Weed looked in shock to find Theodore pierced through the chest by the Shadow, blood was pouring out through the wound and he was not vanishing like a regular NPC.

“Ah....” The faint sound he made attracted the Shadow's eyes toward Lee Jun.

“Now it's your turn” the Shadow smiled menacingly at Lee Jun while discarding the dead body of Theodore.

“Give it to me!” Shadow demanded as it closed in on Lee Jun. No matter how much Lee Jun ran, there was no shelter in sight and no one around to save him.

“Dammit! Let me log out!” No matter how much he tried the game wouldn't allow him to log out.

“You cannot escape me.” Shadow quickly closed in on Lee Jun brandishing its sword.

“AAHHH!!” Lee Jun screamed getting up from bed. Recognizing his surroundings Lee Jun sighed in relief even though his back was drenched with cold sweat. It had been awhile since he had such a nightmare. They always sifted through the two VR titles that he had played.

‘I guess I failed then didn’t I?’ Lee Jun thought to himself as he stared at his clenched fist. ‘If only I had a little more stamina I would have got him.’

After crossing Hwa, Lee Jun’s vision went completely black and he lost consciousness. It only went on to show how much he had pushed himself. Lee Jun had no regrets, he tried his best and in the end it didn’t work out…he was in fact pleased with the results. The masters were practically on their knees begging his mom not to sue them for not stopping the match sooner. She showed them one or two things about legalities when they waived his signed application form. In the end, it was his mom who decided against the dojang.

Lee Jun got up and after booting up his computer he heard a gentle mannered voice greet him, “Good Morning, Master”.

Lee Jun sighed “Good Morning, search terms related to RREV which relate to the Shadow”.

‘Something must be wrong with me….did I just greet the computer?’ Lee Jun stared suspiciously at himself in the mirror.

“Master I have found 1000+ posts. Would you like to additional filters to narrow the search results? Lee Jun looked at the Computer with an eerie look “Consider only official sources” he quickly said.

“There is one interview broadcast of Lee Hyun by KMC Media house. It is as close as I get to finding official sources. There are no public statements released by Unicorn Corp at this moment, Master.”

“Play broadcast.”

- Now playing –

“Who the hell was that in the hood? Is he still alive?” An audience asked Lee Hyun.

“All I can say is at this time, he goes by the name Shadow. I am afraid even I don’t know more as to the identity of this character. Is he alive? Yes he is.”

“Didn’t you develop the game?” An audience member asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“Yes, I did lay the initial foundations for the rules of this game. The actual story has been written by fictional and fantasy authors and even historians! I wouldn’t know who the characters are in this story. It is a complete secret to me as well, I only know what the initial story outline is. After that it the simulation which decides everything.” The audience was disappointed with the answer, it didn’t clarify anything.

“Then what is that thing?” asked someone else cautiously.

“My guess would be as good as any of yours, a monster of sorts.” Lee Hyun replied. “Maybe a high level boss…”

Mummers broke out.

‘Is he serious?’

‘A high level boss?’

‘But shouldn’t bosses be limited to a certain area like a dungeon?’

‘Yeah, that’s how all games are…’

“Is there a concept of dungeons with bosses in RREV?” Shin Hye Min asked.

“Yes there is…but I am not sure if they are limited to dungeons. If that is what you are meaning to ask.” Lee Hyun cooly replied.

“Could you please tell us what happened to Skyholm city?” a young female in the audience asked.

“It got destroyed.” Lee Hyun replied casually.

“Yes, what element was it?” The young lady pursued.

Lee Hyun smiled. At least there were some people here who were asking the right questions. This would have been the same line of thought he would have pursued if he was playing the game. In a game where there are only six primary elements something that did not fit the bounds of those six is what should be understood. “I cannot say which element was it but I can assure you it is not among the six available.”

Everyone in the room wanted to know which element it was but Lee Hyun refused to say another word. In the end they didn’t pester him about it as they wanted to ask other questions in the limited time they had with him.

“You said that he is alive. Are you saying that attack which wiped out the entire Skyholm City could not wipe out that NPC? How can we even defeat him?”

“I am certain without doubt he can be defeated.” Lee Hyun assured the audience. “It is much like a done dragon, you may attack in droves of 100s but its health is just so completely humongous that you despair none of your attacks are having any effect.”

“…” The audience wasn’t very convinced.

“I found the NPC’s very different from other games in RREV.” Said someone in the audience, trying to change the topic from Shadow to something else. The audience knew that so far all questions they asked received vague and ambiguous replies. They did not have anything concrete to go on.

Lee Hyun smiled again. There was another who asked a very good question. “Yes, as you may have noticed, RREV NPCs are lifelike. They don’t act according to a predefined central program. Each NPC is like an independent entity and can think for itself…”

“What!” Shin Hye Min said out of shock.

Even the audience was astounded.

Lee Hyun continued, “I am not saying they are AIs. Well not all of them. More like they are governed by their own personalities, interests, likes dislikes and so on.”

“Then how do you make them follow the story line you planned? If they don’t have a central AI system in place?”

“That is Unicorn’s patented programming. I can however say even if we want the story to proceed one way it may not really go on as planned. This makes Elementarem Vim unique since the story is governed by the actions of players and not being driven a central AI.”

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

The audience was excited. A central AI governing the game had always been the backbone of VR games. The central system did balance the game but it made everything so monotonous. There was a level of artificiality to it. It always seemed like their actions were governed by something higher. Quests would only come out in a certain way guiding players as intended in the story. This did not mean that stories had a single path but multiple / finite number of scenarios.

“Can you please tell us is there an end goal of this game?” another audience member asked. In Royal Road, players had to unite the entire world. However, RREV had been less clear with it’s objectives.

Lee Hyun chuckled. “I thought that was more or less given in the name of the game.”

Everyone shot a quizzled look at Lee Hyun.

“Its name is Royal Road Elementarem Vim or Royal Road Elemental Powers…The one who unites all the elemental powers under them beats the game.”

“I think are allotted time is up.” Shin Hye Min said as she looked at Lee Hyun and then the audience.

“I have one more question!” Some members of the audience shouted out.

“I am sorry.” Lee Hyun said. “I have another appointment I must attend to.”

Lee Jun closed the video. He browsed around for a little before quickly tiring, “Computer, sleep.” Putting his computer to sleep Lee went downstairs hoping to get something to eat and maybe watch some of show of CTS Media on their T.V.

“Hey, Mom you there?” Lee Jun called out expecting to get a yes. He descended downstairs cautiously, his mom had been very upset that he left the school premise without informing and that she then got a call from the outskirts of the city requesting her to collect her son who had fainted.

“Lee, what have I told you about using “Hey” when talking to people.” she complained.

Lee found his mother in the kitchen with a large disposable bag placed on the counter. Lee Jun slowly approached her. She looked calm…

“Sorry Mom” Lee Jun answered as if he has been over this before. ‘Looks like she is playing it casual, maybe I should go with the flow.’

“So, what’s for breakfast?” Lee Jun asked as he began to help his Mom put the groceries in the fridge, 'the faster this is done the faster I could finish breakfast and watch T.V.’ Lee thought as he continued to help store the groceries. He was sticking to the good boy act to avoid getting a scolding, he also did it because he felt guilty about worrying his mother.

When the bag was near empty Lee Jun's Mom picked it up planning to throw it in the trash, “Wait, there's still something in the bag” Lee Jun stopped his mom and took out a crumpled paper from there, “I think that’s the receipt.” Lee Jun said as he pulled it out.

“I was researching about the dojang..” His mom responded feeling slightly embarrassed.

It was a printout of a flier displaying a picture of two muscular young men clashing swords against one another and underneath read through as “Come to our dojang where strength, skill, and courage are hand in hand.” The line was short and spoke a lot about the person who thought up of the flier.

“I heard Weed also studied martial arts at this sword dojang.” His mom said shyly. “Is that why you went there?” she asked. “Did you want to meet him?”

“Remember the girl who was apologizing?” Lee Jun asked, his heart was beating excitedly. Maybe his mom was reconsidering. If she did reconsider then there was nothing stopping him from becoming a fully-fledged member as the masters did agree to let him join.

“Yes, the well mannered thoughtless girl who dragged you there in the first place…” His mom recalled coldly.

“She said something every interesting.” Lee Jun ignored his mom’s sharpness.

“…”

“She said I should just become stronger.” Lee Jun said after a pause. “And strength is something I have define for myself. I believe this could help me deal with the nightmares I've been having and other stuff…”

“…” His mom remained silent. Becoming stronger was easier said than done. She could not see how training in dojang would help him overcome his fear of VR.

“Can I please join?” Lee Jun implored. He was trembling as he requested and averted his gaze in avoid being caught crying as tears welled up in his eyes. He was truly desperate to overcome this mental disease that he was suffering from.

“…” His mom did not know what to say. He had never asked for something before and even though she could not see it, she knew he was suffering and desperate to grasp on to any ray of hope he could find. “Ok…but you can’t give up on this no matter how difficult it gets.”

Lee Jun jumped and hugged his mom as he tears flowed down his cheek. They were tears of happiness, he was so extremely excited that he was allowed to become a member of Kumdo Dojang; the same place where Lee Hyun trained.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Authors Note:

1. Happy reading!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Connect to Royal Road – Elementarem Vim next Chapter?YesNo

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------