Crisp, cold air burned his lungs, laden with a distinctly floral smell. Animal dung clung to his bare hands and knees, squelching as he shifted his weight. A disembodied voice rang out between his ears, loud and clear over the din of the forest around him. He clapped a hand over his ears, before pulling them away in disgust and attempting to clean his hands by tearing at handfuls of long grass.

No one said anything about phantom voices when you logged in. Surely they could have mentioned that much about the game.

Welcome to Thalesium, Julian. My name is Ginger.

“Who the hell are you? This isn’t some special scenario is it?”

Julian didn’t even try to keep the irritation from his voice.

This might be the first virtual reality game he’d managed to get his hands on in over a decade, but none of the test forums had talked about any unusual starter quests. Nothing interesting happened until your character was at least level fifteen. He also didn’t think it was normal to just be dropped in some random place in the game. Normally, you’d start off in a starter town, but the middle of a dense forest certainly didn’t fit that description.

He glared at empty air, waiting for the woman’s answer, and growled in his throat when the woman didn’t answer right away.

“I don’t see how Enigma Realm Studios could have gotten such rave reviews on the game if this is the kind of glitchy crap I’m going to have to deal with.”

He could almost feel the woman’s ire, a pause when she drew breath to speak, as if she were struggling to hold back a scathing remark. After a moment, she must have collected herself because her voice proceeded to nag in his ear.

Normally, it is not. As you seemed to be experiencing difficulties, I was tasked with being your guide during the Tutorial phase.

“Oh, great. My own personal nanny. So what exactly went wrong?” Julian asked, a thread of satisfaction coursing through him to find the game so seriously flawed.

His father never would’ve allowed a glitch big like this to make it past the beta.

My apologies, I was not informed of the details, although it seems something went wrong with the transport system.

“Why not just reload the game?”

I’m afraid that’s not possible. To prevent cheating, once a character is loaded into the game, their position on the map is locked. We cannot reload the system nor can a player designate their login location upon re-entry into the game. If you want to get somewhere, I’m afraid you’ll have to do so on your own two feet.

Gritting his teeth, Julian muttered under his breath. Seriously, had these people managed to complete anything without his father’s help? He refused to believe his father was this incompetent, nor could he imagine the man intentionally creating a prevention system as a unreliable as that. No hacker worth his salt would be stopped by a little trick like this.

Hell, there were probably mods for the game out already.

Who were they fooling?

“You expect me to run around in what amounts to a giant pillowcase, unarmed, while monsters eye me up for their next meal?”

The woman let out an exasperated sigh.

You must be very new to virtual reality games. Check your inventory, there should be a dagger and a set of starter gear. Shirt, pants, etc. Not much by way of protection and utterly useless once you gain a few levels, but serviceable even in your circumstances.

She paused.

You can open your inventory, correct?

“Yes, I think I can figure it out,” he drawled.

That much was obvious. Julian bit back another scathing remark as he selected the items from his inventory. His lack of experience with virtual reality games didn’t mean he was stupid, just a bit unfamiliar with how everything worked.

With his motivation, it wouldn’t be long before he knew Thalesium inside and out.

Of course, this was not how he expected his adventure in the game to start. A nice easy introduction to the mechanics, maybe a battle or two with a weak monster, but certainly not being dropped in the wilderness and thrown to who-knows-what kind of monsters.

What if something attacked? He had no idea how to fight, let alone use any skills!

How was he supposed to make it rich enough to take down Enigma Realms Studios if this was his how adventure started?

Suddenly grateful for someone to talk to, Julian found himself speaking before he could stop the words flowing from his mouth.

“So, am I the only one, or has this happened to a lot of people?”

It would be astonishing if he was the only one to be abandoned in the middle of nowhere. Luck just didn’t work that way. Nor did he believe a bug this obvious had popped up just for him. Enigma Realm Studios probably paid off all those reviewers to keep their mouths shut. Since no one on the internet had much to say about the game even after almost a year of closed beta trials, he was betting his suspicions weren’t far off the mark.

The company didn’t care about the game or fixing its bugs. All they cared about was money. Julian tried not to think how similar his current goal was.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Ginger broke through his thoughts

Yes, it seems so. However, you were lucky. The starter town isn’t far.

“Oh, how lucky I am.”

Julian didn’t even try to keep the sardonic smile from his face.

As he walked, he tried to distract himself from his situation, and the possibility he could get killed by a monster before he even made it to level two.

How embarrassing would that be? Barely into the game and he dies to some low level fodder. It would put a pretty big wrench in his revenge plans too, but at least he couldn’t rack up any debt. If he died, he’d just start over.

Again.

And again.

And again.

As many times as necessary to bring down Enigma Realm Studios and those who betrayed his father. He would see how they liked a taste of their own medicine.

As Julian grumbled to himself, he glanced around at his surroundings. Beyond the gravel path he now walked on was a mix of dense forest and rocky terrain. Towering trees cast long shadows across the cliff side to his left. The air was thick with the sounds of wildlife, from the chirping of birds to the rustling of leaves.

A gopher looking thing popped out of the ground near his foot, and Julian yelped, startled by the creatures sudden appearance.

Scared by a little Gnawtooth? You won’t survive long at this rate. Do us all a favor and quit already.

“You’d love that, wouldn’t you? No way in hell.”

He grunted, biting back another yelp as three more popped out of the ground. Eyeing them warily, he kept walking, skirting around the Gnawtooths to put some distance between them and him. The beasts seemed docile. Even as close as he was, they hadn’t attacked, so perhaps they would only attack if he initiated combat.

Julian considered attacking them to gain some experience, but the Gnawtooths suddenly darted away, diving back into the earth. A movement caught his eye and he tensed, every muscle on high alert. Another small figure darted through the underbrush to his left. It looked like a rabbit – but not just any rabbit. Its eyes glowed with a wild, frenzied light, and foam dripped from its snarling jaws.

“Is that… a rabbit?”

A Luminous Hare. It’s a pretty common spawn around this area.

He heard the woman’s voice as if through water. Ginger informed him of the monster’s information in an almost detached tone, as if it was something he should already know, yet he barely comprehended the woman’s voice, let alone what she had said. The Luminous Hare consumed his sight, his eyes glued on the hare’s glowing eyes. Fear gripping his heart, Julian took off running, his feet pounding against the ground as he tried to put some distance between himself and the creature.

A rabid hare.

Julian shivered, the memory of tiny, slavering jowls and vacant eyes fresh in his mind. Disease in the upper city would be unthinkable, but he would recognize those signs anywhere. Rabies was a common affliction for creatures in the lower city, human and beast alike. If untreated, within a few days, a week at most, and the animal would be dead.

But not before rampaging like a crazed beast, attacking anything in sight. Large animals like dogs still posed a real threat, but anyone with moderate aim could dispatch them easily.

Smaller creatures were far more terrifying.

Julian grimaced, pushing away the memory and resisting the urge to clamber up a tree, and kept running. There was no telling if the beast would be able to follow after him, even if he attempted to climb one.

What are you running for? That’s one of the weakest monsters in the game!

Ginger’s voice sounded near his ear, exasperation dripping from her words, but he tuned her out, murmuring under his breath.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

He glanced back, swallowing hard. The rabbit was fast, its relentless pursuit almost uncanny. Panic surged through him as he realized the beast was gaining ground with every stride. With a surge of adrenaline, Julian lengthened his strides, desperately searching for a way to escape, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see a way to shake the creature off his trail.

Just fight it. It’s only level one. You could beat it unarmed, and you even have a dagger.

Heart pounding in his chest, Julian could only run, his mind consumed by one of his worst memories. A family camping trip, one they took every summer—at least until his third year of elementary school.

On the second night of their trip, Julian had been down at the restrooms, the cool night air damp against his skin as he hiked up the hill back to their campsite. He’d gotten back to the site just as three wolves stalked out from the trees. The embers of their cook fire reflected off the wolves gleaming eyes.

The pack’s leader had matted fur and it staggered slightly as it walked, drool oozing from its mouth. They were a clear sign of rabies, not that he knew it at the time.

All he’d known was the all-consuming fear.

Thankfully, the wolf’s mind was just as eroded as it’s body, the animal’s reason lost to the disease, and his mother shot it without trouble. The other two wolves ran off, chased by the sound of gunshots echoing through the trees.

The horrible experience never left him, but the wolves were not what haunted his dreams for months after that night.

He chuckled darkly.

Even as his mother had clutched him tightly and the fear racking his body with sobs slowly ebbed away, the real threat emerged. Hopping out from the bushes in the direction the wolves had arrived was a rabbit. Its movements were jerky and erratic, yet not enough to slow the animal down. A normal rabbit might have hovered at the edge of their campsite, warily nibbling the tall grass, but this one came charging at them. He could still hear his sister’s shrill screams as his mother shoved them into the tent. They’d been stuck in that tent for over eight agonizing hours before the animal died right outside the door.

He’d never forget its glassy eyes, somehow following him even in death as he walked over its lifeless body.

Ginger’s voice broke through the fear coursing through him. Compassion filled her voice, merging with the memory of his mother stroking his hair murmuring reassurances under her breath.

Everything is okay, Julian, just focus. This is a game remember? You can’t die.

He tore himself from the grip of fear, taking a shaky breath to steady his nerves.

She was right.

Of course she was right.

He knew that, and yet, he couldn’t stop the trembling in his hands.

Julian turned, another breath caught in his throat as he withdrew the dagger from his inventory. The hare launched itself towards him seconds later. He dove to the side, lashing out with one arm while bracing himself with the other. The blade landed a lucky hit, carving a long gash along the creature’s side.

Sweat poured down his face, dripping into his eyes, but Julian refused to take even a second to wipe it away.

Not when the hare was still alive.

Time seemed to slow, his movements a blur of gut instinct and icy determination. He lunged to the side, eyes locked on the wounded hare as it struggled to stand. The weight of the dagger steadied his hand, and before it could recover, Julian drove the dagger into the creature’s neck, closing his eyes against a spray of blood as it shot from the wound.

When the creature stilled, a notification window popped into his vision, the golden words glowing bright for a minute before fading.

Luminous Hare defeated.

Gained 3 experience.

Julian smiled, a surge of relief washing over him, his pulse finally beginning to slow as the adrenaline faded. He’d heard a player's first kill could be overwhelming, but right now, all he felt was catharsis.