A humanoid figure within a thick fog and excessively dank marsh could be seen facing off against a non-humanoid creature. From what you could discern from the fog was that this humanoid figure wields a peculiar sword held in their right arm. They're a swordsman.

Facing this swordsman was a creature that seems to possess four, attenuated, long, limbs making it stand taller than its prey.

Due to the creature's erratic, beast-like movements, the swordsman could barely devise a solid strategy facing it. The best this swordsman could do facing such a creature was reactively fight for every next move that this creature would do.

Suddenly—

The beast charged forward. In those micro-movements on how the swordsman saw this beast react, it had moved back its right limb. With a creature adapting such primitive movements, inductive reasoning tells the swordsman that it would strike with its right claw.

And so, as the beast retracted their hind limb, the swordsman raised their weapon at an angle adjacent to the creature's right side where it thought it would strike.

A loud crash resounded on the swordsman's weapon, and along with that, the fog partially got swept away due to the shockwave, revealing the weapon they wielded. It was a Kampilan, a single-edged, long sword possessing a broad but uneven split-tip, thinning down to its base, a thick cross guard; and a hilt shaped in the head of an open-mouthed Naga—a mythical dragon.

As the fog dispersed, this also revealed the humanoid figure within the fog moments ago. They wore a darkened close helmet, with a pair of broad, short, darkened steel antennas above its visor, part of the helmet; They are cloaked from their helmet's comb, down to their ankles by an earthen-green, tattered, caped cowl with its loose hood attached on its antennas, and darkened, steel plate armor with its gauntlets, poleyns, couter, and sabatons designed with sharp margins. It was customized to its wearers' preferences which indicates that their armor's made solely for the sake of combat.

With the dispersion of the fog, also revealed the creature the swordsman was fighting. Two of its frontal limbs from its radius—down, form a pair of single, sharp claws, which can stretch out and also act as its flippers if it submerges in the mushy lake of the marsh to help it swim across; hind limbs shaped that of a dog's with large, webbed feet in which it can either stand as a bipedal or quadrupedal being to effectively traverse the marshlands... a small, oval-shaped torso, and a head of a frilled shark with spiky shaped frills on its neck that expands to intimidate its enemy.

The beast's attack successfully connected as the swordsman intended. They felt the weight of the strike slightly bend their wrist, the iron vibrate, ringing their fingers, and their feet sink, down the brittle ground.

Upon successfully blocking the creature's claw, the swordsman immediately shifted their bladed weapon and swiftly slid it away from the creature's right claw. They explosively stepped forward. Upon doing so, they swung their sword upwards with both hands gripping it, aiming at the creature's torso. At the same time, the beast tried to strike once again with its bladed left limb. The swordsman, upon seeing this, persists in doing their current action.

And then—

An immediate sound of iron and tearing flesh was heard and blood sprayed upon the swordsman's dark helmet.

A limb flew off distances away from the two figures, as the swordsman felt a confusing but familiar sensation.

On the ground, fell the swordsman's right arm twitching from instantaneous rigidity, with the sword it once held, plunged into the mush ground helplessly, like any piece of feeble, ordinary, unshaped iron before reforged by man.

Upon realizing this, the swordsman reflexively raised their left arm to guard their face quickly. As they did, the creature rammed the blunt side of its claw at the swordsman, aiming at their head. Instead of any serious damage, it grazed a part of their arm and torso, knocking them down to the wet ground echoing a violent wallop.

The swordsman, supported by their remaining arm, managed to clumsily recover and lie on their backside facing up at the beast. And without delay, the creature ran towards the injured swordsman.

As it caught up, it slammed its right claw down at its prey. Within those rapid moments, the swordsman rolled away from the attack. The creature followed up with a piercing attack aimed at the swordsman's chest with its left claw but failed to do so as they missed by a hair. The creature shrieked, thrilled by its game.

The moment of the shriek cued a window of opportunity for the swordsman. They began to stand supported by their remaining arm, focused intently on the object they were pursuing... The sword knocked away from their grasp—a few meters within reach.

The swordsman quickly stood up. But they slipped due to the damp ground of the marsh, landing on their remaining arm and a knee. They began to crawl as the creature's unintelligible laments began to sound louder, and its webbed feet come faster. It's getting closer—this swordsman realized. But there's no time to look back, nor much time to plan.

With two knees and one arm, they crawled forcefully with all their might for their sword within those strict moments.

When finally—

The swordsman got a hold of the grip—

The creature pounced claws first—

The swordsman twisted their body and then—

—the sound of cutting flesh. Its cut went deep, and it drew blood...

The sword passed through from meat to bone. The creature's left claw was severed at its upper limb, the humerus—the only vulnerable spot on its bladed limbs, as its otherworldly blood spilled. Some of it splashed on the one-armed swordsman.

The swordsman twisted their body to their right side, avoiding the thin, single-bladed claws of the beast. A fate in which they believed, have cheated Death. Lady Luck must have answered their prayers.

It wasn't time to relax yet.

The creature fell headfirst after losing its balance from pouncing at its game. It shrieked a cry of unexpectedness. As it fell, the swordsman—looking at the beast whilst lying on its back, turned their blade upside down, and stabbed the creature in the head. The creature died silently at that instant without a final cry for life.

The swordsman let go of their sword and dropped their whole body backward on the marsh's damp ground.

The swordsman let out a breath exclaiming their relief.

The swordsman looked up at the upper left corner of their HUD or, Heads up Display which detailed their status. They looked at their HP or, Health Points which was the amount of damage they can take before their avatar dies.

The HUD was also meant to display status effects to know whether their avatar has any boosted statistics or disabilities in any way, floating texts for any system-related announcements, notifications and confirmations, system settings, and party members. At the moment, a small icon was displayed implying limb damage on their severed right arm.

But mainly, the HUD shows the player's HP throughout their entire gameplay.

Right now, the bar of their HP remains only a chip amount. About 18% of it remains.

Above their HP was their avatar's name, Arakar—also known as Arka Arao.

"I sure messed that one up..." She said. She meant her fatal mistake in the battle that time with the—

"...Nightcullers..." She said.

Can be so tenacious... she thought as she looked at the corpse of the beast called, a Nightculler on the ground next to her.

As Arka or... Arakar in this world rested on the damp ground, her HP starts to regenerate moments later.

She just laid there as the green bar of her HP slowly overtook the red side of the bar, moving towards the right.

25%... 38%... 45%... 58%... as it reached the 65% mark, her brain registered a sensation on her right side. She lifted her severed right arm to look at it and saw it begin the recovery process. Small, gridded shapes, shone with a faint, blue light and started outlining the form of the severed arm her avatar was missing. In a few moments, her arm immediately reconstructed itself starting from the base it was severed in a digitalized form. A soft and immediate hum was heard as the arm briefly went back in its place.

Arka clenched her fist...and felt the grip—the sensation all back in place.

It's back in place... Arka thought, reassuring herself.

Having regained the sense of complete limbs relieved her unease. She stood up from the ground effortlessly this time without any further struggles. Once she did, she withdrew her Kampilan plunged in the Nightculler's head and sheathed it on her waist.

A first person dark fantasy virtual reality game... Arka looked up at the sky as she thought of this. This was what awaited her inside the package that she opened. A virtual reality console for a game called Helsfate. The package that was sent to her had a note attached saying that she was one of the chosen testers for this new game.

Helsfate features limb damage as one of its gameplay mechanics. How this works was that each part of the body has its own Hit Box which are invisible shapes that are present on your avatar that correspond to every individual body part. When the system detects a collision on a body part, it registers it as damage you took. It all depends as well if whatever damage you took carried an additional effect or whatever was present.

Of course, the game was programmed so that only certain conditions are met for damage to happen. Your avatar bumping into other avatars or walls won't register this as damage.

The game also featured its own original style of immersion developed by Lightspire called, Con-Imm or, Concentrated Immersion, where your consciousness and some of your senses were altered to that of the game world while also disabling your motor functions in real life. Therefore, it feels as if you physically are your player's avatar. These senses are limited to your sight and touch which are exactly like that in the game world. The last three senses, smell, hearing, and taste were still present in the real world; with smell and hearing present, both in-game and in real life. Meanwhile, your body's metabolism and other functions still carry on. You could compare it similarly to engaging your body in a lucid, sleep paralysis as you play on the Dive Console.

Also, despite this altered sense of consciousness, as you get hurt in-game, you don't feel pain. As you take damage, get boosted on any statistics, or be inflicted upon any debilitating effect; the system recognizes this and neutralizes this sensation programmed by the developers. One of its only side effects was the brain registering a fuzzy sensation down to your nerves on the specific body part.

Despite the number of hours Arka has played, it was still a lot to get used to.

Arka was worried at first if there would be any long-term side effects with such a strange console... but she feels fine after the many hours of gaming in Helsfate she has had. So she let her worries slide.

Arka took out a carving knife sheathed on her back waist. She went to the creature to carve out whatever it had left.

She hacked away on the skin of the Nightculler corpse. After yanking and cutting off its remaining skin, she sheathed her carving knife, and walked away with the Nightculler hide, grasped in her previously severed hand.

Unhurriedly, she walked and looked keenly in the foggy marsh. Before she can leave the marsh, she had to look for something else. It didn't take long before she found her object of interest.

It was her leather satchel. She left it on the ground of the marsh before she went on her hunt for Nightcullers; a quest given to her.

She picked up her leather satchel. Then, with an easy lift of the bag's flap, she threw in the Nightculler hide she carved out.

Obtained Nightculler hide x1—a system message briefly appeared on her Heads up Display.

The inventory system for Helsfate Online revolves around bags with real carrying capacity and weight management. Carrying one hinders movement, as the player also feels the weight of their bag burden them. It's up to the player whether they would drop or carry with them their bags before a battle.

Next, she took out a rolled parchment in her inventory while slinging the leather satchel over her shoulder. Unrolling it was revealed to be a map. Once she pinpointed her location and direction, she slipped the map back into her leather satchel.

"I guess it’s time to get out of this shithole." She said.

Arka began heading westward.

The Grand Kingdom of Fellmoria was a country that exercises its nation in a Meritocratic form of government, where only the strongest, the wisest, or the ones who have demonstrated great talent can be put into positions of power and leadership. It perpetually held this idea of excellence throughout its history until its rulers found a city sharing the same name as the country itself that symbolizes the peak of power and excellence.

The Grand City of Fellmoria—great castle walls consisting of various archery, cannoning and watchtower stations with other exceptional defenses hidden within; surround the great city ready for its protection. Outside the city walls are wide, lush, rich fields and vegetation occupied by its farms with great agricultural production near the east and west. To the north, resides its military and soldiers who train from dawn 'till dusk, ready for any upcoming battle. And to the south of the city, are minor villages and great mountain ranges protecting the city from its harsh elements. The mountain ranges also provide protection if any foreign country decides to invade southwards.

The grand city was considered by all as the heart and center of the world of Helamir. All of its roads from the city lead to all the kingdoms across the continent thus, making this city a common merchant trading route with its advantageous geographical location.

Just as expected of the kingdom's central city of the game to have such a grandeur background. Arka's read this text about the main city before at the back of the box.

—And from here, you will experience the start of your grand adventure... Arka thought as she finished recalling the description of the game's main city.

She walked and tried to make her way through the city's vast, bricked roads and districts. Already, multitudes of players also circled the city.

Arka kept her hands on her leather satchel as she moved onward.

When Arka first started the game and saw the dozens of players running around, she couldn't look at any of them. An immediate shyness overwhelmed her at that time. She expected that playing a VRMMO would just be the same as playing any video game in front of her screen. However for her, despite playing behind her avatar generated in a virtual world, she still felt like she went out faced with actual people in front of her. She blamed the Con-Imm the developers made which affected her senses that feel too realistic as in the real world.

Other than her avatar feels realistic, the world itself looks realistic as well.

The avatar she's made was one she can tell herself she's proudly accomplished in the advanced, character customization system. With over 200 styles of looks, the one she's created was the same gender as her but with the rest of the avatar's body altered slightly, referencing her measurements... of course with her own added personal preferences. She projected herself into her avatar.

Yet here she is, clad behind darkened steel plate armor, a close helmet with a pair of broad, short, antennas above its visor, and a stylistic, earthen-green caped cowl. She can barely remember the looks she's had on her avatar, and she wants to admire it so badly. It was disappointing even for a self-proclaimed artist like her.

The city's game music sounded a peaceful tune making you feel wanting to either rest, prepare, or gather a group of people to join together as one party.

For Arka, this music meant "preparation" for her. And to prepare means finding a local shopkeeper—much better for her if the shopkeeper's isolated and away from the constant influx of players in the most common areas of the city.

Arka knows of one shopkeeper she regularly visits... one who's hidden in one of the city's narrow districts, besides the western walls. She can freely transact in this location without being bothered.

As she neared this shop, she stuck her hand inside her satchel, ready to make a deal with her Nightculler hides.

Arka opened the double doors of the shop called, "Aljohn and Ivan's".

With the doors creaking, and the bells chiming, this notified the owner of the shop.

The shop Arka entered was a small, 10 x 15 size room, with its wall, shelves, and tables lined up with all the store's general goods. Its common products include bread, hats, gloves, ropes, pots, buckets, and maps. The items on display near the windows show one of its most expensive leather armor, and the City Teleportation Diamond—a convenient way for fast travel in the world of Helamir.

The shop was combined with his brother, Ivan's Forge outside, which was where Arka made her customized, darkened armor set. Her gauntlets and sabatons were also custom-made which can be requested from any smith for a price.

The shopkeeper Arka's seeing was a blonde man wearing circular-shaped glasses, wearing a faint, green tunic, a brown, leather apron, and brown pants. This was Aljohn.

Arka thought previously that it was a cute setting for two NPCs living together like that. She thought it was nice to see such minor details the developers have put in the game.

Although what made her curious and part of the reason that she kept coming back to this shop was whether Aljohn and Ivan really were brothers... they never said that they were, and none of their facial features look alike at all... could it be that they were actually a gay couple?

Arka couldn’t contain her imagination.

The shopkeeper, Aljohn noticed her. "Well, well... look who it is!" He said. "I know that darkened, helmet anywhere."

Arka was surprised for the A.I. to notice her as a regular customer. After all, it was pretty surprising coding for the developers to make. Videogame shop NPCs were supposed to be written with just a few, scripted events. "Yeah, i-it's a pleasure to meet you... you again too, Aljohn," Arka said to the shopkeeper. Aljohn just returned a welcoming smile.

Arka froze, and without noticing it herself, stared at the NPC, or non-playable character in front of her. She started second-guessing whether it was a real person she was talking with. However, after a few short moments...

"My shop's open for business! Is there something you need?" Aljohn said.

It was the generic, scripted dialogue when a player was near a local shopkeeper in-game. As Arka noticed this, it eased her wariness around the shopkeeper.

Yeah... it's just the same, normally scripted AI. What am I getting so worked up about? Arka reassured herself after thinking through the situation. She chuckled.

Afterward, she pulled out the bundle of ten Nightculler hides in her satchel and placed it on the shopkeeper's counter. "I'd... I'd like to sell these." She said slowly.

"Nightculler hides, huh..." Aljohn said. "...this is pretty rare... I suppose we could bargain a fine trade." The NPC said.

After that, a confirmation window appeared in front of her HUD with the text:

Start trading with Aljohn?

Yes • No

The window showed Aljohn's name colored in grey, indicating he was indeed a non-playable character. "Alright, then." Arka said, making her mind agree to the Yes option.

Interacting with system messages works without any gestures or any sort of movement needed. Somehow, the Dive Console recognizes your brain waves and what determined choice you make on your Heads up Display. Arka does not know the details behind this yet. It used to spook her.

After Arka confirmed her reply, a window popped up showing the shopkeeper, Aljohn's wares and Arka's inventory. The middle of the trade window shows the amount of "Fels" they have, which was the currency of the game world—with Arka's Fels at the top, and Aljohn's Fels below hers.

Trading with NPC shopkeepers requires that they also have enough currency to cover what you sell to them. The amount of Fels they carry affects globally, meaning every player who trades with the shop keepers in-game affects it for other players in the game world. The shopkeeper's Fels reset every 24 hours back at 3,000 Fels.

At the moment, Arka has 618 Fels, while Aljohn has 1,974 Fels left for the day. It's best if she could maximize the amount she can get from the shopkeeper before the day resets.

Arka chose the Teleportation Diamond which costs 500 Fels each—A hefty price considering the game world doesn’t have many fast travel opportunities. After that, she sold the bundle of ten Nightculler hides she hunted that was sold for 50 Fels a piece, recovering her losses of 500 Fels.

Arka's now back at 618 Fels, with the shopkeeper also back at the same amount of 1,974 Fels with both parties gaining new items.

Arka closed the trade window.

Balanced. As all things should be. Arka thought of that funny meme.

"Thank you, come again." The shopkeeper, Aljohn told her.

Arka nodded at the scripted shopkeeper, turned her back to him, and stepped away a few inches.

"Well, that's it for today I suppose... I can just turn in this quest after a good night's sleep." Arka said, referring to her completed Nightculler Hunt quest, as she's preparing herself to log out of the game.

She needed to open her system settings in the HUD, and selecting the logout button. This was all done through eye movement. When you glance down to the bottom of the HUD, the console detects your pupils looking at its bottom margin which pushes up a hidden, system settings menu. The menu shows icons that can be selected for each setting, and are arranged in a square formation. Each icon represents its respective visual, audio, interface, and control mapping/sensitivity settings.

The logout button was at the bottom-right of the menu which represents a power button icon, even bigger, standing out from the rest.

Arka's brought up this menu in just a quick instance. And then, just as she's about to select the Logout button—

The double doors opened with its noisy creek, and the shop's bells chimed.

Arka noticing the sudden intrusion of silence ended up making her glance at the double doors opened by the person in front of her. Looking away causes system menu that she brought upon her HUD to be disrupted.

As the system menu window distorted into nothingness, Arka looked at the player who suspended her plans of egress, with a look expressed like, seeing a brief gust of wind, unseeable as it is, with its windy blast ending abruptly.

But of course, this brief, abstract expression couldn't be seen through her sophisticated close helmet by anybody.

"Uhh... hi." He said. "Can I please ask you for some help with a quest?" Said this man holding on to one side of the double doors.

He has medium-length, violet hair, wearing a hooded, long, white, padded armor, green padded trousers, brown, padded gloves, and steel-toed, leather brown boots. On his waist are two Kukri daggers— knives that have distinguishing, recurved blades. His daggers both have an intricate design, showing advanced craftsmanship of it.

Arka looked above the player's avatar to identify the name of the one who came to talk to her.

Banelfsing—it spelled.

Banelfsing continued. "...it's in a dungeon near the city." He said.

Did... this guy just follow me all the way here? She thought as she looked back at him.

"Ah..." Arka uttered. "...sorry, but you came at a bad time... I'm just about to go to sleep, you see..." Arka said in her usual slow tone.

"Oh... okay," Banelfsing said. He turned his back and prepared to leave, but stopped and turned again to face Arka. "By the way, um... sorry for surprising you." He said, in a considerate tone of voice. "I didn't think calling someone out here in this game would be like, you know, something in real life." Banelfsing as he scratched behind his ear.

"It's fine," Arka said.

"Yeah..." Banelfsing said, as he partly turned away from Arka with a gesture of his hand. "Well, bye, then." He finally said as he walked out the double doors.

A creaking sound once again resounded as its bells chimed which prompted a time of a person who once visited.

Once again, Arka opened her system settings, preparing herself to log out. She looked at the icon staring at it.

She just kept staring... but in the end, she doesn't select it.

She looked away from the menu, distorting it back to nothingness—closing it. After that, she began walking towards the double door of the tiny shop.

Arka can be hypocritical sometimes.

She walked out of the shop past the creaky sound of the double doors, as its bells chimed once again which prompted a time of people who once visited.