The Boundless Blade
Chapter 1. True World
Calm your breath, have your mind be clear, and tranquil.
Slicing down with my blade, I utilize the essence of the sword art instilled into me by my grandfather.
Slicing down with my blade, I cut through the opponent’s intentions as if seeing myself in them through a clear mirror.
Slicing down with my blade, my mind is as tranquil as the still waters reflecting moonlights glow.
And on the end of that blade… is my grandfather… my grandfather’s sword. My grandfather’s wooden sword somehow heading straight towards my face.
*Splash*
“Get up.”
I wake up to a bucket of water being thrown at me with the owner of said bucket being my grandfather. Having a body bruised all over and with a massive headache I didn’t have a few minutes earlier, I refuse to get up.
“Get up or we train till sunset.”
As the current time still was noon, I immediately use the last ounce of strength I can muster and get on my feet.
“You were slow today Katsu, your mind unclear and your unsteady emotions were giving away your every move.”
Standing before me and with a lecture I’ve heard dozens of times before, is a white haired, thin looking old geezer.
“Yeah, I know gramps, I had plans today that I was thinking about and couldn’t focus.”
Today was the first day of summer after finishing my senior year at high school, I had plans to meet a friend to buy a device that would allow me to play True World, a sensationally popular game even 2 years after its release in 2030. This was because True World is the first and only game of its kind coined a True Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game or TVRMMORPG for short.
Yeah… I know, crazy name for a genre, but apparently, it’s the best people could come up with to explain what exactly the game was.
True World was called this due to seemingly transporting the player to a whole new world when played with the device released with it. This device was called the Neurolink. Able to intercept brain signals, the Neurolink is capable of tricking all human senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch by connecting to the hosts nervous system and blocking out all natural forms of stimulus while sending out fake electrical signals in its stead.
This along with the pre-made play space of True World allowed for it’s players to feel as if they were truly transported into another world with free movement of their virtual bodies.
Finally, after 2 years of nagging and never not hearing about the sensation that is True World at school, my friend May, convinced me to buy it when school finished.
“Idiot! Do you think your future enemies will spare your life just because you have plans?” Grandfather yelled while launching the bucket at me.
“Ok gramps I get it! Won’t happen again.” I say, not out of fear of the nonexistent enemies but out of fear of the sunset training special.
“Good. Don’t slack off on training or there will be hell to pay when I return.”
Gramps was going on some business trip tonight for a month, leaving me plenty of free time alone to play True World. Never been too sure what gramps does for work but I’m sure it’s not exactly on the “normal” side of the spectrum considering where we live and how crazy he seems when teaching me swordsmanship.
After cleaning up and saying my farewells to gramps, I leave my home and head down the long flight of stairs to meet my friend on the streets below.
Down below I see a girl with brunette hair violently waving at me from her car as if I haven’t seen her in years.
“Hey there, May.” I greet as I enter the car.
“WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG! YOU SAID NOON AND I’VE BEEN WAITING HERE FOR 30 MINUTES!” May violently screamed as I sat down.
“Sorry, training with gramps took longer than I thought it would.” I apologize for my grandfather’s physical abuse.
“Well alright I forgive you but let’s go. True World waits for no one!”
May, the resident True World enthusiast starts her car and heads towards the closest electronics store with blistering speeds.
“I still can’t believe you live on a shrine at the top of that mountain.”
“Yeah, I still can’t believe it either and I’ve lived there for ten years now.”
After moving in with grandfather at the age of 8, for 10 years, my grandfather has been teaching me his tranquil clarity style of swordsmanship. And for 10 years, I’ve been bound to that shrine only training and going to school.
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In my grandfather’s words. ‘In order to have a strong spirit, you must first have a strong body and strong mind.’
Whatever that means.
While it certainly has made me stronger, being confined to just training and school has made me feel restricted lately and has been an impediment to my training.
Hearing my plight, May had finally managed to convince me to buy True World with the sweet words of boundless freedom that the game could apparently give you.
“Anyways, now that I’m going to start playing, what exactly is so special about True World?” Changing the subject, I ask May about the specifics on the game.
“Oh man, Katsu fasten your seatbelts and get ready.”
“Already fastened.”
“Ok so…”
“You do know what an RPG is right?” May says with a patronizing look on her face.
“Yeah… I’ve played video games before. Just not as much since moving in with gramps.”
“Alright great! This’ll be easy then. True World is kinda like entering into one of those worlds where you can become whatever you wish!”
“You can become a become a big strong warrior, a conniving thief, or even a spell-flinging magician!”
“Huh, that’s cool. But wait, wouldn’t people who know how to use their bodies like athletes or martial artists have an unfair advantage? And did you say Magic? How does that even work?”
“Heh… that’s where you’re wrong you hermit swordsman.”
That’s true but ouch…
“Also, one question at a time. And for the first one…”
“While it’s true athletic types have the advantage at the beginning of the game, you will soon learn that stats are king in True World.”
“Oh ok. I get it, you kill monsters, level up and raise your stat points like strength or agility kind of like an RPG?”
“Yes. But also no.”
“In True World, you don’t gain stats in a normal fashion. You get stats by becoming better in whatever class you chose.”
“That makes no sense.” I say completely lost.
“Alright we’ll use me as an example to answer both your questions.”
“In True World, I’m sort of like a magician.”
“Sort of?”
“I’ll tell you when you meet me in game.” May says while giving a snide wink.
“Anyways that’s beside the point. The point is that I’m a magician. And magicians learn something called a Mana Heart.”
“This allows us to sense and store the mana in our surroundings into our Mana Heart. It also allows us to manipulate the mana within us in order to make it come to life in the fashion of magic spells.”
“Hang on there. Sense, store, and manipulate mana? That sounds like having to learn and use a whole new human sense. True World can even do that?”
“Yup that’s the magic of True World. And that’s not all.”
“As magicians gain better control over their mana, their stats raise, and they can begin to form mana circles around their Mana Heart. Each circle represents a whole new tier of magic and often comes with a significant boost in stats.”
“To answer your question about levels, they are more of a gauge to tell how strong a person is and how close they are to the next tier of their class. For example, a lv. 10 magician would be called a first circle magician while a lv.20 would be a second circle.”
“Of course, there are tons of different types of magicians, but mana circles seem to be something we all have in common.”
“Warrior types also have their own system of getting stronger called Aura but I’m not very familiar with it.”
“Anyways, with the rise in stats, True World players can do things that would seem superhuman over here. So of course, as they get stronger, they need to get used to their enhanced abilities, so even athletes have to relearn how to use their bodies just like normal people.”
“Wow, seems like there is a lot more to this game then I thought.”
“That’s only the tip of the iceberg. True World is still popular to this day because of how much you can do in it. You don’t even need to fight to enjoy the game to its fullest. You can be a blacksmith, carpenter, merchant, chef, or even just use the game to meet friends online.”
“Personally, I sometimes even use it to study since True World dilates time by a factor of 3 by increasing brain processing speed.”
“Time dilation? Is that even safe?”
“People have been using it for 2 years now and there haven’t been any problems yet so… probably?”
“Great. But what about…”
“Ok. Enough questions. It’ll be better for you to experience the game blind anyways.”
I hold back the 10 or so questions I had lined up since we were approaching the electronics store.
After paying for the Neurolink, I also pay extra for some movers after realizing the box it came in was the size of a large fridge.
Heading back to the mountain and helping the movers lug the device up to the shrine, I finally have my hands on True World.
May said her goodbyes after helping me setup the Neurolink and left me with some vague line about trying to find her when I got stronger.
And now sitting in front of me was a large capsule shaped object. Inside the capsule was a human shaped seat I was supposed to sit in.
Sitting down, I close the capsule door with a button near where my hands sat and am met with complete darkness.
Or it was complete darkness until a few seconds ago.
In an instant I was no longer sitting in a dark capsule but was standing in room of pure white as far as the eyes could see.
Unable to move, I look down and see a thin outline of where my body was supposed to be.
In front of me, I see a floating textbox that looks straight out of a game.
Running Diagnostics… 85%
Checking Vitals… 50%
Scanning Host… 35%
After waiting for the Neurolink to finish its scan, my previously transparent body begins to fill and my senses return.
What greets my new virtual body is a glass mirror and an updated textbox.
Enter Character Name : []
Choose Character Appearance:
Default Custom
In the mirror I see a black-haired young adult wearing a plain blue long shirt, grey trousers, and brown boots.
I looked like stole the clothes straight off a peasant from the middle ages.
“Katsu”
Not really wanting to change what I looked like, I hit default and just used my name for the character.
Enter True World?
Yes/No
“Yes”
The previously pure white room now fades back to black…