1 City of Beginnings

Screams of terror and confusion echoed in the world of the trapped. The news had been delivered, and people sooner or later came to realize the gravity of the situation. They would probably never see the true light of day again. They were now ensnared in a virtual world, and the only means of escape were either completing the game, although nobody knew how, or by committing suicide. Only those with a strong will to live or those with great adaptability had a chance of survival. In the world of the unknown, if you harbored even a shred of uncertainty about your own life, you might as well bid farewell to it sooner or later. But how did it all end up like this? What happened to cause this event?

The year is currently 2060, and technology has advanced so far that video games have evolved to a point where you can't distinguish them from reality. One company's game went even a little further, already having an entire game about to be released with close to a billion pre-orders. A fantasy game set in a world similar to ours but with RPG elements, offering and promising an entire world with no real-life consequences, meaning that you wouldn't ever have to suffer, right? Then, when the game was released to the public, the billion-player mark was reached within hours, and the world was filled with people from all around the globe eager to experience this latest phenomenon.

But then, they realized something was wrong. It may have taken very little time for some, and for others, hours to realize, but the game developer revealed that there was no way to log out. You couldn't exit the system in any way from the inside or outside, once connected. These news were shocking to say the least and panic spread across the land.

People had come to the game to enjoy themselves, to escape their reality for the sake of pleasure, happiness and excitement. The faces of the people who were now also trapped turned completely white, as if they had seen a ghost, paralyzed with fear. However, one person was set apart from the rest. One who had a smile on his face, as if he was prepared for something like this to happen. A young man, who didn't even look old enough to be an adult yet, was excited to hear the news that made many people sob for the fact they could not return to their ordinary world. He was not like any of them; the difference wasn't subtle. People stared at him in horror, wide-eyed because of the smile on his face. In his previous life, he had cast himself away for one purpose. He had always been called delusional or stupid, but his dream, the life he wanted, was to be stronger than anybody else. Better than anyone else. Elite. But that alone didn't make the situation any better for him. Why would he cast himself away in pursuit of strength?

He held onto that dream his whole life, ever since he was a child he had to fight to even survive, to adapt to an unknown and dangerous environment was nothing difficult for him. But the most he could do was barely survive on his own which had severely effected his physical and mental health. If he faced groups upon armed soldiers, not even his amount of training could save him, and if they dropped a nuclear bomb, he would just be eradicated, the same as anyone else. But he never once doubted his decisions to keep going, and because of this, he was the most knowledgeable when it came to training, knowledge, theory, and overall strength; he was unrivaled in his craft. So now, out of one of the over a billion people trapped in the game, how would someone like that not only survive but potentially beat this game of death? Could he be the savior, or would he succumb to the fate they all were doomed by?

He's lived his whole life, clinging to a singular name, knowing nothing about his family. He has no significant memories about his parents and has no general idea of what a family is supposed to be like. But, as far as he can remember, he's had a single name that has stuck with him throughout his life. The name which he holds dear is the only thing except his own life that he still treasures to this day. The name, which he doesn't even remember the origins from, was Velios with his last name completely absent.

After the harrowing speech from the developer was fully completed, people were shocked to their core. If they died, they would just die. No respawn, no reset, no rejoin. Real-world extermination. That fact alone made them regret their decisions. But Velios started grinning uncontrollably, almost laughing. As deep as you could go down in his soul, he knew why. This is all he had ever dreamed of. He would get the chance to truly surpass his physical limits. Merely surviving wouldn't be an arduous task anymore. He would truly get the chance to change his faith, the lift he was born into. He merely saw the crowds fear as an over exaggeration as his whole life had been nothing but a similar struggle for survival. 

Velios started looking around and quickly concluded that there was not even close to a billion people where he was, and the fact that they were in a giant city that seemed to act as mutual ground for everybody. A safe zone. But he also didn't know how big the "earth" actually was or if it maybe was the same size, which he guessed was unlikely. And it did not take long to realize the general idea of this game; the concepts of once stats/statistics were in numerical digits of every aspect. There were common ones like strength, durability, and speed, while there were also numbers on one's specific traits, such as bone strength, hearing, and flexibility. Everything was made of numbers, but he was still unclear about what they actually meant when he didn't have any reference. Velios had also never played a single game before either.

Velios came to another conclusion; the city could wait for later since there was a giant and dense forest as far as the eye could see at the very end of the city's sides. Velios had climbed atop the tallest building he could find to see it. He knew that a better head start could be vital not only with stats in play but also, most importantly, with the information. It felt like he had unlocked something, a feeling deep within him that had been locked away. A feeling of excitement and joy rushed through his body as he ran from the city center to the utmost outside of the city.

Velios was finally at the border between the city and wild, unpredictable nature. Without knowing it, he suddenly collapsed, pure exhaustion making him lie there motionless, on the side of a road with the closest humans many kilometers away. He finally got time to look at his stats again, and just from stopping, he had noticed that it had already gone dark, but not pitch-black. He was used to running for hours from dawn till dusk in his "old world," but he felt better than usual. He had no idea how long it actually was, but he felt that something was definitely better. Still, Velios couldn't pinpoint it directly, so he finally decided to turn his head to look at the list of stats, and he experienced another feeling that he felt was locked away; he was shocked. He kept scrolling, unable to stop being shocked. Near all of the stats had increased, even if only slightly. The most notable increases were his stamina, endurance, pain tolerance, speed, and muscle strength. However you looked at it, even if it was slight, he still used so many senses and muscles while simply running that he hadn't even thought about before.

Velios decided to continue lying down on the side of the street and rest; he wanted to see what his "natural healing" could do even if it still was pretty low-leveled. But it occurred to him that it was a passive ability of his, which meant that he probably used it the whole time while running. After that sudden realization, images of endless ideas and possibilities popped into his head; the sheer amount of possibilities even made someone like him shiver and get goosebumps.

Velios may have lost track of time while brainstorming ideas for the future, so now it was even more pitch-black than before, if that was possible. He finally made himself sit up and eventually stand up, and to his surprise, nothing hurt anymore. Not his legs, ligaments, bones, or the rest of his body; none of him was in pain any longer. It was just like he had slept the whole way through to his destination rather than running. But now he had another of his mission to complete. To gather as much information and strength as physically possible in this so-called "new world" that he found himself in. So he started walking, but he immediately noticed something was not right. He didn't feel anyone's presence, so he knew that he was alone at least. A small comfort. But out of nowhere, he started stumbling backward, step after step backward, his body came crumpling down, his vision blurred, and he felt numbness in his limbs. The final words he managed to get out before he fell completely unconscious were "Shit!" before his back fell heavily on the side of the road once more.