NOVEL NEXT chapter 2
Episode 2. The Loner Becomes a Totem (2)
The post quickly garnered replies.
[CloakAndDagger: What’s a Sans?]
[Donuts: Welcome]
[Lololol: Nighttt lmfaooooo murderrr]
[ShotgunBlast: This guy had fun with Undertale]
[LoveDeathMeow: (Watches the noob curiously) Meow meow meow…]
[HolyHolyKnight: Noob hi hi~]
[CowgirlBikiniDance: Legendary nick lol]
ᄂ [PsshPssh: Not your place to say]
My aggressive nick probably made me seem like a noob.
Or rather, it’s better than being ignored.
I continued momentum and wrote the next post.
[How do you change your nick?]
I figured changing my nick is better than deleting posts.
Deleting posts now wouldn’t prevent future headaches when I post again with this nick.
Replies to my second post came 30 minutes later.
The most anxious 30 minutes of my life. I kept refreshing my post.
Felt like I blinked my eyes thousands of times.
[NotANetKarma: ᄏ]
– …
So annoying.
ᄂ [Then say it instead of laughing]
The reply came very quickly.
[NotANetKarma: You a pingf*?]
Pingf… was that short for princess finger?
Meaning someone who asks without even searching because their fingers are princesses.
[I don’t have fingers]
This isn’t a joke. I don’t have fingers, toes, eyes, nose, or mouth.
I’m just a shiny piece of wood.
[NotANetKarma: Crazy mf]
[How do you change nick?]
[NotANetKarma: Stfu and lurk for 3 days. Just read for 3 days without attracting attention. You’ll need to read a lot if you want to survive here.]
[Then you’ll tell me how to change my nick?]
[NotANetKarma: ᅩ]
The conversation ended with that emoticon.
Lurk… I do only have time now.
Since I don’t know when the priestess Paya will wake, skimming the community once could be good.
There are more pages than I expected.
Maybe I should start from the very first page?
I’m curious what the first people to join were like.
Were they suddenly possessed into the game like me?
I blinked to the first page.
[Spot: ?] (5)
[BoomBoom: Anyone there?] (35)
[JackOLantern: What is this?] (5)
[Pugman123: .] (4)
[Abraham: Where is everyone from?] (8)
[FluffyFluffy: Is this a hidden camera? Cave special?] (3)
[Kim Manbok: I have one question. What is this “community”…?] (7)
Most of the posts are from people who don’t understand the situation yet.
There’s even someone who doesn’t know what a community is.
Another notable trait is…many comments on the posts?
I looked at the post with the most comments, by Dabudabu. A whopping 35 comments.
[Dabudabu: Is anyone there?
I’m a 37-year-old man living in Anyang, Gyeonggi-do.
I’m writing chaotically because the situation is not good.
I’m currently alone in a cave.
I went to sleep at home and when I woke up, I was here.
At first I thought it was a nightmare, but it wasn’t.
Aside from the strange armor I’m wearing, this body I’m moving in now isn’t my original one.
I don’t know what I’m saying either. I’m controlling someone else’s body right now.
It’s a Caucasian man with blue eyes. Someone I’ve never seen before.
I hear strange sounds coming from outside.
It sounds like laughter, and also screams.
It doesn’t seem to be human voices, but I can’t tell what animal it is.
I’m too scared to go outside.
Is this hell? Are you people reading my post even human?
I haven’t eaten anything for two days now. I don’t think I can hold out much longer.
Please respond if you see this. I beg you.]
You can feel the desperation and fear in the post. It made me feel heavy too while reading.
Let me check the comments.
[Dotty: I also woke up in a cave]
[Gustav: I also woke up in a cave, in a different body, transported somewhere else]
[Jacky Lantern: We all woke up in caves huh. Where are you from? What’s Gyeonggi-do Anyang?]
– [Shinto Fire: Gyeonggi-do Anyang is a region in Korea. The poster and I are Korean.]
– [Jacky Lantern: I’m from Germany. All the posts here are in German for me. Looks like language is translated automatically here.]
Not just Koreans, but people from other countries seem to be possessed into this game world.
Most comments empathize with the poster, asking various questions since they don’t understand their situation well yet.
[George: Did you happen to read a strange email before bed?]
This comment was perceptive.
– [Dabudabu: I don’t remember well. I think I did. I checked several emails but can’t recall clearly.]
– [George: You probably read an email from Survive as a Knight.]
– [Dabudabu: Ah right, an invitation from the defunct game. I read it and deleted it thinking it was a prank.]
– [George: There we go.]
– [George: I’ll make a post, read it.]
I scrolled down to find George’s post.
It had even more comments than Dabudabu’s.
[George: Listen up everyone.
My name is George Nelson. I’m 51 years old and served 23 years in the US Marine Corps.
I’ve grasped the situation and can help you all out.
I don’t know how much time you have left, so I’ll just give the key points quickly.
You reading this probably woke up suddenly in a cave.
In someone else’s body, wearing strange armor. There’s probably a sword and shield next to you.
Don’t overthink it, just listen. You’re now a wandering knight in the game world of Survive as a Knight.
Don’t ask why, how, what. I don’t know either.
What’s certain is you got an email from the defunct game company, clicked the white chat box in your vision corner, and found this community.
You’re probably still in the cave because of the bizarre noises outside. Sounds you’ve never heard before, horrifying.
As you know, caves have no food or water. You can drink bat water or underground spring water but it’s very unhealthy.
I’m telling you clearly. You need to get out of the cave before your health runs out, before you’re too hungry and weak to fight.
What’s lurking outside are beasts mutated by demon magic.
The ward against demons carved into the cave will protect you temporarily, but its effect disappears after 72 hours.
Before that, brace yourself and fight the beasts.
They already know you’re in the cave. You can’t avoid fighting them.
Kill them while you’re still healthy and move locations.
Luckily these new bodies of ours have learned various combat skills. With full health, we can win.
After going outside, it’s still important to be careful.
If you see a floating round organism in the sky, duck down before being spotted.
If spotted, get out of the area as quickly as possible. They’re the demon’s cameras, CCTV.
If you stay in the same place after being discovered, every creature nearby will attack you in minutes.
Like the game lore, most areas are occupied by demons and demon worshippers.
Head to places with as few people as possible. Go into the mountains and find a new shelter.
Don’t even glance at lights in the distance. If you see a city or town, go the opposite way.
Going that way, you’ll have to fight hundreds of monsters alone.
You can’t win just coming out of the cave. You need sufficient experience first.
Be sure to cook and eat any infected animals you kill.
I’ll say it again. We’re wandering knights, and this world was ruined by demons.
Surviving is priority one, everything else comes after.
Kill the demons, worshippers, mutated monsters and gain experience.
Like the game you know, we get stronger only by defeating monsters.
Good luck.]
This could be called the first informational/strategy post in this community.
But something feels off no matter how I think about it. Caves? Knights?
Just in case, I checked the comments.
[Jackylantan: You’re right. A knight. That’s what it was.]
[ShintoBuddhist: I knew I had seen that emblem on the armor somewhere before.]
[Dabudabu: I don’t really understand. Did someone recreate a game I played in real life?
ᄂ [Jackylantan: Uncle, that’s not important right now. It’s been two days. Go out and fight before it gets harder to keep going.]
[Fullplay: After reading this, I picked up a sword and shield. It feels very familiar, like I’ve used them a lot.]
[Gustavro: Thank you, brother.]
[Dotted: Can we return home?]
ᄂ [George: For now, let’s not think that far ahead. Safety first.]
The next comment was rather interesting.
[Wonbuls: Fallen into a game world, is it? Makes me wonder. Did we all fall into the same world? Or parallel worlds with similar environments?]
I hope we fell into the same world.
Even after reading all the comments, the subsequent posts didn’t contain the information I wanted.
Knight, knight, knight.
No one seemed to question that they had awoken as knights.
As if becoming a knight was only natural once in this world.
…Am I the only one who woke as a totem?
Am I the only Loa?
This is definitely not normal.