In the past, why did gamers set the trend in video games that big things were automatically good? Open world games are great and all, but what’s the functional purpose behind them? Why is a huge open world automatically considered as a good addition to a MMORPG? Sorry, I mean “MOAG”. What a stupid term... When companies force their players to adopt certain catch phrases or names to use, instead of already established names and slang, half the time those changes don’t work. But, for some reason, I guess terms such as Massively Online Adventure Game caught on with the masses. Maybe, I’m just sore about it now for the sake of disliking it. Since, if anything, it should’ve been termed at least something like “Online Massive Adventure Game”, because that would’ve accurately described the literal size of the game world. And how damn lonely it is for some players like me who are usually exploring it all alone because nobody has ever wanted to tag along with me. It is an online game, but where was my online adventure until now? Half the Playerbase all stay in either the Free Counties which is in the center of the map, or the Holy Lands which is the literal spawn place for all new player-characters. It also so happens to be right under the Free Counties, so it gives new players the impression that they’ve already travelled across to a new region without needing to go some far-off places like the Lunar Empire, or Graypine Kingdom, or even here. Sure, this video game is connected to the internet, but you barely see anybody out in this world (besides NPCs sometimes) if you aren’t in a popular zone or far away enough. But I guess it’s not the game’s fault that I’m this far away from even the largest nearby city. It’s the fault of that stupid guild! Just because you were harassed by a militaristic guild down in the Holy Lands, doesn’t mean you needed to switch your guild base all the way north, practically in a winter wonderland!

RemixHorizon’s long twin-tailed purple cape was dragged across the ground as both she and Sayooshi marched on together towards the stone capital of the Marchdom of Sonder. Basically, the only major city this far north of the game, Kurajur. The snow chartered their path clearly, enough for others to easily see in this clear landscape.

By now the moon had crossed to the other side of the sky, but the morning dawn was still far off. Occasional patches of trees in a snow-covered grassland formed clumps of shadow on an almost entirely snowy landscape. Visibly comparable to locations on Earth like Lapland in Scandinavia or lands that border the tundras of Canada or Siberia. Afterall, the game’s geography was based roughly on old historical maps of Manchuria. However, unlike Manchuria, woodland in the northernmost areas of Sonder were scarce and the overworld’s boundaries laid somewhere farther away from the smooth inclined hills and crystal mountains which calmly stood just beyond where the Chocolate Milk Kittens guild hall was located. The members of that guild are aesthetic lovers of cats and other pet animals, just like many other people who frequent the internet, however, in a video game such as this with seemingly endless customization options (many yet to still be discovered or unlocked), let us just say that this guild took it higher in their guild’s duties to focus on. Sayooshi once more wondered why he thought that a guild like “Chocolate Milk Kittens” would ever accept his outrageous desires of forming a “unique” and “rival” Player led government in this overworld. Since, after all, only a single successful Player-made and Player-led government has remained in the Isilia server. The one which was formed almost immediately after the completion of the first successful Invasion Quest (raid) on the server, the defeat of the Ogre King…

“B-b-Bahahaha!”

“Twerp! SO! So how about you? What were you doing there?”

“H-h-h…heeeeeeee…Hee-ahahaha! You got kicked…you got kicked from the Chocolate Milk Kittens guild?!”

“Is it really that funny? You sound just like a Chipbat…they screech just like you do, except I bet their laughs are far cuter.”

“S-s-shut u-ah-ahaha…hehe. Shut up a moment…Ahm, first off. I don’t sound like a Chipbat, at all…but they are cute. Second. How could you get kicked from a guild like that? Seriously. On the community billboards, guilds like Chocolate Milk Kittens are easy for babies to join because a guild like that is basically built to tolerate babies. Not real babies, but still.”

“Well, I don’t know what you read Remix, but either way I wasn’t maliciously kicked or anything, I basically quit it myself too.”

“Nah man, there’s got to be a freaky reason! You must be a serious weirdo to have gotten kicked from it-oh, you couldn’t be a pervert, could you? ADMINS!”

“NO… I am not a pervert! But, yes, maybe I might really be a little ‘weird’. A DIFFERENT KIND OF WEIRD THOUGH! ...Which very well could just be you conflating(?) my weirdness with something else. Because you probably lack the knowledge of other people and various sophisticated ideas from around the real world. Chocolate Milk Kittens simply wasn't prepared for something cool, basically. Just like you aren't prepared.”

“I’ll just forget some of what you’ve just said just now for a moment, because I am dying to know…how did you get kicked from Chocolate Milk Kittens?”

“Fine, I’ll tell you so you could stop nagging me. But in exchange, you must first answer me why you’re even here in the middle of nowhere in the first place? The only reason I can think of is that you wanted to join Chocolate Milk Kittens, especially since you seem to already know so well about it!”

RemixHorizon stopped in their tracks for a moment before continuing on walking nearby beside Sayooshi back south.

“Stupid punk…fine I’ll answer. I just happened to be nearby, and I wanted to see the guild for myself, so while going there I saw some loser walking my direction. And since you look like such a bad guy, I decided to watch carefully from the distance…there, I answered.”

“Who watches from the distance and reveals their position? And, if you so badly wanted to get to see the guild for yourself…why don’t you go now?”

“Er! Pff, why am I even being interrogated. Just answer my question already…JEEZ!”

“Okay-okay-okay little ninja!"

RemixHorizon stopped in their tracks again. Sayooshi felt a virtual glare.

"… erm… “Okay Remix”, is that better? … anyways, you want to know why I got kicked from a stupid guild like that?”

“Yes, but don’t call it stupid, you’re stupid!”

They both continued ambling

“Alright, moving on. I got kicked from there for breaking their Rule #7 too much, something about “too much politics” and so on. I admit, maybe I was a little bit annoying, but I was barely even mentioning politics. More like philosophy…”

“What a dumb way to get kicked, and a weird answer from answer a weird guy, I guess that make sense. Also, that was super anticlimactic, the way you described it. Like I said, I’m pretty sure it would take a weirdo like you to get kicked from that type of guild. But I’m glad such a adorable guild doesn’t have a person like you a part of it… What’re you smiling about? Whatever, we’re continuing.”

“Hey, at least that solves that! Is this what they call “acquittance trust”? We shared each other’s secret information!”

“Nope, and I never heard of it. And I still wouldn’t still say I trust you, maybe besides your fighting skills but that’s only because of the stupid snow in my way. Anyways, we just happen to be heading the same direction.”

Both continue on their trek from the wilderness, sparse in mass vegetation, warmth, players, NPCs, and even animals or monsters. Soon enough, after fifteen minutes of walking, another five minutes remain until they reach Kurajur. The city’s exterior which is renowned to be made out of mostly stone.

The two continued to chat time to time during their lengthy short journey. A journey which is almost too long for most multiplayer games and is of course truly boring for many. But the atmosphere, immersion, and graphics of the game take away half the boredom most players suffer from. The rest of the boredom is either covered by accompanied music from in-game with other players our the usual background music from the real world. Or simply chatting with another person. Yet, the stiff relationship between to these two mere acquaintances remarkably resulted in both of them agreeing to lodge together at one of the many NPC operated inns in Kurajur. Membership fees for specific inns or settlements are usually paid over periods of time for free stays at any time. And even reserve spots in small inns which allow a limited amount of Players to use. Often, Players who stay around certain areas bother buying these memberships, otherwise they don't bother if they often travel from point to point. Yet, neither Sayoosh nor RemixHorizon have one because Sayooshi was either stuck at the Guild Hall or travelled farther out, and RemixHorizon still remained secretive about certain things that Sayooshi remained curious about. For someone that happened to be around this area, usually a person would’ve bought a stay at an inn.

Anyways, you may be asking, why is it better for them to stay at the same inn? Simply because it is cheaper whenever multiple groups in parties or groups stay at an inn, there is a certain percentage number the lowers the cost per member. And despite their rough start as acquaintances, since they fought each other basically on sight, both of them happen to also be incredibly frugal, even in a video game. And finally, you may be asking a much more important and glaring question…which is, why the hell does a Player in a video game need to stay at an inn? These Players do not literally sleep inside of the game, they are not their characters, and their characters are special beings known as “Divine Spirits”, so we are all pretty sure they’d be fine, right? Wrong! While Divine Mortality may not be a “survival game” where a person must be wary of their health conditions or other problems, in Divine Mortality Players suffer the possibility of various negative chances. These chances might range from incredibly minor details that may not even matter in the longer term such as “The citizens of this settlement are discontent with a Divine Spirit behaving as a bum, perhaps this one is not a good being?”, those chances especially occur in “civilized” areas which have stronger rigid rules against certain behaviors, depending on the region. But a far riskier and obvious danger of sleeping outside or just anywhere in Divine Mortality, unless the Player deems it to be a “safe enough” spot, is the fact that other Players or NPCs or Monsters can kill another Player while they are logged out off the game. Player characters remain inside the world, and if murdered whether awake or asleep then their spirits/souls become transmitted outside the physical realm and await respawn. Plus, depending on the context, the loss of any certain item in the inventory is guaranteed, as well as sometimes currency or experience points. So, it is ‘safe’ to say, that Players in Divine Mortality would rather not risk dying for no good reason.

As Sayooshi and RemixHorizon approached Kurajur, the largest and mightiest city this far north in the overworld, they saw three small mountains. All three relatively align in sequenced pattern next to one another. The center mountain is larger in both height and area of land available on the summit. It is here, which the Royal Palace is located at the very top, which is also closed for almost everyone’s access. Below the palace is the Royal Quarters where most of the wealth and prestige and power of the NPC elites is stored and operated at. Bridges, inner mountain tunnels, ladders, stairs, and even elevator lifts connect not only the Royal Quarters to the Royal Palace together but serve as infrastructure for the whole city. As such, the relatively small nation of the Marchdom of Sonder is renowned for their infrastructure, architecture, and craftsmanship. At least in the game lore from the books available within, but the gameplay does not fall back either. Since for certain Players who use certain weapons like Great Hammers, the best weaponsmiths for those items are located in Kurajur.

But Sayooshi and RemixHorizon are not heading towards the Royal Quarters nor the middle mountain entirely. They are instead heading towards the bottom layer of the city, also the lengthiest and busiest because it is easily accessible from the front gate and side gates. Plus, the area was “constructed specifically for” higher volumes of traffic, such as the Players or “Divine Spirits”. And so, the fairly flat yet commercially busy area of this city is simply known as the “Market Quarters”. And while the rest of the city does contain “markets”, those are usually inhabited and used by the expansive NPC citizen AI which are the ones who truly make the city feel alive. Since, in their world view, their lives “exist’ as reality. However, despite whatever anyone on the internet says, no, whether better or for worse…but probably better, the AI in Divine Mortality are not sentient, at all. They simply appear to be, but that does not mean they lack complexity or degrees of emotions which a real person can relate to and feel for. When a Player in a city like Kurajur decides to be a criminal, usually those who treat the game as what it truly is, they are often hunted down by either Player adventurers taking on a quest or the overpowered NPC guards. Simply for the balancing and ‘fairness’ of the game and for its AI inhabitants, AI guards are able to just enough protect the general semblance of sanity in most settlements. And at the very least, Player criminals are treated less harshly than they ought to be, they either literally serve a certain amount of time (or if they escape), or they shorten that punishment by losing certain skills on their character.

Bah! Anyways, who cares. Sayooshi and RemixHorizon certainly don’t. since as regulars who invest around one third of their time in real life towards this game currently, such notions are simply the way of life in the overworld!

Even at night, a moderate amount of traffic continues to operate. The wide cobble paved road was mostly covered in snow, except in small areas where magically lit braziers melted the snow away due to the fires which lined up far into the distance, marking the road’s path. As usual, the regular customers and travelers into and out of the city were NPCs. Many of those who entered and left happened to be Snowmel, wild catfolk found all over in the wilderness of the West and Northwest. They, simply through commerce but also migration, bulk up to be the third largest racial group in Kurajur. But half of the Snowmel in the city belong to a tribal culture from the outside, while the others are more akin to the Snowmel and even some Sunmel in the center and south of the overworld. The second largest racial group in the city are the dwarves, arguably the key developers of Kurajur to the city it became today. These dwarves are newcomers to the region, since most dwarves in Divine Mortality are either native to the center lands, the East coast, or the South. Most dwarves were historically (according to the lore) indirect colonizers of the lands, alongside the Elves, but that was centuries ago. But now, the dwarves in Kurajur have adapted to the cold environment and the unique foothills of the crystal mountains in the near north. Finally, the largest racial group are that of the native Luminians, which the royal Margrave family belongs to. They founded the settlement, and unlike their ancient neighbors who were either forced off their homelands or were assimilated by polities such as the Graypine Kingdom, the Marchdom of Sonder accepted the changes of the world and adapted to them accordingly. While the rulers of Sonder, the royal Margrave family is very reserved, in comparison their population is oddly open.

Perhaps the population is oddly open to others because their homes are oddly stone exterior, but more oddly than that is the fact that many of their homes are dug into the small mountains which make up the landscape of the city. And not far off, the ‘best’ magical academy in the overworld and in the video game itself, is also an oddity which is located not far from Kurajur. It is said that the homes of the inhabitants of Kurajur were blessed with unusual warmth in a land which is cold. So nowadays, stereotypically thought to be the opposite of the Orchard Hills, the people of Kurajur and the rest of the Marchdom of Sonder are grateful to their local magic academy. Or maybe…just maybe, the reason for the warmness in the area is due to the hot springs which also dominate the landscape…

As the steam mist from the inside of the hot spring inn clear up, an orange furry blob appears. It is a cheeky Sunmel, a summer catfolk creature- I mean “Player”. Without a shirt piece on but still the bow strapped over the Player character’s body, the Sunmel moves his arms freely. Their character movement is dynamic, the animation shows even the fingers moving individually.

Jeez it sure seems nice to have the official Virtual Reality body kit, I mean, I guess I should be grateful I at least have the VR Headset, unlike the literally poor players who can still only use a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to play this game. I wonder if RemixHorizon has a full VR Kit or is like me, using a VR headset and mouse and keyboard…

“Hey Remix…see that guy over there in the baths?”

“…yeah, I can just barely see them. Just another weirdo taking a bath inside a video game, why don’t you as well?”

“No, no, no. Ignore that. Look at how his body moves?”

“His player model? Yeah, so wh-WOAH! That is actually cool. Their body is legit realistic…I’ma take a closer look!”

The round Sunmel Player character notices the ninja looking character, RemixHorizon, running enthusiastically. For some reason, the Sunmel literally jumps up in real life out of shock. Accidentally, their area voice chat was also still on, so they heard the voice of a surprised young man.

“Don’t you know a thing or two about privacy!”

Shouted the Sunmel Player, but RemixHorizon totally ignored it

“Yo! Do you have a full VR body kit?! How’s it feels like?”

“S-s-stop! Don’t look at me, I’m naked!”

“Umm, no you’re not. Anyways, do you have a full VR body kit? Not just the goggles, but also the hand controls? What about the motion capture dress?!”

Umm, Remix, I don’t think they sell those for video games. Eh, who knows these days, some players might as well have added it to their game. Oh no, hopefully this Sunmel guy didn’t program in a pain reaction or anything…right?

“I SAID, s-s-s-stop looking at me! What does it even matter! Can’t you read the sign?! Males only!”

“Stop overreacting! Of course, it doesn’t matter, it’s just a game. Sayooshi, I think I found another weirdo like you…”

“Even if you whisper it like that (you’re still connected to voice chat) so I can still hear you, rude ninja! Oh wait-You can hear me too!? I forgot to turn off my voice chat! Ooooh noooo…this is soooo embarrassing! (Ahhh and I forgot to type things into chat!)”

“Shut up already weirdo! Can’t you tell by now? You’ve still got all of your gear on your character, besides the shirt…so stop whining already! What the heck, I thought you'd at least be a cute-round-puffy-chubby Sunmel, but you're character is just fat...why?”

I can’t believe I am hearing this brat already lecture a grown man about not whining and calling him fat, so I guess Remix is just rude to everyone that they consider is weird

“Oh. Oh, you are correct… umm, pardon me immensely. My name is Krafty, how do you do?”

At that moment, both Sayooshi and RemixHorizon realized something terrible. They have met…a r*leplayer!