Chapter 4: Reality Does Not Equal Quality, But the Other Way Around

「Long ago, Gods were walking throughout the lands alongside humans.」

Ahh, is this the prologue to the game?

「The great, Gods spun life across the universe, and once their task was done, they disappeared without a trace.」

「Time goes on, the Gods that remained perish one by one, we take off to the stars as they intended us to do, and thus the great web of life continues to spin……」

………………

「Now, we live in times –– SKIP. The heritage from the Gods –– SKIP. History and ruins –– SKIP.」

「…… Skip.」

I read that in the instruction manual.

I skipped the whole prologue without giving it much thought. Then I felt that my avatar was regaining its consciousness. I try to look and move around, getting a feel of my new body since its physique and height were different from my real one……

I was inside of a dense forest…… No, I knew what it was in reality. Like in every game from this genre, it was one of the low level exploration zones, the so called “Starting Points”. The purpose of such zones was for the new players to get used to the control schemes, fight some monsters, pick up some of the basic items and obtain some EXP points. The small details varied from game to game, but the overall premise was more or less the same.

「First of all, I need to understand my current situation.」

As I say that I open the status screen.

PN: Sanraku

LV: 1

Job: Mercenary (Dual Wielding, Swords)

9000 Mani

HP (Health Points): 30

MP (Magic Points) : 10

STM (Stamina): 20

STR (Strength): 10

DEX (Dexterity): 15

AGI (Agility): 10

TEC (Technique): 15

VIT (Vitality): 1 (2)

LUC (Luck): 30

SKILLS

– Spin Slash

– Knuckle Rush

Equipment:

Right Hand: Mercenary Blade

Left Hand: Mercenary Blade

Head: Mask of Bird’s Eye (VIT +2)

Torso: None

Legs: None

Feet: None

Accessory: None

Paper thin defenses and extraordinary good luck. Two swords for dual wielding on the otherwise half naked body. Some start for a hero.

「Right, now that I’ve got that taken care off, let’s try how the character’s movements feel……!!」

And after I do that, then what? Since I had my weapons on me I should expect to be attacked at any moment, so it would be a good idea to see how the battle controls work.

「Amazing…… My body moves so smoothly.」

It was a matter of enough time to develop things properly. In the early days of full dive technology the character movements tended to be rather slow and awkward, but the way my avatar moved in this game it was very close to recreating the movements from reality.

The system was also separating one’s consciousness from one’s real body to prevent it from any movements during gaming sessions, but it was certainly a bit weird to know that even though you were moving inside of the game your body was still.

「Gigi!!」

「Oh.」

You would think that the future champion of ShanFro would need to battle a mighty foe, such as a dragon, for his first real battle.

But in reality, the things that appeared right in front of me were about the size of children and nearly as loud and obnoxious……

「Goblins?」

「Gugagigi!!!!」

Goblin…… A kind of Mob that always appears in the games with fantasy setting, smaller and weaker than a Player Character. Of course there were many variants of them with various stats and skills and difficulty level, but the core concept was always that it was a monster that could be used to obtain some EXP points early on.

I watched the Goblin stare at me before it eventually broke into a rush, coming straight at me.

「…… Ho.」

「Gyah!?」

I dodge the goblin’s rush and watch him getting carried forward with his momentum before eventually hooking its leg. In some games weaker monsters would die even when the slightest contact with the weapon or body of the player was made, but in this case there was no damage being calculated for that action of mine. However, the physics seemed to be working fine and the goblin landed on the ground face first.

「How about a double strike…… Onto the ribs!」

「Gyaaah!?」

Since it was virtual reality the action itself was greatly simplified to just two blunt hits that didn’t really dealt any damage. So for a little while I was using this here goblin to try out various things I learned in other VR sh*tty games, wanting to see if I would be able to recreate the same actions in ShanFro as well. When I finally cut the goblin with my sword there is a large wound on its stomach, but instead of blood a geyser of red pixels shoots forth instead of blood. The goblin’s HP bar continued to decrease and eventually it reached zero, forcing it to dissolve into a mass of small polygons and eventually disappear.

At first when the monsters would die players needed to ransack their bodies for drop items, but after it was deemed too graphic, it was a general consensus that the dropped items would be left in the field after the monster’s death.

At the dawn of the VR technology there was this serious rant that “Video games distorts the sense of values in young people”. If I recall correctly, in some regions it was reaching such extremes as banning games completely or at least “Needing to educate both children and parents from a very young age”.

Around that time I was so busy growing corn on my little farm and then having it destroyed by the various cataclysms that would come through my farm.

「The drop is…… Oh.」

The dropped items were the only things that were left from the pixelated goblin.

It was another simplified mechanic, for when you touch the chest or item that dropped out of a monster’s corpse it would be automatically transported inside of your inventory.

「Fumu…… Goblin Hatchet, huh?」

It was a two-handed weapon, which meant that its required dexterity was cut in half. …… Oh well, you could say it was a signature weapon dropped by goblins in games.

It’s not like I was going to use that as my main weapon, but it was a good thing to have it as a back-up one, just in case and to be on the safe side.

「I wonder if you can get hungry in this game? Maybe it is something of a hidden parameter in the system……」

I needed to hunt some monsters in the future and see what kind of things they would drop.

…… Aah, this is probably one thing that sh*tty games and Godly games tend to have in common: grind.

It was a feeling that you would rarely get to experience in life: this exhilaration and rush of endorphins thinking about what to do next.

「But most importantly, let’s not forget to enjoy ourselves!」

Saying that, I took a step into the dense forest, looking forward to spot any kind of goal I could follow.

By the way, it was really probable for the character to start half-naked like that, you know?

Mostly because of the fact that selling items at the character creation screen was way better than selling it at the shop or at a blacksmith’s.