Traveling through the game world, starting out as a third-rate villain

"That's all for today's class," the history professor's voice resounded through the classroom again, marking the end of another class. The students breathed a sigh of relief, collectively letting out a sigh of relief, meaning that their academic tasks for the week had finally come to an end.

"No homework this week, have fun on the weekend," he announced, and walked out of the classroom, leaving behind a jubilant atmosphere. As the door closed, the students burst into enthusiastic cheers.

"Whoa! No homework!"

“Finally I can rest!”

“What a lucky week this has been!”

The atmosphere in the classroom changed from concentration to cheerfulness. Desks were pushed aside and the rustling of backpacks marked the beginning of the weekend. Frowns were no longer furrowed, and smiles and laughter replaced concentration and tension.

"So, who's going to relax this weekend?" one student suggested with a smile.

"Count me in! I've been studying all these days and I need to relax." Another student interjected.

"I heard there's a movie night in the common room on Saturday. Let's go!"

The classroom was filled with excitement, everyone was planning weekend activities, inviting each other, and the excitement was in the air. A weekend without homework and exams was an exciting relief for every student.

In fact, since the students in the college are older than the younger, they will certainly interact and socialize with each other. Moreover, knowing that most of the students come from good family backgrounds, the most likely activity on weekends is to spend money to get together with each other.

I then started packing my stuff. Since it was a weekend without homework and no club meetings, I planned to go on another dungeon crawl to earn some money.

Just as I was about to leave, suddenly, I saw what I had been waiting for.

"Ethan, can I talk to you alone?"

A girl with chestnut hair and blue eyes walks towards our protagonist, who is also slowly packing up his things.

She looked very tired, her clothes were a little shabby, her hands were covered with calluses, and now she was injured. Her face was a little pale, with obvious dark circles under her eyes, and she could faintly smell some potions that enhanced her physical strength. I could feel the slight side effects of her unbalanced diet.

Overall, the girl showed signs of fatigue.

"Um... do I know you?" As a kindhearted protagonist, Ethan looked at her in confusion, with a surprised expression. This was normal, as she was not someone Ethan had ever talked to before.

"Ah... sorry... could we please find some place to talk in private?" But Emily seemed uncomfortable with others watching.

At this time, Ethan's reputation was not very high. Although his family was very famous, he was still ranked at the bottom of the academy.

So, aside from Julia and Lucas' teasing glances, no one paid much attention to what Ethan was doing.

"Well..." But this does not mean that Ethan did not feel embarrassed. After all, a girl saying such words to the opposite sex can easily cause misunderstanding.

“Please, this is important.” But seeing that Emily even forgot to introduce herself, Ethan couldn’t refuse her anymore and nodded.

She finally breathed a sigh of relief after getting the answer, and looked visibly relieved. "Thank you."

Just like that, the two of them left the classroom, but I saw Lucas and Julia looking at him with teasing eyes.

'It seems his fate is sealed.'

Remembering the dialogue in the game, I knew Ethan would be teased about this for a long time.

'Then I have to prepare for this.'

With this thought in mind, I left the classroom and headed towards my room.

......

When I entered the room, the first thing I did was to log into the Hunter Community website through my cadet status.

I started browsing the dungeon crawler recruitment information on the notice board.

Due to the continuous emergence of dungeons, the guilds that manage them sometimes face difficulties, or sometimes a dungeon does not belong to any guild, but is purchased by some individuals or groups to expand their business in the hunter field.

As a result, hunters have a community dedicated to finding dungeon crawlers to recruit, and its system is similar to the black market, ranking hunters based on performance and money earned.

But if there is one difference, it is the strict regulations on information management. You need to register with an ID card, which records your abilities and the types of weapons you use.

With this information, it becomes easier to track down criminals with paranormal abilities. Of course, there are other things like taxes, but the most important thing is transparency.

In addition to this, entering a dungeon alone is very difficult as the dungeons that are discovered are usually overseen by a guild or association.

This is also the reason why I went to the black market to explore the dungeon, because I prefer to act alone rather than with a hunter team. After all, there are many people who are difficult to control, and my ability is enough for me to face it alone.

Even though I don't have overwhelming strength, I do have one thing: flexibility. Because I can enhance the bullets on my guns, I can deal more damage, and due to the characteristics of the gun, the attack speed is also very high.

With my [Shadow] trait, I can also move silently, which makes me very flexible when guiding monsters and performing surprise attacks.

But I tried to hide these things as much as possible, especially my [Shadow] attribute and my ability to use guns, because I am sure that Kaya Hartley did see the moving shadows at that time, and with the sound of gunfire, if she knew these, it would not be difficult to connect this point.

And once she connected the dots, she would come to me.

What is the reason?

I was a threat to her. Even if I saved her daughter, her mindset would be, "If my daughter was a target, could I have saved her?"

And it is our human nature that when we encounter something we cannot comprehend or grasp, we often choose to destroy it. After all, that is how we react.

In this case, I would become a target for Kaya Hartley, which would ultimately put me in danger.

This is the only reason I don't want to explore the dungeon, but with my current bow abilities, I should at least be in a believable position.

Anyway, after browsing forums and bulletin boards for a while, I finally saw the notification I wanted to see.

————

Guild: Azure Crown

Mission: Emergency Dungeon Exploration

Objective: Clear the dungeon and obtain the core of the boss monster

We, members of the Azure Crown Guild, are in urgent need of assistance for an emergency dungeon crawl. The recent economic downturn and unexpected expenses have left us in a financial crisis, and we may face ruin if we cannot obtain a valuable artifact.

Require:

Archery Expert: A skilled long-range archer with an aptitude for accurate shooting and a variety of combat techniques. The ideal candidate will be familiar with tactical positioning and trap detection.

Healing Expert: A skilled healer who can support the team with healing magic and provide vital help in critical moments. Those with defensive magic are preferred.

We offer generous rewards for your services. Mission details will be disclosed after an agreement is reached.

If you think you have the skills needed and would like to help during our critical time, please contact us today.

Contact information: Guild Master Lorain → Contact us via platform message

Location: Azure Crown Guild Hall, 351 Guild Street, District 3, Arcadia City

Deadline: Next Saturday

————

I was curious when I saw this notification coming from there. In the game, players are contacted directly through Emily. Therefore, I had not checked the guild's notifications before.

'So you want to find a therapist.'

Finding a therapist is not an easy task, especially when you are short of money. This is a key mistake that most beginners tend to make. Of course, it could also be that they are in desperate need of some funds, but either way, that is the reality.

'And this healer is a devil's contract person.'

This will become a fairly common pattern in the future. Demons will find the lack of healers to be a critical issue, and will exploit this by disguising themselves as healers. This will lead to the downfall of many hunter groups.

This was one of the reasons I wanted to join this dungeon crawl. The healer they hired for this mission was a demon contractor, which almost resulted in the annihilation of the party.

Of course, as players, we were there and the team was able to handle that guy. But it was never certain. Just by my presence, things could have changed, and the butterfly effect probably ensured that.

Although deep down, I knew these were all excuses.

'I'm going to kill him.'

This is because the demon contractor will leave the dungeon alive and escape. Although Ethan can deal with his destruction, the demon contractor is very cunning with his ability.

'I won't let him get away with it.'

The second reason is that the dungeon has a hidden level.

This was a hidden level I discovered while doing this side quest, and it was no coincidence. Because I was paying attention to every detail, I noticed that the mana in one place was different. My character wasn't drawing mana like usual, which was evidence of mana disturbance.

With this suspicion, I walked there and made some random attempts. As a result, when I used mana in front of the small stone, I was sucked into a space portal and entered a hidden level.

'Well, since it's next week, I have plenty of time to prepare.'

After all, the last vacant seat wasn’t filled by someone else, which meant they wouldn’t reject me either.

With that thought in mind, I closed the site and began preparing for another dungeon exploration.