Chương 20: Chapter 19

Within a haze of misty blood and falling chunks of flesh, a massive creature coiled its sinuous body. At first glance, its blurry shape looked almost like a Chinese dragon or some ancient serpent emerging from the carnage. But as the crimson mist cleared and its form came into focus, everyone watching realized it was no serpent. Its pinkish body was completely flesh, lacking even a single scale.

There was no clear distinction between head and tail, no eyes, no limbs, no recognizable anatomy beyond a single horrifying feature. A mouth. Hundreds of razor-sharp teeth lined a gaping maw that split what was presumably its head clean down the middle. It was unmistakably a worm. What no one understood was how it had appeared in the exact place where the Goblin King had stood moments earlier before its body exploded apart. A name tag blinked into existence above the creature. Lord Of Flesh (Elite BOSS) - Lv.

50 ☠︎︎ Mei wiped her lips with the back of her hand, staring at the monstrosity in disgust.

"That's not a goblin…" Beginning a Boss Battle. Start Livestream? Livestream starting automatically due to contract terms Livestream started. Title: Battling a Never Before Seen Boss! (Hidden Boss!) SeeCuteGirl-iClick: UwU? Stream started? Frogman: A hidden boss? Never heard of hidden bosses in the tutorial. Is it a feature of Impossible difficulty? Vytr26: Two bosses again? Twenty20: Damn! I thought the streamers were muscular. What is that?! A blue muscle mommy?

YerpNerp:: mommyPls: SeeCuteGirl-iClick: Cute orc girl? No. Muscle mommy orc: nodders: ForTheHorde: Muscle mommy orc?: peepoFlush: xYzXyZ (mod): Hello Adam and Mei! Sup chat? SweetSarah (mod): Hello everyone 👋 Adam skimmed through the scrolling messages curiously, spotting plenty of familiar usernames mixed in with a few newcomers. Most of them seemed far more interested in Granessa than the horrifying flesh worm towering nearby. To be fair, he understood why. Both he and Mei were fairly muscular themselves.

Not bodybuilder levels of muscular, but anyone who saw them would immediately know they took fitness seriously. Granessa, however, existed on an entirely different level. Her explosive physique combined with her towering height made her look absurdly powerful. Adam had once compared Skysandra and Mei, likening Mei to a deep mountain valley and Skysandra to a flat airport runway. Granessa was the whole mountain. Strangely, despite how heavily muscled she was, it didn't look grotesque or unnatural.

If anything, she resembled a perfectly sculpted statue brought to life.

"Howdy," Adam said, giving a casual wave toward the empty air where the chat overlay hovered.

"Hey chat!" Mei greeted cheerfully, making a complete one-eighty from the pale, vomiting girl she had been moments earlier. Since they could still see the chat, the battle likely hadn't officially started yet. Still, there was no telling when the boss would attack. Granessa glanced between the two of them and the massive worm.

"Anyone care to explain what's happening?"

"Your guess is as good as ours," Adam replied with a shrug.

"And you two are…?"

"I'm Mei!" Mei said with a wave.

"I've been rooting for you!"

"Adam." Granessa frowned slightly, clearly still confused, but before she could ask anything else, the Lord of Flesh suddenly moved. Its massive mouth spread open as it unleashed a piercing screech. The sound was so sharp and deafening that it felt less like a roar and more like a sonic attack drilling directly into their skulls. Vytr26: My ears!!: WAYTOODANK: SeeCuteGirl-iClick:: WAYTOODANK: Frogman:: WAYTOODANK: Apparently the viewers were suffering just as much, judging by the flood of emotes filling the chat.

"Seems we don't have time for introductions. Will you two help me take this thing down?" Granessa asked, pointing toward the screaming worm.

"I'd rather not work with a knife-ear, but at least she's a dark one," she muttered under her breath.

"I'm not an el—""You'll all die!!" the Lord of Flesh shrieked, cutting Mei off.

"You've wasted years of my efforts! I was this close!!" Lord of Flesh's vermiform body thrashed violently through the burnt forest, smashing apart the brittle, charred trees around it. Clouds of ash exploded into the air with every movement, recreating the scene of the earlier blood blast on a smaller scale. Then it finally turned toward the three of them with a menacing glare. Or at least, they thought it was glaring at them. It was hard to tell considering the creature lacked any visible eyes.

Still, having that massive maw filled with razor-sharp teeth pointed directly at them was menacing enough on its own. Granessa rolled her shoulders and lifted her enormous axe over one shoulder, settling into a combat stance without the slightest trace of fear. Beside her, Mei pulled back the slide of her pistol and let it snap forward with a sharp metallic click. Adam… If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Adam didn't really have a cool combat pose.

So he awkwardly raised his bone staff and prepared himself to cast a protective shield.

"I wish I could show off too…" he muttered. Mei snorted.

"Maybe when you're the main character." The chat immediately joined in. Frogman: Bro, just take your shirt off. Show off those gains 💪 SeeCuteGirl-iClick: Streamer mans can't show off like that while surrounded by two muscle bound babes: KEKW: Twenty20: True: KEKW: Adam's#1fan: Shirt off? We won't look, I promise 🫣"Hey! He only takes his shirt off for me!" Mei shouted defensively toward the invisible chat overlay. Adam blinked.

"I normally don't wear a shirt while working out though…" Mei slowly turned to glare at him. He immediately swallowed the rest of his sentence. Granessa looked down at the two of them with visible confusion.

"What exactly are you two yelling about?" Since she couldn't see the chat overlay and probably had no idea what livestreaming even was, explaining things to her wasn't exactly easy.

"Uh…" Adam hesitated.

"Talking to friends, using magic. I guess?"

"Is it one of those weird elf magics?"

"You can think of it like that," Adam replied with a nod, deciding not to attempt a better explanation. Before Granessa could question them further, Lord of Flesh finally attacked. Its grotesque body coiled tightly before launching forward like a striking rattlesnake. A shrill hiss escaped its mouth, similar to a serpent's warning cry, except far sharper and dripping with murderous intent. Granessa surged forward to meet it head-on.

She swung her axe downward in a mountain-cleaving strike powerful enough to split the earth itself. At the same moment, a crimson glow spread across her rippling muscles as Adam cast a [Berserk] buff over her body. A semi-transparent shield materialized between Granessa and the charging boss. It shattered instantly. The barrier exploded into thousands of glass-like fragments without slowing Lord of Flesh's lunge even slightly.

Granessa's axe slammed into the creature's forehead, only to slide harmlessly across its slick, mucus-covered flesh. Her eyes widened. She could only watch helplessly as the rotten, blood-soaked maw closed in around her. Then a loud crack split the air. A purple energy projectile shot straight into the creature's open mouth, shattering an entire row of spike-like teeth. Lord of Flesh recoiled with a violent flinch, hissing in pain as blackish blood sprayed from its gums. Granessa glanced back in surprise.

Mei stood behind her with her pistol raised, smoke curling from the barrel. She flashed a cheeky grin and threw up a peace sign.

"Don't worry, we've got your back!" The chat, which still hadn't faded after the battle began, instantly erupted into a flood of: BASED: emotes. — — — Tutorial Administrator Control Room The administrator jolted awake from a peaceful nap at the sound of a blaring alarm he had never heard before in all his years working as an admin. He sat up groggily and rubbed at his blurry eyes while squinting toward the countless glowing monitors covering the walls of the control room.

Each screen displayed a different tutorial taking place somewhere across the universe. There were so many monitors that it took him an embarrassingly long time to figure out which one was actually sounding the alarm. Every single time he looked across the wall of screens, he came to the same conclusion. This really wasn't a job meant for one person. Unfortunately, the higher-ups in the company had stopped caring about tutorials years ago.

The Tutorial Administration Department had been underfunded for so long that he'd lost track of how many budget requests had been ignored. Livestreams were where the real money was nowadays. Naturally, all the funding went there instead. Meanwhile, he didn't even have enough budget to hire a single assistant. Finally, he located the flashing screen responsible for the alarm.

"Those two? Tsk!" He clicked his tongue the moment he saw the people displayed on the monitor. Earth's main character, Mei Mori. And her boyfriend, Adam Colt. The administrator watched silently for a moment before an unpleasant wave of envy rose in his chest as he stared at Adam's annoyingly handsome face and wimpy, perfectly sculpted muscles. He wasn't jealous. … At least, he would never admit that out loud. Forcing himself to focus, he searched the monitor for the actual reason behind the alarm.

Eventually he spotted a flashing warning icon in the corner of the screen. Hidden Boss Detected! Error: Hidden Boss Found in Starter Zone!

"A hidden boss…?" he muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Despite being the sole administrator for several years now, he had never encountered anything related to hidden bosses before. As far as he knew, hidden bosses didn't even exist. His predecessor certainly hadn't mentioned them during training. Then again, his predecessor also quit halfway through explaining the filing system and disappeared forever, so maybe that wasn't saying much.

The administrator leaned back in his squeaky chair and glanced across his desk, which was buried beneath empty takeout containers, soda cans, and crumpled paperwork. Somewhere in that disaster zone was the administrator manual.

"Where did I put it…?" he mumbled while digging through the mess.

"Ah, there it is!" He finally pulled the thick booklet free from underneath a pile of month-old trash he still hadn't gotten around to throwing away. A faded coffee stain covered the front from when he spilled an entire cup on it during his first week on the job. Flipping the manual open, he scanned through the index until he found an entry labeled Hidden Bosses. It was listed on the very last page.

"… That's reassuring," he said, lacking any conviction. He quickly flipped through the pages until he reached the end of the manual. The entire section consisted of a single paragraph. Hidden Bosses: Hidden Bosses are rogue beings who have infiltrated either a tutorial or dungeon without proper permission from the company. In the case of a dungeon infiltration, the company is to dispatch a kill squad.

In the case of a tutorial infiltration, there is nothing anyone can do but pray the players of that tutorial survive somehow. The administrator blinked several times.

"That's it?" he said flatly.

"Pray?" To be fair, he understood the reasoning behind it. Tutorials were completely sealed environments. Nobody aside from certain contracted individuals and newly selected players could enter them. A rule set up to protect certain individuals, much like Mei Mori—a main character. If something managed to infiltrate one anyway, then it was far above his pay grade. Still…

"If there's nothing we can do, then why does the system even have an alarm for it?" he grumbled.

"It interrupted my nap for no reason." He let out an irritated huff and tossed the manual aside.

"Since I'm awake now, I might as well file a report. We definitely won't be able to use this tutorial world again." He glanced back toward the monitor displaying Adam and Mei fighting for their lives.

"As for those two…" he said with a shrug.

"Welp, nothing I can do." Then his eyes narrowed slightly as he stared at Adam again.

"I'm certainly not praying for that lucky bastard."