1 The Death of the Old life and the Birth of the Beginning in a New World

I don't know what happened but I woke up in a different world.

Adachi Hisaki, a twenty-five years old unemployed citizen. Instead of working, he spent his five years slacking off inside his room, dedicated to become a NEET.

[Quest: Goblin Subjugation]

Difficulty: A+

Destroy the goblin's base near Chaterbaux.

Requested by the St. Bernard Cathedral

Time limit: 1 day after accepting Quest.

Rewards:

100 gold coins per participant, maximum of five.

Hisaki was glued on the game named Royaume. A virtual reality game set in the medieval fantasy age in the continent of Seria.

The reason why this game boomed in the business is due to the unique levelling system, instead of the player levelling up, it is the skills being used, the power of a player is immesurable but can be improved by training it.

Hisaki was using the character "Dybrin" an eighteen years old vanguard class character he created after losing his first one after it fell off a cliff.

This was his eighth month in the game, five months if he's not gonna count the first character. And due to his grindings, he reached the seventh rank in the worldwide leaderboard within that short amount of time. Dybrin's Player Point is on the Bishop rank, garnering about 2649 points just these past months while the 1st in the leaderboards has 4,854 points.

To Hisaki, this was not a competition but only a game to relax his self.

The day was bright, it was the last week of spring. The green fields stretched to the west. The river Phyliax separated the grassland from the Alps in the south, the outskirts of the city Chaterbaux lied within the north and the thick forest of Lieu grew in the East, serving as a natural defence from the raiding nomads.

Dybrin was waiting for the rest of the teammates he's partying with.

The first one to arrive was the beastkin. The fourth-ranked swordsman, Zeubo Lionheart. In accord of his surname, he executed a beautiful feat of actions that popularised bards as a job in Royaume. Especially when he singlehandedly accepted a siege quest from the Freyan Church and succeeded with barely any scratches on himself.

Zeubo has a fair build. Crystal blue eyes and a blonde hair. Some might say he's a foreigner but he was a Japanese himself.

The next one to arrive were a woman on her fourteens and a man in his twenties. The woman was the sixth-ranked healer, Daphne Loraine, who was nicknamed 'Angel of Death' after slaughtering almost half of the undead forces in the Hades's Revival Quest just by using her healing spells.

Beside her was the fifth-ranked warlock named Nimbus, the only person who achieved the highest damage rate of magic in Royaume after maxing out his fire aspect.

The two of them are siblings, which was the reason why the two of them are always together.

And the last one to appear was the second-ranked elven archer, Joan Sparrow, who was responsible for procuring archer as one of the most powerful classes in-game.

With the proper training of her archery, she managed to recreate the speed of a handgun's bullet; she also has the fastest draws in archery that every shot she fires, the interval between each arrow are a second and a half or shorter. Some rumours say she was an athlete at her university.

"Finally, you four appeared. I was starting getting bored." Dybrin said as he stretched his arms.

"Blame Daphne, she always gets distracted by the merchant's discounts," Nimbus replied.

"But those discounts were so low, and those products are one of a kind." Daphne pouted after replying.

"Calm your boots down folks, we can't spare any time, right? Let's go." Zeubo, the usual calm and collected manner of his shone like a star in the night sky.

Joan nodded in the response to Zeubo's words. The five of them went to St. Bernard Cathedral as what the quest said.

The cathedral was massive, paintings of the gods were on the ceilings, similar to what the Sistine chapel had, hundreds of chairs were lined up perfectly as nuns and monks walked along the paths back and forth from the altar to the exit. After all, Chaterbaux is one of the largest cities in Royaume and a religious centre.

Upon entering the cathedral, a cut scene played onto their screens, preventing them to do anything.

The pope who was standing in front of them raised his hand towards them. His wrinkled face showed years of life and faith to the deities he swore loyalty onto. To then the pope started to speak.

"Heroes of Seria, I beseech you to destroy the goblin's base near the city of Chaterbaux requested by this house of God. Simple adventurers cannot win against this lump of savagery and thus the church chose you five to eradicate the—"

"Voting to skip the cut scene." Zeubo

"Yes yes." Nimbus

"I'm here for the cash, not the chat." Dybrin

"You three… may the gods curse you three with bad luck." Daphne

"Don't jinx it Daph." Dybrin

"nod." Joan

"Am I the only one or can you three also see Joan's head nodding right after she sent that message?" Nimbus

"Lmao, I thought I was the only one." Zeubo

[Skipping Cut Scene]

The scene was skipped to the near end where the pope was looking at them with a concerned look on his face.

"If by any chances you five die while doing this quest, your lives will change, forever." those words ended the cut scene.

The five of them was standing in front of the cathedral. Daphne was curious and at the same time, felt a hint of fear about what the pope said in his last statement.

"What do you guys think about the pope's ending statement?" she asked the four.

"I guess he acted very well as a pope," Zeubo replied.

"The pope NPC is a peculiar one, he had those different personas as if he is a real human being," Dybrin said as he explained what he had noticed.

Nimbus nodded.

"Its the new update, Royaume merge together with Gorgle Inc. "

"The company who developed the first advanced AI system?"

"Pretty cool right?"

Daphne asked once again.

"But what about the ending sentence, he said that our lives will change if our characters die."

"Of course it will change, we will lose our accounts, back to square one."

"I'm never gonna play this game again if I'll die," Nimbus added.

Zeubo pats her shoulder, with the words of reassurance he managed to calm the healer down.

[Quest Accepted]

[Time limit: 00:23:59:59]

The party began to buy supplies for their quests, potions, rations and even portable shields for safety measures. Besides, the quest was an A+.

"Are you done with the prep Dybrin?" asked Nimbus.

"All ready, too bad this game didn't implement inventory."

"Rumours said the moderators and admins wanted us to feel what living in a real fantasy RPG world is like. And I gotta say, props to them." Zeubo added.

In addition to the game's uniqueness, the moderators dropped off the idea of inventories, thus players buy bags for storage in substitute to the 'No Inventory' rule. Long term quests and travellers buy wagons for storing equipment and rations for the long journey ahead.

"Ah… These people, the sadist of the gaming industry…"

the guys then began chuckling as the women were busy complimenting each other.

Zeubo, acting as their party leader called their attention.

"Men, commence quest."

[Time limit: 00:22:40:35]

The party left the city of Chaterbaux, traversing through the forest of Lieu, and crossed the river Buria. Arriving in the area where the goblin's base was.

The area was relatively larger than what they expected, giving the goblins an upper hand if they're attacking in full force.

There were ten goblins guarding the base, serving as meat shields and alarms in case if there were an attack.

"Joan, preparatory fire."

Joan drew five whistling arrows from her quiver, pointing the bow slightly upwards, then pulled the bow's drawstring with an arrow loaded.

She fired the arrows consecutively; the arrows flew like kingfishers flying out from the lake after diving for their meal while the sound of whistles hooking the attention of the goblins.

The goblins rushed towards her, but the speed of the critters was slower than Joan's draws, firing her bow consecutively that it ended up killing a handful of them.

Zeubo stabbed his longsword on the ground, piercing it deeply, pulling the sword out as it lifted a large chunk of dirt. He grabbed the dirt then threw it onto the goblins which were still running towards Joan, crushing them to pieces.

Due to this action, the goblins noticed the party's presence. Joan leapt onto a tree to snipe out individual targets leaving the four in groundwork.

"Daphne, Nimbus, start chanting, Dybrin, grab their attention!" commanded Zeubo.

Daphne and Nimbus grabbed their tomes, chanting their desired spells while Zeubo charged head-on towards the goblins, even with his fairly large structure, he cleanly executed a quick death towards the goblins by cleaving clean cuts that chopped their heads off their necks. The signature move; Dancing Sword.

Dybrin was assigned as the protector of the mages as they chanted their spells, being his class as a crossbreed of a tank and swordsman, he locked the goblins' attention by slamming his mace on his shield. Enabling a class related skill, Aggro Inti.

The goblins began charging towards Dybrin, just about the time when the mages finished their chants.

"columna flamma!"

"Ignis pila!"

The area brightened for a while as balls of white flame flew across the field, scorching the goblins to ashes.

Pillar of flames burst out from Nimbus's staff, burning anything that the pillar hits. With that, the goblins were eradicated instantly.

"Thanks for the save, Daphne, Nimbus."

"Don't be too reckless, next time you're gonna die for sure," Daphne replied as she punched Dybrin's chest lightly.

"Sorry, I'll make sure I won't do that again." Dybrin patted her head afterwards.

Zeubo was standing behind them, after seeing the scene, his face retracted in disgust as if the love between the two reeked like tar.

"Die! Lovers!"

"Replenish your mamas, Zeubo, calm yourself down. We're still in a quest." Joan, who was still on top of the tree advised.

"Copy that ma'am."

[Warning: Boss incoming]

"Team! Defensive position!"

The group formed a defensive position, Dybrin on the front, Zeubo standing behind him.

"Joan, did you find the boss?"

"Yes," replied Joan as she pointed out the cave's entrance.

From the cave, a large shadow emerged out of the dark entrance, using the skill "Appraisal" Zeubo checked the boss's stats. There was silence afterwards, Zeubo did not reply and the rest were waiting for his answer.

"What's the boss Zeubo?" asked Nimbus.

There were no replies from him. Dybrin pats his shoulder but he won't look back.

"What's wrong Zeub, don't tell me you chickened after seeing the stats."

"T-this!"

"What this?"

"The boss is a d-de-dem…"

"A what?"

"A d-demo…"

"Areh? Cat got your tongue? Or did you just felt an ounce of my power?" the aura began changing; the forest went silent the moment the shadow spoke.

"The boss spoke, that's a first."

"Isn't that odd?" Dybrin asked.

"It's a talking demon, must be the work of Gorgle inc."

"You brats talk a lot huh…" the demon said as dark flames bombarded the party

"Daphne, cast a wall in front of us."

"Yes!" Daphne panickily grabbed her tome and cast Holy Barrier in between the party and the boss. The wall deflected the dark flames.

"You got some tricks on your sleeves, heroes. I'll commend you for that."The shadow said as it walked towards them, slowly its figure took shape. A slender man with pale skin, clothing that had similarities to a count and a horn on its head.

"A demon!" Nimbus shout as he fired a shot of Flame Pillar towards the demon but to no avail.

Nimbus fired Lighting Barrage but the demon fended it off easily.

"Now this is getting irritating." The demon chanted magic of his then spears made out of shadows flew towards Nimbus that came from his magic circle, the spear instantly vanished after it went near the wall, but reappeared behind them as it went out from a tree's shadow resulting to hit Nimbus's body. There were ten spears and eight of it pierced through Nimbus.

"Ack-!" screamed Nimbus as his body was pierced and shredded by the attack.

"Nimbus! Daphne! Heal him!"

"You bastard!"

Zeubo grabbed his sword as Daphne chanted healing spell onto Nimbus. Zeubo swung his sword, but the demon dodged the attack easily. The demon chopped Zeubo's hand, decapitating his hand and losing his weapon.

Realising how quick the demon was, Zeubo grabbed the portable shield from his pocket then equipped it. The demon grabbed Zeubo's weapon then attacked Zeubo by slashing the sword horizontally, the slice pierced through his armour and his portable shield, killing him instantly as his body lied down into two.

"Dybrin! The healing spells, it won't work on Nimbus." Daphne said as she looked at Nimbus's weakening body. The wounds were infected with a dark liquid that prevented healing magic to take effect.

Dybrin grabbed a healing potion from his sling bag, poured it onto Nimbus's wounds but it still won't work.

"Fuck!" Dybrin furiously punched the ground as Nimbus let go of his last breath.

Arrows then flew overhead, bombarding the demon with barrages of arrows. Some of the arrows were imbued with magic. But even with the attacks, the demon was as fine as he has been ever since he met blades with Zeubo's party.

The demon grabbed two arrows on the ground and threw it onto Joan's location. The first arrow was a miss but the second hit Joan's head, her lifeless body fell to the ground, hitting the earth headfirst.

Daphne's face slowly turned dark. Remembering what the pope said earlier.

"Looks like someone already took a grasp on the situation." The demon said as he took a glance at Daphne.

"Y-you, why are you doing this?!" Daphne shouted as her body trembled in fear.

The demon licked the blood on his hand as he replied;

"This is the will of the world."

"What do you mean the will of the world?!"

"You'll understand once you reach the afterlife." The demon suddenly shattered the Holy Wall and dashed beside her, slicing her head off, a clean-cut that decapitated her head from her body.

"DAPHNE!!!"

"Pathetic…"

The demon stood up, then turned around towards the last person alive, Dybrin.

Dybrin was glaring at the demon ferociously, anger slowly building up after seeing his woman die. What's worse is that he didn't know Daphne or Nimbus's real names.

'A demon with high intelligence, I never knew Royaume added a new NPC like him, I can log off and search for it in the site.'

Demons are considered as one of the most powerful mobs on Royaume, they can use every type of magic except light and they can adapt easily in duels. They're a living war machine and the way to kill them is to know their names.

Dybrin was mumbling on himself as he was trying to log off but the button was not functioning. The demon stared at his face then laughed.

'Why isn't the button working?'

"Look at you, how does it feel like to be hunted huh?"

He ignored the demon as he kept on pressing the button again and again. But no matter how he tried, the button won't work. Looks like Daphne did jinx him with bad luck this time.

The demon took a step. Slowly he walked towards Dybrin as silent as he could be.

"Can't log off?"

Dybrin stopped pressing the button then stood still. If the demon was an AI, he wouldn't have known about the game system but after hearing the words that the demon said, his body felt goosebumps.

"How did you know about tha…"

"Because I was there when it was created."

"Who are you…"

The demon was now in front of Dybrin. Their height doesn't differ but the power gap was large. The aura emitted by the demon was powerful enough that it was slowly choking him.

"I'm the demon of Lieu, Malcolm."

Those words were the last words Dybrin heard before feeling a stinging pain in his chest, his vision went blurry, then darkened.

He felt his body falling on the ground. The rules of the game indicated that once a player dies, an icon of the words "You Died" will show on the screen and it will force you out of the game and back to the menu to create a new character. But there were none on his part, he was thinking maybe the others are having the same problem as he was.

It was dark; he was surrounded by pitch-black void. He might think it was afterlife but there were no updates nor patches that showcases Afterlife map or mods. Even with the eternal darkness, he felt his consciousness floating.

It was not even a minute after he felt something cold dripping on his body, and what's worse is that it was wet. He slowly regained his hearing, and he heard drizzling noise of raindrops hitting the ground and he leaves. He felt like opening his eyes as he was wondering where he was.

He slowly opened his eyes; it was a gloomy day. The sun was covered by the clouds and rain was continuing ceaselessly. Dybrin stood up onto where he once lied down. If he remembered correctly, his character died along with Zeubo, Daphne, Nimbus and Joan in the forest of Lieu and they were killed by a demon named Malcolm.

"My character was not erased?" he asked himself.

Dybrin was in his deep thoughts, thinking regarding about how he died and how painful that part was.

What's funny is the game has no option of realism, that means the player cannot feel real pain but only a tiny pinch.

The game can't provide complete realism thoroughly resulting for it to abandon the human senses to function. But now, he can feel the rain falling on his skin, the coldness of the wind that slowly woke him up, snapping him out of his preoccupied mind.

"If I can feel the rain, and I can feel pain… does that mean…"

Dybrin slapped himself, leaving a mark on his face.

"Ow…"

Slowly his weeb knowledge entered his brain, he always read these types of genres where the main character was transported into a new and different world.

"Don't tell me…"

"Did I just got isekai'ed?"

[Quest Goblin Subjugation: Failed]