Chapter 1: The Beginning

(Friday, January 1st Game Day / Friday, January 1st Real Day)

The rising sun greets me as the snow starts to glisten far out in front of the forest line. As if tipping its hat, the sun's rays cast a long and low angular shadow off the trees surrounding me, shrouding me in the darkness of the early morning while illuminating the world directly in front. The shadows only offered a temporary concealment, but I still gladly welcomed it.

I paused for but a moment to give my thanks, it would seem the sun has given me its blessing.

The future looked bright.

Without any further hesitation I took a knee and removed the bow that was hanging off my shoulder. It was a crude bow, made of some inferior quality wood, wood that was unbeknownst to me. But it mattered not, the target was sitting idly by unaware of my presence, masked by the shadow of the elm and pine trees both above and behind. As darkness slowly turned to light I made no effort to rush, for patience was essential.

No, it was crucial.    

Holding the crude wooden bow in my left hand, I picked a suitable arrow with my right. Squaring the hips and shoulders first, ensuring proper posture, I then nocked an arrow with my right hand and extended my left arm straight-out.

I loosely grasped the rough bow with my thumb and index finger pointing outwards and simultaneously drew the bowstring back with my right hand. When the side of my hand brushed against my cheek I knew I was ready to proceed.

Keeping my chest in parallel with the nocked arrow and my elbow straight back, I shifted the weight of the draw from shoulder and arm to back. The muscles in my back tightened, with general relief spreading through the body as the burden had been lifted off the weaker intrinsic muscles in the shoulder.

I was now ready.

I took a second to line up my sight, keeping the sinew-string centerline with the bow and a fixed gaze on the [Northern White Fox] just beyond the forest line. The same [Northern White Fox] that seemed to be perfectly illuminated in the transition between night and day.

As I steadily inhaled I let the bowstring slip cleanly off my finger-tips and followed the arrow's trajectory with my eyes.

It flew true.

The thwack of the bowstring releasing its tension brought a strange satisfying feeling, in essence, it was soothing.

To some, Archery is considered an Art form.

I don't believe they are wrong.

But a moment later I see the fox twitch and jerk upwards, the thud of the arrow masked by the yelp of the fox. Momentary indiscretions in the serenity of the forest, but all things pass.

At the end of my exhale I proclaim to no one in particular, "Alright, clean kill." But before I could utter another syllable I was interrupted by the system message:

[Northern White Fox, Level 6 has been slain!]

[You have gained +78 Experience!]

My first hunt and first successful kill had gone without a hitch; I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited and grinning ear to ear. Though I would also be lying if I said it was my first kill ever in the game, having played in the unreleased version during the Alpha and Beta testing phase of the game's development.

Yeah, I wasn't exactly a first-timer here.

Getting back to my feet, I looked on at the [Northern White Fox] as it lay forever still, thinking to myself how much easier that had gone than the first time I ever tried to kill a creature in-game.

Doing one better, I decided to think out-loud.

After all, in the middle of the deserted northern forests on a bright winter day I had to stave off the boredom between hunts somehow, even if it was entirely crazy to do so.

"Mission accomplished!"

"And I'm almost level 1 whistle~."

Brushing the snow off my knees first, I then placed my [Old Hunting Bow] on my shoulder as if it were a bag of sorts and picked up my remaining [Crude Wooden Arrow x9] to hold in my left hand. Beginners like me without a backpack have to deal with carrying everything by hand.

An unfortunate set of circumstances for the time being.

Walking towards the body of the fox I decided to continue my game of thinking out-loud, "What will you provide me with today, my little [Northern Fox]!" …of course I already knew the answer to that, as a fox didn't drop weapons, armor, or items.

That would be… silly.

"Simply silly should something so satisfying show," oh alliteration how I love thee. If only I were a more talented being, that wouldn't have been so lame. Oh well, the things one comes up with when bored and alone. It's like singing in the shower even though you're tone deaf and monotone.

Can't care when no one is there! Hah ha! As I continued to laugh at myself a sudden chill caused my body to shiver, "Ah damn, its cold, I need to hurry this up."

Speeding up my pace, I retrieved the arrow lodged just below and behind the shoulder of the fox. The arrow had landed cleanly, delivering a near instant death with little pain. After adding the arrow to my collection, I then nonchalantly grabbed the fox's leg and let it dangle from my right hand as I continued on with the hunt. Recycling arrows was economical, and recycling was good for everyone after all.

Well, maybe not for the producers and sellers, but it wasn't like I could afford new arrows.

Losing myself to thought once again as I traveled, I found myself unsure of what the developers were thinking when they designed the starter village that I had selected in the very far "Northern Wastelands."

With my beginner's clothing amounting to an [Old Tattered Short Pants] and [Old Tattered Tight Tunic], I was literally freezing out in the snow. I took no pleasure in masquerading as a male stripper lost in the snow-filled forests of the North.

Was that really the design goal of the developers for players who started in the North? And did I mention that I had no shoes or boots?

My feet were already numb.  

An hour out in the cold without any clothing would typically lead to some problems, but thanks to my high Endurance stat I had an abundance of stamina and could endure the temperatures a bit longer than normal. This left me at least another hour before I would succumb to the cold.

Of course, that also meant I would be wasting at least an hour of the critical daylight period as I warmed up by a fire… but that's how the system worked. Life was tough in the North, especially with an eight-hour calendar day cycle. Four hours of sunlight followed by four hours of darkness… it almost forced you to log out of the game, really.

Making my way through the forest in search of more prey, I couldn't help but admire the desolate beauty of the North before me.

The Northern Triangle where I had started was the northern most group of villages on the continent. The Triangle Villages were poor with very few inhabitants and limited development, with each spread roughly ten miles apart while the surrounding areas were considered barren as they provided little if any hunting at all.

Those were all negatives for a beginning player.

Out of the entire list of over a hundred starter villages in the game it was rated a terrible 0.5/10… the lowest by far.

Yet in the end I still chose it.

There were certain charms not readily apparent to those looking to simply power level through content. The winter wonderland with its abundance of space and lush trees that decidedly marked the landscape, the rolling mountains to the east that cut through the background opposing the beautiful and open ocean to the west. The peace and serenity one can only find in the solitude of nature, free from all the noise and bustle of the crowded cities, free from people in general.

Yeah, out of a population of nearly 500,000 players on release day I was the first and only player to grace the Northern Triangle with my presence.

I was the only human, the only player character in at least fifty miles if not a hundred.

I really, truly was alone.

Snap.

Freezing in place I quickly scanned my surroundings but could not see anything. I held my breath as I struggled to listen, keeping my eyes wide and at attention, searching for any sign of disturbance, any sign of movement.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Snap.

The noise was getting closer and was to my right, but as I looked at the area in front of me, the area away from me, and the area far off in the distance I could not see a thing.

Snap.

At this point, I set the fox that had been dangling loosely by my side onto the ground and slid my bow off my shoulder. Setting down nine of the ten arrows, I slowly and quietly nocked the arrow and drew my bow.  

Standing silently in the snow, my mind began to run through various scenarios before it occurred to me that predators were often far more quiet than prey, but that was no guarantee. Just because I could hear it, didn't make it a rabbit.

Silence had filled the air as the tension grew.

I stood still waiting, waiting with my bow drawn and at the ready. This close to the village I could only expect a rabbit or a fox, but the atmosphere was strange.

Snap.

Again with the noise, but this time it was even closer and to my left. A memory flashed through my mind of a poor game

warden and a pair of dinosaurs and I wanted to laugh at the silliness of it all, until it appeared in front me.

Peering around a tree was a small mangy looking wolf that had met my gaze. The white wolf was undersized and looked malnourished as it meekly locked eyes with me, but I knew not to underestimate it.

It was still a vicious predator.

Turning my bow slowly towards the wolf while it stood cautiously behind a tree, I was forced to hold as the tree obscured my vision and shot. The situation was an awkward one as both wolf and I stood still waiting for the other to make a move.

Perhaps the wolf smelled the dead fox at my feet and came looking for a meal.

It was a novel idea, or so I thought.

Snap.

A shiver immediately went down my spine as goose bumps rose on my skin at the sound of the branch breaking directly behind me, completely out of sight.

I blinked as I relaxed, I was caught.

Still holding my drawn bow steady as my arm started to fatigue, I began to count to three. One, two… on three I kicked my leg out and leaped to the side hoping to gain some distance and a vantage point on one of the wolves, but soon found myself under attack.

As I jumped so too did the wolves, and as the wolf that had been behind me leaped up and snapped its jaws at my arm, I released my bow.

The arrow flew directly into the neck of the wolf as it closed its mouth, but it wasn't fatal.

A half second later the wolf that was originally in front of me was now bearing down on my left and launched an attack of its own, baring its fangs as it clamped down on my wrist.

Pain immediately shot through my body as I registered the wolf gnawing on my arm but had no time to care. The wolf that had been shot launched its second attack, biting down hard on my right calf and knocking me to the ground.

Dropping my bow as the wolf continued to gnaw on my wrist, I then jammed my free hand into the snout of the wolf, grabbing the nose and ripping on it as hard as I could. The attack startled the wolf just enough to yank my torn left arm free.

As blood poured from the open wound I looked to see the wolf to the right still gnawing at my leg while attempting to drag me in the opposite direction.

Twisting my body and gathering what strength I could in my left leg, I kicked violently at the wolf. Kicking once, twice, thrice before the wolf released its grip.

Without time to think I quickly tried to pull my knife but found both wolves on top of me, biting and clawing at anything they could. In the frantic fight for my life I paid no attention to my health bar as I was being viciously torn apart before my very eyes.

I struggled to stop their attacks but as long as I could shield my neck I knew I could survive.

The wolf to my left soon backed off as it looked for a better opening while the right wolf continued to gnaw and bite me where ever it could.

Clutching the knife in my hand, I immediately rolled into the attacking wolf, grabbing it around the neck and plunging the knife into the body of the wolf.

Shrieking in pain the wolf tried to break free but I tightened my grip around the wolf's neck as I continued to stab it over and over and over.

With blood splattering all around me, the wolf finally stopped resisting and slumped back into my arms. Letting go of the deceased, I tried to quickly turn my attention to the wolf that had backed off only to be bitten on the neck from behind.

Frantically trying to hold the wolf's mouth to stop what was about to happen, I reached and grabbed, desperately trying in vain as the wolf started to shake its head violently and rapidly from side to side.

My vision had turned black for but a moment before the world in front of me started to turn various shades of gray and blue. The outlines of the trees surrounding me were blurry and waved from side to side, inducing an eerie and uncomfortable feeling deep in the pit of my stomach.

Looking up towards the sky, I could only see various dark shades of gray and blue flowing like intersecting currents. To my sides in the distance there was nothing more than a light gray haze with a slight light blue underlying hue.

I could only see so far.

Looking down at the floor, there was a solid black and gray mass in the shape of a body, where it laid motionless in the winter snow.

I had died.

A system message had popped up in the middle of my visual field:

[Do you wish to Release?]

[Yes / No]

I quickly selected [Yes].

Once I had selected my answer, I soon felt as if I was getting crushed but without the pain, condensing into a small ball as I was covered with swirling gray smoke and then just as suddenly the air cleared and I had found myself at the center of the town square.

Still in the death state, I could not see or interact with the living.

Even though I was unsure of where my corpse was, I at least was given some sort of spiritual compass that wasn't actually obvious at first.

The intersecting rivers of dark grays and dark blues that seemed to be flowing randomly had actually been flowing in one specific direction. When I ran in the wrong direction the river in the sky bent and curved while flowing in the correct direction.

All one had to do was follow the flow.

Arriving at the black and gray mass that was my body, I was prompted with another system message:

[Do you wish to Resurrect?]

[Yes / No]

And I again selected the obvious.

With a slight pause I was soon getting sucked into my body as the gray haze that had surrounded me soon blurred into straight lines. I felt as if I was traveling at an incredible speed as I flew through some sort of indescribable space until my vision went black once again.

Light slowly started to fill my vision as the images in front of me became clear.

I was laying on my back, staring up at the canopy of the trees that surrounded me, snow falling once again on my face.

Letting out a sigh, I stood up and looked around at the scene before me.

My bow, knife and arrows had returned to my inventory when I died, which simply meant they appeared on the floor in front of me since I had no bag. That was something I would have to remedy sooner rather than later.

To the right, lying in a small puddle of blood was the wolf I had recently killed, but the fox that I had killed earlier was nowhere to be seen.

I couldn't help but laugh as I shook my head and said out loud, "Clever girl."

The wolf that had met my gaze behind the tree got what it wanted at the expense of the other wolf that had crept up behind me.

Their plan worked for one of them.

That wolf would live to fight another day.

Picking up all of my items and tucking them away, I then grabbed the dead wolf and slung it over my shoulders.

A wolf was worth way more than a fox anyway.

I wasn't going to complain.