A woman was sitting on a sofa in a small apartment room. In front of her was a 21 inch TV. The screen showed two men were talking to each other in a studio.

“Without further ado, let's talk about the game, Kojima-san.”

“Sure...”

“Okay, first let's start with the introduction. What is Heallance? What kind of game is it?”

“Heallance is a virtual reality mass multiplayer online role playing game. In short, it is known as VRMMORPG. And you need VL-Pod to play it. The game is about a world called Heallance. A fantasy medieval land where human, elf, dwarf and other creatures coexists. A land where it's ruled by seven kingdoms. It's a world where you can freely explore and do what you want. The game itself makes you have all senses that a human has... just like real life. Even for disabled people, they can have all those senses or their missing limbs inside the game. Thanks to our advanced technology...”

Clapping sounds could be heard in the studio. When the sounds faded, the man with glasses continued...

“In this game, there are variety of jobs and hobbies. And each one of them has their own unique skills. You will get reward for doing your job...or more like doing a quest. Most rewards are in-game currency. They are copper, silver and gold. But depending on the NPC and quest difficulty, the reward differs. Secondly, about trading system. This is important for all of you... RMT is legal. We provide all players a service. An online auction and market for trading in-game items, equipment and gold. You can go to our site for more information. It's in 'Trading' page. However, if you prefer doing RMT outside our service, it's your own risk. We do NOT take responsibility if anything happens to you.”

“Alright, the page address is below here...It's right here. Don't forget, your action is your own responsibility.”

The man was waving his hands to a certain place where it was supposed to be the bottom side of screen. One could read the page address on their TV screen.

“Lastly, people keep asking why there's no level on their character. I'll answer it here, so please listen carefully. Character doesn't have a level in this game. It's written on the game cover. It's also written on the Tutorial Guide Book. Even on our homepage too.”

“Wow, hold on a second... No level?”

“Yes...”

“Then how can you make your character strong?”

“Nice question... You can become strong by raising your stats. And stats can be raised by training, gain experience by killing monsters, acquiring skills... or any other possible methods. As I told you before, just like real life. When you study, then your INT will increase.”

“So if I lift weight, then my STR will increase?”

“Exactly!”

“Whoa... That's really amazing, isn't it? A world where you can do anything. You are even getting paid for it.”

“Yes, you can be famous or infamous depending on what you do. Again... Just like real life, when you kill someone...then there will be a bounty for your head. When you catch a fugitive or doing certain quests for the kingdom, your fame will rise.”

“Respect the law, people. Okay, next question. This game is really big. The environment itself is like a real world. Who is managing the game? Rumor says that it is an AI. Is that true, Kojima-san?”

“That is true. The game is actually an AI itself. And the world will be constantly expanding. Quests, environments, NPCs, monsters... everything is managed by the AI. We don't have to manage it at all. What our company do is to watch and fix if something goes wrong. But we doubt if there will be a problem though. That's how complex the AI is. Hahaha...”

“I see hahaha...”

“So mostly we are managing the trading page for players.”

“The future is here, people! That is one smart AI.”

Cheering and clapping sounds could be heard in the studio.

“Alright, next question. When will a new expansion be added?”

“As I said in the previous answer, the AI is the one who is managing the game. So if you want to know when the new expansion is come. NPC is your best source of information.”

“What is your plan for the future of the ga–”

The woman turned off the TV and sighed. She threw her body on the sofa and put her right arm on her forehead. She was staring at the ceiling and thinking...

‘Living as you like, huh? Maybe I should have fun and start to play the game...’

She closed her eyes... recalling her memories about her daily life. Gray and monotone. Then she remembered about a day where everything changed. Tears flowing on her cheeks.

‘No... I shouldn't run away... I have to be strong...’

She curled... slowly lost her consciousness and traveled into the dream world.

・・・

I was sitting on the ground in the Herb Room, thinking about what I had been through.

‘Dammit! Why am I still losing? Is it because I'm still weak? Ugh... Those damn bosses...’

Uruzak, the Lich Necromancer, actually had a low defense and HP. What was annoying about him was his skeletons and spells. He kept pouring debuffs when his HP above 75%.

When it dropped below 75%, he stopped casting debuffs and began to use attacking spells instead. He had three attacking spells. One of them was AoE.

Thankfully, friendly fire was a thing in this game. Whenever he was channeling the AoE skill, I immediately ran behind the skeletons and made them my shield.

When his HP dropped below 30%, he summoned 【Mutated Zombie Knight】. And it was at that moment too, the special boss always appeared. I analyzed that it was already scripted that way. Either an hour had passed or Uruzak's HP dropped below 30%, the special boss would show her nose.

‘If only I faced them one by one, I could've won...’

The special boss, Melleth... or more like The Pure Zeon of Melleth. I couldn't even touch her.

Every time I almost beat Uruzak, she suddenly made a terrifying sound. Like an angry Siren sang a song. The first time she did that, I was nearly dead. It was a DOT which inflicted 100 damage per second for 10 seconds. I only had maximum HP around 1000, it put me into critical condition in an instant.

Fortunately, I could escape from the Boss Room somehow. I also had a thought about beating her first before Uruzak. However, it was definitely a no since her HP was still 100%. It would put me in danger if her HP dropped to a certain point. And I didn't dare to trigger what's on her sleeve.

‘I trained until my stats and skills really hard to raise any further. But still...’

I had been grinding in the cave and training in Solo, Party and Stage areas for five days. Solo plot was easy because it was actually intended for one player.

Party one was hard for the beginning. I had to fight a party of scarecrows where they had different roles. When I had learnt their patterns and roles, it was kind of easy.

Stage, on the other hand, was like a match or coliseum. I had to fight an enemy for each stage. It was just like a game where you cleared stage one then you had to clear stage two next, and so on.

The difficulty, of course, became harder each time you beat it. The scarecrow became more agile, endured more hits, bigger, or even increasing in numbers like in the Party one.

It was really fun actually. What I heard from Gordon, it had 50 stages. I only made it through Stage 40. That was when I realized that my stats and skills were hardly raised, even grinding in the cave too.

‘Should I abandon the quest?’

I began to have doubts. Perhaps I should go getting new equipment in a new dungeon or buy them somewhere. Rather than still lurking inside this cave, I could continue my journey to the next town. Then maybe I could re-challenge those bosses again in the future. It wasn't like the quest had a time limit. I sighed and checked my current progress.

Zeroth Race Aphu Job (Class) None Hobby None Stats HP 1400/1400 MP 1080/1080 STR 55 VIT 23 DEX 21 AGI 31 INT 38 WIS 45 Buff None Skill Active Back Slash Lv. 9, Wind Blessing Lv. 8, Observe Lv. 4 Passive Wisdom Lv. 10, Curiosity Lv. 5, Day Dreamer Lv. 10

Low Appetite Lv. 5, Beautiful Mind Lv. 3, Sword Mastery Lv. 10

Eavesdropping Lv. 4, Beginner's Will [Armor Set], Durable Body Lv. 10

Low Poison Resistance Lv. 5 Equipment Main Hand Novice Sword (Common) Off Hand None Head None Body Novice Clothes (Common) Bottom Novice Pants (Common) Arms Novice Gloves (Common) Feet Novice Boots (Common) Mantle None Accessories None Set Effect:

Novice Set (+250 HP +100 MP +5 All Stats) - Passive: Beginner’s Will (+5 STR)

‘Why is it not enough?’

My stats and skills weren't so bad for a newbie, though. Something was definitely missing. Recently I realized some of my skills wouldn't get pass Lv. 10. I was still wondering why. It might be that Lv. 10 was max level.

However, that didn't make sense at all. I just thought that I might not get enough EXP because I had been grinding in the same hunting ground. Hence, I only got 1 EXP per kill and it took a lot of time to level them up.

Even if it wasn't because of that, I was still losing to those bosses. My mind kept thinking of a solution which I never got.

‘Dammit! This is last! If I can't win then I'll get out of this place for sure...’

I walked to the boss room and started the fifth attempt.

A Lich was awaken from his coffin. I rushed towards him and thrust my sword on his chest. I pushed him down back to his coffin.