"Uh, is this telling me to find my own way out of here?" Jenny realized. At this moment, a dashed red line suddenly appeared in the lower-left corner of her screen. It was probably a health bar, but it looked incredibly depleted, likely only about a tenth of its maximum capacity.
"Whoa, why am I at one HP the moment I start?!" Jenny couldn't help but exclaim.
"Whatever, whatever, let me just figure out how to escape this place first!"
Jenny scanned her surroundings again. On both sides were smooth, sheer stone walls. Ahead was a narrow path. And behind her? Jenny turned her head and saw a waterway!
However, the clearance above the water was extremely narrow, meaning she could only dive and swim underwater. But current Jenny was fearless.
"Ooh, water. Should I check out the waterway first?!" Jenny said. With a loud splash, she jumped right into the water and started swimming vigorously forward.
After playing Subnautica for a month, Jenny was quite a skilled swimmer. Plus, her character's movements were light and agile, making her swimming speed here much faster than in Subnautica.
But as she swam, Jenny suddenly noticed an oxygen bar popping up in the bottom-left corner, and it was dropping rapidly.
Jenny snapped to the realization, this game didn't have oxygen tanks!
The path ahead still looked endlessly long. Jenny hurriedly tried to swim back, but the oxygen bar had already bottomed out!
"Wait, no, why is the oxygen dropping so fast?!"
Jenny yelled in panic. The next moment, she felt her body grow heavy as it plunged downward, and her vision faded to black.
In the pitch-black screen, a massive, blood-red word appeared before her eyes.
[DEATH!]
Jenny: "..."
[LMAO, how did Jenny drown again!]
[I'm dying. Her first death in Subnautica was drowning, and her first death in Sekiro is also drowning!]
[Looks like water is her natural enemy!]
[It's obvious she went the wrong way. There's a clear path right in front of her, but she insisted on taking the waterway behind her. Is she retard?!]
↳ Cosmo_Beyond has been muted for 24 hours!
[That's what happens when you just finished Subnautica. The withdrawal symptoms are too real. Whenever you see water in a game, you just want to jump in for a swim!]
↳ [But for a character like 'Wolf,' who is obviously so agile, his ability to hold his breath seems pretty garbage.]
"Sigh, looks like I went the wrong way..." Jenny finally realized. She was too immersed from playing Subnautica and had instinctively dived straight into the water.
The camera shifted as Jenny loaded her save, returning once again to that dark, gloomy sewer.
This time, she chose to walk forward. She hadn't gone far before a twenty-five-foot-tall stone wall blocked her path.
At this moment, a prompt popped up on the left side of her vision.
[Kick off a wall while jumping to perform a double jump.]
"Whoa, I can double jump?!" Jenny was thrilled. She immediately dashed toward the wall ahead and leaped with all her might!
With a running start, her jump height reached a terrifying ten feet. She sprang high into the air in a flash, then immediately kicked off the wall!
Whoosh! Jenny's body shot up even higher, landing steadily on top of the towering wall.
She hadn't even used her hands; she had scaled the wall entirely with her legs!
"Wow, nice!" Jenny exclaimed in awe. "Look at these moves, this is seriously insane!"
This scene left the viewers flushed with envy. Double jumping was a common ability in video games, but having the player physically execute it themselves was a damn first.
After clearing the wall, Jenny pressed on, soon escaping the sewer and stepping onto level ground.
Then, she encountered her second obstacle: she discovered that a steep cliff lay directly ahead.
She walked to the edge of the precipice and peered down, realizing the drop was at least a thousand feet deep. Anyone with a fear of heights would probably have a heart attack on the spot.
'Uh, even with Wolf's agility, jumping down would definitely mean falling to my death, right?'
'So where am I supposed to go?'
Just then, Jenny noticed a rock face on the left side of the cliff, and below it, a narrow rim of protruding stones.
"D~ don't tell me I have to cross here..." Jenny instantly understood. As she walked over, another prompt appeared on the left side of her vision.
[Hug the wall and step along the edge to proceed.]
"Whoa, I really do have to cross here?" Jenny was dumbfounded. She took a closer look at the rocky ledge; it was even narrower than the Angels Landing trail in Zion National Park, probably less than four inches wide. And mind you, right beneath it was a thousand-foot drop.
[Tsk, tsk, what is New World Studio thinking? Is this a place a human can actually cross?!]
[I'm genuinely stunned! One wrong step and you'll plunge to your death on the spot!]
[Does the developers really think we're as highly skilled as Wolf?!]
[Please someone breastfed me, i'm scared of heights.]
[Wake up, devs! We might be playing as Wolf, but deep down we're still just regular gamers!]
[I can't even. I thought swimming in Subnautica was hardcore enough, but Sekiro is even more fucking hardcore!]
The chat were completely shell-shocked, but even more instigators started cheering her on.
After all, Jenny was the one playing the game, not them. They wouldn't have to experience the agonizing pain of falling to their deaths, so hyping her up cost them nothing.
"Phew, alright, I'll give it a try!" Jenny replied. She had already survived the terrifying spectacles of Subnautica. Even though this cliff was scary, she could now muster the courage to overcome it.
With that in mind, Jenny pressed herself against the cliff face and gingerly stepped onto the ledge.
At that moment, Jenny suddenly realized she had overthought things. The second she stepped onto the stone slab, she felt a magnetic pull on her back, firmly sticking her to the cliff face. The game wouldn't actually let her fall off the cliff that easily.
After all, the player was stepping into the shoes of Wolf; it made no sense for a highly skilled shinobi to plummet to his death for absolutely no reason!
Of course, Jenny drowning earlier didn't count, she had brought that entirely upon herself.
'Wow, there's an assist feature. Lucien really thought this through...'
Jenny marveled internally, but she didn't reveal this little secret to her audience. Instead, she hugged the wall and began her traverse.
It was time to show off.
As a result, the chat watched Jenny move fluidly and steadily along the steep cliff, shuffling across the narrow stone pathway at a brisk pace. For a moment, the chat was absolutely stunned.
[Jenny's balance is impeccable! She makes it look so effortless!]
[So badass! Is this even the same Jenny I know?]
The clueless viewers worshipped her like a gaming goddess. Jenny, relishing this rare opportunity to flex, chuckled and said, "Heh, take a seat, Chat."
However, just as Jenny was about to reach solid ground on the other side of the cliff, she suddenly heard voices.
Simultaneously, a prompt popped up on the left.
[You can peek your head out from edges to observe. This allows you to scout enemy positions in advance and is extremely useful. Please keep this in mind at all times.]
"Hmm, this prompt seems pretty important." Jenny immediately took it seriously. She inched forward along the cliff but didn't instantly step onto the ground. Instead, she peeked half her head over the edge.
On the flat ground ahead, two soldiers clad in crude cloth armor were engaged in conversation.
"Hey, that guy locked up down below... We didn't put him in shackles or anything. Is that really okay?"
"Don't worry about it. He doesn't have a sword, and he's severely wounded."
"Yeah, fair enough."
"Tsk, looking down on me, are we?" Jenny muttered. Those two soldiers were obviously talking about Wolf, the character she was playing.
Right then, another prompt appeared on the left.
[Crouch to hide in the tall grass. Moving like this allows you to proceed without being detected. Since you currently lack a sword, please remain stealthy, avoid enemies, and head toward the Moon-Viewing Tower. Note: When you are about to be discovered, an alert indicator will appear above the enemy's head.]
"So you're saying while I don't have a sword, I just have to be a little bitch? Ugh, so annoying!" Jenny grumbled. "Chat, it's not that I want to be a coward, okay? The system is forcing me to be a coward!"
[Cut the crap and just do it, Jenny!]
[Yeah, this is obviously the tutorial level. The real action is still a long way off.]
[We already know you're a bitch, so you don't have to apologize for it.]
"What do you mean I'm a bitch?" she shot back with an exaggerated pout. "I'm obviously a soft e-girl, okay? Hmph."
She even put on a fake e-girl voice, doing her best to sound as sweet and innocent as possible.
[Fuck, don't ever do that again. I'll fucking put a bullet in my head if you ever do it again.]
[Jenny, do it again. I'm cumming.]
Her eyes flickered toward the latest message for the briefest moment. The corner of her mouth twitched, but she acted as though she hadn't seen it at all. Instead, she calmly scrolled past it without missing a beat.
"Wow... you guys are so mean." She folded her arms with a dramatic huff before breaking into a grin. "Anyway, enough messing around. Let's get down to business."
Jenny sprang into action. As it happened, the edge of the cliff led right into a patch of two-foot-tall grass, clearly placed there thoughtfully by Lucien. She immediately crouched down, blending into the vegetation.
As she moved through the grass, Jenny's heart thumped wildly in her chest when she passed by the two soldiers. The tension only skyrocketed when she noticed that both of them had swords strapped to their waists.
'It really feels like being an assassin. This is so nerve-wracking.'
"Hm?" Right at that moment, one of the soldiers seemed to hear something and whipped his head toward Jenny's hiding spot. Simultaneously, Jenny saw an exclamation mark appear above the soldier's head, rapidly shifting from yellow to red.
[That must be the alert indicator! When the exclamation mark turns completely red, it means you've been spotted, Jenny!]
Heeding the chat's advice, Jenny hurriedly did as told, putting more distance between herself and the soldiers. Sure enough, the red in the exclamation mark quickly faded until the icon disappeared entirely, and the soldier turned his head back around.
"That was terrifying!" Jenny exhaled, trying to calm her racing heart as she continued crawling through the grass.
Soon, the patch of grass ended, leaving nowhere else to hide. However, she had already left the two soldiers far behind, so there was nothing to worry about.
Next, Jenny spotted an ancient pavilion ahead. The structure was elegant and imbued with historical charm, and a bright moon hung perfectly in the sky above it.
'What a beautiful sight. That must be the Moon-Viewing Tower,' Jenny thought. But reaching the pavilion wouldn't be easy, because another steep cliff had appeared right in front of her.
[Please grip the crevices in the rock wall to proceed. With Wolf's agility, you can easily traverse this.] The prompt on the left read.
Jenny quickly looked over and saw that there was indeed a line of fissures etched into the adjacent cliff face.
The chat exploded in disbelief once again.
[AIN'T NO WAY LMAO.]
[This ain't a game anymore. This is Rock Climbing Simulator.]
[Skill issue if you fall.]
[100% refund angle.]
"Tsk, tsk, developers really has no humanity!" Jenny chimed in with her own complaint. In reality, though, she had already guessed that Lucien definitely included some sort of assist mechanic. He wouldn't genuinely force players to rock climb on their own; otherwise, how could anyone even play the game?
If it were a hundred percent realistic, probably only a handful of people would even make it past the tutorial!
Now, it was time for her to flex once again.
"Even though the difficulty is insane, for the sake of my viewers, I've decided to give it a shot!"
Jenny declared with righteous bravado. She then cautiously stepped up to the edge, grabbed the crevice with both hands, and with a slight pull, suspended her entire body in mid-air.
Hanging there in a pull-up position, Jenny immediately felt Lucien's goodwill. Even though she was supporting her entire body weight solely with her arms, it felt incredibly effortless and totally strain-free.
And so, under the shocked gazes of her audience, Jenny actually clung to the narrow crevice, scaling the sheer cliff face with nothing but her bare hands!!!
[Brahhh, you should subs to my patreon fr fr. Patreon .com/EdgyReader]