Chapter 2: First Death

*ting*

NoticeYou have learned a new skill, (Passive) [Play Dead] Beginner LVL 1 (0.00%)!

Due to constantly being lucky enough to survive the most dangerous situations, as soon as you’re HP drops to 1, there is a high chance for low level monsters to ignore you as you fake your death, during this state, you will remain unconscious for 6 hours with your HP frozen at 1 point.

Note that this skill will stop bleeding and poison status but will not be able to defend against physical attack, in this defenseless state, you can only rely on the pity your enemies will give you and your fame will be deducted by 10 points.

Notice-10 Fame

“Ugh…”

Lucas moaned as he reached for his head with his right hand.

“I’m…alive? But how? Or rather, what the hell is up to this skill!!!???”

Lucas didn’t know whether he should be grateful or not with his new found skill. Since it hurt his pride to have such a cowardly skill, he silently cursed but shook his head since it also saved him.

“Haah…This is what happens when you have an absurdly high luck huh?”

In the real world, luck is just an imaginative figure which most people use every day just in order to have something to blame to. But here, luck actually has its value, if there was a lottery here, one just has to use up all his stat point to luck and he will have a higher chance of winning. Not only that, the number and rarity of the item an enemy drops also increases so he should be grateful to have such a high luck.

But what irritated him was the fact that his stats were supposed to be randomly chosen according to the game system after scanning Lucas’s body and mind. This meant that the system judged him as a person who only has luck and speed.

“Well, there’s no use grumbling about it now, I’ll just have to focus on the other stats first.”

After thinking about his future actions, he opened the inventory and pulled out a [Beginner’s Potion] and drank it to refill his HP.

“Now then…how to get out of here…hm?”

Lucas’ sight turned to the upper rightmost of his vision which displayed the time in real together with the time in game. As it was that the game time travels three times faster than in real, the time displayed differed.

[12:15 am]

[2:45 pm]

“…”

Silence filled the atmosphere as he continued to stare at the upper time.

Lucas started to log in around 5:00 pm in real time, he spent more than 3 hours in the [Training Room] and 12 hours when he first fainted and 6 hours on his second near death experience.

Meaning, he hadn’t ate dinner ever since.

“…”

Once again, silence filled the atmosphere.

“L-let’s just eat a lot for tomorrow’s breakfast…”

Getting addicted to the game, he procrastinated himself from eating.

Since he could still play for another 5 hours in real time, he can go on for 15 hours here in the game.

“Having a faster time sure is fantasy-like…maybe I should do my homework here so I can have more time to play?”

Having such an idle thought, he calculated the time in his head. If he does homework here for 1 hour, he has a free time of 2 hours until an hour will pass in real time, but if he were to do his homework in real for the same 1 hour, he would lose 3 hours of his game time! With that in mind, Lucas swore to himself that he would do his homework here in the game.

Even though he said that, there was no way of actually typing and bringing his assignment in and out of the game. So in reality, he can’t do any homework in the game aside from thinking the solutions ahead of time.

Anyway, he still has one problem.

“…How the hell do I get out of this place…?”

Though he was surprised by the fact that Lvl 31 is still called as “Low level monster” by the system, it didn’t change the fact that Lucas who was a Lvl 1 is still far more weaker.

He surveyed the area once more in that spot where he will resurrect if he died.

“Haah…looks like advancing forward is the only way huh?”

Seeing as he can’t think of any idea, he focused his eyes to try and adapt to the darkness while advancing slowly and quietly.

*kikikiki kikik kiki ki kikiki*

After a few minutes of walking, he encountered flock of [Dracula Bats] again.

“Damn, let’s see you bite this-!”

Lucas exclaimed as he swung his dagger downwards, left, and right which only sliced through air.

*kikikiki*

The bats seeming to mock him, coolly dodged the swing easily and just flew around him. As if to say they can kill him anytime they wanted to.

“…Like I thought…You leave me no choice-!”

Lucas sharpened his glare which caused the bats to flinch for a moment for some reason.

Tension fill the air as Lucas continued to glare at the bats.

After a few moments, Lucas let out an extremely fast swing which sliced the a bat in half and drained it’s HP in a second!...however, reality can be quite cruel.

“RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Lucas turned tail once more and ran for his life.

Stupefied by Lucas’ actions, the bats gave chase after regaining their sense. A closer look to the bats revealed that their faces were slightly tinted with red due to embarrassment of getting caught by their opponent’s pace. But of course, Lucas didn’t take any notice of it and continued to run.

“Tch, if there’s anything to rely on, that could only be my speed and insane luck!!! Somehow, please make it happen so that I will survive this situation, my 57 Luck!!!!!”

As if being played by God, he tripped his feet after thinking of relying on his luck.

“D-damn, I’m supposed to have good luck!!! Why am I having bad luck when I don’t need it!!!???”

Rolling to the ground, he soon fell in a small hole on the ground where he could barely fit in.

After falling in the hole, the bats flew above him seeming to have missed him.

“…In the end, am I lucky or not…?”

Either it was thanks to his 57 LUK, or his bad luck of tripping, he was able to get out of that mess and managed to stay alive

Sighing after ascertaining his safety, Lucas relaxed in that small hole when he was greeted by a familiar window.

NoticeYou have learned a new skill, (Passive) [Night Vision] Beginner LVL 1 (0.00%)!

Due to being exposed to a dark surrounding for a long amount of time, you’re eyes have now just adapted to the darkness!

+1 to all stats temporarily during the dark.

“Oooh!!!”

Lucas couldn’t help but exclaim in excitement as he read through the notice window.

With this skill, he will be able to see better inside the cave. To confirm this, Lucas went out of the hole and looked at his surroundings.

“Oooh, though it’s not as clear as day, it’s still better than before, I’ll just have to travel like this while raising its proficiency.”

Since his [Night Vision] is still at beginner Lvl 1, it’s to be expected that his vision won’t be cleared in an instant. To describe it, Lucas vision is like looking through a thin fog.

Lucas walked back to his own resurrection point, or at least, he tried to but can’t find it. A cold sweat traced down his forehead.

It should have been easy, after all, that spot is the only one with the sunlight and it’s still not the time for the sun to set…unless…for some reason…that gap was blocked by something.

He walked around the area for an hour to look for his spot but to no avail. It’s confirmed.

He’s lost.

“N-no choice then…”

As he tried to calm himself down, he started walking to a different area.

+ + +

“Go! Hit him in the flank!”

“Uwoooohhh-!”

*bam!*

A dry sound could be heard as Geeves tackled the Lvl 10 [Young Bear] on its left side.

The bear staggered for a while due to the sudden impact. Using this opportunity, Rice stabbed the bear from the front and pushed it back.

Tripping as it fell backwards, the bear landed on a boulder behind him. As it couldn’t bear its weight, the boulder crumbled and filled a hole beside it which seemed to lead to a certain cave.

““Yes!!!””

The two players excitedly shouted as they had finally won against the bear that they kept losing to ever since they started playing.

These two were one of the 1000 lucky people who had won a [Portal] through the text lottery, they thought it was an amazing coincidence that these 2 best friends were able to get one.

“Man, we were really lucky to be able to get one of these for free…I wonder about the rest?”

“Haha, if they also got one then it’s no longer a coincidence but fate, is it?”

“Maybe, haha. Well, let’s go grab and sell the drops so we can finally buy some armor.”

+ + +

And that was how the hole Lucas fell into was closed.

Of course, he had no idea who did it and what caused it, right now, he is still struggling to find his way out.

Walking about 10 minutes since he abandoned looking for his favorite spot, he finally saw a lone [Dracula Bat] hanging on a low ceiling. It seems that it has not noticed Lucas just yet, he had to thank his [Night Vision] for being able to see the bat first before he was noticed.

“Great, its alone. I’m gonna make them pay for everything they did to me!”

Lucas bent his body as close to the ground as possible and crept as silently as possible.

When he judged that the bat was in his attack’s reach, he held his breath and released the fastest slash he could do.

*kiiiiiiiiiii!*

The bat screeched in pain. Since the battle began, Lucas can now see the HP and MP bar of the bat over it.

“Nice! A surprise attack made it lose 30% of its HP!”

Even if it dealt damage, it was still alive, hence, now he has to hit it while it flies.

*kikikiiiiii!*

The bat lunged and scratched Lucas all over making him drop 10%...15%...25% of its HP and still decreasing.

“D-damn, have to watch its movement and adapt!”

Lucas stared at the [Dracula Bat] closely and made sure to follow its movements. As he get the hang of it, he got better at dodging its attack. Soon enough, he only got single digit damages.

“Left, right, back…right…”

Lucas’ eyes focused on the bat without batting an eye. He cleared his mind as he waited for an opportune moment.

“There-!”

Soon enough, he saw an opening and hacked his dagger at the bat.

*kiiiiiii!!!*

The bat’s HP was already 70% drained.

“I’m not finished-!”

Lucas swung his dagger once more and drained another 20% of its HP.

The bat was now flying slowly and low showing its weak back to Lucas. He silently walked towards the bat and gave the finishing blow.

*kiiiiii!*

The bat let out its last cry as it slowly vanished.

Lucas swung his dagger to remove the blood on his dagger, not like there was blood as it was a game.

“Seems like its weak if it’s alone.”

*ting*

NoticeYou have gained a level!

You have gained a level!

You have gained a level!

You have gained a level!

You have gained a level!

You have gained a level!

You have gained a level!

NoticeYou have learned a new skill, (Active) [Bash] Beginner LVL 1 (0.00%)!

Deals 10% more damage.

Low chance of paralyzing the enemy when hit.

MP Cost: 3 points

“Woaaaaaaahhhh!!!!”

Lucas gripped his fist high as he shouted in victory.

He gained 7 levels just defeating 1 bat! Imagine what will happen if he defeated a whole flock!

“Now to distribute the [Status Points].”

[Status Points] are points earned after gaining a level, 1 level would give the player 5 [Status Points] and he’s allowed to distribute it to his stats to increase it.

“7 levels…so 35 [Status Points]…let’s place 10 to STR, INT +5…VIT +10, SPD…+5, DEX +5, LUK is high enough so that’s enough.”

Satisfied with his stats, he went back to wandering around the cave to hunt some [Dracula Bats]

By the way, the [Dracula Bat] he fought before dropped 2 [Dracula Bat Wings], 1 [Dracula Bat Leather] and 1[Dracula Bat Tooth], of course, what it was used for, he has no idea.

Walking proud and overestimating himself, Lucas lunged in once he saw a flock of [Dracula Bats] without any kind of strategy.

In the end, he won…not.

Obviously he lost, the bats were indeed stronger when they move in a group rather than being alone.

As Lucas focused his attack on one bat, another attacked him from the back and made him miss his actual target, then the bat that he was supposed to target counter attacks by lunging to his face dealing more damage. Even as he was attacked like that, countless bats attack him from all direction.

And then, he experienced his first death in the game, for real this time.

+ + +

Several hours before, by the time Lucas joined Feredir's party, in the real world.

“Sir Trask, may I come in?”

A light knock could be heard from the door of his office.

“Ah, Ms. Bristow, yes come in. What is it?”

Forest Trask answered as he sat behind his desk looking through papers and documents.

From the door, a woman around 20 years old came out opening the door while holding a mobile terminal on one arm.

She wore a formal long sleeved white shirt beneath her black vest with light blue trimmings and the same color patterned short skirt. Her shoulder length blonde hair was neatly tied up behind her head.

“I heard you were looking for interesting players?”

Lilieanne Bristow, an employee who worked for the company that made [Portal] and [World Gate Online] possible, walked in front of Trask’s desk.

“Oh? Did you know of one?”

“Fufu, yes, I doubt you will find one more interesting than him.”

Intrigued by his employee’s words, he looked up and stopped reading the documents he had on hand for the first time.

“Continue”

“Yes, his character name is Lucas, started playing just a few minutes ago.”

Lilianne passed the terminal she had on her hand to Trask. Displayed on it were the current stats of the player [Lucas].

“!? This...”

“Fufufu”

Lilianne giggled as she saw her boss wear the same expression she had back in the training room.

“How is it? Interesting isn't he?”

Lilianne asked with pride, as if it was her own.

“Before that, can you explain this to me!? I believe the game cannot be cheated and is hack-proof. Don't tell me the system cannot compromise and gave him these absurdly high stats for a Level 1?”

“Fufu, relax, he didin't cheat nor did the system give him high stats, this was his stat after finishing the tutorial. Though, it wasn't his starting stats.”

Lilianne replied and swiped the face of the terminal to the left which contained Lucas' starting stats.

“Then how did he do it? If you say he had this stat before he was transported to his starting town and it was not his starting stat then the only time where he could raise it is.....”

“Fufu, that's right.”

Lilianne giggled as she saw her own boss' face filled with confusion as he tries to ask how such a thing happened when his face turned into shock as he arrived to the only conclusion.

“The [Training Room]!!!???”

“Ding! You guessed it!”

Lilianne acted like a hostess in a quiz program you often see in TV as she confirms her boss' answer and switched the display on the terminal showing a video taken from her [Portal's] point of view.

“I see.....he made full use of the tutorial and increased his stats before he started playing! As far as I remember, he's the only person in the whole world to have done it! If not then thousands of players would have heard it by now and started doing it themselves! Has he already leaked it out?”

“I daresay he hasn't, in fact, I don't think he noticed it at all. I don't think he'll go around saying it anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“He's a natural genius but an airhead which makes him more interesting. He also noticed that I was a [User] and not an NPC during our conversation.”

Lilianne showed a wry smile as she remembers their encounter.

“Genius yeah, but an airhead?”

“Yes, he didn't even try and visit any sites related to the game, even the official website because he was too excited to play. So he asked a lot of question instead. Though thanks to that, he accepted the tutorial which leads to this.”

“Aahh, an airhead alright. Tell the programmers to fix this glitch before any other player starts to notice it.”

“And what of the boy's stat points?”

For a while, Trask fell in silent then revealed a smile. Seeing this, Lilianne also smiled.

“Leave it, he's earned it. Also...”

“Yes?”

Trask's smile turned into a grin.

“Add him to the list of favorites and continue to monitor his stats, if anything unexpected happens, quickly tell me.”

“I intend to, he's already my favorite so far.”

Lilianne smiled and bowed slightly. Afterwards, she left the room and continued her work.

+ + +

“Ughhhhh….dying sure hurts…”

Meanwhile, Lucas woke up after being forcefully disconnected as penalty for dying. Not only that, he has to wait for 24 hours in order to play again.

[1:10 am]

He looked at his phone to see the time displayed on the lock screen and released a heavy sigh.

“…How am I supposed to sleep now? Oh well, I’ll at least try…today has been very tiring.”

He made sure to see if his alarm is still on and after confirming it, he lied down once more while thinking of the recent events.

He got lucky and won a [Portal].

He logged in for the first time and met the guide.

He experience the difference in his body in real and in virtual.

He partied for the first time only to be abandoned.

He almost died two times after falling in the cave.

He acquired his first skill.

He had his first kill.

He leveled up for the first time.

And he died for the first time.

Thinking about it, a lot has already happened in just a few hours in the real world.

As he was thinking that, he suddenly felt his eyelids became heavy and was consumed with fatigue. And then, he had his first sleep after having the [Portal].

+ + +

Lucas woke up at the sound of his alarm.

He got up and did a stretched his arms for a bit and looked at the device on top of the desk beside his bed.

“So it wasn’t a dream huh?”

What was on top of the desk was the popular virtual gamin device called [Portal]. Since one device costs hundreds of thousands, it really felt like a dream to Lucas to have been able to get one for free.

After confirming the existence of the device, he got up and prepared breakfast.

Since he wasn’t able to eat dinner last night, he had to eat more so that he could last the day without getting hungry and carelessly splurging his money.

Afterwards, he changed clothes and readied for school.

“…Afterall…I don’t think I should tell them I had a [Portal] after telling them I don’t have time to play it even if I managed to get one yesterday…”

Lucas sighed as he thought of making sure he doesn’t carelessly tell his friends about [World Gate Online] or [Portal].

Walking to his college, still, most people have been talking about the virtual game, be it rumors, or actual experience, they kept talking about it as if they don’t get tired of it. Of course, this no longer irritate Lucas as he had one, actually, he felt better hearing some people cursing why they can’t have one.

While in a good mood, Lucas went to his class.

Afterwards, he went to the cafeteria to eat lunch with his friends. Walking towards them while holding a tray at hand, it seemed that they were also talking about the game.

“Oh Lucas, fufufu, guess what?”

Gavin Fastmark, a young male around his age and height wearing a red shirt with a black web as a design and dark blue denim pants with his slightly long curly hair tied up on his back, noticed him and asked with a grin he tried to remove kind of face.

“What? You won a [Portal]?”

“Fufu, then I’ll tell you, I wo- eh?”

“Hm?”

Gavin who was about to proudly announce, stopped his words and made a dumb face at Lucas’ nonchalant response.

“H-how did you know?”

“If I say I am an esper would you believe me?”

“Since you just read my mind, yes I believe you”

“…Then let’s leave it at that.”

Lucas, who was supposed to joke, was replied seriously by Gavin and decided not to pursue the matter anymore.

As for how Lucas knew, he simply guessed it from the look in Gavin’s face earlier.

By the way, Kanin Fried, another male student around his age and height wearing black V-neck shirt and black pants with his forelock so long it almost covered his eyes, was also one of the winners who got a free [Portal].

It seemed that these two contacted each other once they knew that they both won and discussed where they will start from the three starting towns. They also ignored the tutorials since they had already visited countless sites beforehand as to gather more information.

They both started at the same town as Lucas, [Drachedge], and formed a party right from the get go.

Gavin, character name [Geeves], was of human race and aspiring to be an archer and blacksmith.

Kanin, character name [Rice], a beast race with the face of a wolf said that he wanted to be a fighter and a chef.

“Then then I *BAM* the bear to his side and Kanin *ZOOM* to its front and stabbed him. The bear then *BUGOH* as he fell! Then we were like ‘WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!’ as the items drops and levels rose!”

“…What’s with that explanation….I didn’t understand a thing…”

Lucas thought as he stared at Gavin with half closed eyes.

“!?...Somehow…Lucas’ gaze seemed like we did something wrong?”

“Y-yeah, so you felt it too?”

Gavin and Kanin whispered to each other as they felt the piercing gaze of Lucas.

“…I wonder why…But I’m really irritated when I see these two…”

Lucas pondered while continuing to stare at them.

Of course, his irritation is explainable as these two were the ones responsible for filling the hole that had the only light in that dark prison Lucas was in. But he had no way of knowing but still felt the irritation towards them.

“Haah, you guys are lucky, I also submitted an entry but didn’t win.”

“Me too~”

“So did I…”

The rest of his friends sighed as they felt jealous of the two who had won the device.

Well, there are only 1000 winners after all, it’s already an amazing coincidence that two of his friends also won one.

After that, classes continued and soon, school was over.

Lucas went home and went straight to his computer.

Knowing as he lacked information, he decided to gather information from different sites as he waits for his death penalty to be over.

First, He visited the official website and gave the home page a quick look. Before he looks into it in more detail, he decided to sync his account to the website. This was done by plugging the [Portal] directly to the PC through a USB cable. With this, he can check his stats, items, and other information related to his character while in the real world. Once he finished syncing, he went back to the home page and read everything.

He learned that you can auction items you earned in game in exchange for real money! This was the best news he ever found. With this, he could turn the game in his part-time job and earn money by selling rare items that he won’t need.

While in a good mood, he looked for other information that could be useful in the future.

He was focused on understanding the crafting jobs more than the other jobs since most people tend to ignore them.

Though, there weren’t much information about the jobs, they only displayed its description for each job and branch jobs, skills and other information weren’t included, they probably thought that they don’t want to spoil the players too much. Since there aren’t even lists of items, weapons, other towns aside from the starting ones and villages were also not listed.

As for the starting towns, he clicked on his starting town and looked at the map. At least they had names and description for every building with significance. He drew even gridlines on it and printed each square so he can have a big map posted on his wall afterwards, he pinned the places he found interesting and attached a red line on each of them stretching outside the map where it was connected to a paper with their descriptions. If you asked why he did that, it was simply because he has too much free time and he wanted to try doing something like that at least once like those he had seen in some mystery movies.

Of course he also had a big map of [Espion] in his wall. On its southern end, he marked [Drachedge], attached a red string to a point where he estimated the place he fell inside the cave. The purpose of this was to make sure he would be able to travel from south to north like he had said to the guide, Lily. He wanted to keep track of the places he had been.

Satisfied with his work, he went back to his computer in order to find more information. Other than knowing there’s an app where he can also sync his character and rankings, he didn’t find any more useful information and switch to a different site.

Picking the first result after the official website on google, he was surprised about the difference in the number of information he can find there and from the official site. Because this site contained items, job skills, monsters, weapons, maps that didn’t exist in the official website.

This was because any player can edit and add the information themselves, so the only information visible here are information that has been discovered by players themselves. Of course he didn’t forget Lily’s advice to not trust every information aside from the ones found in the official website as there may be some who would bring you down in order to make themselves go up.

He looked for information about the [Dracula Bat] that he kept fighting but alas, it was still not discovered by other players, it’s understandable since Lucas was the first to discover that dungeon. So there was a high chance of him discovering new monsters.

However, there are many bat-like monsters aside from the [Dracula Bat] do he checked on them as well. Though there weren’t any useful weakness he could use since most of them had weakness to light and holy attribute attacks, he can’t use them so they didn’t help.

After thinking he won’t get any more information, he switched to a different website, this continued until dinner as he didn’t get any new information, he slept immediately.

“Since tomorrow is a weekend, there’s no class, I can finally spend the entire day in [World Gate Online]!!!”

Seemingly excited for tomorrow, Lucas had a hard time sleeping.

Tomorrow, he swore to himself that he will be out of that cave for sure. With these thoughts in mind, Lucas slept.

Illustrator: imaginexbreaker

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