Chapter 2

"Am... Am I going to die like them...?"

I thought to myself, scared to the point where I didn't want to move a muscle out of the town. Even my beta experience didn't prepare my mentality of the game being a game of life and death.

I clenched my hands into a fist as I was going to walk out of the safezone, I then heard a voice behind me.

"Oh hey!"

I turned to see a woman standing behind me, I looked at her confused as she said to me "You're going to Boar Forest right?" as I nodded a bit confused. "Great! I can take you there!" She said excited as I was just even more confused at her enthusiasm, following behind her as she walked over to Boar Forest.

"I didn't get your name back there, Care to tell me your name?" She said to me as I replied "It's Kirin.." as she had a small smile on her face. "That's a nice name, My name is Rina" she said with a positive look, she turned around and put her hand out to me, I stopped to look at her hand and then looked back at her. "A Handshake to show that we're on good terms" she said to me with a confronting voice, as I shook her hand. After that we headed into the forest, "I won't be long, go and do what you need here while I'm still here." Rina said politely as she headed on her way and I began heading out as well.

"That was a nice conversation..? Small talk??"

I thought to myself as I walked and heard hooves step in the way, I lost my train of thought as I looked and saw the wild boar. I quickly unsheathed my sword and swung at the boar, hitting it and dropping its health down, but it merely brushed it off and began rushing towards me.

I dodged out of the way to the left as it charged right, I got back up and swung again and again, dropping its health down more and more, into the yellow area. "I don't remember these boars being this tough.." I thought as I blocked a ramming attack from the boar, knocking me off my feet. I fell back as I rolled out of the way of an incoming attack and got back up, picking up my sword and charging up a sword skill.

The boar began running towards me for another ramming attack as I sidestepped out of the way and vertically slashed down onto the boar's head, decapitating it. The boar's body then rammed into the ground as it fizzled and then dispersed into polygons. A small menu opened up showing the amount of EXP and COL I got out of it.

"Alright, I'll just venture deeper.." I muttered underneath my breath and walked down a dirt pathway. As I walked down the dirt pathway, I looked up at the branches and saw the light go through each individual tree branch, "Such a beautiful world, but a cruel one beneath it.." I said to myself as I turned my attention to what was in-front of me, a passing player.

I waved at the player as the player waved back saying "you heading down that way?" as he was pointing behind him. "Yeah, do you know what's down that way?" I said to him as he chuckled a bit.

"Yea, down there is just a bunch of Beta players tryna farm. No point in going down that way" The player said as I looked down the dirt path. He then looked at me and asked "Hey, what's your name by the way?" as I looked back and replied.

"It's Kirin.. What's yours?"

The player looked at me and said "It's Sato, Nice to meet you Kirin" as Sato and I shook hands. "Speaking of which, you got time on your hands?" Sato asked me out of the blue, I replied "Sure, what do you need?" as he opened up his menu. Sato closed his menu as he held up some herbs, "Can you help me pick up some more of these herbs?" Sato asked as I nodded, "Sure I can help" I said as we left to go look for some herbs.

After some time picking up herbs that were nearby, I looked up at the sky to see that the sun was setting down over the horizon, seeing the orange and reddish sky falling onto the world. I looked at Sato and handed him a couple more Herbs, which completed his quest.

"Thanks for helping me on the quest Kirin" Sato said with a smile on his face, I looked at him and nodded as I began to head down a different dirt path. "Hey wait for a second Kirin" Sato said as I stopped to hear a chime in my menu, I opened my menu to see a pending friend request from Sato.

I accepted the friend request as Sato then waved at me saying "Alright, I'm heading back to the Town of Beginnings now, You'll find me at the Inn!" as he rushed off. I watched him run all the way down the other way as I turned and headed down my own separate path. Walking down that path I heard a scream and turned my attention towards it, stopping in my tracks.

I stood there trying to listen to the scream again, hearing nothing but the sound of the wind. "Must have been me.." I thought to myself as I turned my attention away from it, for more than a second I heard a scream for help. I then blitzed down the hill, making my way down to see if I could pinpoint where the call for help came from.

Hearing the scream once again, I made some tricky maneuvering around trees and bushes, using a beta maneuver exploit called Strafing, making sharp turns. The sounds of Boars eventually got louder as I pulled out my sword, reverse gripping the sword.

"HELP ME!!" A voice cried out as loud as possible, A female player had been running from a group of wild boars through the forest. She had tripped and fell down into the ground, dropping her weapon and braced for impact from the Boars.

"Hey...you alright!!" A voice shouted as I had made it in time to block a double ram, taking one head on and blocking another with the reverse grip sword. The female player looked at me as I grew irritated shouting at her "HEY! IF YOUR GONNA STAY HERE OR NOT!!" as she snapped out of it and got up, grabbing her sword and pointed it at them. "At least she has some fight.." I thought to myself as I pushed back both boars, leaving my health in yellow.