16

He covered it using his salary. The latest VR machine was also prepared for the game he would play.

Closed tests were conducted under strict information policies. He registered and passed the test, and although it was only briefly, he enjoyed the game. Enthralled by the game, he decided to use his savings to buy this machine specifically for the game. He hoped the machine would arrive in time before the official service started, and luckily, it arrived just before the open beta test began, and he completed its setup yesterday, welcoming the end of his work today.

Using almost the same version as the closed test, after creating his character, he chose the character name "Wayne" and began his adventure in the game world.

Because he chose "beauty" as the "default feature" in the new system, he couldn't acquire magic skills due to a lack of experience points, but after a few days of playing, he was sure he could acquire one or two spells.

And after an hour, he finally landed in the grasslands.

"...Why does the tutorial take an hour...? They could make an exception for closed test participants for the tutorial," he thought.

The AI tutorial only provided explanations about the world and the atmosphere in the game. For him, who had carefully conducted the closed test, everything was already clear. Because of the excellent AI quality he saw during the test, he didn't even feel strange treating NPCs like humans.

The difference between NPCs and PCs was no longer important because they couldn't be distinguished within the game system. "Honestly, because players can't distinguish between PCs and NPCs in this game, I think it's unwise to treat them casually. Most people."

During the closed test, there was a story about a rude trader who was considered an NPC, but he was actually a player focused on production. After that, no one wanted to buy his goods, and eventually, he even stopped entering the game.

Wayne took a deep breath and looked out at the grasslands. In the distance, he could see the city.

He chose Hillus as the starting country for his adventure. Hillus was a country facing the sea, with mountains and valleys, primarily developing in agriculture and mining industries. They utilized three major rivers for water transportation, bringing wood and metal from the mountains throughout the country. One of the rivers flowed into the largest fish port in the country, aiding in agricultural exports. Iron and steel production also thrived due to abundant water resources and wood fuel. Although not extremely prosperous, there was no extreme poverty, and the country was stable.

This was a country's situation.

Wayne chose this country because of its good security stemming from a stable state power, and also because he started the game in this country since the closed test. This country was easy for beginner players or players who had just started the game to engage in activities, so many players chose this country at the beginning of the game.

Wayne immediately took out a beginner's one-handed sword from his inventory and hung it on his waist. Although he could obtain shield equipment if he chose the "shield" skill, in a game like this, trying out various things from the beginning wouldn't work. Initially, one should focus on one thing to establish their playstyle.

Wayne chose the "one-handed sword", "parry", and "agility" skills, and the rest were directed towards STR (strength) and AGI (agility). He was a typical light warrior. He planned to acquire magic and direct himself towards a warrior wizard battle. Therefore, he chose a balanced type human for his initial parameter values. According to the tutorial, between here and the city, only monsters that Wayne could easily defeat now would appear. Initially, let's make the city as a base, and focus on gathering experience and earning money for a while.

Wayne thought so and started walking.

As he got closer to the city, a thin forest could be seen beyond the city. It might be a monster area. It seemed bold for a city near a monster area.

There was a sturdy city wall visible. Although this city was unknown to Wayne, because of the randomly selected starting location, there was nothing he could do.

In politically unstable or poor countries, it would be impossible to have city walls like this even near monster areas. Or sometimes, permission to build city walls was not granted by the government. However, in Hils, that was not the case. Nevertheless, usually only border and capital cities had city walls.

In that forest, both experience gathering and money earning could be done without any problems. It was a forest close to the starting location. There were no monsters too strong there.

"Oh, that's a wild rabbit."

Although it looked and named like an ordinary wild rabbit, if careless, it could get hurt. However, it seemed unlikely to die.

However, it was all about planning and player skills. With Wayne's build and skills, even with initial equipment, he could defeat enemies without taking damage.

The body of the wild rabbit twitched for a moment.

It was a preparation movement to attack.

"Parry!"

Wayne welcomed the jumping wild rabbit's attack. The body attack would give counter damage if blocked, and would disturb balance if avoided. Parry had success and failure chances that differentiated between avoidance and blocking. If successful, it would evade the attack.

As expected, the wild rabbit was disturbed and exposed its vulnerable side.

"Come on!"

Wayne attacked the wild rabbit with the one-handed sword in succession and successfully defeated it. It was a suitable opponent to warm up his body.

When he checked the status screen, he saw a little experience he had successfully gained. "With this speed, I don't know when I'll be able to learn magic. It seems better to go to the city and relax for a while before going into the forest." Indeed, gathering experience took time.

In the past, many MMORPGs focused on how to improve endgame content and provide new equipment and items to players who reached the maximum level, to extend the game. However, over time, such a business model began to bore players, and the trend of declining interest in gaming among young people began to be heard.

In the midst of this situation, VR technology suddenly developed rapidly, and games entered a fully immersive VR era. In an era where players could truly move within the game, old game styles became irrelevant, and the industry sought new game styles.

One of the emerging styles was games that were not just about how player characters grew after reaching the maximum level, but on the contrary, it took a long time for players to reach the maximum level. In fact, the reason for the popularity of games where player character growth quickly reached the maximum level was simply because "the player character growth process is not enjoyable."

With the development of VR technology, games that allowed players to enjoy their own character growth began to emerge, and endgame-based games began to disappear.

Against this background, game developers who were responsive to the times began to enjoy even slow and halted processes in gathering experience and leveling up.

"After arriving at the city, first, I should look for an inn and rent a room. Then, I will go to the mercenary union and check if there are any missions towards the forest..." Wayne stored the wild rabbit carcass into his inventory and began walking again towards the city.

While heading to the city, Wayne did not forget to hunt some wild rabbits, gathering experience and materials.

===

Donate : ko-fi.com/maplesyrup_novel