Summoner Guild Online.
Many gamers, ranging from hardcore battle royale mains to MMORPG veterans and even gacha addicts, all wanted to play this wonderful new invention.
It had it all.
As advertised by the gaming company, the game was meant to be the first open-world game capable of holding a massive scale of players worldwide.
It was said to be a replica of the real world. People could come in and out as freely as they wanted. They got to decide if they wanted to experience the game in VR, mobile, or PC.
In truth, it was the best game to have ever come out in centuries.
A game where you could do whatever you liked, however you liked.
Or at least it was supposed to be.
Inside a dark, spacious room, a long rug could be seen stretching from the entrance all the way to a crappy-looking throne at the end.
A figure sat there, its legs crossed, and a fist resting under the figure's jaw.
The figure was clouded with nothing but darkness, in the shape of a human form. It had no physical body. All that was visible was the single glowing red orb in its chest and its red glowing eyes.
"Hmmm..."
The figure slightly turned its head to the side to see the system notification glowing before it.
[Request to log out - Error! Error!]
The figure's eyes narrowed slightly.
'What the actual fuck?!!!'
Kai Grimer, just like everyone else, logged into the VR game, Summoner Guild Online, on the day of the launch.
He had heard about the numerous characters you could choose from and how it could never be changed again. So because of that, he made sure to take his time when he was picking his.
As far as he remembered, his choice was the Scion of the High Priest, a legendary hero said to be the savior of a small city.
He was supposed to be wielding a double-wielding sword and using light magic.
So why was he instead inside a large dark room, in a character that held no physical form and was just surrounded by dark fog?
To make matters worse, anytime he tried to log out, the system would flag it as an error, stating he could not log out from the game.
'Holy fuck. Is the game glitching or something? It has to be right?'
He turned his gaze downward to look at his legs, and yes, he was indeed made of only dark mist.
'What sort of low-budget design is even this? I don't even remember seeing this character in the damn options.'
[Would you like me to give more insights on your character bio?]
Kai was stunted for a while.
For the past twenty minutes since he entered the game, this was the first time the system was saying anything other than the log out error.
'Yes.'
[Character name: The Shadow Victim.
Class: Summoner.
Level: 10.
Description: As the Shadow Victim, you are the tutorial boss of the game and this is your territory, the Dungeon of Class D.]
'The character I chose? Is a damn tutorial boss?!!!'
Because of his rage, the room began to shake, responding to the sudden fury he felt.
'A tutorial boss? So are you saying new players are supposed to use me as some kind of testing ground? No, hold on a bit, this might be a good thing.'
He smiled internally.
'Chances of me running into another player are higher now. If I can speak to one, I'll see if it is an issue we are all facing. The game just launched anyway, so I shouldn't be surprised about the bug.'
Just as he was in his relaxing mode, the system flaunted another system notification.
[Notice: A new wave of enemies is approaching.]
[The Dungeon has activated the transportation circle.]
[If you fail to kill the players, your dungeon will reduce in size. If the players succeed in killing you, you will die in both worlds.]
There was silence for a while.
Kai could already see the blue light shining from the entrance, an indication that people were about to pass through.
But that wasn't all on Kai's mind in that moment.
'Die in both worlds? The system knows my current condition? How? The game and the real world should have nothing in common. So h-'
He suddenly remembered.
Not even a few moments after he switched on the game on the VR headset, a bright light flashed at the corner, scanning him from head to toe before automatically inputting all the information about him in there.
From his height, to the color of his eyes, and every other thing that should have been confidential to the game.
'Holy fuck. This is bad. The system isn't lying. If I die here, I might actually die in real life.'
Before he could even hope to finish that thought, the bright blue light shone even brighter. From it, five individuals walked in.
They all had happy looks on their faces and held low-quality gears, each pertaining to the character and class they picked.
"Yooo, the game is hella realistic, man. What the hell? I am not even in VR; I am playing on my phone, and I swear it feels like I am in the game," a boy among them spoke, looking around with curiosity glinting in his gaze.
Another one spoke—
"I know, right? The graphics are sick. Then again, isn't this dungeon way too small?"
"Yah, the description said it was a D-ranked Dungeon, so I guess we can't really complain much."
"Oh look, the boss is even seated there." A girl pointed at Kai.
Kai flinched a bit. He was getting used to them speaking, but that luxury was gone now that they had their eyes on him.
"Guys, this boss is weird; it doesn't have a level."
Another member uttered.
"Wait, you're right? You think it's a bug?"
"We haven't faced any bugs so far, so yeah, I guess so."
Kai's eyes widened slightly.
'They haven't experienced a bug? So they can log out anytime they want? And i am supposed to fight for my life? Oi! What sort of bullshit is this?'
He looked intensely at the group, his palm squeezed at the edge of his armrest.
Looking at one of the individuals, he could see their stats hovering above their heads.