Chapter 4: World is the Will to Power

"My name is Virgil," the voice said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

I looked around, utterly confused. Was the voice in my head, or was it coming from the heavens? It didn't look like there was anybody next to me, so it must be the voice of...

"God? Is that you?"

Virgil giggled. "No. I'm no god."

"Wait a minute. You said earlier that you saved me."

"Indeed," she replied. "I was driving through Malebolge Bridge when I saw someone jump off the railing. I immediately stopped and called 911 to help you."

Ah, Malebolge Bridge. So that was the name of it.

Still, there were too many questions in my head.

"What's going on? Why am I here? Where is this place? How are you speaking in my head?!"

"Whoa, hold your horses. I'll explain everything in as short a time as possible to prevent a boring exposition dump."

"Alright."

"Make sure you pay attention because I'm gonna speak fast, and I'm only gonna say it once."

"Got it," I said.

"You, Claudia, are in a virtual world, and right now, I'm speaking to you through the game's operating system. Your parents have told me that you were a Serial Slain player, so you must know that we at Telemachus Technologies have announced a fully immersive VRMMORPG. Speaking of your parents, they have signed a contract, giving us full rights to use your body in any way we see fit. Don't worry, though. We are compensating your family with a significant sum of money."

"Hold on!" I blurted. "What do you mean you own my body?!"

She was speaking so fast that I was having trouble keeping up. Is this how she normally spoke? It was like somebody doubled the playback speed on a video.

"Please don't interrupt, Claudia. But to answer your question, you were rendered paralyzed through your whole body after your suicide attempt. In other words, you're almost a vegetable. It just so happened that I was looking for beta testers for our new VRMMORPG, and you were the perfect candidate. I was surprised by how easy it was to get your parents to sign you away. And so, I hooked up your brain directly to the game servers."

That figures. My parents were just in it for the money.

"Does that answer all your questions?" Virgil asked.

"Not even close. For starters, where am I right now?"

"Look around. You should be able to tell."

I don't know how I didn't recognize it sooner. I was standing at the original title screen for Serial Slain. It must have been more than a decade ago, but when the game was first released, the title screen depicted a silhouette that sat underneath an olive tree on a hill, and in the distance, a city stretched out. Since then, Serial Slain had undergone many updates, changing up their title screen to epic fight animations.

Ah, how nostalgic.

"As a developer of Telemachus Technologies," Virgil said. "I will be your guide."

"Guide?"

"That's right. Your task is to beat the final boss of Serial Slain. Although, I guess it should be called Serial Slain 2. Then again, this whole fully immersive game is technically just one huge update, so I guess this game should be called Serial Slain: Version 2.0."

Oh shit. I get to live in the fully immersive world of my favorite game?

Fuck yeah!

"What if I don't beat the game?"

"You'll return to reality, where you'll be bedridden for the rest of your life," Virgil replied.

Welp, it looks like I'm not gonna want to leave this place any time soon.

"But what about my real-life body?" I asked.

"It'll be provided sustenance. You don't have to worry about it at all. In fact, you can forget about the real world entirely. You only exist within Serial Slain."

This is amazing. A new glorious reality, where all my dreams could come true.

The detail in this game was so amazing that it was no different from living within the actual world. I don't think I could ever get used to this spectacular visage.

"If that's all you have to ask," Virgil said. "Feel free to begin."

A blue circle lit up on my inner wrist. I tapped on it, bringing up a screen that showed my character's stats, along with other tabs, including inventory, quests, party, friends, settings, and the log out button. For some reason, the party and friends tabs were greyed out, so I couldn't select them.

I tapped on the quests button and began the Prologue.

The environment completely changed, and I found myself standing before a mirror in a pitch-black room. Text on the top-left corner read, "Character Customization."

Sweet!

I scrolled through the dozens of options, styling my face and body for about thirty minutes. Finally, I arrived at the perfect look that I wanted.

I was six feet and three inches tall, I had the ripped body of a JoJo character, and my handsome face could smother any woman or man. I had shiny silver hair that was tied in a messy man bun, and there was a scar the ran across the side of my cheek. As for clothes, my option was a default tunic and trousers.

I looked pretty epic. For a moment, I actually thought about making myself look like a hot anime girl, but I decided against it since I would basically be living in this world from now on. Maybe if I ever got the chance to do a second playthrough, I'll gender-bend myself (in hindsight, saying that feels whack).

For the last step, I named my character Ares. It may be a little cringy, but you can't argue that Ares is one of the most badass names.

After clicking the "Accept" button on the bottom of the screen, everything went black once more. It's been ages since I played through the main quest, and I was hyped to experience it all over again.

As the game began, a deep soothing voice narrated the story while paintings on-screen helped visualize the prologue.

"Throughout all of history, the two Primordial Gods, Deorr and Casoh have been at war. Deorr, the god of chaos, created demons, while Casoh, the god of Order created humans. As the endless conflict raged on, both gods grew tired, so Deorr called a truce with Casoh. They met in a royal dining room, but Deorr tricked Casoh, inflicting a fatal wound on the God of Order. Although Casoh managed to escape, she was nearing her final breaths. If she wanted to recover from the wound, she would have to sleep for one hundred years. If that happened, then the demons would surely overrun the world. And so, Casoh used the last of her energy to impart a divine blessing on a human child, granting them supernatural power and immortality. This human will become the Hierophant, a warrior destined to defeat the Demon King and bring peace to the world."

After the short cutscene, the environment returned to the olive tree atop the hill.

Serial Slain probably had one of the most basic plot concepts, but it couldn't be helped, considering how long ago it was originally released. Even though the plot was so basic, many people still revered it as a classic.

Just then, smoke rose from the city's edge, and three little kids—two boys and one girl—ran up the grass.

"Brother! Big brother!" they yelled.

"What going on?" I asked.

"It's demons! They're attacking the city!"

I ran straight for my house. Like a set of opening floodgates, I started remembering the story's sequence of events.

"Ares!" a short woman in a plain dress called. It was my mother. "Get in here!"

Inside the house, a well-dress man with a thick mustache—my father—handed me a sword and a basic armor set that included a helmet, a chest plate, a pair of vambraces, and a pair of greeves.

"Please protect us from the demons, son," my father said.

"You got it."

I quickly got ready and set off for battle. In truth, I wanted to skip through the tutorial, but it would be helpful to get used to fighting like it was real life. I had no experience in martial arts, so this will probably turn into a shit-show.

Once I reached the city's edge, I saw four demons that were ravaging the adjacent buildings while civilians ran for their lives. At the center of the street, a sophisticated-looking demon in a suit calmly walked forward, observing the destruction like a normal stroll through the park. He must be the one leading the attack.

This is it: my first battle in the VR world.