Chapter 2: Surviving this New World

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It’s been 2 days since I arrived in this game. Even though it was 2 days It seems not even a day has passed since I logged in. Technology sure has come a long way huh? Those 2 days were pretty much uneventful. I just wandered around the city asking people who looked like players about the “virtual death game” incident a month ago, though everyone here says 3 months ago.

I found out that the error of the game AI when I created my account was indeed connected to the hacking. Players say that when the hack happened their avatars suddenly turned into their real body and usernames were automatically change into player’s real names. Once again I find myself baffled at the motive of the hacking going as far as changing peoples appearance to their real bodies. It just doesn’t make sense.

Although thinking like that I’m a little grateful. At least it’ll be easier to find Hime if she looks the same. Seeing players here I suddenly shiver a little when I realize that with real people in their own bodies here make it like we’ve just crossed into a different world.

I also found out that people that day in game really do die in a sense. Usually when players die they respawn in the last visited town but after the incident people waiting for their friends to respawn never saw them again no matter how long they waited.

Being someone who asks a lot about this I got some suspicious stares from the players I talked to. They all asked why I was asking because I should know all this in the first place. Whenever someone asked me I just said that I was a new gamer and after the hacking was always drinking till I passed out. Well, at least it isn’t 100% lies right?

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“Hey Haruki” someone called me. Ah it was one of the players I questioned

“What’s up?” I asked, even though I forgot his name

“You were looking for someone right? A girl with long black hair, possibly with a bow and named Hime right?”

“Yes, do you know anything?” I immediately paid full attention to him

“Yeah, a friend of mine said she met her about a month ago. Says she was somewhere near Tyrne when they met on the road.”

Hime! Is this my sister he’s talking about. Hoping the info was right I felt relieved to know she was at least alive. But another city huh? That means I have to leave this town which will make it really risky for me because I don’t know a thing about this game compared to other players.

I looked down at my equipment. I was still in beginner gear which were practically just a shirt and pants. At least I got sword for my weapon. If I could move like my real body I should be able to use my Kendo training that Uncle Tarou taught me from grade school.

After thanking the player who told me about Hime, I tried took outside the city gate to see what was out there. Unfortunately it was few hundred meters of flat plains until a forest came into view making me unable to see anything beyond the trees.

Gyuuuuu. My stomach growled. I quickly ate one piece of bread leaving me with 17 left. Because of hunger it was dangerous not eat as apparently you could die from starvation in this game, With just one bread a day I should be able to survive, although the bread tastes like cardboard.

Going back into the city I spotted some men wearing red armor making a fuss at the central plaza.

“Hey, old man! The hell you doing just sitting there! If you want to live at least make a damn effort!” the leader of the men in red mocked someone

“Yeah, just because you’re old doesn’t make you useless you know! I know you could our meatshield old man! At least you’ll be good for something”

The old man just sat on the bench facing the ground. Damn it those guys are disgusting. Treating people like garbage. What’s wrong with them? This isn’t just a game you morons.

“Oy, you there!” the red leader points at me “What are you looking at! Get lost!”

While laughing one of the three guys tries to drag the old man somewhere.

“Hey stop that!” I shouted at him

“Haha, looks like someone wants to be our new toy guys” the leader laughed at me “Fine we’ll let him go, but lets have some fun first. Duel with me and I;ll leave him alone. Don’t worry, you won’t die in a city!” the leader says

The other two start snickering at me. I know that you can’t die here so silently I just nodded. “good don’t chicken out.”

Tyler has challenged you to a duel! Will you accept? Y/N

“Yes” I said making all three of them laugh

“alright let’s go brat” the man named Tyler shouted at me

I unsheathed my sword and take stance holding the sword with two hands while setting my eyes on Tyler. Suddenly he rushed towards me with his huge two handed battle axe and swung it down vertically to my head. Sidestepping I hit his shoulder with a downward slash. Seeing this he just grins and charges at me again with his axe. That’s weird, I definitely hit him. Taking one step back his axe missed me again while I swung my sword hard to his head.

TWANG!!!

The sound of metal hitting metal is heard throughout the plaza. Suddenly I fell on my back. It turned out my attack didn’t even scratch his helmet as he countered with a wide sweep at my legs making me fall down. What’s more surprising is I felt the impact, and it hurt. I suddenly realize why they were all laughing before the duel. Pain is real in this world.

Before I could get up, Tyler stomped on my stomach which let all the air out of me. He didn’t stop there. He continued to kick me while I was on the ground and grabbed me by my hair. Punching my face several times he then smashed my face to ground making me cry out in pain.

“Haah, haah, haaah” I panted while rolling on the ground

“Look guys, he’s squirming like a bug now” Tyler said while stabbing the grip of his axe to my neck

“See, that's what you get messing with us! I mean seriously look at you in that noob gear, hahaha!”

“Oy, Tyler lets just beat him up more” his friend said

“nah, ain’t worth it. Lets see, lets break his sword so he doesn’t get anymore ideas.” Tyler then picked up my sword giving it to his friend. After that he swung his axe to the sword and it shattered into pieces before disappearing.

“See you around, brat. You better hope you don’t meet us again” Tyler said before walking away

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Seeing him go I crawled a nearby wall and tried to sit. Damn it I’m being beaten up again. What the hell’s wrong with m? i didn’t even do any damage to that gut. Trying to stand I noticed that blood was still dripping from my face and it seems like I have a few broken bones. Crap, how is all this gonna heal....

It was then I noticed a middle aged looking man with a rough beard and crew cut hair looking at me from a few feet away. At his side was a girl, maybe 7 or 8 years old with red hair in a braid. They looked at me and began talking with each other. As I keep trying to stand up I realize the kid’s standing next to me holding out her hand. I thought she was going to help me out but soon brought her hand to my face.

Suddenly my face felt warm and the pain slowly disappeared. I see. This is healing magic. After that I sat still while the girl continued to treat me healing my broken bones and bruises. After I was fully healed I stood up and bowed towards her and the man that was still nearby.

“Thank you for kindly healing me miss.” I said as I lowered my head

The girl twitched a little hearing me speak and ran back to the man hiding behind his back.

“It’s nothing boy. Just helping each other out. But I have to warn you not do stupid stuff like that again” the man looked at me with a serious face

“Stupid” I asked making clear my confusion

“Look, boy, you’re in your default beginning gear which means you level should be low as well as your stats.”

“Is this a problem” I asked before suddenly realizing my stupid question

“You may have skill from the real world boy, I saw how you handled your sword. But you’re forgetting this is a game world. Stats are the law in this world.” The man said while sighing

That’s right. How could I even forget such an obvious thing. Here I am in nothing but a shirt and pants trying to fight someone with iron armor. How dumb was I to accept that duel.

“well don’t beat yourself up over it. This world is as realistic as can be... and with the current situation it might as well be the real world” The man tried to console me

“Yes thank you for he advice, umm, mister?”

“I’m Riley, and this here” He pointed toward the little girl “is Beth.”

“I see, once again I thank you both for helping me out. If I may ask how do you raise stats in this game?”

“Anything. As long as you train then your stats should improve automatically” Riley answered

“Thank you, I will do that then.” I bowed and excused myself

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I guess I have to train first if I want to find Hime. Resolving to get stronger I opened the status menu and looked a the details

Status[quart=Name,level]Haruki,1[/quart]TitleNone[quart=Health,Mana]100,100[/quart][quart=Strength,Dexterity]15,15[/quart][quart=Vitality,Agility]15,15[/quart][quart=Endurance,Intelligence]15,15[/quart][quart=Luck,Wisdom]15,15[/quart]

All of my stats are 15. Shouldn’t level 1 characters begin with ten points each? Maybe it’s another bonus of that first new account for this month. Deciding that it’s hardly important I notice there really is no class in this game. I heard from other players that FutureTech tried to have players play as they liked without being tied by game classes. I should also read my skill descriptions.

Sword Mastery (Beginner) lv.1

Skill that increases the effectiveness of swords

1%+ attack damage, attack speed

Bond of Love (Passive)

Skill that is most useful when together with your most beloved

Your desire to protect your lover has given you increases in stat gain rate and skill leveling

20% increase in stats and skill power while fighting beside your lover

10% stat increase rate, faster skill leveling

Lightning Affinity (Beginner) lv.1

Increase effectiveness of lightning based attacks, also grants resistance

15% lightning damage, 20% lightning resistance

I stare dumbfounded at my skill list. WHAT THE HELL!! What’s with bond of love skill?? I don’t even have a girlfriend damn it! Wait a minute..... isn’t that the bonus skill I got for answering the AI’s question? So it means Hime?!? My jaw drops as my mind went blank. Realizing I looked incredibly stupid I shut my mouth.

Man, is Beth’s healing still in effect? My face suddenly feels all warm again.

NO WAY IN HELL WILL I ADMIT THAT I’M BLUSHING!

“Ehem...” Stupid AI, thats one crappy joke

Well at least I know what to do now. It’s time to restart my daily training.

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I started running around the city with short sprints and steady jogging. To increase the rate of stat increase I started filling rocks into my pockets and ran again slowly increasing the weight I carried.

I also began to spar in the city arena against NPCs. The fights only gave out a little exp as it doesn’t really count as killing monsters. Still it was increasing a lot of stats with increases in strength, vitality, dexterity, endurance, and agility as I applied the techniques I learned over the years in these arena fights. During the fights I somewhat felt magic around me. I soon realized it was due to my lightning affinity that I could somehow produce lightning from my body which I immediately experimented on.

As I was fighting I tried to use lightning from my left hand but suddenly I felt pain and ended up rolling around the arena. I guess without higher resistance to lightning I can’t use lightning in close quarters combat. Not that I could do ranged attacks with it as I’ve already tried it with countless failures. Guess I;m not cut out to be a mage.....

I did manage to direct mana into the arena sword which gave it lightning sparks whenever it hit the target. This resulted in a brand new skill that was created.

Lightning blade (Beginner) lv. 1

Imbues swords with lightning made from your mana

Lightning damage(small), chance to stun enemy(small)

Cost: 10 mana/sec

Np doubt that this skill will be really important for combat as it maximizes damage from my swords. I guess the mana cost is a bit irritating but thats to be expected. After all I am still low level. Slowly but surely I increase my combat capabilities as I train to be able to survive in this world

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