The Virtual World

[In case you didn't read the prologue, you should read it before reading this chapter.]

A clinking sound came to his ears along with a mechanical voice. "Connected. Please choose your username. Note that the username cannot be changed later."

"Rewen."

"Sorry, the username is taken."

"Rewen0624." This was his birthday. 

"Sorry, the username is taken."

"Rewen0624879." The last three digits were the last three digits of his cellphone number. 

"Sorry, the username is taken."

"..."

"..."

"Rewen0624879klofar."

"Sorry, the username is take-"

"Rewen0624879klofarfuckthisgame."

"Sorr-"

"Rewen0624879klofarfuckthisgameanotherwordandillfuckyou."

"Are you sure you want to keep this username?"

"Yes." Rewen felt like he had achieved something.

"Which mode do you want to play?"

Rewen pondered. There are two modes available - NPC and PLAYER. Choosing NPC mode will give your character an unique identity. Randomly, you would be born as anyone's son or daughter in the virtual world. Of course, you can also select your age. You will be regarded as an NPC but that's not to say that you can't participate in events. You would just not be able to play in competitions. 

Choosing PLAYER mode will not give you an identity and you would be perceived differently by NPCs. You can't choose your age or gender. It will be synchronized with your real self. The key difference is that you are free in every sense and terms. You don't need to have a responsibility to protect or guard your family, nor be bound by laws. 

"I choose the PLAYER mode."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Manage your stats. You have been given 25 points."

A virtual screen was presented before Rewen. 

[Strength: 0 

Dexterity: 0

Constitution: 0

Intelligence: 0

Charisma: 0

Luck: 0

Points: 25]

There are no classes given during stats management. There are special requirements to obtain a class. Rewen wanted to become a Paladin Knight, which would require him to have a good constitution. With some thoughts, he put 4 points on every stat and an extra on the constitution. The developers themselves said that the stats management doesn't affect your favourite class no matter how ridiculous your management is at the start of the game. So Rewen wasn't particularly worried. 

"Done. Is there anything else?"

"No. Close your eyes."

Rewen did as he was told. 

The next moment, his body jerked by a sudden movement. 'So I'm here.' He slowly opened his eyes and the scene stupefied him completely. 

It was morning. The sun was shining brightly. He found himself on a moving carriage with a group of people. An elderly man was talking with the carriage driver. Behind him, a brown-haired young man was drooling in his sleep. Opposite to him, a middle-aged lady was peacefully having her breakfast. 

Rewen couldn't speak for a long time. The middle-aged lady noticed his gaze and spoke in a surprised tone. "Oh? You woke up. We are almost there. Come here, have some Kiuran Balls." She held a Kiuran Ball with a chopstick and gestured to him to eat it. 

Rewen moved forward but didn't eat the ball and rather hugged her. A moment later, he released her and ate the small ball that was still in her chopstick. "Hm, it's good."

The middle-aged lady showed a difficult face and gripped her son's shoulders tightly. "I know you are of age and still unmarried but I…"

Rewen almost couldn't believe what she was saying. He prepared some strong words and was about to retort when she suddenly shook her head and gestured to him to be quiet. 

"Don't worry, I'll show you some good women reaching the town."

Rewen sighed in defeat before thinking over the current issue. 'I like to think that all I saw was just a dream and nothing else but I know better that it wasn't. It was real. If that's the case, isn't my existence… forget it, it's not the time to be in an identity crisis. So what if I ain't real? Isn't my goal to return to my world? Isn't that achieved? What am I crying about? Ah yes, the problem is three hours in the real world equals a day in this world. And the servers shut down after midnight.' He called his game window and went to the "Query" section and posted the question: Can I stop the time flow in the world?

Almost instantly, a reply arrived. "You can stop the time flow by going OFFLINE. It is present in the SETTINGS. Remember that currently, you can halt the time flow of a single country and no more."

Rewen heaved a sigh of relief, then wrote another question. "What is the purpose of OFFLINE?"

"Going OFFLINE means no character could enter your country and neither could you travel to other countries and your existence is supreme in the country. When you log out, time stops. When you log in, time resumes. By default, an account is set to ONLINE."

Rewen stopped asking questions, then set the country to OFFLINE. By the time he was done, he saw Sam rinsing his mouth with water. He chatted with him for a while then became bored and gazed at the surroundings. "Typical village. Huh? Master Kaf, can you stop the carriage for a minute?"

Master Kaf was surprised to hear his voice. He looked at the carriage driver and nodded to him. The carriage stopped and Rewen got off. Before him was a young fat pig. He took out his pocket knife and quickly sliced the pig's neck off. 

"5 EXP gained!"

A mechanical voice sounded in his head. He nodded his head in satisfaction and returned to the carriage. While everyone was giving him strange glances, he awkwardly laughed. Master Kaf patted the driver indicating him to continue. 

Sam chuckled. "Since when did you want to become a pig slaughterer?"

"Plan B in case my smithy isn't earning enough." Rewen joked. 

About twenty minutes later, Rewen had finally arrived at the gates of Darkhood City. There were two City Guards. He along with the others got off the carriage. After the City Guard checked their goods, he registered their names, then nodded to Master Kaf. 

Entering the city, Rewen wasn't exactly surprised. "Markets everywhere…" 

Master Kaf laughed. "Are you afraid now? Don't worry. Our smithy will surely do well."

Although Rewen didn't know where the confidence was coming from, he still nodded. After the leap, his life experienced in the past day, all he wanted to do is have a peaceful life without any worries, at least in this world. 

[Ding! Blacksmith feature added to your stats! Would you like to see it?]

[Yes] [No]

Squinting his eyes, he tapped on [Yes].

---

[Quests]

[Daily Missions]

[Stats]

---

Since he didn't get any quests, he tapped on the [Stats].

---

Stage: Rank 2 middle-grade (2387/5000) 

Proficiency: 45%

Expertise: Spear

Best Product: Rank 2 unnamed Spear 

---

'It doesn't seem that bad.' Rewen mused. He had been smithing weapons for almost ten years and he was quite proud of his achievement. His eyes darted towards the [Daily Missions] as he tapped it. 

---

[Create a Rank 1 peak-grade weapon (0/1)]

Rewards: 500 EXP

---

'Not too difficult.' 

***

"Isn't the house quite good, eh?" 

Rewen looked at the two-storey residence and smiled in satisfaction. The residence was far away from the noisy market and the weather, as well as the surroundings, were clean and cool. According to Master Kaf, the house was gifted to him by one of his friends. 

"Very good but where is our smithy?"

Master Kaf chuckled. "Inside the house, there is a separate room for the smithy."

"I mean, where would we sell?"

"Well, we would sell our products to the City's top trade marketing company, Olin. Every week, they would send people here to take our products and sell them outside."

Rewen was surprised. "That seems like good business. Master seems to have quite the influence."

Before Master Kaf could reply, Rewen's mother chimed in. "Are there any good families around, Uncle?"

Master Kaf pondered. "I have some relations with a Baron's family. Why? Is there any problem?"

"Ah! A baron!? Good. Good. Good."

Hearing her response, Rewen and Master Kaf looked at each other in confusion. At this time, Sam laughed out. "Rewen, oh, Rewen. Aunt is looking for an unmarried woman."

Rewen's face changed. "Mother, I'm still young!"

His mother treated him as air and looked at Master Kaf expectantly. Master Kaf awkwardly smiled. "I'm not sure whether there is an unmarried woman in their family…"

"It's okay! Just give me the address and I'll find it out."

Rewen sighed in depression. 

Two hours later, Rewen, his mother, Master Kaf and Sam sat on a round table talking about several things. Rewen was sitting quietly, responding only when questioned. He took a crisp snack and ate it. 

Rewen groaned. "Ugh…"

With a groan, he garnered everyone's attention. His mother sharply looked at him. "What's wrong? Homesick already?"

"I have something to say that you all might not believe."

"Heh! You have so many things that even I, your mother, couldn't believe. At this point, what can I not believe?"

"Believe me, it's serious…"

"Enough. Just say what is it."

Upon feeling everyone's curious gazes, he prepared the words in his mind and took a deep breath. "Long story short, the world is not what you believe it is."

Master Kaf's eyebrows perked up. Rewen's mother and Sam's expression was full of confusion. 'When did he become so philosophical?' They wanted to question but seeing Rewen's serious face, they didn't say anything. 

"I know this might seem unbelievable but we are not real. We exist in this virtual world… alright, I'll make it simple. We are being controlled by people outside of this world."

Everyone was silent. Of course, they didn't believe his words but why would he lie? Master Kaf took a sip of wine. "First question, how do you know that?"

"I was transported to the world outside of this and was given an identity…"

"Wait, you are telling me that you went to that world? How?"

"I have no idea."

"Ok, how about you tell me how the other world is?"

Rewen went on to describe the Earth in as much detail as he could, starting from history to languages. Master Kaf then asked him to translate some sentences into Earth's languages. He did as he was told. During the entire conversation, Rewen's mother and Sam quietly listened without speaking a word. The more they listened, the more they got shocked. 

Rewen then went to talk about what and how the virtual world works. Eventually, Sam got up with an unreadable expression. "This… I'm going to sleep." He doesn't want to believe that his existence is not real. Who even would? 

"Sam, sit." Master Kaf spoke in a stern tone. "It doesn't matter whether our existence is real or not. It doesn't matter whether we are nothing more than a sequence of 1's and 0's. We still have consciousness and the fact that we can digest what Rewen is telling is enough. We are NPCs, so what? Real and virtual are just a term. We live and die and the ones who created us live and die. Isn't that enough?"

Rewen agreed with his master's reasoning. He also demonstrated the [Freestyle Knights Combat] technique. It took more than three hours to answer all the doubts and queries. By the end, everyone sighed. By their expressions, Rewen deduced that everyone more or less believed him. With sufficient explanations, reasonings and proofs, anything could be believed. 

Of course, changing world perception is a huge thing. It goes without saying that "changing someone's opinion is a crime". People are stubborn and headstrong. It's an innate trait among humans to not admit defeat. This is the reason why if Rewen made this fact public, nobody, no matter how progressive the person is, would believe it. However, Rewen told it to people who he grew up with, who know him better than anyone and who genuinely cares for him.