Chapter 1

A grey sword cut my shoulder.

The thin line at the top left corner of my field of vision shrank

slightly. At the same time a cold hand passed over my heart.

The blue line —called the "HP bar"— was a visual rendering of my

life force. There was still a little over 80% left. No, that phrase

wasn't appropriate enough. Right now, I was about 20% closer to

death.

I dashed backwards before the enemy's sword even began its

attacking motion.

"Haaa..."

I forced a huge breath to steady myself. The «body» in this world

didn't need oxygen; but the body on the other side, or rather the

body lying down in the real world, would be breathing heavily. My

limp hands would be soaked with sweat, and my heartbeat would

be off the charts.

Of course.

Even if everything I saw right now was nothing more than a

rendering of a 3D virtual reality, and the bar being reduced was

nothing more than a bunch of numbers that showed my hit points,

the fact that I was fighting for my life didn't change.

When you thought about it like that, this fight was extremely

unfair. That's because the «enemy» in front of me —a humanoid

with dully shining arms covered in dark green scales and a lizard's

head and tail— was not a human, nor was it really alive.

It was a digital lump that the system would replace regardless of

how many times it was killed.

—No.

The AI that controlled the lizardman was studying my movements

and enhancing its ability to respond to them with every second

that passed. However, the moment that this unit was destroyed,

the data would be reset instead of being passed on to the unit that

would regenerate in this area.

So in a sense, this lizardman was also alive, a single being unique

to this world.

"...right?"

There was no way that it would have understood the word that I

had muttered to myself, but the lizardman (a level 82 monster

called «Lizardman Lord») hissed and smiled, showing the sharp

fangs that protruded from its long jaw.

This was reality. Everything in this world was real. There was no

virtual reality or fakery of any kind.

I shifted the one-handed long sword in my right hand to waistheight and watched the enemy.

The lizardman moved the buckler in his left hand forward and

drew back the scimitar to his right.

A chill breeze blew into the shadowed dungeon and the flame of

the torch shook. The wet floor softly reflected the flickering torchlight.

"Kraaah!!"

With a tremendous scream, the lizardman leapt. The scimitar

drew a sharp arc as it flew towards me.

A blinding orange light lit its trajectory; a high-class one-hit sword

skill of the curved sword, «Fell Crescent». It was a formidable

charge-type sword skill that covered a distance of 4 meters in 0.4

seconds.

But, I was already expecting the attack.

I had slowly increased the distance to lure the AI into creating this

situation. I closed in on the lizardman, my mind registering the

burning smell that the scimitar left behind as it sliced through the

air merely centimeters before my nose.

"...Ha!"

With a short shout, I swung my sword horizontally. The sword,

now covered in sky-blue light, cut through the thinly protected

stomach and bright red light scattered instead of blood. There was

a low scream.

However, my sword didn't stop. The system assisted me through

the programmed movements and chained the next slash with a

speed that would normally have been impossible.

This was the most important element in battles within this world,

«Sword Skill».

The sword sped off right from left and cut into the lizardman's

chest. In this state, I spun my body in a full circle and the third

strike struck the enemy deeper than before.

"Raarrgh!"

As soon as the lizardman recovered from being stunned briefly

because it failed to hit with a big skill, it screamed with rage or

perhaps fear, and raised its scimitar high in the air.

But my chain had not ended. The sword that had been swinging

right suddenly sprung, as if forced by a spring, left and up and hit

its heart—a critical point.

The sky-blue rhombus drawn by my four consecutive hits flashed

then scattered; a horizontal, consecutive 4-hit skill, «Horizontal

Square».

The clear light shone strongly in the dungeon and then faded. At

the same time, the HP bar above the Lizardman's head

disappeared without leaving even a single dot.

The huge body fell, leaving a long trail, then suddenly stopped

awkwardly—

With a sound similar to breaking glass, it broke down into infinite

polygons and disappeared.

This was the «Death» of this world. It was instantaneous and

short, a perfect destruction, not leaving even a single trace.

I glanced at the virtual experience points and drop items I

received, appearing in a purple font in the center of my vision, and

swung my sword right and left before sheathing it in the scabbard

on my back. I backed away a few steps and slid slowly down with

my back against the dungeon wall.

I spat out the breath I was holding and closed my eyes. My temple

started throbbing, perhaps from the fatigue due to the long fight. I

shook my head a couple of times to get rid of the pain and opened

my eyes.

The shining clock at the bottom right of my field of vision showed

that it was already past 3PM. I should get out of the labyrinth or I

wouldn't make it to the city before dark.

"...Should I get started?"

There was nobody there to listen, but I spoke anyways and got up

slowly.

I was done with making progress for the day. Somehow, I had

escaped the hand of death again today. But after a brief rest,

tomorrow would come with more battles.

When you were fighting battles without a 100% chance of victory,

however many safety nets you prepared, there was going to be a

day when you fell out of lady luck's favor.

The problem was whether this game would be «cleared» or not

before I drew the ace of spades.

If you valued your life above all else, staying in a village and

waiting for somebody else to clear the game was the wisest route

to take. But I went to the front lines every day, solo. Was I just

simply an addict of VRMMOs who kept increasing his stats

through countless battles, or—

Was I an idiot who insolently believed that he could win the

freedom of everyone in this world with his sword?

As I started walking towards the labyrinth entrance with a slight

smile of self-scorn, I thought back to that day.

Two years ago.

The moment when everything ended and began.