Noah was fighting hard inside the instance, engaging in a battle of wits and courage with the boss, while the outside world completely exploded.
The National Awakening swept across the globe like a supernova.
It was like an online game that launched without warning, yet instantly dominated the entire world. Countless people rushed in, excited, curious, arrogant.. matching into instances in endless streams.
But almost no one truly understood what instances meant.
To most people, it was just a game.
A novelty.
A playground.
Then reality smashed them in the face.
Just like the blonde youth, just like the collapse couple in Noah's team, the vast majority entered with relaxed attitudes, laughing, sightseeing, testing the waters.
And then...
Instant wipe.
Zero Order instances showed no mercy.
Some people walked straight into the boss and died within seconds.
Others were surrounded by monsters and NPC enemies the moment they spawned, crushed before they even figured out how to move.
There was no learning curve.
No warm up.
Only brutal, suffocating difficulty from the very first second.
Across the globe, the longest survival time recorded was less than one minute.
If ratings were possible, the public score would have been driven straight into the abyss.
-------
"What the hell is this? Is this something humans are supposed to clear?!"
The Spectacled Youth, who had been decapitated by the boss in a single sword strike, finally lost his composure after exiting the instance.
The calm, elite image he usually maintained shattered completely as he cursed out loud.
He was convinced of one thing.
His strategy wasn't wrong.
The boss was simply unreasonable.
Opening social media, forums, and group chats, he quickly realized he wasn't alone. Complaints flooded every platform. Rage posts, despair post, conspiracy theories... everywhere was chaos.
Seeing that everyone was suffering just as badly, the Spectacled Youth finally felt a strange sense of relief.
"At least... I wasn't the only one."
Just then, a notification popped up on his phone.
[Official Announcement : The Transcendent Forum is now live]
The Spectacled Youth's heart skipped a beat.
"A forum?"
Without hesitation, he tapped the link.
The webpage loaded instantly.
He quickly realized that the Transcendent Forum wasn't local, it was global.
At present, its main function was simple: A place for Awakeners worldwide to communicate, share intelligence, and vent their suffering.
Future sections, Trading Center, Quest Center, Instance Intelligence Hub... were already marked as "comming soon".
Surressing his excitement, he clicked into the Instance Discussion section.
Thousands of posts were updating every second.
After a brief glance at other instances, the Spectacled Youth instinctively clicked into the familiar one:
Blood Battle Miller Family Fortress
The moment the page loaded, his pupil shrank.
At the very top, a bold, red, pinned post dominated the Screen.
Don't Enter This Instance.
Don't Enter This Instance.
Don't Enter This Instance.
The content inside wans't much, just one sentence.
"Given the excessive difficuly of the instances, we hope everyone refrains from entering for now, patiently wait for guides, and don't waste your precious instance resurrection chance here."
Not just the forum section, everyone's phone also received a message telling them not to enter instances.
Although it was impossible to stop everyone, it at least prevented the worst situation from happening.
The Spectacled Youth continued reading.
"Om my god, what kind of bizarre teammates are these? I'm done."
This post was also very popular, full of complaints about teammates.
Thinking of his own disastrous team, the Spectacled Youth clicked into it with deep empathy and was instantly enlightened, making him deeply realize the meaning of "one kind of rice feeds a hundred kinds of people" the disparity of the world.
The matching mode was simply a chaotic dance of demons; all kinds of people were there, truly a Hell Mode.
"Shocking Starfall Country's billion people, clear instances easily with this one simple trick."
"Heh."
The Spectacled Youth sneered.
"Who still uses clickbait titles like this?"
Without even thinking, he was ready to close the post. He had seen too many scams already.
But after glancing at the content.
"What?"
His expression froze.
"Holy crap, this actually works?!"
The post described someone who entered the instance while still holding a kitchen knife at home. What shocked everyone was that the knife was actually carried into the instance along with him.
Even though the guy was instantly killed by the boss, the knife did exist inside the instance, and was destroyed there.
The comment section instantly exploded.
"Learned it, learned it."
"So the real world items can be brought in? What if I bring a handgun..."
"Stop dreaming, upstairs. Firearms are at least First Order. Zero order instances wont allow them."
The discussion snowballed.
People began experimenting like madmen, testing limits, dying repeatedly, and reporting results. Eventually, two ironclad rules were summarize:
1. The guide of real world items cannot exceed the instance grade.
2. You must be physically able to carry the item.
So fantasies of carrying submachine guns into Zero order instances were completely crushed.
But even with these restriction, the impact was enormous.
After all, modern society had highly developed industry.
Bows, arrows, shield, swords, these were all Zero Order items and could be manufactured with excellent quality.
The despair caused by the brutal difficulty was suddenly reignited into enthusiasm.
"Team Forming! Team Forming! Four shot one! A grade Talent or above, bring your own equipment!"
"S- grade Defense Talent leading team! Reliable players only!"
"A-Grade or below, don't bother."
Seeing these recruitment messages, the Spectacled Youth's face darkened.
He was only B-Grade.
Even worse, despite having a Defense Talent, no one wanted him.
In the pioneering stage of instances, no one wanted average teammates, only strongest, the safest, the most reliable.
For the rest of the day, the Spectacled Youth stayed glued to the forum.
While ordinary people hesitated and stopped entering instances, strong teams never stopped.
Among them, one name repeatedly dominated the discussion boards.
The Gale Force Team.
They were becoming legends in real time.
The weakest member of the Gale Force Team possessed an S-Grade Talent. Their captain was SS-Grade.
Such a lineup already stood above ordinary Awakeners. After gathering massive amount of intelligence and preparing specialized equipment, the team finally stepped into the instance.