Part 0: Prologue
⟦ SYSTEM ALERT ⟧
Huh...?
That damn alert again? This is not the time!
The piercing sound drilled through my eardrums like sharp needles. The notification window blinked in front of me with diabolic persistence, each flash more annoying than the last. My vision blurred from irritation while the buzzing threatened to drive me insane.
⟦ APPLYING NON-COMPLIANCE PENALTY ⟧
What?
What the hell is it talking about? What non-compliance?!
With trembling hands, I decided to press the alert. I needed to know what the hell was happening.
⟦ ◆ Due to non-compliance with the blood quota ordered by your Lord, he will proceed to feed on your body as punishment ⟧
Blood quota...?
Is it referring to that stupid thing...?
I thought it was a temporary debuff... This makes no sense at all!
Suddenly, stabbing pain spread through my hands like liquid fire. My fingers went numb, becoming heavy and useless. With growing horror, I lifted them in front of my face.
All my nails were gone.
Completely torn out from the root.
Blood spurted from the nail beds in crimson streams that dripped onto the cold floor. The pain was so intense I could barely form coherent thoughts.
I fell to my knees, unable to comprehend the nightmare unfolding before me.
"I see... so that's what this is about. How unlucky you are—you've become one of us."
The man in front of me finally spoke, and he seemed to be taking it as a joke.
"One of you? What the hell are you talking about?!"
"What do you call us...? NPCs, right? Well... you became an NPC, or at least something very similar to one."
"NPC?! Stop talking nonsense! I'm a person!"
"Really?" He stepped closer, and I could feel his cruel smile; he was completely enjoying my confusion and suffering. "Well, it seems you're not anymore. Apparently, this world no longer considers you as such. Therefore, now we'll be more alike than you think..."
"Stop! I'm not like you! Not like any of you!" My voice broke as desperation took hold of me. "You did this to me, didn't you?! Why?! I thought we had a deal! Come on, answer me, damn it! Tell me something!"
Silence stretched between us like a burial shroud.
But there was something worse than his silence. Something that chilled my blood more than any threat.
I had realized the terrible truth: this was just the beginning.
Part 1: Does someone this bad at video games really exist?
The era of total immersion video games had arrived, but with it came market oversaturation. The landscape had become so saturated that players no longer paid attention to these titles: they all seemed like soulless copies of their predecessors, stripped of any spark of originality.
However, there was one game that promised to be different.
A VRMMORPG that had gone practically unnoticed for years since its release date, was totally unknown and had no active players.
Its design was absolutely spectacular. It offered a vast and unexplored world where you could venture freely, complete epic missions, kill monsters and level up—something that wasn't far from the common characteristics of this type of video game. However, the story was what made it stand out: Eldralid, a high-tech metropolis with colossal skyscrapers and infrastructure that defied imagination, dominated by a gigantic capitol at its nerve center. This technological paradise was threatened by abominable creatures that emerged from the depths of the underworld.
Your role was that of a hero destined to join the Sentinels, the elite guardians charged with protecting this world. Your mission: venture into dimensional rifts that appeared randomly in different zones, which allowed access to the underworld to eradicate the creatures that inhabited it. All this through the use of weapon skills only, since magic was practically nonexistent in this world, which added a greater level of difficulty.
But if the hero's life wasn't for you, you could take a completely different path and become a prosperous merchant, buying and selling objects of incalculable value.
Or maybe, if you simply sought a relaxing experience and found yourself alone, you could interact with the game's NPCs. These artificial characters could maintain fluid conversations and express emotions indistinguishable from human ones, something completely revolutionary for its time. They could even accompany you in battle to close these dimensional rifts, this being the most innovative and attractive factor of the game.
And it was precisely that characteristic that would dig its grave.
What would forever destroy the ambitious "Divine Damnation Conquest."
✦✦✦
"What the hell?! Why can't I kill it?!" I shouted, furious. "I'm really starting to get sick of this!"
⟦SLIME - Level 1⟧
HP: 5/15 | ATK: 2 | DEF: 1 | SPD: 3
It was pathetic. Facing off against a simple level 1 slime and I couldn't defeat it. I'd already lost count of how many times it had massacred me.
At first I couldn't even touch it. Now, every time I reduced its life to 5, it split in two and I ended up being beaten to lose.
"Hahaha! I already told you that's not the way, Lucian," Shin approached to talk to me.
"And what's it supposed to be?! Answer me, Shin! Because I've already tried everything and the exact same thing keeps happening!"
"Hey, calm down... Look, the slime left," Shin said in a calm voice.
I turned my head. The damn slime had returned to the spawn zone.
Full HP: 15.
And its life had also recovered to maximum, thus losing all the progress I had made.
"Shit! Why does this have to happen to me?"
I was frustrated. I couldn't believe how pathetic I was at playing, although it was also my first time in a VRMMO. I had recently bought my MindLinker, and Shin—my childhood friend—asked me if I was interested in playing this strange video game Divine Damnation Conquest, which absolutely no one plays, with other friends. In fact, it doesn't even have players; we're the only ones at this moment, but for him it's a masterpiece.
All of them were quite fond of video games; in fact, I think I could categorize them as gamers, unlike me, who was just a casual player.
I was here solely for them, to have a good time and have fun.
"Lucian, friend, I have to be honest: you're too bad at playing. I've seen casual players who learn to play much faster than you; you literally can't kill a simple slime."
Leander also approached to talk to me while I was on the ground.
Of all of them, he was the biggest asshole of all, and the one I liked least.
"And who do you think you are to tell me that?"
"Did you realize that we've been in the spawn zone for more than 1 hour and you haven't even been able to complete the mission? Because we're all already level 7 just from killing slimes, since we completed it a while ago, and believe me it's not fun at all, so I'm well within my right to tell you."
⟦Introductory Mission: collect 10 slime balls⟧
⟦Progress: 0/10⟧
He was right... I had no progress on the mission.
"Yeah? Well unfortunately I'm learning to play, so you'll have to put up with it."
"Learning to play?! It doesn't take anyone I've known this long to learn to play this type of video game! They're too simple! You're useless, that's all. I can't believe you're also no good at playing video games; you're literally good for nothing."
"What did you just say?! Come on, repeat it!"
I instantly got up to confront him.
"With pleasure!"
"Alright guys, that's enough. We're supposed to be here to have fun; don't even think about arguing now. Besides, what would be the point of you fighting? Player damage isn't allowed in the spawn zone, and you can't feel pain here either; it would just be a stupid fight."
Shin and the others intervened and separated us instantly when the tension intensified between us.
"No wonder Juno rejected you; you're a person who has nothing good."
Despite everything, Leander dared to make that comment.
"What the hell did you say?!"
And I got upset again, since that was something I didn't like to be mentioned, much less with her present in that same place.
"Lucian, enough, don't pay attention to him."
Shin took care of stopping me.
"Leander, how could you say something like that! Don't you have any shame?"
"Yeah dude, that comment wasn't right at all."
On the other hand, Luck and Juno took care of stopping him.
"How can you have so much patience with him? I really don't understand it! He also chose the most difficult class in the entire game. Why did he do it if he knew he was a novice?! I bet he was doing it to try to impress you. How pathetic!"
⟦Class: Dagger - Level 1⟧
Strength: 5 | Dexterity: 6 | Speed: 8
Weapon Skill: 3 | Endurance: 4
HP: 15 | Skill Power: 3
It was true...
I had chosen that class to impress her, but I had also done it because I liked the idea of being able to fight with a dagger.
However, it did bother me quite a bit that he threw it in my face.
"Friend, calm down, okay? Don't pay attention to him..." Shin kept trying to calm me down, so I wouldn't get angry.
I didn't say anything to him and simply went to pick up my dagger that was on the ground.
And already frustrated from not having achieved anything, I began walking again toward the slimes.
"Wait..." Shin stopped me. "I'll show you one more time how it's done, but please, I need you to be totally attentive to my movements."
He said that and headed toward the slimes, then whistled and attracted the attention of one that instantly began jumping furiously in his direction.
"It can't be... are you really going to do another damn demonstration again for him?!"
Leander didn't seem to approve much of the idea of Shin teaching me again.
"Leander, keep quiet, today you're behaving worse than usual; you're just ruining the gaming experience."
Griffin reprimanded him for his attitude.
"Me?! How can you say that?! It's him, he's the one who has only delayed us!"
"Shin... I don't think it's a good idea..."
I told him.
"Just watch carefully."
He replied.
Then, the slime finally reached him; he unsheathed his sword, while the slime tried to attack him, but he simply dodged each of its attacks too easily. Well, after all it was a simple level 1 monster, but for someone like me it was surprising.
"It's very simple..., see?" Shin kept dodging every attack effortlessly, talking to me meanwhile. "Keep your gaze fixed on the monster. You'll see circular arrows that change color; you have to hit when they're red."
"You already explained that to me. It's hard to hit just when they're red; the color change is very fast..."
"Don't hit just when it's red. Calculate the seconds between each color and determine how long your weapon takes to impact."
He raised his sword, still dodging.
You make it look too easy...
"Then, when you have it clear... just attack."
SLASH!
Damage: +105
Critical hit. The slime died instantly.
"Wow, very impressive Shin, you did way too much damage."
"You're an expert, you have everything very well calculated."
"I think you're the best VRMMORPG player I know."
"That precision is brutal; you're definitely a genius."
"The timing was practically perfect too."
"Come on guys... it's not that big a deal, don't be like that, you're embarrassing me."
The instant Shin finished the demonstration, everyone began complimenting him, while Shin was quite modest in his response.
I think I could even think that he did it precisely for that, to be praised, and Shin is a guy who is practically good at everything he does: he's attractive, has good grades, is intelligent and is also very good at playing video games.
"Please, how is that going to impress them? It's a simple level 1 slime; anyone could do it."
Leander for his part was skeptical about the idea of giving Shin a compliment.
"Could you make that perfect time calculation to perform a critical attack with that amount of damage? Because as far as I'm concerned, Shin is the only one capable of doing that among us."
Luck threw a truth in his face that he didn't seem to like too much, since he made a face of just not caring.
It's true...
I fixed my gaze on my dagger.
None of them have that almost perfect control of critical attacks like Shin does; they just make attacks without measuring themselves in the mechanics, they don't see the game the same way Shin does...
Maybe I can do it too... I just have to have faith in myself and not give up!
I gripped my dagger tightly and grabbed a stone from the ground to then start running toward the slimes.
"Look at that... It seems Lucian wants to try again," Leander mocked loudly so I could hear him. "Place your bets: the slime or Lucian?"
"Stop making fun of him," Shin scolded him.
"What's wrong with that? We all know here that I'm only doing it as a joke," Leander replied.
"Pretty heavy jokes to tell the truth..." Shin replied.
"How bitter you are..."
"He's right. It's very immature," Griffin intervened. "But... I bet 60 gold coins that Lucian will win. I want to see your face when you have to pay me those coins."
"Really?!" Shin didn't seem to approve much of the idea.
"It'll be a pleasure to bet against you," Leander replied.
I could hear them, but I was focused. The slime was approaching, jumping furiously.
I dodged its attacks as Shin had taught me. It was harder than it looked. Several times I almost fell.
I kept my eyes on the changing arrows, calculating the time.
"This is the moment! Haaaaa!"
I moved my blade with force, attacking two colors before red, just as Shin had explained.
"Huh...? It can't be..."
Something strange happened.
The slime became watery. My knife went through it without causing damage.
I fell face-first to the ground.
"Enough! Get off me!"
The slime began hitting me while I tried to get it off.
Another defeat.
SLASH!
Shin's sword cut the slime, dropping a slime ball on me.
"But what happened...?" I asked, not understanding anything that had happened.
"I think it was a stroke of very bad luck... The slime activated a skill that technically is very unlikely to occur," Shin answered me.
"What?!"
"In combat one is supposed to learn from the enemy... and it seems to me that the slimes learned much more from you than you from them! HAHAHAHA! Thank you very much Shin, you just made me win 60 gold coins."
"Go to hell..."
I replied to Leander, meanwhile, Griffin looked disappointed by the betting results.
"Look... if you want you can try again, we can keep waiting for you, right guys?"
Shin tried to encourage me and turned to look at the others.
"Uh... yeah sure."
"I think there wouldn't be a problem."
However, their responses didn't convince me completely.
"Just drop your false kindness, you're really making me sick, and by the way, I intend to leave this place; I don't plan to wait anymore for that idiot, so see you later."
Leander went ahead and headed to the deactivated dimensional rifts that were in the back, where he had to insert the slime balls.
"Listen Lucian, I have an idea, I didn't want to mention it before because you were going to lose experience, but I think you've learned to play, you just have a lot of bad luck, so if you want I can give you 9 slime balls, since that one lying there is yours. Well, actually we could all give them to you, since we all have too many, but I'd like it to be me, so what do you think?"
"Sounds good to me."
"Excellent."
⟦Trade request - Shin⟧
⟦Accept/Decline⟧
I accepted it and he gave me the 9 slime balls I was missing.
⟦Introductory Mission: Completed⟧⟧
⟦New Level Achieved!⟧
⟦Class: Dagger - Level 2⟧
Strength: 5→7 | Dexterity: 6→9 | Speed: 8→10
Weapon Skill: 3→5 | Endurance: 4→6
HP: 15→18 | Skill Power: 3→8
"Thanks Shin..." I thanked him. "And sorry for delaying you all so much and making you bored."
"Don't even mention it, no problem with that, now let's get out of here."
So we all headed to the deactivated dimensional rift and one by one they began to enter.
Leaving only Shin and me at the end.
"Alright, Lucian. Get ready. When you cross that portal, the real fun awaits us. The real game is just beginning," Shin said before crossing.
I inserted the slime balls and prepared myself.
"Real fun, huh? Let's see if you're right."
Finally, I crossed the portal.
⟦Beginner Zone - Completed⟧
⟦Welcome to the World of Divine Damnation Conquest! Good luck adventurer!⟧