The Server, Isilia, is located in the northern hemisphere of the real world. Currently it is winter, almost six months since the game launched during the ever-unusual hot summer. The game, Divine Mortality, was a massive hit. Tons of unexpected Players prior to the release had little-to-no idea about the game’s existence, but now after release millions are actively playing it. Six months down the line, every server in the northern hemisphere saw the in-game world gradually change as the seasons shifted from the summer to the short-lived autumn and finally now into winter. Mechanics such as this, dynamic weather, is one of the many reasons why players have fallen in love with the game, despite all of them coming from different backgrounds in real life and also from different game preferences. The fact that Divine Mortality is capable of showing its stylistic yet eye-pleasing detailed graphics, alongside a living environment in a real-time virtual world is nothing less than amazing.

The open world of the “overworld”, the game world, was loosely based on the Northeast of Asia in real life. Specifically, centered around the historical region known as Manchuria. Farthest east is Sakhalin Island, a lengthy thin strip of land bordering off the coast alongside the mainland, which in the Overworld cannot be accessed by Players except seen from far away. Some of the community expect a massive expansion to be released eventually, that will unlock the island and the rumored Ogre-like islander race, but those are purely rumors. So far, only bundles of tiny patches gradually improve the game. Meanwhile, farthest to the west of the Overworld’s map are the everlasting Siberian-like woodlands and plains, which seemingly continue on forever, but a very large river was created to serve as a boundary for Players to remain inside the playable area. While those boundaries sound restricting, it is pointless to feel depressed over those locked zones because everything inside the playable area is so immensely huge that nobody in any server has been able to see even half of what Divine Mortality offers.

Yet, at the same time, Divine Mortality’s ‘largest’ downside is its literal largeness. The number of settlements and NPCs and enemy mobs and dungeons and many other things are, simply put, “a lot”. Some Players can easily feel overwhelmed by this all, so many of them either stay in one region and focus on only certain aspects of the game, or simply quit playing entirely because they fear spending too much time on a game.

And currently, our protagonist for this story, Sayooshi is feeling the bothersome size of the overworld as he retreats from his former Guild Hall back to the nearest settlement in the area, which so happens to be the largest settlement in the region he’s in. The capital of the Marchdom of Sonder, Kurajur, meaning “secret earth.”

If Kafeorkoko believes I am capable of doing something amazing, then there is no reason for me to give up. I mean, even if Kafeorkoko doesn’t believe I can, I will still try to prove everyone at the Chocolate Milk Kittens guild wrong! But…I doubt they would care either way…ugh. I already knew I was probably going to be kicked from the guild eventually, so maybe that’s why I am not really bothered by it now. I joined other guilds and groups in the past, but I was kicked from those too…even the Nomads of the Gryphon! Not many people get to be a member of a cool guild like that, but I didn’t think it was cool at the time, so I wasn’t careful enough to stop myself from being kicked…why do I keep getting kicked anyways? Kafeorkoko calls me a ‘weirdo’, but I don’t see myself as one. If anything, a guild hall full of cats and sweet deserts, even just for aesthetic reasons, is super weird! The game is full of weirder people than me…yet they are the ones who seem to be having all the fun…

“Maybe I should just quit…”

“Lame.”

“Yeah, I know it’s lame…but- hold on. Who said that?”

Sayooshi stopped in their tracks. Immediately the player character equipped their lance and shield, readied in position for a strike from any direction. The nighttime in-game makes it harder for everyone to see anything, but it was still far from pitched black especially from the snow light practically lighting up the whole area. Yet, where did that voice come from? Neither from behind, to the side, or in front of him…then it must be-

“Above you, loser.”

“Shut up don’t call me a loser! And I were you, I wouldn’t dare trying to attack me, unless you want to lose your EXP points and a random item on you.”

“A person who says lame things like you did is always going to be a loser. Anyways I wasn’t going to bother fighting you since losers don’t need to be reminded that often that they’re losers. It’s better to let them get false confidence first and then snatch that away.”

“Look, just because I can’t see you up there doesn’t mean that allows you to be so rude to people.”

“Boo-hoo, loser is sad that other people in a video game are mean to him…boo-hoo”

“Alright, listen up midget, if you want to fight that bad then come down here!”

“I said… I wasn’t planning to fight a loser like you…”

“Alright then, just leave me alone now, will you? Spoiled kid…”

Jeez the nerve of some people. Why does someone like that just has to be hanging around this exact spot? Like, nobody even goes up so far north anyways, let alone this exact location where there isn’t anything besides a Guild Hall nearby. Come here or even leaving this place is such as pain without a mount since snow reduces anybody’s movement speed. Oh! I should’ve at least asked Kafeorkoko to let me borrow a Muleram to get back to Kurajur

Scratch that, it seems like I’m fighting that brat after all…

Sayooshi’s model is a tall chubby elf, leaning towards the heavier side. With dark blue hair and tanned skin, he stands covered by an outlandish woolly robe, Sayooshi stands out as the centerpiece in a snowy background portrait.

Immediately a flurry of tiny knives emerges from the pine trees, speeding towards Sayooshi who blocks them with his buckler shield on his left hand. And on his right, his lance acts as the extension of his body, able to reach into the brushes with quick silver pierces that almost cut down the tree which the ninja hid behind. Forced to change location, the ninja character slides down a fluffy slope while continuously throwing tiny knives at Sayooshi who blocks most of them besides a few which lands under his torso. The slope extends into a fully-fledged hill, short to notice, the ninja accidentally submerges under the snow while Sayooshi jumps forward in a rush to take advantage. As if punching a box full of icecream, the snow dramatically is pierced and explodes in all directions while Sayooshi attempts to land a hit on the ninja, now taking advantage of snow tunnels like a marmot, an underground rodent. Eventually the stream of silver pierces stops for a moment, Sayooshi recollects their composure and begins to cast a lightning spell enhancement on their lance. But just before Sayooshi completed that spell, a pop sound shocks Sayooshi’s senses. The ninja attempted to assassinate Sayooshi with a double dagger cleave to the backside, but unbeknownst to the ninja, Sayooshi merely climbed slightly up the snowy hill while still completing their spell. With the advantage, Sayooshi used the ninja’s surprise attack advantage against them with a literal shock. While quick enough to evade a direct piercing hit, the electric lightning damage is capable of spreading over a small Area of Effect (AOE) radius that was just enough to shock and slightly stun the ninja. The battle was over, the ninja, remained stuck almost at the same position bogged down by and shocked by the snow. Yet, even with the secured time to deliver a final piercing blow, Sayooshi decided to lower their lance.

In realization, the ninja cheekily attempted to take this opportunity to continue the fight, but Sayooshi’s words stopped them.

“That would be lame!”

“Pfff…I don’t want to hear that from you, loser.”

“The only loser here, is you.”

“Pff…whatever. Just don’t call me a brat.”

“Why?”

“I don’t need to give you a reason, just don’t do that.”

“Aren’t you oddly cute? If you simply didn’t bring that up, then I wouldn’t know…”

“Know what? WHAT would you have known?”

“Brat. Midget. Shit kid!”

“I’m not a kid! I’m not a kid! Now stop bothering me, you won…good for you and screw off nerd!”

“You so are a brat playing this game, aren’t you? Also, now you’re calling me nerd…sigh, y’know, I almost had fun having a Player vs Player (PVP) fight again but now this victory feels empty knowing I won against a kid…”

“Whatever, goodbye nerd!”

“Wait- you can’t just leave like that.”

“Yes, I can!”

“Hey! I can hear you are embarrassed about losing fight, I get that. But don’t you think you owe me an explanation? Or at least talk with me before you just leave like that? I’m heading to Kurajur by the way…”

“Pff…takes an obnoxious deep breath…fine I guess so…it would be lame if I just ran off like that.”

“Awesome, because I have some questions! But first, you should probably turn off that voice changer software you’ve got on. I’m getting secondhand embarrassment from it.”

“Shut up! Why are you assuming I’m a kid? Huh, HUH HUH!? What do you know!”

“Calm down. If you want, I know a good place for you, they take care of young players like you. The guild is called “Chocolate Milk Kittens.”

“Ahhh you were going to join there too?”

“Umm, not exactly. By the way, what’s your name?”

“RemixHorizon, you?”

“Sayooshi"

While trudging away from his former Guild Hall, Sayooshi begins their new journey with someone he met by chance. And immediately started a fight with accidentally. The ninja-like character, slightly short in height for a Himenian human, wore dark purple clothing which covered their entire body besides the eyes. While Sayooshi clearly saw RemixHorizon during most of the fight, the garments of the ninja-like player worked well in hiding the player character in the shadows even during a bright snowy night.

Hang on, if RemixHorizon is aiming to play like a ninja then why would you bother alerting another person of your presence as a spy character?

“Hey Remix, why did you alert me of your position?”

“I didn’t allow you to call me, but that’s fine since Remix sounds cool too. Anyways, so what gave away my awesome stealth ability?”

“Do you know what ninjas are? You are dressed like one, right?”

“You want me to define what a ninja is? They’re obviously an assassin? By the way, did you know my armor is actually pretty rare?

Yeah…they’re definitely a kid

“Aren’t ninjas realistically more like spies, and not assassins who engage in combat?”

“I guess so, but so what, this is a fantasy game? What do you think everyone thinks about when someone says a “ninja?” Idiot.”

“Hang on, you’re probably right, but I’d appreciate if you won’t call me an “idiot.” At least call me a “weirdo.”

“Huh? What the hell, I seriously met a weirdo…”

Oh no! I didn’t mean it to go that direction! Now it sounds like I’m a legit weirdo. I am seriously not an idiot, I hope, but I also seriously not a weirdo either…I think.