Marty Rider. This name was notorious in my school. This name was always whispered among students, they always talked that he was so bad at playing this hack & slash style VRMMORPG called Realm of Order Online that he was way far behind from them.
Unfortunately, that Marty Rider was me.
Because of that game, my school life was ruined. It made me stand out from the crowd because I was bad at it and it made me the target of the bullies in the process. But, this game was so addicting and popular among the students in my school that I couldn't quit. Furthermore, the reason why I fell behind others wasn't even my fault! When I first started to play this game, when the game was first officially released, I wasn't given a starter's equipment or anything. Not even a dagger! And my character was first spawned in an alleyway filled with garbage bins.
An average player would be given a starter's weapon, a piece of starter's armor, and a small house. A lucky player would be given a decent weapon, full armor, and a medium-sized house. An unlucky player would be given a starter's weapon and a really small house. But I got nothing. No starter's weapon, no piece of armor, no house. Well, at least my character had default clothes on.
And, from the looks of it, I was the only one who didn't receive anything.
When I finally got a short and rusted sword and a really cheap piece of armor by scavenging around the hunting grounds while being chased by monsters, I was finally able to hunt monsters. But I was fallen way behind every student in my school.
So, I tried catching up with them for months. Back then, our school students' average level was 60. But my level was 28. I'd slowly earned money by killing low-level monsters on the hunting grounds or in the dungeons for low-level players. I was not so low-leveled but due to my equipment, I had no choice but to hunt on the low-level hunting grounds or dungeons.
Whenever I'd earned enough money to buy some better armor and a sword, I tried to kill the bosses on the hunting grounds or in the dungeons or even go to places not meant for my level. But I always got killed and lost my 'better' equipment and some of the EXP that I'd earned. That was why I was slowly gaining Level. Oh, by the way, whenever you die in the Realm of Order Online, you lose the equipment that you'd equipped, all the things in your inventory, and some of the EXP you earned except for your money or bonus stats points.
I could've restarted the game by deleting my character, but I didn't because to me it felt like cheating.
Anyway, let's go back to the story that I'm telling you right now, shall we?
I stood up from my bed and walked into my room's bathroom. I washed my face with freezing cold water from the sink and then stared into the mirror. A boy who had long blond hair that reached his neck, green eyes, and slightly pointed ears stared back at me. I sighed and went back into my room.
Approaching my VR rig, I wiped my face with my white towel. The VR rig was kind of big. It looked like an exoskeleton suit made of slick white metal which gleamed in the room's light. A mechanical arm that moved up and down by itself was attached behind the headrest which was attached to the top of the VR mask, making it possible to cover the face of the player with the VR mask when he or she stepped inside the VR rig or uncover it when he or she finished playing.
I stared at the stupid thing for half a minute and looked at my hologram watch. It was a small round object which projected blue square hologram that showed the time. When I pushed the button on its side, the blue hologram appeared from the projector. It was 9 PM. It was late and I didn't even finish my homework and I didn't eat dinner yet.
I sighed and lifted the haptic suit from the ground. The haptic suit was the thing that allowed me to feel the things in the virtual world of the Realm of Order Online and the VR mask that was attached to the VR rig allowed me to smell. It simulated every kind of feeling: warmth, cold, pain, and etc. while the mask stimulated every smells. There were some small plugs on the back of the haptic suit that got inserted into the small sockets inside the VR rig whenever people stepped into it, powering the suit up while linking with the chips on the headrest.
The VR rig was different from any other VR equipment. While other VR gaming equipment was required for the players to move, restricting their movements, breaking the immersion in the process, this equipment simulated the dynamic movements without the player moving. There were some chips that sent signals into the brain on the headrest, making the owner of the brain believe that he or she was doing things like running or jumping while in reality, the owner did nothing.
So basically, the VR rig was a computer itself, the VR mask was the computer monitor, and the haptic suit was the mouse and keyboard.
So, for example, if someone ran inside the Realm of Order Online, the chips on the headrest would make your brain believe that you were moving your arms and legs, and the haptic suit linked with the chips would simulate the wind touching your skin and the feeling of your foot making contact with the ground while the VR mask shows you the world of Realm of Order Online, the environment passing by your view, making your eyes believed that you were actually running inside this virtual world.
I threw the haptic suit next to the rig and then walked across my room to my desk. My room was slightly big, enough to fit in a bed, my VR rig, my desk, and a small fridge. It was not clean tho, with some dirty clothes lying here and there while some cans of coke littered among them. I really should clean them up someday, but first I'd to do my homework. I sat on the chair in front of the desk and pulled the school-issued tablet out of my backpack. Every textbook was coded into this tablet, and students used the tablets to do the homework and write notes in class. I turned it on and touched the icon for the math textbook when the screen showed the main menu. Soon, I was solving math problems by writing mathematical formulas on the screen with the thin school-issued tablet pen that came with the tablet.
I wanted to go back into the Realm of Order Online again, but couldn't because I'd to do my homework.
And sometimes, I really wanted to just throw the homework away.
"Loser!"
A guy shouldered me aside while walking past me. I was walking to the high school's cafeteria when this happened. The force knocked me to the side and I fell to the ground. I heard the guy's friends laughing as they walked further away. I cursed under my breath while slowly standing up. I heard snickers from other students walking past me, and I saw a few of them glancing sideways at me.
I sighed and just walked on, ignoring their snickers and glances.
When I entered the cafeteria, all the commotion died slightly, and I felt many eyes setting themselves onto me. I was carrying a small sack that contained a sandwich, and it didn't get squashed when I fell onto the ground. I moved to the nearest table while keeping my head down. The students who were already sitting there stood up and moved away. I sat on the long chair while putting the sack on the table. I pulled the sandwich out from the sack and sank my teeth into it. The taste of peanut butter and chocolate-filled my mouth as I chewed.
My parents worked for NASA and they worked in other places most, if not all, the time so I'd to make food for myself.
I glanced up from my sandwich and looked at the other students who were eating their lunches on other tables. Some were eating sandwiches which were made by their parents or eating the food that they bought from the school cafeteria with their parent's money.
I glanced down at my sandwich and continued eating.
The school had ended. The street in front of the school building was crowded with students who were heading to their homes or waiting for their parents or their parents' auto cars to pick them up.
I was standing on the edge of the sidewalk and I was turning the app for auto cab service on my smartphone. My smartphone was a 3 mm thin, slick and blue high-tech machine which had 50 terabytes of storage. This smartphone was charged by a recharging pad which only needed the smartphone to be placed on it in order to recharge it.
When the app was activated, a map of this region appeared on the slick screen. My location was pinpointed on the school icon with a red arrow. There was a search bar on the top of the screen. I touched it and typed my home address on it. Suddenly, my smartphone screen was showing the retracted map of the region, my house being pinpointed with another red arrow near the top of my smartphone screen while the school, still being pinpointed by the red arrow, was near the bottom of the screen. A long zigzagging red line was connecting both of the arrows, showing me the path the auto cab would take me.
There was a 'Call Auto Cab' button at the bottom of the screen. When I pressed it a notification indicating that an auto cab was dispatched appeared on my screen. I put my smartphone inside the pocket of my jeans and sighed. The wind was blowing steadily while the sunlight warmed the skin of my face. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the wind rustling my hair while ignoring the sounds of laughter that came from behind me.
A few minutes later, the auto cab had arrived. It'd parked in front of me, the front door opening automatically. I stepped in, the door closing automatically. The interior of the auto cab was nearly not different from ordinary cars. The only difference was that there was no steering wheel on the auto cab. Instead, there was a thumb scanner.
I pressed the thumb on the scanner and waited a moment for it to complete its scan. When it was finished, I felt my smartphone vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out and checked it. Sure enough, the message told me that some amount of my money was sent to the auto cab company.
My backpack was pressed against the seat, making its content, which was the tablet, press into my back. I removed the backpack and placed it on the seat next to me. Then, I went into business. There was free WIFI on the auto cab, so it was possible for me to use the internet. I quickly entered the official website of Realm of Order Online. Then, I accessed the map of the game that was on full display on the main page. The world of the Realm of Order Online was huge, consisting of several continents and hundreds or maybe even thousands of big and small islands.
According to the lore, the islands and the continents used to form a one, huge continent, but when the forces of Realm of Chaos invaded the world of Realm of Order, this goddess named 'Eldria' was forced to unleash a destructive power capable of destroying and reforming landscapes located in the center of the continent to destroy the forces of the Realm of Chaos. As a result, the continent shattered into countless pieces, large and tiny, big and small. Now, by just looking at the map, people would realize in a second that something cataclysmic had gone off in the middle of the world: the center of the map, where the destructive power had been unleashed, looked like an almost-circular ocean with no lands within its radius; tiny islands that looked like shattered pieces of dishes spread around the almost-circular ocean, the islands getting bigger the further it got from the center; and the continents surrounded them while small islands lay between the continents as if they were some pieces that got torn out from continent.
I touched the biggest continent of the Realm of Order-which was located on the southeast direction-on the map, and it instantly zoomed closer, showing me the large Imperil Empire who ruled more than half of the continent; the Avolon Kingdom who was placed above the Imperil Empire; and the Alebion Alliance who was also placed above the Imperil Empire and the Avalon Kingdom while sharing their borders. I touched the land of the Avolon Kingdom, making it zoom closer to show all the dungeons and other facilities on its land. I observed the countless dungeon or hunting ground icons on the map, sometimes zooming in closer or swiping the screen with my finger to move my perspective of the map to other places. Finally, I settled on a forest called 'Endless Forest' near the place where I lived: the Greendale City located on the upper side of the kingdom's land, almost near the border that separated the kingdom and the Alebion Alliance. The forest consisted of hunting grounds where goblins lived. They were for low-level players, but with my 'new' equipment gone, I'd to wear the old ones which forced me to hunt in low-level places.
Then, I went to the page that was filled with descriptions about monsters of the Realm of Order Online and touched the picture of a goblin. It contained detailed information about the goblin classes, attack patterns, and loots that they dropped.
Just what I was looking for.
Whenever I died and was forced to hunt in low-level dungeons or hunting grounds, I always changed the places where I hunt to keep this gaming experience exciting. So, after I chose where I'd hunt, I try my best to search for any information on the monsters that inhabited there, reading their attack patterns and such. A few days ago, when I started to hunt in the Mine of Darksteel, I did research on the orcs, including the boss Orc King. It mentioned that the Orc King had a grabbing motion, and it was stated that it'd be activated when the player was too slow when he or she ran around or did something similar to that. Well, because of that one move from it, I was destroyed yesterday night.
It'd been a while since I hunted on a place where goblins lived, so I'd to study about them again. I read all about them again and again while the auto cab got closer and closer to my house.
"A goblin archer takes some time to latch a new arrow to its bow, and it is advised to attack it at that moment . . ."
The auto cab had reached my house a few minutes later. When I stepped out while holding my backpack in my left hand, the front door, which had opened for me to get out, closed automatically, and the auto cab drove off.
My house looked like other houses on the street: looking as if it was made of several white boxes, glass windows placed here and there, and a wide solar panel attached to the top. I walked across the lawn in front of the house and stopped in front of the front door. A slick-looking hand scanning lock was installed on it, unlocking only for me and my parents.
When I pressed on the smooth surface of the lock that scanned my hand. After a few seconds of waiting, the lock chimed a bell and I heard it unlock itself. I opened the door, stepped in, and closed the door behind me, the sound of the chime ringing again accompanied by the sound of the hand scanning lock locking itself. The front door led into a hallway, which led to the living room consisting of a long sofa, a large and thin TV, a coffee table, and a bookcase. I walked across the hallway, entered the living room, and then entered the kitchen that was linked to the living room with a doorway. I went up to the smart fridge that had a large smart screen attached to the surface, showing what time it was and the date. The fridge had three compartments, one on the bottom side that opened up like a drawer, and two on the upper side that opened like doors. And in one of the door's surface was the large smart screen.
I opened that particular door, revealing some soft drinks behind it. I grabbed a can of soda, closed the door of the fridge, and walked back into the living room. There was a staircase that led to the second floor where the bedrooms and a bathroom were located, all linked by a hallway. After walking up the staircase, I walked through the hallway, passing by the door to my parents' room and reached the door to my room. I entered the room and threw the backpack toward the desk while grunting angrily, making it land on the ground beside my chair in a heap.
While sighing, I opened the can of soda, drank down its fizzy content, and then threw it onto the ground in frustration, making the sounds of the can rattling fill the room for a moment. When the can finally rolled to a stop in front of the VR rig after making the ruckus, I marched up to it and proceeded to stomp on it again and again while yelling angrily until it was completely squashed onto the ground.
When I stopped, I was breathing heavily while a drop of sweat rolled down the side of my face and fell to the ground. I put a hand on the VR rig in front of me as my heavy breathing slowly subsided. I was frustrated with myself always having to hunt in low-level places while others were taking cool or exciting quests from the NPCs. And, I was angry that I'd died yesterday night, making me go back to square one.
But I knew that unleashing my frustration on a can wasn't going to help me.
I should unleash it inside the game.
After washing my hands in my room's bathroom, I grabbed the haptic suit and quickly equipped it. And then, I stepped into the VR rig. I heard the clicks of the plugs being inserted into the sockets of the VR rig. When the plugs were inserted into the sockets, the VR rig turned on automatically. Then, I heard the mechanical arm moving behind my head and saw that the mask was swinging down to cover my face.
When the mask completely enclosed on my face, I saw only darkness. Then, the glowing logo of the Galaxysoft appeared in front of me. It stayed there for five seconds, glinting as if it was made of a nebula and disappeared.
Finally, a bright light filled my vision.
I spawned in my 'small house' which was an overstatement because my 'small house' was no bigger than an ordinary hut. My house only had one room. In this room, there was a wooden chair, a wooden chest, a mirror, and a small wooden bed with no blanket or pillow. That was all I had in my house.
I was lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. I stood up quickly and then stared into the mirror, which was hanging on the wall. My character's face stared back at me. I made my virtual character to look like myself from reality, only my virtual character was a human elf hybrid. That was why my character's ears were much more pointer, the skin was much paler, the hair was longer, and the height was taller than myself and more good-looking than me. Also, I'd made my character's shoulders broader.
I opened the wooden chest to reveal my first set of equipment; the rusted short sword and the rusted armor. I put the armor on by touching the blue holographic [Equip] button, which was hovering beside it, and grabbed my short sword by its hilt. Then, I touched the half-transparent [Inventory] button on the bottom-right corner of my view to make the inventory page appear in front of me, and then pressed the sword onto it. The sword disappeared from my hand and appeared inside the inventory.
After closing it and giving both of my arms a good stretch, I turned on my stats display by touching another half-transparent [Character Stats] button on the top-right corner of my vision observed it with my downcast eyes.
[Marty-Warrior
Race: Human Elf Hybrid
LV: 28
HP: 2800.0
MP (magic points): 0.0
EXP: 0.01
Strength: 31
Speed: 39.5
Intelligence: 42
(Attribute Points: 0)
Skills: None
Gold Coins: None
Silver Coins: None
Bronze Coins: 5
Copper Coins: 9]
Yep, that's my stats. Other Level 28 players' stats were much better than mine. I had high intelligence but no MP so I couldn't learn any skills. I didn't have any MP because I thought I didn't need it and invested my bonus stats points on other things. In this game, you earned bonus stats points when you gain a level. The fact that I didn't have any skills was kind of sad because even Level 5 players were capable of doing or learning skills.
I bet that even the noobs would laugh at me after they take a look at my stats.
And I was very poor. In the Realm of Order, ten copper coins were worth one bronze coin, hundred bronze coins were worth one silver coin and hundred silver coins were worth one gold coin. As you can see, I only had nine copper coins and five bronze coins. But I could still buy some really cheap shield with my bronze coins.
I still had some hopes left.
I closed the stats display and opened the fragile-looking door of my 'small house.' The warm sunlight and the cool wind of the Realm of Order Online greeted me while I walked out of my house and closed the fragile door behind me.
I lived within the walls of Greendale City which was owned by this NPC named Lord Melric. The city was on the big side, a big and round wall surrounding the buildings inside. Rows and rows of mountains stood boldly in the north of the city while the endless forest of the Endless Forest was blocking the view in the east. And, countless crop fields were on the south and the west.
The city showed obvious wealth gaps in its walls. First, there was the wealthy zone. It was located in the middle of the round city, and it included the market place and the lord's castle. There were rows of big and luxurious-looking two or three stories high wooden and cobblestone houses along the streets. And the NPCs in the wealthy zone were dressed in fancy clothes while the players that lived there were high-levels and wore or wielded expensive and powerful equipment. The second one was the middle-class zone, located around the wealthy zone. In this place, houses were smaller and less 'rich-looking' than before while normal NPCs like farmers and normal players with normal equipment lived. Then there was the poverty zone that surrounded the rest of the zones while touching the round walls that surrounded all three of the zones. Also, this was the place where my house was. The houses were only one story tall and were really small and dirty. The streets seemed to be not cleaned at all, more than fifty percent of the people were poor NPC farmers or poor players who killed low-level animals or monsters for money like me. But the rest, who were NPCs, was just people who wanted to use less money on houses. Well, by the looks of their clothes, at least.
I walked through the small and dirty streets toward the marketplace. Some poor NPCs waved their hands at me while walking past, saying friendly words like; "Hello!" or "Greetings!". The poor NPCs who lived in the poverty zone of the city were kind to me because I wasn't a stuck up like most of the players and I did their quests whenever possible, even though only players around Level 1 to 10 does them. I waved back at them.
"Oh, Marty!" Looking back, I saw a young farmer wearing dirt-covered tunic and trousers holding a fork walking up to me, a crooked smile spreading across his face. "How are you doing?"
"Pretty good," I lied. I didn't know any of the NPCs' names, but their faces were familiar.
"I just wanted to thank you for helping me carry the bag of beans to my house," he said, scratching his dirty hair.
"You're welcome," I answered. "Just ask me anytime whenever you need help."
"I will." He waved cheerfully at me. "Have a nice day."
I hope, I thought.
As I continued walking, some players that I passed by looked at me and sneered or whispered.
"There goes the loser," I heard one human male character whispering to a female elf.
"Look at him," a dwarf character who walked past me said to his friend, another dwarf, "he's wearing his pathetic armor again!"
His friend laughed out loud. "Yeah, what a loser," I heard him say from behind.
All of them were wearing much better equipment than mine; armor that consisted of two or three layers and weapons that looked as if they were made with more care.
I ignored them while walking. After walking through the middle-class zone and entering the wealthy zone, I finally entered the marketplace. The marketplace was a huge place full of players while NPC merchants, traders, dealers, and shopkeepers were yelling and showing the players their new swords, potions, armors, and other cool stuff that I couldn't buy from their stalls or in front of their shops.
"Goblin made Rank B swords for only twenty-five silver coins!"
"Rank S Potion of healing for only one gold coin!"
"Selling Rank A rings! Selling Rank A rings!"
"Selling wands and staffs for magic wielders and users!"
And the marketplace was really noisy.
I walked toward the shop named 'Adventurer's Treasure' and opened the door. The shop was small but bigger than my 'small house.' The walls were hanging with heads of every kind of monsters, swords, shields, and other things that warriors used for their adventures or hunting. And the NPC shopkeeper, Dain, was standing behind the wooden counter.
When I stepped in, he greeted me. "Hello, Marty," Dain said while smiling. "Please, take a seat." Dain was a retired dwarf adventurer. He was short, had small blue eyes, short black hair which was turning into gray due to his age, had a long black beard, and had a really rough voice. He now sold stuff to players like me; the poor folks. He was the only NPC shopkeeper who sold things cheaply to me.
"Hey, Dain," I answered and rested myself on the chair that was placed in front of the counter.
"So," he said. "How was your hunting?"
I sighed. "Not good."
"Where did you go?" he asked while pouring some water into a cup.
I scratched my head. "Mine of Darksteel," I said.
Dain whistled. "That's a pretty dangerous place for your level!" he exclaimed. "So, what happened?"
"For days, I killed some stupid orcs that inhabited there." I grumbled, "and challenged the stupid Orc King yesterday."
"Did you win?" Even though he asked it, from his expression, I knew that he already understood what the conclusion was.
This game was so realistic that the facial expressions of the NPCs were life-like.
I shook my head. "Nah, it killed me with its gigantic war hammer."
"Well, you could challenge other minor bosses," Dain said helpfully.
"Well, if I die this time, I have to start all over again," I said. "From scratch!"
"What do you mean by 'from scratch'?" he asked.
"This is my last equipment," I said while gesturing at my armor. "If I die, I'll lose this and my trashy sword, and I have to earn some money again by scavenging in the dungeons or hunting grounds."
"Do you want some drink?" he changed the subject while offering me the cup of water.
"Yes, please." I accepted the cup of water and started to drink it.
"So, are you here to buy a new shield again?" he asked.
"Yep," I said and put the empty cup on the counter.
"Well, today's your lucky day!" Dain said cheerfully and pointed at the right wall where the shields were hanging. "Good shields came in yesterday and I'll sell them cheaply for you only."
I stood up and walked toward the wall while looking at the shields which were hanging on the wall and examined them. There were all sorts of shields on the wall. Big ones, small ones, round ones, etc. But when I checked the price tags, it was Rank S horror. Even though Dain was selling them cheaply, they were still expensive. Eight bronze coins, ten bronze coins, one silver coin, etc. etc. Then one shield took my eyes. Well, not literally because there was no curse in this game that took players' eyes.
The shield which took my attention was a medium-sized ancient Greek style shield. The shield was entirely red while the edges were black. Elegant silver lines decorated the shield, and in the center, a golden rune was carefully carved onto it. It glowed warmly when I walked near to it.
The shield was a beauty. I'd never seen a shield like this before! So, I touched the holographic [Shield Stats] button which was hovering beside the shield.
[Unidentified Shield-???
Defense Points: ???
Durability: 100%
Description: This shield was found and retrieved from the Dungeon of Abyss. The shopkeeper of 'Adventurer's Treasure' tried to identify this shield by using his magical items but failed. You can feel an unknown power lurking within this shield
Option: ???
Restriction: ???]
Huh? The Rank, Defense Points, Required Strength, option, and the Restriction were unidentified! And even Dain couldn't identify this shield which was surprising because Dain was really good at identifying unidentified stuff. And I could feel something from the shield like the description stated; sort of a tingly sensation to be more exact.
Then I checked the price tag. Six bronze coins.
It made sense that this shield was cheap because it wasn't identified. Unidentified equipment was dangerous because it could've been cursed. One time, when I was at this shop about two weeks ago, a player bought an unidentified sword from a shop and was instantly attacked by a wraith that was bound to the sword before he could even get out of the place. He was torn into pieces in a few seconds in front of my own eyes.
Well, it was the cheapest shield in the shop so I took it off from the wall and put it on the counter.
"I think I'm going to buy this," I said.
Dain looked at the shield and frowned. "Well, it could be risky because it's not identified," he said. "This shield might be cursed, you know."
"I'm risking it," I said. "Maybe it could be really good."
Dain smiled. "I hope so. Because a boy like you deserves good equipment." Then he examined the price tag after taking it off of the shield. "Six bronze coins . . . then I'll sell this for three bronze coins."
"I'll give you five."
Dain made a surprised expression on his face that looked so realistic that I thought that he was a real human for a moment. Then he broke into a burst of hearty laughter. "You're too kind, Marty."
I smiled at him. "Thank you."
After I paid him, I equipped the new shield onto my left arm by pressing the holographic [Equip] button that floated next to it with my left hand. The shield looked great! It was way better than my old shield. I said goodbye to Dain and walked out of the shop. Strangely, the shield was making me more confident than usual.
I stood in front of the shop's door while waiting for something bad to happen. Nothing bad happened. I guess this shield wasn't cursed after all. Suddenly, groups of level hundred players-who were riding their dragon mounts-flew through the sky, shouting and laughing joyfully. I looked up and watched them while smiling to myself.
Someday, I'm going to be like them. Someday, I'm going to have fun in this stupid game. Someday . . .
Sadly, I could only imagine. But I promised myself that the day would come someday. I hoped it came sooner because I was getting desperate.
For now, I had some monster hunting to do.
After walking through all the zones, I walked through the east gate of the Greendale City while greeting the NPC gatekeeper who was guarding the gigantic stone gate.
"Keep up the good work!" I said.
"You too, citizen!" He answered.
When I went through the gate, I walked along the path to the Endless Forest where the goblin-infested hunting grounds were located. I looked at my new shield again and smiled. I felt that things were going my way for once.
"Maybe today would be my lucky day," I said to myself.
Suddenly, a rustling noise came from behind me. I whirled around, but saw nothing but bushes and trees.
Maybe it was the wind, I thought and then continued walking.