The group took a brief, cautious tour through the various functional sectors of the Vitality Hall.
The Weapon Forge, the Safe, the Garden, the Vending Machine…
Every familiar facility stood in its designated corner, humming with a faint, interactive glow.
But the reality of their situation quickly set in.
“The good news is that these stations are theoretically functional,” the Second Brother sighed, crossing her petite arms.
“The bad news is that our pockets are completely empty.
We don’t have a single coin to interact with them.” The Eldest Brother ran a massive, magma-crusted hand over the cold anvil of the Weapon Forge.
A deep rumble of confusion echoed from his molten chest.
“Looking at the architectural style of this Hall and the fully unlocked weapon blueprint library…” He turned his heavy gaze toward the Fourth Brother.
“Is this your lobby?” “It looks like it,” the Fourth Brother replied, scratching his pale cheek.
“The last multiplayer room I hosted before we crossed over was mine.
Maybe that’s why it loaded my layout?” “If that is the case…” The Second Brother tapped the forge’s holographic interface a few times, her expression falling into disappointment.
“The weapon blueprints are all here and fully unlocked.
But why is the crafting material storage completely empty?” “Huh?
That’s impossible!” The Fourth Brother squeezed his way over, his crimson eyes wide with disbelief as he inspected the glowing tab himself.
“I clearly remember hoarding a mountain of materials!
Iron ore, timber, mechanical parts…
How is it completely wiped clean?!” The Eldest Brother stared at the blinking, empty inventory screen, his fiery brows knitting together.
“Without raw materials, how are we supposed to forge any weapons?
Does this mean we have no choice but to enter the Dungeon to farm them?” That single sentence caused a heavy silence to crash over the group.
As if pulled by an invisible string, all four of them turned their gazes toward the most conspicuous anomaly in the center of the Vitality Hall.
The portal.
It stood there, emitting a cold, pulsing light, an open maw leading into an absolute unknown.
“Come to think of it…” the Third Brother murmured softly.
As he shifted his weight, the massive, branching antlers atop his deer head swayed, casting long, eerie shadows across the stone floor.
“Does that portal…
really still lead to the same pixelated Dungeon we used to run?” The atmosphere grew thick with unspoken dread.
Finally, the Eldest Brother shook his head, firmly dismissing the idea of blindly charging in.
“We are flesh and blood now, not lines of code,” he stated, his voice a low, commanding rumble.
“Those pixelated monsters that used to look cute on a screen…
who knows what kind of grotesque abominations they have become in this reality?
The risks are entirely unknown.
It is better to err on the side of caution.” He looked at his three brothers, his molten eyes glowing with resolve.
“Our most urgent priority is to understand the limits of our current bodies.
Let’s move to the training dummy.” They crossed the stone floor, the heavy thud of the Paladin’s footsteps contrasting with the near-silent glide of the Vampire.
As they arrived at the designated training zone, the Fourth Brother could no longer contain his excitement.
He bounded forward, his pale hands gripping the long, sinister shaft of his Reaper’s Breath scythe, winding up for a devastating horizontal cleave.
“Wait!” The Eldest Brother barked, his tone dead serious.
“I remember the Reaper’s Breath consumes the user’s health with every swing, right?
Your physical body…” “Relax, relax, Eldest Brother!” The Fourth Brother waved a dismissive hand, a cocky grin spreading across his fanged mouth.
“I am playing the Vampire!
Just watch this!” Before anyone could utter another word of warning, his slender figure spun with violent, blinding speed.
The massive scythe tore through the air, carving a brilliant scarlet arc accompanied by a shrill, ear-piercing shriek of displaced wind.
“One Slash Opens the Heavenly Gate!” Driven by his pure, unadulterated chuunibyou energy, a colossal, ring-shaped blade of condensed blood erupted from the edge of the scythe.
It tore forward, instantly bisecting the sturdy wooden training dummy in a single, flawless motion.
The blood blade did not stop there.
Carrying an unstoppable momentum, it flew across the vast expanse of the Hall, slamming into the distant pixelated boundary wall.
The moment it made contact, it did not explode; instead, it vanished silently, rippling away like a pebble tossed into a dark lake.
“Holy crap!
It’s that huge?!” The Fourth Brother gasped, genuinely startled by the exaggerated destruction he had just unleashed.
He nearly fumbled the heavy scythe in his shock.
The others stood frozen.
The sheer kinetic force of that strike far surpassed the modest visual effects they were used to on their phone screens.
The Eldest Brother was the first to snap out of his daze, his voice echoing urgently through their mental link.
‘Fourth Brother!
Are you experiencing any physical backlash?
What about the health consumption?’ “No major issues!” The Fourth Brother patted his chest, taking a quick inventory of his bodily sensations.
“Watch this!” “[Bat Swarm!]” A swarm of blood-crimson flying swords, their hilts flapping like the leathery wings of bats, materialized out of thin air.
They moved with predatory grace, pouncing upon the magically regenerating training dummy like starving sharks smelling fresh blood in the water, aggressively siphoning its vitality.
As the crimson swords tore into the wood, a faint, healthy flush returned to the Fourth Brother’s previously pallid cheeks.
“See?
Look at that,” the Fourth Brother said, lifting his chin in a triumphant, arrogant display.
“Just drain a little blood and I am right back to full.
It is nothing.” The training area fell dead silent.
The Eldest Brother, the Second Brother, and the Third Brother simply stared at him, their expressions twisting into a bizarre mix of shock and revelation.
The Fourth Brother shifted uncomfortably under their intense scrutiny.
“No, wait…
why are you all staring at me like I grew a second head?” The Second Brother’s voice drifted over, soft and trembling with disbelief.
“What you just cast…
was that your First Skill?” “Yeah!
So what?” The Fourth Brother answered instinctively.
Then, the realization hit him like a physical blow.
His jaw dropped, his voice cracking as it jumped an octave.
“Wait!
I clearly remember equipping my Third Skill in the lobby before the game started!
How the hell did I just cast my First Skill?!” The four of them exchanged wide-eyed glances, a terrifyingly magnificent hypothesis taking root in their minds.
“Could it be…” The Fourth Brother swallowed hard.
With a potent mixture of trepidation and soaring excitement, he raised his hand and carefully invoked the name of another ability.
“[Otherworld Vortex!]” The air in the center of the training zone warped violently.
A twisting, rotating black hole of pure, condensed blood materialized out of nowhere.
A terrifying gravitational pull erupted from the singularity, violently ripping the invisible dust from the stone floor and dragging it into the crushing void.
“Holy crap!” The Second Brother shrieked.
Caught completely off guard, her lightweight, petite frame was instantly dragged forward by the sheer force of the suction.
“Careful!” The Third Brother, standing closest to her, reacted with blinding speed.
He lunged forward, his massive, muscular arm snatching the Second Brother by the waist and anchoring her firmly to the ground.
Panicking, the Fourth Brother hastily severed the connection, collapsing the vortex and leaving behind nothing but a chaotic mess of dissipating energy ripples.
“…” “…” “…” “…” The four of them stood in stunned silence.
The Fourth Brother stared blankly at his own pale, trembling hands, then slowly lifted his gaze to meet the equally dumbfounded stares of his roommates.
“I…
I think…” he stammered, his voice vibrating with uncontainable thrill.
“I think I can use all of my skills!” That singular, devastating discovery ignited a firestorm of excitement.
Without needing another word, the group scattered across the training zone, eager to test the limits of their new reality.
The Eldest Brother planted his feet and let out a deafening, earth-shaking roar.
“[Divine Transformation!]” In a blinding flash, a torrential surge of raw power swept through his molten core.
His already towering, lava-forged physique expanded outward, his rocky exterior cracking and splitting with the sound of tectonic plates shifting.
From his broad back, two colossal arms composed entirely of superheated, dripping magma burst free.
They flexed and waved behind him with terrifying fluidity, radiating a suffocating, heart-palpitating wave of heat and oppression.
A short distance away, the Second Brother elegantly raised her slender hand.
“[Nightmare Mark!]” A sinister, dark luminescence washed over the training dummy, and the very fabric of space beside her began to distort.
With a wet tear, a demonic entity clawed its way into existence.
It was a one-eyed imp, roughly half the height of a human, wreathed in dark, localized flames.
It flapped its leathery, fleshy wings and hovered obediently at her shoulder, emitting a low, menacing hiss.
Not to be outdone, the Third Brother pushed his druidic limits, chaining all three of his innate abilities in rapid succession.
A colossal Shadow Crow and a ferocious Shadow Wolf condensed from the ambient darkness, their massive forms casting oppressive silhouettes across the floor.
From the solid stone beneath their feet, gigantic, pulsating vines erupted.
They were grotesque and terrifying, covered in jagged spikes and seemingly woven from raw, twisting flesh and blood, thrashing wildly in the air.
Finally, a towering, spectral deer-headed spirit materialized with a deafening, ethereal roar.
Its violent, ancient aura instantly commanded the attention of everyone in the room.
In the span of a few breaths, the previously spacious training sector was completely overrun by a horde of monstrous behemoths.
The colossal Shadow Crow blotted out the ceiling lights, the ferocious Shadow Wolf crouched low with a rumbling growl, and the ominous flesh vines writhed like a nest of vipers.
Dominating them all was the massive deer spirit, taking up nearly half the available space, the ghostly candle flames burning upon its antlers bathing the entire Hall in a bizarre, surreal glow.
“Holy smokes…” The Fourth Brother stared, his crimson eyes bulging as he took in the chaotic spectacle before him.
“Third Brother, aren’t your summons a little too massive?
With this kind of scale, you could effortlessly level an entire city block!” The Second Brother swept her gaze across the terrifying army of beasts, her usually calm demeanor cracking to reveal a deeply suppressed, manic excitement.
“It is not merely a matter of scale.
Have any of you considered…
that our skills might be capable of cooperation?” The Eldest Brother paused, his molten brow furrowing in thought as his four massive magma arms scraped together, emitting the harsh, grinding shriek of colliding metal.
“You mean…” “Think about it,” the Second Brother said, pointing a delicate finger toward the towering Druid.
“Third Brother’s First Skill, [Frost Ember Wolf Assault], is designed to enhance the attack power, physical size, and movement speed of his summons, while simultaneously imbuing them with Ice and Fire enchantments.” She took a step forward, her eyes gleaming.
“So, what happens if he applies that specific enhancement effect to the spirits and the flesh vines generated by his other two skills?” The Third Brother froze, his massive deer head tilting slightly as he processed the theory.
Closing his eyes, he reached deep into his mana pool, simultaneously channeling the potent enhancement aura of his First Skill and forcefully guiding that raw power directly into the thrashing flesh vines.
The very next second, a stunning, catastrophic mutation occurred.
The Shadow Wolf and the Shadow Crow, already terrifyingly large, suddenly ballooned in size as if injected with pure adrenaline.
The dark shadows clinging to their forms ignited, flowing and burning like black fire.
But it was the flesh vines that underwent the most horrifying transformation.
They began to grow and mutate with psychotic speed.
The main stalks thickened into massive, impenetrable trunks, thrashing wildly like a pit of prehistoric pythons.
Their height and density skyrocketed exponentially, violently smashing through the invisible ceiling boundaries and spilling out to consume the entire Hall.
What was once a mere cluster of oversized vines had instantaneously and violently terraformed the room into a sprawling, aggressive, carnivorous forest.
“Holy crap!!!” The Fourth Brother screamed, his excitement peaking so hard he literally threw his beloved scythe onto the floor.
“Third Brother, you could straight up cosplay Hashirama Senju!
This is literally the Advent of the Tree World!” The Third Brother stood in the center of his Titan-class army of flora and fauna, his own eyes wide with deep shock at the devastation he could casually unleash.
The Eldest Brother surveyed the strategic-level destruction before them.
For the first time since they had awakened in this strange, unforgiving universe, a genuine, relaxed smile cracked across his rocky, lava-filled face.
It was the absolute, grounding confidence that only absolute power could provide.
‘It seems…’his deep, resonant voice echoed through their mental link, vibrating with an unmatched, ironclad certainty.’The chips we hold to survive in this world, and perhaps even carve a path back home, are far heavier than we ever dared to imagine.’ “It is not just that!” The Second Brother spun around, her voice trembling with an escalating, almost hysterical thrill as she looked up at the towering Paladin.
“Eldest Brother!
Have you guys not noticed…” She took a shaky breath.
“Our skills…
they don’t have any cooldown times!” [Rhodes’s Note: “Advent of the Tree World” and “Hashirama Senju” are references to the anime Naruto, where the First Hokage uses an overpowered jutsu to instantly grow a massive, destructive forest to crush his enemies.] [Rhodes’s Note: Enjoying the operation so far, Doctor?
(This daily grind literally pays the landship’s rent!
to use the links!)