Chapter 9 - Maze of Death: Welcome to Hell
After stepping through the portal, Jhin found himself standing in a pure white space.
Before him, four glowing options hovered quietly:
Exactly as he remembered from the game.
The trial nexus.
The final stage of the tutorial quest —
where players chose their difficulty, cleared a series of challenges, and were rewarded based on their performance.
But it wasn't just about how tough the trials were.
It decided the grade of the skill you would earn.
"Even if it's the same skill... if you pick Easy, it'll be F-rank.
Pick Hell, and it could be A-rank."
He muttered the words under his breath, as if reciting an old warning.
Sure, you could level up later.
But starting with a higher-ranked skill made all the difference in the long run.
"Everyone called it the Poisoned Chalice."
High risk, high reward.
But here, in the trial nexus...
even that saying fell short.
This wasn't just risk.
It was death risk, death return.
You had to stake your life itself.
Veterans had always warned newcomers:
— Don't pick high difficulty just because the rewards look pretty.
There was a simple reason for that.
Even in a game as brutal as Exodia, choosing "Hell difficulty" meant one thing:
It was practically impossible to clear.
Honestly, even "Easy" wasn't truly easy.
People used to joke that the trial nexus offered:
Hard, harder, even harder... and absolutely f***ing impossible.
Only the daring — or the reckless — picked "Normal."
The truly insane attempted "Hard."
Even then, success was rare.
It often took dozens of failed attempts and burned accounts to finally claw through Hard.
As for Hell?
No one had ever cleared it.
Not once.
Except—
Jhin smiled faintly.
"...This time might be a little different."
He hovered his hand over the Hell option.
And hesitated.
Because this wasn't just a game anymore.
"In reality... you only get one life."
There were no second chances.
No re-rolling accounts.
If he died here, that was it.
The end...Still.
His fingers curled into a fist.
"If I can't clear this..."
He pressed down on Hell.
"...I'll never reach the end anyway."
From the beginning,
there had never been a real choice.
—
A moment later, Jhin stood in a pitch-black stone chamber.
The air was damp and cold, clinging to his skin like moldy cloth.
He shivered once and glanced toward the upper right corner.
A glowing board floated there, listing numbers:
Easy — 130,291 players Normal — 330,215 players Hard — 115,291 players Hell — 120 players
Jhin raised an eyebrow.
"120 players, huh?"
He let out a low whistle.
"So many brave souls..."
But deep down, he doubted many of them knew what they had really chosen.
"No way any true veteran picked Hell willingly."
In the game, even the best players —
the legends —
had failed again and again trying to clear it.
And this wasn't the game anymore.
This was reality.
Sure, he had once posted a strategy guide for clearing Hell.
Maybe some wild players had seen it and decided to gamble.
But a guide alone wouldn't save them.
"Reading a walkthrough doesn't make Hell any easier."
He smiled grimly.
"I hope... some of them survive."
Even he — the only one who had ever cleared Hell —
wasn't sure he could do it again now.
'Maybe I won't even last a minute.'
Still.
He hoped.
'Please... let as many as possible survive.'
Meanwhile, more and more players continued to pour into the trial nexus.
Anyone with an Exodia 2 account was being pulled in.
As long as the servers stayed online,
Earth itself had become the playing field.
Jhin exhaled slowly and turned his gaze forward.
Now wasn't the time to worry about anyone else.
Before him, a new quest materialized:
Type: Tutorial
Objective: Overcome various tests and escape the maze.
Time Limit: None
Reward: ???
Failure: Death
Simple on the surface.
Survive...Escape.
But he knew better.
Nothing here would be simple.
Every test would be brutal.
Every step ,a battle.
Jhin reached deep into his memories, recalling the last time he had faced this place.
"The first test... was endurance, right?"
BOOM!!
The stone chamber shook violently, cracks ripping across the floor.
The air thicKyleed, heavy with the stench of sulfur.
The first trial had begun.
Type: Tutorial
Objective: Test your cardiopulmonary endurance. Avoid the rising lava and reach a safe zone.
Time Limit: None
Reward: +1 Stamina
Failure: Death
Molten lava seeped out from the walls, the ceiling, the ground.
No warning.
No mercy.
The floor shrank with every heartbeat, burning away.
The heat was suffocating.
Breathing felt like inhaling pure fire.
Jhin clenched his jaw, his clothes already damp with sweat.
This wasn't some game effect.
This was real.
Painful.
Deadly.
He gritted his teeth.
"And this is just the first test..."
There was no way Hell difficulty would end with something this simple.
Without hesitation, he threw himself forward, sprinting over the crumbling floor.
There — in the distance —
a pillar of blue light shimmered like a beacon.
The safe zone, far away. But reachable.
If he pushed his body to the limit.
He leaned into the run, feeling the burning air tear at his lungs.He could make it.
He had to. And then—
Ding!
A new message flashed before his eyes:
[A new quest has arrived.]
Of course.
Type: Tutorial
Objective: Test your reflexes. Avoid the incoming arrows.
Time Limit: Until you reach the safe zone.
Reward: +1 Agility
Failure: Death
No time to even curse.
Jhin instinctively dove to the side.
An arrow hissed past him, slicing through the space where his head had been a second earlier.
And more were coming.
Many, many more.