Ch. 5

Still Alive (3)

I sat down in the capsule, which was shaped like a giant black sphere, and it immediately enveloped me gently.

My first impression was that it was designed to be convenient, as if it were trying to get me to access another world as soon as I sat down.

_____

My vision went dark for a moment and a strange sensation enveloped me.

At the same time, a colorful font embroidered in gold on a pure white background blocked my vision.

[To A Wider World Of Adventure].

For a moment, I was drowned out by the colorful backgrounds of the world I was seeing for the first time, one after the other, like a typical opening to a game.

The next thing I knew, I was in a space I didn’t recognize.

“…”

It all felt more natural than I thought it would.

Even though I could feel a strange sense of otherness, it was hard to believe that this was virtual reality.

“This… is virtual reality?”

I muttered out loud, and then I heard a female voice that sounded distinctly like my own in real life, but also distinctly different.

I tried waving my hands and shifting my steps.

I felt a strange sensation coursing through my body that was not like me.

I didn’t understand the mechanics of how it worked, but I was intrigued by the sensations, which were too realistic for a simple game.

There were quite a few other people in what appeared to be a busy city center.

Each one of them was full of personality, and as expected of an RPG game, they all had their own styles. From greatswords so huge that they obscured their bodies, to one-handed swords, bows, crossbows, spears, axes, katanas, maces, wands, and countless other weapons.

As I watched them, I wondered what my weapon would be.

As I thought about it, I suddenly felt a familiar sensation in my hand.

-!

My breath caught in my throat.

Slowly, I lifted my hand, and a weapon with an all-too-familiar shape was swinging from my arm.

…Does this make sense?

It was a Flail.

Was this really a coincidence?

The original me, ‘Han Serin’ who would have enjoyed this game… It was such a ridiculous coincidence that I wondered if it was actually me in a parallel world.

Of all the weapons carried by the many people walking the streets right now, I didn’t see anyone with a flail.

It was obviously a non-mainstream weapon here.

Nevertheless, the being who was the ‘Han Serin’ of this world chose the same weapon as ‘me’. Even the color of the string that connected to the pendulum and wrapped around my right arm was gold.

“….”

I chuckled idly, then turned my head to look at the people walking through the city.

There were quite a few people, many of them completely unarmed, with the occasional normal looking person.

Some of them had normal faces, but most of them had faces that looked like they had been photographed one by one. The faces that would be eye-catching in person somehow all looked alike.

I wondered if they were all copying a single famous customization.

It was a game, after all, and it was only natural to customize your character’s appearance to look like your alter ego.

“….”

I logged into this ‘Another World’ with some information, but I still didn’t know anything about the character.

I walked around the city, looking for a mirror. First, I needed to get to know my character.

I gazed into an all-glass storefront mirror and couldn’t help but smile.

In the mirror, I saw the reflection of a woman smeared with white.

A woman with skin so pale it was almost white was staring back at me.

A beautiful woman with long silver hair.

The expression on her fine-lined face was emotionless.

Her seemingly innocent face was reflected in many different ways depending on how I looked at it.

And they were all too familiar to me.

The original me, ‘Han Serin’ was confident in my appearance. Even my character in virtual reality was based on me.

My reflection in the mirror was the same as it was in real life, with no discernible differences.

Rin.

My favorite character. No longer a character, but me.

She was definitely a real human being, but her appearance was unrealistic and not human-like.

The character was created with the concept of Eastern beauty, but I had customized her quite a bit.

To give her a Western aesthetic, I changed her dark ebony hair to silver hair like pure silver, and touched up her features to make her look like a mixed race.

I thought that in this virtual reality, my foreignness might not be so noticeable, but my appearance outside of the game machine was foreign to anyone who saw me.

Maybe that’s why for a few days I didn’t even think about going outside.

My numbness to the countless stares of people in that game world was based on a sense of omnipotence that filled my entire body.

I was powerful.

I didn’t care about the way people looked at me.

I was powerful enough to look down on everyone in the world.

But…

I wondered if I, a helpless woman with a slender body that felt nothing, would be able to accept the gazes of others now.

That’s what scared me now.

I still needed more time to accept that reality.

I gently stroked my cheek in the mirror. A small laugh escaped me.

The silver-haired woman in the mirror was also smiling mockingly.

Her smile was so cold that even I felt a chill run down my spine.

But that wasn’t the worst of it.

-Dark Ark.

The name of the world I’d spent so many years in-the name of the original game.

Because this was how I always looked in the world of Dark Ark.

I wandered the world alone, rejecting those who approached me with a cold smile.

“Do I really need to make it again?”

When I ran Another World, I thought I would delete and remake the character if there was one, but my thoughts soon disappeared.

In fact, this character was no different from the real me.

It looked like I moved myself in the Dark Ark world.

The familiar weight in my right arm.

My Flail twisted and turned as I walked.

This was an RPG, after all, so there must have been various types of hunting grounds.

It would have been different from the vivid feelings I was used to.

Still, it seemed like it would quench this feeling, like a deep thirst that had been building up inside me.

……

“…There’s no portal?”

I asked, looking for something like a portal, only to be met with a chuckle when I realized there was no such thing in this game.

When I opened the world map and looked at the terrain and the cities dotted around, I was struck by the sheer size of each one.

“How the hell am I supposed to get around?”

I couldn’t understand what the game’s creators were thinking.

So there I was, manipulating a holographic, virtual reality-like settings window. I looked for a way to get around, and I found it.

-Neigh!

An animal rubbed its head against my hand, showing affection despite being still.

I stroked its white mane before my eyes rolled back in my head as I realized I had to get on.

The ride, then, was all too familiar.

It was a vehicle that reminded me of the world of Dark Ark.

A horse that even had the appearance of a unicorn.

It had the general appearance of a white horse, but with folded wings.

“Ariant?”

A flying horse.

It was fast, faster than most horses, but most importantly, it could fly over any terrain. Being able to shorten the distance was Arianna’s advantage.

It was a horse that few people in the Dark Ark universe were known to possess, but somehow, in virtual reality, I had something similar.

I stared blankly at the horse that kept rubbing its face against my hand.

It was too similar to the world of the virtual reality game ‘Dark Ark’, I thought to myself.

But that thought was short-lived. I mounted the horse naturally and opened the world map to find a nearby hunting ground.

I selected ‘Dark Elven Forest’.

-Neigh!

The horse whinnied and began to move at breakneck speed.

A system where you specify the coordinates and the mount takes you there.

The whole thing was akin to Dark Ark.

I instinctively grabbed the saddle to steady myself as the horse continued to pound the ground as if it were picking up speed.

–!!

At the last moment of speed, it spread its beautiful white wings and began to fly.

As it soared through the air, feeling the cool breeze rushing past me, a smile crept onto my face.

“…This is going to be fun.”

As if my true feelings were flowing out, I unknowingly exclaimed.

And then that admiration suddenly disappeared.

Zzzz!!

Something sharp flew through the wind, I turned my eyes blankly as I realized it.

And at that moment, as I instinctively turned my head, something grazed my cheek.

“….”

As I blankly stroked my cheek. I didn’t feel any pain.

But a bright red bloodstain was clearly on my hand.

Ding!

Ding!

The alarm-like thing rang belatedly and warned me of the danger.

[Outlaw. ‘Assholedestroyer’ is approaching you.]