Once I’d made up my mind, I headed along the post road toward the newbie village. It was a small town called Nagu. From the information I’d read from the blood of two NPCs, I knew it was a settlement of about five hundred people, surrounded by a wooden palisade and the largest settlement near the Black Forest. This game’s starting village was pretty fancy. I’d thought it’d be a tiny hamlet with just a few houses, followed by some old man showing up to tell me, “Kid, you’re a Hero from another world, blah blah blah...”
Clip-clop, clip-clop. Hoofbeats sounded behind me. I stopped and looked back. A carriage was coming up the road. Its driver was a middle-aged man with a graying beard, while a girl carrying a longbow sat beside him, watching the surroundings with a wary eye and keeping a careful guard on the forest. This beautiful young huntress caught my attention. She looked about sixteen and wore hunter’s clothes. Her brown hair was cut to her neck, with little braids woven at her temples. She looked incredibly cute.
Whoa, a fantasy-style beauty! This game really is awesome!
The carriage passed me, then stopped a little farther down the road.
“Young lady, if you’re headed to Nagu Town, we can give you a ride.”
Heh heh heh. We’re getting into the early quest sequence. Sure, I have the Sprint skill, but if I don’t take the carriage, I won’t be able to pick up the quest. At least the people in this carriage aren’t a talkative Nord warrior, a gagged big guy, and a horse thief. So in the end, I decided to climb aboard.
“Thanks, sir. I’d be happy to.”
After making full use of my cute-girl appearance to act adorable, I climbed into the wagon on all fours and sat at the very back. Once I was inside, my face turned as red as an apple. I was a colonel and commander in the Human United Army, a veteran who’d fought through all fifteen years of the AI War—and here I was, using the pitifully adorable looks of a young vampire to act cute for an NPC. Damn it, damn it! If anyone recorded this, I’d be so embarrassed I’d swallow a gun and kill myself! I was way past the age when I’d spend every day fantasizing about turning into a cute girl. I was a soldier, a mech pilot. I’d seen the cruelty of war and watched one comrade after another disappear in the flames. I… should at least be a little more restrained, right?
“Want some apple juice, young lady?”
“Thanks, sir.”
Damn it! I acted cute again without even realizing it! But… this apple juice is freaking delicious.
The sweet juice soothed my throat, and the wonderful taste lifted my spirits. The concentrated fruit juice in our battlefield rations tasted like nothing but chemical flavoring and synthetic sugar—and it was better not to think about where that synthetic sugar came from. After the AI destroyed the stratosphere, the whole world was blanketed in endless clouds. With so little sunlight, humanity had to rely on food factories, where fungi were constantly churned and processed. They could absorb reactor radiation directly, so they didn’t need sunlight to produce huge quantities of mushroom starch.
Natural food had vanished completely by the fifth year of the war. After ten years of eating fungal rations, I’d almost forgotten what real food tasted like. Looks like, as technology advances, VR games can simulate more and more sensations—taste, touch, sound, and even… I glanced down at my slightly protruding chest and immediately dropped that last thought.
Just then, an ominous feeling put me on alert. A wolf howled, and a pack of gray wolves appeared in the forest.
“Wolves! On the right!”
The beautiful huntress in the passenger seat immediately grabbed her longbow and began firing. But hitting wolves running through the forest from a speeding carriage was no easy feat. Her arrows struck the trees by the roadside, and one gray wolf took the chance to leap at us.
At the last possible moment, my shabby one-handed sword pierced the wolf’s throat with perfect precision. Blood sprayed everywhere. Luckily, I’d set the Blood Sucking skill to manual earlier, so the wolf’s blood didn’t end up in my mouth. But the poorly maintained sword snapped with a crack when I put too much force into the thrust. The wolf’s body, still tangled with the broken blade, tumbled away beneath the wheels.
(System notification: Gray wolf defeated. Gained 20 EXP.)
This game’s UI is pretty well done. Much better than it was fifteen years ago.
I tossed aside the bloodstained hilt and grabbed the crossbow, quickly aiming at the pack in the forest to my right. I took a deep breath and activated Sniper’s Eye. It was only a beginner skill, so for now it just improved my accuracy, but that was enough. I’d hit an AI soldier a thousand meters away by eye alone when my fire-control system was down! A couple of gray wolves were nothing!
Whoosh—!
The arrow cut through the air and embedded itself in a tree…
All right, I admit I was a little overconfident. A crossbow and an assault rifle need different lead, and I couldn’t just go rat-a-tat-tat with it, either. I drew the string and loaded a second bolt. The carriage was bouncing like crazy, and my little body was being tossed around the wagon. Did this thing have absolutely no suspension?
Awooo—!
The beast’s roar cut off my complaints. A vicious black shadow sprang into the air and lunged at the driver. I didn’t even think—I just pulled the trigger and aimed at it. The bolt whooshed into the wolf’s belly. It let out a timid whimper, tumbled away from the post road, and vanished into the dust trailing behind the carriage. The 20 EXP notification popped up. Looks like that wolf was done for. After taking down two wolves in a row, the danger around us began to fade. The pack disappeared into the forest, and I didn’t lower the crossbow until they were completely gone.
“Uncle Warren,” the huntress said, “I can’t see the wolves anymore.”
“That’s good,” the driver said. “The horse is worn out, too. We’ll have to take it slow.”
As he spoke, he tugged on the reins and made a “Whoa, whoa” sound. At his reassurance, the brown packhorse pulling the wagon slowed down. It snorted twice and looked exhausted.
“Young lady,” the man said, turning to me, “thank you so much for what you did back there. I didn’t expect you to be so skilled. It’s a shame you’re not a mercenary.”
“I just got lucky, hahaha.”
“I’m Warren, and this lovely huntress is Luka,” the man said, pointing to her. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Elsa von Lancelot.”
“A-a noble?” Warren and Luka both panicked when they heard my name.
“No,” I hurriedly improvised. “My family fell on hard times long ago. All that’s left is the surname, so I’m just a commoner like everyone else.”
Looks like this world sticks strictly to its medieval setting. Only nobles have surnames; ordinary people just have given names. I’ll have to be more careful when I introduce myself from now on.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” Uncle Warren said with a sheepish chuckle. “Young lady, if you run into any trouble in Nagu Town, come find me at the blacksmith’s shop. Oh, your sword broke back there. I’ve got a good one here. I don’t have much use for it, so I’ll give it to you.”
“Thanks, sir.”
Is this the reward for completing the newbie quest? Well, I won’t say no.
By dusk, the carriage finally left the forest. A low stone wall appeared at its edge, built from large and small rocks stacked in a pleasingly uneven pattern. Moss covered the shaded side. It was less than a meter and a half tall—probably only enough to keep out wild boars from the forest. Beyond it, fields full of crops stretched out lush and green. Farmers worked in the fields, while a clear stream trickled through an irrigation channel toward the plots that needed watering. The water reflected the evening sky, glowing with sunset colors. At the far end of the fields, a palisade of upright logs protected the peaceful little town. A wooden gate stood directly across from the post road, and a man in leather armor leaned there with a spear in hand, yawning listlessly.
