It’s been around 12 hours since I logged out of Divine Mortality.

Last night, I unexpectedly became sleepier sooner than I thought I would become. When I was younger, I used to be able to play video games for many hours a day. Even after having to stop playing a game, I still wanted to play more right away. Nowadays, it looks I can only play a certain number of hours at once before my body begins snooze off.

Before I logged out of the game, I had surprised both Krafty and May when I suddenly announced to them that I wasn’t fully asleep yet. They asked me why I didn’t greet them sooner after they had entered the cake shop. I told them it was because I didn’t have enough energy in my body to bother using it to greet them. So, I was just laying/sitting half asleep in my seat the whole time before I decided to talk to them.

Soon after telling them that I was actually awake at that moment, I also told them I was already logging out of the game for the night. I did tell them I was very sorry because I didn’t stay longer like I planned to, especially after inviting them all the way to Susana. I also told them that the Snowmel NPC’s name was Eseli, and she was possibly my follower companion. Yet I am still not sure whether she is my follower companion. I didn’t bother trying to find that out at that time because I just wanted to go striahgt back to sleep. So, I quickly logged out of the game after greeting Krafty and May. Maybe I imagined this, but I think while my character was logging out it had caused some sort of reaction from Eseli and Orana. Of course, I don’t know if the AI characters actually reacted to me logging off or not.

So, I currently don’t what happened to Eseli or what she decided to do after I left. I guess from her perspective, Amulet Pond simply disappeared. However, I wonder if when I log back into the game again, whether an AI character like Eseli or Orana will be standing exactly where she was at when I logged off? Or will they have continued to do their own individual priorities that they would’ve been doing anyways if I hadn’t interfered with them?

It’s 2 pm right now. Today is a nice bright sunny day that would be lovely to walk around in. But instead, I’m currently using my personal computer to see what’s going on with Divine Mortality on the internet. I am once again particularly searching for information from the online articles, videos, and forum posts I usually look at. I do this so I can quickly and easy learn about general information about this game’s lore, the unique features which are in the game, and all sorts of other mechanics. Stuff like understanding the mechanics is very useful because I can get a good idea of what I might later do in the game. It’s also, simply interesting, because a lot of things in Divine Mortality play a role in the gameplay somehow or are just artistically pleasing. It’s possible to search stuff up online while still having the VR headset on but I find it too tedious to operate. Or I could simply take off my headset quickly and got to my PC to quickly search something up, but I just find that to be annoying to do if you do it often. Once or twice, okay, but when you are in a VR gaming session it’s nicer to just continuously play the game without interruption.

The reason why I often look at these online websites and videos is because there is new information always posted online at every single moment. Since there are so many people who are continuously playing this game all the time and are eager to learn new information as they play, they are also just as eager to share that information with other people. Partially thanks to them, you could attribute some of the continuously rising popularity and sales of Divine Mortality because their videos attract a large number of viewers from all over the world. It is actually still unclear whether Divine Mortality is a commercial success or not, but it sure is popular right now. The reason why it might not be a commercial success is because, even with the attempted optimization and wide device reach, the requirements to play this game are fairly high for the average consumer. Plus, this game's initial price costs more than most other online games, so that also puts people off. Nevertheless, it is believed that around 1 million copies of this game have been sold, which is of course going to result in a lot of money but likely not enough to cover the costs for developing this game. However, this has only been the initial number of copies sold in the past few days, so if the game continues selling then this will surely be a commercial success! I also saw another article which has confirmed that the developers have prepared to launch 10 more servers sometime soon because right now the servers are constantly supporting a high population, often capping nearly the 100 thousand active player level. Now that I think about the servers, each server has its own "Overworld" and so each server is developing their own reality of that world, it's kinda crazy thinking about it. That’s somehow crazier to think about when considering what this game has already achieved with all the insane features it has added as well as having a ginormous open world.

There are also now a bunch of new videos on the internet being uploaded by various players simply showing their gameplay perspectives, whether they’re playing it with or without a VR headset and VR controllers, there are many people who are viewing those videos. I guess many of them want to play the game but cannot, I pity them! Some of the other videos that are out right now, are from players who are trying to explain how the game exactly works. I’ve watched multiple videos like those already, but I noticed they all seem to have trouble in try to properly explain many things about the game with confidence. The thing is, it’s very difficult to get a clear understanding of how everything in Divine Mortality works. Specifically, how everything connects with itself. Ironically, most of the developers have admitted that they themselves don’t understand how some of the things inside the game work, it just does.

To me it seems like the whole community won’t ever fully learn about the many things in this game. At least not accurately or in the foreseeable several years into the future. Which is actually a good thing. The sense of mystery with how everything works is usually one of the best parts of playing a new game. As long as there isn’t too much mystery and the game isn’t too user unfriendly, then I like where it’s at!

One of the interesting topics I’ve been reading more about is the maps in Divine Mortality.

The game has a minimap feature which shows the surrounding area wherever the player is at, from an ariel top-down physical viewpoint of the world. It is possible to zoom out the minimap very far away from the players location. This is able to show the whole general area of a player’s location. Such as how I could’ve seen the entire layout of the village I was at if I had chosen to. A minimap is present in many video games such as this one, but in Divine Mortality it’s an extended feature which has been made to be much nicer and more convenient to have.

However, this game… it doesn’t have an actual map in the user’s interface! An actual map which allows a Player to view the layout of the whole game world, instantly and easily by simply pressing a button. This doesn’t exist! Instead, some players have already found out that there are certain quests and merchants which allow Players to obtain proper maps. These aren’t world maps, but they are maps of certain parts of the world such as a part of a region or a whole region. Once they acquire those maps, then those maps will finally unlock a UI button for a player to easily press to see that map. But it will only show the map which you have seen. So, I assume you’ll need to collect many more maps before you’ll get to see something like the whole playable world. Some Players have even reported that they were scammed by an NPC when they bought an expensive map of “the whole world”, but it ended up just being a very inaccurate map that is drawn with scribbly lines. That just makes me assume that there is a possibility that even the “legit” maps you obtain, could also be flawed in some way.

Hopefully, all the learned information from this game will eventually be compiled and recorded by the community. This is already happening on several websites. I have been looking at one of those websites, it’s a semi-official online encyclopedia, and it’s because of these websites that I’ve managed to see examples of these maps. I assume that the Players who uploaded these maps will eventually connect all of them together to form a final map piece, which’ll be easy to see on the internet in the future. However, also in the future, there might not be any need to obtain all of the in-game maps manually yourself because you’ll have the option to look at the completed piece that’s already posted online. You could simply have it open on your phone or on your PC and look at it whenever you’ll need to. But, on the other hand, I think there is something towards having your own character know the maps themselves. Yet more importantly, since Divine Mortality’s game world is dynamic…who is to say that useful information on the maps will always stay the same? I imagine, once some players start their own nations, then wouldn’t the borders and other physical aspects of the world also be changing?

Anyways, reading about stuff like that and watching videos about this game is one of the several things I’ve been doing while on my computer. I do have some other priorities in my life to worry about…so I’m not sure whether I want to get back into Divine Mortality right away. I really want to. Despite how I anticlimactically I logged out of the game last night, but now I’m all ready and recharged!... Nevertheless, for now it’s easier and satisfying enough for me to continue reading online articles and watching online videos about this game. Especially since I can more conveniently manage my time by simply sitting in front of my desk instead of having my VR equipment prepared. Maybe I’ll do my other priorities for today, and then tomorrow I’ll get to play the game for a long time without any worries…

…

Hmmm…Maybe I’ll just get on for a quick moment- …So I can message Krafty or May and tell them that I’m sorry for leaving earlier than I intended to last night! Or they’ve left a message for me already that I should check! Oh, and I’ll get to see whether Eseli is still there or not.

Ah...that’s right, while I was falling asleep last night, I was learning about so many new pieces of information she was casually dropping out. Such as how she tricked me into selecting “I agree” into allowing her to tell Orana that I’m a Divine Spirit…without her being totally sure herself whether I was or not one, but because I agreed like an idiot, she was able to confirm it! Oh no, what if she’ preparing to backstab me or something like that because maybe the people in the Overworld (besides the monks) might really fear-hate Divine Spirits? Okay besides that… I also learned about how her character suddenly began to act very differently from before. According to her, it is simply because her “mood” changed after she ate a cake! Is that what happens when someone gets low blood sugar? I don’t know about stuff like this, but if that’s true then I don’t look forward towards my older age! Not in real life or in-game. I don’t want to start suddenly replying to another person’s question by going “…nnnn”, like a lazy cat!

Okay! Whatever, I’m logging back into Divine Mortality just for a short period of time…just to make sure I’ll set up several alarms to ring in 10 and then 15 and then in 20 minutes. Putting on my PC to sleep and instead putting on my VR headset on!

*D I V I N E M O R T A L I T Y*

*Logging back in…*

This character selection screen, it reminds me of what Fate-Fan told me and what I just read online. Fate-Fan told me that each player account gets to make 3 unique playable characters, but what she didn’t tell me…is that each slot costs money to purchase! It only costs a little money, but still… If I wanted to create two more characters (up the to limit of 3), then I’d have to pay some money! This little thing irritates me, maybe because I’m used to many other MMOs offering each person to create many more characters all for free! I guess the developers do need to make some extra money somehow…as long as it doesn’t affect 99% of the gameplay in this game, then I’m fine with it.

*Logging back in…*

Alright…I’m back inside…and of course! Eseli has left me! Out of context, that sounds sad. But it’s actually sadder than your lover leaving you. No…it’s also much more serious than that… It’s sad because a powerful Enchantress left my party! I feel like I’ve lost a strong advantage of mine by simply having her around since she’s so capable in using magical spells, and perhaps even helping me later find a place to learn magic at or have her teach me it!

Oh, wait a moment... The lighting in this cake shop is drastically different from before.

Ah that’s right! Since it’s around 3 pm in my time zone…then it means that the time zone in this Overworld is currently around 3 AM! Even though the sunrise time here is ridiculously sooner than I’m used to, it’s still too early for it to rise again since it’s currently nighttime! Huh, now that I’ve taken a look at the windows above this shop’s entrance door, I can clearly see the night sky and some stars.

I guess it would be too selfish for me have an NPC in this game to stand waiting for me until I log back into the game after 12 hours have passed, and then continue playing as if that NPC weren’t forced to suffer 12 hours. So, I guess Eseli went somewhere else to sleep at? Maybe I should look for her right now…wait-no, I shouldn’t start playing this game more or else I’ll be playing it for a longer time than I’d like to. But what if Eseli will leave town tomorrow? Or maybe she already has! Anyways, it shouldn’t hurt for me to quickly check out some inns or taverns in this town so I can find her.

*Amulet attempts to open the entrance door, but it has already been locked*

Oh what?! This door is locked! Even though I’m trying to open it from the inside... Is there nothing I can do to normally open it? There looks to be just a keyhole slot, and I obviously don’t have that key. Maybe I could try breaking the door? I probably could, but of course, I shouldn’t. If I did that then I’d get on the bad side of Orana and in the best-case scenario, I’ll just have to pay a reimbursement for the broken door. So…it looks like I’m stuck in here. Fine by me because I don’t plan on playing this game that much right now. As long as the shop opens up later, then it’s no problem!

While I’m still logged in, I might as well check out my Friends List and message Krafty or May. I’ll just move this chair…and take a seat!

*When Amulet Pond moved the chair, it made a clear sound*

It’s still pretty cozy here, despite it being much darker than before, but at least there are still some candles lit. Isn’t it a bad idea to leave candles lit overnight or is that fine to do in real life too?

A message from May, nice! According to the time, it was sent to me a little bit after I logged off.

“Heyo Amulet, just in cause u were wonderin, me and Krafty have just accepted a quest from Orana to get to some supplies for her. Y’know, a general goods quest. If u wanna meet up again like how u originally wanted to then me and Krafty will be playing the together again at like 10-11pm or sometime at 10 AM in the morning, those are our usual game times. Btw, me and Krafty (like u can probably tell) know each other a bit in IRL and we happen to be near each other. It seems like ur also in the same time zone as us in irl since u went to sleep just now when it’s early mornin, so the times I’ve just mentioned are probably the same times for u. Okay that’s it! Krafty told me to tell u all about this, so that’s why this text is so long just in case u were wondering.”

I’ll probably not be playing later today at 10 or 11 pm because I’ve decided not to play this game a lot today, but maybe I’ll play tomorrow morning. I guess I’ll send a reply message back to her.

“What a nice message, tell my thanks to Krafty. Oh, and May, if you consider that text message long, then I’m sorry if you ever have to read a text message from WiseMaster667. I don’t know what kind of work or study you do in IRL but be prepared for a lengthy email from him. And once again, I’m sorry for quitting the game earlier yesterday!”

Well, that’s that. Oh, speaking of WiseMaster667, he’s online right now but I won’t say anything to him right now since I’m going to get off. I think my first alarm is going to ring soon since it has somehow been almost 10 minutes already!

Hold on. Why am I in conversation mode all the sudden?...

…

…

…

Orana: “You who is skulking in the darkness, who are you!? Get out of my shop!!!”

Orana is rapidly approaching towards me from across the room with a very long and scary looking spear pointed at me!

Wait a moment- that’s no spear…That’s a Halberd!