Newbie's Quest: Awaiting Challenge

Despite their efforts, the final boss remained undefeated, leading the White Tower to automatically deem the instance incomplete. The four players, shoved off the rooftop by Ethan, were still in a daze even as the game's scenery dissipated

around them.

"You..." Emily Johnson was dizzy and disoriented. "Why did you push us off?"

Ethan, standing nonchalantly to the side and incessantly tapping on the screen projected from his wristband, was already prepared for another attempt. "If we had defeated the last boss, the White Tower would have marked the instance as completed. The entrance would be permanently closed, and none of us could enter again." Despite his fierce fighting, Ethan remembered what the original mission was.

"Here, take this," he said, picking up a caramel-colored cloth bag from the ground and tossing it to Emily Johnson's side.

"What's this?" Emily asked.

"Mission reward, a bag of gold coins." Even in failure, the instance awarded gold coins, which could be exchanged for items and weapons in the trading market.

Alexander Bennett, experiencing her first instance, had hardly had time to immerse herself before being swept along with the others. She cautiously asked, "So... what do we do next?"

"We go back in," Ethan replied without hesitation, "until we trigger the 35 side quest." He bent down to retie his shoelaces, then straightened up. They were in the White Tower's first-floor hall, with a blue button beside Ethan that players could press to enter the instance.

Ethan's hand was already on the button as he looked at the others. "This time, I'll try a solo run to see if I can trigger the side quest."

"How can you do it alone?" Emily protested.

"Let him go," Alex Johnson said this time, not objecting. After witnessing Ethan's abilities, he had grown to trust him. He seemed confident, and internally, he felt the other four were more of a hindrance than help.

Emily, stopped by Alex and not understanding, remained silent. The other two team members naturally had no objections.

"Then I'm off," Ethan announced and pressed the button to enter the instance. This time, instead of just retrieving his inflatable hammer from the cloud space, he summoned Little Red Riding Hood.

The little girl with braided pigtails appeared, her expression wooden and her eyelids blinking rigidly. The live chat exploded with comments.

"Damn, it's Red Sister!"

"Is Red Sister going to carry this time?"

"Definitely."

"I heard familiars need to be trained by their owners for a while to build rapport before they can be used in the game. Can Ethan handle such a high-risk familiar?"

"That's Ethan for you, just watch."

Little Red Riding Hood, true to her reputation, brought a surge of viewers to the livestream. In just one week, Ethan, a rising star from a poor district, had garnered more attention than many well-known players: his sensational debut, three-on- one boss fights, and now the owner of a high-risk familiar.

As Ethan's popularity exploded, he remained indifferent, but everyone was watching his every move. His Nightingale debut attracted many from the top guilds and even ACE players.

James Mitchell, from the Emerald Tempest Guild, had just finished morning training. Instead of joining the other players for breakfast, he took advantage of this rare rest time to hide in an empty tea room and opened the live broadcast of room 068 to watch the Hamilton instance.

Ethan, leading Little Red Riding Hood, appeared outside the Hamilton Middle School. If not for the ominous backdrop, it almost looked like a brother taking his sister to school. James, wearing Bluetooth earphones, turned up the volume to catch every word.

"Ethan," Ethan said to Little Red Riding Hood, "let's make a deal. I'll take the first boss, and you take the second."

"I don't know," the girl replied.

"You'll know soon enough," Ethan said, a little tease in his voice. Little Red Riding Hood blinked her big eyes innocently.

"Don't glare; your eyeballs might fall out. Aren't you aware if you're dead or not?" Ethan's teasing was merciless, and the live chat erupted in laughter.

Ethan had the rare combination of strong combat skills and a sense of humor, making his streams very popular. James chuckled along. "James? What's so funny?" Two teammates in Emerald Tempest Guild uniforms squeezed into the tea room, catching James off guard. "Nothing, nothing," he stammered, trying to hide his wristband, but his teammates held his arm, preventing him from pulling it away.

"What are you hiding? Let's see. Oh, isn't that the hero from the bad district?" In just a few days, Ethan's name had spread across all the major guilds. Opinions varied; some saw him as a flash in the pan, while others seriously studied his only instance run to assess his capabilities.

The Emerald Tempest Guild was among the former, the leadership paying little attention to Ethan and discouraging their players from focusing on such a free-spirited, uncoordinated player. Players like Ethan had appeared before, disrupting guild plans and often meeting with harsh outcomes. Therefore, James studied him in secret.

"What's so interesting? Players like that have short careers," one teammate mocked.

"Yeah," the other agreed, "but this guy reminds me a bit of you, James. Impressive in your first fight, and then what happened after being bought by a big guild?"

James had made headlines when Emerald Tempest Guild had recruited him after just one instance run. However, after joining Emerald Tempest Guild, he faded into obscurity, slipping from the first to the second team and now barely known in the third team. The reasons were unclear; whether due to lack of ability or something else, his performance was mediocre at best.

Hearing the insinuation in his teammates' words, James didn't respond, his face expressionless and numb. Sensing the lack of interest, the teammates left after a few snide remarks.

Once alone, James put his earphones back on. Others might see him and Ethan as similar, but he knew they were different. Ethan's combat abilities and mental fortitude were genuinely strong. He just needed time to prove it. Meanwhile, Ethan was conversing with Johnson, the NPC. Ethan was so familiar with Johnson's repetitive dialogues that he felt nauseous. Ethan tried to speed up the conversation with the NPC.

"Little Ethan, do you know—"

"I know."

"Our middle school isn't-"

"Not peaceful."

"You, you "

Ethan's blunt replies were a tactic to hasten the dialogue. Johnson, stuttering and halting, suddenly became silent and observant.

"Little Ethan, what's wrong?"

Johnson thought of something and abruptly stood up.

"Is there, is there a ghost-"

"Mr. Johnson, please sit," Ethan politely asked him.

As soon as Johnson touched the chair, Ethan bluntly asked, "If I knock you out right here, can we skip all this useless talk?"