The game we were playing changed in an instant. Death in the game means death in real life? Was something like that really possible? I guess it was. If anything, all they’d have to do is walk up to our sleeping bodies and kill us if we died in the game.
The thought of someone standing above my sleeping body with a gun or a knife drifted briefly into my mind. I shook my head to prevent the thoughts from rooting in. That wasn’t important right now.
As I passed back under the archway into the city the bell that had once chimed 12 times now chimed 9. A quick glance at my menu confirmed that it was 9:00 at night. Looking over the busy streets I had left that morning I was greeted by chaos. I guess that was to be expected, my nerves were just as rattled…
I rested my hand on the hilt of my sword, which had dropped all the way down to a single point of durability on the trip home. Suddenly every fight I’d had since noon flashed through my mind.
All of the stupid risks I took just to get one more hit… All of the times I didn’t drink one of the few potions I’d found because I didn’t want to waste them on low level monsters… All of the groups of players I saw hunting that I didn’t approach or join…
As I got closer to what I’d imagined was the center of town I saw less players panicking and more running around with purpose. I guess that made sense too.
If the last rule of the game was that you couldn’t die then preparation took on a whole new importance. If you weren’t giving up and stopping, you were preparing everything you could for the fights ahead.
A concern floated into the back of my mind… I had no idea if shops had limited inventory or if inns had limited rooms…
By spending all of my time on the first day outside of the walls, I probably had a pretty large amount of money compared to most of the players in the city, but if there were easy fetch quests or if there were groups that pooled their resources there was a chance that the place had been picked clean while I was out…
As I rounded the corner back onto one of the main streets a voice pulled me out of my thoughts. It was a player standing on the corner underneath a street lamp. They looked like they were still in the starter gear, and the name over their head meant that they weren’t an NPC. They were, however, shouting at the top of their lungs. Honestly I was surprised I didn’t hear it sooner.
“Attention everyone! Levin, the number one Guild in all of Annex MMOs has called for an emergency meeting based on the latest information from the other side! Please gather in the town center tomorrow morning at 9:00 if you are able! Please spread the word! Do not leave the city!” The player waited a moment before repeating the message. A small crowd of players walking by stopped to hear the message and then began chatting to themselves.
I passed the spectacle but found the next corner a few meters ahead had another player yelling the exact same thing. This time I let myself think about it a little more seriously.
An all hands meeting, huh? I guess that made sense. If what Dr. Larson said was true, which to be honest I hadn’t let myself fully believe yet, then the single most important thing any player could get their hands on right now was information. This meeting would be essential for anyone who wanted to get ahead in the game.
It was the right call, even if Levin was a guild full of stuck up pricks and assholes… Right. Well, that was tomorrow morning’s plans, but there were still things that I had to do tonight.
After everything that had happened I really didn’t have any urge to sleep. Any exhaustion that I had felt earlier on my way back to the city was completely gone.
There were two things that I needed to do. Replace my weapon, which meant finding a store, and level up which I figured I’d do before bed. I’d gotten the experience to reach level two earlier but at the time I’d ignored it because I was in a field full of monsters and I wasn’t having any problems and didn’t want to fall behind.
As I walked back down the main road and towards the center of town it hit me just how beautiful the city was. Orange light poured out of street lamps and out of windows painting the white stone buildings and grey cobble stones in a dancing pattern of oranges and golds.
Despite the light coming from the city, the sky overhead was laced with more stars than I could ever hope to count. Two moons chased each other across the sky, one full, the other catching the shadow of the first to display a perfect crescent.
The sounds of twenty thousand players running around the town almost faded into the background as the wind found its way down the main road and through the city, carrying the stale late spring air away and replacing it with the warm fresh air of early summer.
Before I knew it I had already passed quite a few stores that probably would have suited my needs just fine, but something made me keep walking. It was a large glowing spire not too far south. I’d imagined that was the center of the town that those criers were shouting about. I headed that way.
I stepped into the large rectangular plaza and my jaw dropped. I’d been playing games like this for over a decade, but this was the first time that a place I went felt so… real.
Strings of lights wove themselves from rooftop to rooftop painting the entire area, that was about the size of a sports field. The lights painted the tops of at least a hundred stalls and hundreds of people packed themselves into the space.
Some of them were talking in hushed corners of the plaza, others were standing in like for various food stalls whose contents filled the night air with the smells of different foods. Even more had found places to sit either at provided tables and chairs, on the porches and patios of various buildings lining the plaza, or even just on the ground.
Seeing , and more specifically smelling, the various food stalls reminded me that it had been ten hours since I’d entered the game, and at least sixteen hours since I’d eaten any real food… but that would have to wait.
I wanted to at least offload all of the stuff that I had picked up before I found a place to eat. At the moment I wasn’t sure if I’d even be allowed to buy any food because my inventory was so full..
Walking down the rows of stalls I eventually found one with various arms and armors laid out in mats in front of a round old man sitting cross-legged on the floor. He caught my gaze and plastered on the biggest smile I’d ever seen.
“Hoy there lad! Here for a bit of a shop? See anythin’ that catches yer fancy?” His accent was thick but understandable. I paused for a moment before turning and walking up to his stall.
As I approached, a window popped up in front of me. This stall was apparently called “Sonnson’s Swords and Smithy”. That sounded about right.
I cleared my throat but caught myself before I started talking. As used to VR games as I was, something about this guy felt so real that I was about to treat him like a player, and not like a NPC, a non player character.
I looked over the menu and found the “Sell” tab which opened a second window that had all of the stuff I’d gotten from my time out in the field.
“Ahh, got somethin’ you want this old man to take a look at?” The man, Sonnson, said. His voice and mannerisms were unmistakably human, but the odd way that he sat there and ignored me until I interacted with the menu was distinctly NPC.
I dragged everything I’d looted over to the new menu and looked it over. All in all, my whole inventory was worth an impressive 3,500 Gold. Given that I had stared the day with a meager 50 Gold and that was just the starting money I’d consider this a pretty big win. Hopefully it would be worth enough to at least get a nice inn room and some good food.
I hit accept, but instead of the transaction completing, a red error message flashed on my screen. What?
“Ohh… sorry, lad. I can’t buy those monster parts from you. Stuff like that’s gotta be goin’ through the Guild.” Sonnson said, shaking his head. As he did, about eighty percent of the things that I had put into the sell window disappeared and went back to my inventory. I clicked my tongue. That cut my profit from 3,500 Gold all the way down to just 600.
I’d originally wanted to spend at least some of that money on a new sword… maybe even some new armor, but looking over what wares Sonnson had laid out on the mat for sale. The cheapest sword that fit in the “one handed” category was 500 Gold. I’d started with 50, and so buying the worst new sword I could would leave me with only 150 Gold left… and I had no idea how much food, not to mention a room for the night, would cost.
Before confirming the new transaction I drew my weapon from where it was attached to my hip.
“Then, is there any way to fix this?” I asked. Sonnson looked over the blade and made a face.
“Ahhh. That’s a real piece of work there. Sure I can’t convince you to buy somethin’ better? Y’know, for your own safety?” The man said with a grimace.
Taking one last look at the wares he had laid out on the mat in front of him I shook my head. “Sorry. How much is it for just the repair?”
Sensing my intentions had changed, the game closed the trade window and opened another one in its place. This one looked like an anvil. I returned my sword to my hip and dragged it from my equipment menu over into the new menu that had appeared.
The repair screen flashed and a bunch of new information appeared.
“Basic Iron 1h Sword. R0. Durability 1/30. Maximum repair amount 15/30. New maximum durability 15. Cost of repair, 75 Gold.”
I clicked my tongue as I looked over the menu. Apparently I could only repair it by half, and its maximum durability would reduce to whatever I repaired it to. In this case, my 30 durability sword would become a 15 durability sword, cutting the amount of time that I could stay out in the field by half…
Seeing the strained expression on my face, the old shopkeeper piped up again.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
“I’ll tell you what, you look like a strong bodied sort. Mind doing an old man a favor? I’ll make it worth your time.” Sonnson leaned back and looked up with that goofy grin on his face.
Just as he did, a golden “!” appeared above his head. Huh. Was this quest just generated because of what I’d said, or was there a condition to unlocking it that involved having the starting weapon… Either way, if it was a quest that didn’t take very long, that got my sword repaired, there wasn’t really any reason to refuse. And so I nodded in agreement, causing Sonnson’s face to light up even more.
“Great! All I need you to do is get down to the Guild’s provisions warehouse before it closes and bring me back ten chunks of Raw Iron Ore. Do that and I’ll help you get that piece of junk back in fighting shape!” Sonnson let out a laugh.
The golden “!”over his head turned into a “?” to denote that the quest had been accepted, and a ping drove me to open my menu.
The menu automatically opened on my quest journal. A new entry was scrawled on the page.
“Retrieve ten Raw Iron Ore before 11 P.M. and return to Sonnson.”
11, huh?
The bell had chimed nine when I entered the city and the clock on my menu said it was 9:53 P.M. so that left me just about an hour to make the trip. That was more than possible!
Opening my map I saw that a new marker had been placed in the southeastern quadrant of the city. Wasting no time, I took off out of the plaza and began cutting down side streets. I’d turned a few heads as I brushed past larger groups but all in all I’d say I made pretty good time.
If you’d believe me… rocks are heavy. Turns out certain materials couldn’t fit in your inventory no matter how big it is. And so, it was because of that I found myself sprinting through the street back towards the center of town pushing a wheelbarrow full of rocks…
A few people that I’d passed had called after me asking what quest I was on and how I picked it up, but honestly it was taking all of my concentration just to keep the wheelbarrow upright that I can’t remember if I gave them any replies.
Still, after a seven minute run there, and a nearly forty one minute marathon back I made it to Sonnson with just a few minutes to spare.
I set the wheelbarrow next to his stall and as soon as I heard the ping that signified an update to the quest
“Ahahaha! That’s youth for ya! Thanks, lad! ya saved this old man a hell of a run!” Sonnson rocked back and forth on his mat laughing all the while. A few players gathered around behind me, apparently they were observing the quest hoping that maybe they could do it once I had finished.
“Anyways, deal’s a deal. Let me see that slab of rotten iron you call a blade.” He said, extending his hand.
A menu didn’t appear, but I unhooked the scabbard from my belt and handed it, sword and all, to the man. He drew it part way out of its sheath and grimmaced before closing it again and sighing.
Using what looked like all of his strength, Sonnson pulled himself to his feet and crossed his arms. He was as short as he was round, giving him a distinctly circular appearance that was actually rather charming.
“Listen here, kid. What I’m gonna show you now is called reforging. It’s the single most important part of keepin’ your gear in tip top shape, so pay attention!” He drew the sword and tossed the scabbard down onto the ground next to him.
He leveled the blade towards me and the smile dropped from his face, replaced by a stern expression.
“Now, you know the six key attributes of bladed weapons, don’t you?” He said, looking over to me. My dumbfounded expression, and probably the just as confused faces on the crowd that was standing behind me, made him grab his nose and sigh.
“Seriously? What’re those fools at the guild teaching you kids… Alright. From the beginning then…” Sonnson raised a finger in front of his nose.
“Alright, you can consider this lesson an extra service! Each weapon has six attributes that can be changed. How many times they can be changed is determined by the sword itself. Something cheap like this can only be reforged once? Got that? That means that after we’re done here there’s nothin’ you can do to make this piece o’ junk any stronger.” Sonnson poked the blade at the end of each sentence. Its surface was chipped and worn down from use.
“These attributes are as follows:
Strength - How much damage a weapon can do.
Toughness - How much damage your sword can block, and how long it takes to lose a point of durability.
Speed - How long it takes to recover from certain Attack Skills. These change weapon to weapon, so pay attention!
Accuracy - How easy it is for the weapon to deliver its maximum damage.”
Sonnson paused for a moment. “Because you didn’t even know that much, let me finish by saying the last two skills are different than the first four. They have tradeoffs you have to be aware of. In other words, they change the purpose of the blade entirely! So pay attention!”
“The last two skills are:
Impact - How easy it is for a weapon to knock foes off balance. This stat lowers the strength of your weapon, making you deal less damage with each strike.
And lastly, Sharpness - The special ability for a weapon to cut through specific materials like shields or armors. This stat sharply lowers your accuracy stat, though, making it far harder to score a clean hit.”
I nodded in agreement. All of that sounded pretty straightforward, though I did wish that I had a way to take notes. Hopefully somewhere in the menu was a help section that kept track of things like this… or would that just be wishful thinking?
To my surprise, someone else entered the conversation. Someone from the crowd that had begun to form around the stall had spoken up. Sonnson turned his head towards the source of the inquiry.
“What do you mean by accuracy? Isn’t it pretty hard to miss a monster?” The person from the crowd asked. Sonnson shrugged.
“Well, you know, when you’re swingin’ a weapon, the straighter you cut the more it hurts them monsters, right?” As he said it the crowd all began to murmur. I doubted many of them had fought monsters yet but…
Wait was that how that worked?! That would definitely explain why some monsters were lasting longer than others…
“See, accuracy means you ain’t gotta make the line as straight to get all the performance outta yer weapon.” Sonnson made a swinging motion with his arm as if he were driving his blade through some unseen foe. The murmuring picked up as people began to discuss the new information.
“Anyways, that’s the stats. And reforging means you can put a single point into one of ‘em. What point you get depends on a few things, namely, the material you use for the upgrade.” Sonnson walked over to the wheelbarrow and pulled one of the large chunks of iron out, walking it back over to the sword which he had laid flat on what looked like a portable workstation. He grabbed a hammer and looked back towards me.
“The first upgrade is just the materials it takes to make the sword in the first place. Anything after that’ll be coming’ from monsters or rare materials gathered from outside the city. Oh, and be careful, any reforge after the first has a chance to reduce the maximum durability of the blade and fail.” Sonnson drove his hammer down onto the raw chunk of ore which vanished in a puff of gold dust that began to swirl around the tool as he lifted it back up above his head.
“So, what’ll it be, kid? Which stat do you want boosted?” He said, letting his eyes wander in my direction.
“Strength.” I replied immediately. To be honest, I wasn’t trying to keep the very first sword I got until the end of the game. This was just a one time thing, a stopgap while I figured out more of what was going on… Just being able to do more damage would translate directly into an easier time hunting. For now, that was good enough. After all, I could take time and really unpack which upgrades would be best later.
“Right. A safe pick.” Sonnson slammed his hammer into the blade and the golden particles that were swirling around it enveloped the chipped piece of iron. It flashed and when the light faded away the blade looked like it was back in mint condition.
Sonnson slid it back into its sheath and passed the sword back to me. In my inventory it now displayed as a +1 Basic 1h Iron Sword. He turned back to face me and the grin returned to his round face.
“Don’t you worry bout payment for the ore or the work, you saved my ass with that errand you ran so this one’s on me!” He said. I nodded and thanked him for his time and explanations. Turning to leave I actually had to push my way through a thick crowd of people who had all gathered around ti listen to the smith’s explanations.
As soon as I was a few feet away, an eruption of voices all begging to “help” the old man filled the air. I wasn’t sure what had caused that quest to activate, but since it was time based there was a good chance that at the very least nobody could get more ore from the Guild storehouse tonight… I decided to make my escape from the plaza quickly, so that those players wouldn’t hunt me down and try to shake answers out of me when they couldn’t figure out how to do the quest…
By the time I left the central plaza and Sonnson behind it was just after midnight. While he was giving his lecture, dozens of players started to gather around and take notes and ask questions. All in all it was like a street performer’s interpretation at a video game tutorial, but he was a very good teacher.
It was probably because he was just an NPC, but the way he delivered the information on weapon upgrades was easily digestible and left me feeling a lot more confident about the game, but there were still so many things I didn’t know.
The exhaustion that had been put off by the realization that this game was far more dangerous than first imagined had come roaring back at some point and now there was a heaviness behind my eyes that I just couldn’t shake. Even though I’d stayed up well past midnight nearly every day back in the real world, something about this exhaustion just couldn’t be ignored.
I found the first Inn I could see off of the plaza and paid for a room for just one night. The room cost 25 Gold, so it turned out that I probably could have afforded to get that other sword, but honestly it was probably a good thing that I was able to get all of that information from Sonnson instead.
The inn room itself was pretty bleak. A small, square box of a room with no windows, a dresser to store items, a small table and chair tucked against the left wall in the corner. Topping it all off was a thin bed that barely looked like it could be called a twin pressed against the right-hand wall.
I hit the “Remove all” button on my gear window and in a flash of gold I was left only in a pair of boxers. I stretched which felt surprisingly good before sitting down on the surprisingly bad mattress. Sharp odds and ends poked out making me think it was nothing more than a big bag of straw…
Still, as soon as I’d laid down the exhaustion from the day collapsed on me and almost caused me to nod off right then and there. I blinked the sleep from my eyes, though, and pulled open my menu. There was one thing I still had to do.
I navigated over to the skills menu and six different popups appeared in front of me.
“You have unspent 1h Sword Skillpoints”
“You have unspent light-medium armor Skillpoints”
“You have unspent Survival Skillpoints
“You have-“
Nope.
I closed my menu by flipping my left wrist over again and dug my face into my pillow. I could already feel the steam leaving my ears and evaporating into the air, if I had to think any longer I’d lose all brain function and then I’d really be in danger.
Whatever that headache of popups and skill menus was, there was no benefit to poking at it right as I was about to go to sleep. It could wait until after breakfast.
Oh yeah… I never did eat dinner…
A male player with short white hair ran across the golden grass in front of us. Suddenly, he turned back and reached his hand out towards me, his face looked surprised, and also a bit frustrated.
Confused, I looked down. Following his eye line I saw an arrow sticking through my back and out of my chest. My eyes went wide and desperately searched for my HP bar floating at the bottom of my vision. It was sinking fast… too fast! And on top of that, I was already in the red… I had to-
It hit zero. My avatar crumbled to golden dust and spiraled up into the sky. Wait… no… this wasn’t my avatar, and I didn’t know anyone who had white hair… was this… a dream?
My vision went black and when it returned I was looking through some sort of display… or more specifically, some sort of display was taking the place of my eyes. It was an odd sensation.
It was… a security camera? It took a minute for my mind to process what it was that I was looking at… a dark room… lines of beds… large, tube like machines covering the heads of dozens of people…
All of the sudden the still image was disturbed by one of the people on the beds twitching violently and beginning to shake. The scratchy microphone picked up the horrific sounds of screaming. The screams were so guttural… so violent… I’d never heard anything like it but some primal instinct in the back of my head screamed danger.
I tried to close my eyes, but I couldn’t. It was like the image itself was being burned into my brain. I tried to close my hands over my ears, but I didn’t have any hands to do so. The shaking stopped and a few loud pops could be heard from the machine the person was attached to… The person stopped moving immediately and lay still.
After a moment, a pair of people in lab coats came and dragged the bed out of the machine and wheeled it away out of the room. The last image caught by the camera as the person was wheeled away was their mangled face and crushed skull as they faded down a hallway out of sight
As soon as the person was gone, the feed cut out and I woke with a start. Sweat drenched my face and my breathing was heavy. Every time I closed my eyes I could hear… what? The machine crushing that player’s skull? Was that how they planned on killing us? That was…
I felt a fierce nausea build in my gut as my ears filled with the sounds of distant screams from the streets below. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to sleep for the rest of the night.