NOVEL NEXT Episode 6
Episode 6
…It’s hot.
A heat that feels like it’s burning my skin envelops me.
When I open my eyes, I see fire.
Is this a village? Houses are burning.
Looking around, people are fleeing. They seem like real inhabitants of another world.
As someone experiencing another world, I want to give them a passing grade.
“And, thieves are attacking! Run!”
…The voice is probably created by AI, but it doesn’t feel out of place.
AI technology these days is incredible.
“Hey, you.”
I call out to the person running nearby.
The woman approaches me with a panicked expression.
“Oh, you’re a foreigner, aren’t you?! Please run away immediately! Thieves are attacking this village!”
As God mentioned, we players seem to be called foreigners.
“What will happen if they catch you?”
“W-Well… that…”
She pales.
…Wow. The AI can really carry on a conversation well.
It’s just like a real person. The changes in expression, the sweat in response to panic, even the detail of clothes stained by fire is amazing.
Animating something like this in 3D must be quite challenging. Technology has advanced quite a bit while I’ve been away from Earth for a year.
“Heh, hey, lady! Let’s play together, big bro!”
“Eek!”
“Hey, thief? I saw this woman first!”
“Eek!”
The woman screams at both me and the thief.
Of course, it’s just a joke, right? I hope they don’t make faces like, “Which way should I run!?”
But still, these characters are really full of humanity.
“Hah, what can a scrawny foreigner like you do?! Die!”
The thief, level 1.
My level… Checking my status, I’m also level 1.
Well, it’s just the tutorial.
I easily dodge the thief’s attack coming straight at me and swiftly decapitate him.
No blood, but something like data appears as particles, and the thief dies.
Attacking weaknesses seems to deal heavy damage.
Against humans, cutting off the head means death.
“Acquired title [First Critical (G-rank)]. Gained 1 status point!”
…What’s this?
The next moment, details appear.
“In this world, you can acquire titles according to your actions. Acquiring titles allows you to gain points to enhance your status. Some titles can only be acquired by a few players. These titles can also be transferred, so enjoy the gameplay to your advantage.”
…So, this is about individuality.
MMOs are generally supposed to be equal, but… this is completely different.
This applies even at the VR stage.
You’re actually using your own body. If you haven’t trained well in the real world, you’d struggle even in combat with these thieves.
People like me, who feel less agile than in reality, are probably only those who are well-trained, like soldiers or athletes.
The sensation of cutting through flesh lingers. Beginners would probably hate this until they get used to it.
But without realism, would there be people who confuse reality and virtuality and try to carry out actions?
Anyway, it’s sad that everything feels nostalgic to me.
After defeating one thief, I immediately scan the surroundings.
…In reality, I could use reconnaissance magic to grasp the surrounding enemies, but not now.
However, this virtual reality is almost indistinguishable from reality.
If I listen closely, I can hear voices and footsteps. By sensing the atmosphere, I can even perceive sounds of moving air.
If I pick up sounds, I can accurately pinpoint the enemies’ positions. Having located them, I observe their movements from the shadows of the building.
There they are. Two thieves. They’ve caught a woman and are completely off guard.
…Immediately kicking the ground, I closed in on the thief from behind and slashed his throat from the rear.
“What!?”
“You!”
“Too slow!”
Swinging his sword, but I parried with my left-hand dagger and decapitated him with my right-hand dagger.
…It wasn’t like this was allowed even in another world to kill people so freely.
This world is a game, so it’s even more free than another world.
“Are you not gonna… object to me touching your chest or something?”
I touched the chest of the woman who was caught by the thief and trembling, but there was no sensation.
The woman screamed, and another thief who noticed approached.
Seeing a human shadow from the corner of a crumbling building, I threw the knife the thief had.
“Guah!?”
“Ooh, direct hit!”
Perfect timing, caught the thief’s throat.
Another thief came from behind, but level 2.
Wait, isn’t my level going up?
“You! How dare you kill my comrade!”
“That was unfortunate. As an apology, I’ll send you to your comrade right away!”
The thief swung his dagger, but I handled it all. And when I tried cutting the Achilles tendon…
“Guah? Ah, my leg won’t move…!”
“…Huh?”
Quite sturdy, huh.
Experiment concluded. While looking at the despair-filled face of the thief, I decapitated him.
“Acquired title [Serial Killer (G-rank)]. Gained 1 status point.”
A killer… Seriously? Am I considered a murderer now?
In MMOs, if you kill a player, it’s sometimes called PK.
Such players may be subject to some restrictions, but well, it’s just a tutorial, so it should be okay, right?
Or rather, I get titles, but it seems like I don’t get experience points. Probably because it’s a tutorial.
…But wait a minute.
Titles related to killing people probably aren’t easy to get, right?
I don’t particularly plan to focus on PvP.
My main content is contributing to Mai.
…Then, maybe I should earn as much as I can now.
And it might be a condition for unlocking the assassin profession.
Well, there might not even be an assassin profession, but it’s common in normal games, right?
Original Author’s Comment:
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Thank you for reading this far!
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