As soon as I did the pristine steel aged and rusted. Grumbling, I wasn’t surprised. It wouldn’t be the hardest challenge if you were given good stuff to start with. 

As I stepped back from the pedestal the other weapons disappeared and the area brightened into a white room. The walls and floor were clean. There were large 4 foot wide pillars scattered around the perimeter of the room. They reminded me of Roman pillars that held up their buildings. 

My backpack still on, I noticed a few people had beaten me to the room. One was an older man with dark hair, a business suit, and bags under his eyes. Another was a bleached blonde haired kid that was younger than me. A girl about my age near the far wall, she wore a white button down shirt, thigh high black socks, and a red skirt. 

Frowning, I had hoped to see Hancock. For all I knew she wouldn’t get picked for the tutorial, but I had hoped. “Hello-” I tried to say to the older man but a guy appeared next to me. Straight black hair, he was older than me. In sweats I guessed he was the protagonist. The Korean protagonists were always someone in their 20s with straight black hair. My dark hair was slightly curly and unruly, so I was special. 

“Hello,” the older man said to me and the newcomer. That was when Hancock appeared on the other side of me. 

“Thank god,” I said. 

“This is dumb,” Hancock said, not too phased by randomly appearing somewhere. She had a pack on her back as well, but held a large hammer in hand. “This weapon was so pretty when I picked it up.” 

I laughed. “Sorry, babe. Hell difficulty means this is going to be extra hard,” I said. 

She frowned but we looked back at the old man. “H-hello,” he said. Flustered by Hancock’s beauty, everyone's eyes were on her. 

“How long have you been here?” I asked. Only us 3 newcomers held our weapons. 

“About a half hour,” the older man said. “We have learned a few things since coming here. For instance, Inventory.” Saying the word, a screen appeared in front of him. A screen I could see. My heart beat loudly. I was finally running into a spatial storage. 

“You all should say Inventory,” he said. Hancock, the protagonist, and I did. The screen appearing in front of each of us there were tabs at the top that listed Community, Top, and Status. 

“If you just think about storing your weapon, the screen takes care of the rest.” I did and the spear disappeared from my hand. “Next check your Status.” At the top of the screen there were tabs listed like a web browser. We clicked the Status Tab. 

I was able to see the screens of the other 2 newcomers around me as well. 

“Dang babe, you got some magic power,” I said.

“I am a fighter,” she said, but blushed from the compliment. I shook my head, amused by her innocent reaction to a compliment. 

“The last tab is Community. We can use it to communicate to people in other lobbies. So the Easy, Normal, and Hard modes people chose.”

“I’m completely lost,” Lee admitted in stunned silence. 

“You find anything else out?” I asked while the old man moved to the protagonist’s screen. 

“Uh just the clock. If you swipe the side of the screen it will pop-up,” the old man said. I did so. 

ROUND 1 DAY 0

TIME UNTIL THE TUTORIAL 

22 HOURS 1 MINUTES

“Of course,” I grumbled as I stepped away. Hancock followed me as we moved to the wall away from the others. 

“What’s wrong?” She asked. 

“Our World Escape ends in a little over 23 hours so we will have to do this,” I admitted. 

“So?”

“So, it’s going to be a bitch. This isn’t a simple test. Only 1 of these 4 is supposed to survive the 1st round.” 

“Which?”

“Lee,” I said, pointing to the boy talking with the old man. 

“Really? He feels rather weak.”

“They’re all weak,” I said. “I don’t think we need to worry, but these people are screwed.”

“Even the girl?” Hancock asked. The only other girl in the room was looking our way. “What if you gave her chakra?”

“You know as well as I do, it takes a lot of time to get any benefits,” I said, but was honestly happy her mind went there. She knew how I had to awaken chakra in people. 

“How can we help them?”

“I’m trying to remember what kills them,” I admitted. “Pretty sure its just a high speed arrow. Think I should pretend to know more than they do?” 

“Does that usually work?”

“Sometimes,” I said. It worked with Tsunade in Naruto. But not in Gantz with other dead people. This place felt more like Gantz. 

“Let’s see how it goes. If it’s as bad as you say, we will need to worry about ourselves.” 

“Yeah, but I remembe that the tutorial gets really hard, and you can team up later on. We need as many-” 

“We can’t team up now?” She asked, annoyed. 

“I don’t think so. This place is all about pushing past your limits. Without the World Lasting Physique we could die on the first floor if we aren’t careful.” I couldn’t remember everything but that sounded about right. 

Then again the hero of this story was a shut in gamer. Hancock and I had been fighting for our lives for years. Instincts and power systems were only the beginning of our advantages. We would have to see. 

“Jeez, this sucks,” she noted.

“Yes, which is why we will stay the 24 hours then leave,” I said. “We gotta find you a pet choice.” Hancock and I then received a quest, but it wasn’t the Choice I was looking for. 

“Gotta admit, that’s pretty damn useful,” I said. Hancock nodded, excited for our own spatial storage to take to other worlds. I could empty a lot of the books from my Capsule House into the Inventory. 

“Do you all mind if we introduce ourselves?” The protagonist announced. His voice echoing in the large room. Hancock and I nodded and walked back over. 

“That’s a great idea,” the older man said. “I am Choi Min Shik. I’m 47. And I work in an office.” I opened my mouth to introduce myself, but he continued on as if he was the new kid at school. “When I was in school, I was athletic so I’m confident in work that uses physical strength.”

The bleach haired kid went next. “I’m Jo Kyung Min,” he said. “This is dumb. Why are we doing this?” 

“It helps us build cooperation,” Choi said. 

“Cooperation? You in middle school or something?” Blondie retorted. I couldn’t help but agree. 

“I’m Lee Ho Jae,” the protagonist said. “I’m 26. I’m a pro gamer. I specialize in RTS games. Uh Real Time Strategy.” I remembered that he was some kid bored with video games which was why he picked the hell difficulty. He really wasn’t a bad protagonist, but I doubted I would be able to help him much. 

“Awesome,” blondie said, changing his tone. He looked to Lee as if he was suddenly his hero. “I love games too.”

“Cool,” Lee said, as if every kid wasn’t obsessed with video games. 

“Excuse me,” the mousy girl whispered, stopping them from talking. “I um I’m Park Soo Ha. I…like animations.” 

“Shy and innocent. My favorite,” Hancock whispered. Giving me a wink. “I am Byeun Hancock, I am 22. This is my husband, Weston.” 

“Husband?” More than a few said or mouthed.

“Yep, I’m Wes-Woon Weston,” I said. “I’m 22. I like…games?” I said with a shrug. Old me in the world wasn’t a huge fan, but old old me was. “Anime, manhwa, that sort of stuff.” 

“You are married at 22?” Lee couldn’t help but blurt. 

“When you know, you know,” Hancock said, latching onto my arm. She leaned forward giving the girl, Park, a wink. “So what next?”

“Uh,” Lee said. “I’m kind of picturing this like a game. We should…” He went off on a tangent about learning one another’s specialties. Or at least what they assumed their specialties were. These were mostly kids and an office worker. None had ever risked their lives. They were screwed, and I was hesitant to waste my time trying to explain how screwed they were. 

Feeling guilty about how nonchalant I felt about their probable deaths, I listened, unsure when to interject.