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Chapter 1

ALL PHOTOS ARE NOT MINE

Welcome back, that was the first thing that popped up on the status screen in front of my eyes when I woke up. I looked around at my surroundings and I can tell I'm back on earth. It doesn't look the same but I can tell I'm back on earth. I'm still in the same clothes as I was when I was in another world a black and red kimono. Ah the other world that changed earth forever I remember as clear as day. Elder tale it was a brand new game for the vr. I remember waiting months for the game to come out. When it did come out something happened people started to disappear after completing the tutorial. At the time the game was so popular at launch that people didn't seem to notice or care, neither did I. That's when it happened I got sucked into the game. At least how I think I ended up there. I remember waking up and wondering where I was. I was in a huge empty room. The walls were made out of stone and the floor was concret, the room was in the shape of a circle. I was then approached by a man wearing a crown and robes as if he were a king. Later I found out he was the king. He then started to say "welcome to the Elder tale player." That is how it all started. It's how the earth got like this. When i say this i mean all the forest around me and no signs of life. Now you might be wondering how I got out and returned to earth. Well after the king greeted me he said you have been summoned to this world to defeat the evil demon king and after you defeat him you may return to your home world. And that is how I returned. I defeated the demon king. Now that I'm back I look around again and I start to wonder how did earth end up like this. It looks like something out of a video game. There are no more tall buildings in fact there are no buildings whatsoever. all it is is just trees and rocks and right in front of me is a status screen like in the game with the same words on it welcome back. I then stood up and the screen changed. It was my inventory and my character right in front of me. I still had the same items and all the same equipment and my level was the same 101 the highest level you can get in the game, well technically the highest level you can get. I saw I had all the same skills. I had one new one to astral projection it all so had numbers next to it 0% mastery. I found that none of my other skills had mastery. Wait wait wait if I'm back on earth then why do i have my skill and why do i have a status page. These were questions I needed to get answered. But the first thing I needed to do was get some food. I was starving. I started to look around for some animals. I hadn't seen anything but birds then I heard a noise. It was loud and I could definitely tell it was big by it, pretty much shaking the whole forest. I went towards the noise and there I saw a huge animal? Well actually i didn't know if it was an animal or not it looked to be 30 to 40 feet high it's head was just touching the top of the trees. It then looked down at me and I looked back. We both stared at each other and then started to run at me. I stood there frozen amazed by its height and in one split second it was down on the ground dead. I had a sword in my hand and the animal's legs had cut marks on them. How. Did that happen, did I do that? But at the moment I was so hungry that the thought went right out of my head and I went right away to cook the animal. I first got branches from trees and then I got stones and put them in a circle. Then I realized I had run into another problem: I don't know how to start a fire without magic or matches. When I was stuck in another world I used magic to light the fires that I started or would have someone else light them. The way i gained the powers is, When i was fighting this dragon in another world i gained the ability pyrokinesis the ability to control fire. which was awesome but the downside is i don't know how to light a fire now without that and right now I'm stuck in the woods and i'm guessing that there are no matches or a lighter. Then I remembered that when I woke up that the status screen when i was in the other world was here so maybe i can use the abilities i had in that world here. I tried and tried but nothing happened, no fire, no magic, nothing. All I have is some stick rocks and a dead animal. Laid down on the grass and closed my eyes. I then thought of something I haven't seen any people. Are there still people left in this world and another question: how did that animal die? These were good questions. But at the moment I was so tired and hungry I passed out.
Day 2 when I woke up I was starving but that was the least of my priorities right now. I needed to find people or see if there were people at all so I set off. I have been walking for hours and haven't seen any humans. I'm so tired and I'm so hungry. I think I might have found some evidence that there are humans. I have found some tracks in the ground though if this is a human's foot print that means we evolved and got duck feet because the footprints that i was looking at had webbing. I kept walking aimlessly. That's when I heard a blood curdling scream and it did not sound human. I started to panic so I did the most rashinonle thing I could do: hide behind a tree and pray for my life. I Kept hearing the scream and it got louder and louder to tell it stopped completely. I looked around and saw nothing. Then I looked up and there it was a humanoid like frog. Its body was that of a frog but I stood up on its legs and was about the size of a human. It held a spear. It jumped down from the tree and went right for me. I somehow dogged out of the way and it went off me again and again but somehow I dogged out of its way. I was so tired. Then a sword popped in my hands to be more accurate a katana popped into my hands. and before I knew it i was dashing towards the frog and i cut it in half i stood there for a moment. That's when it hit me all that dogging and movement and having nothing to eat in a couple of days I blacked out.
Day 3 I awoke but not on the ground but in a bed. I jumped out of it and went straight to the window. I saw a village with some people in it walking around it. I was so excited THERE WERE PEOPLE then i heard the door open and someone walk in it was a guy he looked to be in his 30s he had spiked Black hair and was wearing a black kimono. He greeted me, I stood there frozen and I couldn't speak. I defeated a demon lord and beat multiple different beasts that could have made the empire state build look tiny but I couldn't talk to him. In my past life on earth I was an introvert as people would say. I hate talking to other people. That is why I played tons of games. It was an escape from the outside, just me and my digital character. Then the guy spoke again. "Hello." This time I got enough courage to wave at him meekly. He waved black and said, "I guess you don't like to talk much do you," I nodded. He waved his hand and told me to follow him. When I got down the steps. It looked like it was at an inn. Then the guy spoke to me, "if you're wondering my name is Trevor and this is my inn last night a party of explorers found you lying on the ground next to a dead frog man." I nodded, he then asked me "how did you defeat that monster you don't look that strong and you certainly look famished that monster is also an A rank monster. I put my shoulders up to signify that I didn't know. He nodded again. "Well ok but you definitely need to eat some food." The man said I nodded "here" and he reached behind a counter and got a bowl of soup. It looked really good. I just dug in. After I finished my sixth bowl Trevor said: "how about you walk around the town and look around?" I nodded. And that is what I did. I must have walked around for hours to find this secluded area. It looked like this town was on a mountaintop. That is when I thought to myself what I should do. Should I try to discover what happened to the world or should I not and should I overcome my fear of talking to people about what I should do?
Day 4 I woke up on the same cliff side I remembered last night thinking about what I should do, should I try to figure out what happened to the world. Should I try to overcome my fear of talking to people? I walked back to the village to try and talk to the innkeeper when I got there he was on his porch. It looked like he slept there, I taped his shoulder gently to wake him up. He jolted up from the ground and grabbed my shoulders and he said. "Where did you go? Are you ok?" He said them pretty fast it seemed as if he were worried. I then spoke out loud for the first time since I came back. I told him that I walked around and ardently fell asleep on a cliff. I also told him that I was fine. He nodded. He then spoke "how about I get you something to eat." I nodded. When we walked inside he put a bowl of soup down. I ate it in an instant and I forgot how hungry I was. I then spoke. "Excuse me Mr. Trevor what happens to earth." He looked at me puzzled and asked what I meant by that. I then told him. What earth used to look like. The huge skyscrapers and the residential neighborhoods. He still looked at me puzzled and said. "Kid i still don't know what you mean earth has never looked like that but if it ever did i would go talk to the old man near the river he seems into old stuff." I nodded and then left the inn. I was walking down to the river. I thought to myself then I realized that I had just talked to another person without being scared or timid. I have finally overcome my fear of talking to other people. I jumped for joy. By the time I was done jumping I had reached the old man's cabin. It looked old and rugged. It looked as if it were about to fall over any second. I walked up to the door and knocked a couple of times. Then I heard footsteps. Then the door opened, and I looked in front of me and there was a tiny man about 3,5 he looked as if he were dead. He said, "What do you want?" I shyly said. "Mr. Trevor said to come to you about old history and stuff like that. "the old man spoke " did he know. " the old man moved out of the way and started to walk off " well what are you waiting for coming inside? ''I ran inside. I looked around and there were books everywhere and they were stacked on top of each other on the mountain wall. He was walking away and he started to say " my name is Snapper, people call me snaps." He then walked to a desk and sat down on a chair and then he said " So what kind of history are you looking for?" I then told him I was wondering what happened to the world. He looked at me puzzled and then started to say " what do you mean, what happened to the earth." I told him about the skyscrapers and the neighborhoods. He then looked at me shocked. He stood up on his chair and said " how do you know about the old world? Are you one of them." I looked at him confused and I said " what do you mean one of them? He then said " one of those demon priests." I asked him what a demon priest was. He then sat down and looked at me kind of relieved and said " well I guess that answers the question." "But that brings me to another question: how do you know of that time?" I told him. He then looked at me shocked and said " what do you mean you were alive during that time, that time was 4000 years ago kid." I was in shock. It's been 4000 years since I've been gone. I fell to the ground on my knees. "Well it seems that you were from that time I don't know how but I guess you were." the old man said. He got me a chair and I sat down. He then told me what happened. After I disappeared portals started to open up and army's and army's of demons came out and wreaked havoc on the world and calmed it for them. But then people started to rise up and fight these demons; they were called the 10 lords of earth. They all had special powers that other humans didn't like the power to control fire or super strength. They took down the demons and claimed the land. After that they disappeared off the earth completely. That was 1500 years ago, and the earth has been peaceful since then. "And that is what happened to the earth." I was in shock, I told him I needed to take a walk. He nodded and I left. I walked aimlessly for hours until I ended up at the same place on the cliff. I sat down and stared out on the horizon and thought to myself, what happened, what should I do now. Should I find out what happened to the lords of the earth or find out how or what dragged people into the other world? I then felt so tired it must have been all that walking before I knew it I passed out.