UNDERLEVELED

Chapter 26

Two modes existed in Arcadia. They were the Adventure mode and Commercial mode.

Adventure mode was the standard format in which people would play Arcadia for the sole purpose of leveling up. It was the same mode that Kane was in.

On the other hand, the Commerical mode was for celebrities, athletes, and other entertainment modes. The players could interchange their modes from time to time.

The Commerical mode could be accessed by heading to a portal inside a futuristic high-rise neon-colored hotel called Neon Hotel. This hotel could be spotted almost everywhere around Arcadia. An example of people using this mode would be the baseball players that Kane fought that caused his dismissal from his convenience store work.

The Neon Republic.

It was a map that was entirely made for entertainment purposes. Fighting inside was heavily banned except for some sports. Players were also required to use a VR Capsule for them to enter this place.

In this paradise, the players' stats were useless as they would be locked to a value of X. That value highly depended on a player's personal stature and achievements in the real world. A strong person in real life like Kane would have higher stats in the Neon Republic.

As it required people to be strong in real life, unlike the standard Adventure mode that relied on unrealistic stats, only a few people played this mode. But for people who had the right amount of privileges and do not want to grind levels, then the Neon Republic was the place for them. However, there were also these rumors that shady celebrity politics were occurring inside the Neon Republic.

While the Commercial Mode only took place in the massive continent of Neon Republic, the rest of Arcadia's immense world was under the Adventure mode. This mode doesn't require people to play with VR Capsule. Players could play on mobile phones, consoles, PCs, and VR sets with very limited moves and many other disadvantages.

The Adventure mode also allowed players, who are weak in real life, rise up to the top in Arcadia by arduous work.

People usually go back and forth with these two modes. Some people managed to get famous in the Neon Republic but got caught up in some issues that they switched back to Adventure mode. While some people found it too hard to grind in Adventure mode and switched to Commercial mode and got unexpected success.

This information was mentioned at the very start of the game and even in the registration form online. But the very ignorant and uninterested Kane dismissed all that information just to quickly find the Moonwrath armor.

Unfortunately, the very first quest that would start the Adventure mode was to save Maria. Players that spawn and left the Garrison would quickly bump into Maria to initiate the quest. However, Kane's stubbornness bypassed that and failed the quest despite him defeating the thugs.

Since he failed the quest, the other succeeding quests related to Maria and the rest of the Herald City quests didn't activate.

Even if the players got defeated by the thugs, Maria would intervene and pull the players toward safety to give the next instructions. However, who would've thought that some asshole would literally push the very first quest giver away to the thugs who were chasing her. Because of that, Kane failed the quest.

The developers did create several contingency plans if some unexpected things happened that a player bypassed Maria's starting mission. There were many things that a player could encounter that would prompt Maria's succeeding missions.

However, how could Kane activate them when he left the Herald City.

The developers also made plans to prevent players from leaving the Herald City. To leave the Tutorial Island, players have to finish the questline that started with Maria. Since there were no trains, no planes, and no flying and teleporting skills available in Herald City, no one could leave the Herald City except for finishing the quest. Even if the players tried to swim, they would be killed by the level 300 Heraldian Horrors. However, Kane unknowingly bypassed everything again.