I have become the Child of Fate, Hero of Ages, Healer of Worlds, Deathless Seeker, and Harbinger of the Dawn.
It happened in a flash. One moment I was clicking on the login button for Adventure Incarnate, my favorite Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, when I was blinded by a flash of light. The next thing I knew, I had been transported into the world of the game.
That was several weeks ago. Of course, I was shocked and confused at first, and I went through several cycles of denial and acceptance before I settled down enough to figure out what I should do next: find a safe place to stay.
My current quest, given to me by the Adventure Incarnate game System, was simple.
[Beginner Quest: Build a House]
I’d already finished two beginner quests, [Tutorial] and [Farmer Certificate]. Now that I had received a land grant from the local government, all I had to do was to clear a space in this forest to build my new home.
Today my goal was to cut down a few trees. I was in an old growth forest filled with towering cedar, hinoki cypress, larch, oak, and maple trees along with some fruit trees like wild cherry, plum, and peach. However, to the System, everything was just a “tree,” so I just picked an oak tree at random. Using the hatchet tool from my System toolbox, I swung at its trunk.
The tree shook and leaves rained down on me. Around half of the tree’s crown had mysteriously disappeared. One more swing and all that was left was the trunk.
The next one should do it.
“For real this time. Timber!” I yelled again. There was no one around, but yelling like a cartoon character made me feel more excited about my first woodcutting session. This was actually the first time that I was using a game skill.
I swung at the tree trunk with my hatchet and, sure enough, after I hit it with a resounding thwack, all that was left of it was a tree stump. Then I hit the stump with my ax one last time, making it disappear completely.
“It’s like magic!” I said.
Checking my inventory, I noticed that two slots now had wooden logs and tree branches in them. Just like in the game, cutting down trees gave me several pieces of wood.
I cut down three more trees nearby.
“Why do I feel tired?” I said out loud to nobody in particular.
With a bit of mental effort, I willed the game menu to appear. Thankfully, I didn’t have to physically press any of the buttons on the System screen that only I could see. As my eyes moved over the screen, it was as though the game system could read my mind as it switched to the right tab just when I wanted it to.
On the settings tab, I turned the guide mode on. A glowing yellow grid superimposed itself on the ground. To set down a farm, I needed to clear a 4 x 4 area. That was my priority because I was tired of doing my “business” in the bushes. I wanted a flush toilet and a proper bed to sleep on.
“One more to go,” I said to encourage myself.
I could hardly lift my arms anymore, but I forced myself to swing my ax until the last tree was cleared.
“Yes! I’m a woodcutting goddess!” I dropped the ax and danced a jig.
“You are?” said someone from behind me.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah! Bear! Bear!” I’d been so sure that I was totally alone here deep in the forest that I was unable to stop myself from screaming when someone unexpectedly appeared behind me. A dark, hairy figure loomed over me. Though I was a beat too late, I plucked the pink plushie dangling from my waist and flung it at the newcomer, shouting, “Kill!”
“I’m not a bear. I’m from the White Tiger Clan,” said the figure. He’d caught the plushie.
I backed away a step, and the person took a step forward, into the light. It was definitely a person, but he was huge and bear-like, with a thickly muscled figure, brown beard, and long shaggy hair. His legs were like tree trunks, and his arms were brown and brawny, but underneath his bushy eyebrows, his eyes were lively and intelligent.
“No, I wasn’t calling you a bear. That’s my bear,” I said, pointing at the teddy bear in his hand.
Floating above the newcomer’s head were the words [Farm Guide], and a transparent box had popped up in my field of vision with the words [Unable to Attack Farm Guide].
It’s a good thing that the System had stopped me from attacking this person. The Farm Guide was a very important NPC in the game who helped the player with events, farm upgrades, weather reports, and so forth.
“Oh, I see,” he said.
He handed the plushie back to me, and I put it back on my belt via the hook on its back. My character was a puppeteer, and this little stuffed toy was the beginner puppet. It looked harmless, but I could use it to cast basic magic like Fireball. Thank goodness I hadn’t actually attacked. The last thing I wanted was to offend my Farm Guide. In fact, players should give their guides a gift every time they meet, so I had prepared one in advance. I handed him a purple crocus I’d picked up earlier. “Sorry about that! I was just surprised. I haven’t seen another person here all day.”
“No problem,” he said as he accepted the flower and put it on his belt. Like me, he was wearing pants and a long-sleeved robe with an overlapping Y-shaped collar, like a character from an ancient Chinese martial arts movie. Now that I looked at him closely, I saw that he had slightly pointed ears, which meant that he wasn’t human. I hadn’t noticed because his hair mostly covered the sides of his head. Most of the people on this continent were humans, but the feudal lords and ruling family were all God Beasts who were descendants of the offspring of humans and gods. They were called God Beasts in the game because they looked human, but could shapeshift into a giant beast form. They called themselves Yaozhen in their language.
“Welcome to Emberstone Farm. I’m Violet, a new settler from Mai-i island,” I said.
Emberstone Farm was the name that was automatically generated by the System when I was assigned this spot in the forest.
“I know. I’m Shuye, the person in charge of this area. Welcome to the Ancient Hills Forest,” he said.
“Thank you.” I wanted to be hospitable, so I took out a plate of cookies from my inventory. The people of this world were quite used to magic, and many people had a small magical space that they could use to store items. I'd spent the last of my money on buying the cookies in town.
“No, thank you. We of the White Tiger clan don’t eat human food,” he said. “Do you need anything? I see that you’ve set up a tent. I could show you a cave nearby that’s safer.”
“A cave? Yes, I’d like to see it,” I said.
Not that I planned to use it, since the house that I could build using the System was undoubtedly much better than a cave. Nonetheless, it would be nice to know a place where I could seek shelter if I was caught outside in bad weather.
Without further ado, I put the cookies and hatchet back in my inventory and followed his lead. We spent an hour hiking through the woods while we chatted. He gave me a few tips about how to survive in the wilderness and asked me about my life back “home.” Of course, he was asking about my background in this world.
I didn’t tell him my real life story. The truth was that back on Earth my parents had died a year ago, a few days before I turned eighteen. I was studying up for my college entrance exams when I decided to play Adventure Incarnate, a moderately popular and very strange Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. It started off as a social farming simulation before being bought up by a Chinese video game company.
The new owners had an RPG that they had been developing, and some smart guy had the bright idea of taking advantage of the existing player base by merging the two games together, forming a new MMORPG. The result was a uniquely weird hodgepodge of farming, crafting, and combat content set in a fantasy medieval-Europe-meets-magitech-Asia world.
The moment I joined my guild chat, one of my online friends messaged me about “something cool” that he wanted to show me.
GodIAm or GIA, as I called him, was one of the first friends that I had made in the game. He was notorious for being a nolifer, hacker, and bug abuser. Half a dozen of his characters had been banned because of this.
Nonetheless, he was a very smart and witty guy that I enjoyed chatting with. He told me he had found a way to spawn infinite items, though it was only visible in the character's own inventory. He showed me a few screenshots, but those were easily faked, so he offered to let me log into the character. That was when I was transported into the game.
What I told Shuye was the player character’s backstory. I gave him the old song and dance about how I was an orphan who had been found washed ashore after a shipwreck at Mai-i island. I was just a baby then, and no one came forward to claim me, so I grew up in an orphanage with no knowledge of who my parents were.
Shuye was sympathetic to my plight.
“It must’ve been hard for you,” he said.
“That’s all in the past. I’m looking forward to my future here,” I said.
That was the truth. At first, it had been difficult for me to accept that there was no log-out button I could use to return to Earth. However, I eventually accepted the fact that I was stuck here, and that I had to make the most of what I had, which was a lot.
My dear friend GIA had really done it! I’d only half-believed him when he’d shown me the screenshots of his inventory that had billions of valuable items in it. Now I could see for myself that he was telling the truth. My inventory was full of everything that a player could need, and each bank slot had the maximum number of items: 2,147,483,647.
I’m no programmer, so I didn’t quite understand why 2,147,483,647 was a significant number. I believe it had something to do with 32-bit code or integers, or something like that.
The point was that I had 2,147,483,647 mythril bars, 2,147,483,647 rainbow trout, 2,147,483,647 Phoenix feathers, 2,147,483,647 green dragon leathers, 2,147,483,647 buckets of living soil, and so forth.
I had all of the important farm items, crafting materials, armor, weapons, accessories, and cash shop cosmetics in Adventure Incarnate in my inventory.
With an inventory that was full of legendary items, I was surely destined for greatness in this world.
Of course, nothing in life could really be that easy. There was just one small problem with me using the items.