Chapter 1:

On the eve of the 22nd century, millions upon millions of people were connected together in a worldwide event. All of them almost simultaneously put a strange-looking helmet on their heads and laid down in a comfortable position.

A moment later, the helmet seemed to come alive.

Beep… Beep… Gear operational… Beep… Connecting to server… Beep… Connection Authorized… Time remaining until server opening: 00:00:05… 00:00:04… 00:00:03… 00:00:02 … 00:00:01… Beep! Initiating connection! Beep! Connection stable! Logging in…

That was the last thing David heard before his vision went completely dark. A second ago, he had been looking out from underneath the helmet at the roof of his room and now, he seemed to be looking at an endless sea of white. He tried to look down at his hands but could only see a blurry outline of his shape, which startled him. But he didn’t panic, no, what was happening had already been explained hundreds of times to him through advertisements and promotions.

The most realistic game ever made by mankind. Produced by the Mercury Group, humanity’s leader on artificial intelligence. A massive leap forward in virtual reality technology. Analysts predicted it would have repercussions on the global economy with just the amount of headsets that were being ordered. This was the game known as Chaos Realms. Suddenly, David heard something.

“Hello.”

The sound came from somewhere in front of him. While there seemed to be nothing there, the next second he seemed to blink and that nothingness was filled up. It looked like a floating orb with complex runes and sigils surrounding it. Although David knew what was happening, he still couldn’t help but be shocked. The orb looked incredible in his eyes. The runes seemed so detailed and complex, yet it gave off a sense of beauty to him. They were like the rings on a planet as they hovered around the orb, slowly rotating. However, he quickly snapped out of this state and responded to the orb.

“H-hello. Who are you?” David spoke aloud. It seemed as though he wasn’t used to using his voice, so he sounded a bit shaky.

“My name is Zero, the operator of this world. I am here to help you create your character. To begin with, please select your race.” Zero didn’t seem to have a mouth of any kind, but it’s voice reverberated in the white space.

‘The world operator? I heard that they invented their own supercomputer AI to run this game. The funding must have been ridiculous.’

Suddenly, a holographic screen appeared in front of David. It contained a list of all playable races, everything from humans, to dwarves, elves, beastmen, half-breeds and even demons. He already knew that, depending on your choice in starting race, your options for where you started would be different. David didn’t hesitate for long before replying.

“A-a human, please.”

“It is done. Now, your appearance. Since you are human, would you like your appearance from reality scanned into the game?”

David nodded.

Very quickly, that blurry silhouette was replaced by a human figure. He could finally see his arms and legs again. David let loose a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. Jeez, not being able to see your own body is definitely not a feeling I want to experience again.

Zero spoke up while David seemed to be thinking about something; “Any changes you’d like to make?” Suddenly, the orb flashed and a full-body mirror was presented to David.

David looked at his body in the mirror, he seemed to look identical to himself in real life. Average height, slim body, short, dark hair pushed back. He decided to make himself a little bit taller, a little bit fitter and his hair just a little bit darker by adjusting the ‘him’ in the mirror.. ‘Everyone wants to be just a bit more perfect… right?’

David spoke out to Zero, letting him know he was finished with his appearance.

“Understood. Please name your character now. Keep in mind that this cannot be changed at any point.”

David already knew what name to pick. He had used it in every game since childhood. A drastic change from his earlier tone, he spoke confidently for the first time.

“Faust.”

“Understood, player registered under the name ‘Faust’. Would you like to participate in the tutorial?”

“Nah, I’ll skip it.” David had been studying the game for months on end before it came out, why would he need a tutorial?

“Very well. Please select your starting realm.”

A massive holographic projection of a large tree appeared in front of David. His first thought upon seeing the tree was of Yggdrasil from Norse mythology. The tree sported multiple branches, each supporting a selectable realm. It also had roots, but when he went to inspect them he was denied access to them. David ended up choosing one of the largest branches he could find, near the top of the tree. It was a realm called Ravendun.

“I will now send you to the realm of Ravendun.” The orb spoke once more. "It is a world of war and sorcery. In this world, strength reigns supreme. Please do your very best. Please act courteously to all beings. Please do not break the terms of service. Please do not-"

David no longer focussed on the voice as the expanse of whiteness had faded away, to be replaced by a bustling square filled with people. Suddenly thrust into a noisy and busy market, he was stunned for a moment. Upon his first glance around, he couldn’t help but associate his surroundings with a bazaar. There were merchants and peddlers all around him, and the smell of meats and spices filled his nose.

The advertisements said this would happen but he didn’t quite believe it. He couldn’t exactly test it in the white world because of how empty it was there. But here, in this bustling district, he truly felt it. The sight, the sounds, the smell. It all felt exactly as it did in reality. There was no delay between his thoughts and his movements, no lag whatsoever. He could even feel the breeze against his face. He couldn’t help but take a deep breath to take it all in.

After fully adjusting to these sensations, he thought about what to do next. He had skipped the tutorial, but he had a vague idea of how to control the game through the extrapolation of the promotions and trailers. Of course, it wasn’t just his extrapolation. The hivemind of the internet had definitely helped. He called out in his mind. ‘Status window.’

Suddenly, in front of him materialized a holographic screen, similar to when he was choosing his race. This one didn’t display a list of options however, but his information instead.

Name: Faust

Level: 1

XP: 0/10

Realm: Ravendun

HP: 30 / Mana : 0

Bloodline: Human (100%)

Alignment: True Neutral

Class: None

Strength: 4 / Agility: 4 / Constitution: 3 / Intelligence: 7 / Faith: 0 / Luck: 0

[Unspent status points: 10]

[Skills: None]

‘So this is the status window. My name is Faust now. I know from the promotions that a normal human has a 5 in all of the base stats. But still… I thought I was fitter than this. At least my intelligence is higher than average. I guess all those studying hours paid off in game. Sucks to be the schooling system.’

Faust lifted his head from the screen and looked around. Despite it being fairly prominent, nobody seemed to be looking at the holographic display in front of him. People were walking directly past him, and nobody spared him a glance. He reasoned that only he could see his status window.

‘Alright. Time to get started. I’m probably already behind the other players from wasting so much time. I should first bring myself up to the standard of an average human. Then, that leaves me with 6 unspent points. I’ll divide them equally between Agility and Intelligence. That should round me out for now.’

Faust took another look at this status screen once he had distributed his points.

Name: Faust

Level: 1

XP: 0/10

Realm: Ravendun

HP: 50 / Mana: 0

Bloodline: Human (100%)

Alignment: True Neutral

Class: None

Strength: 5 / Agility: 8 / Constitution: 5 / Intelligence: 10 / Faith: 0 / Luck: 0

[Unspent status points: 0]

[Skills: None]

Investing status points was a very weird feeling. His body seemed to tingle for just a second. After glancing at his status one last time, he picked a random direction and began to walk.

While he walked, he thought about his plans for the future.

‘I have to find the Adventurers Guild and get myself registered as soon as possible. Extrapolating information from the promotions, the Adventurers Guild should give out quests and allow me to sell them monster remains. I also need to find some good quests and level up. I need to think about how best to proportion my status points. I need to see if there are any other players in this town besides me.’ David’s thoughts were racing at a mile a minute. He couldn’t help but be excited. This game was brand new in every way.

While he walked, he asked for directions to the Adventurers Guild from some of the merchants he passed. He talked to many different kinds of vendors. From meat sellers, to jewelry enthusiasts and even someone selling monster hide. Granted, most of them ignored him because he wasn’t buying anything, but one of them told him exactly where to go.

On his way to the guild however, he stumbled upon a beggar. An old man with only one leg sat against the wall with a bowl in front of him, half-filled with old copper coins. His eyes were cast down on the pebble ground he sat on.

David looked around and thought to himself. ‘Despite the ancient feel the city gives off, it seems to be orderly and well-kept. This is the only beggar I’ve seen after walking for quite a while. Maybe there's some sort of quest?’

His footsteps paused in front of the beggar.

‘Inventory.’

Faust called out in his mind. A moment later, that familiar holographic window appeared. In it were what looked to be squares, only two rows worth at the moment. ‘I wonder how inventory space is calculated. They didn’t reveal that in any of the trailers.’ His inventory currently only had two squares filled up. One was filled with Bread Loaves x10, and the other with 10x Water Containers.

He quickly experimented by simply attempting to will one of the Bread Loves into his hand, not touching the inventory himself. Moments later, one of them disappeared from the inventory and reappeared in his hand.

He gave it to the beggar, hoping to trigger something. The beggar looked up at him before reaching for the bread.

The beggar scoffed the bread down so fast that Faust wasn’t sure what happened until a moment later. His eyes widened in surprise, anticipating some sort of reward. He would be disappointed, however, as the beggar had simply said “Thank you, kid.” in a gravelly voice before resuming his previous posture.

‘That’s it?’ Thought Faust. ‘I guess getting a quest will be harder than I thought.’ He began walking away towards the Adventurers Guild when he stopped after only taking a few steps. Quickly opening the inventory again, he handed the beggar one of the water canteens as well.

“Here, you sounded like you needed this.” The beggar's voice must have gotten to him, it sounded like he hadn’t had anything to drink in a long time.

The beggar looked up at him again, not saying anything this time.

After giving the beggar the water, Faust began walking away after a brief hesitation.

‘Sigh. I guess it truly is difficult to trigger a quest from a random NPC. I wasted some of my rations.’

His thoughts changed when a line of text flashed in his vision. Faust blinked, slightly recoiling at the sudden notification.

[Your alignment has slightly shifted.]

[An unknown being has taken an interest in you.]