《The Gate of Wills》


 Chapter 1

    Erik twisted back and forth anxiously in the immersion chamber. He always got a sense of claustrophobia right before a dive, even if he couldn¡¯t see anything because of the sense-wear that covered most of his head. The reason that his heart was pounding so was only in part due to the sense of being entrapped. He had been waiting a long time for this particular mmorpg to be released. The company behind it, Kalon, had proudly boasted that it would be the biggest joint dive in history, and Erik knew that it was no idle boast. There was something about the first few moments when everyone were scrambling over each other like a pack of feral dogs to get to the leveling spots that made him smile in anticipation.


    3¡­ 2¡­ 1! The numbers on the screen were accompanied by a deep male voice, and it sent a new wave of adrenaline surging through his limbs.


    Erik swept the intro aside with one hand. He was far to worked up to watch it now. Instead, he swallowed hard as the sense of his body went numb and the world went dark. This was the part he hated, but he should be able to choose character soon, and then his mind would adjust to the new reality. He was already making plans for what he should do first. It was something he knew by heart now, but it was still something he went through over and over again before new games came out.


    He frowned. The loading had been slow, and now flecks of white were starting to appear and push the darkness aside. It looked like mist but didn¡¯t quite behave like it. He smiled uneasily. This was a full immersion game, so the game-makers would do their best to deceive the gamers into thinking it was real. It receded quickly though and gave way to a new reality.


    The new world glittered after recent rainfall. Erik drew a deep breath and smelled moss before he saw it clinging to nearby trees. He turned away from the greenery and noticed two things at once. The first was the ruins of a city, and the other was his body. He was still in his real one.


    He cursed quietly and looked down more carefully as if that would change something. This was a full immersion game, meaning that the game-makers would go to extraordinary lengths to make you believe it was real, but you were still supposed to be able to choose your own avatar. Worse, he was still clad in jeans and a worn white t-shirt. Something was clearly wrong here. Had Kalon taken water over their heads when they had decided to make this the biggest joint dive in history?


    Erik moved his hand slowly from left to right over his field of vision and said ¡°menu.¡± In a clear voice, but nothing happened. He frowned and tried again. Nothing. ¡°Disconnect,¡± he said and waved his hand to the left. Nothing.


    He looked around again at the sound of voices. Others were also waving their arms about, trying to get the menu to appear as well, and failing by the looks of things. They were clad in mundane clothes, or what passed for mundane back home.


    A thought struck him. Maybe you were supposed to search for your gear, like a treasure hunt. But that still left the problem with his body. He was no athlete by any means. In fact, he would accept ¡®pudgy¡¯ as a compliment by now. That was what happened when you spent all your time in immersion games and only went back to eat fast foods. He had been a professional gamer for two years now, which enabled him to leave the real world behind.


    He snapped out of his reverie and looked around. This had to be some sort of bug, he refused to accept anything else, but what was he supposed to do when not even the menu appeared?This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    There were still spots were the strange mist covered the land, but it gave way into a forest even as he watched.


    He settled down on a nearby rock and waited for a while. By the seven hells, it sure was warm. He had barely moved, yet was already sweating. But any time now there would be an announcement that there had been an error, something. He was already composing an angry mail to the company in his head when he started noticing things. There was a strange plant that twisted up the side of a tree like a snake with giant plumes falling down its sides in a beautiful display of blue and gold. Among fern, brush and elm stood a short, wide tree with fruit that shifted colors from red to violet depending on where the sun touched its smooth surface. Strange insects buzzed around him, and a giant bird flew overhead. His breath caught when he looked up. There was a long streak of red, clearly visible even in daylight. Was it a gas-cloud? A smile curled Erik¡¯s lips. This part was enjoyable too.


    He found a stick, shoved into the dirt and put a stone on its shadow''s end. Knowing which way the sun moved was valuable too. He walked around and peered into the brush, and soon found a path made by animals. It should lead to water, provided they needed it to survive of course. He wasn''t overly worried about them being dangerous since the initial spawning point tended to be safe.


    Players had been scurrying around like ants while he had waited, and now they were gathered in several groups, most of them carrying heated discussions. He approached one which looked promising ¨C no shouting for instance ¨C and put on a friendly smile.


    ¡°Hello. I¡¯m¡­ Crow.¡± He caught himself at the last moment and cursed himself for the slip. It was considered poor form to discuss anything from your real life since it would ruin immersion for others, and it was typically newbies who made the slip.


    ¡°Thomas from Leicester,¡± a man with dark hair and matching beard said loudly. ¡°I know what you are thinking, but I¡¯m not in an avatar, so it would be strange to use an alias for me. Besides, this is real.¡±


    Crow barely managed to stop a smile. A serious gaming company like Kalon would go far to trick gamers into thinking it was real, like hiring people to convince them of it, and Thomas looked the part. His broad shoulders and slim waist made Crow all to aware of his own shortcomings. ¡°If you say so.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Mel,¡± said the girl to Crow¡¯s right. She didn¡¯t extend a hand for Crow but somehow seemed distant and polite at the same time.


    ¡°Look, man,¡± Thomas said. "Look at the detail of everything. It''s far too good for computers to handle. And we are in our real bodies as well."


    He had a point. Crow had already noticed the stunning visuals, but thinking they had been transported somewhere just because of that was ridiculous.


    "We might find our avatars in a while. Perhaps its a bug or perhaps they are just giving us a scare, but we should still find some water." Crow said. Perhaps he had been mistaken about them,maybethey weren''t as experienced as he had thought. He looked around again and spotted a couple of other groups which looked promising. The experienced ones would be looking for others to team up with while the newbies ran around and argued.


    "I''m with him," Mel said. "You have a plan don''t you?"


    Crow looked down into her clear blue eyes. She was short - her head barely reaching his shoulder - and her white hair and pale skin gave her a doll-like beauty. But there was something about how confidently she stood which was what had made him approach them to begin with.


    "So where do we go?" Thomas asked cheerfully. Apparently, he still wanted to play despite thinking it wasreal.


    Crow still thought he might be a plant, in which case it would be a waste of time to make friends with him since he would leave in a week or so when he had sowed enough confusion.


    "We find water," Crow said instead.


    "And then we hunt?" Thomas said.


    They were newbies. Crow sighed inwardly. He would have to teach them everything and most likely fall behind. But then, it was unlikely that he would be accepted into a strong group. They would take one look at his oversized frame and laugh at him.


    "No, then we level," he said. "But let''s find water first."

 Chapter 2

    Crow was huffing by the time they had reached a narrow river - no more than ten paces across. It ran through a half-crumbled wall that seemed to surround the ancient city, and there were even a few stone buildings on either side with intact roofs. A good spot to camp, but it still felt like a nightmare. He dived into new worlds to escape his own, but how was he supposed to level in this body? Funny how he hadn''t noticed just how out of shape he had been until now. He was acutely aware of every glance that was sent his way, and there were more than a few. They had acquired a trail of newbies who didn''t know what to do, which was another problem. Too sizable groups just meant that whatever they found would be shared with more people, and there would be more arguing. A group of five would have been ideal, but now there was close to a dozen.


    "Are you sure we shouldn''t set some snares? It would only take an hour," Thomas said.


    Crow shook his head. "Water is important, but if we spend our time hunting for food then we won''t have time for anything else.Hunting and foragingwill become far easier once we have leveled." And hopefully, they would get to choose their avatar at an early level. He was still bothered by the fact that he couldn''t open the menu. And neither could the others, judging by the constant complaints. "We should rest here."


    "You mean you should rest here," Ramon said and mimicked Crow''s panting. "Why are we even following you?"


    Crow knew it had been coming. The fellow speaking was clad in a leather vest over a green t-shirt and jeans. He also had more piercings and tattoo''s than Crow cared to count. His name might or might not be an alias, but he had been trouble from the start.


    "You don''t have to," Crow responded. He wished his voice would have been a little steadier. It wouldn''t have been a problem if he had his usual avatar, but being in his real body made him insecure.


    Ramon walked up to Crow and looked him up and down contemptuously. "How would you level? You''d only be in the way." Ramon smirked at him as if he had won a victory when Crow didn''t reply and walked away.


    "I''m goin'' to explore the city," he called over his shoulder. "Anyone who wants to come," he paused to look at Mel," follow me."


    Most of the people turned to follow him, and some laughed at the confrontation.


    Crow''s heart was thumping like mad in his chest. He would have been able to handle it with an avatar, but he had lost his confidence in his own body. It didn''t help that he was sweating more than anyone else, and still panting besides. Oh well, at least he wouldn''t have to suffer this for much longer - he just had to wait until the system was fixed and rebooted.


    Ramon paused when Mel and Thomas didn''t move. "It''ll be better for you with me," he said, showing some uncertainty for the first time.


    "Thanks, mate," Thomas said, "but we will stay here."


    Ramon gave Crow another glare before walking away with the others, while loudly proclaiming that the first elf maid they found was his. The others laughed, and together they walked into the city along the riverbank.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    "Why did you let him get away with that?" Mel said, making Crow jump. He hadn''t noticed her walking up to him. "Now they think you''re a coward. Don''t disappoint me like that, I thought you knew what you were doing."


    Crow stared at her in surprise. She had been calm and collected through their entire walk, but now her eyes blazed.


    "Toughen up," she said when he didn''t respond and walked over to the river.


    Crow couldn''t help but agree inwardly, which made him even more depressed.


    Thomas appeared, pushed a stick into a patch of soft dirt and put a stone in the shadow. "This was how you did it, right?" he said and winked at him.


    Crow replied that yes it was, but was still burning with shame. What was Kalon doing? They should put the servers offline. Even they wouldn''t trap players like that. They shouldn''t even be able to. There were keywords which you could use to bypass their programs and go offline, but they weren''t working either. The more Crow thought about it, the more he realized that there was some deeper problem at work. Of course, there was an exception to the rule in case a player got injured and couldn''t speak or move, in which case you could deactivate your own sense-wear through your own implants, but that didn''t work now either, which was the only thing that really worried him.


    He walked over to the river, lay down flat on his belly and reached down with one hand to scoop up water. It tasted fresh and clean, which was something at least.


    Thomas knelt down next to him to drink as well. "Should we go into the city as well? Maybe we can find something useful there."


    Crow frowned. Maybe there would be NPCs with quests there, but then there would be a rush as everyone tried to complete the same one at once.


    "Let''s go and level up first," Crow said. "Maybe we can find some coins so we can buy something once we get back."


    He, Mel, Thomas, a youngboy named Loran, and a lanky one named George walked toward the wall. Crow glanced suspiciously at some flowers with red stalks and green flowers. Had they just moved? Perhaps they were poisonous. He came to a sudden stop at the thought. If the menu didn''t work, then maybe the pain thresholds wouldn''t be lowered either. He hoped fervently that such wasn''t the case, but it had to be tested. He walked over to a nearby tree and punched it. And yelped at the sudden rush of pain. It definitely hadn''t been lowered.


    "What the hell are you doing?" Thomas cried out. But he just nodded slowly when Crow explained, his brown eyes studying him thoughtfully. "So we need to be careful then, huh?"


    Crow rubbed his knuckles sourly. He shouldn''t have punched so hard. "Yes, we do," he said.


    They found a part of the wall which had long since crumbled, and big rocks lay strewn across the opening. They made their way across carefully - a sprained ankle would be awkward here. Despite all the troubles, Crow found himself looking forward to how the leveling system worked. That feeling of getting steadily stronger was one of the main reasons which he came back to play new vrmmorpg:s.


    A wide gentle plain with clumps of trees and brush stretched out before them once they had exited the city, and far away, but within walking distance, there was a forest. The river snaked its way through, heading through the city perpendicularly.


    They looked at each other, shrugged, and started walking across it toward the forest. The sun stood high and was baking them mercilessly, and sweat started beading Crow''s forehead again.


    It didn''t take them long before they reached the treeline, which looked incongruous with normal trees mixed with others in a wide variety of colors and shapes. They followed the river''s path and soon came to an area where the grass was low and tree limbs were bare.


    "What happened here?" Loran, a boy of no more than fifteen, asked.


    "Some sort of herbivore," Crow responded. "Or maybe a disease." It still made him uneasy to see the trees tower over him like living skeletons.


    "Hey, there is slime on the ground," Thomas said. "It goes this way," he said and hurried away from the river.


    "Wait, we don''t have weapons," Crow protested, but Thomas didn''t stop and neither did the others. Crow sighed. He had done similar things when he was new as well. He just hoped that the slimy things weren''t fast.

 Chapter 3

    They were and they weren''t. They were thin and hugged the ground like a pool of water after heavy rain, but unfortunately, they could also contract and expand really fast which also made them able to jump - and to Loran''s surprise - spit poison.


    Thomas carried him back from the first battle, which had mostly consisted of them throwing sticks at the slimes to see how they would react.


    Loran whimpered as he pulled up his dark trousers and was examining his swollen calf, which had already turned an angry red.


    "We need spears," Thomas said, eyes gleaming.


    "Or maybe we should wait until they lower the pain threshold," Crow muttered. He had been eager to level before, but now he wasn''t so sure.


    "I told you, it''s not a game," Thomas replied. He hesitated for a moment, then he said: "you should act like it." He looked away, scanning the forest. "We need spears now."


    Great, he was still trying to scare him. It wasn''t needed, Loran''s scream had been enough. "And how are you going to get them sharp enough?" Crow asked.


    "I saw some rocks earlier which would do," Mel replied to Crow''s dismay. He just wanted to gather information and rest until they restarted the servers, which he was sure they would.


    "Perfect," Thomas exclaimed. The rest of you can figure out how to kill them once we have spears.


    Crow sighed but did as asked, but he was keeping a respectful distance from them.


    The slime had gone right back to grazing or whatever they did. They also stayed together as a group. Crow found higher ground among the trees from which he could observe them without them noticing. Could they see? He doubted it. They were just... green. And sludgy.


    He made little progress in figuring them out until he saw one of the smaller ones stretch out. There was a thicker spot beneath all the slime, which didn''t expand or contract. That was probably the part that fired the poison as well.


    Crow had to hand it to Thomas, he was industrious like few others. He had already hacked off a long stick and was sharpening it with one of Mel''s rocks. Crow settled down on a rock to rest and kept a wary eye on the terrain in case something was drawn to the noise. All he saw was a small lizard with an extra pair of legs at the front which ended in long pincers.


    "This is it," Thomas cried. He came walking up to Crow. The spear he held in his hand was nearly as tall as he was, and fairly straight as well.


    "How are you going to avoid the poison then?" Crow said.


    "That''s what you are going to figure out."


    Crow got up to his feet with a grin. He had been feeling awkward and self-aware of his large frame, but Thomas hadn''t even seemed to notice it.


    "Alright then. Throw some more sticks at one of them so I can see what it does."


    Thomas did, and Crow - who knew what to look for now - saw the main part of it turn around before it spat its poison at him.


    Crow told the others of his findings, and of his plan. "All we need to do is distract it long enough for someone to sneak up from behind and stab the middle part. Easy enough." That said, Crow didn''t want to do the distracting part. "Be careful, just see what happened to poor Loran."


    "Hey, I''m still here! Don''t make it sound like I''m dead." Loran came limping, still with his trouser-leg hiked to his knee. "I want the bastard who spat at me."


    The group laughed at that, and soon they spread out and tried to lure the one Loran wanted. It was easier than expected, and Loran leaped forward and stabbed down with the spear into the slime. It struck true, and the thing shuddered slightly as it died.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    "Hey, I leveled," Loran shouted.


    "How do you know?" Mel asked.


    "I heard something, like a chime."


    "My turn," Thomas said. "I want the big one."


    It proved to be surprisingly easy once they had them figured out, mostly because their movement pattern was simple to predict. Loran and Thomas took the remaining two once each of them had killed one.


    "No loot?" Loran asked.


    "Feel free to search," Crow responded. It would probably be worthless even if there was any.


    "But what do we do now? Did we get stronger?" George said.


    "You mean you haven''t figured out yet?" Loran looked like he would have pranced if he wasn''t holding one leg up. "I noticed something when I was injured. Got a sense of it. You don''t have to say a command word, just get a feel for it and bring it up."


    "Get a feel for it?" Crow asked skeptically. There was always a command word, and they stayed similar across different games.


    "Just focus inward and bring it up," George said.


    Crow stared at him. What was he--


    "I got it!" Thomas said. "Which one does what?" His eyes were unfocused.


    Crow had never heard of anything like it, but he tried anyway. How did one focus inwards? He kept trying though, and just when he was about to give up, he sensed something. A strange feeling, but somehow he knew what it was and how to bring it into his view.


    There were six columns next to each other against a black background, but no letters or numbers were visible. He focused on the one to the far right and immediately started to get a better feel for it. Had Kalon developed a new system for access? He was sure they would have boasted about it if that was the case, but it did explain their problems.


    The one to the far left was strength, or was it toughness? Both, Crow realized. A must have then. He had nine points in it he knew. Beginner stats? He hadn''t selected any. He moved on to the next with a sinking feeling. Agility three, constitution four. They must be based on his real body then. But how could the determine something like that? He didn''t recall giving them access to his medical charts or anything of the sort.


    Abruptly he remembered that he had a point to spend. How did you-- he knew before he could finish the sentence in his head and smiled despite the strangeness of the situation. There was some fun in improving his own body instead of an avatar. Although, he would still be far behind the frontrunners. The obvious one was constitution. He got winded far too easily. His health points should - traditionally - improve as well then, but it was a boring option compared to intelligence. He had thirteen points there - his best trait - but what would happen? No machine could make his brain smarter after all. At least not yet. But the sense he got from it shouldn''t be possible either. Better memory? Faster learning? Now he was so curious that he had to pick it, but he looked at the others first. Spirit and will. Twelve and eight. Crow was curious about them as well, but there was an excited buzz around him as the others discussed their picks, which made it hard for him to focus.


    A sonorous bell sounded when he chose intelligence, and a piece got added to the top of the column. Crow frowned. It looked different somehow. Was it because the others were base stats?


    Someone clapped his shoulder. "Look at this, Crow!" Thomas said.


    He let go of the stats window and turned to look.


    Thomas grimaced. "Well, you can''t see, but I found it at the bottom of the agility tree. It''s a sprint skill!"


    Crow stared at him. He hadn''t seen a skill. He should have looked more carefully.


    "I have to try it where there is more room. Feels like I would run straight into a tree otherwise," Thomas said. "What did you pick?"


    "Intelligence," Crow replied.


    "Do you feel different?" Mel asked.


    Crow wiped sweat from his brow and concentrated. No, he didn''t, did he? He shook his head slowly. It was unlikely that he would notice one point of fourteen anyways, but what would happen if he maxed it? More mana? He wasn''t even sure if he had mana points.


    "What did you pick, Mel?" he asked.


    "Brawn," she said. "Makes you tougher, doesn''t it? And stronger."


    "We should find more to level up with," George said.


    The others looked to Crow. They had begun to notice that he was the most experienced at this.


    Crow, in turn, looked up at the sun. He still hadn''t gotten a chance to measure its progress, but he was sure where it was moving now, and it looked like it was way past midday. He nodded. "Leveling up and water are the most important things, so let''s stick close to the river."


    They wandered back to the river, and soon Crow began to regret his choice. It would surely have made a greater impact on his measly four points in constitution than one point on his thirteen intelligence.


    "I forgot the spear," Loran said suddenly. "I''ll be right back." He was running by the time Crow could even think of a reply.


    How long had they been away by now? An hour? The excitement had made it harder to estimate the flow of time. He had said it was more important to level, but that was provided they could get five to six levels fairly quickly. If they got suitable skills as well, then catching food should be a lot easier. Not that it was likely to last that long before the servers restarted, but the experience would be valuable.


    He was still thinking when he heard yelling. It was Loran, who was running toward them with a white-knuckled grip on the spear.


    "There was a stranger there," he said while panting hard, "but he just vanished in thin air!"

 Chapter 4

    "What do you mean he vanished," Thomas said. "Was he another player?"


    "I don''t think so," Loran replied. He was pale and sweating. "It was the way he was dressed and... He disappeared. Right in front of me."


    "He was tanned and had strange clothes. And... A knife, a big knife," Loran said. He was slowly catching his breath, but Crow could still not understand why he was so shaken.


    "Maybe he found it in the city," Thomas said.


    Loran was shaking his head before he had finished. "It was too good, everything about him. And he just smiled and went invisible when he saw me!"


    "What was he doing there?" Crow wondered. He still thought it might be a player, but finding a knife, invisibility spell and making it out here this quickly? "Maybe it was an npc?"


    "He picked up something from the slime that we left behind. We should have checked more carefully." Loran was pacing now.


    Crow still didn''t see what had rattled him so. Perhaps he just had weak nerves. "He didn''t do anything bad then. We left it behind after all. We should just press on and try to level up more."


    "I will go and look," Thomas said and hurried away before Crow could react.


    "Are we really not going to get any food today? I''m getting hungry," Mel said.


    Crow knew the question would have risen sooner or later. "When you start doing things like foraging for food and firewood you get stuck doing those things. They take a lot of time at level one, which is why we should level as fast as possible. I''m not familiar with the skills, but we should get a lot stronger in a few levels." Or so he hoped. He was getting hungry too, and they had no waterskins, so they couldn''t stray that far from the river. They wouldn''t get lost either. The others didn''t look convinced.


    They waited for Thomas for a while and it didn''t take long for him to return. "Let''s press on then," he said cheerily and started walking along the river, which had narrowed down now for some reason to maybe five paces across as it wound its way through the grassland.


    "Did you find your mystery man?" Crow asked.


    "Nope, not even a track."


    Crow grunted. "Maybe a complex NPC." Those could be worth the time it took to figure them out. Maybe he could point out some plants that were edible for instance.


    They walked in silence, taking in all the strange new sights, sounds and smells. It had grown a little cooler, but the warmth still made Crow sweat. The feeling that more strange creatures might come crashing through the brush intensified. Blue flowers with thick stalks rose from the depths of the river and they heard the occasional splash from fish, but no one managed to see what lurked beneath the surface. Finally, they crested a rise which also marked the end of the forest and looked out over a sea of slime.


    There were three groups of similar size to the first one and it sure was a sight to see all of them surging around in the little valley. The river they had been following took off to the right sharply to avoid the hill up ahead, but maybe they didn''t need to go farther.


    "We should have brought more spears," Mel said laconically.


    "Now we can level up in no time," Thomas said with a grin. "Let''s get started."


    Crow wasn''t so sure. These were low-level monsters. For how many levels would they give experience? He wondered briefly how experienced the others were. Thomas was obviously a beginner, and Loran as well, but Mel hadn''t given much of an indication. He glanced briefly at her. She seemed composed no matter what she did. Now she was examining the slimes with no more surprise than if they had been a flock of sheep, but then, Thomas had handled the slimes fearlessly.


    The number of slimes made it harder to isolate a single one, but they obviously weren''t clever enough to employ any tactics, so it was just a matter of time before they caught one. With so many slimes around it also meant that they had to run back occasionally to avoid being poisoned. Thomas got hit despite their caution, and so did Crow, and it stung like hell, even if it had just been a few drops. The sun was standing low in the sky, but it still worked them over pitilessly from a cloudless sky, and every little surge of air felt like a blessing. They kept taking turns with the spear, and soon they discovered that they couldn''t get past level three. Some slimes were larger than others and were presumably higher level, but they gave up with little more than half of the slimes down.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Crow was drenched in his own sweat, and his breath came raggedly. He wasn''t the only one who was tired. They must have been at it for an hour now, but they had all leveled up to three. He really needed to find a good skill now to make up for the slow leveling. What had Thomas said? At the bottom of the agility stack, he had found the sprint skill. He brought up the stat screen again and this time he searched more carefully. There was nothing at the agility stack, but beneath intelligence he found... Something. A shield? No, more flexible than that. It could be shaped somehow, he was sure. A warm sensation rose from the bottom of the stack of spirit when he honed in on it. A heal? Self-heal, he corrected. He kept searching, but nothing more made its presence known.


    "Crow!"


    The warning came too late.


    Something splashed against his leg and a familiar burning sensation worked its way up his thigh. Crow screamed and staggered away from the offending sludge. The others came quickly to the rescue and drew it away, but the damage had been done. His right leg felt like it was about to melt away, and he sat down heavily. He groaned, well aware that the first scream hadn''t been very manly. He was always so careful, and here he got hit by a low-level mob. The stat screen had nearly blocked all his vision, he should have been more careful.


    "I won''t let you be our leader if you keep doing dumb things like that," Mel said from his right side. She was like a wisp, suddenly just appearing without being seen first. "Now stand up and stop whimpering. Loran handled it alot better than you."


    "I was just resting," Crow muttered. He leaned forward onto his good leg and barely managed to get up with the help of his hands all the while clenching his teeth.


    "It gets easier," Loran said, but he had obviously just lost some respect for Crow.


    "Shouldn''t you be used to this?" Thomas asked. "You are a pro aren''t you?"


    Crow was, and it didn''t make things feel better right now. There were plenty of prizes to be had in some games and he had somehow gotten a little too comfortable in his home, having put on a few pounds. or fifty more the like.


    "How did you know?"


    Thomas shrugged. "Just had a feeling."


    "Only masochists plays with the pain threshold at 100%," Crow said. Suddenly he remembered what he had seen just before he had been assaulted. "I saw a self-heal, and some sort of malleable shield. Beneath the spirit and intelligence stacks."


    "Shield?" Thomas asked, eyes gleaming.


    "Not like that," Crow said. "Have you seen any new skills?"


    "One that makes me tougher for a while. Strength-based."


    "But how come--" Crow began. Of course. Intelligence and spirit, the only stats that exceeded ten for him. He told the others as much.


    "So that''s how it works," George said. "I thought they were just difficult to see. Constitution gives you a steady run at high speed, agility a sprint."


    Crow nodded, but none of them sounded like something that might catch food. He looked over at Mel.


    "No," she said flatly. "I made my pick. I want the heal."


    Crow glanced down at his leg and then at the others. "Anyone gonna pick the shield-thingy?"


    "I picked sprint," George said. "I haven''t tried it yet though. He looked over at Thomas who caught the meaning.


    "Race you to the other side?" he said with a smile.


    They made a big show of it, George even bending over with his bony frame like an olympic sprinter.


    "Wait, how do you activate it?" Thomas asked.


    George had apparently found out and took off with great strides down the little valley. Or more like one great stride that ended with an "Oof", as he fell on his face.


    Thomas laughed and started running slowly down the hill. Halfway something happened because his stride grew longer and he ran nimbly, at least until he slipped in a puddle of goo and fell over.


    "At least you got cleaner," Mel shouted as they laughed at poor Thomas.


    "You wanted that skill because you think you can catch food with it, didn''t you?" Mel said.


    Crow nodded slowly and tried not to grimace at the throbbing in his leg. The more you focused on the skill the more it showed you, and he had seen some sort of invisible barrier. Something that could potentially be used to catch food. He brought up the stat screen again, and after a last longing glance toward the self-heal, picked the barrier. He limped over to the forest''s edge where the clucking of the river could be heard. At least he should be safe here.


    He sat down on the slope and turned his gaze inward, or rather, to observe his own mind in a way he hadn''t before. It came so naturally that he hadn''t questioned it before, but now he was starting to wonder. Something seemed intrinsically different with how he viewed himself. How had they managed something like that? He shook his head slightly and brought his mind back to the task. It was like his mind itself had learned how to form it somehow.


    He raised his hand, palm up, and focused on the skill. It appeared over his hand. He felt it, even though it was nearly invisible, but it remained pitifully small, like an invisible baseball in his hand. Keeping it steady proved to be a challenge as well, but he kept struggling to maintain it, and after a while, it steadied. So there was room for training at least. He sat there and worked with it for a while, then when the sphere had grown to the size of a football, he allowed himself some rest and walked toward the river. Catching fish would be the best bet, but how was he supposed to--


    "...didn''t understand a thing of what he--"


    Thomas and Mel turned to stare at him. Guiltily.


    Crow hadn''t heard anything interesting, but it seemed they thought so.

 Chapter 5

    "Who are you talking about?" Crow asked, hoping to catch them off guard.


    "A friend," Mel replied calmly. "We were supposed to meet him in-game, but we didn''t see him."


    "There should be many spawn points around the city. Why didn''t you look around for him?" Crow tried to keep his voice neutral, which was not so difficult when his mind felt like it was made of something similar to the sludge-things that were still creeping around behind him.


    "He should have entered the same node we did," Thomas said quickly. He lifted a hand as if to continue the explanation, but lowered it again and relaxed visibly. "Never mind him," he said with a little laugh. "Let''s rest and figure out that new spell of yours instead."


    Node? That was not a word an ordinary person would use, and Thomas had seemed oblivious to most of the technicalities, but Crow just nodded and told them what he had found about so far. He had just intended to give a brief explanation, but soon they had him working with it again. No, he couldn''t make little holes in it. Yes, he could open it like a sheet. Somewhat. He could let it drift away from him but it was difficult to maintain control.


    "That''s enough," Crow said eventually. He had a headache coming on. It was draining to maintain the barrier, as they had decided to call it.


    It was getting darker, the shadows from the nearby trees lengthening. Loran and George made their way toward them, carefully avoiding splotches of slime were they had been destroyed. Loran still carried the spear that they had been so successful with, but it was in a sorry state after having been thumped into the ground so many times.


    As they drew near, George said, "look at this," and opened a slimy hand to show them.


    There were a number of tiny stones there. Or not stones. Fragments. Like shards of broken glass. They glowed slightly in a bluish color.


    "We found them inside the slime," Loran stated unnecessarily. "I bet that is what the stranger picked up. He knew about it."


    "Are they really valuable?" Mel asked. "They don''t look like much."


    "They have to be if he picked them up," Loran said defensively. "We should try and sell them."


    "If we can even find an NPC," Crow said. He still believed there must have been some error, or rather, he knew there was some error since he couldn''t log out, otherwise he would have by now. He was exhausted enough. He cursed himself for letting himself go so far. He had been far more athletic not so long ago - until he had lost everything there was. Everything except the immersion chamber.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "I think we should leave them," Thomas said. "Maybe they need those shards," he said, gesturing vaguely toward the slimes, but he didn''t sound convincing.


    "We need to get back before it''s dark," Crow said. I don''t want something to jump me while I''m sleeping. Not that the city walls had inspired feelings of safety.


    "But there is more," Loran said triumphantly. We went to the top of the other side, he said and nodded toward the side as if they had made a tremendous journey. "We saw a shoe-print there."


    "So, someone with shoes," Crow said. "Then we know who we are dealing with."


    "No need to be snarky," Loran said. "Someone is following us. And the pattern was all wrong."


    "All the more reason to go back then," Crow responded. They hadn''t leveled nearly as much as he had hoped, but he was too tired to continue, especially in the dark. His leg was still hurting, but the pain was starting to recede. Thomas hadn''t even slowed down a step when he had been hit, the bastard.


    "We better be careful then," Loran said and started back toward the treeline.


    Which reminded Crow that he hadn''t gotten an answer from Thomas and Mel. He didn''t care to pursue it now though.


    They followed the winding river through the brush, but much slower this time, and in near complete silence, which made Crow more aware of all the strange noises which came from the brush. Bugs, he hoped. He didn''t care to get jumped by something right now.


    There were few incidents though, and soon they could see the gray walls the city again, which looked more impressive from a distance where several segments of unbroken wall were visible. Crow cast a few uneasy glances to the left and right as they exited the forest. He was still of the opinion that playing with 100% pain threshold was just foolish. Well, at least they had made it back safely, and his thigh was mostly numb now, which was infinitely better than before.


    They made it through the same opening in the wall and soon found themselves back at the place at the river where Thomas had planted a stick in the ground.


    "Time for some snares anyways, mate?" Thomas said with a smile.


    "Fire and shelter is more important, but go ahead if you want to," Crow replied. They didn''t have a knife to carve anything with, so he wasn''t even sure they would succeed. Survival games were only fun the first time around - few tried again.


    "I want to see what the others are doing," Mel said.


    "Probably looking for shelter," Crow said. "It''s getting dark." He had found a nice rock rest on, and wasn''t moving for anything.


    Just then, a voice called out to them and a slender young woman came running toward them. "I''m here to warn everyone," she said when she arrived. "Someone just died. We can die in this game."


    Crow''s first reaction was that it was a joke, but something in her voice and expression made him doubt it. "What do you mean? Didn''t they respawn?" Perhaps this was a way out.


    "No, he didn''t," she said in a voice that sounded as if she verged on tears. "His corpse is still there."

 Chapter 6

    The face was pale and the eyes were staring up at the cloudless and darkening sky. Blood covered the light blue t-shirt and gaping wounds could be seen in the stomach area.


    Crow had a difficult time telling if he was dead or not, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Sweat bathed his forehead and his heaving chest had nothing to do with his lacking constitution this time.


    "Is he dead?" he asked and turned towards Thomas.


    Thomas looked back at him, face unreadable. "yes, he''s dead."


    "There must be an explanation," Crow said, voice rising slightly. "They are trying to trick us. They can''t do that. There are rules they have to follow."


    "Who are you talking about?" Mel asked in a low voice.


    "The Kalon company, of course, they are trying to trick us. Make us believe it''s real." Crow was pacing now.


    "It is real," Mel said. "We have been trying to tell you--" she sighed and drew up a hand to wipe away her white hair from her face. "You know that there is no way modern technology can achieve this. You should know better than most." Her voice was soft.


    Crow turned to watch the sun instead. It was gliding closer toward the horizon but there was time yet. They could start a fire still and maybe... He shook his head. What was he thinking? The Kalon company had to warn in case deaths that looked like this. They couldn''t stop anyone from leaving either. They couldn''t achieve this level of detail, and wouldn''t know his body well enough to duplicate it here. This was impossible.


    "Think of it this way, Crow," Mel said. "Does it even matter if it''s real or not if we can''t leave? We will experience everything that happens here anyways, including death. Therefore it is real, whether we want it or not, or whether these are our real bodies or not. Perhaps it was an escape for him, perhaps he has just logged out, but we need to assume the worst."


    Crow nodded slowly. His mind was still a rambling mess, but her little speech, delivered in an even tone, comforted him somehow.


    "We need to bury him," someone said. There were plenty of onlookers, and they were either staring at the body or at Mel with some measure of respect.


    The entire group had rushed here after the news of the death and now an awkward silence fell over them as they all thought the same thing. They had no tools to dig a grave, and it would likely be dark soon.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "You know him, Crow," a voice said at his shoulder. He turned to look down into pretty face framed by dark hair and with pale gray eyes staring back at him. "And you know me too, even if you don''t recognize me."


    Crow looked at her in confusion he was sure he hadn''t seen her before.


    "I saw your picture in an interview. That was sloppy, you should never have let them seen past your avatar," she said.


    He understood now. She was someone he had played with before, but who had never revealed her identity. He had used the nickname Crow before. "What is your name?"


    "Lana," she said and turned her gaze back toward the body. "And that was Bluebud."


    Crow turned to stare at the body. He had always assumed Bluebud to be a woman because of her - his - effeminate manners, and Lana... She was a doer, someone who always cajoled the group into action, someone who was valuable. His head was spinning now. This was too much at once.


    "Bad time, I know," she said softly.


    "What happened," he asked when he had regained some measure of control.


    "We went south and ran into some goblins," she said in a quiet voice. "They out-geared us with swords and some leathers, while we only have some short stabbing poles. We ran. Bluebud reacted slowly. Other players heard the screams, and the gobbos ran when they saw how many humans there were."


    "But then..."


    "Yes," Lana said. "They might go back and get friends. What about you? Found out anything?"


    Crow felt ashamed for even talking about it when Bluebud was lying dead in front of them, but a potential horde of goblins won over his attention. He told her about how they had leveled and the skills they had found in a quiet voice so as not to grab attention.


    "Is that all? It should have taken an hour, max." Her gray eyes turned a shade darker as she took in his sorry state. "Get in shape Crow, I will need you," she said and walked away.


    Going to sharpen spears and gather an army, Crow thought to himself and sighed. She was probably hurting more than him, she and Bluebud had been close, but she was not one to react with tears and quiet mourning. This all felt too unreal for him to react in any way.


    "Help me bury him," Thomas said as he came walking up to Crow. "We can''t let him lie here.


    Crow nodded, straining to find words at the sight of the body brought the reality of the situation back and numbed his mind.


    Others stood in groups, staring at the body and discussing whether it was real or not.


    "We need help with the burial," Crow said, but few volunteered. They just stood there watching him as if he was an alien. He sighed. He had seen this situation before. People transformed when things got bad. They didn''t want to deal with any sort of threats, even if they claimed otherwise when they felt safe.


    Together, he and Thomas started digging a hole underneath an elm. Crow''s hands soon felt raw after having hacked and scraped away at the ground. Others soon showed up to help, but it still took a good hour for them to dig it deep enough for the body. It was not deep, but the sun was already setting. They left the body to wash their bruised hands in the river.


    What had Lana said? They had gone to the south... She had most likely assumed that the sun was setting in the west. He hadn''t seen her in a while, so he couldn''t ask. They had followed the river in the same direction where the sun now hugged the horizon, and the river must, therefore, cross the city from the west to the east. They would have to move camp; they couldn''t stay on the south side, not with goblins so close.