"Welcome to Aethelgard."
The soft system voice echoed in my ears, followed by a cold sensation crawling across my skin. My once-dark vision was slowly swept away by a white light, revealing a vast expanse of green meadows that seemed to stretch on forever.
The scent of damp earth and the aroma of wildflowers flooded my senses. Insane. This latest generation of Full Dive technology is no joke. It feels too real to be called digital data.
I clenched my fist, feeling the coarse texture of the starter leather gloves. In front of me, thousands of other players began running about, shouting with joy, and started pummeling low-level monsters in the starter area.
"Too crowded," I muttered softly.
I don't like crowds. If I want to excel on this first day, I can't stay here fighting over rabbit spawns. My eyes caught a trail ascending toward a high cliff on the northern side of Floor 1. The area looked deserted, likely due to the steep terrain and its distance from the starting town.
Without wasting a second, I ran toward it.
I had been climbing for nearly thirty minutes. My character's breathing grew heavy, the stamina system in this game is truly challenging. However, the hard work paid off. Behind a dense thicket of pine trees, I discovered a hidden cliff crevice.
Sring!
A notification popped up in the corner of my eye.
[New Area Discovered: Whispering Glade - Hidden Zone]
I smiled with satisfaction. I was the first person to reach this place. But that smile didn't last long.
GRRRRRRR...
A low growl that vibrated through the air made the hair on my neck stand up. From the shadows of the cliff, a figure emerged. It was a wolf, but it was twice the size of a normal one. Its body was shrouded in an unstable black aura, as if its graphic textures were undergoing a malfunction.
[Monster: Shadow-Stalker Wolf (GLITCHED)]
[Level: ??]
"Wait, the level is unreadable?" My heart began to race. This is a Floor 1 area; monsters here shouldn't have question marks for levels.
The wolf pounced. Fast—too fast for a level 1 player like me!
I reflexively rolled to the side, feeling the rush of wind from its claws as they nearly tore through my shoulder. I immediately drew my bronze shortsword.
Clang!
My sword struck its fur, which was as hard as steel. The vibration traveled up to my elbow, numbing my hand. My HP dropped slightly just from the recoil effect.
This makes no sense. My normal attack didn't even reduce its health bar by 1%!
I tried to endure—parrying, dodging, and attacking in the gaps between its movements. My concentration reached its peak. I could feel every drop of sweat trickling down my temple. This was the gaming sensation I was looking for. However, reality said otherwise.
One sweep of the monster's tail hit my stomach dead on. My body was sent flying against the cliff wall.
"Ugh...!"
My vision blurred. Red started flashing at the edges of my sight. HP: 12%.
The wolf smirked. Or at least, that's what it looked like as its fanged maw opened wide. It prepared for the final leap to finish me off. I closed my eyes, waiting for the sensation of pain or the Game Over message that would force me out of the game on the very first day.
Syuuuuut—!
A sharp whistling sound of wind sliced through the silence.
CRACK!
An explosion of blue light hit the wolf square in the head, forcing it to tumble to the ground. I opened my eyes.
A man stood with his back to me. He wore simple black robes, but the way he held his longsword felt entirely different. He was incredibly calm, as if the monster before him were nothing more than a bothersome fly.
Above his head, a name floated in a faint green hue.
—[ Faker ]—
"Floor one is full of system holes," his voice sounded lazy yet sharp.
He didn't run. He simply took a single step, yet somehow, he was already positioned beneath the monster's belly.
"If you aren't ready to die, don't play around at the edge of the map, Kanna."
He knew my name from the tag above my head. Before I could reply, he swung his sword in a very strange motion. The blade seemed to vibrate, producing three slashes simultaneously in a single breath.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
"Interesting," his voice was heavy, yet his tone remained incredibly calm, as if he were commenting on the weather rather than facing a lethal monster. "An unregistered glitch in the first hour of release. The dev team is truly careless."
"Hey... run..." my voice caught in my throat. "That monster... you can't fight it."
The man turned his head slightly, just enough to reveal the cold corner of his eye. "Floor one is full of system holes. If you aren't ready to die, don't play around at the edge of the map."
Without warning, the wolf lunged again with redoubled fury. But he didn't dodge. Instead, he stepped forward—a step so precise that he entered the monster's blind zone.
He swung his sword. However, it wasn't an ordinary swing. I saw his blade as if it were splitting into three distinct shadows at the same time.
Flash! Flash! Flash!
Three clean strikes hit the weak point on the monster's neck. The wolf's health bar, which had been full, suddenly drained to zero in the blink of an eye. The monster let out a long howl before finally shattering into thousands of beautiful yet terrifying fragments of blue light.
Silence enveloped the valley once more. Faker sheathed his sword with a movement so smooth there was almost no audible click. He turned fully toward me, looking at me as I still sat weakly on the ground.
"A rookie trying to be a hero on day one," he said flatly while tossing a small bottle filled with red liquid to me. "Drink that. You'll need full HP if you want to get down from this cliff alive."
I caught the bottle with trembling hands, my eyes still fixed on his figure. Who exactly is this 'Faker'? And what technique did he use just now? That wasn't a move one could learn in a single hour of gameplay.
"Wait!" I called out as he began to walk away. "You... how did you do it?"
Faker paused for a moment but did not turn back. "I'm just a lost soul who happened to be passing by, and by pure chance, my attack managed to land. Nothing special."
After saying that, he walked through the fog and disappeared, leaving me alone.
I was frozen. Who is this guy? How is it possible for a player to move like that on the first day of release?