Chapter 2: 1. Intro

Diverging from the conventional approach of pre-designed storylines, VISIDIA took a unique path. Employing AI in conjunction with their engine, they crafted dynamic scenarios and plotlines in real time, sculpting a game with an almost limitless narrative.

The next noteworthy aspect was the stellar combination of graphics and gameplay. Harvey wasted no time testing it out upon landing, executing jumps, slides, and kicks.

Despite being a VR game, the fluidity of movement and the high-quality graphics surpassed almost every other game in the market.

"So, what exactly are we doing here?" Elizabeth inquired as Harvey strolled toward a shop.

"You created your character, right? What stats did you focus on and what did you use your extra points for?" Harvey asked as he gestured two with his fingers.

[Each character was given 55 points, 50 points were a must-use on your character, while the other five could be kept and traded for money, items or kept for early game upgrades by trading for sp.]

"Umm, I don't remember to be honest." Elizabeth tapped her settings, attempting to find a way to display it for him. "I do recall investing a lot of points into luck, though."

"Luck? I didn't allocate anything into luck." Harvey took two glass bottles from the shopkeeper and began walking away.

"What did you get?" She pondered.

"Potions, I had some points left over, so I traded it in for cash."

"I guess it's safe to say I'm short on cash," She chuckled. "Oh, I found it." Tapping an icon, a blue screen popped up, suspended horizontally in the air. "Yeah now I remember, I spent my extra points to get a magic staff."

[Character: Ellie]

[Age- 18]

[Level- 1]

[Experience: 1/100

[Class: mage]

[Clan: None]

[Cash available: ]

[Innate Technique: Stat Switch, stat switch allows the user to swap stats with someone else be it friend or foe, Cooldown -20 seconds.]

[Manifestation: none]

[Manifestation Type: none]

[Each character started with 50 points that were allocated manually at the start of the game, plus the 5 bonus points that Ellie also spent.]

Strength-5/99999(maxed)

Agility- 2/99999(maxed)

Intelligence-10/999(maxed)

Dexterity- 3/99999(maxed)

Toughness-10/99999(maxed)

Luck: 20/99999(maxed)

Health levels up automatically, gaining ten every 5 levels. Same with mana.

Health-100/99999(maxed)

Health recovery: 2/s

Mana-100/99999(maxed)

Mana recovery- 2/s

....

Elements: Water, Earth, Fire. (Three because Mages get an extra pick)

Skill points earned:

Skills learned: ....

Skills available to learn: incantation-less casting, 12sp, Quick cast, 15sp

Weapons equipped:

Weapons stored: Sozen's Crafter(Staff)- durability- peak.

Items stored:

Spells learned: none

Spells learned: [Fire magic: Fiery Sphere]: Creates a large fireball from the user's palm or staff destroying everything in its path. (When created from staff, size, and intensity are increased)

"Wow, you really did spend a chunk of it on luck," Harvey said as he read her stats. "That's a nice technique though."

"Yeah, that's actually the reason I put so many skill points into luck, I wanted to be able to swap to a good stat at a convenient time."

"Wow, you're skilled at this. Are you sure you weren't a pro gamer at some point?" Harvey smiled, and she laughed, wearing a smug expression.

"I played Grandroad as well, leveled up to Gold-3 before quitting. What about yours? Your technique. How useful is it?"

"Oh, I actually don't understand it yet."

"Seriously? With you having over thirty thousand hours on Grandroad, I thought you'd be a gaming oracle by now."

"Can we stop mentioning my Grandroad playtime now?" Harvey covered his face in embarrassment only removing it when he felt someone tap his back.

"Huh?"

"Hi." A little girl with cat ears and a matching tail spoke. He glanced around, searching for her parents, but when she touched him again, he bent down, meeting her eye level.

"What are you doing here alone?" Harvey recognized her as an NPC, but the reports and stories surrounding VISIDIA suggested that players could engage in seamless conversations with NPCs, even comparing these interactions to those with other real players.

The cat-eared girl panted, uttering disjointed words like "Dad, cave, mom, wolf. Please, forest." Harvey stood up, exchanging a glance with Elizabeth.

"We're saving your parents, baby, Let's go, Harvey."Ellie sprinted after the cat girl.

Harvey smiled and followed them, it wasn't their first mission and it wasn't tied to the story in any way, however, he couldn't bring himself to tell Elizabeth that. Instead, he'd use this as an opportunity to test out the combat system.

The cat-eared girl sprinted toward a cave in the forest, urging them to follow. Yet, something felt amiss. "Harvey, anything wrong?" Elizabeth inquired.

"Protect the kid!" Harvey halted, spawning his daggers into his hands. "We're surrounded!"

Elizabeth secured the cat girl, backtracking toward Harvey. They found themselves trapped among six wolves. Harvey assessed their levels with all six wolves being at level six. "Five levels above us."

Unlike Elizabeth, who opted for Mage as her class, Harvey chose Condemned. It was the class he had selected for his first character in the first game he ever played, and since then, he hadn't deviated.

Although the Condemned class wasn't featured in many games, his reputation alone prompted its inclusion in many games, VISIDIA included, with the hope that one day he would play.

The ability and power system in VISIDIA differed from other games. Instead of allowing players to choose their abilities, they were randomized.

Moreover, each player received a unique ability, along with two elements of their choice and a weapon. Harvey selected Fire and Lightning. Unlike Mages, who wielded spells, frontline fighter classes like Twin Attackers, Condemned, were bestowed with techniques and forms.

A wolf lunged towards them, but before it could reach Elizabeth, Harvey swiftly thrust his dagger into its chest, causing it to disintegrate into red cubes that ascended into the air. Five wolves left.

While his innate technique and the manifest system appeared perplexing, Harvey didn't dwell on understanding them at the moment. His sole focus was on protecting his girlfriend. "I'm not grinding, I'm just having fun," Harvey grinned as he charged at another wolf.

With a smooth glide across the ground, Harvey impaled a charging wolf's skull, deftly rolling over its near-vanishing form, delivering a kick to keep another at bay.

Rushing towards the wolves, Harvey firmly embraced the role of the aggressor, yet an uneasy feeling persisted. It seemed as if the wolves were under some form of guidance. Glancing to his side, he identified a larger wolf, barking orders – undoubtedly the leader. "That's the alpha, isn't it!"

Closing the distance, he slashed at the leaping wolf. Although the wolf managed to evade mid-air, Harvey's swift footwork enabled a second attack. He could feel the resistance of fur and skin as the dagger pierced. The wolf yelped, dissolving into red pixels. However, its pack members swiftly closed in.

Harvey danced on the edge of danger, parrying bites and swiping at the wolves with calculated precision. His movements were fluid, the daggers an extension of his arms. He dodged, rolled, and struck back, leaving shallow cuts on the wolves' fur.

The wolves, fueled by instinct, attacked in unison. Harvey spun, evading one wolf's snapping jaws, only to be met by another lunging for his throat. His agile maneuvers saved him, but the wolves persisted, relentless in their pursuit.

"Forcing me to use my technique, that six years sure dulled my instincts!"

"First Form: Sun Splitter." Harvey put his blades to his sides as he used his form, he could feel the blades heating up in his arms and in an instant he shot forward with rapid speed, directing his twin daggers towards the leader, pinpointing a vital spot. His blades were enveloped in flames and with a quick cut, he fell the pack leader, momentarily disrupting the pack's coordination. Seizing the advantage, Harvey swiftly pivoted, utilizing his agility to disperse the wolves.

Enhanced by the form, his speed surged, and his blades were now ablaze with fire. Despite already having used this technique previously on the alpha, it remained, allowing him to rush towards the remaining wolf, cutting it down akin to a lumberjack felling a tree. "You guys okay?"

"Wow, your thirty thousand—" Elizabeth laughed, "I'm just kidding, but damn you're really good at this."

"I'm rusty, way rusty than I should be." He flipped his blades into the air and they disappeared, returning back to his storage.

"Tasia!" A man's voice echoed, and as they turned in its direction, they saw a cat-eared man—likely the individuals they sought.

"Thanks for dealing with those wolves, they've been a a plague to Falusha for centuries." A cat-eared woman expressed her gratitude.

"No problem. We're happy we could help," Elizabeth replied.

"Please, accept this as a token of my appreciation."

[Side Quest: Saving a family, Result: Completed]

[Gained: 20 coins and a stamina potion.]

[Two levels gained for Hajun(Harvey)]

A prompt appeared on Harvey's screen, and he tapped it, receiving coins and a potion from the cat-eared man. "Not bad for a first quest."

"Thank you," Tasia said, hugging Elizabeth's leg.

"Oh my God she's so cu—"

As Elizabeth crouched down to reach the cat-eared girl, she found that the girl was no longer there. It wasn't the girl who departed or fled, it was them. Abruptly, they were transported to the center of an arena, surrounded by numerous players, all one hundred and twenty thousand who were online at the time. "What just happened?" Elizabeth inquired, slightly irritated that she missed the chance to pet Tasia.

"To all the people currently online, it is with great pleasure to announce that you will no longer be able to leave VISIDIA." A voice spoke.

"Hm?"

"What is he talking about?"

"What kind of sick joke is that?"

A commotion stirred among the crowd, but abruptly, they fell silent—coerced not by choice but by the arrival of another entity. "Armenadiel, it was never your duty to disclose this to them."

"Why not? I relish the sight of their helpless faces, especially before their demise. That's when it's most gratifying," Armenadiel, adorned in a clown's attire, remarked, a glob of spit dripping from his mouth.

"Players of VISIDIA, from now until the game is completed, none of you will be able to leave or quit, and if you die, within the game, you'll perish in real life as well," The second entity declared, his voice carrying the weight of a thousand stars. "Well at least thats the plan until we get bored."

"What do you mean?" A member of the crowd questioned, frantically searching for the log-out button in the menu. "What kind of prank is this?"

"Have fun, and remember. Don't die." Both the speaker and Armenadiel vanished as soon as his sentence concluded.

Harvey and Elizabeth stood amidst the crowd as everyone began desperately checking their menus. "It's not here!"

"I CAN'T SEE IT!" Their complaints echoed out, and when Harvey checked, his log-out option wasn't there either.

"What's happening?" Elizabeth asked as she approached Harvey.

"I don't know, I doubt what they're saying is real, it's probably just a glitch in the system, the devs must be working on a patch now." Harvey tried making sense of the situation.

"Guys..." a voice uttered, eliciting a loud gasp from everyone in the crowd. "I didn't mean to... I only wanted to check..."

They turned to a lifeless player on the ground, his body not disintegrating into pixels. Instead, it resembled a corpse on Earth, with blood appearing more realistic than anything they had ever seen.

"An achievement has been claimed, (Kill another player) A player killer has been registered: player: Inkling206, has killed a player."