Chapter 1: Right Arm of the Sealed One

“Hello. Welcome to the world of Monster Soul. I am the NPC (Non-Player Character) responsible for assisting new players before they enter the actual game.”

A sweet voice echoed in the black room. The voice didn't sound computerized or fake in any way.

“How strange... Excuse me. Are you human?” asked Sila.

“Yes, I am a real person who works as an NPC. We are better able to talk, answer, and adapt to every unpredictable situation, so the company uses real people. There are also NPCs who are AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the game though. However, even if they are an AI, a player will have a hard time separating them from an actual person. Our AIs are considered the most advanced in the industry.”

“Then, what should I do here? Umm... I haven’t played an online game before.”

“I see. You’re a new user. First, let’s register you. What name will you choose for your avatar.”

“Avatar’s name, hmm?”

If Montra used his real name for playing, then Sila didn’t see any reason why he couldn’t.

“I will use my real name. My name is Sila.”

“Alright. Do you confirm the name Sila?”

“Confirm.”

“Confirmation completed. Next, please adjust your avatar. You can adjust your avatar up to a maximum of thirty percent of your real face and body.”

A holographic of Sila’s face, frontal body, side, and back were shown.

‘Thirty percent? That’s quite a lot. Well, that guy also uses his real face.’

For the same reason, Sila didn’t want to confront Montra with someone else’s face.

“Don’t change.”

“Player Sila doesn’t wish to change his face and body. Please confirm this.”

“Confirm.”

The system notification rang.

[You have successfully created your avatar. You have gotten Beginner’s Clothing and Beginner’s Dagger.]

“Player Sila, would you like to listen to an explanation of the game?”

“Do I have to listen to all of it?”

Sila asked back. He was kind of a curious person.

“No, you don’t have to. You can choose to listen only to the parts you are interested in. And even if you want to listen to this kind of explanation later, you can still visit the Hall of Beginnings located on the Island of Beginnings to listen to all of it.”

“Then, please summarize only important parts to me. If I don’t understand, I’ll go ask the person in the Hall of Beginnings later.”

“Roger. In this game, a player will have the role of a person who lives in the world of Monster Soul, a world where monsters and humans coexist. The time ratio between this game and real life is five to one. The notable differences between this game and other games is that; this game has no profession system, and an avatar’s level has no correlation to fighting ability.”

Sila frowned a bit. “Eh? So, self-training is enough? Don’t we have to fight monsters? What is the point of an avatar’s level, then?”

“An Avatar’s level gives benefits such as receiving certain quests, unlocking skills, as well as being able to equip higher-tier weapons. For example, a level 1 player can train themself to fight a level 30 wolf. But they'll be unable to equip equipment that is designed for the higher-leveled characters to use.”

Sila nodded in understanding. Then, he asked about the thing that his uncle mentioned.

“I heard that this game is very realistic. So, if our avatar gets hurt, we will also feel pain; if an avatar dies, we will also experience death. Is this true?”

“That’s not quite true. Allow me to explain; in this game, if a player dies, their avatar’s level will be decreased by 10, equipment and items will randomly drop, and the player will have to wait for one in-game hour. Regarding painfulness, in the game, a player will feel one-tenth of the pain you would physically feel. Adjusting the pain level to a higher degree is optional. Doing so will grant the player a special reward from the system. The higher the pain level, the more valuable item you will receive.”

Sila was confused, “It can be adjusted? Then, there should be multiple people who have a special reward from this, shouldn’t there?”

“That’s not it. Although this game is realistic, no one would want to receive realistic pain. Also, the condition to get the pain adjustment option is not currently known. The condition is; asking about pain during the avatar creation process. By the way, once you decide on a certain painfulness degree, you cannot change it anymore. Of course, there are some other secret methods to change the painfulness level, but all of them are very complex, I can safely say that this condition is the easiest. Players usually go straight into playing the game immediately after creating their avatar. Not many waste their time listening to my explanation as they know they can listen to it anytime they want to at the Hall of Beginnings. Actually, you are only the second person who has unlocked this condition.”

“Hmm? Who is the first one? And what item did he get?”

“The first one is Player Montra. But as for his reward, I cannot tell you that since it’s the player’s personal secret.”

Sila’s eyes changed as soon as he heard the name Montra.

“Which degree of pain did he choose?” Sila’s voice was full of coldness.

NPC fell silent for a moment when she sensed the change in Sila’s tone. She answered slowly, “Player Montra set his pain level to ten out of ten, which is equal to real life pain.”

“Then I ask for five times his pain level.”

He didn’t want to be inferior to Montra, so Sila told NPC that sentence.

NPC paused for a moment in shock. She had never seen a player like this.

“We are truly sorry, but ten is the highest degree that a player can choose. The system does not allow for a player to adjust pain level higher than that. Otherwise, it would be overly dangerous to the player.”

“In that case, ten is fine.”

“Painfulness level is at ten degrees which is equal to reality. Please confirm this.”

A smile formed at the corner of Sila’s mouth as he sneered inwardly, ‘Equal to reality, huh? I experience pain a hundred times more painful than this in reality.’

“Confirm.”

“The system would like to inform you that the pain caused in this game will affect your actual body. Despite the fact that there are no real injuries, when your brain perceives the pain, your actual body will likely be affected. The company will not be responsible for any harm caused by the virtual pain at level ten. If the player understands this condition, please accept the agreement and reconfirm.”

“I accept and confirm.”

The system notification rang again.

[You have gotten the Sealed Box.]

A ring-size black box with silver chain covering it appeared and floated in front of Sila. He grabbed it and read the details of the box immediately.

[(S) Sealed Box]

[A sealed box that, upon opening, will randomly give you one of the unique items in ‘The Sealed One’ set, which contains seven parts. Only six parts currently remained. (If a player receives this box and there are no parts remaining, the box will change itself to (S) Mysterious Box, which will randomly give out one S Grade item instead).]

Sila tried to open it, but there was no prompt. While he frowned and was about to ask, the NPC girl then answered his question.

“In this place, all items will be unusable. Please try opening it again after you are inside the game.”

After hearing this, Sila threw the box into his system window.

“Do you need any more information?”

“No. Please send me into the game.”

“Roger. We suggest players visit the Hall of Beginnings to receive starting items there. The system will now send you to the Island of Beginnings, starting on the outskirts. We wish you a fun time playing the game, sir.

A self-ridiculing little grin face showed on Sila's face, ‘Have fun, huh?’ before he became a white light and disappeared.

***

A light appeared in a suburb. This was a very common sight around Town of Beginnings; it was the sign of a new player entering for the first time.

Sila emerged amid that light. He looked around and found that this place was a wide grassy field. On his right, he could see a forest area that wasn’t too dense, on his left was a city. The distance from here to the city looked to be around two kilometers.

While he was still deciding whether he should go straight to the city or not, the system rang out.

[Monster Pink Slime, Level 1 Squire Rank, has appeared.]

A pink mucus began dancing from left to right around his feet. However, it had shown no sign of attacking him at all.

‘Weird. It doesn’t seem as though it will attack me. Is it a non-aggressive monster?’

At first, Sila was going to try punching it since he specialized in barehanded combat. But he later felt a bit of disgust toward touching the slime. So he decided to equip his Beginner’s Clothes and Dagger first.

[(F) Beginner’s Clothing]

[Uniform designed for a new player. Increases physical defense by 3 points.]

[(F) Beginner’s Dagger]

[Increases physical attack by 3 points.]

They were an ordinary dagger and brown normal-looking clothing. Well, he didn’t care. At least he felt a bit safer holding the dagger than using his bare hand to attack the slime.

He tried to stab the pink mucus one time.

After the attack, the pink slime immediately but slowly tried attacking back.

However, Sila could easily dodge its slow attack. He stabbed it again and again. Soon, the slime’s body broke after getting stabbed three more times.

System sound rang again.

[You have defeated Pink Slime, Level 1 Squire Rank.]

[You have received 5 experience points, 3 silver, and the Pink Slime Card.]

[You have learned a passive skill: Dagger Mastery – Level 1.]

“Hmm? Did I get a card? Didn’t Miss NPC tell me that monster cards are a rare drop? Why did I get it on my first try? Am I that lucky?”

Sila defeated many slimes around there afterward.

One hour had passed. Sila had gotten tired. He had killed about a hundred slimes, but his level was only at 2. This indicated that Pink Slime gave very little experience even for new players. Surprisingly, Sila got 67 cards from them. It appeared that the Pink Slime Card’s drop rate was very high. His Dagger Mastery skill level also rose to 15.

Sila opened his system window to see his avatar’s status.

[Player Status: Sila]

[Level: 2]

[Race: Human]

[Rank: Squire]

[Health Points: 473 / 512]

[Magic Points: 50 / 50]

‘Is this high or low?’ Sila wondered since he had never played the game before. His life had only been dedicated to martial arts training.

He looked over other windows leisurely. He changed his system window’s color to deep blue, connected the game system to his mobile phone, and set his system sound to a soft and girly voice. Strangely, there was a terrifying lady boy’s voice available for him to choose. Sila thought this was a joke designed by a game designer.

He finally stumbled upon the Sealed Box.

‘I forgot that I had to open it in the game. Well, I better open it now.’

Sila held the small back box in his right hand, and said, “Open.”

The silver chain broke with a shower of bright silver sparkles. The system notification could be heard inside Sila’s head.

[You have gained an active skill: Unseal – Level 1.]

‘Oh? I even gained a skill. The item inside must be good.’

[You have obtained the (S) Right Arm of the Sealed One. It’s a special item which cannot be sold or transferred, and you are forced to equip it. The system will now automatically equip it. The (F) Beginner’s Dagger is now transferred to your inventory. Passive skill: Dagger Mastery - Level 15 is deleted.]

Sila’s right arm from below the elbow suddenly turned into stone.

“What’s this!? I can’t move my hand! And did it just delete my skill?”

Sila was shocked. He hurriedly read the information of the Right Arm of the Sealed One, but it was labeled with [Has not yet been unsealed] status.

“Unseal” Sila used his skill reflexively.

[The level of the Unseal skill has risen to level 2 … 3 ... 4 ... 15.]

Now Sila’s arm could move properly, but its appearance was not the same. Now it looked like he was wearing a long, antique mechanical arm that was covered in characters that Sila couldn’t understand. However, he did not pay attention to its new shape. His focus was on its updated information.

[(S) Right Arm of the Sealed One]

[The right arm of a certain man who was sealed somewhere in this world. Increases physical attack by 100 points. Cannot be unequipped under any circumstances. You cannot equip a main weapon or use the unique skills that are available only for the human race.]

Normal people would complain. But for Sila, his reliance and confidence lay in his fists, and he did not intend to use any weapon from the start. His only worry was the fact that he couldn’t use the human race’s unique skills. What did that mean? He was human, right? Did this mean he couldn't use any skills?

“I don’t see how this is an S-grade item. I really can’t understand the thoughts of this game’s designer.”