CHAPTER ONE: THE LAND OF JAZUK

The city is cold, quiet and empty. The three travelers are in awe, the sky is clear and blue. If they didn't know better, they would think that this is real life. Virtual Reality has made this game so real, and in this underground game, the town full of NPCs is void of other players.

"Looks like there aren't any players here." Wundah shrugs his shoulders.

"Damn, that's intense." AvatarPyro pats down his tattered pants.

"Let's look around, find some weapons and gear." Andrew is focused on the task ahead.

"What weapon are you aiming for?" Wundah walks towards the shop area, the NPCs are silent.

"I don't think they have a dildo hammer for you." AvatarPyro stares at Andrew who laughs hysterically.

"I'll make one out of a Gyzex dong!" Andrew wears the same clothes, basic level one gear.

The weapons merchant has an amazing variety of weapons. Greatswords, Long Swords, Hammers, Dual Blades, Insect Contollers, Switch Axe, Charge Blades, Sword and Shield, Lance, Hunting Horn, Light Bowgun, Heavy Bowgun, and Bows.

"What weapon you guys getting?" AvatarPyro asks, greeting the shop NPC.

"Hammer all the way dude." Andrew says, picking up a metal War Hammer.

"Long Sword." Wundah picks up a metal Katana.

"Nice, I'll be getting a Greatsword." AvatarPyro picks up a massive Greatsword. It’s surprisingly light for its size.

Level one gear being free, and with the NPC not talking, they head over to the Armory. In this game armor plays little to no role in terms of defense, just fashion. The Adventurers are free to wear what they please. Fabric is weatherproof, and as long as they take Cold or Hot Pills, they can venture into the most extreme weather conditions. The NPC is just there, watching as the three look through an assortment of clothes and armor.

"Ooh lala look at this!" AvatarPyro picks up a long black trench coat, "I'm gonna try this on!"

AvatarPyro walks into the dressing room while Andrew and Wundah are shuffling through gear.

"Find anything?" Wundah tosses old leather armor to the side.

"Ah no not yet, damn. Oh yes, this could work." Andrew chuckles, "Yes! Found it!" He holds up a bright pink loincloth, "Muahaha! I'll be right back, fuck yeah!" He runs past AvatarPyro and into the dressing room.

"He seems excited." AvatarPyro looks into the mirror on the wall, his short black hair matches his coat, boots, pants and shirt.

"Nice man! I really don't know what to wear, like I want to look cool but be comfortable at the same time." Wundah shuffles through the pile of clothes but can't find anything he likes.

"Come and get some boys!" Andrew jumps out of the dressing room with nothing but moccasins, his bulging muscles and the bright-pink loincloth on as he flexes his arms and laughs.

"Aw shit look at you!" AvatarPyro is laughing so hard.

"Sexy man! Sexy!" Wundah chuckles and grabs something from the pile and dashes into the dressing room.

"Wonder what he got?" AvatarPyro grabs his sword that's leaning against the wall and clips the holster to his back.

"I have no idea, probably a thong?" Andrew checks himself out in the mirror.

"I wouldn't doubt it." AvatarPyro shifts the holster to a comfortable spot.

"Alright, I'm ready." Wundah walks out with a plain black hoodie, black pants and shoes.

"You would wear some shit like that." Andrew has his thumb up with a big smile on his face.

"Noice." AvatarPyro practices taking his Greatsword out. The other two fasten their holsters and equip their weapons, "Next stop is the market for supplies, I wonder if this game has the inventory setup."

The three walk past the silent NPC and continue down the road to the merchant, who silently stares past them, "I really hope the Health Potions don't taste bad, honestly." Andrew swipes his finger and pulls up the merchant menu, the NPC hands him twenty small green pills.

"Health Pills, no way!" AvatarPyro screams with joy.

"Ah yes! Whoever made the game knew what it needed and customized it!" Wundah buys twenty pills as well.

AvatarPyro also gets twenty pills and holds one in his hand, the rest disappearing into his inventory pouch, "Well looks like we don't need to hold items, just looking straight and flipping to the left or right with our finger will pull up the items just like in the game, and everything is in pill form, except the Sharpening Stone, those are just small squares. The Bombs are cool too! Who's going to taste the Health Pill first?"

The three play Rock Paper Scissors and Wundah loses, "Dammit!" He hesitates and throws it into his mouth, chewing viciously, "It tastes like sugar, and no arm gesture! Ah this is so awesome!"

"No arm gesture!" AvatarPyro eats the Health Pill and flexes his arms above his head, "Huh?" He stares blankly at the two for a few seconds, their faces in shock as he puts his arms down, "Ahaha! I'm just messin with you dudes!"

Andrew chuckles while chewing on his Health Pill, "Fuckin doodoo ass!"

The three stock up on Small Bombs, Health Pills, Hot and Cold Pills, Stamina Pills, Cure-All Pills, Sharpening Stones, Mining Axes, and Large Bombs. They walk to the Main Hall where an NPC greets them, "You must prove yourself and kill a Great Jazuk before being allowed to travel this world freely, sign up on the quest board." She points to a large board filled with quests. The three sign up.

"Is everyone ready?" Wundah asks, resting his hands in his big sweater pocket.

"Yeah let's do this!" AvatarPyro lets out a deep breath.

"Fuck yeah finally!" Andrew flexes his muscles.

The three make their way to the edge of the city, a map shows up in their view out of the way in the corner. They can make it disappear at will, the map is vast, but only a speck can be seen, the rest is black. The part they do see is titled, “The Land of Jazuk, it's showtime." AvatarPyro bumps fists with his friends and the three each take a deep breath, then take their first step outside of the city walls, their first step into the wilderness.

The three Adventurers walk onwards, the open fields are replaced by towering trees bigger than redwoods, the sun looking ominous as it crawls its way through the tiny cracks in the canopy above. The air gets colder, they become focused on the fight ahead, "Okay what's the plan of attack?" AvatarPyro asks, looking toward the small flowing stream to their right.

"I'll focus on the head, you on tail and Wundah attacks sides?" Andrew watches their left flank.

"Sounds good, I'll take out any smaller ones too and if more than one Great Jazuk come then we work in teams and split up." Wundah practices unsheathing his sword.

"Cool, and if a bigger beast comes we either run or fight if we can't get away, just be careful. If we die we don't get penalties, we just die." AvatarPyro grips the handle of his Greatsword, the cold steel against his fingertips, the moment too real to be fake. In the distance they hear the short howling calls of the Jazuk, but are unsure what size they are. They duck to the side of the small dirt road and walk slowly and silently along the treeline, stepping carefully over each twig, focused to the fullest extent.

In the distance they catch sight of it, a towering beast, the Great Jazuk. It walks on two legs fifteen feet high with two massive arms a wide jaw full of giant teeth, like a buff T-Rex. Their breathing gets faster, fast yet focused. The Great Jazuk is surrounded by a few smaller ones that are eight feet tall , "I'll deal with the smaller ones, let's go!" Wundah puts his hood on and unsheathes his sword, sprinting towards the beasts ahead.

"Shit let's go!" AvatarPyro grabs his Sword with two hands and rushes through the trees.

"Wooh!" Andrew rushes into battle with his Hammer.

The Great Jazuk notices them and gives three quick howls, the smaller Jazuk rush towards Wundah, who slashes a quick combo, his face in shock as his katana tears through flesh and bone, blood gushing out of a fallen Jazuk, "Dude this is too real!" He screams, sliding under the Great Jazuk’s legs, rolling and slicing a small Jazuk in half.

"I know!" Andrew yells, leaping off of a nearby rock and smashing downward with his hammer on the Great Jazuk’s head, letting out a deep grunt, he swiftly follows up with two more devastating strikes, "AvatarPyro he's stunned!" Andrew holds his hammer by his side, a faint glow around his body. He begins to spin rapidly, hitting the Great Jazuk in the head five times.

The Great Jazuk lets out a deep wail as AvatarPyro grips his sword with two hands and crashes down on the tail, the metal slides through it as if it were made of butter, the tail falls to the ground with a loud thud, "Hell yeah!" He screams as he rolls on the ground as Wundah does a furious combo on the stomach causing the guts to hang out. Andrew yells and crashes down on the head, the eyeballs caving in, the jaw dislocating, the Great Jazuk lets out one final breath and becomes motionless.

In their vision items are being put in their storage, apparently there is no need to use its body for parts.

Wundah flicks his wrist, the blood flying off of his sword in a line on the floor, he pulls out a Sharpening Stone and slowly runs it across the blade five times. The blade is sharp once more, "This isn't good guys."

Andrew smoothes a Sharpening Stone over the hammer, "What isn't?"

"Damn." AvatarPyro finishes sharpening.

Wundah glances at AvatarPyro, "Should I tell him or you?"

"You could?" AvatarPyro puts his hand through his hair.

Wundah doesn't sheath his sword, he calmly watches the treeline, "The reason it was so easy to kill that one, the only reason that would make sense is the number of them in one place."

Andrew scratches his chest, "What do you mean?"

Wundah draws a Jazuk in the dirt with his finger, "See in the game there was always just one or two at a time." He draws four dots around it, "Four people killing one weak enemy went pretty fast at the lower levels, but since it's open world, levels don't matter if you're fighting twenty of them."

Andrew looks concerned, "Fuck, so you mean there could be a army of Great Jazuk headed our way?"

"That and any other beasts they attract." AvatarPyro cuts in, listening to the quiet forest.

"Should we run or fight?" Wundah quickly turns to the sound of crashing trees in the distance.

"I say we fight, test our fuckin skills!" Andrew holds his hammer up high.

"If they're as easy as the one we killed, we got this. The three of us used to live and breath this game, and now to actually be in it. There's no way we can back down from a fight!" AvatarPyro clutches his Greatsword, a low rumble in the air.

"We got this!" Wundah has a determined look on his face, they all do. The mood changes, their faces serious, full of bloodlust.

A roar in the distance and a numerous amount of shrieks and barks erupt as trees crash down violently. The speed they crash down at gets faster and faster, the three prepare for the worst. A Great Jazuk leaps high into the air and lands in between the three, five more surround them, ten smaller ones are spread out, barking at the sky.

The three already know what to do, they've talked about it before while hiking, many situations and what they would do, how they would attack.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Go!" Wundah sprints through the smaller ones, running behind the big ones at lightning speed, slicing the tendons at the ankle, each one screeching in pain as it falls to the floor.

Andrew swings his massive hammer, sending five of the small Jazuk flying into the trees, as AvatarPyro chops straight through the other five, their top halves sliding off of the blade and falling to the floor. The Great Jazuk groan as they try to limp away, Andrew crushes the skull of one, blood splashing the rocks below, the eyeball popping out of the socket, hanging by a thin piece of flesh, the jaw broken as it groans a slow croaking as its body goes limp. AvatarPyro yells as he slices through one of their heads. Wundah drives his blade straight through the neck of one, a quick combo and the head falls off. The three of them slice and hit one at the same time, Andrew motions to Wundah and AvatarPyro, "Jump!" He yells, swinging upward. The two leap off of the hammer in different directions, slicing down on the remaining two Jazuk, splitting their faces in half, broken teeth falling to a heap in pools of blood, a split face collapsing. With no monsters in sight and a blood splattered land ahead, AvatarPyro chuckles, "Yo Andrew."

"Sup?" A curious look on his face.

"I saw your

Greatsword when you did that last swing!" AvatarPyro pulls out a Sharpening Stone and starts sharpening.

"I don't have a- oh fuck yeah!" Andrew starts laughing.

"Yeah I saw it too bro!" Wundah laughs, sharpening his sword.

"Well let's head back to the Main Hall? I want to look at the full map." AvatarPyro sheathes his Greatsword and begins walking.

"We kinda left a mess." Andrew chuckles, walking in the middle of the two while scratching his chest, taking one last glance at the carnage they left behind.

"Dude this felt so good like how long we've been waiting for this moment, always talking about scenarios, and the way the blade felt slicing through them, like damn I'm so glad we're here!" Wundah is smiling, talking with so much passion.

"Finally!" AvatarPyro chuckles, "I want a necklace of Faza claws, like that's my goal in this."

"Dude that would be so fuckin intense!" Wundah exhales, "Just imagine how big it's gonna be!"

"True shit." Andrew chews on a Stamina Pill, "I'm thinking of doubling on Stamina Pills, this hammer's heavy."

"Yeah I bet, we'll get used to the weapons though!" AvatarPyro picks a leaf from a nearby tree, crushing it with his fingers.

"True, agh did we really walk this far on the way here?" Andrew smacks away a small red fly.

"Yeah, but I think we're almost out." Wundah looks into the distance, a dim light of the open field poking through the numerous trees.

"We need to test how long Cold and Hot Pills last, because we could be spending days or who knows how long inside harsh weather conditions." AvatarPyro holds one of each in his hand.

"We need to look at weapon forging systems, and crafting using monster items." Wundah has his hands in his front pocket.

"And the map too, since this was based off of the game, then it could be possible that the map is just the same and there could be a main big ass boss or that it's just vast forests and jungles. Either way we'll know when we get to the Main Hall." Andrew shrugs.

"Yeah true." AvatarPyro walks on.

They make their way back to the Main Hall, "Congratulations! You have cleared the mission and are now free to travel anywhere you'd like. Here are your maps and Adventurer Badges!" The NPC says, a map and dragon symbol appear on their screen.

"Thank you!" AvatarPyro says, looking over the map, "Holy shit fuck balls." He nervously scratches his head.

"Fuck me." Wundah says, shaking his head while laughing.

"Fuuuh!" Andrew clenches his fists, looking over the map.

The map is vast, with five continent sized lands. The first at the bottom read Village/Main Hall their location marked with three black arrows. The second region, The Land of Jazuk, third region Insect Fields, fourth region Mines, fifth region Snowden, and above that is a massive portion marked Unknown with a skull and bones. The magnitude of the map, the vast amount of monsters they can encounter is daunting, yet they are all so excited, excited for a challenge, for battle. An open world they've been waiting their whole lives for.

"Hmm..." AvatarPyro rubs his chin.

"What is it?" Wundah is inspecting the map.

"This has nothing on sword crafting or what monsters are in what area." AvatarPyro grips his map.

"We just have to be ready for anything then." Andrew rubs his stomach.

"We'll be fine." Wundah walks out the door, and with full equipment stocked, our Adventurers head out of the village toward the Land of Jazuk.

"Was there always this many bugs?" Andrew swats at softball-sized bugs with his hammer, causing them to screech and pop.

"I have no idea, but it's getting dark." AvatarPyro says, looking at the dimly lit sky between the canopy of trees overhead.

"We shouldn't have left in a hurry, what are we going to do during night time?" Wundah puts his hoodie over his head.

"We can't really pitch up a tent and sing Fuckin' A by the campfire?" Andrew chuckles.

"We could set up a canopy high in the trees for the night?" AvatarPyro suggests, pointing to a ring of trees up above.

"That could work, we could use vines and make a net around, kind of like a web, enough layers to make a platform." Wundah picks up a sturdy green vine and tugs on it with force, the vine as thick as a large log.

"This could work!" Andrew puts his hammer in the holster and walks around picking up vines.

"Sounds good!" AvatarPyro helps, the trees massive, the trunks sturdy from old age, a pile of vines in the middle and the sun beginning to set, the three rush to create camp.

"I'll climb up this tree and we'll weave the vines back and forth between each tree across." Wundah wraps a bundle of vine around his arm and begins to climb up high into the treetop, right below the top, right where it ends, he can see far into the forest, endless forest and valleys, in the far distance against the setting sun he can see the faint outline of mountains lining the horizon, but it is too far to see any detail.

"Pass me the vine and I'll wrap it on this tree." AvatarPyro is balancing on his sword that's wedged into the tree trunk.

"Then toss it over here." Andrew is sitting on a branch, holding a vine.

"We'll take turns weaving it." Wundah passes his vine to AvatarPyro, who tosses it to Andrew, who throws it to Wundah. This goes on for about ten minutes as they switch trees. They have a large sturdy tarp in the trees, safe from Jazuk and other beasts that prowl the night, they rest easy as the sun goes down and a sky full of stars appear. A cool breeze sweeps through the trees, the leaves making a low hissing noise.

"This is the life guys." AvatarPyro bumps their fists, he stares at the shining moon in the distance.

"This is way better than staying in my room all night gaming, like to actually be able to swing my sword, just the feeling of the weight, nothing can beat that." Wundah is filled with excitement as his voice rings in the air.

"True shit, I just can't wait for my dildo hammer, just how badass and embarrassing would it be if I killed a Zinzo with a dildo hammer." Andrew laughs with the two.

"Just if we're ever in a pinch, let's say we were surrounded and had one Health Pill left, then you guys split it and run. I'll distract whatever it is." AvatarPyro has a serious expression on his face.

"Why so serious?" Wundah punches his arm, "If anything we'll throw a Flashbang and I slice their heels and we run away."

"This isn't a game dude! If we die we die, I won't stand there and watch you get torn to pieces. I just won't." AvatarPyro yells in a hushed tone. The barks of Jazuk could be heard in the distance.

"We've been friends for how long now, you really expect us to just leave you? We fight to the death together, no matter what the odds we'll win okay." Andrew glances off into the distance, "The lands we can see, the beasts we'll encounter, old ones, new ones, we'll fight them head on with no fear, like we always have. Yeah when we played on our games it was just a game, but in that world we existed as Adventurers. We walked into lower level halls and were treated as Gods! Our levels and our skill was more than anyone could have wanted in real life. It was both a blessing and a curse, being so good we never died, but being so good that the strongest bosses became too easy to fight we moved on to other games, but here, right where we are, the unknown before us, actually having to stay in trees to avoid enemies, cutting, slicing, smashing, this is real. We can die, but at least we're living the way we want to!" Andrew is huffing and puffing.

AvatarPyro and Wundah begin clapping, "Bravo! Bravo!"

"And the best speech award goes to!" Wundah makes cheering noises.

"I'm serious, this is on a whole new level!" Andrew raises his eyebrows and his eyes open wide.

"I know I know! We're just messing with you." AvatarPyro lays down and stares up at the stars, "I just wouldn't know what I would do without you goons."

"Getting all emotional!" Wundah puts his hands behind his head, his katana by his side.

"So emotional." Andrew lays down, "If only we had a blanket." He chuckles.

"Hmmm... Hold up." AvatarPyro flips through his inventory and out pops a giant blanket.

"What is this?" Wundah covers himself.

"Looks like Jazuk fur?" Andrew has enough for himself.

"Since there isn't any carving, we can craft things with items we get from enemies, just like Natives did with the animals they hunted, nothing goes to waste." AvatarPyro curls up in the blanket.

"This game, is it Utopia?" Andrew says to himself.

"Goodnight guys!" Wundah rolls over.

"Night night." AvatarPyro closes his eyes.

"Night!" Andrew dozes off.

The stars shine above, the night begins to roll along, and sunrise a few hours away as something climbs through the treetops, the scent of Adventurers luring it. Its hunger urges it to travel across hunting boundaries. This massive ape rushes towards our Adventurers in the dead of night.

As dawn approaches the stars are still up in the sky, Wundah slowly shakes AvatarPyro awake, "Who-"

Wundah puts his hand over his mouth, "Shh, Something's out there, coming fast."

They listen quietly to the sound of trees crashing in their direction.

"Battle formations." AvatarPyro grabs his sword as Wundah wakes up Andrew.

"What the fuck!" Andrew yells.

"Something’s coming!" Wundah yells, unsheathing his sword.

Andrew rolls over and grabs his hammer, "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

The crashing gets closer and closer.

"Fucking shit!" The tree next to them gets hit hard and bursts into pieces as Andrew dives to the nearest tree, AvatarPyro and Wundah lunge at the beast, plunging their swords in its back. Andrew crashes down with his hammer on its head as it falls to the floor, brains painting the circle of trees. Items pop up in their inventory as screeches could be heard in the distance, "Hoooly shit!" Andrew stares up above at their tattered nest.

A worried look on his face as AvatarPyro screams, "We need to go and we need to go now!"

"Fuck me!" Wundah sheathes his sword and they begin sprinting through the light of the rising sun. The forest seems alive, small Jazuk make their way through the bushes, but are smashed to pieces by Andrew's hammer.

They run through a rock-filled dry stream with rows of trees on both sides, "I have a idea!" AvatarPyro uses his Greatsword as a shovel and starts to dig a hole in the ground, "Andrew make a bunch of noise! Wundah hold off the ones that come fast!"

"Got ya!" Wundah readies his sword and sharpens it with one stroke.

"What the fuck was that?" AvatarPyro frantically pushes buttons on his inventory.

"Speed Sharpening, if you practice a lot you gain the skill!" Wundah sprints across the rocks and takes down a Great Jazuk with a lethal strike to the throat.

"You cock sucking bitches come and get some of this good dick!" Andrew slams his hammer on the floor, making shockwaves of noise.

"Okay all set!" AvatarPyro screams and they rush to the treeline, looking at AvatarPyro's awesome trap, the hole filled with Large Bombs and a pile of Uncooked Meat, "Give it a few minutes." Twenty Great Jazuk and almost forty apes rush to the trap, eating the meat and fighting each other. After a few more minutes he chuckles, "Boom baby." He throws a Small Bomb into the pile and the three watch as chunks of flesh and guts fly everywhere.

"Nice!" Wundah chuckles as numerous items pop up in his inventory.

"Hell yeah!" Andrew scratches his stomach.

The forest becomes quiet once more.

"Well, let's get walking again before more show up." Wundah sheathes his sword and they run through the rocks then make their way up the riverbed. They stop every now and then to listen and make sure nothing is following them.

"Hold up." AvatarPyro holds up his hand, the other two stop.

"What is it?" Wundah whispers, trying to peek over.

"Whatever it is we'll fucking destroy it." Andrew chuckles, breathing heavily from the long morning of running.

"It looks like people, should we keep our distance? I'm sure there's Player Killing in this game, and from the looks of it they have Razaka armor and weapons." AvatarPyro cautiously walks.

Wundah peeks over and sees the two sitting in a tree, one female with a Bow, the other a male with a Long Sword. "I want to fight him and see how good I really am." His pride as a swordsman showing.

"Who knows if they're friendly or not?" Andrew says a bit too loud.

"Who's there!" A arrow flies towards them, but is blocked by AvatarPyro.

"Hold your fire!" He screams, but Wundah is already rushing to meet the Swordsman.

They clash in the small clearing in the trees as arrows rain down from the treetop.

"Who are you!" The Swordsman screams, face to face with Wundah who dashes through the trees, dodging arrows as he jumps out to counter attack. The Swordsman's skill matches Wundah, they clash and counter attack with lightning speed.

"Time out!" Wundah screams as a Cozazaza crashes from the treetop next to them. A massive red gorilla with four arms.

"Okay!" The Swordsman screams, "Arrows!" The girl turns from the tree and fires two quick shots that pierce the Cozazaza's eyes. It lets out a scream that is quickly silenced by two Long Swords that slice its head off.

"Woah you guys got skill!" Wundah tells the guy who whistles.

Another arrow shot and blinding light fills the air. The three Adventurers shield themselves from attack, but as the light fades the two Adventurers are nowhere to be seen. What remains of a Razaka are strewn about on the floor, vines used to pull it up are still swinging in the light breeze. A giant green dragon with rows of thorns on its back, poison dripping from the dead mouth. Items in their inventory and a rising sun, our Adventurers reach the end of the forest. What remains as they step foot into the Insect Fields is courage and skill. Hopeful that they will make it through the perils that lie ahead, they step into these grassy fields, as far as the eye can see are open plains and flying insects.