Fairyland

Winter nights are not an easy time to get around in the far northern city of Vera.

It's too cold with strong winds while snow piles up on the streets.

No cars can move so one has to walk between the tall buildings that line every side of the street.

Even if David was a homeless man used to living on the streets, he still found it difficult to walk around the city at night.

However, passion and desire for something cannot be stopped.

He walked on the sidewalk at a brisk pace with one hand inside his jacket pocket and the other holding his phone just to check his bank account balance.

1000 Dollars!

For him it was too much because usually he couldn't even eat more than one meal a day.

In the past few weeks, he had been working very hard, doing whatever he could to make money for that $1,000.

He would use it to buy the latest generation of virtual equipment that was making waves due to its unpredictable features.

Plus, the most famous game at the moment, Fairyland could only be played with that equipment.

In that game, the equipment's features were even more amazing, such as completely transferring consciousness to the game world so that one could live completely in that world without caring about the body in the real world anymore. Even if the body in the real world died, the consciousness would still survive in the game character.

As long as your game character doesn't die, you practically won't die, this is what the developer guaranteed.

A system like this shouldn't change as many old super-rich people eventually choose to continue their lives in the game.

They can practically constantly help the game survive with its system.

After a while of walking, David finally arrived at an electronics store that was already somewhat deserted as it was getting late.

It was almost closed. The employees began to close the doors to the store.

David quickened his pace, entering the store as if he was saying that it shouldn't close before he finished shopping.

His eyes looked around and it didn't take long before he found the area where the equipment was.

The Real Dream, that was the name of the equipment, was shaped like a bicycle helmet but had a very striking futuristic design with glasses underneath.

Now there was no longer a queue to buy the thing, unlike when it was released where the queue had caused many casualties.

David was eager to join the queue at that time, but unfortunately he didn't even have the money to buy.

In the end, he just waited.

In the Fairyland game he wanted to play, he was probably already far enough behind.

David walked hurriedly to the area where The Real Dream was.

"I want one," he said to the employee guarding the area.

The employee casually showed David a picture of a barcode, telling him to pay.

David didn't hesitate at all to pay even though it meant he wouldn't have any money left over for tomorrow's meal.

It didn't matter to him because he really just wanted to buy that thing called The Real Dream.

After paying, he left the store with one The Real Dream, carrying it with its box.

Now he just needed to return to the tent where he was staying.

It was in a very lonely park and with this kind of weather, there were no people at all when David returned.

The city in fact had a shortage of homeless people. Those who are homeless mostly move to other cities where the weather is nicer.

David wasn't sure why he hadn't moved in the first place, probably because he wanted to avoid the other homeless hordes. He's the type who prefers to be alone.

Arriving there, David immediately entered his tent which, although not very warm, was still more comfortable than outside.

It of course had an electric plug connected to the park's electricity. He had deliberately prepared it just for The Real Dream.

After entering the tent, David didn't care about anything else at all.

He took out his The Real Dream, placed it directly on his head, and plugged it into the power.

He had seen many tutorials on how to use it, so he had no trouble at all.

In no time, it lit up, emitting several small lights.

What was interesting was that there was a faint glow from the bottom of the helmet-like thing, enveloping his entire body.

Actually, that was the way it mimicked the user's body so that it could display it in the game.

In the Fairyland Game, everyone had to use original appearances.

A person with an ordinary appearance could not expect to have an extraordinary appearance in that game.

David didn't really care because his physique was still quite good.

When he pressed the start button on the thing, David's consciousness was instantly pulled from his head into the thing.

(Welcome to The Real Dream, please choose the world you want to enter!)

David suddenly heard a female voice as his vision changed after dark.

He appeared in a vast sky where in front of him were images of various worlds with their names below.

Each of those worlds represented a game.

There was one that was much bigger than the others.

Fairyland!

It was huge because too many were online, above billions, and it was bound to be more as it got later.

David pointed at that world, signaling to the system from The Real Dream that he wanted to go there.

Instantly, two fields appeared in front of his face, ID and password fields.

He had to log in first.

Since he had already registered, he logged in right away.

Right after that, he was transferred again.

He knew that the next thing was to create a character.

Although each player would use their original appearance, there was still something to choose first, such as the weapons to carry or some minor characteristics that would then determine which stats were higher.

This is important because each account only has one character and creating an account is no easy feat. It requires a lot of identification to ensure each person can only have one account.

"Eh!" When he appeared in a different sky, David was suddenly not astonished that there was a figure standing in front of him with a name on it.

Dark Crow!

That was the name of the figure which was actually a nickname for the player.

The figure didn't have a real body yet, only a vague body.

It was wearing long pants and a black shirt, plus a mask that had a shape like a crow's face.

"Why is there already a character, I haven't made any character yet," said David, confused.

While the character didn't look bad, it still wasn't entirely to David's liking. And David didn't know what this character's strengths were.

He originally wanted a character that excelled in speed.

"Is there really a character with a mask?" David wondered because it was something that confused him.

He knew a lot about this game from constantly watching other people's live streams including reading books containing stories from Fairyland.

As far as he remembered, there didn't seem to be any characters with masks at the beginning.

The masks will only be items that can be found and used once the game starts.

"Is this a bug?" David wasn't sure what was happening, but he had no other choice but to choose that character.

Since he was also curious, he ended up logging in with that character.

(Welcome to Fairyland!)

A beautiful and soft voice echoed inside David's mind as darkness filled his sight.

The first thing that appeared after the darkness was his status window.

(Nickname: Dark Crow)

Level: 0

EXP: 0%

HP: 100/100

MP: 100/100

Strength: 3

Agility: 3

Spiritual: 3

Stamina: 3

Resistance: 3

(Talents & Skills: None)

'Eh, why have all my stats reached 3?'

David was instantly dumbfounded because only two stats should have reached 3. The rest would start with 0.

It was chosen when creating the character so that each player could determine where their character had strengths.

Then, David finally saw a different world, a world that only existed in the imagination.

His eyes quickly brightened as he saw a much larger sky with countless stars as well as giant mountains that seemed to be able to withstand even the falling sky.

He was standing behind a village surrounded by a wooden fort with a height of only one and a half meters.

The only source of light from the village was torches, some extinguished when a strong wind passed by.

Since it was night, David didn't see many people in the village.

Among those he did see, most were players like him.

The player mark can be seen above the head where there is an add friends button, including their level and nickname.

"You have finally returned, Your Majesty Crow the Lord of the World. With your return, Fairyland can be ours once more." Suddenly David heard a voice behind him, saying something that confused him.

Looking back, he couldn't help but be surprised that he found one figure he had seen in the wallpaper collection of this game.

"The Dark Elf Queen, Zara, Nightmare Alliance," he said spontaneously.