Game’s Dogma

​​​​​​​Two Double Shots were cast, and four arrows bolted through the air.

The two hunters weren’t particularly outstanding players, but having been part of the wolf pack that had been following Zephyrwolf in various games for so long, interrupting the enemy from drinking potions was a basic move. They did so without needing orders from their leader.

The pitiful Sasaki couldn’t heal himself and was shot instead, decreasing his health even further; he now had four per cent health left. 

Drako Yau was rendered speechless by his manoeuvre. He did instruct Sasaki to heal himself with potions, but that guy, he actually took a potion out right in the middle of the fight. Was he crazy?

Sasaki was forced into a retreat as he parried the arrows flying at him. Even basic attacks could deal considerable damage when stacked together, which was exactly what had happened to the cleric. Drako Yau had killed him without even casting a single skill.

The most annoying thing about basic attacks was that while they could not completely interrupt the Super Armour of skills, it was possible to hinder skill movements slightly. That sort of flinching irritated Sasaki a lot.

‘You cowards! You’re all men without balls!’ Sasaki shouted. It was the most vicious insult he, who had received upper class education, could come up with.

The hunters saw that their cooldown for Double Shot was over and immediately launched another barrage of arrows.

‘Die!’ Zephyrwolf also timed his Crescent Slash to the hunters’ skill as he charged. Even if Sasaki was proficient enough to block all four arrows with his sword, he wouldn’t be able to recover quick enough to block the Crescent Slash.

Weapons clashed against one another in a crisp clang. It sounded so realistic… that it didn’t sound like it was from a game.

Drako Yau threw his body, which wasn't exactly very robust, in front of Sasaki and swung his spear to intercept Zephyrwolf’s confidently-executed Crescent Slash. At the same time, four arrows came flying towards him. He flashed his gaze towards and projectiles and reached out with his right hand.

Just like that, he caught three arrows with his bare hand. The last one, however, whizzed past his shoulder and sent flesh and blood flying from the wound.

‘Ugh!’ Drako Yau gasped from the intense pain. What was wrong with this game, he thought. The pain was comparable to what he would feel in the actual world.

‘Guh…’ A low grumble came from behind as he gasped.

Drako Yau turned around. The warrior who had been chasing him took the opportunity to sneakily attack Sasaki. With merely four per cent health left, Sasaki only managed to grumble before he turned into a corpse. His soul levitated in the air as he looked at the warrior who struck him from behind furiously.

Regardless, the warrior could not see Sasaki who had turned into a soul. Sasaki immediately pressed the respawn button without sparing a look at the item lying on the ground, the only item he had equipped throughout the fight—his rare Fine Steel Longsword.

‘Boss! It dropped!’ The warrior quickly picked up the longsword and even used the Dash skill to regroup with Zephyrwolf.

‘Well done!’ Zephyrwolf gave him words of praise. Just like that, they managed to get their hands on a longsword which was worth 5,000 dollars. It was indeed impossible to get rich without windfalls.

‘Boss… What do we do with this guy?’

‘Hmph!’ Zephyrwolf glared at the man. He couldn’t tell why he was disgusted with the man, not to mention one of his brothers-in-arms lost a level because of him. ‘Kill him! His spear’s not a rare one, but an uncommon one will still sell for several hundred dollars! We’ll have a feast after we sell it!’

This time, it was even more one-sided. The result of the fight was clear right from the start.

Despite being a level lower than Dragonspear, Sasaki’s damage was on a different tier thanks to his rare longsword. Moreover, it was now four against one, leaving Drako Yau with one more enemy to deal with compared to Sasaki’s previous fight.

‘Hm? Weren’t you acting like you’re quite powerful a while back?’ Zephyrwolf taunted the sole spearman, unbothered by the fact that his attack had been parried. Four arrows were flying towards Drako Yau, and the other warrior was casting Crescent Slash at him as well.

Drako Yau didn’t reply. No, he didn’t have the leisure to do so. While these guys were trash compared to the old geezer, they had superiority in numbers. They had more hands at their disposal, and by coordinating their melee and ranged attacks, he was forced into a tough spot.

‘It really hurts…’ The wounds were racking up on his body, yet the damned health bar was nowhere to be seen in his user interface. He could tell he was not too far away from death.

He even hoped that he would die sooner so he could respawn in the city. He wouldn’t have to suffer like this that way. Even so, after having received training which was almost abusive from the old geezer, his spearmanship was deep in his bones. He barely had to think as he instinctively parried and blocked incoming attacks.

‘Boss! He can’t hold on for much longer!’

The four were all veteran gamers. Despite not being able to see the enemy’s health, they could approximately guess it. With how much damage they had been dealing, his health was probably down to one-fifth at this point.

‘Argh!’ An arrow embedded itself into Drako Yau’s shoulder with a thud.

‘Cheh! Are you even a man, screaming like a candy-ass just because of an arrow!’

Zephyrwolf was the only one who squinted his eyes. The guy looks tough and doesn’t seem like a sissy… Could he have set his pain perception to a hundred per cent? Is he a dumbass?

A pain perception of 100 per cent meant that the player’s brain would receive the actual pain feedback as one would expect in the actual world. Getting sliced by a sword in the game would feel exactly the same as getting sliced in real life.

However, players would no longer feel any pain upon reaching ten per cent health. The actual pain of getting killed… Even the company which published Real World couldn’t guarantee that it wouldn’t result in an actual death.

If the brain received the sensations of getting killed, it was possible for the person to actually die in real life. It was just like how people would feel like they were losing their balance in their dreams, only to be woken up by the supposedly virtual sensation.

While Zephyrwolf was deep in thought, a blinding flash of white exploded in front of them.

‘The heck!’

The flash knocked back the four assailants, but Drako Yau was devoured by the white light.

‘What is this place?’

Drako Yau looked around. The bloody site where they had been fighting at was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a vast whiteness that covered even the ground. It felt like he was standing within a purely white dimension.

‘Drako, my boy.’ An old, hoarse voice could be heard. It sent a shudder through his body.

‘Old geezer?’

‘Ho ho.’ The silhouette of an old man emerged from the white void. Although his face was full of wrinkles and his movements were reflective of his age, the elderly man still stood straight venerably like the shaft of a spear, staunch and unyielding.

‘Old geezer! Why are you here! Where have you been all these years! What is this place?’ Contrary to his cool composure, he spewed out a series of questions at the old man. The old geezer simply looked at the young man with calm, serene eyes.

Before I noticed, the kid’s all grown up already…

‘Drako, listen clearly to what I am about to say.’ The old geezer had a dead serious look, so stern that Drako Yau was a bit afraid. In his memories, the old geezer had always been a carefree person, as if he couldn’t care less about anything in the world.

‘This game… You must not die.

‘Or let me put it this way. To others, this is a game. To you, however, this isn’t a game. I can help you once, just once.’

The old geezer looked absolutely serious, so much that Drako Yau wanted to chuckle but realised he couldn’t.