novelraw Chapter 5 : Chapter 5
Chapter 5 : Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Lightning’s livestream chat exploded.
【??? Isn’t this supposed to be one of those “one slash deals 999 damage” browser games? I went to sleep and woke up a hundred years later or what?】
【The art design for this game is actually amazing!】
【Link, link! Someone give me the link. I’m tempted too. Potter, wait for me.】
【Go check out the tallest building over there. Damn, that’s really tall! Potter, see if you can climb it!】
【Potter, Potter, go find my wife! I wonder if she got hurt fighting that stupid Demon God. Sob… wife, don’t be afraid, I’m coming to save you!】
VR technology was no longer the niche playground of wealthy elites as it had been years ago. With real-scene filming combined with AI technology, a few high-scoring games with excellent reputations had already appeared.
But a game environment that felt this real—like truly being there in person—was something they were seeing for the first time.
“The one chosen by the gods—”
The “village chief,” Sain, who had begun preparing early after receiving the divine oracle, nervously tried to recite the lines he had practiced countless times.
However, perhaps because he was standing in the wrong place—or perhaps because he lacked presence—the Chosen One did not notice him at all. Sain cleared his throat, preparing to greet the visitor on his own initiative.
Yet his voice had barely begun when the rest of it froze in his throat.
“Holy crap, this collision physics feels insanely real!”
“Holy crap, amazing—can’t pass through it. I seriously can’t get through.”
“Holy crap, this NPC model looks so real! He looks strong too. Definitely some kind of warrior class.”
Sain stared in shock and confusion as the Chosen One performed a series of unbelievable actions in front of him.
These actions included—but were not limited to—headbutting a tree, pushing his body into a wall while forcing himself forward, spinning in place, walking upside down, walking backward while upside down, rummaging through everything nearby, and even plucking a handful of fur from a passing dog.
Sain: “???”
What exactly was he doing?
Sain was confused. Sain was bewildered.
Sain was the descendant of the city lord lineage of what had once been the great human metropolis—Tarien City. But the once-prosperous metropolis had already declined into a small village, and the glory of his family had become nothing more than a distant illusion.
Now he was merely the ordinary village chief of Tata Village.
And he was an incompetent chief who could not lead his villagers back to glory.
Sain had long since resigned himself to this reality. For him and most of his companions, simply surviving this winter would already be nothing short of a miracle.
But then the Father God revived.
A hopeless life suddenly gained hope. Although everyone knew that the Creator who had just awakened was currently in an extremely weakened state.
But that did not matter.
As long as the Father God had returned, they had the confidence to drive those damned Void Demons out of the Norsevi Plane!
However, after the Father God’s revival, the first divine oracle that appeared in the temple did not instruct them to prepare for war against the Void Demons.
Instead, it told them that a group of Chosen Ones from another world would soon arrive to assist them—and instructed them to memorize various quest lines.
Words such as “player,” “NPC,” and “quest” were completely unfamiliar to them.
But since it was the Father God’s oracle, the entire village devoted themselves wholeheartedly to “playing” their roles as NPCs.
Following the oracle’s instructions, Sain had risen before dawn to prepare. He put on his most respectable set of clothes and planned to greet the legendary Chosen Ones with the utmost respect and enthusiasm.
In his imagination, those chosen by the gods would certainly be brave and powerful—heroes capable of slaying ten thousand Void Demons with a single strike, wise and valiant leaders who would guide them out of the shadow of the Void Demons and restore this land to the vibrant prosperity it had enjoyed a thousand years ago.
The oracle had been delivered three days earlier.
During those three days, Sain had not slept peacefully for even a single second, waiting with great anticipation for the arrival of the Chosen Ones.
But the moment he met one, the Chosen One’s behavior completely exceeded his expectations.
What was he doing?
Sain did not understand.
Sain was confused.
But he soon had no time to remain confused—because the Chosen One he had placed so much hope in suddenly set his sights on him.
At the moment their eyes met, Sain’s back was instantly drenched in cold sweat for some unknown reason.
He swallowed hard and stiffly recited the lines he had practiced countless times over the past three days.
“Hello, Chosen One from another world. I am the—”
Lightning had no patience to listen.
He rushed forward and grabbed a fistful of Sain’s thick beard, tugging on it before immediately trying to pull off his hat.
Up to that point, Sain could still endure it.
But after Lightning muttered, “Damn it, having such a thick beard is already bad enough, but your hair is even thicker than the beard. I seriously suspect the artists are mocking us bald people,” he aggressively began trying to strip Sain of his clothes and his greatsword.
Sain: “!!!”
At that moment, he was no longer confused about what the other party was doing.
This was outright robbery!
Ridiculous!
Someone was actually trying to rob his greatsword and equipment right in front of him?!
Although his talent could not compare with that of his ancestors, and although the Foster family had failed to regain its glory under his leadership—nor had Tata Village regained its prosperity—being robbed of his greatsword and equipment in front of him as a swordsman was an enormous insult.
Sain was furious!
Lightning only heard Sain shout loudly before his vision instantly turned gray.
Lightning: “??? Did the game bug out?”
The livestream chat burst into laughter.
“It’s not a bug. Potter, you went too far and the NPC killed you.”
The most terrifying aspect of the Fourth Calamity was that they did not die. Without death, there was no fear.
Lanoss naturally had no intention of weakening the players in that regard.
However, having absolutely no punishment would easily lead to reckless behavior and unnecessary waste of divine power.
Therefore, the basic rule for character death was as follows: the maximum limit of the current experience bar would be reduced by 30%. If the player did not have enough experience points to deduct, they would lose a level. A certain amount of in-game currency would also drop, and there was a chance of dropping equipment or items from the spatial backpack.
Additionally, without a priest’s resurrection skill, players could only revive at their spawn point.
But for Lightning right now, those penalties meant nothing.
He had only dropped his beginner staff and the ten copper coins given to him at the start.
Since he was already at the spawn point, he did not even need to spend time traveling back.
As for the dropped items—they were just beginner equipment.
What value could they possibly have?
He was not worried at all.
Upon hearing that he had been killed, Lightning was not angry in the slightest. Instead, he found the NPC’s intelligence incredibly impressive and was practically delighted.
In the games he had played before, interacting with NPCs usually meant tapping them to open a dialogue box. Even if the dialogue changed slightly, it still felt stiff.
But here, beards and hair could be pulled, clothes and weapons could be tugged.
As for death—death was not a big deal to players at all.
After all, players did not feel pain the same way ordinary people did. A game player’s pain threshold was only about 30% of that of a normal person, and unless players manually adjusted it themselves, the default pain level inside the game was set to 5%.
“Thirty percent of five percent” pain was about the same as the tiny prick from a blood sugar test needle.
Even though the game had mechanics for losing levels and dropping items upon death, he was currently just a level-zero beginner with nothing.
Lanoss had been observing the players all along. Seeing Lightning manage to get himself killed less than ten minutes after entering the game did not surprise him at all.
In comparison, Sain had suffered far greater psychological trauma and needed Lanoss to comfort him.
Sain had subconsciously believed that a Chosen warrior must be an extremely powerful existence. The fact that he had instantly killed one with an ordinary attack filled him with immense panic and confusion.
Under Lanoss’s teachings, the survivors of the Norsevi Continent lived in relative harmony. Regardless of race or strength, they gathered together, the strong protecting the weak while everyone supported one another to survive.
Therefore, Sain felt overwhelming guilt for killing the Chosen One who had supposedly come to protect and save them.
Lanoss felt a headache coming on.
The unpredictability of the Fourth Calamity was simply too great. To reduce the chances of players betraying them, he had deliberately assigned them the identity of saviors.
Even if they were chaotic tricksters who simply sought amusement, he still needed to guide them into becoming at least benevolent chaotic tricksters.
That meant the “Savior” identity—so full of chuunibyou flair and a sense of mission—could not be replaced by anything else.
However, the local “NPCs” did not understand that the savior identity was merely an empty promise.
Lanoss had used divine oracles to arrange the players’ identities and the NPCs’ responsibilities, and they treated the matter as the most important task of their lives.
Naturally, their attitude toward the players was also filled with respect.
But once the NPCs experienced the terror of the players firsthand, their mindset would probably change.
Lightning had downloaded the game earlier than anyone else and had not wasted much time on the character creation screen. Therefore, after he died once, other players began appearing at the spawn point one after another.
During the PV broadcast, a huge number of viewers had flooded into Lightning’s livestream. At its peak, the viewership had even exceeded one hundred thousand.
All ninety-nine beta testing slots had been snatched up instantly.
Therefore, shortly after Lightning died, the second player appeared.
The moment that player spawned, he quickly scooped up Lightning’s dropped beginner staff and the ten copper coins.
“Thanks for the gifts of nature!”
Lightning jumped up in anger.
“What gifts of nature? Those are mine—mine!!!”
The player ignored Lightning’s corpse completely. After enthusiastically attempting—and failing—to strip the beginner outfit, he began exploring the surroundings instead.
Lightning’s death cooldown had not yet ended, so he could only watch helplessly as the other player took his belongings.
After two minutes passed, Lightning immediately chose “Respawn.”
Without a priest’s resurrection skill, he revived with only 5% of his health and returned to the spawn point.
Without healing potions or a priest teammate to restore his health bar, he could only glare furiously at the player who had stolen his items.
The players who had secured the beta slots gradually logged into the game.
One hundred players crowded the spawn point. Their chattering voices were so loud they could make someone’s head explode.
“Unbelievable! Since when did our country develop such amazing full-dive technology?!”
“I thought I would only get to experience a full-dive game when my best friend’s grandchild delivered one to my grave!”
“The official website says that VR devices are only for the trial version. If this is just the trial experience, then the real full-dive helmet and gaming pod must be absolutely incredible!”
“Oh my god, I’m so beautiful! Help! I’m falling in love with myself!”
Sain had not yet recovered from the shock of killing a Chosen One when the overwhelming noise already made his head buzz.
But clearly, this was not the end of his suffering.