Chapter 1

"Hey, Erlig, you should absolutely check this game out."

As I was gathering my studying materials, my close friend Andrew slapped me on the back. Turning around with clear annoyance in my eyes, I saw him standing there grinning from ear to ear. Patting my shoulder, he stood near my desk with his bag.

"Damn, Andrew, you should control your strength a little bit more."

I shook his hand off and rubbed my shoulder.

"It's your fault," He winked at me, "You should exercise a little bit more, look at you, so skinny."

As he talked to me, he gave way a few times to other students. To those who were leaving the auditorium after the lecture ended.

"Look who's talking," I smirked and slapped him in the stomach.

As I slapped him, his baggy hoodie couldn’t hide how thin he actually was.

"Alright, alright, chill out." he guarded his stomach.

"So you finished with classes for today?"

"Nah, I still have one lecture, what about you?"

"I'm finished for today, and now I can finally relax for a few days." I stretched, feeling pure bliss.

"Nice, then we should go and grab something to eat."

After thinking for a second or two, I decided to take him on this offer.

"Lead on."

As we slowly made our way from campus to the nearest café, we made some small talk. After sitting down and ordering a light meal, Andrew started nagging me about another new game.

"I'm telling you, even a sourpuss like you will like it."

"You know, I'm more into retro gaming."

We were on our way to graduating from college, yet we didn’t have many friends, not to mention girlfriends. We were childhood friends who spent most of our time together, finding joy in playing different games.

Mainly videogames. Lately, I have lost interest in games. It feels as if they went from assembly lines. Thus, I eventually grew tired of playing games. But Andrew still played lots of newly released games, nagging me to play what he liked the most.

"Look, you liked the Witches 4, didn’t you?"

"Well, It's cause DvdBlueprintBlue never lets me down."

As Andrew finished his meal, he slowly sipped on his tea.

"And I'm telling you, this new studio made a bombshell. You still have your VR helmet?"

"Yeah, and what of it?" I raised my eyebrow at his question.

"What do you mean: 'What of it?'," he slapped the desk attracting a few gazes, "You freaking own the latest version, and it's presently collecting dust."

I didn’t like to be stared at by people, so I tried to calm him down. "Andrew, calm down and lower your voice a bit. You are disturbing other clients."

As he looked around, he noticed the gazes and lowered his voice.

"Ahem, as I was saying, why even buy the highest specs if you don’t use them to their max?" he finished his tea in one gulp, "Look, we know each other for like what? Eleven years?"

I thought for a bit and shrugged, "I guess."

"I know your eating habits, your preference in games." he lowered his voice even more and leaned forward, "And your preference in women."

He leaned back, "I know you will absolutely like this game, even though it's VR. It's a breakthrough and you get everything you like." As he finished saying this, he started looking for his phone.

Even though it sounded a bit cringey in the beginning... In the end, it was the truth. We were best friends for a long time and knew each other well.

"Oh crap, I will be late for my lecture! Anyway, you should check the game! I've already sent you the link in 'Diesel'."

As we left the café and he started running away, I realized something.

"I knew you were slacking off! You didn’t take any notes again, right? Remember, I won't let you copy mine!" As I shouted this to his running back, I started walking towards home with a smile.

Knowing that I will have a few days off from the lectures and seminars, I felt that even the streets were looking better. The grass looked even greener. Birds, which usually were somewhere in the back, chirped loudly. Almost as if they celebrated the start of my little holiday. And even dusty office workers were nowhere to be seen. After half an hour of walking, I finally came back.

Taking the elevator up to the fourth floor, entering my family flat, and throwing my bag into the corner of my room.

"Finally, some freedom."

As my parents usually returned later in the evening, I decided to surf the net for the time being. Reading some web novels, surfing the video-tube, and spending my time meaningless like I usually did.

It was time for my parents to return. Heating up the food my mother cooked in the morning, I soon heard them at the doorsteps. Greeting them, we shared a small meaningless talk at the table. After finishing our dinner, we all went back to do our things.

Mother went to her study room to fill in some reports. As for my father, he was washing the dishes. As for me, I returned to my room, thinking about what I want to do in my free time.

As I was mindlessly clicking on different internet links while listening to some music, I saw a notification. It was a missed message in 'Diesel'. Checking it, it was a page with the game Andrew mentioned. While reading about this game on the store's page, my interest in it grew.

"A new classic in a genre of RPG', never before seen non-linear story, beautiful art style."

The score of the game was good, and pr managers sure knew how to sell their product. Screenshots indeed were mindblowing, but I knew that they could've easily been staged and pre-rendered.

"I guess I will give it a try, seeing how Andrew recommended it."

The price for the game was indeed higher than the usual product, but I could afford it. Gaining a stipend from college and having parents that earned well, I never felt tight on money.

After buying it, I took my VR helmet from the shelf and dusted it off. Then according to the instructions, I started downloading it directly on the helmet. As I was waiting, I started reading the game description.

"A wide variety of romanceable heroines, hm, sadly none of them suit my taste." I finished skimming through the game basics when I got a notification that the game was up.

After sitting down in a comfortable position, I adjusted the helmet and put it on. Getting through a bunch of customization and settings, I finally started the game.

The game industry always was standing on the edge of the future. So Virtual reality developed very fast. Basically, virtual reality could be used as a second reality. So the trouble of making a good VR game was making interesting gameplay while maintaining the feeling of reality.

As the game started, I felt like I just woke up. Every feeling was so real. If it was me five years ago, I would be shocked. But I already played a few VR games before, so I knew what to expect. I quickly caught the hang of it.

It was a game about martial arts that was almost the same as our worlds, like MMA or boxing, but only at the beginning, soon it would turn to be more flashy and unrealistic. Things which were mostly seen in Korean manhwas. Where people would punch someone in the air and other stuff like this.

As I spent my time in the game, I soon got the notification to end my gaming session. It was easy to lose track of time playing VR games, so I set myself a notification.

Taking the helmet off, I decided to call it a day. "I guess this game was okay." Feeling fatigued due to the days of constant studying, I fell asleep quickly.

The next morning, I woke up, washed, and ate breakfast with my parents. As they left for their jobs, I was left alone.

Starting my pc, I got a bunch of messages in 'Diesel' from Andrew.

"So, how was the game? I saw you playing it."

"You liked it, yeah? It was not so bad, c'mon say it."

"Why are you ignoring my messages, dude? Don’t want to say I was right?"

"What the hell? Why are you spamming so much?" I rubbed my nose bridge and started typing.

"I guess it was okay. But why the hell should I relive my high-school years in the game? Is it interesting? Will it be as boring until the end? And why the hell you don’t feel any pain?"

As I finished writing my response, I went for a glass of water, and when I returned Andrew was already writing me a reply. "Alright, let's see what you will write."

Then I got his message. "Yeah I know that you didn’t like the school years but bear with it, it's just the prologue, shit will get real in a few days of playing."

I knew he would say something like this, so I typed back.

"And that’s the best you came up to?"

"C'mon, Erlig, give the game a chance and stop whining. And by the way, you can feel the pain. It's just tuned down. You read the description, martial arts, and stuff like that."

"Well fuck it, I will play it for a holiday, and if it will continue to be boring, you owe me a burger."

"Okay."

"By the way, do you have any advice?"

"Eh, like what?"

"If it's an RPG, it would be handy to know what are the best stats and skills to improve."

"This game is different, so just do whatever you want. It's not essential."

"And what about bonuses while romancing a girl?"

"There's none."

I creased my eyebrows, "He's fucking trolling me."

"Andrew, for fuck sake, stop doing this, just give some advice already."

"Yeah, yeah, alright, then I will give you the only advice that matters. You can get netorared."

"But I don’t even like these girls."

"Yeah, I already guessed it, but it’s the only thing that actually matters. You should know that if you change your playstyle even a little bit, the game will change alongside."

"And?"

"And the only thing that will stay the same are girls, and even if you don’t like them, you can at least avoid the destiny of a cuck."

"God, I hate this word. How the fuck am I going to be a cuckold if I don’t have even an ounce of feelings for them?"

"Lol. Don’t butthurt, chill, it's just a stupid joke. Anyways, if you don’t really mind spoilers, here is the link for the guide. I should change my lecture hall. I will write to you later."

"Gl."

"TY."

I clicked the link and started reading the guide, and it was really useless. There was loads of stuff that was missing judged by the comments. Still finishing it and even reading how to raise the flags with the girls and avoid bad endings I continued playing.

Honestly, this game grew on me. I started enjoying it, playing the character that I never was or would be. As it almost felt like the real world due to the game being VR, the feeling was doubled. That was the beauty of role-playing games.

And then I didn’t even notice how I played this game for a few days. Of course, I made little breaks for sleep and etc. But still, it was like I found my passion for gaming once again.

With such thoughts, I went to sleep.

"Erlig, wake up."

I heard a woman's voice through my sleep. I tried to shrug it off and continue my peaceful nap. But, apparently, the voice's owner was against it.

"You shouldn't oversleep even if it is your weekend."

"Alright, alright, I'm getting up." I sat down as I started to rub my eyes. It was something that I've done countless times, but somehow it felt different today.

I looked at my hands that were bigger than what they used to be.

"What the?" I looked around myself and saw that I wasn't in my room.

"What's happening?" This room was much smaller than mine. There was a single bed and a table with an old pc, a closet, and some dumbbells. That was basically it for the room.

I didn't know what was happening. I tried to remember what the hell happened.

"Ah, that's right. I tried to play with the save files in the game." I once again looked around. I guess that’s why I woke up like it was the real world.

"Logout," I said the words I used to exit the game, but nothing happened.

"Em, I said logout," I said once more, but nothing happened.

"Exit."

"Menu."

"Settings."

I tried a bunch of things but was met with silence. No notification or menu was sliding in. Although it wasn’t unusual for the games to lag, it still creeped me out.

One thing is when your pc lags, and other if something connected to your brain starts lagging. I tried to stay calm and mumble every possible option to trigger the menu, but nothing happened. And very soon, I started panicking.

"Alright, Erlig, you should get out of your bed."

A woman in her late twenties entered my room. She looked gentle with her long dark hair gathered in a low side tail. Her curves were not so prominent, but accentuated by her tight home wear, she still looked desirable.

Then this gentle-looking woman with a soft smile on her lips and large light brown eyes talked to me.

"Erlig, if you're up, why are you so quiet? You should go and eat, I made breakfast," as she ensured that I was up, she left my room, "And don’t forget to clean yourself."

After she left the room, I was alone. Only my thoughts accompanied me.

"Somehow, I'm trapped in this game-world."