18

"Once in a while, I want to change into something different from my usual self."

Finally, the open beta test began for the title that's been in the spotlight. I don't usually play games much, but since I suddenly had quite a bit of free time, I decided to try out a VR game that I wasn't particularly fond of before.

The VR machine commonly used seemed like it could also be used for medical purposes, which was one of the reasons why I wanted to try it.

They said this game was a technological advancement far beyond previous VR games, described as another actual world within the game according to reviews from famous figures.

If I were to live in another world, I would want to lead a life completely different from before.

Thinking so, I began creating a character without fully scanning an avatar.

"Sukerton... what's that? It feels funny. But it's too strange, even for me!"

For someone who doesn't usually play games, a skeleton feels unfamiliar to him.

The words sounded somewhat thin. He never imagined he would turn into just bones.

But this was a rare opportunity. Although unintentional, he had chosen a race he had never known before. Despite its overly eccentric appearance, there was nothing more intriguing than being different from his usual self. He was indeed skinny, but not to the point of being just bones. "Alright! The race is Skeleton!"

After choosing the race, the next step was configuring skills. However, he hardly knew anything about skills in the game.

"What are good skills for Skeletons... I have no idea at all... Oh, this is a good opportunity to try being a wizard. I'll choose magic. It's okay to choose what I like, right?" He chose one skill from each skill tree: "Fire Magic," "Water Magic," "Wind Magic," "Earth Magic," "Ice Magic," and "Lightning Magic."

"There's still some XP left... Oh, if I choose Skeleton, I can get an additional 100 XP points! How lucky. Alright, I'll use the remaining XP to increase attributes. Have the magics been selected? Oh, they need to be tested. Alright, I'll allocate everything to magic. The remaining XP won't be used well, right?" Thus, the character creation process was completed.

"A name... I'll choose 'Blanc'! Fits his white skin. There's only bones." With that, Blanc chose "Cave Environment" in the monster region and entered the game.

After the tutorial ended, Blanc appeared in a dark and damp cave, surrounded by stone walls. Although called dark, it was actually total darkness with no light at all. The dark appearance was due to the "night vision" effect of the Skeleton race.

According to information obtained from the AI assistant during the tutorial, there seemed to be only low-level monsters around the specific location when first playing the game.

Blanc decided to leave the cave for the time being. Although he didn't know which way was the actual exit, he chose a direction randomly.

He had never walked in a natural cave even during VR rehabilitation, so he often stumbled while walking.

After a few minutes of walking, he found a fork, one of which was a dead-end, but the other was a narrower corridor than usual, only passable by crawling. However, its inner walls were smooth and slick, giving the impression that there was something inside.

After thinking for a moment, Blanc decided to enter the suspicious corridor. Since this was his first game, he wanted to try choosing options he usually never did.

The corridor had a smooth floor, and although it wouldn't feel painful to touch, if there was a load, it would definitely hurt and make the knees and palms red. Fortunately, he now had a bone body, so he didn't feel the pain.

No flesh to hurt.

Blanc walked through the narrow corridor while praising himself for choosing Skeleton, and finally, the cramped corridor ended, opening up into a room large enough to stand and walk laboriously. "This seems like a room of some sort... huh..." There, there were ants. However, they were the size of Shiba Inu dogs.

"Kyaah!"

And it wasn't just one ant. Three ants faced Blanc, moving their antennae quickly.

Although only silhouettes in the darkness, Blanc felt they were staring at him thanks to night vision.

It looked like it. The faces of wasps he saw on the cover of an ancient insect book in the VR library. "Gyaaaaaaa!"

Perhaps because Blanc screamed reflexively or perhaps because the ants considered the scream a threat, they attacked Blanc.

"Oh, right! This isn't the time to scream! These are monsters! Attack, um, magic..."

Although the ants moved fast, Blanc felt he could move just as fast. If he remained calm, maybe he could summon magic.

However, the ants started their attack first, and Blanc spent precious time recovering from confusion.

As Blanc thought about how to summon magic, the ants had already attached themselves to his legs. "Uwaa, the ants are biting my legs!"

The ants bit Blanc's bone legs mercilessly. The series of Shiba-sized ants were quite large, while Blanc's bone legs were quite small. The ants bit with force to tear Blanc's legs. Although the pain was filtered by the game's initial settings, the sensation of having his bones attacked was so real, and Blanc felt uncomfortable.

"I don't like it! Stop!"

Blanc tried to kick the ant, but with Blanc's bone legs, the ant didn't detach, instead causing more damage to Blanc's leg. Another ant attached to the leg trying to kick it, causing Blanc to fall. "Ouch! ...Eh..."

It seemed like the remaining ant was waiting for Blanc's head to be in a lower position, then the ant wriggled its body and turned its back on Blanc. "Wait a minute..."

A pungent-smelling liquid was sprayed forcefully from the venom glands at the tip of the ant's abdomen, dripping onto Blanc's body. Blanc's bone body emitted unhealthy-looking smoke and began to dissolve. "Igi...!"

Blanc's vision darkened, and in the darkness, the only thing visible was a countdown.

"If within an hour, you can be revived, or do you want to respawn immediately?"

"Oh, I'm dead, huh...? But, being eaten on the leg and having acid poured on the head until death is too extreme! It feels so real! Although it's not too painful, but it feels... traumatic!"

"But, is this game really this difficult...? Everyone can play well. Maybe I'm just bad. But, even though it feels unpleasant, it doesn't mean it's very painful or suffering. If considered as a consequence of a mistake, yes, it's unavoidable..."

As Blanc was messed up by receiving communication full of killing intent from creatures other than himself that he first saw in the game - whether himself as a Skeleton could be considered a creature, it's still unclear - calmness slowly returned, and he began to feel regret over the previous incident, thinking about what he should have done and how he should have acted.

"Alright, there's no point in waiting here because the ants won't revive me, and respawn? That will take me back to the beginning, right? Ah, but is there a penalty for dying?"

Before agreeing to respawn, Blanc tried to find information about death penalties in the help. It turned out that after dying, the system would deduct 10% of the total XP accumulated.

"That's harsh! But, if the total XP is below a certain threshold, then there's no death penalty. The threshold is 200 and... What if I'm almost reaching it as a Skeleton? If I become a Goblin, I'd weaken with just one death. Terrifying!"

Wasting the initial XP gained by carrying the burden as a monster, then losing most of it due to one mistake, is too heavy.

"A fragile balance. Maybe Skeletons are indeed the strongest. Anyway, respawn."

After feeling dizzy for a moment, Blanc woke up at the starting point inside the cave.

"This time, I'll be more careful... or maybe it's better not to enter that corridor again. That surely has to be done after I become stronger, right."

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