Chapter 2: Arrival and Incident

'First things first; controls.' Seed has had his fair share of games, and the most basic thing to start with is with getting to know the controls.

Seed wriggled his fingers, toes, he even tried moving his ears, a talent for those born with the power to rule the world.

'Everything moves according to reality. Cool.'

He really liked the motions. Even those who were born disabled can come to know how it feels to walk and run in Nexus. This is one of the reasons why Nexus was so popular that even hospitals allow their terminally ill patients to connect safely in a specialized hospitable Capsule.

'Moment of truth.'

"Interface."

Seed whispered under his breath. The command doesn't really need verbalization, but Seed just wanted to say it once in his lifetime.

'Like those sick light novels, heh.'

A light-blue screen popped up in front of him.

Seed, LvL 1

Class: Undetermined

Race: Human (Unchangeable)

Talents: None

Health Points: 20/20

Resource Points: Undetermined

STR: 6

DEX: 5

WIS: 7

VIT: 6

AGL: 5

Resistance:

Physical: 0%

Mental: 0%

Magic: 0%

Elemental:

Fire 0%, Ice 0%, Electric 0%, Poison 0%

Remarks: The Newbie Starter Pack. Take care of your lives!

'Newb- Well, for now.'

Everyone starts with 20 HP, but the Resource Points are chosen specially. Mages use Mana Points, Martial Artists hold Fighting Energy, some high level Swordmasters can also use Sword Energy.

'STR for strength, DEX for dexterity, WIS for wisdom or intelligence, VIT for vitality, and AGL for agility.' The stats part is where most people pay attention to. In Nexus, not everyone starts the same way. For every player, the stats are, normally, randomly distributed with values from 5 to 10. People would have atleast one stats with 8 points to begin with.

'Average in both worlds.' Seed sighed in disappointment. With nothing to ponder and be proud of, Seed immediately wandered the place.

There were people everywhere. They were all level 30 or so, with the occasional newbies running around, and a few rare level 100 players doing quests or selling wares.

'Well, 6 hours in real life is 18 hours in the game so I better get a hold of my location.'

While walking and looking around, Seed suddenly heard a commotion. He went to investigate and found a new player— like him,— holding a little girl by her hair. The child looked poor, with rags for clothes and was crying and screaming in pain.

'An NPC?' Seed thought. 'But why would this guy hit an NPC?' Realistically, you could do anything with the NPCs in Nexus, but most people opt to cooperate with them since NPCs are the most commonly used and abundant source of quests. Hitting an NPC out of boredom is just psychotic.

"Stop screaming! This is what you get, thief!"

The man said. His name was Ratel and he started here, in Blowesa Citadel, like Seed. He was walking around investigating the place when a girl bumped into him. Being a security guard in real life, his first instinct was to check his belongings and he found out that, from the 40 bronze provided to beginners, half of it was gone!

He was pickpocketed!

That money was given to let new players buy sustenance to recuperate or buy new gear to increase their hunting speed. Being robbed half of his money, Ratel was enraged.

The girl tried to run but Ratel was faster. He reached out to catch the girl and the previous scene ensued.

"Give me back my money or you'll regret it!"

he demanded. The girl was struggling with her hair pulled but still managed to reply. "I'm sorry! I need the money to buy medicine, so please let me go!"

"Who cares about your medicine, fool. Your problems aren't ours to solve."

"Please, I'm begging you!"

"I'll teach you what beggars and thieves get." Ratel said. He took out his hunting dagger, the one given to every player, and proceeded to stab the little girl.

"Wait!" a voice resounded from the crowd.

'What am I doing.'

The voice came from Seed. This was none of his problem but when he saw the little girl, he remembered a certain incident that happened a long time ago to his little sister.

"What? Are you protecting this NPC?" Ratel asked disgustedly. To him, they were just programs, so their feelings naturally don't matter.

"She may be an NPC to you, but this isn't your world. Here, she's the inhabitant and you're the ET." Seed reasoned. He continued, "She stole from you, yes, but you don't need to kill her. What if someone needed her for their quest, and then found out you killed her? Would you be able to endure what happens next? Besides, this is the citadel with guards everywhere, what do you think happens to murderers?"

Seed never liked to talk much, if he could he'd just beat the damn guy up. Unfortunately, they were both new and Seed's stats weren't something to he was proud of.

Ratel was annoyed. What did this have to do with this guy? It's his money getting stolen!

"What quest could possibly come from trash? Besides, would the guards do anything if I hit a thief rightfully? She's guilty!"

"Let me go! I'll give it back to you, so please, let me go!" the girl cried. She needed the money for her grandmother's medicine, but she was still a little girl that's scared of even speaking the word 'death'.

NPCs don't have the lives of players. Once dead, you can be sure their data gets locked from the database. So their fear of death is greater than what most expect, especially while living in an age filled with monsters and war.

"You'll give it back? You wasted my time and ran into me, but if you want to return it then its not a problem." Ratel said with a crooked smile. "Give me back 40 bronze."

"What?! That's-" the girl cried in shock. she didn't even have a single bronze on her when she stole from him, so how could she pay back double?

"You're the one close to the dagger. Give me everything you have or.." Ratel's smile widened, showing his teeth. "I'll sell you as a slave."

before Ratel could hear her scream, he belatedly saw a fist coming straight at him. Unable to dodge, the fist hit him square in the face and his hands dropped the girl.

You took 3hp of damage.

a notification popped up. Looking up, Ratel saw the face of the man from before.

"You asshole..! I'll get you for-" Not even getting to finish his sentence, more fists descended upon Ratel.

You took 3hp of damage.

You took 2hp of damage.

You took 4 hp of damage.

Seed punched him mercilessly. You'd suspect a pet tamer to be merciful and kind, but Seed was Sen Yuuki— son of a navy Vice-Admiral!

He got into fights in school for being poor, and when he got home, his father would beat him some more.

But what made Seed raged wasn't the fact that Ratel tried to get more than what was stolen from him, but he said one thing that triggered Seed's memory.

'Sell her as a slave, huh.'

Seed stopped punching when Ratel's health almost run out.

Ratel

HP: 3/20

..

"You piece of crap..! I swear the Black Arrow Guild will hunt you down wherever you are! Your life in the Nexus will be hell, kid!"

Ratel screamed while still curled up and beaten.

But Seed didn't care. "Life is already hell for me. You think you can do worse? Try it, then— Once you revive."

Seed took out his own dagger and instantly sliced Ratel's throat.

"Argh!" Ratel screamed before his body turned into pixels and disappeared.

You have dealt 3HP of damage.

You have killed the player Ratel. Difference of Level: 0

You have gained 13 bronze coins.

You have gained 20 EXP.

You have earned the title "Murderer"

You have been labeled with the tag of Player Killer. Guards will hunt you in most Towns and Citadels. Most merchants won't sell you their wares and most NPCs will be less likely to give you quests.

Ttiring!

A guard has spotted you! run, hide, or face your punishment!

Not even given time to read the notifications popping up, a wide, short guard waddl- ran, up to them.

'Thanks for the warning, no way I could've seen that duck there.'

"Stop, criminal!"

The guard panted even before reaching Seed and the little girl.

Seed was about to drag the girl by her hand to run when he heard her yell, "Ouch!" Seed turned and saw that her hands were bent the wrong way, probably from the impact when Ratel dropped her.

"Well, sorry for this but there's really no time to ask questions." Seed said before sweeping the little girl up like a princess. "Hyaa!" The girl was shocked to see someone spare this much effort to save her.

"Criminal, I am a guard! Listen to me and stop!"

The guard was furious that this poor ragged man did not heed his orders.

"Duck, I am a criminal! Since when do we listen?"

Seed replied and ran off outside the Citadel, since running around in the Citadel might've attracted even more guards, and these ones won't be as obese as the one from before.

"Where is your home, kid?" the girl was looking around when Seed asked her a question. She looked at Seed before turning to the forest and pointing, "There."

'Huh.. Murder a man, avoid a guard, and carry a child into the forest. Dad would be proud.'

Seed mused and ran to where the girl pointed.

....

"June 9th, 2032, 11:23 a.m.

It was the first meteor to enter the atmosphere and avoided all of our surveillance satellites. The meteor, now named 'Butterfly', was seen streaking across the Arctic Ocean. After manually tracking its trajectory and velocity, we have accounted that we have..

..24 hours before impact. Butterfly will contact Earth somewhere in the East, and our attempts to discreetly destroy it has thus far been fruitless.

Is there something pulling the meteor there?

Well, whatever it is, we have to be prepared. Butterfly, named after the 'butterfly effect' will likely bring some changes to the world as we know it."

....

The Glintop Forest was a LvL 5-15 area, filled with boars, wolves, and other terrifying beings. But though the tall trees and vast woodlands seem scary from the outside, the interior of the forest was serene. Flowers of all shapes fill the forest floor, the sound of the rustling leaves play a soft tune that makes one feel at peace— provided they aren't being stalked by a hungry beast.

"You.. live here?" Seed asked, daze was obvious on his face. How could a child and her grandma live here?

"Well, we do live here, but the monsters rarely come to our place." The girl said, tugging on Seed's shirt so that he would put her down.

Seed complied, and as her feet touched the dirt, all the trees and flowers around them start to glow sparkly.

"Thank you for your kindness, young man. But while I am grateful that you saved me, could you tell me why you did it?" The girl, now eyes glowing and hair fluttering in the air, looked at Seed. Seed fell in a thought. She was right, he didn't have anything to do with her, so why did he spend time and effort to save her and even deliver her into a dangerous forest?

'I see An Yoon, I suppose.' Weed looked at the little girl yet again.

....

"Hey, pretty girl."

A little girl was crying while sitting on the floor. She was on vacation with her family, but while they were boarding the ferry, she was separated from her mother.

This girl was An Yoon, 14 years ago.

A strong breeze blew over the passengers, and An Yoon's hat got caught in the wind. She let go her mother's hand to chase it back but she couldn't find her way back. I mean, what could a 3 year-old child possibly do on a large ferry?

Then this uncle showed up.

"Your father asked me to bring you to him. Do you want to see your mother again?"

His smile made An Yoon naively believe him, so she nodded and let the uncle carry her.

Unbeknownst to An Yoon and her family, the same thing was happening to multiple children across the ferry.

..

"What do you mean she's lost?! How did you lose sight of your own sister!" The Vice-Admiral slapped his sons. His only daughter, his little princess who'll make all his wishes come true, was lost and cannot be found on the ferry anywhere! It was already a blessing that the man didn't directly fall from a heart attack.

"Sir! Reports have been given by the crewmates all around. there has been no sighting of your daughter and even worse, multiple children have gone missing!" the captain of the ferry reported, a deep frown etched on his face.

"Human trafficking in broad daylight, and even my daughter's a victim!" The Vice-Admiral raged. His grimly worried face switched to a grimly determined one— even if he had to call upon the whole Navy, even if he had to fight a country, he will find his daughter safe and sound!

"Report to the docks and inform the Navy! Find all the ships and vessels that left port today, anything that can fit 30 children is a target! Call the police department, barricade the entrance to the port. Nobody's leaving until I. Find. My. Daughter."

"Sir, yes sir!" the captain heeded, calling for the crewmates and informing the passengers on the protocol.

Meanwhile, Sung Jin and his mother— who was crying her eyeballs out because of guilt— was finding a place to sit down while his father dealt with the emergency.

He suddenly stopped, looking behind him.

'Where the f*ck did that kid go?!'