Chapter 2: Server Launch!

They say that by 2046, a virtual reality game nearly indistinguishable from reality will be released.

Gamers loved hearing about this.

After all, every gamer has dreams about virtual reality.

While people were having such dreams, an unknown developer company made their move.

They uploaded a game video with the tagline 'Another Reality', claiming it was a VR game.

The title shown in that video was.

[Demons Saga]

Overwhelming graphics! Overwhelming map scale!

And even completely autonomous NPCs designed with high-performance AI!!!

The world of Demons Saga shown in the video was majestic and captivating.

The setting of becoming an adventurer to defeat demons sealed throughout the world was cliché, but I liked it.

It was only natural that pre-registration numbers snowballed. And after a long wait... the game was finally released.

The community went wild with anticipation, as expected.

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[Finally it's here lol]

Let's dive in lololol

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[Time to slaughter all those demon bastards lololol]

[First warrior first warrior that's gonna be me that's gonna be meee]

[Fuck... gotta start 2 hours late because of overtime]

[ㄴ idiot lololol]

[ㄴ Missing out on half your life www]

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[I heard this game has an 18+ mode, is that true?]

I feel like I heard about it somewhere

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[Yeah surprisingly it's real]

[Yep surprisingly it's an official game feature]

[Yeah yeah but I heard you can only enable it in specific situations so don't get your hopes up you shut-in virgin gamer]

[ㄴ You bastard what do you know about me]

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[Holy shit look at these graphics]

Holy shit look at this sound holy shit look at this sensory feedback it feels so real

But the character models are just average..

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[???: "Another Reality"]

[ㄴ They didn't need to make the NPCs look that good too..]

[Just went in for a bit and it's really fucking amazing;]

[There are so many people in the tutorial area lololol]

[How is there no traffic overload with this many people??]

[ㄴ And no lag even with these graphics wowowow]

[ㄴ Did they put aliens in there or something?]

Posts were going up every second.

The whole world seemed to be talking about Demons Saga, with only slight exaggeration. That's how incredibly popular Demons Saga was.

After all, it had beautifully met gamers' expectations.

Thanks to that, the number of Demons Saga players grew exponentially...

Two months passed like that.

*

[Condition not met!]

[You cannot currently use 'Player's Eye'!]

"...So what the hell is this shit."

It's been two months since this system window appeared before me.

While it was technically the first system window to appear in the 22 years since I fell into this world, I still had no idea what it was.

Who would've thought something like this existed.

Sure, it's nice that some hologram window appeared.

But what good is it if I can't use it?

I couldn't even see the usual stat window or level window that people are familiar with.

The only thing I could see was this 'Player's Eye' characteristic... but I couldn't even use it since the conditions weren't met.

'Still, something unusual definitely happened.'

Otherwise something like this wouldn't suddenly appear.

At times like this, the forest is really inconvenient. Even if I want to get information, there's nowhere suitable to get it from.

"Maybe I should visit the city after a long time..."

When I was young, I thought I'd live forever cut off from civilization out of fear. But fortunately, it didn't come to that.

As long as I hide the black horn mark on my collarbone, I can pretend to be a normal person too.

Of course, that doesn't mean I can go to the city center. The mark is bigger than you'd think, and you need proper identification there.

I can only go to a few trading posts in the back alleys. They don't ask many questions about your background there.

So if I want information, I need to go to the back alleys...

'Eh, I'll go later.'

I quickly gave up on the idea.

While I was curious, it wasn't urgent.

And I'd already gone once two months ago. I bought lots of necessary supplies while I was there.

In my case, going too often would be harmful.

The more frequently I visit, the more familiar I'll become to people, and the higher the chance of being discovered.

Besides, those bastards there - even to me who's been forced to be antisocial for 12 years, they seem like real scum.

So I'll be patient for now and focus on what needs to be done.

With that thought, I resumed my search.

I'd been living a bit lazily lately so my food supplies were running low.

The meat I'd preserved through various methods like salting, smoking, and drying was starting to run out.

And besides the really precious emergency rations, I only had about a handful left.

Winter's coming in a few months too.

It was time to restock on food.

So today is all about hunting.

Unfortunately, prey wasn't very abundant.

Maybe because there were more monsters around lately, but edible food sources had dried up. And it's not like I could eat ogre meat.

'I'll need to do some cleaning soon.'

I'd been carelessly thinking things would take care of themselves naturally. Even with monsters around, this was still nature after all.

And there's one thing people tend to misunderstand - you shouldn't assume animals are always weaker than monsters.

This land is exposed to demonic power. As such, there are many animals that have mutated from the demonic power.

You might even see a mutated bear eating ogre meat. That's how bizarre this land is... which is why I ended up being negligent about managing it.

Still, after wandering around for a while, I managed to hunt a rabbit or two.

But this isn't enough. To replenish my depleted salt-preserved meat, I needed to catch at least one wild boar.

So I headed more towards the outer forest. There were more pure animals there after all.

While mutated meat is edible too, it's both harder to hunt and more troublesome to process.

'It's been a while since I went near the outside layer.'

This forest could be divided into three layers.

Outside layer, middle layer, and deep layer. The deeper you go, the denser the demonic power and the stronger the monsters become.

Even I have to risk my life in the deeper parts of the deep layer.

That's why I live in a cave in the middle layer.

The monsters are manageable enough to deal with, and there are hardly any human footprints so not much to be wary of.

Plus, there's a small lake inside the cave so I don't have to go far to wash up.

For various reasons like these, I lived in the middle layer.

Anyway, that's why visits to the outside layer were quite rare.

Still, going there after so long brings back memories.

"......"

Honestly, there weren't many pleasant memories. Most were of desperately crawling up to the middle layer.

It's not like I could beat up monsters from the very beginning either.

There was a time when I struggled even against a single animal, having to run away from trackers who came to the forest.

I remember miserably scavenging animal carcasses off the ground to eat, and lying down under rotting trees at night when I couldn't find a place to sleep.

Those dark times accumulated to let me live somewhat like now.

"But I'm still alone."

Come to think of it, not much has changed, fuck.

While cursing at my miserable reality, I kept walking until I finally reached the boundary of the outside layer.

There's no exact line dividing the outside and middle layers, but you could roughly tell by the difference in tree sizes.

This should be about where the outside layer starts.

But I couldn't go any further forward.

"Aaaahh! Someone help meee!!"

A scream rang out from ahead.

Upon hearing the voice, I immediately hid behind a nearby tree.

Crouching down to look, I saw a woman being chased by an adult wild boar.

Judging by her leather armor and iron sword, she seemed to be an adventurer.

Looks like she came in and ran into the wild boar, probably agitated it somehow and ended up in this situation.

"Shit, why is it so fast! Please just go awaaay!!"

While her voice sounded quite desperate, I had no intention of helping.

'It'd be troublesome if I'm discovered.'

I don't mind helping. But what happens if she goes back and starts talking afterwards?

I'd naturally end up in trouble, and might have to hide away for a while again.

It might seem a bit cold-hearted, but this was the right call. And she's an adventurer to begin with, isn't she?

She must have been prepared for danger, given her profession.

"Tsk tsk, screaming like that will only make it more excited..."

Still, I needed the boar meat so I followed them. If she manages to escape, I'll take the boar, and if she dies... regrettably, I'll take the boar.

But watching her, it didn't seem like she'd survive.

She kept screaming while running away, throwing her weapon and agitating the boar more. She just kept making bad moves.

In this forest, you need to stay quiet. Monsters lurk everywhere after all.

You can't ignore the possibility of drawing monster aggro if you make loud noises.

And what's she doing throwing away her weapon?

Even if she escapes from the boar, she'll need a weapon to get out of the forest. What an idiot.

The direction she was running was also a problem. Even for someone new to the forest, she was heading towards the middle layer instead of the outside layer. No matter how panicked she is making poor judgments, this will only make things worse.

No, the fact that she came this deep into the forest was a mistake to begin with, given how she looks like a novice adventurer.

People should hunt in hunting grounds that match their level.

Eventually, she seemed to tire while running and ended up exposing her body to the boar.

Thud-!

"Gaaah-!"

With a dull sound, her body went flying.

The boar pawed at the ground in the direction where she fell. A signal that it would charge again soon.

She cursed with a hollow voice.

"Ah, damn..."

They say people are usually terrified when dying, but she seemed surprisingly peaceful.

Has she already given up? Or does she just not have much attachment to life? It was quite unexpected.

"...Huh?"

For a moment, our eyes met. Damn, I must have gotten careless about hiding while watching.

I thought I wouldn't be spotted since the distance was quite far, but she noticed me.

But it didn't really matter. She was going to end here anyway.

Whether she stares blankly at me or not is irrelevant.

Squeal!

Soon after, the boar charged and trampled her body. A futile death befitting a novice.

Watching the scene, I quietly muttered.

"Tsk, natural selection."

Still, I'll avenge you against the boar.

*

And that evening...

An odd post appeared on the [Demons Saga] forum.

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[Found something weird while exploring newbie map??]

(Photo)

Wasn't this a high-level zone? Isn't this place supposed to be uninhabited?

Then who is this guy just standing there watching me die??

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[????]

[Can't see well since it's too far... wait, is that a guy?]

[Why would a guy suddenly be there does that even make sense?]

[Maybe it's photoshopped? Or you mistook something else for a person]

[ㄴ It clearly looks human though]

[Wow he looks super handsome when I zoom in wowowow]

[ㄴ fr?]

[ㄴ You idiot the graphics are all pixelated when you zoom in you can't even see properly]

[ㄴ But even just the silhouette looks handsome lol]

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