“…watch your back, Will!”
[SYSTEM ERROR: In#o#pa#i### S#s### ##n##c##o#]
William opened his eyes in confusion. “Oww!”
He had woken expecting the usual clean load-in of the familiar blue Heads Up Display, maybe even guild chat buzzing in his ears after a bad raid wipe. Instead, his chest ached, his lungs burned, and every breath dragged against something crushing his chest.
Respawn shouldn’t hurt? Will complained as he tried to clear his mixed-up thoughts.
This wasn’t the groggy heaviness of waking from too little sleep, or the sluggish fog after an all-night boss raid. No, this was a combination of physical and mental fatigue. He groaned in discomfort as he looked down at what he was wearing.
It was his Golden Paladin raid armour, but something wasn’t right. Normally, it was a weightless shimmering model wrapped around his VR avatar, but now his armour clamped down on his shoulders like he’d been buried in iron. The straps bit into his ribs, and the gorget chafed his throat. He pulled at the metal like he was wearing a tight priest’s collar, but it didn’t budge. The vambraces squeezed so tight he opened and closed his fists, half expecting to find his fingers had gone numb from the lack of blood flow.
He groaned as the plates of his raid armour rasped against one another as he sat up. The sound wasn’t canned or compressed through his VR gaming pod; it was crisp and clear.
“What the hell?” His voice squeaked. He put his hand over his mouth, and his gauntlets thunked against his helmet. It wasn’t the confident baritone voice he’d tweaked with filters, nor the crisp audio line voice his guild mates joked about him stealing from a popular celebrity. It was his real-world voice.
Will lifted his helmet, blinked his eyes, and froze.
He was sitting in the middle of a village square. Not just any village, but the village square in Brindlecross. It was one of the starter zones where newbie human players in Realm of the Fallen Gods Online spawned after character creation. Wooden palisade walls framed a ring of thatched cottages with smoke curling from their crooked chimneys. Chickens pecked in the dust; he could smell them, feathers, droppings, and all.
William’s heart hammered in his chest. “No way.” He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Did they drop a new expansion without warning?”
The last thing he remembered was raiding the endgame boss with his guild and being on the brink of another raid wipe. “What the hell happened?” He couldn’t remember beyond being in the game at the final challenge. “Did we wipe again? We were so close.”
He looked around for anything that made sense. He should’ve respawned at the dungeon’s entrance with a short-acting debuff, not find himself right back at the start of the game.
The blacksmith was hammering at his anvil across the square. That same half-orc NPC he’d walked past hundreds of times when he first started playing. Except this wasn’t a looping animation cycle. The hammering rang at irregular intervals, sweat glistened on the half-orc’s pale green brow, and random sparks leapt like fireflies.
William forced himself to his feet and stumbled forward. His boots struck the cobblestones with a crunch that jarred his knees. Not the neat, uniform footstep audio from the game. No, this was rough stone, uneven and sharp underfoot.
Something was wrong. Instinct made him open his VR interface. The screen appeared, but not like the glowing blue holographic HUD he expected. Instead, it flickered, ragged around the edges, as though torn from parchment.
[SYSTEM ERROR: Incomplete Interface]
Character: William Draven
Race: Half-Elf/Human
Class: Holy Paladin of the Fallen Gods
Level: 200
XP: ??/??
Health: ??/??
Mana: ??/??
Strength: ??
Charisma: ??
Agility: ??
Intelligence: ??
Willpower: ??
Luck: ??
Free points: ??
Stamina: 7%
[Skills] SYSTEM ERROR
[Professions] SYSTEM ERROR
[Titles] SYSTEM ERROR
[Reputation] SYSTEM ERROR
[Quests] SYSTEM ERROR
[Oaths] SYSTEM ERROR
[Warning: Heavy Fatigue 7%]
“What the…” Will blinked. That’s not right. I’m just a Holy Paladin. How did my class change? And fatigue? That wasn’t even a mechanic in the game. “This-this can’t be right,” he muttered. “What have they done now?”
His stomach growled as pain folded him over; he placed his hands on his knees to stop his descent. It wasn’t a flashing red hunger icon or debuff in the corner of his HUD; this was a deep, gnawing emptiness that clawed at his gut, like he hadn’t eaten in days. With his teeth clenched, he pressed his hand against his stomach before forcing himself upright.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“You don’t feel hunger in-game,” Will rasped. “What sort of damn update is this crap?”
For over a decade, he’d lived more than half his life inside the game, climbing higher than anyone else until he stood as the world’s top Holy Paladin. His skill had gone beyond hobby or obsession; he’d made a living from it, riding the wave of the VR gaming phenomenon that had swept across the globe like wildfire.
In all that time, he’d never experienced anything like this before. The air reeked of woodsmoke and damp earth. Children’s laughter echoed down one of the side streets, the cluck of hens, the distant bark of a dog; he could hear it all.
William staggered to a wall and leaned against it, the armour plates bit into his back. He forced his breathing to slow. Think, analyse, and adapt. It was that mantra that made him one of the best dungeon raiders in the world.
“What happened to me?” He didn’t remember logging out or climbing out of his VR gaming pod. Okay. I must still be in-game. There’s been a realism update, and something’s wrong with the pain settings. He shook his head. Since when do they drop updates with players still logged in?
Will pictured the game’s pain setting options, but nothing happened. “What the hell! Did the upgrade mess everything up?”
He pictured logging out, but nothing happened. He imagined the menu; again, nothing. Assuming the system was faulty, he moved to voice commands. “Log Out. Quit.” Nothing. “Menu. Settings.” Again nothing. “Pain Settings. Guild Chat. Friends List. Help. Contact Support.” Nothing worked as it should.
He scratched the back of his neck with his gauntleted hand, causing a metallic thunk against his helmet. “Damn, I’m stuck here!”
Will thought about his VR gaming pod and how long it could sustain him. I filled the nutrient container a few days ago. It won’t run out for almost a month. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad news. In theory, when the nutrients ran out, he’d be automatically logged out.
Panic ran up his spine as he recalled a similar update malfunction with an earlier VR gaming pod from when he was a little kid. “I think they got them all out after a few days.” He forced a smile through his hunger pains. Looks like I’ll be in line for a big payout when they fix this piece of crap. Stupid AI programmers. He didn’t need the credits; at twenty-two, he’d already earned enough to retire, but who’d turn down more credits?
William remembered his VR interface worked; he pictured it opening.
[SYSTEM ERROR: Incomplete Interface]
Character: William Draven
Race: Half-Elf/Human
Class: Holy Paladin of the Fallen Gods
Level: 200
XP: ??/??
Health: ??/??
Mana: ??/??
Strength: ??
Charisma: ??
Agility: ??
Intelligence: ??
Willpower: ??
Luck: ??
Free points: ??
Stamina: 5%
[Skills] SYSTEM ERROR
[Professions] SYSTEM ERROR
[Titles] SYSTEM ERROR
[Reputation] SYSTEM ERROR
[Quests] SYSTEM ERROR
[Oaths] SYSTEM ERROR
[Warning: Heavy Fatigue 5%]
“Has my stamina fallen further?” He shook his head and examined the interface for anything else he could activate, but found nothing. “It’s all bugged!”
William breathed a sigh of relief when he willed his spatial storage bags inventory. “At least I have a small amount of food and water now.” It wasn’t much, just five [Slice of Strawberry Cake] and five [Skin of Water].
Most of what he had in-game before the system error was gone. He no longer had a dozen bags with slots; instead, he had a ten-metre cubed area for storage. He willed a [Slice of Strawberry Cake]—the only food he had—to appear in his hand. In the game, it would restore 10% of his HP and give a small stamina boost for fifteen minutes.
Will imagined eating the cake, but nothing happened. “How do I use it?” He shook it, the cream and strawberries on top wobbled, but still nothing happened. “I’m such an idiot.” He took a bite. “Urgh. Tastes like wet cardboard. This upgrade sucks.” Despite the lack of taste, he ate the entire slice of cake and started to feel a little better.
He checked his status again while drinking from a summoned [Skin of Water].
[SYSTEM ERROR: Incomplete Interface]
…
Stamina: 12%
…
[Warning: Heavy Fatigue 12%]
“Still fatigued,” he muttered. “What else do I have?” He fumbled at his belt. A pouch jingled with the metallic clink of coins, but his other items were gone. He unslung the sword from his back. “Damn!” His arms trembled under the weight as it pulled him towards the cobbled floor before steadying himself.
In the VRMMO, he could swing this blade forever with a few simple thoughts. Here, it threatened to topple him off his feet from just holding it. Every motion demanded strength and stamina he wasn’t sure he had anymore.
Will steadied himself before examining the weapon. The golden hilt was warm from the sun, and the balance was awkward in his hands. Unfamiliar rune enchantments across the holy blade shone bright in the sunlight.
“Okay.” He took a deep breath. “Full gear check. Sword’s good, I think.” He leaned on his sword so he wouldn’t fall over from exhaustion. “Armour’s in good condition; it’s too tight and a bit bright!” The reflected sunlight from his golden armour was dazzling. “I have some coin and a little food and water. What else…”
“Look!”
The shout snapped him around to find a group of villagers had gathered at the far end of the square. They were men and women with lined faces and crooked teeth, clothes stained by smoke and sweat. One old man had an arm missing, and another wore a patch over an eye. They looked like real people, not NPCs wandering around in a fixed pattern, and their stares were wide and fixed on him.
William forced a smile. “Uh, hi?” He shouted in his high-pitched voice while waving. “What’s going on?”
One woman dropped her basket, and a couple of dozen apples scattered across the cobbles. She sank to her knees. “A Fallen God.”
The words ran like fire through the crowd. People dropped their tools, falling to their knees one after another. A child whimpered in confusion before being pulled down by his mother. Even the huge half-orc blacksmith let his hammer fall and knelt, trembling.
The square fell into silence as William stood rooted, his armour biting into him, hunger still gnawing at his stomach, while every villager in sight pressed their heads to the ground.
A god? His throat tightened. “I’m just a gamer.”
Kingdom of Mercia, loosely based on the old English Kingdom of Mercia. The map is a work in progress and will change as more of this world is explored. The red arrows point to Brindlecross, the starter village where William is currently located. Click on the map to view a larger version.
Blood Mage Assassin. Chapter 73 goes live soon.
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Chapter 002 [Profession Holy Runesmith: What Happened to my Runes?]
