A meteorite fell down from the sky while a sole archer stood underneath it. Drawing his bow at the heavens he shot a single shot. Without any flashes or anything the meteorite fell right on top of him. Crashing any plans and ideas that he had.

You died.

Got visualised in blue text in his face showing statistics of what he lost with his death.

A Neuro VR head set was thrown across the room. With words following it. "Motherfucker. Go jump off a bridge. Lifeless fuck." They came out naturally. Not minding that there was no one to listen to them, but only the white wall of his room to reverberate them back at him.

It was a space full of garbage sprawled across with the head gear getting lost somewhere in that pile of thrash that became this room.

He came to one less messy corner and a sat in front of something that revealed itself to be a computer after powering it on.

While he was now in his natural state. He found himself a bottle of whiskey from all that rubble that he downed.

" Hmm?" He saw an advertisement for the game that he was playing that read. New and Exciting world is waiting for you to explore. - Tournament is awaiting.

"I might as well." He said and went and got his neuro gear back.

He laid on one place where once been a bed and got his Neuro VR on.

***

I heard voices come and go around me with each second passing my senses were getting sharper until finally I sat up on a white bed.

The noise was coming from one side of the room. It appeared to be in the distance from where I was. It was an all white room with the only window having a view of some brick wall. Thought the window were some green vines crawling inside. They brought the only change of colour in this otherwise sanitizer space other than the wooden door opposite.

I jumped down from the bed, but my legs gave up under me and I got face planted on the floor.

-1HP

It hurt quite a bit. Not having my pain meter adjusted is such a drag. I'll have to send devs some emails later how fucking incompetent they are.

I got myself back onto my feed thanks to holding the wooden frame as my support and I got going.

I slightly opened the door and peaked just half my face to see the situation.

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There was a lone door at the end of the hall where the voices or rather some screams were coming from. I opened the door fully and now saw the big gate at the other end of the long hall. The whole way I was going out, there were rooms at each side. Some had closed doors in others were visible bandaged patients going about their own activities.

But before I could open the gate at the front a voice was heard from behind me.

" Get back here into your own room you aren't healed enough to be going around." I turned around and saw a nurse that was walking towards me. But in the door just behind her a male voice sounded. "Let him be. We gave him all the care we could, if he wants he can do whatever he wants now."

"But Doctor he should rest here. At least until his body isn't shaking." She said.

" We still have a lot of work to do and one more empty bed can help us a lot with the others. If he wants to he'll come back."

They continued to speak to each other, but I couldn't be bothered as they treated me more like an object of their conversation than a participant.

So, I turned back around and I opened the gate at front and felt the sun bask my body in its soft rays. In front of me appeared a busy street full of people of all kinds going about their day.

From the roofs of buildings water mixed with snow was slowly dripping on to the sidewalks below.

All kinds of strong smells from foods were wafting around attracting the passerby. Even more so by the incoming noon.

Small markets were opened on the ground where most of their stocks were and passerby could inspect their wares. Most of them were utter garbage sold at high prices meant to just rip you off but I heard of some players that bought even relics in some stores like this.

"Lucky bastards." I said and kicked the ground in front of me. Only to realise that there was no feeling of shoes on my feet. I was fully bandaged from my feet up to my head. There was no starter equipment.

This'll be quite tough now with a broken system interference and no starting gear. What fucker thought that implementing a feature of dying in game resets all your progress is a cunt. I could've by now been a Dragon killer, above all the masses of people that would be at my feet.

I'll have to first get to that with my own strength without dying. I got on my way through the streets in search of the Adventurers Guild for a basic weapon that they give you if you register with them and take one quest with you. It's not ideal as if there's no good quest to complete then I'll have to wait a bit. I can't risk not completing the quest and getting my reliability in their files below 0. That would only lead to me either getting arrested or made to do some odd jobs.

On my way I spoke to some people that pointed the way for me. The way there was crowded with people going in lines. Pushing each other to speed up to get to their destinations faster.

These NPCs are the one of the two reasons that this game's so popular. They act and speak as if they are real people. They have goals of their own that they're trying to complete even without the help of players they find ways with other NPCs or they themselves change so they can triumph over their predicaments.

I heard that most of the current major NPCs became so on their own with only one that was supported by us players on their rise. The other thing that was thanks to the neuro VR was the engaging combat system where you felt your body do all those moves that are impossible to be done in the real world. Even more surprising is the fact that you can learn moves here and then execute them in the real world. If you have enough mobility to do so, but even if you don't your neurons in the brain are now better facilitated to practice. Making any exercise you do in real life more natural. But one thing's taking away from the realism and that's a pixelization of every creature slain.