Dunia, an online game that flourished in the time when I was a teenager. It was a great game and hands down the best game I’ve ever played. To be fair, it’s also the reason why I need to repeat another year in high school since I’m pretty addicted to it.

Queen Qirien retold her story as Kevin listened with open ears. Every time he heard a particular word coming from Queen Qirien’s mouth he could relate it with the game he once played in the past.

Everything she said about these countries and empires are all the same. Like when I played the game back in the days, Oflar, Astria, Cloydor are those cities I once traveled to. Shit, is this really happening? It can’t be real, can it? But why I’ve never heard of Edelstein before? I, who was once an addict had scoured through lands of Dunia, every nook and every cranny have never step inside an underground city called Edelstein.

Kevin didn’t say a word as he kept on listening respecting the queen as she continued weaving her words about the world of Dunia. She spoke about the different races in Dunia, from the humans who were counted as the majority of the population and the rest which constituted the Zwerg, the Alva, the Magu, and the Gazanmard. Last but not least the enemy of the whole world, the Djin.

What are all these races I’ve never heard about? Frankly speaking, I think the game only lets the players played with humans as their characters. While most of the other fantasy races were dumb down to monsters and NPC. But Djin, haven’t heard that for a long time.

Kevin remembered well the biggest enemies that he faced in the game was none other than the Djin race. Most of the time, people could only win against them through a raid as going solo was a no go. Yet the rest of the races he heard were rather foreign to his ears. He recognized the word Alva considering he was speaking the language thus he could relate that Alva was another name for an elf.

“You must be confused hearing these foreign names,” Queen Qirien said.

“It’s fine, I’ll know it later if you can give me the necessary reading material,” said Kevin.

“No need, contrary to your belief, you may understand them through different words. Zwerg are dwarves, Magu are the haflings, Gazanmard, the beast folks, Djin as demons and the last one, Alva or in your word, elves,” said Queen Qirien.

Kevin’s eyes narrowed down. He had a question in mind, but he didn’t know whether it was appropriate to ask,

“You must be wondering why you received such hate from my people and why the word ‘elf’ is such a taboo,” said Queen Qirien.

The queen opened the path for him and in returned Kevin thought of the queen as quite a flexible person.

“Please let me know,” said Kevin.

Queen Qirien’s countenance turned serious.

“As I said before, the Djin is the enemy of the world that sought the destruction of the peace over anything else. And human, being the egotistic nature of theirs see that they alone can fight against the threat of the Djin. But fate has a way in showing the stupidity and arrogance of man, the Djin decimated human cities with their outrageous karamic arts pushing the human alliance to the brink of their destruction and yet…” her words trailed off as she sunk deep in her own thoughts.

I think I’ve heard this part before, in the game the human alliance was being trampled by the Djin but a person found a solution, a person called….

“The Sage or also known as Ganlindore…” said Queen Qirien.

Ganlindore, like I thought the story she spoke about was the same as the intro before a player was sent to a city of their choosing. If I’m not mistaken she will talk about something that Ganlindore discovered, the lost magic of summoning.

“The Sage Ganlindore unearthed a lost karamic art which you already knew about, is the Transmigration Art, designed to bring forward a person from another world to this world,” said Queen Qirien.

Although the terminology is a bit different but the meaning and plot are still the same. The problem is, why is she talking about transmigration? Is it really…

Wait! It can’t be!

While a hypothesis started to formulated in Kevin’s mind, Qirien spoke the words out loud, solidifying the thought he just made.

“You’re not the first to come from earth, Kevin. They are others like you, your predecessor, also known as the heroes and heroines of Dunia,” said Queen Qirien.

Kevin gulped a mouthful of his saliva and yet the thing that he tried to make sense crumbled into pieces. He thought he was here to be the hero after he accepted his fate of being stuck here, but hearing about the others only made him dumbfounded for why he was here.

“Then why am I here?” Kevin asked.

“To save us,” said Queen Qirien.

“But you guys already have those heroes and heroines,” said Kevin.

“No, you do not understand,” said Queen Qirien. “We need you to save us from them.”

That last sentence from Queen Qirien made a shocking revelation that shocked Kevin to the core. His head went blank as it didn’t make any sense to him, why was there a need to rescue these elves or alva from them?

The questioning look on Kevin’s face made Queen Qirien to answered it with not much delay.

“The heroes and heroines did their job well, they pushed the forces of the Djin and even managed to subdued the Djin King with their overwhelming might. Peace was finally coming to Dunia but that was far from the truth,” said Queen Qirien.

As if remembering something terrible, Qirien fell silent for a while. Kevin didn’t pester her to move on with the story as he waited.

“The heroes and heroines usurped the many thrones of the human alliance as the fire of war ravaged the human continents. Blood shed on the ground as countless lives were lost and in the end these heroes and heroines took control of the human continent but that wasn’t the end, since it was only the beginning…” Queen Qirien continued as her face contorted as the story went on.

The greed of humans knows no bounds, they reached their hands towards those who weren’t human. The dwarves were killed to the brink of extinction, the halflings ran and fled but most were turned into slaves. The beast folk had it hard, they fought against the tyranny and yet many lives were lost, they too were turned into slaves due to their unique characteristics. But the elves were the most sought after by these heroes and heroines, the men sought after the most beautiful elves while the women craved for the most handsome elves. The earth was scorched on fire as the elves fled for their lives.

Some were caught while most of the elves managed to fled and hid. But the most pitiful of the different elven lineages were the Vindtra. Their home was the closest to the human nation and thus they received the first brunt of attack without knowing the treacherous intention behind these human attacks.

Her words carried a solemnity that showed her grief. A trail of tears came running down her cheeks. She didn’t wipe her tears as she just sat there narrating the story.

Kevin felt ashamed over the action of his people who came from earth. Although he didn’t know who these people were, yet his conscious felt guilty about it just because he was associated with them through their origin.

“The heroes and heroines spread their own language eliminating the old, that’s how the term elves come into life, a word from your original world, a word that carried a mocking intention to us Alva. Now you know Kevin Wang, the reason why my people glare and scorn at you, the reason why they detested the word ‘elf’ of all things,” said Queen Qirien.

She got up as her tears fell into the garden’s ground. She looked away from Kevin as her heart was full of remorse and guilt.

“I will take my leave Kevin as sadness overwhelms my heart, I will send you an attendant, someone that will bring you to your own room,” she walked away from Kevin heading to the door that led to the great hall but then she stopped an inch away from opening the door.

“Kevin,” she called out to him.

“Yes,” he replied as he stood up glancing at the back of Qirien.

“I will not force you to save us but please take your time in considering it,” said Queen Qirien. “Before I leave, you can check the advantage you have through the title menu.”

Then the queen left him alone in this garden. Kevin didn’t know how to feel at this point in time as his jumble up emotions only gotten worse.

“A savior,” he said. A word that he pondered as he stood there alone.

After a while, an attendant fetched him and brought him to his own room. It wasn’t much but considering there was a bed was enough for him. At least he wasn’t thrown into a dungeon.

He ate the food prepared for him and it wasn’t much to his liking considering alva mainly eats vegetables and grains only. Ignoring the leftovers, he went to the opened window and stared out into the view of Edelstein. There was no difference between day and night here except for the moss stuck on the ceiling of this huge cavern space. During the night, the intensity of its glow lessened considerably compared to during the day, but at least it showed the difference between day and night.

It was an amazing thing to see but Kevin was trouble by his indecision. A choice had to be made but he didn’t know what to choose.

Back in the days, it was all a game and here I am now, in that game where everything is real. On second thought, is this the continuation of the game? Considering that back in the days Dunia was just a beta server game, an unfinished game with the complete one never comes to light.

Ugh, what am I thinking about, a game is just a game and this here is the real one. To begin with, I almost die against that pig, and I can’t afford to be careless. But the question is, am I capable of saving these people?

He scratched his head numerous times trying to figure out an answer for this predicament. Then he remembered Qirien’s words.

Title menu.

A window greeted him.

Title

Guest from Another World

Guest from Another World

Effect: Triple the experience gain

A decent cheat but I bet those people would probably have the same thing like I do, so rather than a cheat it’s just flattening the odds.

He swept the title away as he continued staring back at the city as the glowing green light that surrounded the city felt surreal and at the same time mesmerizing. While he dazed around staring at the city, something struck him.

He stood up straight from slouching over as he remembered.

If this world is the same like in the game then it might be possible.

A ray of light finally shone on him.

I won’t know if I don’t try it out.

He was addicted to the game and being an addict at it brought him quite an amazing result.

Every quest in Dunia Online I’ve completed, every secret I’ve unraveled, and every class I’ve enjoyed. The game was once my life and then it cast me away but now these knowledge and experience I have won’t go to waste. I don’t know if it will work but I bet my pride as the first ranker of the game, if I don’t try saving these people then no one else would.