Bright, orange skies. Fluffy, white clouds. Lush, green grass. The pure colors of nature. Far in the distance, a cozy and homely village with wooden brown walls, sturdy red roofs, and stone grey chimneys. The colors of civilization.

  Beneath one's feet, a sandy beige path. A winding, curving path splits through the grasslands to guide travelers to this village. The sights all around are beautiful, glorious, and filled with untold adventures to be had.

  Yet another newcomer, a new arrival, stands on the path of the beginning area. This arrival is a woman by the name of Crystal, who has long purple hair that goes down to her waist. She calls herself crystal because of her crystal blue eyes and her silver earrings with diamonds dangling from them.

  Crystal is greeted by the Guide Jelly, the one to welcome her to the world of Niwaki. He comes to terms with the fact that she's in a whole new world, that she's about to embark on an adventure of a new lifetime, and that she must learn the basics if she is to survive and thrive in this world.

  As she's guided along, the purple-haired arrival looks at the Guide Jelly and listens to its explanation attentively, standing right in front of the tree and staring at it.

  "Now, to extract the wood from this tree, please focus with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and conjure the shape of your trusty [Axe of Light]!" the Guide Jelly tells the woman, beaming and encouraging her to create the axe.

  Crystal looks between the Guide Jelly and the tree, just... staring between the two things. She does not create the axe yet. She shows no signs of attempting to conjure the axe.

  The Guide Jelly notices this after floating in silence for almost a minute. "... is something the matter, [Player]?" it asks, floating a little closer. "Are you experiencing difficulty in creating the axe?"

  "No..." Crystal immediately answers, brushing her hair aside as she looks to the Guide Jelly. "I'm alright. I have not tried yet."

  The Guide Jelly nods in understanding, then tilts its body as it stares at the woman. "Then is something the matter? You seem distracted."

  "... well, yes, I am distracted," Crystal truthfully answers, having something on her mind that prevents her from fully focusing on the tutorial. She turns away from the tree and points in a direction, raising one eyebrow. "If I may ask, who is that man?"

  The Guide Jelly watches as the woman points over to the strange, scrawny man doing jumping jacks. "Oh. Don't mind him. That is, uhm... [Noel]," the Guide Jelly answers, answering honestly.

  "What is he doing?" the woman asks. "Is that something I need to do myself?"

  "You... well... it is a complicated answer," the Guide Jelly tells the purple-haired woman, its appendages wrapping together awkwardly as it lacks the words to properly explain.

  Sometime before Crystal's arrival, the Guide Jelly gave Noel his first exercise to improve his physical capabilities. "Jumping jacks", a simple exercise the Guide Jelly planned out first on a whim.

  The exercise involves the following steps:

  First, get into the starting position by standing up straight with arms at your side. Make sure there is enough space around you so that you do not bump into anything.

  Second, jump into the air and land on the ground with feet spread apart a small distance. Raise your hands over your head while doing this step.

  Third, jump again, and return to your starting position. Feet close together and arms at your side.

  Repeat the second and third steps as many times as necessary.

  Jumping jacks are a modern exercise, one that the Guide Jelly just happens to know on instinct. It's one of the easiest exercises a humanoid could ever do, as long as they have legs. It's also an unorthodox method, as people in Niwaki gain experience from harvesting resources, slaying monsters, and other jobs.

  None of these options are available, however, so the Guide Jelly specifically told Noel to do jumping jacks for as long as possible.

  As a result, Noel's unkempt hair is extra greasy and sweaty. His green eyes are lifeless and dreary. He looks absolutely miserable, as he's been doing jumping jacks for the last five minutes and completely lost count of how many he's done. The one thing that prevents him from stopping is that he's on the verge of passing out and does not have the mental fortitude to tell himself to stop.

  The Guide Jelly does not know how to explain this to the new arrival, and appropriately just... carries on with the tutorial. "Again, please do not mind him, you do not have to do such an activity... yet. For now, please conjure and call forth your [Axe of Light]! Put your heart and soul into it, and it will form in your hand!"

  The purple-haired woman nods slowly as she... as she holds her hand out and creates her axe. Yet another arrival that can do it with ease. The tutorial continues as Crystal chops down the tree successfully.

  Crystal successfully creates the pickaxe to mine the stone from the rock. The whole time as the purple-haired woman swings, however, she can't take her eyes off Noel. After all, there's just a fully grown man who's on the verge of death, just jumping up and down for an unspecified reason.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Seeing this man continue to do this further distracts her when she fights the boar. The purple-haired woman just idly swings her sword to beat the boar. She isn't even paying attention to the dangerous boar, honestly, as she has her eyes locked on Noel the whole time. Noel is some kind of public spectacle that goes beyond reason, something that entertains and intrigues this new arrival.

  Crystal compares Noel to a cheaply made gem that a diamond cutter decided to shape into a donkey. It is unsightly, yet amusing.

  Eventually, the purple-haired woman reaches the end of the tutorial and is... is just... she's just standing in place. She's bewildered by Noel, she looks at Noel and stares at him.

  "... can I talk to him? I want to talk to him," Crystal requests, asking the Guide Jelly for permission to go speak to Noel.

  The Guide Jelly blinks a couple of times in mild confusion. "Uhm. If you really want to before entering the [Village], you may!" it answers, politely allowing this arrival to go talk to Noel.

  So, Crystal does so. Promptly, the purple-haired woman walks up to Noel, and stares at him for quite some time. "Hello, strange man. What are you doing?"

  Noel is completely out of it and does not respond. Right now, all he can see is the visual equivalent of the letter B for some reason. He does not notice a person talking to him whatsoever.

  Crystal folds her hands in front of her, staring and watching with intrigue. "... I see. Well. You seem very occupied. I wish you great luck with whatever it is that you are doing."

  Still no response. Noel can smell pennies. The rich smell of copper comes to his nose as he keeps doing jumping jacks like the drenched guy he is.

  The purple-haired woman, after this one-sided exchange, has her curiosity satisfied. "Okay. It has been good talking with you." She promptly makes her way back to the path and walks to the village, carrying on with her journey and having this strange man living rent-free in her mind for a while.

  The Guide Jelly, having watched all of that, is speechless. It never considered how distracting and eye-catching Noel is to new arrivals. In a sense, everyone who comes to Niwaki for the first time will see its beautiful nature, the distant civilization... and then a man performing menial and repetitive exercises.

  And as the Guide Jelly soon learns, this distraction is not a one-time occurrence.

  The next new arrival appears, a boy with a cyan blue bowl cut and tangerine orange eyes. He listens to the Guide Jelly's instructions for a grand total of 20 seconds before he also looks over to Noel. The exercising man is a very active sight that takes focus away from the tutorial.

  The Guide Jelly has a very brief conversation, asking the boy if everything is alright. Almost immediately, the bowl-cut boy points at Noel, and then the Guide Jelly allows yet another new arrival to go talk to Noel.

  "Uhhhhm. Excuse me?" the blue bowl-cut boy asks, looking at Noel. "You are an eyesore and I would appreciate you stop doing what you're doing, you scrawny little weakling."

  Just like the purple-haired woman, the bowl-cut boy doesn't get a response from Noel.

  The bowl-cut boy just stares at Noel in sheer disbelief. "Do you hear me? You look horrible. You look ugly. You look horrible and ugly. Stop."

  If Noel could hear this boy, he'd agree with him and stop. But he cannot hear. Therefore he cannot stop.

  The Guide Jelly wonders if...

  ... huh?

  Wait... another new arrival?

  The Guide Jelly quickly turns its attention to this next arrival, a girl with spiky black hair and yellow eyes. She arrives, looks around the environment, and doesn't even give the Guide Jelly time to speak to her before she walks over to join the two in the area.

  "Huh. What is happening here?" the spiky-haired girl asks, speaking to the bowl-cut boy.

  "I don't know. This man looks very much in pain and it annoys the (bleep) out of me," the bowl-cut boy responds.

  "Fair. He is kind of ugly," the spiky-haired girl responds.

  "Tell me about it." The bowl-cut boy looks at the girl and smiles. "This guy is very ugly. Unlike you, fair maiden, the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes on."

  This prompts the spiky-haired girl to crack an amused smile. "Dude. Really?"

  The bowl-cut boy sticks his tongue out. "Worth a shot."

  The Guide Jelly, after letting them call Noel ugly and unsightly, just... teaches them how to conjure their tools, open their menus, fight the enemy boars (two of them, so they can fight individually), and then sends them on their merry way to the village.

  Somehow, the two arrivals' shared agreement that Noel looks awful when he exercises is enough for them to bond and travel together. The pair introduce themselves to each other and are off to the village to form a traveling party.

  The Guide Jelly blinks a couple of times, registering the fact that this exercise is... it's... it's causing some unique effects with the new arrivals. Why is Noel attracting this kind of attention from the new arrivals?

  The Guide Jelly ponders on this for a little bit before it looks to Noel. Noel seems like he's done enough exercises for now, he needs a break.

  "Uhm. [Noel], you can—"

  It doesn't successfully tell Noel to stop, as another new arrival comes and interrupts it.

  Thirty minutes later, there is now a crowd of people completely delaying their tutorial. Noel has 18 different people of different haircuts and hair colors, watching him do jumping jacks as a collective audience. This has gone completely out of hand and the Guide Jelly has been trying its best to carry on, but new arrivals have been appearing non-stop. It has no time whatsoever.

  These people aren't even talking about Noel as they watch! The conversation is about fruit juice. A good majority of these 18 people are talking about fruit juice, how delicious fruit juice is, how thirst-quenching and essential fruit juice is! The Guide Jelly doesn't know how the conversation became about fruit juice, but they're talking about fruit juice!

  If this is not stopped, Noel is on track to become Niwaki's newest landmark: the Feral Jumping Jacks Man. Hundreds of people might turn this area into their new hangout spot and do nothing but talk about nonsensical conversation topics!

  The Guide Jelly feels an inexplicable sense of fear at this... and decides it has had enough.

  The Guide Jelly wants to get the arrivals moving and departing from this area. These arrivals are not going to stay in this area any longer. Noel is not going to become a landmark on its watch.

  So, the Guide Jelly promptly flies into Noel to stop his exercise and knock him over. It puts all of its might into knocking Noel over and breaking this curse.

  Noel falls to the ground and immediately stops exercising. His head turns onto his side and he goes completely unconscious, the exhaustion claiming his body in that instant.

  Disappointed sighs come out as the new arrivals watch Noel fall over...

  "Okay! Let's get back on track!" the Guide Jelly exclaims, on the verge of snapping as it takes an aggressively cheerful tone in its voice. "Hello! Welcome, [Players], to the World of [Niwaki]! Come over here, RIGHT now!"