The first thing Gojo did was open Debug Mode.
Not because he was in danger or because he had a plan, but because he was a game tester by instinct and the first rule of entering any unknown environment was simple.
'read the room before you touch anything.'
「 DEBUG MODE — ACTIVATED. 」
「 WARNING: Information revealed in Debug Mode is classified data not intended for standard players. 」
「 Proceed. 」
The world changed in his view and now everything had tags. Floating brackets of pale blue text hovered over every rock, every tree, every blade of grass like a game engine with its hitboxes exposed.
He looked at a nearby tree.
「 \[OAK TREE — TIER 1 RESOURCE NODE\] 」
「 Durability: 240/240 」
「 Drop Table: Wood [100%]/ Oak Branch [100%] Hidden Item [???%] 」
He blinked at that last line. Hidden item. He filed that away.
He looked at the grass.
「 \[WILD GRASS — TIER 0\] 」
「 Drop Table: Fiber [100%] Wild Herb [100%] — 」
Everything in his territory. Every single resource node was reading 100% because he yad dragged those sliders twenty minutes ago without fully understanding what he was doing.
He understood now. In any other player's territory, gathering that same grass would yield maybe one fiber out of every three attempts. Here, every pull was guaranteed.
"I accidentally made this place the best farming zone on the server," he said to himself.
He turned around.
The six people who had spawned with him were still arguing.
---
The business suit man who Gojo now referred to as chairman had spent the last fifteen minutes establishing a hierarchy nobody had agreed to.
He was loud, confident, and his Divine Sovereign System was apparently giving him buffs the more people acknowledged his authority. It was a classic domination-type system. Gojo had seen such mechanics in a dozen games.
He looked at Chairman through Debug Mode.
「 \[LEE SUNG TAE — PLAYER\] 」
「 Level: 1 」
「 System: Divine Sovereign \[SSS-Rank\] 」
「 Talent: Absolute Authority — Passive buffs scale with number of willing subordinates. 」
「 Current Subordinates: 0 」
「 Hidden Flag: ⚑ PRIDE DEBUFF — Decision making accuracy reduced by 34% when challenged. 」
Gojo almost laughed out loud.
The man's own system had a hidden debuff baked into his ego. The game had literally flagged him bad at taking criticism. In a survival scenario where one wrong call could wipe a settlement, that was practically a death sentence wearing a crown.
He scanned the others.
The teenage girl who was quiet and had her arms wrapped around herself.
「 \[PARK SOOAH — PLAYER\] 」
L「 Level: 1 」
「 System: Shadow Step \[A-Rank\] 」
「 Talent: Void Walker — Can move through solid objects for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 10 minutes. 」
「 Hidden Flag: ⚑ UNTAPPED POTENTIAL — True rank hidden. Unlock condition unknown. 」
He looked at her again. She was staring at the ground, clearly terrified. Her system UI was probably overwhelming her. Most people without gaming experience would struggle to even parse what a cooldown meant right now.
Next he turned to the woman in scrubs.
「 [KIM JIYEON — PLAYER] 」
「 Level: 1 」
「 System: Field Medic [B-Rank] 」
「 Talent: Triage Mastery — Healing efficiency increased by 200% in combat conditions. 」
「 Hidden Flag: ⚑ ANCHOR TYPE — Nearby allies receive passive fear resistance. 」
She was a healer and she didn't even know she was passively calming people down just by standing near them.
He checked the remaining three quickly. Two were combat types with one being a straightforward Warrior system and the other one a Ranger. The last was a young woman with a Gathering system that everyone including herself seemed to be dismissing as useless.
「 [OH MISOOK — PLAYER\l] 」
「 Level: 1 」
「 System: Nature's Hand [B-Rank] 」
「 Talent: Abundant Harvest — All gathered resources doubled. Chance to discover rare variants. 」
「 Hidden Flag: ⚑ In a 100% drop rate zone, this talent's output becomes statistically broken. 」
Gojo stared at that flag.
The game itself had written a note about his territory's drop rate in her hidden data. Abundant Harvest doubled gathered resources. His drop rate console made every resource node guarantee a drop. If one were to stack those two effects together and Oh Misook became the single most valuable person in Sector 9.
He closed Debug Mode.
Chairman was still talking.
"—which is why I'll be taking point on all strategic decisions. My system scales with loyalty so the faster you all commit, the better our survival odds become. It's simple math—"
"Where do we sleep tonight?"
Everyone turned to face who had spoke, It was Gojo and those were the first words he asked since they arrived here.
Chairman blinked. "Excuse me?"
"It's almost evening," Gojo said, glancing at the sun sitting low on the horizon of this unfamiliar world. "The enviromemt temperature's dropping. We have no shelter, no food and no tools. Your system scales with subordinates but subordinates who freeze to death at night don't count. So where do we sleep tonight?"*
Silence.
Chairman's jaw tightened. "I was getting to that part —"
"There's an oak forest four hundred meters northeast," Gojo continued, already walking. "It has enough wood to build basic structures. There's a freshwater stream running parallel to the tree line, I scouted it while you were talking. We should move now so we have shelter before dark."*
He didn't wait for a response.
After a moment, he heard footsteps behind him except Chairman, who stood alone for exactly four seconds before his pride lost the argument with his survival instinct and he followed too.
---
The forest was exactly where Gojo said it would be.
The moment Oh Misook touched the first tree with her Gathering system active and Gojo's 100% drop rate in effect, the results were immediate.
「 [OH MISOOK] GATHERED: Oak Wood x4 / Oak Branch x2 / ★ RARE VARIANT DISCOVERED: Ironbark Wood x1 [Crafting Material — Enhanced Durability] 」
She stared at her inventory. "I got a rare material. From a tree."
"Keep going," Gojo said simply.
Twenty minutes later she had gathered enough material to build three times what they needed, two more rare variants, and a crafting ingredient that the Warrior player said which Gojo had never even heard of.
Nobody was ignoring her anymore.
By nightfall they had built a basic wooden structure. It had walls and a roof and a fire pit that Gojo had figured out through the World Editor module by simply tagging a stone formation as "campfire — lit" and watching reality comply.
「 SUPREME STORE — LOCKED 」
「 Unlock Condition: Reach Developer Tier 2. 」
「 PATCH NOTES — LOCKED 」
「 Unlock Condition: Reach Developer Tier 2. 」
「 DEVELOPER TIER 2 UNLOCK CONDITION: Survive your first Scenario Event. 」
He looked at the last line for a long time.
[Survive your first Scenario Event.]