Chapter 1 : The First Day

Within Seoul, the capital of South Korea, there was a young man, with a frail body of about 175 cm in height and a pale face.

His name was Leiu, 24-years-old and a part-timer. Although it was currently summer and the weather was a bit hot, he didn't look tired right now. Quite the opposite, in fact, he was excited. Not because his shift would end in half an hour, but because the new game, 'Hell Gate', will be released in three days.

It's currently 2021, and Virtual Massive Multiplayer games have been publicly released 4 years ago. But honestly, none of the current games were decent enough to attract a strong player base.

Hopefully, this era would change that. In fact, the beta testing of Hell Gate happened a few months ago, and the 500 people who tested it were completely captivated by it. They said, quote by quote 'it's as if I'm not in a game, it was 100% real', if not for the fantasy-like world, then they would have believed it was the reality and not just a game.

Leiu who barely had enough money to pay for his little sister's high school and cram school fees, somehow managed to save some to buy the game.

To be able to play it, you just needed to buy the Headset which naturally was accompanied by the game itself. The total cost was 2,500USD. For some, it was a mere allowance, but for him, it was extremely expensive. In fact, he had to eat all sorts of instant unhealthy food for 7 months in a row to be able to save all that money.

Of course, he got sick several times and would always come back exhausted from his different jobs. But all that was not for nothing, fortunately, he even managed to save a bit more than the required amount–and that's because he wanted to quit some of his part-time jobs to have more time to play the game.

Since his youth, he had always been drawn toward games. Whether it's MMORPG games or similar ones, he absolutely loved leveling his character, conquering dungeons and easily succeeding in finishing hardcore raids.

He graduated from university 2 years ago but like most of the people, without any good acquaintances, it's a bit hard to directly find a job. Furthermore, the university he studied at was amongst the worst.

He only had his sister, his parents died when he was young and it was his grandfather who raised his sister and him. However, life was cruel and his grandfather also passed away just when he graduated. It's a lie to say it was not difficult, he accumulated a lot of stress due to that tragedy, had to take care of his sister, her school fees and so on. With everything, he couldn't look for a job peacefully.

They were previously living from the money their grandfather had gotten, but now that he had died, money didn't come anymore. For someone as simple as Leiu, he never questioned his grandfather about the money, so even if it was his grandfather's retirement monthly deposit, he wouldn't know.

It was extremely hard to overcome that period, nonetheless, he did it. Not only did he took care of his little sister, he even managed to save enough money. Unfortunately, he didn't have any friends, he was of the passive type and disliked friends. There were no special reasons, he just enjoyed being alone. For him, it suited him best, or so he thought.

He thought of himself as an 'introvert', especially when he was in high school. Now he had to interact with customers and so on, but his behavior didn't change much aside for talking a bit more than usual.

..

Today was Thursday, Leiu already asked his boss to take tomorrow off, and with the weekend coming, it was the perfect opportunity to prepare himself for 'Hell Gate'. It will open its doors at exactly 9:00 AM on Monday, so he decided to pass the remaining time either chilling or reading some posts about the game.

As a matter of fact, since its beta release, 'Hell Gate' had become famous worldwide. Almost every country was going to sell it and it was not restricted to only teenagers. Its company was 'LobiSoft' and was known for its famous MMORPG games. It had never released a VRMMO game but it was widely agreed that they only made extraordinary games.

...

Finally, it was the end of his shift, so he hastily walked to his apartment. Tomorrow he would go buy the headset for the game, and since it was about 19 PM right now, it's still too early to go to sleep.

In just half an hour, he was already in his apartment. To be honest, it could hardly be called that, it was just a small room with a kitchen and a nearby bathroom.

He sat on the bed and took his old laptop to check some information about the game. However, just as he was going to do that, erotic moans began coming out of the thin wall separating the two apartments. Leiu's face soon turned ugly and he began cursing quietly.

'...'

With that, he took his headset and played some songs to not hear those sounds. These kinds of events would happen occasionally, the guy living next to him would bring girls almost every week and annoy him.

Because he prefers being alone, and his look is not that great, he never got a girlfriend. But that didn't mean he never spoke with a girl, he could interact normally with them but it's just that he was not that lucky to have one. On several occasions, he thought he fell in love with a certain girl but that 'love' would fade a few days later which is why he never tried to confess his love.

Anyways, in just a few minutes he was already on the official website of 'Hell Gate'. He started browsing, scrolling up and down to check the information available.

He had yet to investigate anything about it, he was always busy because of all his part-time jobs and he wanted to keep himself in the dark about the fantasy-like world of the game and the other surprises. But now it was different, he wanted to gain some knowledge as he was going to begin playing in just a few days.

"Hmmm, let's see, a topic about the continents and the world of 'Hell Gate'...*click*."

[Hi, can anyone tell me about the world of 'Hell Gate'?]

There were several comments asking similar questions, so Leiu started reading and checking the answers. He didn't write anything and kept scrolling down.

[I'l tell you, but first, pay 10USD.]

[Fuck! What do you mean pay? If you aren't going to answer then someone else will, go away, dipshit!]

[Hello, IIRC, the word of 'Hell Gate' is composed of one big continent called 'Westia Continent', that's as far as I know.]

[No no nono! It's called 'Renga', why are you spouting some bullshit!]

[It's actually 2 continents, I heard that....]

Absurd comments and curses were all over the place, that was to be expected from the people in the internet, it was rare to find decent people. Leiu only read what seemed to be useful, but still had doubts about the authenticity of even that.

The 500 beta testers were not allowed to leak any information about the game, not even the starting village. It was a pity, many journalists, gamers and so on were curious about it but 'LobiSoft' was very strict. Because of that, the beta testers kept their mouth shut.

"It seems I have to discover everything on my own...."

Leiu spent all night trying to find more information but none of it seemed real. There were some who said there were continents, planets or even freaking galaxies and some said it was only a country. As for classes and jobs, it was even crazier, so let's not talk about this topic.

..

At midnight he closed his laptop and went to sleep. He was a bit tired, thus in a matter of minutes, he fell soundly asleep. Fortunately, the erotic noises from behind the wall were gone or else he would have to bear with it all night.

Just like that, the night passed in a blink of an eye. Leiu woke up when the sound of his old phone alarm came out from under his pillow.

The sound was so loud and sudden that it deprived him of all sleepiness. It's like pouring cold water on you when you're sleeping. It was quite effective for Leiu as it allowed him to never be late for any of his jobs. Sure he suffered from lack of his sleep but there was nothing he could do about it.

It's a good thing he lived alone, or else his sister too would have been traumatized by the alarm.

It was about 6:25 AM, the selling of the headsets would begin at 8:00 AM, it was still early. He nonetheless woke up earlier because he had to arrive early or else he would have to wait for hours in the queue.

Leiu didn't waste time yawning or sleeping a bit more. He got up, washed his face and clothe himself with a black jacket on top of his blue T-shirt, some blue jeans and normal looking shoes which he bought at a cheap price. He never bothered with his appearance as for him. Leiu thought that people may look ugly on the outside but one should not judge based on appearance but on personalities and behaviors. But who was he to say that when he's a complete loner? Nevertheless, it was his own beliefs and he stuck with them until now.

Soon, he left his apartment and headed toward the nearest subway station...

Approximately 20 minutes later, he was standing in a somewhat long queue. Well, for some it may be called long and to other short, as for Leiu? He was neither happy nor angry. Fortunately, he woke up a bit early or else he would have to wait even more time.

He had already waited 5 minutes and looking at the queue, it would take at best half an hour for his turn to come, so it was a bit fortunate.

The weather was very hot today despite being early in the morning. With the sun shining on him, he regretted taking his jacket. But even while regretting, he didn't take it off. His body was a bit different and he was one of the people who did not sweat easily, so even with this hot atmosphere, he hadn't begun to sweat yet. Whereas a person in front of him who, although wearing only a T-shirt, was profusely sweating. That person was not even bothered by this fact, his eyes were glued onto the queue.

....

Time slowly passed, the suffering continued until 25 minutes later. Leiu was finally in front of the selling lady, she smiled at him and softly said,

"Hello customer, are you here to buy the game or the headset and the game together?"

There were some cases where only the headset was sold, so there were people who only came for the game, that's why she asked that. She looked friendly and in her twenties, she was fortunately inside the room. Although it was hot, she had a fan close by so she didn't suffer like the rest of the people.

"The headset and the game please."

Leiu responded calmly and waited for her to prepare his package. The selling lady nodded at him and went to bring what was needed. 30 seconds hadn't even passed when she came back with a box in her hand. She put it on a desk near her and said,

"All the instructions on how to use it are written inside, and it's not complicated. As for the price, it's 2,500 USD or 2.8million Won."

Leiu's didn't answer this time and passed her the money bills. Even though he was excited for the game, seeing all that money that he barely managed to save disappear in seconds pained him a lot. Nonetheless, he soon snapped out of it and stuffed the money in the seller's delicate hand.

And like that, he went back home with a somewhat large box in his hands. A smile was blooming on his pale face, and although he had long black hair, it didn't cover his weird grinning. Consequently, all the people were looking at him strangely, but he didn't mind as he was focused on the box. For him, the trip back home was way longer than the time it took him to go and wait for his turn.

...

15 minutes later, Leiu was already in his room, all sorts of materials were scattered in front of him with a black headset that covered the eyes and part of the nose laying on the center of his small bed.

Fortunately, as the lady said, there was a paper with instructions on it. So it didn't take him that long to assemble everything as instructed. Soon, a lot of cables were coming out of the headset and were linked with other cables. It was a complete mess, therefore Leiu spent another half an hour to fix everything and make it tidier.

After he finished, he took a big breath of fresh air while looking at the headset with excited eyes. He then sat down and went back to sleep. There was really nothing to do, he slept for a couple of hours before he picked up his laptop and browsed the internet for more information yet again.

..

Just like that, the weekend finally passed, and it was now Monday at 8:55 AM. Leiu was obviously awake and wearing the headset while quietly waiting for the right time.

Since 8:00 AM, access to the headset has been allowed. He was standing in an empty space, completely naked, while huge red numbers indicating the count down were displayed in front of him.

During this hour, he tried moving and running around, he found out that it's just like reality. He never was a runner or good at sports, but here he surprisingly could run a bit more than in real life. Besides that, everything was like real life, literally, from moving fingers to breathing to dancing, etcetera...

..

00:10

00:09

00:08

00:07

00:06

00:05

00:04

00:03

00:02

00:01

'Hell Gate' is now available for all users!

'Welcome to 'Hell Gate', I'm the assistant N#145131, 'would like to proceed to character creation?'

Leiu's was a bit startled, but soon regained his calm and focused on the noise. It was the voice of an adult woman, a bit melodic and nice to hear. She called herself an assistant...

'Yes, proceed to character creation'

Just as he said that, the empty space changed. What was displayed in front of him was a hologram of himself.

You are now in character creation, the system detected that you are a male, so it is prohibited to change sex, however, it is possible to select one of the available races, it's also possible to slightly change your appearance.
As he heard that, Leiu was not really disappointed. He only made male characters, so there was nothing to be sad about.

What interested him were the races. But after browsing through them, it was not that fascinating. There was the 'Human' race, the Elven race –which resembled elves a bit– and last but not least was the 'Rahn' race– which was tall and robust looking.

Even when selecting those two to see how his appearance would change, nothing drastically happened. For the Elven race, his ears became pointed and long. And as for the Rahn race, he became a bit taller and more muscular. Besides that, his appearance didn't change to the point of not recognizing him.

As for the other options, he could change the color of his eyes or even add some tattoos. But he couldn't change his height, add muscles, or change his face completely. It was a bit disappointing, everyone wanted to make a handsome character, so why wouldn't he? But here, it was not likely to happen.

After passing several minutes checking what's available, the woman's voice rang again.

'Yes'

Proceeding..... Welcome to the continent of Westia! You will be placed in a random beginner's village.
...