“Huff! Haaah!”
My breath rises to my throat.
My chest hurts so much I want to collapse right here, and my entire body is screaming.
But I can’t stop my legs.
“Gwooooh!”
Because a wild boar is chasing me from behind with ferocious momentum.
[Level 6 Wild Boar]
The massive-bodied hunter is closing the distance between us at high speed.
‘Just how far is it going to chase me?’
I’ve been pushing through towering trees and dense undergrowth for ages, but I still can’t shake the Wild Boar.
At this rate, getting caught is only a matter of time.
With my speed, escaping the Wild Boar’s pursuit is impossible.
Then the only method left is to fight.
—Shing.
I draw the sword at my waist.
The beginner’s straight sword I was given as starting equipment had long since become as dull as could be.
But right now, this is the only thing I can trust.
It hasn’t been completely destroyed, so at the very least, I should be able to swing it once.
A single chance is all I’ve been given.
I glance behind me.
‘It’s closer than I thought.’
There isn’t much time.
This isn’t the moment to leisurely think things over.
I turn my gaze forward.
Before my eyes stands a fairly large tree.
‘Can I do it?’
No, if I don’t, I’ll die.
Even if I can’t, I have to!
Squeezing out every last ounce of strength I have, I throw myself toward the tree in front of me.
As my body sails through the air, I rotate halfway so that my feet face the tree.
—Crack!
My body trembles from the dizzying impact transmitted through my toes.
But I succeed in planting both feet on the tree.
Forcing myself to ignore the shock, I use the rebound to kick off the tree with all my strength.
—Bang!
The distance that had briefly widened closes in an instant.
Blood-red eyes. Hot breath bursting from its nostrils.
Gleaming saliva between its protruding tusks.
Forcibly suppressing the fear welling up inside me, I pull my sword taut behind my waist.
Even a skilled swordsman would have trouble freely moving a sword in a situation like this.
After all, without your feet planted on the ground, you can’t concentrate your strength no matter how you move your arms.
But in this world, there exists a means that makes even actions bordering on absurd possible.
The Wild Boar rushes right up to my nose in an instant.
At that moment, I move my sword.
Basic Swordsmanship Skill, Form One.
Single-Strike Slash Technique.
“Slash!”
A blue horizontal arc, drawn in a straight line, explodes against the charging Wild Boar.
—Kagagak!
My wrist goes numb.
If I hadn’t received the skill’s assistance, I would have already been sent flying.
But the blue light wrapped around the blade hasn’t gone out yet.
My sword is still moving forward to cut the Wild Boar down.
“Huaaaap!”
If the sword hasn’t given up, then I can’t give up either.
With desperate resolve, I drive the sword into the Wild Boar’s hide.
—Slice!
“Gweeeek!”
At last, my sword breaks the Wild Boar’s tusk and splits its tough hide.
With that strike as its last, the companion that had been with me until now snapped, and my body, unable to keep its balance, tumbled messily through the bushes.
“Haa… kuh….”
It hurts enough to make me think I might actually die.
The health bar in the upper left of my vision is hanging by a thread, too.
If the Wild Boar survived that last attack, then I have no other way left.
But.
—Bang!
“Gweeeek….”
Along with the sword strike, the Wild Boar slams head-on into the tree I had kicked off from and dies on the spot.
[Notice: You have leveled up!]
[You have acquired stat points.]
The window that appears before me confirms my survival.
Only then can I relax and entrust my body to the damp ground.
I look up at the sky.
Before I know it, the deep blue light of twilight has draped itself over the heavens, and a silver moon is revealing itself.
Really…
It’s a view so beautiful it pisses me off.
“I guess I should head back today.”
I hope nothing happens on the way.
I force myself to my feet.
Then, before returning to the village, I open my status window out of habit.
[Status Window]
Name: IAN
Gender: Female
Level: 7
Stats: Strength 10ㅣAgility 13ㅣStamina 10ㅣMagic 6
(SP 3 available to allocate!)
Proficiency: Basic Swordsmanship (54/1000)
A sigh escapes me naturally.
I thought I’d devoted myself to hunting for an entire week, but I’m still only level 7.
When am I ever going to max out my swordsmanship proficiency?
“Can I even get out of here in the first place?”
I don’t know.
I can’t even guess whether it’ll take a year or longer than that.
Still, there’s one thing that’s certain: I survived again today.
In Arcadia Online.
In this death game where dying in the game leads to death in reality.
***
By the time I left the forest and returned to the village, the sun had completely set.
“I finally made it back.”
Fortunately, I didn’t run into any fierce beasts on the way.
If I’d encountered beasts while I didn’t even have a weapon, it would’ve been seriously dangerous.
Only then can I release the tension from my entire body.
As I enter the village entrance, the guard NPC I always run into looks at me and smiles.
“Hey there. Back again, miss?”
“Haa. I told you not to call me miss.”
“But that’s the only title that suits you, miss.”
“Forget it. Let’s not talk.”
This place is located on the outskirts of the First Area.
The pastoral scenery, with soft lights hovering around wooden buildings, is beautiful, and it’s a small rural village that smells of people.
Thanks to that, even though this is a brutal death game, I can find some peace of mind here, at least.
Supplies aren’t stable, so there aren’t many players, but I even like that about it, and I’ve spent the past week in this village.
After passing the guard and walking through the village, I eventually arrive at the inn where I’m staying.
Its name is .
It’s a name that suits this small village well.
When I open the door and enter, I find a quiet dining hall.
Inside the dining hall, which has the kind of structure commonly seen in games set in the medieval era, there are only a few NPCs and a small number of familiar players.
At that moment, a plump middle-aged woman sitting at the counter greets me warmly.
“Oh my, Miss Ian is here? You’re a bit late today.”
She is Ms. Kate, the owner and cook of this inn.
As always, I sit at the counter where Ms. Kate is stationed.
“Have you had dinner?”
“Not yet. Please give me the usual.”
“All right. Wait just a little.”
With that, Ms. Kate patters off into the kitchen.
“Hello, noona.”
And not long after, a cute boy with sparkling eyes sits beside me.
I pat the boy on the head and say,
“Hi, Lian. You’ve been well, right?”
“Yes! I helped Mom a lot again today.”
The boy is Ms. Kate’s son, Lian.
This boy is also an NPC.
But from them, I can’t feel any of the peculiar sense of otherness unique to NPCs.
Rather, the more I talk with them, the more the perception that they’re NPCs grows faint.
It isn’t just Ms. Kate and Lian.
The same goes for every NPC that exists in Arcadia Online, including the guard I ran into earlier.
They react differently to each player, remember even trivial events from the past that have nothing to do with quests, and have no trouble conversing like humans.
On top of that, just like players, once they die, they don’t revive.
It’s as if they were residents who had lived in this world from the very beginning.
“Ohoho~ Your food is ready. Enjoy your meal.”
“Isn’t there more meat than usual?”
“That’s a service for our pretty young lady. It’ll just be thrown away if there are leftovers anyway, so don’t worry and eat.”
“Th-thank you.”
That’s why, when I talk with them, a corner of my chest aches.
Because all I can give in return for their concern and affection is a lie.
“Thank you for the meal. I’ll head up now.”
“All right. See you tomorrow morning~.”
“See you tomorrow, noona!”
After finishing my meal, exchanging farewells, and heading up to my room, the first thing I see is the mirror.
There is a woman in it.
Hair like ebony, snow-white skin, and the allure of a woman whose body curves in all the right places—a beauty.
She is me, someone named Ian.
This false appearance is the form the world assigned to me.
***
In Arcadia Online, players cannot choose their own avatars.
Gender, age, race, even name.
Everything shown to others is randomly set by the game and imposed on the players.
That is why I became a woman named Ian.
Just like in reality, it was decided from the moment I logged into the game.
And complaining wouldn’t change anything in a place that had turned into a death game.
So when I wake up in the morning, get dressed, and look in the mirror out of habit, I have no choice but to accept reality whether I like it or not.
“She really is disgustingly pretty.”
If this were an ordinary game, she’d be beautiful enough to make me develop a taste for playing a girl online when I’d never had one before.
But what’s the point if that girl is me?
This cumbersome appearance is of absolutely no help in Arcadia, which has fallen into a lawless land.
When I think about what I went through because of this face…
“Ugh. Let’s not talk about it.”
After letting out a sigh deep enough to make the ground sink, I leave the room and go down to the first floor.
“Oh my, you’re up early? Good morning, miss.”
“Yes. Good morning, Ms. Kate.”
In the dining hall, Ms. Kate, the innkeeper, is preparing breakfast.
“You’re having the same thing again today, right?”
“Yes. You always work so hard.”
“What hard work? Just wait a little~.”
After greeting her, I sit in the same place as last night and eat breakfast as usual while checking what I need to do today.
‘First, I should go to the equipment shop and get a weapon.’
It’s a shame that the weapon I used for nearly two weeks is gone, but it was about time I needed a new weapon anyway.
With the money I’ve gathered from hunting so far, two or three decent swords should be easy enough.
Then I’ll go to the forest and devote myself to hunting until my experience is halfway full.
As for the stats I still haven’t allocated… I’ll put one into Stamina first, then distribute the rest depending on the situation.
Around the time I finish putting together a rough plan, food is placed before me.
Steaming soup, warm bread, and sweet fruit.
Just as I smack my lips and take a spoonful of soup, Ms. Kate speaks to me.
“Miss Ian, you said you were an adventurer, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then may I ask you a favor?”
“What is it?”
“Could you go to the city with Lian later?”
Hearing that much, one possibility comes to mind.
‘Could it be a quest?’
The NPCs of Arcadia don’t go around advertising that they’re quest-giving NPCs like in other games.
To begin with, this is a game without even a common cursor.
There’s no way something like a ! or ? would be floating over their heads.
So most of the time, you receive quests only after building a relationship, like now, or when they suddenly throw one at you. And those are incredibly hard to obtain.
Even I haven’t received a single quest until now.
That’s probably because Arcadia’s quests are one-of-a-kind.
I don’t know how much they want to increase the realism, but in this game, a quest someone else has received cannot be received again by another person, and the result of a quest becomes fixed in the game.
Because of this, quests are known to be far more efficient than hunting.
Supposedly, clear parties are desperate to find quests like these.
And now a quest is just rolling right up to me?
“We’ve run out of ingredients for tonight’s dinner, you see. I should go myself, but there’s repair work during the day, so I can’t leave my post. That’s why I’m thinking of sending Lian instead… but I’m worried in various ways. I’d feel reassured if you went with him, miss.”
As soon as Ms. Kate finishes speaking, a window appears before my eyes.
[You have received a quest.]
[Go to Staria with Lian and procure ingredients.]
[Will you accept?]
I’m about to nod right away, but the moment I see the window, I hesitate.
Staria.
The place I left a week ago.
Because the fact that I have to go back there weighs on my mind.
But after worrying for a moment, I eventually nod.
“Of course I’ll help.”
This is a quest I somehow managed to receive.
As a player, there’s no way I can refuse such an easy freebie quest.
[You have accepted the quest.]
I rise from my seat.
“Should we leave right away?”
“I’ve arranged a carriage, so wait just a little. I’ve taught Lian most of what he’ll need, so don’t worry too much.”
“Yes. I’ll do that.”
Staria, huh…
Nothing will happen, right?