Before I realized it, I was no longer falling, and all around me was darkness. At first, I was under the impression that I was in just my room with all the lights turned off, that I had went to bed like always. However, my senses began to tell me that I am not alone as whispers and shuffling can be heard. My first instinct was to freeze, absolutely terrified at the possibilities of burglars having entered my home. My eyes remained opened, staring into the dark space around me, trying to get used to the darkness. Then, all of a sudden, my vision became clear and at the corner of my sight, a small icon appeared, it was an icon I recognize, one for the [Night Vision] effect within the game.

Am I still in the game? But since when did Elysium Online have a first person mode?

With [Night Vision] active, I surveyed my surroundings, first taking note of my grimoire lying on the ground with a single [contract] card sticking out of it like a bookmark. With my own hands, I reached out towards it, feeling the texture of the cover and the weight of the book.

This feels all too real. I have no motion controls in my house and neither do the game supports it, and yet my hands reached out as if my own. And this sensation, this weight, I can feel it far too clearly for this to be a dream. Not to mention, this body, it does not ache and it feels so light, it's as if I'm literally fifty years younger. Could this be real? It can't be, it's not possible, but for it to be fake yet feeling so real, we shouldn't have the kind of technology and most importantly, I'll never be able to afford something like that. So is it real or not? If it's real then I don't understand how it happened, and if it's fake then I don't understand it just as much. Trying to figure this all out feels like splitting my brain apart. Am I going mad? Is this what it is? Am I insane now from my loneliness?

Light suddenly flood into the darkness as the door to this room was opened, blinding me momentarily. As I shield my eyes, I simultaneously turned off my [Night Vision] with but a thought.

"Is this the one?"

I hear from the doorway a young feminine voice, clear and soothing and full of youth.

"Indeed, Your Highness, this is the one."

"Can he understand us?"

"He should, yes."

As my eyes slowly adjust to the light, I turn towards the voices, seeing the silhouette of men in dark robes and a woman, or rather, a girl in a fanciful dress.

"Hello, can you understand me?"

"Um... Hello."

"Thank goodness, I was afraid that we won't be able to speak to one another."

The girl's expression is lively, her movements and gestures are natural. Speaking to her is like speaking to a real person and yet, I cannot escape the feeling that this is within a game, even though everything is so real, I could still see traces of the game here. For example, I can see this girl's name floating above her head, I can see the quality of the clothes she wears, and even her weaknesses and resistances. Within the game, her name being displayed would be a given, while the rest of her information is revealed to me by my subclass', the Enchanter's, skill [Insight].

"Let me introduce myself, I am Aurelia, the princess of-... Sir?"

As she was speaking, I walked around her. I expected her to keep talking but instead she stopped and gave me a quizzical expression. Clearly, she's reactive. However, looking at her from the side, one thing still bothers me. It's her ears, the way they're modeled is completely anatomically impossible. To begin with, I can't tell at all where the fluffy fur ends and where the silky hair begins. Are those ears actually accessories?

I extend my hand and brushed by her golden hair to check the side of her head. There were no ears, and now that just looks weird and so I immediately let her hair down. I check back at the girl again and see that she is blushing and looking at me as if I did something absurd. Those in the surrounding as well, seems to be rather exasperated about all of this. I guess I did something unusual, but I must know, I must find out, whether I'm truly insane or not. To tell the truth I'm rather scared that I might have gone mad from the loneliness.

With no ears on the side of her head, does that mean that those droopy ears on top of her head are the real deal? I reached out to touch it. Feeling the fluffiness, it reminded me of Aurelius, my old pal, she had droopy ears just like these. Oh how I miss you Aurelius, why did you have to go? Though, I suppose it's better for her to go before me than the other way around, the poor girl would have had to starve.

"What are you doing to the princess!?"

Surrounding me, are groups of armored men, each with spears pointed towards me. It seems that not only is the girl reactive, so is the others in the environment. However, all of this is to be expected, after all, when you have a girl with fluffy ears in front of you, you'd naturally want to touch her too, don't you? As proof, every single mobile gaming apps nowadays involving girls allow you to interact with the girls via the touchscreen in some way. That's right, all of my actions had been predictable so far and reactions can be scripted to match them. What should I do? What should I try next? What is truly unexpected of a player to do in this situation? What is so truly absurd, that the developers will never see it coming? If this is indeed a game, then how do I break it? Actually, now that I've gone so far, I'm really hoping that this is a game, that I went back to the game testing business after some spanking new tech came out and can't wait to try them out, but just when I began testing, I suddenly went senile or something along the lines. Yes, it's all becoming more plausible now that I'm following along that line of thought.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Speaking of which, this shouldn't be an R rated game, should it? I certainly wouldn't have gone to test something like that, I'd be too embarrassed. In other words... shall I give it a try? If this is indeed anything lower than an R rating, then it should be impossible to do. Yes, that is the only way. I shall strip! If this game is what I think it is, then I shouldn't be able to take off my underwear no matter what. It'll be stuck to me like part of my skin.

And so, under the gaze of the princess and the soldiers surrounding me, I shed my clothing to the very last piece, and then, the moment of truth...... It slid off much more easily than I expected it to.

"You... you deviant!"

The soldier are getting increasingly angry with me, but that as well, is an expected reaction, if you can strip down to your birthday suit, that would be the appropriate reaction. Is this really a game? Or did I just get bolder with age? Perhaps since I'm so old, most company wouldn't let me work there, so I had to find work with a smaller team that makes erotic games? Or perhaps, I actually founded this team and now I'm testing my very own game? Now that I think about it, this princess that is currently blushing like mad in front of me kind of look like Aurelius, her golden hair, her clear brown eyes, her droopy ears, if I squint, she does indeed resembles her. And her name, Aurelia was it? Isn't that just a more elegant sounding Aurelius? I have no doubt about it now, this is a game of my own making.

However, if I have a character based on Aurelius here, why would I make it R rated? Have I become such a deviant after getting even older? No, I refuse to believe it, this must be some sort of compromise, right? Since we're a small studio, it'll be hard to make a game to compete with the big companies with their AAA titles, and so we had to resort to features AAA titles would never implement. It has to be something like that, otherwise I'd really like to beat the shit out of my older self, which I would suppose is my current self.

"Princess, just give us the order and we'll cut this fiend down at once!"

The soldiers look at me with anger and disgust, the emotions on their faces were very detailed and varied from character to character, more than enough to compete with the big companies I'd say. Then there's the princess, standing before me, her face stoic but red and her bushy tail standing upright and tense behind her. Yet, her gaze never once turned away from me.

"Stop! Lower your arms!"

"But, princess-"

"I said lower your arms!"

The soldiers did as she said, their unwillingness and mortification clearly displayed on their faces. Even I, the object of their hatred, could feel their pain. Whoever did the motion capture for these soldiers must be a master.

"We were the ones who had brought this person into our world without his consent. It is only right that he demands remuneration for dragging him into our conflict. And for this kingdom, whatever he demands of me is but a small price to pay."

The tone of her voice is strong, but even amidst that strength, I can hear slight trembling. It's subtle, very subtle, but not so much so that I can't hear it. I could feel how this princess is trying to be strong for her people in spite of her fears. I can't believe we got such a good voice actor, but then again, if this character is inspired by Aurelius, then of course I would spare no expense in bringing her to life. Good job, voice actor! Good job, me!

"Brave hero, while I am most certain that you would like compensation for what we will be asking of you, I beg you to please be patient, for we have very little time. I swear upon my honor that I shall accompany you as much as you desire once this is over."

The princess continues talking without me prompting her. This might be a problem, as I could miss crucial information if I don't pay attention. Yet, if a button is added, it may ruin the immersion for some. I should probably write that down on a notepad or something later. But well, if I'm seriously going do some good old quality assurance, I better properly play it to the end before messing around. I'm getting pretty cold too, and though I doubt I'll catch a cold in a virtual environment, I best put on my clothes.

"Thank you, I'm glad that you understand. Now please, we must hurry."

This character has lines for everything doesn't she? I wonder if she'll be a companion later on.

After putting my clothes on, the princess and the soldiers lead me out of the room I was in, and upon arriving outside, I realized that I had been in some kind of small temple build in the middle of a meadow. The sun here is warm and the breeze cool. The sensation so layered that you wouldn't think that this is all simulated. But this is a game... right? It is the only rational explanation.

To affirm my sense of reality, I gazed upon the princess again, trying to search for anything artificial, and aside from her fluffy ears and tail, it's hard to say, if she's real or fake. But of course, there's no way an animal eared girl can exist in reality, there's just no way.

"Sir?"

"It's nothing, let's go."

"Oh!"

She looks surprised, but then again, I think it's the first time I spoke didn't I, since this is a game, I didn't really thought it would matter though. But to react to what I say, how much scripting is done with her? Or did I just so happens said a key phrase that she'd react to? I don't know, but something's nagging at me in the back of my head. A nagging that I'll ignore for now. Let's just play the game and see where this goes.

***

The smell of metal in the air, the blood curdling screams, the scent of burnt flesh, these were what my senses picked up upon entering the town.

"This can't be... we're too late."

The princess watches on with terror, while I can't even bear to look at this blood soaked town for even a second with all its realistically rendered corpses littering the streets, either in pieces or burnt. And then there's the smell, oh god the smell, the repulsive smell of burning flesh. It makes me sick to the stomach with a disgust I never thought was possible.

Who the hell thought it was a good idea to put this in? What kind of sick bastard was even capable of reproducing this information in this virtual space? Even if this is an R rated game, this is too much, far too much. I can't have approved of this.

Then, right in front of us, a three meters tall creature landed. It has leathery wings and a long skinny torso with a comparatively stout lower body. Its legs are short, but its arms are elongated with sharp claws at the tip of each of its ten fingers. It has a long pointed chin and rows of uneven razor sharp tooth in its wide mouth. Its six red eyes, glared down at us who stood at the town gate, and its bloody lips twists into a horrendous smile.

"I found the princess~"

And without a warning, the [Demon] shot its long arm towards us and blood was spilled.

"Sir... why did you..."

Even if she asks me why, I didn't really know. Maybe it's because she looks a little like Aurelius. Maybe it's because I was feeling rather heroic today. Maybe because I've just decided that I had lived far too long anyways. Whatever the reason is, I ended up pushing Aurelia out of the way and took the blow in her stead because I was too clumsy to get out of the way myself after. Thanks to that, I can feel the foreign objects in my body, I can taste the metallic flavor of my own blood surging up my throat and into my mouth, and most of all it burns, it burns where I had been stabbed. It hurts like hell! It's... it's all too real...

***

End of Chapter 2