Chapter 2 - Regret

The trek through the woods was slow and monotonous. Same thick tree after thick tree. Not to mention the underbrush was overgrown and he had to dodge around thorn bushes and large hedges.

There was a sound coming from somewhere ahead. It was a low vibration. Steady. Like a bass drum someone was beating to a slow tempo.

"What is that?" He wondered, hoping it was good rather than bad... Dying in Isteryn would not be good. Apparently it logged you out for 24 hours and decreased your stats permanently... He could not afford to lose precious time like that. So he slowed down, and carefully moved from tree to tree, keeping an ear out for anything suspicious nearby.

But nothing happened... And he resumed his normal pace after about 15 minutes of the sluggishly slow sneaking. The cliffs were far, and he was growing tired of the hike... Some part of the system was making him feel tired anyway. None of it was real of course... But it certainly did feel real...

All the while he moved, he noticed that the animals in the wood seemed scarcer as he grew closer to the cliffs and the strange sound. "Maybe they are scared?" He thought to himself. There had been plenty of squirrel and birds in the trees at the beginning, and he nearly pissed himself when a deer dashed past him from behind a tree.. But there was nothing then.. Not a bird or squirrel in sight.. Only the thick trees and the dark underbrush, littered with weeds and rotting wood.

* thum... thum... thum* the sound continued. It wasn't a drum. It was more... metallic. It had a sharp ring that was barely audible next to the booming bass of the rhythmic beat. His mind raced for answers, but knowing it was a fantasy world it

could be any number of extraordinary things...

So he pressed on...

Although it was a fantasy world, full of wonder and excitement, he had to move around like it was the real world and put one foot in front of the other. All the trees started to look the same and his guard quickly fell.. And his mind began to wander. Thoughts surfaced one by one and soon enough he was back into his own mind...

He drove them pointedly away from his past and instead focused on the game... On Isteryn...

...

"A new age... A new world... Never before seen technology. A revolution in gaming..."

Any number of hype headlines fit the bill for Isteryn, and it spread like wildfire. From word of mouth to comments on the internet. Tags. Shares. Likes. Upvotes... All of it culminated in the extreme, never before seen hysteria around Isteryn...

The news started to cover it. They didn't have a choice really. It grew beyond mere gaming communities, mere teenagers bustling for some new entertainment.. For it wasn't a new Role Playing Game...

It was THE role playing game.. The only virtual reality game..

Demeanor Gaming came out of nowhere and blindsided the whole market. A company no one had heard of that promised a true virtual reality experience...

No controllers. No headsets. No... It was to be a full dive.. Experience the game like reality, with all of your senses. Move around and enjoy the world from your own perspective, not a forced one...

And it sold... like hot cakes.. like the little debbies in the store that you just can't resist as you pass, try as you might.

500 million units sold... 500 million... that was just the pre order... And Art was among the first to buy it..

He was by no means rich, but he knew how to scrounge up a few thousand. Well, he knew a guy at least that could loan it to him for exorbitant interest...

The funny part is he didn't even hesitate...

It wasn't the new experience or the vr that pushed him... it was the market...

...

"Thunk!"

A new sound pulled Art back into the present. He was starting to get tired of surprises, and just wanted to make it to the cliffs peacefully, with no jump scares or big bad monsters...

The flint arrow sticking in the tree next to him said otherwise.

Realization surged and he looked straight ahead, spotting a small green creature standing near a tree. It was growling and looking at him with jet black eyes.

"Shit"... he said to himself. He hadn't noticed any sound or movement. Whatever this thing was it didn't want to be his friend.

He quickly turned and ran..

"Graooorrrr!" It yelped. Art glanced over his shoulder and spotted the short, scantily clad monster chasing him. It had botched another arrow on its makeshift bow and was taking aim.

He quickly dove behind a tree, and watched as the arrow whizzed past.

"Thum... thum..."

The steady beat of the distant sound painted a different picture then, like the soundtrack to a horror movie; and he was the poor shmuck who was destined to be killed.

Art gritted his teeth. He wished he had a weapon or anything at all. He could barely outpace the small creature with his stats, let alone fight it barehanded.

Not knowing what else to do he ran frantically through the forest, like a deer being chased by a hunter.

For a painful ten minutes this continued... Art knew all the while it was a game, but the rising fear of being caught and shot full of arrows by the green monster made him push his legs harder.

Eventually he grew tired. It was the only sensation that felt unnatural, like a stamina bar in an rpg depleting that suddenly hit 0.. He couldn't run anymore.

The Monster was on him in seconds. The vicious snarling sent shivers down his spine, and a moment later he felt something hard hit his back.

A small blue bar popped up in the corner of his vision:

[HP: 2/20]

"I got hit... shit" he thought. Sure enough, he had an arrow sticking out of his back. He was also considerably slower and his reflexes were dulled.

Art tried to scramble for some cover behind a large bush, but didn't make it.. The second came fast, and the familiar painless hit to his back sent him sprawling.

The "thum...thum..." of the distant noise mixed with the creatures squeals of victory were all that remained as his vision faded, and he felt his consciousness being pulled out...

...

Groggy eyes awoke to a soft light in an enclosed space. They looked around for a moment.. That brief moment before the brain catches up from waking. They idly examiner their surroundings. Enclosed. Metal. Soft light... Before the thoughts poured in a millisecond later..

"Shit!" Art yelled. He slammed his fist against the inside of the capsule. It gave a dull thud in response, but seemed largely unbothered...

He pushed back his hair from his sweaty brow, and pushed a small button on the side. "Swisshhh" the door slid open, revealing the putrid orange glow of the single light in his small room.

He slowly stood up. His heart was still beating fast, and he had to keep reminding himself the experience with the monster wasn't real... But the reality of not being able to login for a day and having his stats reduced was real... all to real...

"I've been relying on this launch for months now... months..." he yelled. He paced the small dingy room, kicking the wardrobe a couple times in passing. He sorely wished that he didn't throw out that cigarette... he needed something to calm his nerves.

But there was nothing in his apartment aside from a few packs of ramen and some cheap lite beer..

"My advantage ruined... damn it all" he thought, moving towards the door of his apartment. The streets would calm him. He could pace up and down the dark narrow roads for a while and clear his head.

Looking around he realized he had lost his keys somewhere. They weren't in the small bowl on the counter, where he usually put them.. 30 minutes of searching later he found them washed in a pair of tattered jeans, cursing himself for his own stupidity..

But at that point he had calmed down considerably, and most of the frustration was replaced with stoicism. A thought popped up in his head then, "Wait, I haven't actually tried to log back in have I??"

Hope... a small spark of hope rose.. Maybe the info was wrong? Maybe the timer wasn't for first time deaths? Maybe he could get back on... maybe...

Art took off his shoes and dropped his keys in the bowl on. The counter before returning to the capsule. He opened the lid and laid down inside, watching his popcorn ceiling fade into a metal box mere inches from his face.

The machine vibrates and he closed his eyes, waiting.

Sure enough he felt his consciousness being pulled back in, a small grin crossing his face as he waited..

...

Soft grass met his face in much the same way as it did when he logged in the first time. Only this time, he frowned... "Wait.., this seems... familiar.." he said to himself.

He pushed off the dirt and looked around in the mid afternoon sun. His heart dropped, he was back at the village he had started in... all that progress through the woods lost... He nearly cried...

Time may have been sped up in the game... meaning... what you felt like was an hour was only 10 minutes in real life... It was meant to give people who can't play often more time to play, but for people like Art it meant that he could experience multiple lifetimes... And he wasn't going to let it go to waste...

At least, he didn't want to... He had already lost hours of real life progress by dying on the first day...

"Menu" he said, seeing a familiar blue box appear. It was an odd contrast to see something so artificial against the perfectly natural world of grass and trees behind it.

He quickly scanned his stats and frowned, rubbing his temples anxiously. "No... no... no...."

[Name: Art] — [Class: None] — [Level: 1]

[Description: A weak human being with no distinguishable talents]

[Strength: 4]

[Vitality: 4]

[Endurance: 4]

[Agility: 4]

[Intelligence: 4]

[Wisdom: 4]

"Day one... day one and I've lost a stat point in every stat".... He dropped to his hands and knees and punched the ground, cursing his own stupidity.

He was kicking himself for blindly going into a D tank quest with no armor, weapons, or knowledge of what he was getting himself into...

He leaned back and sat on the ground for a moment, looking at a dandelion, so peaceful and free, as he contemplated what to do..

Minutes of anxious thinking later he stood up and slapped himself in the cheeks, saying, "alright... I can do this... let's go.."

He turned from the field back to the village, and took a deep breath before boldly walking towards the small huts of Red-Glen..